Classic Trek

Our book club is currently reading through the Star Trek:Vanguard series and really enjoying it. Part of what makes the Original Series novels so enjoyable is that they are using non-canon characters. Major characters can and do die, and it really adds something when characters don’t have the “plot armor” that canon characters do.

Inspired by discussions on this Reddit thread, I’ve compiled notes on other series like Vanguard which I’d like to consider for future Star Trek series, either in our Dicehaven.com book club or for personal enjoyment.

The “New Frontier” series is a TNG era setting much like Vanguard with all-original characters. It has 18 novels in the series! This would probably be my top choice for a post-Vanguard series, although I would be happy with any novels on the list below!

The “Lost Era” series which covers the generations after TOS. The series has 11 novels. It features characters like Demora Sulu (Sulu’s daughter). In this series, “Serpent Among the Ruins” is well regarded.

Star Trek “New Earth” series of 6 novels is billed as a ‘wagon train to the stars’ with a colonial focus and many new characters (though it still includes TOS Enterprise). This takes place in the Enterprise’s 2nd five year mission, between TOS and TMP. (Side Note: The final ‘Star Trek: Challenger’ novel in the above New Earth series introduced new characters and was meant to be spun off into a new Vanguard / New Frontier style original non-TV-character series, but that spin-off series never materialized)

The “Destiny” trilogy by David Mack is well regarded, but it’s more of a crossover than a non-TV series.

“Articles of the Federation” is a single novel in which the federation president and her staff. One person on Reddit said “it’s The West Wing but at Federation headquarters.”

“Star Trek: Titan” is a 12 book, post-TNG series with Riker, Troi, and a mostly non-human crew. In addition to the 12 books in the main series, Titan is also featured in the three novel Destiny” trilogy. One person I know of says the Titan series starts off rough, but many of its later book in the series are quite good .

I’m not sure what we’ll read after Vanguard but it’s so fantastic that there is a lot of great reading out there!

Excluding 1-3 hour abridged adaptation, there are still several decent looking TOS Star Trek audiobooks on Audible.com. Currently there are 12 full-length (8-12 hours) TOS audiobooks on Audible.com, plus another scheduled for 11/10/20.

There were 3 Original Series novels that had accompanying audiobooks scheduled to release in 2020:

I just finished listening to the audiobook Agents of Influence by Dayton Ward, narrated by Robert Petkoff which I bought off of Audible.

This is the best Star Trek novel I’ve run across in quite a while! The story kept the action moving, and gave you some diverse environments: an asteroid belt, EVA combat, and of course the classical, naval ship-to-ship combat. The ideas were fresh, and characters besides the normal Enterprise bridge crew came into play, heightening the suspense. We all figured Kirk and Spock would live through the novel, but what about these other folks? I thought it would be heavy on the espionage given the book description, but although that drama was there, all the normal Star Trek tropes were in full action.

I can’t say enough good things about the narrator. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Uhura, Scotty — the narrator gave each their distinct voice and accents and really brought the story alive.

I highly recommend this book and look forward to whatever Dayton Ward has next in store!

In addition to the Taurus Reach novel series, the following 25 books are rated by DeepSpaceSpines.com as some of the best novels among the vast inventory of published TOS era books.

The Taurus Reach is a nicely documented sector which has enough novels to provide a rich reading experience as a background for roleplaying settings. It also is a largely unexplored region which makes it ideal for many roleplaying campaigns which feature exploration.

As of this writing, there are 15 TOS era novels set in the Taurus Reach region. These novels collectively do a great picture of describing the politics, key starships, space station, and history of the sector.

• Distant Early Warning prequel (1 book)
• Star Trek: Vanguard series (9 books)
• Star Trek: Seekers sequel series (4 books)
• Agents of Influence sequel (1 book)