[AgentZeus]

After noticing Christopher helping out in the other 'newbie' thread I thought I would gather a few resources together to help with an overall view of the current 'trek lit-verse' so you might have an idea where to start!

There are a lot of books to read. A LOT. They cover everything in the timeline from TOS to VOY and beyond. Some are brand new stories and others are novelizations of some of the episodes.

IMPORTANT!!! You can pick ANY book and start anywhere!
The author always includes any background info you need in the book so the story makes sense. Don't feel obliged to start at the beginning!

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Not sure where to begin reading? Here are a few common suggestions....

• If you want to start from a fairly recent up to date story then there is a five part crossover series called 'The Fall' (starting with Revelation and Dust) which touches on many branches of the 'trek-lit-verse' including TNG, DS9 and the USS Aventine (Ezri Dax commanding).

• Another big jump in point is the Destiny trilogy. This series features TNG, the Dominion, the Borg, and the USS Titan (Riker commanding).
• For a bit more info you can jump back before Destiny and read Articles of the Federation to give some more political backstory.

• If you like DS9 you can jump in with the Avatar series set after the series finale. If you want to jump a bit further ahead Rough Beasts of Empire is set after the aforementioned Destiny trilogy.

• If you like TNG the 'Time' series is a set of 9 books starting with "A Time to Be Born" that leads up to Nemesis. Or you can start after Nemesis with Death in Winter.
• For TNG you can also branch out to the USS Titan novels featuring Riker which starts with Taking Wing

• For Voyager fans its first post-Endgame stories start from Homecoming, but the series got something of a second start later with Full Circle.

• For Enterprise fans post finale adventures begin from The Good That Men Do. This series also has secondary relaunch with the post Romulan War era in A Choice of Futures.

• For TOS, 23rd century fans can start the Vanguard series with the novel Harbinger. There is also a small run of TOS stories set after The Motion Picture, those start from Ex Machina.

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Update : If you want to see a list of all books in their published order so you can see which ones you have read and check them off, you now can thanks to SharpDressedSloth over on Reddit - Direct Link to Book Checklist (Google Sheet)

Lastly here is a link to a gigantic chart listing the novels available and the ideal reading order. This thread and chart are thanks to Thrawn and 8of5 who compiled the chart and pointed out the important books!

Click here to view the full size Reading Order Flow Chart (sneak peak at the chart below!)



Updated to Version 5 of the chart

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And lastly remember....

You can pick ANY book and start anywhere!
Don't feel obliged to start at the beginning!

[Ned'ya]

Thanks, this is a great guide for anyone wanting to read the lit-verse, I myself am new to the books and this will help me pick where I want to my journey to go after I finish The Lives of Dax .

[Dentari]

Thanks, this is a great guide for anyone wanting to read the lit-verse, I myself am new to the books and this will help me pick where I want to my journey to go after I finish The Lives of Dax .

I've not actually read The Lives of Dax, but I am primarily into the Deep Space Nine relaunch novels. If you're a DS9 fan, I'd highly recommend picking up where the tv series left off with Avatar books 1 and 2 onward. I'm currently working my way through the Worlds of Deep Space Nine series and as a whole they have been really enjoyable - the trill backstory was brilliant, with the Andor story being my favourite.

[aceman67]

Having read 90% of the books released set in the Post-DS9/Voyager TV era, I would put a very strong Astrix on that "You can pick a book and go" statement.

Yes, the authors do put some background information in, but that information is only a brief summary at best, brief mention or nothing at all at worst.

For TNG, while the "Time" series is a great read, only the last two or three novels in the series I would consider 'must reads', as those books set the political stage for "Articles of the Federation" which is a absolute must read since it esentially sets the stage for pretty much all the books to come (with the exception of the post-destiny Voyager novels).

From that book forward, you can jump into the Titan books which you can read independently of the others until Sword of Damocles.

All the TNG novels can be read concurrently as well up until Greater than the Sum, at wich point along with Sword of Damocles, you move on to the Destiny Trilogy.

As for DS9, most of the Pre-Destiny novels can be skipped, but reading Mission Gamma sets the stage for a major political event that comes Post Destiny (Paths of Disharmony).

Voyager is largely a stand alone series with only one cross-over novel, Full Circle. Kristen Beyer has done a good job on the series thus far, if you like 'wish fulfilment' story lines like at the end of Eternal Tide...

New Frontier... well... I have a lot of respect for Peter David, he's a great author, I love his work on Spider-Man, but he's just not a great trek author, with notable exceptions like Imzadi and Imzadi II. That series can largely be skipped as none of the novels impact any of the other series'. His one contribution to the recent novel series', Before Dishonor, was one of the weakest novels that was part of the lead up to the Destiny Trilogy.

[Allan Hood]

Dudes, this is amazing. I was just going to start a thread asking about all this and everything's been answered.

I've barely read any of them. I read Fury, Temporal Investigations, and I'm now reading Greater than the Sum, all of which I'm really into. I fell asleep during Paths of Disharmony haha There was another TNG novel I tried reading but I felt they had the TNG personalities all wrong and it drove me crazy. I feel Picard is really hard to write for.

Thanks again, that's really cool.

And, which novels feature a lot of time travel?

I was hoping the new Discovery was going to be something like ST: Temporal Investigations and they'd just time travel through new plots and the TV series.

And, which novels feature a lot of time travel?

I was hoping the new Discovery was going to be something like ST: Temporal Investigations and they'd just time travel through new plots and the TV series.

Is there a chart that includes dates or that is in chronological order?

[Allan Hood]

Is there a chart that includes dates or that is in chronological order?

[AgentZeus]

Is there a chart that includes dates or that is in chronological order?

I haven't seen a recent chart/list with the books in chronological order - I am keeping an eye out though!

The only one I can pass on is HERE, its an old list, and the layout is ancient but it may be of interest.

[AgentZeus]

Update
- I have updated the chart to Thrawn and 8of5's latest version.

- I have also added a link to a reading checklist (thanks Reddit!)

[Allan Hood]

And, which novels feature a lot of time travel?