Star Trek Reads discussion

So im a life long fan of Trek. its safe to say its the most important thing in my life lol.

so i currently dipping into the vastness of the books and im curious how much reading order matters. obviously im not going to start book 3 of a 7 book series and expect everything to be kosher. but say i skip around in the timeline so to speak, is that really going to hamper my enjoyment?

The TV shows and movies (minus the Abrams ones) are the canon. Right? And, like me, you have seen them all. Right? If so, then I see no harm in skipping around in the time line as long as, like you say, you don't begin a book in the middle of a series. You have enough background knowledge from having seen the canon that no book would lose you.

Even if you did read a book from the middle of a series, it would not be a complete disaster. Not even if that series were with new characters. For example, I am currently making my way through Peter David's New Frontier series. The Starship Captain is named MacKenzie Calhoun and you probably haven't heard of the rest of the crew either. Nevertheless, if you picked up volume three and began there, David gives you enough information about what happened in the earlier books that you could still enjoy the book. Not as much if you read them in order, but it is possible.

As long as you're okay with spoilers, then I see no reason why you couldn't jump in wherever you want.

Typically they do a bit of a recap of earlier books so you're not completely lost -- sometimes it's right at the start, sometimes it's integrated throughout.

The writers try to keep each book a stand-alone story, so as Andrea mentioned, they recap what's important for the current story.

That said, the post-Nemesis books create a vast tapestry of Trek universe, so if you jump somewhere in the middle, you may be a bit lost in regards of current geo-political scene.

If you want books sets at the time of show/film, you are safe. :)

yeah. as of now im starting with the Enterprise books which are alot of fun and it seems like Destiny is the best entry point for the newer books so ive started that as well.

I'm reading one of TOS now, and would prefer books before the movies. I see Kirk in my head with a wig on rather than as he was before the movies. There are so many stories that jump around in time and prefer stories to be more linear. I'd rather read the older books first (If I could find them amongst my huge collection of books).
I read only Star Trek, and I keep getting further behind!

I'm making my way through the Corps of Engineers books and I find that it's worth reading them in order (even if some are much better than others), just because the storyline does build one from the next. That said, I agree that the authors do take care to fill in the needed details of what has gone on so that you are never lost if you start with any book.

I'm struggling with the "Vulcans Soul" trilogy. I'm reading references to events I don't recall, so I'm kinda lost most of the time. Like, 'The Dominion War'! I should know it, but don't.

The Dominion War was played out in Deep Space 9 mostly. Odo's people, shape shifters, were the Dominion leaders. They invaded Star Fleet territory with the Cardassians as their key allies. Here are more details: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Domin...

Anni wrote: "The writers try to keep each book a stand-alone story, so as Andrea mentioned, they recap what's important for the current story.

That said, the post-Nemesis books create a vast tapestry of Trek u..."

I'd say reading order really matters in the books that run-up to Nemesis as well. The time to ..... series comes to mind. A lot of the post nemesis framework is laid in those books.

As I thought, but wasn't sure! It's a big and wide universe in Trek. The authors are just using the Dominion war as stress point and nothing else. My only trouble now is, all the Vulcan names. :)