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)

Star Trek: Vanguard is a series of Star Trek tie-in fiction novels set during the 2260s, or the time period concurrent with Star Trek: The Original Series. The series is written by Kevin Dilmore, David Mack, and Dayton Ward.

Distant Early Warning (2006), a Star Trek: Corps of Engineers novella by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore, is a prequel to Vanguard, introducing the setting and several characters. 

Star Trek: Seekers (2014–15), also written by Dilmore, Mack, and Ward, is a sequel series.

Agents of Influence (2020) by Dayton Ward is set in the Taurus Reach and features many of the characters from the Vanguard novels, although it is a standalone story not directly tied to any prior arcs.

It could be argued that Star Trek: Recovery and the planet Zotos V is set in the Taurus Reach given the proximity of Tholians and Klingons; I’ll need to read this book in more detail to make that determination, but be aware of this possibility. Technically this book is in the Lost Era so it would be beyond the era of the 5 Year Mission.

Vanguard Setting

The Vanguard books largely take place on board the Federation space station Starbase 47, also known as “Vanguard”, which serves as a support facility for a colonization push by the United Federation of Planets into an interstellar expanse called the Taurus Reach. While the station does in fact help colonies across the area, its true mission (known only to a few people) is to study a mystery that began with the discovery of genetically engineered DNA millions of times more complex than any previously encountered, known as the Taurus Meta-Genome.

In its effort to understand the Meta-Genome, Starbase 47 has three vessels permanently assigned to it, the Constitution-class cruiser USS Endeavour, the tiny Archer-class scout USS Sagittarius, and the Daedalus-class Starfleet Corps of Engineers starship USS Lovell. Another starship, the USS Bombay, was destroyed during the events of Harbinger. In addition to the mission, those who know of Vanguard’s true nature must also prevent others from becoming aware of the situation, especially the Klingon Empire and the Tholian Assembly, both of whom have interests in the region and are suspicious of the Federation’s presence.

While the majority of the characters featured in the first novels are original to this series, the Vulcan lieutenant commander T’Prynn appeared in two other Star Trek novels—the Lost Era novel The Art of the Impossible by Keith DeCandido, and Deep Space Nine novels Lesser Evil, by Robert Simpson, and Unity, by S. D. Perry. In addition, petty officer Razka (from the third novel Reap the Whirlwind) first appears in the Next Generation novel A Time to Kill by David Mack, and Carol Marcus from The Wrath of Khan appears at the end of the same novel.

Vanguard Novels (2005-2012)

Declassified (2011) is an anthology of four novellas. In Tempest’s Wake (2012) was published as an ebook exclusive.

#TitleAuthor(s)Date
1HarbingerDavid Mack26 July 2005
2Summon the ThunderDayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore27 June 2006
3Reap the WhirlwindDavid Mack22 May 2007
4Open SecretsDayton Ward28 April 2009
5PrecipiceDavid Mack24 November 2009
6Declassified (anthology)Dayton Ward, Kevin Dilmore, Marco Palmieri,
  and David Mack.
28 June 2011
7What Judgements ComeDayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore27 September 2011
8Storming HeavenDavid Mack27 March 2012
In Tempest’s Wake (ebook)Dayton Ward2 October 2012

Seekers Novels (2014–15)

Star Trek: Seekers is a continuation of Vanguard.

#TitleAuthor(s)Date
1Second NatureDavid Mack22 July 2014
2Point of DivergenceDayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore26 August 2014
3Long ShotDavid Mack28 July 2015
4All That’s LeftDayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore27 October 2015

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