where to start?
- Thread starter blutrek
- Start date
TrekLit has one big, unified continuity that's been going for about a decade now, give or take, but don't be intimidated. This post is going to seem crazy complex, but this is literally everything you need to know.
If you want the short version: just read Star Trek: Destiny, an amazing trilogy, and the stuff that comes after it. Find it on Amazon and buy it right now. It's awesome and you'll love it, and you don't need to read anything else to enjoy it. It features four different starship crews, and a ton of other characters, and will really give you a feel for the amazing scope that the Trek novels have been going for lately.
But I always want to know everything there is to know, so if you're like me and you want the long version, well, there's a lot.
First thing: there are post-finale adventures of DS9, called the DS9 relaunch, and so far it all takes place in a 1 year period from April 2376 to early 2377. It's fantastic, but also getting a little out of print, and scheduling problems led to it losing some steam. Not a good place to start right now. If you'd like to know more, go here: http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/DS9_relaunch but skip The Left Hand Of Destiny and the comics.
Then, there's a VOY relaunch, which consisted of four pretty bad books before both author and editor moved on to other things, all taking place in early 2378. It was sort of re-relaunched, with a VASTLY better author, more recently (see below). I'd also consider those four books a bad place to start.
Everything else in the 24th century is now together chronologically following Nemesis, which takes place in 2379. This post-Nemesis ongoing continuity is totally awesome, and the real core of TrekLit in my opinion. THIS is where to start. Here's everything you'd have to read to really get all the references:
A Time To Kill
A Time To Heal
A Time For War/A Time For Peace - the last 3 books of a 9 book series setting up Nemesis; the first 6 are not really important.
(Nemesis falls here)
TNG: Death In Winter - crew reorganization post-Nemesis
Titan: Taking Wing - first adventure of Riker's crew
Titan: The Red King
Articles Of The Federation - a year in the life of the Federation president
Titan: Orion's Hounds
TNG: Resistance
TNG: Q&A
TNG: Before Dishonor - these last three TNG books are unfortunately inconsistent; the only real weak point on the list
Titan: Sword Of Damocles
TNG: Greater Than The Sum
Destiny: Gods Of Night
Destiny: Mere Mortals
Destiny: Lost Souls - epic crossover trilogy about the Borg invasion, following 4 crews. AMAZING.
TNG: Losing The Peace
A Singular Destiny
VOY: Full Circle - re-relaunches VOY, starting after the Spirit Walk books and covering the next 3 years, through and past Destiny
VOY: Unworthy
Titan: Over A Torrent Sea
Titan: Synthesis
Typhon Pact miniseries - this just finished being published, and catches DS9 up to the rest of the 24th century books.
Now, if that's too intimidating, I totally understand, and I want to make clear that you can just start with Destiny because it's TOTALLY FREAKING AWESOME all by itself. But if you're paranoid about missing references, that's the whole ongoing 24th century continuity at this point, and it's certainly easier than reading several hundred
Now that all said, probably the best individual series being published right now is a bit of an outlier: Vanguard. It's an original series set during TOS, five books strong so far: http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_Vanguard It's like TOS re-imagined by HBO, and it's consistently just jaw-droppingly awesome.
If you want the short version: just read Star Trek: Destiny, an amazing trilogy, and the stuff that comes after it. Find it on Amazon and buy it right now. It's awesome and you'll love it, and you don't need to read anything else to enjoy it. It features four different starship crews, and a ton of other characters, and will really give you a feel for the amazing scope that the Trek novels have been going for lately.
But I always want to know everything there is to know, so if you're like me and you want the long version, well, there's a lot.
First thing: there are post-finale adventures of DS9, called the DS9 relaunch, and so far it all takes place in a 1 year period from April 2376 to early 2377. It's fantastic, but also getting a little out of print, and scheduling problems led to it losing some steam. Not a good place to start right now. If you'd like to know more, go here: http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/DS9_relaunch but skip The Left Hand Of Destiny and the comics.
Then, there's a VOY relaunch, which consisted of four pretty bad books before both author and editor moved on to other things, all taking place in early 2378. It was sort of re-relaunched, with a VASTLY better author, more recently (see below). I'd also consider those four books a bad place to start.
Everything else in the 24th century is now together chronologically following Nemesis, which takes place in 2379. This post-Nemesis ongoing continuity is totally awesome, and the real core of TrekLit in my opinion. THIS is where to start. Here's everything you'd have to read to really get all the references:
A Time To Kill
A Time To Heal
A Time For War/A Time For Peace - the last 3 books of a 9 book series setting up Nemesis; the first 6 are not really important.
(Nemesis falls here)
TNG: Death In Winter - crew reorganization post-Nemesis
Titan: Taking Wing - first adventure of Riker's crew
Titan: The Red King
Articles Of The Federation - a year in the life of the Federation president
Titan: Orion's Hounds
TNG: Resistance
TNG: Q&A
TNG: Before Dishonor - these last three TNG books are unfortunately inconsistent; the only real weak point on the list
Titan: Sword Of Damocles
TNG: Greater Than The Sum
Destiny: Gods Of Night
Destiny: Mere Mortals
Destiny: Lost Souls - epic crossover trilogy about the Borg invasion, following 4 crews. AMAZING.
TNG: Losing The Peace
A Singular Destiny
VOY: Full Circle - re-relaunches VOY, starting after the Spirit Walk books and covering the next 3 years, through and past Destiny
VOY: Unworthy
Titan: Over A Torrent Sea
Titan: Synthesis
Typhon Pact miniseries - this just finished being published, and catches DS9 up to the rest of the 24th century books.
Now, if that's too intimidating, I totally understand, and I want to make clear that you can just start with Destiny because it's TOTALLY FREAKING AWESOME all by itself. But if you're paranoid about missing references, that's the whole ongoing 24th century continuity at this point, and it's certainly easier than reading several hundred
Now that all said, probably the best individual series being published right now is a bit of an outlier: Vanguard. It's an original series set during TOS, five books strong so far: http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_Vanguard It's like TOS re-imagined by HBO, and it's consistently just jaw-droppingly awesome.
It's been a few years since I had the time to read more than a couple STAR TREK books, but the best question to ask yourself is what series is your favorite? I'd stick to those books, and then branch out as you see fit.
The first few books in the DS9 relaunch are great, if you're a fan of that series and would like to see it continued. "A Stitch in Time" is a great book to start with if you're a fan of the Garak character.
The first few books in the DS9 relaunch are great, if you're a fan of that series and would like to see it continued. "A Stitch in Time" is a great book to start with if you're a fan of the Garak character.
If you just want to start to wet your feet in the vast ocean of Trek lit, try the various anthologies. There is TOS: Constellations, featuring stories from the 5 year mission. Then TNG: The Sky's the Limit spanning from before "Encounter at Farpoint" all the way through just after Star Trek: Nemesis. DS9: Prophecy and Change spans the series and a glimps beyond. And VOY: Distant Shores spans it's series as well.
Another avenue is the Enteprise relaunch, which starts with the true story behind "These are the Voyages..." the horrible finale, and then heads into the Romulan War.
Another avenue is the Enteprise relaunch, which starts with the true story behind "These are the Voyages..." the horrible finale, and then heads into the Romulan War.
Like Harvey said, I think the first question you need to ask yourself is which series you liked best. Or perhaps you'd rather leave your favorite characters for the screen, and read about a new crew.
The second question you should ask is whether you want to pick up the story where the last series/movie left off and see what happened (in which case Thrawn's list will prove useful), or whether you'd rather go with the 'nostalgia' route and see the old gang back together again.
If you answer these questions, it'll be easier to make recommendations based on your preferences.
The second question you should ask is whether you want to pick up the story where the last series/movie left off and see what happened (in which case Thrawn's list will prove useful), or whether you'd rather go with the 'nostalgia' route and see the old gang back together again.
If you answer these questions, it'll be easier to make recommendations based on your preferences.
As long as you don't mind a little wear and tear, many awesome classics can be picked up from Amazon and eBay for almost nothing more than the cost of shipping.
A short list of golden oldies (all stand alone adventures unless otherwise stated)
TOS: Prime Directive (A mission ends in disaster and the crew are broken up), My Enemy My Ally (Kirk and co have to stop a Romulan plot), Spock's World (history of Vulcan), The Romulan Way (history of Romulus, sequel to My Enemy My Ally), Crossroad (two groups of time travellers come back to change history) The Ashes of Eden (retired Kirk goes on one last mission), Sarek (Sarek and Amanda's story and a Romulan plot), Final Frontier (nothing to do with STV, but a TOS prequel about Captain April and George Kirk launching the Enterprise)
TNG: Vendetta (the Borg, a Doomsday Machine and Guinan's "soul sister"), Metamorphosis (Data becomes human), The Captain's Honor (Space Romans), Reunion (Picard reunited with his old Stargazer crew, one's turned murderer)
A short list of golden oldies (all stand alone adventures unless otherwise stated)
TOS: Prime Directive (A mission ends in disaster and the crew are broken up), My Enemy My Ally (Kirk and co have to stop a Romulan plot), Spock's World (history of Vulcan), The Romulan Way (history of Romulus, sequel to My Enemy My Ally), Crossroad (two groups of time travellers come back to change history) The Ashes of Eden (retired Kirk goes on one last mission), Sarek (Sarek and Amanda's story and a Romulan plot), Final Frontier (nothing to do with STV, but a TOS prequel about Captain April and George Kirk launching the Enterprise)
TNG: Vendetta (the Borg, a Doomsday Machine and Guinan's "soul sister"), Metamorphosis (Data becomes human), The Captain's Honor (Space Romans), Reunion (Picard reunited with his old Stargazer crew, one's turned murderer)
While I have read and enjoyed pretty much every book on that list, I think it's worth pointing out that you don't have to read all of those books. It will give you the whole big picture of what's going on in the universe, but if there is one series or book that you don't want to read you don't have to. Most of the books do a pretty good job of filling in the major points from any relevant books, and if they don't then you can always cheat and use Memory Beta, the Star Trek wiki focusing on all of the off screen content (i.e. books, comics, games, trading cards, RPGs, ect.)TrekLit has one big, unified continuity that's been going for about a decade now, give or take, but don't be intimidated. This post is going to seem crazy complex, but this is literally everything you need to know.
If you want the short version: just read Star Trek: Destiny, an amazing trilogy, and the stuff that comes after it. Find it on Amazon and buy it right now. It's awesome and you'll love it, and you don't need to read anything else to enjoy it. It features four different starship crews, and a ton of other characters, and will really give you a feel for the amazing scope that the Trek novels have been going for lately.
But I always want to know everything there is to know, so if you're like me and you want the long version, well, there's a lot.
First thing: there are post-finale adventures of DS9, called the DS9 relaunch, and so far it all takes place in a 1 year period from April 2376 to early 2377. It's fantastic, but also getting a little out of print, and scheduling problems led to it losing some steam. Not a good place to start right now. If you'd like to know more, go here: http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/DS9_relaunch but skip The Left Hand Of Destiny and the comics.
Then, there's a VOY relaunch, which consisted of four pretty bad books before both author and editor moved on to other things, all taking place in early 2378. It was sort of re-relaunched, with a VASTLY better author, more recently (see below). I'd also consider those four books a bad place to start.
Everything else in the 24th century is now together chronologically following Nemesis, which takes place in 2379. This post-Nemesis ongoing continuity is totally awesome, and the real core of TrekLit in my opinion. THIS is where to start. Here's everything you'd have to read to really get all the references:
A Time To Kill
A Time To Heal
A Time For War/A Time For Peace - the last 3 books of a 9 book series setting up Nemesis; the first 6 are not really important.
(Nemesis falls here)
TNG: Death In Winter - crew reorganization post-Nemesis
Titan: Taking Wing - first adventure of Riker's crew
Titan: The Red King
Articles Of The Federation - a year in the life of the Federation president
Titan: Orion's Hounds
TNG: Resistance
TNG: Q&A
TNG: Before Dishonor - these last three TNG books are unfortunately inconsistent; the only real weak point on the list
Titan: Sword Of Damocles
TNG: Greater Than The Sum
Destiny: Gods Of Night
Destiny: Mere Mortals
Destiny: Lost Souls - epic crossover trilogy about the Borg invasion, following 4 crews. AMAZING.
TNG: Losing The Peace
A Singular Destiny
VOY: Full Circle - re-relaunches VOY, starting after the Spirit Walk books and covering the next 3 years, through and past Destiny
VOY: Unworthy
Titan: Over A Torrent Sea
Titan: Synthesis
Typhon Pact miniseries - this just finished being published, and catches DS9 up to the rest of the 24th century books.
Now, if that's too intimidating, I totally understand, and I want to make clear that you can just start with Destiny because it's TOTALLY FREAKING AWESOME all by itself. But if you're paranoid about missing references, that's the whole ongoing 24th century continuity at this point, and it's certainly easier than reading several hundred
Now that all said, probably the best individual series being published right now is a bit of an outlier: Vanguard. It's an original series set during TOS, five books strong so far: http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_Vanguard It's like TOS re-imagined by HBO, and it's consistently just jaw-droppingly awesome.
But if you're wanting to really get the most out of the experience, I say take the time and go through Thrawn's list, it's a great experience.
I'm pretty much doing Thrawn's list right now. However, I started with a few stand-alones (Spock's World, Intellivore, Immortal Coil, and The Battle of Betazed), and moved on to re-reading the DS9 post-finale books before diving into the bulk of his list. So far I've read the two Avatar novels and Section 31: Abyss.
I really want to get caught up by the end of this year, but I think that in order to accomplish that, I might have to disconnect my television.
I really want to get caught up by the end of this year, but I think that in order to accomplish that, I might have to disconnect my television.
