What is the biggest reason that you read Trek novels/stories?

[Sho]

Several of the poll options describe why I enjoy reading Trek novels, which makes for a reason in itself, but a big reason, frankly, is familiarity: Treklit is my comfort food. I know roughly what I'm going to get (which isn't a plea for stagnation, though; rather, the occasional deviation or new thematic development adds spice) and that there's a high probability I'm going to like it. That makes it relaxing and diverting, and less challenging than other reading material. Not that I don't want to be challenged, but I don't want to be challenged in the same way or to the same degree all the time; life provides challenges on a constant basis, so a little timeout now and then stemming from agency in picking the type of engagement makes for a great catalyst. So my reading list tends to look like this: Alternating between Trek novels and non-Trek novels (which come from varying genres and centuries), and a non-fiction book alongside either.

 

[Use of Time]

After seeing every piece of Trek to hit the screen its simply a way of experiencing new stories. It simply keeps the franchise going for me.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

After seeing every piece of Trek to hit the screen its simply a way of experiencing new stories. It simply keeps the franchise going for me.

Yeah it's pretty simple.

 

[JD]

I like to read, and I like Trek. It's a great way to get more new stories, some better than what we got on TV set in one of my favorite universes. I love the characters, so I really enjoyed getting more stories about them than what we got on TV. It also gives us a chance to see stories and things that we never saw, for either storytelling choices or for budgetary reason. I'd easily put some of the best books above some of the best TV episodes. IMO Destiny is one of the best stories ever told in the Star Trek universe, and I think the franchise as a whole would be a lot worse of in terms of quality stories if we never got it.

 

[Halogen]

Hey, really illuminating responses. Thank you. Did not expect all the elaboration, especially.

I suppose I should weigh in on why I tend to shy away from trek fiction.

- When I pick up a book, part of the joy for me is learning about new characters, and having a new world skillfully laid out for me by the author.

- I do not like mixing formats. Wires get crossed in my brain when I'm reading a description of things I saw with my eyes on TV. Reading for me is a lot about the richness of the prose. So, while there is an interesting magic about reading words about familiar actions that create a character previously rendered only visually and aurally, for me I get a bitter taste. I have picked up one or two novels and was struck by the amount of words that went into describing the minutiae of Trek characters, like Picard pulling his shirt down, or Sisco having a loud and authoritative voice, etc.

Now, I am not criticizing those who like Trek fiction. Not at all. That's why I made a poll, so I could hear what motivates folks.


I would be interested in fic that diverges quite a bit from existing storylines. Any recs?

 

[Christopher]

^There's a good deal of Trek fiction that isn't about familiar characters and settings, that adds new characters and worlds and storylines to the universe and that might suit your interests better. The seminal example is The Final Reflection by John M. Ford, which is supposedly a work of historical fiction written within the Trek universe about events occurring several decades before the original series, as told from a Klingon perspective. It's not consistent with modern screen continuity, but it's a terrific piece of worldbuilding and stands as a solid original SF novel in its own right.

More recently, we've had a bunch of series about non-screen characters, including New Frontier, Titan, SCE/Corps of Engineers, Vanguard, and Department of Temporal Investigations.

 

[Sho]

I actually tend to prefer Treklit that focuses on original characters instead of on characters from one of the TV shows. Part of the reason is that I find it more relaxing not to find myself comparing an author's voice to my pre-established impression of a character by way of their screen presence; when a character was created or at least primarily fleshed out by the books, they own that character and the word is law. The familiarity I speak of in the earlier post is familiarity with the format, not so much the characters.

Here's an old poll and discussion on original vs. series characters: http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=184529

 

[Sci]

^There's a good deal of Trek fiction that isn't about familiar characters and settings, that adds new characters and worlds and storylines to the universe and that might suit your interests better. The seminal example is The Final Reflection by John M. Ford, which is supposedly a work of historical fiction written within the Trek universe about events occurring several decades before the original series, as told from a Klingon perspective. It's not consistent with modern screen continuity, but it's a terrific piece of worldbuilding and stands as a solid original SF novel in its own right.

More recently, we've had a bunch of series about non-screen characters, including New Frontier, Titan, SCE/Corps of Engineers, Vanguard, and Department of Temporal Investigations.

And, of course, there are the lines that "take over" the TV shows' storylines after those shows ended their TV runs and took them in completely new directions, with mixes of old and new characters. Things like the Destiny trilogy and the rise of the Typhon Pact.

And novels that illuminate events alluded to in the canon but never seen -- the start of the Occupation of Bajor in the Terok Nor trilogy, the secrets of Garak's life in A Stitch in Time, the life of Rugal Pa'Dar after he was forcibly returned to his biological father on Cardassia in The Never-Ending Sacrifice, the Klingon-Cardassian "cold war" over the Betreka Nebula Incident in The Art of the Impossible, the Tomed Incident in Serpents Among the Ruins.

 

[trash80]

I ticked all of them except "Other" as they all applied.

Basically i love the Star Trek universe and want to see how it develops

 

[Thrawn]

Hey, really illuminating responses. Thank you. Did not expect all the elaboration, especially.

I suppose I should weigh in on why I tend to shy away from trek fiction.

- When I pick up a book, part of the joy for me is learning about new characters, and having a new world skillfully laid out for me by the author.

- I do not like mixing formats. Wires get crossed in my brain when I'm reading a description of things I saw with my eyes on TV. Reading for me is a lot about the richness of the prose. So, while there is an interesting magic about reading words about familiar actions that create a character previously rendered only visually and aurally, for me I get a bitter taste. I have picked up one or two novels and was struck by the amount of words that went into describing the minutiae of Trek characters, like Picard pulling his shirt down, or Sisco having a loud and authoritative voice, etc.

Now, I am not criticizing those who like Trek fiction. Not at all. That's why I made a poll, so I could hear what motivates folks.


I would be interested in fic that diverges quite a bit from existing storylines. Any recs?

Vanguard.

Set on a space station during TOS, it's a bit like how HBO might reimagine the original series, following characters you don't often see in Trek (gangsters, reporters, intelligence officers) instead of the usual bridge crew, and just incredibly kickass from any perspective. It's 8 books, it's over, so you know that it ends well and you won't be reading a series until sales dwindle sometime in the far future. Some of the best TrekLit ever.

Start with Harbinger; the whole list is in the flowchart in my signature. There's some other peripheral stuff but it's not necessary, just read the main 8.

 

[DS9forever]

I like to read about Sisko, Kira, Picard, Odo, Ezri, Worf etc after their TV series and films ended, although I do like some of the new characters that were introduced -Vaughn, Taran'atar etc, although the new characters on the Enterprise-E have disappointed me.

 

[ryan123450]

The characters on the E would have grown on me more if any of them lasted very long.
They should have introduced a new crew during the beginning of the relaunch and stuck with them from then on.

 

[A J]

I echo what several folks have already stated. I selected the first three options plus I just like to read.

 

[JWolf]

I didn't vote for the technology options. I read Trek for the characters/stories.

You don't get some of the emotion you get frm the books because of the technology. You get it because of the characters and the story.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I just bleep over the technology. Some of the books have just flown by that way.

 

[Sho]

I could actually do with a little more technology, provided it's actually cogent.

 

[EddyDrama]

For me, pretty much all of the options apply. The novelisation ofStar Trek First Contact was the first book that I ever read completely, I had started to read other books before that but I found reading very boring up until that. It was also in english and it was the summer before we started english classes at school, I had learned enough english from watching tv that I understood about 99% of the words in the book, had to check only a few word from dictionary. After First Contact I read the novelisation of All Good Things and after that the novelisation of Generations. So at first I was intrested only in the novelisations of the episodes and movies, and as I read more I also got more intrested in reading in general as well but mainly I read only Star Trek. I started to read all Star Trek novels that I could get my hands on because I was intrested in new adventures that I had not seen in tv.

Somewhere around 2001-03 I started to lose intrest in reading Star Trek, and apparently I lost a box filled with Treklit when moving, but I did go often to a bookstore and out of old habit always checked the Star Trek books but never bought any. Some of the Star Trek books never left my own bookshelf even when I never read that, one of them was First Contact as it was the first book I ever read. About year and a half ago I saw Christopher L Bennetts DTI book on a bookstore and decided to give it a try as it looked intresting. After reading it I realised that there has been a lot of things happening in treklit-verse and that I'm still intrested in Star Trek, so I started reading treklit all again. I buy the newest books and go through used-bookstores for the older books that I never read (and sometimes books that I have read but did not own them anymore). I even found some of the old Young Adult series books for euro a piece (havent had a chance to read them yet), I remember seeing them in bookstores back in the day but thought that I was too old to read them, even though as I understand they were written for teens and I was a teenager back then.

So basically I read because I enjoy reading and because I want to see what happens next in Star Trek.

 

[ryan123450]

I read Trek books because I love to be able to just jump right into a story already understanding the universe I'm in. I already know the characters and setting, and have an emotional investment in everything. I really enjoy continuing to follow the stories I've followed since childhood as well. I wouldn't be interested in Trek books at all if they didn't continue the storylines after the series. These are the same reasons I read the Star Wars EU and a few other media tie in series.

 

[Timewalker]

I sometimes wonder how people were able to keep up with everything that was being published between around 1995 through 2002 or so, when there were around 25 to 30 novels published every year.

I was able to keep up until DS9 came out and the miniseries stuff started. Then it was harder, and then basically impossible for me for at least 10 years. I'm catching up on some, but have discovered that others are ones that were never worth missing in the first place.

Hey, really illuminating responses. Thank you. Did not expect all the elaboration, especially.

I suppose I should weigh in on why I tend to shy away from trek fiction.

- When I pick up a book, part of the joy for me is learning about new characters, and having a new world skillfully laid out for me by the author.

- I do not like mixing formats. Wires get crossed in my brain when I'm reading a description of things I saw with my eyes on TV. Reading for me is a lot about the richness of the prose. So, while there is an interesting magic about reading words about familiar actions that create a character previously rendered only visually and aurally, for me I get a bitter taste. I have picked up one or two novels and was struck by the amount of words that went into describing the minutiae of Trek characters, like Picard pulling his shirt down, or Sisco having a loud and authoritative voice, etc.

Now, I am not criticizing those who like Trek fiction. Not at all. That's why I made a poll, so I could hear what motivates folks.


I would be interested in fic that diverges quite a bit from existing storylines. Any recs?

Do you mean the pro novels or fanfic? For pro novels, try John Ford's How Much For Just the Planet?. Hint: enjoying this novel is much easier for folks with an interest/background in music/drama/musical theatre.

If you mean fanfic, there's a forum here for that. Or PM me for other recommendations.

(p.s. I loathe Abrams, too)

 

[ryan123450]

Or perhaps he means something along the lines of the Myriad Universes stories.