General Trek Book Discussion

[Kathy Rose]

I heartily agree!

[Aquarius]

Do you think the publishing industry perhaps overextended itself with Star Trek? The reason I ask is because I can honestly say that, until about 10 years ago, I purchased every single novel of every Star Trek series ever written (except for graphic novels, which I couldn't where I live). I have two bookcases dedicated soley to Star Trek, from TOS through Enterprise, along with a few of the Corps of Engineers series.

When I first started buying Star Trek novels, a new one would come out about every six months to a year, and I anxiously awaited them. This was before TNG aired. When TNG came out, the novel publication rate seemed to increase, with both TOS and TNG novels. Then DS9 came out, with additional novels being released even more quickly.

By the time Voyager hit the airwaves, it seemed like every month a new novel or two was available. It was also about that time that, having left my full-time job to be a stay-at-home mom with my young children, I no longer could afford to purchase two or more books each month, especially when many of them were hardcover with a higher retail price than paperbacks. So I began to pick and choose which books I could fit in my budget.

Luckily, nowadays there are other outlets where I can find books at reduced prices, but I still don't buy every Star Trek novel that comes along. Right now my main interest is Enterprise novels, of course, and anything written in the context of the other series, meaning stories that are set during the series' runs, not what happened to the characters after that time period. Still being on a budget affects my choices, as does the fact that, at one point, there were so many novels out there that I lost interest in keeping up with them.

That's pretty much my story, too. I started getting them for Christmas, birthdays, and good report cards when I was 10, then as soon as I was old enough to make babysitting money a couple of years later, I blew it all at the book store--on Trek novels. But eventually there came a time when I just couldn't keep up--financially, or when I did have money, there were simply too many. And I felt like Bad!Bad!Bad! Trekkie for thinking so.

I don't think the series we've all known and loved for so many years should be abandoned altogether. Sure, go ahead and hawk your reboot novels, but this reboot is drawing new fans to the franchise who will likely want to explore further...two books from each series per year will be plenty to keep us all busy, and most of us will buy the new ones, too, so...what's the problem???

[Honeybee]

I think what makes me nervous about the whole pocket books situation is that Margaret Clark was let go and now Andy Mangels has been pushed out. While I wouldn't mind at all if the number of books from each series was limited to one or two year - it would be better that way - I'm concerned that it won't help the quality if the good writers/good editors are driven out.

And if the novelizations from the reboot film aren't good quality, that won't serve the purpose of keeping interest in the films.

I guess I'm saying I don't trust the corporate culture to refocus on quality as they contract the number of offerings. I want "just right" rather than "too big" or "too small".

[Aquarius]

Well we can always complain about that, too.

[Reanok]

I know that the Enterprise books Beneath the Raptor's wing did sale well enough for Micheal Martin to start working on, In Shariel jaws.But it still makes me concerned for the future of what will happen to the Enterpise book line after the Earth/Romulan war book novels are pulished.I wonder if there will be books written beyond the miniseries what will happen about the Enterprise charcters storylines like Trip& T'Pol's and what about the founding of the Federation.

[EntAllat]

Do you think the publishing industry perhaps overextended itself with Star Trek? The reason I ask is because I can honestly say that, until about 10 years ago, I purchased every single novel of every Star Trek series ever written (except for graphic novels, which I couldn't where I live). I have two bookcases dedicated soley to Star Trek, from TOS through Enterprise, along with a few of the Corps of Engineers series.

That's pretty much my story, too. I started getting them for Christmas, birthdays, and good report cards when I was 10, then as soon as I was old enough to make babysitting money a couple of years later, I blew it all at the book store--on Trek novels. But eventually there came a time when I just couldn't keep up--financially, or when I did have money, there were simply too many. And I felt like Bad!Bad!Bad! Trekkie for thinking so.

Ditto!! I have a tall bookcase that is quadruple stacked in every shelf with nothing but Trek. I wasn't a collector of anything else Trek with the rare exception of a keychain or hat or two (until Enterprise and then I finally went for some action figures) - but anything written was game.

At least for a while. I stated out with TOS when that was the only thing being published and eagerly awaited each new novel. It was easy to keep up with, both from the perspective of a reader and a collector, and there was even time to feel anticipation.

Then TNG novels started coming out and I picked up those too, but my reading started to fall off because of school, career, etc. By the time VOY and DS9 came about it was starting to get hard to keep up just collecting them, let alone reading them. In fact, there's a fair amount on my bookshelf now - mostly from VOY and TNG - that's unread simply because they were coming out too fast for me to keep up with it. Also, it was too difficult for me to figure out what I was missing - especially with the four-part-across-the-series-epic books and with the rise in prices of a paperback book it was also getting too expensive to collect four or more novels at a time.

That's changed for me recently as wikis and other things online have made it easy for me print out a list of everything Trek in every possible series and incarnation, from the old hard-to-find stuff to the youth books etc. I added a lot recently when I visited a used bookstore with that list, getting only the books that were under $1.50.

I've decided I'll buy the ENT series new, the moment it comes out both as a show of my support for the series and because I probably couldn't wait if you duct-taped me to the wall. Everything else I'll look for used. It's not that I don't want to support the writers, but it's the only reasonable way for me to catch up/keep up at this point.

[Reanok]

Like others have said they have alot of Trek novels on their bookshelves.I used to go out to bookstores and I would buy first the Tos books and Tng and the Ds9 novels but eventually you can't keep up with reading all the different series and they're getting expensive, so I decided to cut back to buying only Enterpise or Tos and Ds9novels if they're written by an author I like.Or I go to a used bookstores to buy the starTrek books.I found some older novels I've been looking for the other day.

[Reanok]

Do you think the publishing industry perhaps overextended itself with Star Trek? The reason I ask is because I can honestly say that, until about 10 years ago, I purchased every single novel of every Star Trek series ever written (except for graphic novels, which I couldn't where I live). I have two bookcases dedicated soley to Star Trek, from TOS through Enterprise, along with a few of the Corps of Engineers series.

That's pretty much my story, too. I started getting them for Christmas, birthdays, and good report cards when I was 10, then as soon as I was old enough to make babysitting money a couple of years later, I blew it all at the book store--on Trek novels. But eventually there came a time when I just couldn't keep up--financially, or when I did have money, there were simply too many. And I felt like Bad!Bad!Bad! Trekkie for thinking so.

Ditto!! I have a tall bookcase that is quadruple stacked in every shelf with nothing but Trek. I wasn't a collector of anything else Trek with the rare exception of a keychain or hat or two (until Enterprise and then I finally went for some action figures) - but anything written was game.

At least for a while. I stated out with TOS when that was the only thing being published and eagerly awaited each new novel. It was easy to keep up with, both from the perspective of a reader and a collector, and there was even time to feel anticipation.

Then TNG novels started coming out and I picked up those too, but my reading started to fall off because of school, career, etc. By the time VOY and DS9 came about it was starting to get hard to keep up just collecting them, let alone reading them. In fact, there's a fair amount on my bookshelf now - mostly from VOY and TNG - that's unread simply because they were coming out too fast for me to keep up with it. Also, it was too difficult for me to figure out what I was missing - especially with the four-part-across-the-series-epic books and with the rise in prices of a paperback book it was also getting too expensive to collect four or more novels at a time.

That's changed for me recently as wikis and other things online have made it easy for me print out a list of everything Trek in every possible series and incarnation, from the old hard-to-find stuff to the youth books etc. I added a lot recently when I visited a used bookstore with that list, getting only the books that were under $1.50.

I've decided I'll buy the ENT series new, the moment it comes out both as a show of my support for the series and because I probably couldn't wait if you duct-taped me to the wall. Everything else I'll look for used. It's not that I don't want to support the writers, but it's the only reasonable way for me to catch up/keep up at this point.

I've done the same thing in the past when it came to the StarTrek novels,I'd buy them when they came out in the bookstore. But now they're are so many different StarTrek book series now I couldn't keep up with reading all the different series of novels.So I had to cut back on what novels I wanted to buy.I've bought only Enterprise or Ds9 novels if they're written by authors I like. Or I got to a used book to look for older novels from the other series for a good price.I like the Strange new world books and the Myriad Universe novels there going to have a new book out in December I hope they'll have a new Enterrprise in this story anthology.

[Reanok]

I just found out that the new Myriad Universe book3 will have a Soval story he's on the cover of the new book.At least we'll be getting one Enterprise story in a story anthology this year.Tears of Eridanus is one of the stories in the book.

[EntAllat]

I thought that maybe a list of existing ENT books/published stories would be useful to someone here, so here goes:

Episode adaptations:
Enterprise: Broken Bow
Enterprise: Shockwave
Enterprise: The Expanse

Novels (pre-relaunch):
By the Book
Surak's Soul
What Price Honor
Daedalus (part one of two)
Daedalus's Children (part two of two)
Rosetta
Last Full Measure

Novels (re-launch):
The Good That Men Do
Kobayashi Maru
The Romulan War: Beneath The Raptor's Wing

Short Stories/Entries in:
Star Trek Mirror Universe: Glass Empires
Star Trek Mirror Universe: Shards and Shadows
Star Trek: Tales From The Captain's Table
Star Trek Myriad Universes: Infinity's Prism
Stra Trek: Strange New Worlds, Vol. 6

In Manuals, etc.:
Star Trek Star Charts

That's all I know of at the moment.