Trek novel publication order questions

[Thrawn]

So I'm trying to put together a list for myself of all the Trek novels in publication order, by month, because I couldn't find one that seemed both complete and accurate. It turns out: this is weirdly harder than I expected it to be. (Which is perhaps why I couldn't find one that seemed accurate.) I have a couple questions that I can't answer. Perhaps one of you fellow obsessives can help (or direct me to a website where someone already did this?)

Questions:

1) It seems like there are 13 pairs of MMPB novels in 1999, which is odd considering that year had 12 months just like any other? Voyages of the Imagination says four books happen in January 1999 (all three My Brother's Keeper books and The 34th Rule) - is this a thing that happened? (Alternately, does someone have pictures of the inside covers of the paperbacks in 1999 with the year's checklist on them?)

2) Did Enterprise novels for some reason not count towards the two-MMPBs-a-month thing for a while? The first four months with Enterprise MMPBs seem like they have an extra book that month, three instead of two, but then in 2004 Daedalus's Children appears to be one of only two MMPBs in May, and after that they take up a slot like anything else. I'm pretty sure I'm right about this one (Amazon tracks publication dates pretty precisely from about 2000 onwards) but it is weird. Any reason this was the case?

3) I'm confused about 2007. I know the Kirk Crucible novel was delayed from 2006, so ignoring that, I have this for the monthly MMPBs:

January - New Frontier: Missing In Action (reprint)
February - TOS: Errand of Fury #2
March - ENT: The Good That Men Do
April - TOS: Vulcan's Soul #2 (reprint)
May - ?
June - Vanguard: Reap the Whirlwind
July - TNG/Lost Era: The Buried Age
August - ?
September - TNG: Resistance
October - TNG: Q&A and also Shatnerverse: Captain's Glory (reprint)
November - TNG: Before Dishonor
December - Titan: Sword of Damocles

Do I have that right - two paperbacks in October but none in May or August?

Thanks, TrekBBS brain trust.

 

[ryan123450]

Thrawn, I don't have specific answers to any of those questions, but I just thought I'd point out this site in case you weren't aware of it. Though I don't know how you'd possibly be doing this project without being aware of this...

https://web.archive.org/web/20141112075432/http://www.well.com/~sjroby/lcars/

Several years out of date but covers most of Trek history.

 

[Thrawn]

Yeah, way ahead of you there. He has them by year but not by month, so helpful, but not sufficient.

 

[Kilana2]

Damar would say: Star Trek Novels - Keeping track of them is a full-time job.

 

[ryan123450]

Yeah, way ahead of you there. He has them by year but not by month, so helpful, but not sufficient.

Ok I figured you had been using that. But it would be a shame if you weren’t!

 

[Allyn Gibson]

The early Enterprise novels were additional to the 2 books a month, yes.

 

[ryan123450]

Wow. I can’t imagine three books in one month. Actually that’s too much.

 

[marlboro]

Wow. I can’t imagine three books in one month. Actually that’s too much.

And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt

You can never have too many Trek novels. The years of overabundance just allow us to store up a reserve for the famines of the license renewal years.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Wow. I can’t imagine three books in one month. Actually that’s too much.

In the 90s there were occasional third mass-markets in a month, usually novelizations since they couldn't be planned out months in advance. Sometimes, yeah, it was a bit much. I'm not sure I've ever read Diane Carey's Starfleet Academy novelization, despite having it.

If I remember John Ordover correctly from back then, the early Enterprise novels were additional to the usual two-per-month for exactly that reason; the two slots each month were scheduled, and rather than throw anything off, the Enterprise novels were simply added on top.

 

[RandyS]

Wow. I can’t imagine three books in one month. Actually that’s too much.

Well, to be fair, nobody said you had to read them the second they come out. Take me for instance, When I'm collecting a mulitiple book series, whatever the subject is, I always wait to read it until I have all the books in that series ready to go on my shelf. In the case of Star Trek, that used to mean waiting three to six months, and in the case of Star Wars, three years, since in that case, a trilogy is usually released one book per year.

 

[marlboro]

Well, to be fair, nobody said you had to read them the second they come out. Take me for instance, When I'm collecting a mulitiple book series, whatever the subject is, I always wait to read it until I have all the books in that series ready to go on my shelf. In the case of Star Trek, that used to mean waiting three to six months, and in the case of Star Wars, three years, since in that case, a trilogy is usually released one book per year.

You have the patience of Job. I'm more like the wise old owl in that old Tootsie Pop commercial.

What if the first book in the series sucks? What if it's great and might lead me to checking out other books by the same author? What if I kick the bucket before I get a chance to read them? These are the types of things that go through my head.

I used to give Christmas presents to friends and family as soon as I bought them. I mean, I buy gifts for their enjoyment, so why delay that?

 

[RandyS]

You have the patience of Job. I'm more like the wise old owl in that old Tootsie Pop commercial.

What if the first book in the series sucks? What if it's great and might lead me to checking out other books by the same author? What if I kick the bucket before I get a chance to read them? These are the types of things that go through my head.

I used to give Christmas presents to friends and family as soon as I bought them. I mean, I buy gifts for their enjoyment, so why delay that?

Star Trek and Star Wars are not the only books I read. In fact, they are a small portion of what I read so the wait between books is helped along by the fact that I read alot of other stuff.

 

[Daddy Todd]

1) It seems like there are 13 pairs of MMPB novels in 1999, which is odd considering that year had 12 months just like any other? Voyages of the Imagination says four books happen in January 1999 (all three My Brother's Keeper books and The 34th Rule) - is this a thing that happened? (Alternately, does someone have pictures of the inside covers of the paperbacks in 1999 with the year's checklist on them?)

It looks like Pocket realigned the release date of MMPBs at the start of 1999, making it look like they released 4 titles in January. But really, two came out on December 8th (second Tuesday of December) and two more came out on January 12th (second Tuesday in January.) For a couple of months, they continued to release the titles for a given month on the second Tuesday of that month, but by April '99, it looks like the books were already creeping out by the last Tuesday of the prior month. And, it was in 1999 that I stopped trying to track the actual release date, so my database of Star Trek books starts listing the first day of the official release month as the official release day.

3) I'm confused about 2007. I know the Kirk Crucible novel was delayed from 2006, so ignoring that, I have this for the monthly MMPBs:

January - New Frontier: Missing In Action (reprint)
February - TOS: Errand of Fury #2
March - ENT: The Good That Men Do
April - TOS: Vulcan's Soul #2 (reprint)
May - ?
June - Vanguard: Reap the Whirlwind
July - TNG/Lost Era: The Buried Age
August - ?
September - TNG: Resistance
October - TNG: Q&A and also Shatnerverse: Captain's Glory (reprint)
November - TNG: Before Dishonor
December - Titan: Sword of Damocles

Do I have that right - two paperbacks in October but none in May or August?

Thanks, TrekBBS brain trust.

September 2007 also had the paperback reprint of Death in Winter. But yeah, they did skip a couple months in 2007 (May and August) and doubled up on other months.

 

[Thrawn]

Interesting. I've been collecting Trek novels pretty reliably for a long time and I didn't remember any of those three things happening, but sure enough.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Stevil2001]

It looks like Pocket realigned the release date of MMPBs at the start of 1999, making it look like they released 4 titles in January. But really, two came out on December 8th (second Tuesday of December) and two more came out on January 12th (second Tuesday in January.) For a couple of months, they continued to release the titles for a given month on the second Tuesday of that month, but by April '99, it looks like the books were already creeping out by the last Tuesday of the prior month. And, it was in 1999 that I stopped trying to track the actual release date, so my database of Star Trek books starts listing the first day of the official release month as the official release day.

This is it. I do remember this happening at the time, though you remember more details than me. They used to come a long time before the official release date! Though I guess it's more accurate to say the official release date used to be a long time after the actual one.

 

[Snowhiker]

I've been a lurker here forever and I had to figure out what email address I used, 5 email addresses ago, to receive the recovery email so I could log in and post this. /sigh

Anyways...

I have bought (AND READ!!!) almost every new Star Trek book since the early 2000s; however, about 400 or so books have been published before that time frame and I've had to buy the older ones used if I couldn't find new ones. I always buy new if available. Occasionally, I've looked for a simple comprehensive list of Star Trek books I could use to keep track of what I own and those I don't. The Wiki ST book list is good, nearly perfect, but the list is missing books or lists them twice. Or they insert/delete the missing/duplicate books, but re-organize the whole dang list and move things around enough so that you have to re-print the 40+ page document and re-organize you 12+ boxes of books to match the lists.

It simply kicks my OCD into overdrive and I go nuts. ARH!!!

This thread, post # 20, user dstyer posted this link, 769 entries, but the list only goes to May 2016. Any updates?

I also found this possibly useful page that sorts by publishing date with 766 entries and it goes to Nov 2018, but don't know how accurate or complete this list is.

Perhaps Dan can update his AMAZING list so that my OCD can be mollified. Maybe.

 

[JD]

Well, to be fair, nobody said you had to read them the second they come out. Take me for instance, When I'm collecting a mulitiple book series, whatever the subject is, I always wait to read it until I have all the books in that series ready to go on my shelf. In the case of Star Trek, that used to mean waiting three to six months, and in the case of Star Wars, three years, since in that case, a trilogy is usually released one book per year.

I hope you aren't reading A Song of Ice and Fire.
Just out of curiosity, do you just do this for books with a set number, or do you do this with ongoing series too? For instance The Dresden Files has been going on since 2000 and is only at book 15 of a proposed 20 regular books with a big trilogy to finish it up, so for something like this would buy the books as they came out but then still wait the 20+ years actually read them?

 

[marlboro]

I was teasing Randy about this, but I kind of do this with serialized tv shows. I've learned to wait through all the "OMG, this show is amazing!" hype of new shows to see if it is capped off by the "The F-ing writers were just pulling this out of their asses the whole time!" series finale reviews.

 

[RandyS]

I hope you aren't reading A Song of Ice and Fire.
Just out of curiosity, do you just do this for books with a set number, or do you do this with ongoing series too? For instance The Dresden Files has been going on since 2000 and is only at book 15 of a proposed 20 regular books with a big trilogy to finish it up, so for something like this would buy the books as they came out but then still wait the 20+ years actually read them?

I've never read a series where I had to wait twenty years for all the books to come out, but I imagine I would. I still have Star Trek Vanguard/Seekers waiting to be read and that's what? 12 books? 13? Also New Frontier is waiting for me on my bookshelves too, although in that case I initially thought it was over after the first four because they said "1of 4, 2of 4", etc. In that instance I read the first four before number 5 had come out and, again, because I read alot of other stuff, I've let New Frontier build up, but haven't got back to it yet.

My method of reading a series isn't that unusual is it? I think I read that another poster here mention they do the same thing.

 

[marlboro]

I can't imagine it's very common. It just seems like it would be a good idea to read at least one of them before buying them all. I wouldn't like to have a set of books on a shelf for a decade only to find out I hate the series half-way into book one.

But that's just me. If your system works for you, why change?