Vanguard / SCE: Distant Early Warning?

[bfollowell]

Someone else on here asked about Distant Early Warning and I knew that it wasn't necassarily required reading but it is part of the greater Vanguard story as a whole. I'm about to finish The Soul Key and that will only leave The Never-Ending Sacrifice and I'll be finished with the DS9 relaunch. I was thinking I'd probably take a short break and read Vanguard: Declassified before starting the Voyager/TNG relaunches. Now I'm thinking I may go back and read Distant Early Warning and then read Declassified.

My question is, do I need to know much of the SCE backstory to get anything out of Distant Early Warning? It was my understanding that, since it's in a much earlier era and not the normal SCE crew, it's pretty much a stand-alone SCE novel. Is that the case? I've never read any of the SCE books and I hate to have to read through sixty-some-odd books to work my way up to Distant Early Warning.

I'm thinking Distant Early Warning and Declassified would make a good break between relaunches. Opinions or suggestions?

- Byron

 

[David Mack]

You should be fine if you just jump right in with "Distant Early Warning". Anything you need to know will be in the text. Enjoy!

 

[bfollowell]

Thanks David. Having already read the first five Vanguard novels, I figured surely there wasn't too much from the previous SCE novels I'd need to know about. How can I consider myself a real Vanguard fan without reading everything?!

- Byron

 

[bok2384]

The crew of the USS Lovell did also appear in Foundations, a trilogy of ebooks early during SCE's run, as well as Where Time Stands Still. While they're not essential reading, they are rather good, and the first three stories include Scotty.