Will those new to Trek Fiction be overwhelmed?
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I was a strictly Pocket Book reader for years, and now I mostly stick to non-main novelverse stuff. The Typhoon Pact series was the last time I could follow the story in a coherent matter, and it was actually good for readers like me. I read none of the books before TP until later (and even then I refuse to read the Voyager novels or the shitty borg ending books), but TP was mostly understandable and a decent overall story).
Honestly, even as an experienced Comic book and old Star Wars EU fan who can be obsessive with continuity, the modern Trek books take it too far. I can grab a Spider-Man comic even after not having read them for a few years and at least follow the basic story. In the Trek Novelverse, half the characters are just gone or so far removed from the TV versions its ridiculous. Even with memory beta, trying to figure out stuff like
is just mind boggling. It doesn't help that so much of it is terrible in addition to incoherent
. Also, good luck to anyone who can understand the Enterprise, "DS9" or Titan books, or who can stand reading the 12,000 modern TOS novels (seriously, at this point the first five year mission had 3 separate adventures a day, and writers seem to be running out of ideas for the era).
That said, there is good new (ie last 10 years or so) stuff.
But, even as a big fan of the older books I find the Novelverse stuff just unreadable at this point, either from being incoherent without reading 30 other books or by just being terrible continuations of the various Trek shows. That's just me, though. They obviously have enough fans to keep getting made, but even as a big fan of ST and Expanded content in general, the novelverse is just impenetrable for the most part.
Honestly, even as an experienced Comic book and old Star Wars EU fan who can be obsessive with continuity, the modern Trek books take it too far. I can grab a Spider-Man comic even after not having read them for a few years and at least follow the basic story. In the Trek Novelverse, half the characters are just gone or so far removed from the TV versions its ridiculous. Even with memory beta, trying to figure out stuff like
the logic behind how terrorist Ro Laren is now commanding a new DS9, or how Captain Sisko become a anti-social family abandoning loaner for no reason until he wasn't, or all the stuff with Janeway fucking off into another dimension or something until the writers wanted her alive again
(Sisko's heel turn, the outright moronic way the Borg were removed, etc is easily Enterprise S1 levels of fucking terrible story telling)
That said, there is good new (ie last 10 years or so) stuff.
The trilogy that returned Data, some of the random stuff like the DTI books, some single books like Q&A, The Light Fantastic, The Never Ending Sacrifice, etc)
I actually discovered Trek through TOS novels, starting with the early 'weird' stuff (Death's Angel, Trek to Madworld, Planet of Judgement, Spock Must Die, Spock Messiah! etc), then on through the Pocket books. I stopped reading them in 1996 after the 'My Brother's Keeper' series, which I really wanted to enjoy, but found very disappointing.
I've never gone back to reading Trek, and don't know if I could. The monthly ritual of hunting down, buying and reading the latest Pocket novel was a huge part of my teenage life. I feel like I'd be trying to bring back something I can't bring back. Plus, I have a different view of Trek now. I don't love the character of TOS Kirk the way I used to when I was younger - I'd much rather read about AOS Bones.
I've never gone back to reading Trek, and don't know if I could. The monthly ritual of hunting down, buying and reading the latest Pocket novel was a huge part of my teenage life. I feel like I'd be trying to bring back something I can't bring back. Plus, I have a different view of Trek now. I don't love the character of TOS Kirk the way I used to when I was younger - I'd much rather read about AOS Bones.
I'm a collector. Have been for a long time. When I was in college in the early 2000s, I had this compulsive need to buy all the ST books. It was a little easier at that time. There were a lot, but I was able to find loads on eBay. I got to the point where I owned a good number of the books. The problem was that I wasn't really reading them very quickly. I read the first 5-10 TOS books, the first 5ish TNG, the first few DS9 and the first few VOY. I became overwhelmed when I calculated how long it would take me to read through all the books at my then-current reading speed. Then factor in how many books came out each month (which was a few) and I kind of gave up.
I kept reading books that seemed interesting to me (a lot of the crossover books), but stopped trying to read them all. I eventually sold most of my collection since I realized that I had lived in Texas for 6 years and never even opened some of the boxes of books. I have hung on to a few favorites and a few that I still haven't read but want to (hard to believe I have a hardcover version of Spock's World that I have never read). In recent years, I've gotten interested in the post-Nemesis novels. Some I've had hard-copies of, but most I get ebook versions of. That seems to be best for me. I buy them as I get to them (or if they go on a $0.99 sale). I'm currently in the Typhon Pact books and am enjoying my slow read-through.
It still is overwhelming thinking of how many books I haven't read that I would like to, but I'm just continuing to eat the elephant one bite at a time.
I kept reading books that seemed interesting to me (a lot of the crossover books), but stopped trying to read them all. I eventually sold most of my collection since I realized that I had lived in Texas for 6 years and never even opened some of the boxes of books. I have hung on to a few favorites and a few that I still haven't read but want to (hard to believe I have a hardcover version of Spock's World that I have never read). In recent years, I've gotten interested in the post-Nemesis novels. Some I've had hard-copies of, but most I get ebook versions of. That seems to be best for me. I buy them as I get to them (or if they go on a $0.99 sale). I'm currently in the Typhon Pact books and am enjoying my slow read-through.
It still is overwhelming thinking of how many books I haven't read that I would like to, but I'm just continuing to eat the elephant one bite at a time.
I own every Star Trek Pocket Book, and nearly all of the books from other sources, and about 10 years ago I reread them all because I wanted to compile a list of information on every ship mentioned in them, because reasons.
Yeah, quality varies wildly in the early days, not so much in the last few years when they went from entirely episodic to arcs and continuing sagas.
I don’t have a problem keeping up with the modern novels. I read exceptionally fast and retain fairly well, although a few years back I lost the ability to summarize the plot of any book from memory, given the title. But I’m old now.
Yeah, quality varies wildly in the early days, not so much in the last few years when they went from entirely episodic to arcs and continuing sagas.
I don’t have a problem keeping up with the modern novels. I read exceptionally fast and retain fairly well, although a few years back I lost the ability to summarize the plot of any book from memory, given the title. But I’m old now.
I got my first Star Trek book in 1972, so I don’t have the problem of a huge backlog in Star Trek books. But I got into Doctor Who in 2001, when there were a few hundred books to get. I haven’t read all of them yet. Considering the Doctor Who publishing line slowed down when the new series started, and slowed down again more recently, I’m happy to have a bunch of books set aside.
As with Star Trek, there are some books where interbook continuity matters, and some where it doesn’t. Figure out what’s what, go for a run of continuity-heavy books, break it up with the occasional standalone, and read other things so you don’t get tired of too much of the same thing. And think of it as a fun new part of your life going forward, not a project to complete in x amount of time.
As with Star Trek, there are some books where interbook continuity matters, and some where it doesn’t. Figure out what’s what, go for a run of continuity-heavy books, break it up with the occasional standalone, and read other things so you don’t get tired of too much of the same thing. And think of it as a fun new part of your life going forward, not a project to complete in x amount of time.
It's pretty overwhelming at this point. I would advise finding a series you like and finding a good starting point.
Interesting Topic...
I try to read all Star Trek novels, that are translated into German.
Here is a list of all of them: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/star-trek-novels-in-germany.294700/
That's 38 novels from Goldmann, 256 from Heyne, and 146 from CrossCult (plus 34 ebook-only) until today.
Heyne & CrossCult are publishing the german versions of the Pocket Books novels.
I started reading the novels in 1994/95. My first book was Prime Directive (by J.&G. Reeves-Stevens), and from this book on, I had to read more and more
I don't read very fast and I don't have that much time to read a lot (school/university/job, family/children....), but I manage to read about one book per month on average.
Between 1994 and 2015 I read all of the Heyne-books, plus 11 of the 38 Goldmann-books (I have them all in my collection). Early 2015 I started with CrossCult. I have 132 books (still need 14), but only read 48 of them yet.
At the moment, CrossCult also reduced the numbers of books per year, but still had 11 in 2018. So I will also try to use this time, to catch up a little bit...
Oh, and your initial question:
Today, it's almost impossible, to read all the hundreds of books, already out there.
When I started in 1994, there were already 85 books from Heyne, plus 36 from Goldmann. Obviously, not much has changed: I'm still more than 100 books behind ;-) And that's just the german books....
I try to read all Star Trek novels, that are translated into German.
Here is a list of all of them: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/star-trek-novels-in-germany.294700/
That's 38 novels from Goldmann, 256 from Heyne, and 146 from CrossCult (plus 34 ebook-only) until today.
Heyne & CrossCult are publishing the german versions of the Pocket Books novels.
I started reading the novels in 1994/95. My first book was Prime Directive (by J.&G. Reeves-Stevens), and from this book on, I had to read more and more
I don't read very fast and I don't have that much time to read a lot (school/university/job, family/children....), but I manage to read about one book per month on average.
Between 1994 and 2015 I read all of the Heyne-books, plus 11 of the 38 Goldmann-books (I have them all in my collection). Early 2015 I started with CrossCult. I have 132 books (still need 14), but only read 48 of them yet.
At the moment, CrossCult also reduced the numbers of books per year, but still had 11 in 2018. So I will also try to use this time, to catch up a little bit...
Oh, and your initial question:
Today, it's almost impossible, to read all the hundreds of books, already out there.
When I started in 1994, there were already 85 books from Heyne, plus 36 from Goldmann. Obviously, not much has changed: I'm still more than 100 books behind ;-) And that's just the german books....
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I remember when I was totally caught up, except for some TNG and DS9 YA books. Then, in 2002, I changed jobs and no longer had a four-hour daily commute on trains. Sigh.
We took, like, a year off, y’all. Didn’t everybody catch up?
I'm actually almost cought up with the CrossCult releases. Currently I'm only missing the last Prey book! (And some TOS and NF stuff...)We took, like, a year off, y’all. Didn’t everybody catch up?
We took, like, a year off, y’all. Didn’t everybody catch up?
Apparantly not, can't you guys take another year off?
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Well, not in Germany. Just after CrossCult released their last book for 2018 (Prey 3) in september, to start a break until january 2019..... they suddenly announced another book for december (Corps of Engineers continue in Germany).
So there will be 12 novels this year.
BTW, these are the Numbers of novels from CrossCult in Germany each year (without ebooks):
2008 4
2009 8
2010 13
2011 16
2012 20
2013 17
2014 13
2015 16
2016 15
2017 13
2018 12
I'm wondering if there are any other surprises by CC waiting for us......
. I don't think so, but you'll never know.....I don't think, there will be much more this year.
CrossCult's best surprise was their announcement, to reprint the older novels. So I will finally get Enterprise 2, without paying 50€+x on ebay or amazon.
The big advantage for Star Trek readers in Germany is, that CrossCult is mostly 2 years behind (except Discovery and the movie novels), so there are still enough new books to translate and publish in Germany. Plus there are a lot of older novels and series like "A Time to..." and many more.
CrossCult's best surprise was their announcement, to reprint the older novels. So I will finally get Enterprise 2, without paying 50€+x on ebay or amazon.
The big advantage for Star Trek readers in Germany is, that CrossCult is mostly 2 years behind (except Discovery and the movie novels), so there are still enough new books to translate and publish in Germany. Plus there are a lot of older novels and series like "A Time to..." and many more.
There won't be any chance for the A time to.... series to be published in German. Sadly. The greater loss was that they canceled DS9 The Neverending Sacrifice .... one of the best Trek novels ever.....
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I look at the vast range of novels and don't find it overwhelming, just unengaging. I have been watching Trek properly since the early 1980s and can count the number of official novels I've read on one hand*. All of which were recommended to me by voracious novel-eaters. That they only suggested a few out of the entire corpus spoke for itself.
What I do miss are the old-style 'unlicensed' books like Ships of the Star Fleet and Spaceflight Chronology. Now those were great jumping-off points for daydreaming-stories.
* The three that I can remember right now: Federation, Captain's Daughter and Q-Squared.
What I do miss are the old-style 'unlicensed' books like Ships of the Star Fleet and Spaceflight Chronology. Now those were great jumping-off points for daydreaming-stories.
* The three that I can remember right now: Federation, Captain's Daughter and Q-Squared.
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"Spaceflight Chronology" was a licensed tie-in to ST:TMP. Sure, its dates fell out of favour once an Earthdate was named in TNG's "The Neutral Zone", and the Okudas helped to retrofit everything.
Yes, "Ships of the Star Fleet" was a fan-created prozine series.
There are many, many novels of similar calibre to "Federation", "The Captain's Daughter" and "Q-Squared".
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