Various questions on licensed star map content

[chrinFinity]

Hello I'm aware of 3 licensed publications about maps in Trek and I've got some questions I hope you can answer.

First, Star Trek: Stellar Cartography, the Starfleet Reference Library, 2013 by Larry Nemecek. I just picked this up (listed as Hardcover) and I have to say the foldout maps are gorgeous. They represent various time periods, but there is a small, modest hardcover book inside that contains additional material, and the main content appears to represent space circa 2386. Also I've skimmed the text and it doesn't appear to explicitly include any material that is specific to litverse. Just canon as of 2013.

My only questions on Nemecek's book is, is there a legitimate licensed way to acquire a digital version? I can't (legitimately) find epub or PDF anywhere. And does anyone know if I'm wrong and there is specific litverse content in this collection that I can go check for in my copy. Thank you.

Second, Star Trek Star Charts by Doug Drexler, 2002. I haven't pulled the trigger buying this yet, but I sense that I am about to. I know Drexler is very friendly to Beta continuity, but I also understand most litverse continuity stuff published after 2002. Does anyone have thoughts on this, and, same question as above, can I get a legitimate version in digital?

Third book is kind of the odd one out. My search shows an old book "Star Trek Star Maps" or sometimes listed just as "Star Trek Maps," 1980, with a Constitution-class ship on the cover. It's unclear who the author is. Publisher seems to have been Bantam and also there seem to be various editions.

This might be a neat bit of star trek fan history. Was this even licensed? I assume it was, because Bantam had the license in 1980? Where did they get their material other than Canon at the time, would this for instance be partly derived from the Starfleet Command RP game? Can anyone shed light on this/these series of books? Thank you.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The Star Trek Maps were licensed, I think they were the work of Geoffrey Mandel?. And props to them for putting a barely-painted AMT Enterprise model kit on the cover

That work also has tons of easter eggs, including Ringworld at the far edge of Federation space.

 

[Avro Arrow]

First, Star Trek: Stellar Cartography, the Starfleet Reference Library, 2013 by Larry Nemecek.

I don't know if this is helpful, but just to let you know, there was a revised edition of this released in 2018. To be honest, I don't know exactly what's different, but presumably they have added locations from movies and shows that came out between 2013 and 2018? (Which I guess is only Beyond and the first season of Discovery...) Hopefully someone who knows a little bit more about this can address this.

Second, Star Trek Star Charts by Doug Drexler, 2002. I haven't pulled the trigger buying this yet, but I sense that I am about to. I know Drexler is very friendly to Beta continuity, but I also understand most litverse continuity stuff published after 2002. Does anyone have thoughts on this, and, same question as above, can I get a legitimate version in digital?

Although there may be, I'm not specifically aware of any litverse content, but I do recall authors here commenting that they've used this as a reference, so some works may at least be consistent with them. (I seem to recall reading here that the Destiny trilogy used it for the space around the Azure Nebula and such, but admittedly my memory is not always the greatest.)

It is also my understanding that Stellar Cartography was based on the maps in Star Charts, so I would expect there to be some consistency between the two.

I don't believe there were digital releases of any of these, sorry.

 

[Dayton Ward]

Geoffrey Mandel did the original Star Trek Maps for Ballantine Books way back when, then used them as a point of deparature when he did Star Trek Star Charts for S&S. He also contributed work to Stellar Cartography. Basically, the latter publication is pretty much the ultimate update/extension of something Geoff started out doing 40 years ago.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Geoffrey Mandel did the original Star Trek Maps for Ballantine Books way back when...

Bantam Books. "Star Trek Maps" got caught up in the license-switch from Bantam to Pocket Books, and many copies went straight to the Remaindered bins. Here in Australia, copies of this gorgeous set of two double-sided maps (plus the great "Introduction to Navigation" manual) were a steal at $AU 4.00 each!

 

[Dayton Ward]

I meant Bantam, but Ballantine must've been stuck in my head for some reason. Probably because of the Franz Joseph/TrekTech publications.

And getting old.

(But not too old to shamelessly admit I have two sets of the Maps. )

 

[Jim Johnson]

My only questions on Nemecek's book is, is there a legitimate licensed way to acquire a digital version? I can't (legitimately) find epub or PDF anywhere.

Indirectly, there is a way to get a couple of the maps legitimately in digital format. I got permission to use the Klingon maps in the Star Trek Adventures Klingon core rulebook and the Klingon gamemaster toolkit, and you can get the PDFs of those products and have access to digital versions of a couple of the maps. modiphius.net or modiphius.us for webstore orders, or if you have a DrivethruRPG account, you can get them from there. If you don't care about the game, the Klingon gamemaster toolkit PDF is probably your best best if you want the maps.

 

[publiusr]

Bantam Books. "Star Trek Maps" got caught up in the license-switch from Bantam to Pocket Books, and many copies went straight to the Remaindered bins. Here in Australia, copies of this gorgeous set of two double-sided maps (plus the great "Introduction to Navigation" manual) were a steal at $AU 4.00 each!

That’s a good haul!

 

[chrinFinity]

Geoffrey Mandel did the original Star Trek Maps for Ballantine [SIC] Books way back when, then used them as a point of deparature when he did Star Trek Star Charts for S&S.

Oh neat! Thank you Dayton Ward. So that makes me want to check out the oldest maps even more. I'll see if I can track some down. So that means the original 1980 work was by Geoffrey Mandel, who also contributed to Drexler's 2002 book, as well as Nemecek's collection.

So to summarize remaining and new questions,

Does anyone have insight on any differences that might exist between the 2013 and 2018 editions of Stellar Cartography? And,

Does anyone know if any of the various latter publications (2002/2013/2018) make specific reference to non-canon litverse material? And,

While I investigate the (licensed?) Klingon RPG at modiphius.net, are there any other known licensed sources for digital versions of Star Trek maps?

Bonus question: Why is the location of the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way described inconsistently in the maps, versus the narrative for Star Trek: Destiny? Memory-Beta says David Mack has Aventine and Enterprise in the Delta quadrant between Carina and Perseus, but that should be Beta Quadrant? Or else I need to get better at maps... Or maybe I need to re-read Mere Mortals.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Does anyone know if any of the various latter publications (2002/2013/2018) make specific reference to non-canon litverse material? And,

Hobus from Countdown and Star Trek Online was added to Stellar Cartography, about 14 lightyears from Romulus.

 

[chrinFinity]

Hobus from Countdown and Star Trek Online was added to Stellar Cartography, about 14 lightyears from Romulus.

Oh. Well. I don't speak for all Romulans and would never claim to, but I think I can live without Hobus.

I mean, if Treklit can go twelve years without addressing it, why should I need to. (Not that I'm bitter.)

 

[Stevil2001]

Oh neat! Thank you Dayton Ward. So that makes me want to check out the oldest maps even more. I'll see if I can track some down. So that means the original 1980 work was by Geoffrey Mandel, who also contributed to Drexler's 2002 book, as well as Nemecek's collection.

So to summarize remaining and new questions,

Does anyone have insight on any differences that might exist between the 2013 and 2018 editions of Stellar Cartography? And,

Does anyone know if any of the various latter publications (2002/2013/2018) make specific reference to non-canon litverse material? And,

While I investigate the (licensed?) Klingon RPG at modiphius.net, are there any other known licensed sources for digital versions of Star Trek maps?

Bonus question: Why is the location of the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way described inconsistently in the maps, versus the narrative for Star Trek: Destiny? Memory-Beta says David Mack has Aventine and Enterprise in the Delta quadrant between Carina and Perseus, but that should be Beta Quadrant? Or else I need to get better at maps... Or maybe I need to re-read Mere Mortals.

Mandel didn't "contribute" to the 2002 book; he's the one who wrote it.

 

[chrinFinity]

Mandel didn't "contribute" to the 2002 book; he's the one who wrote it.

Okay, interesting. Not trying to start an argument here, just genuinely asking.... But if that's true, why does Google say Doug Drexler is the author of that one?

 

[Stevil2001]

Okay, interesting. Not trying to start an argument here, just genuinely asking.... But if that's true, why does Google say Doug Drexler is the author of that one?

Drexler contributed according to the title page. But the topmost credit is "WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY Geoffrey Mandel."

 

[Jim Johnson]

While I investigate the (licensed?) Klingon RPG at modiphius.net, are there any other known licensed sources for digital versions of Star Trek maps?

No need to question it. Modiphius is the current ViacomCBS licensee for Star Trek tabletop RPGs.

I'm not aware of another licensee that sells digital Star Trek maps. The other print publishers I can think of, including Hero Collector/Eaglemoss, Titan Books, and DK, sell print books but not ebooks. I think it's a niche that Stellar Cartography does well, and I think if some licensee out there were to do a Star Trek atlas or something, they'd sell some copies. There's some cross-market appeal for such a thing.

 

[David cgc]

Okay, interesting. Not trying to start an argument here, just genuinely asking.... But if that's true, why does Google say Doug Drexler is the author of that one?

Google's info boxes are notoriously unreliable and bad at parsing their sources. If I had to guess, it's that Drexler and Mandel are both listed as authors on Goodreads, and "Doug Drexler" comes first alphabetically. I just sent in a correction on the Google box for Star Charts, but who knows if that'll work; they didn't agree with me that "Canadian novelist" Blake Leibel should be primarily listed as his other occupation, "murderer," even though literally every search result on the page leads with that.