Which Trek novels are in your personal headcanon?

[JonnyQuest037]

It has Kevin Riley (S1) and Chekov (S2-3) and Arex and M’Ress (TAS) all aboard, which kind of throws me for a loop. Sort of the Chekov-in-“Space Seed” issue squared. But I suppose rather than imagining people joining and leaving and rejoining and leaving again, the intent would be that they were all “really” along for the entire Mission, whether or not you saw them in a given story (or massive chunk of stories).

Eh, just say that Arex and M'Ress were aboard but not on the bridge crew yet, the same way Chekov was before S2. Presumably Uhura has a communications staff somewhere on the ship, and maybe Arex is serving in auxiliary control or something.

 

[I am not Herbert]

The books l liked are in my personal canon, and the ones I didn't are not. Even individual books have parts that I liked and have "accepted" as personal canon, and other parts that I didn't and haven't. Like Shadows on the Sun has an excellent McCoy-in-training backstory that credibly explains the doctor we see in TOS. It also has a Jocelyn McCoy subplot that has everyone involved acting in unaccountable ways, and feels tacked on and perfunctory. So in my person canon, I just ignore the latter plot, just as I ignore the supposed timing of that story (after ST VI, thereby creating the most depressing atmosphere possible) and reset it to a post-TMP era. It's my canon, I can do with it what I want.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Everything counts, not everything takes place in the same timeline/universe.

In an infinite multiverse, that is actually true.