[Silynn]

Has anyone read any of this book series?

I need a break from Star Trek Titan series, as it is still hard to get my mind wrapped around the crew there as they are so... alien.

Vanguard looks pretty interesting, and it is written by David Mack, whom I like.

[Christopher Halsey]

Vanguard seems ok if you like TOS era. Since everything is super secret though don't expect anything that happens to tie in to anything else. I have only ever seen one reference to Vanguard in another Star Trek novel and that was book 4 of the Typhon Pact series (Paths of Disharmony) and the usage is detailed enough yet not particularly important enough that reading Vanguard would be of any use to 'get it'.

I too found the diverse crew of Titan to be a bit tricky. Wait who is that character delivering that line? Is it the spider or the teddy bear or is it the ball or the dinosaur?

I would strongly recommend the DS9 relaunch novels, there are certainly enough old and established characters to make it a bit easier to read and the new characters are not only could characters but are considerably easier to remember than those of Titan.

Have you read the Destiny triology yet?

If yes then I would recommend reading the books that follow (most of which are TNG) until you hit the Typhon Pact series (although one of those is a Titan novel the bulk of the characters used are the more memorable ones).