star trek pocket books

The Star Trek Lit-verse Reading Guide

Since 1967, when the first Star Trek comic was published, 2,639 Star Trek stories have been released in print, comic, and original audio form. In the first decades, the majority of these were standalone stories that only referenced the show. However, over most of the past twenty years the majority of Simon and Schuster novels took place in a shared continuity in which the events of one novel often had major repercussions on the novels following it. This modern continuity will be referred to here as the STAR TREK LIT-VERSE.

       Unlike the Star Wars Expanded Universe or various other media tie-in lines, no Star Trek novel, comic, or game is considered canon. Even those written in conjunction with the new, currently in-production series. However, that doesn't take anything away from the quality of the material or its ability to entertain. Even as Star Trek has returned to the small screen and the Simon and Schuster novel continuity has mostly drawn to a close, the inter-connectedness of the novels will likely continue in some form as it has for the majority of Trek history.

       The complete Lit-verse consists of a continuity web of more than 1100 stories. That is approaching half of all Star Trek fiction ever published. In addition to the majority of the novels which have been released over the past two decades, many older novels have been referenced in this continuity as well. Available to the left are reading lists for each of the series. Don't be overwhelmed by the length of some of the lists. All anthology short stories and many comic issues are listed individually, so it's not as much reading as it seems to a newcomer. Not all connections are noted, only the ones which form the branching out of the lists. Author annotations can be found for many stories to provide more extensive references.

       My placement of a story in the Lit-verse is not intended to imply that there are no continuity discrepancies included in the material. There are definite contradictions in the lists I've compiled. The fact is, not even the shows themselves are free of continuity errors, some quite large. The older novels do not always agree in every detail with the Lit-verse, or even with modern canon. Indeed, even the newer novels, written with the modern continuity in mind, sometimes contain a few mistakes. The majority of all this can be ignored, or explained away by a creative mind. My goal here was to include every link possible and leave the continuity problems up to the reader to resolve. If you don't want a book in your personal continuity, then just ignore it. Don't become so invested in continuity that you forget to enjoy the stories themselves.

A Note On the Format of This Website

       Each Star Trek series is given its own reading list page. The major Lit-only series, New Frontier, SCE, Gorkon, Titan, Vanguard/Seekers, Mirror Universe , and Myriad Universes also have their own pages. The easiest way to include Stargazer, The Lost Era, and certain other like-period pieces was to create an Early 24th Century reading list containing them all.

       I then have a simple list of Simon and Schuster stories that take place after Star Trek: Nemesis grouped into "chapters". A more detailed timeline of the stories following Star Trek: Nemesis is given on the Post-Nemesis: Month-By-Month page. Note that these stories were published in the years before Star Trek: Picard premiered, and the authors were given free rein to explore the late 24th century. Things do "eventually" lead back into the modern television continuity now shown in Star Trek: Picard and other series, but tell an alternate history of the intervening years that only makes sense in relation to the canonical storyline at its conclusion in the Coda trilogy.

       Also to the left is a month-by-month breakdown of the Five Year Mission. The Complete Pocket Books Novel List updates the novel list as given in the back of Pocket Books novels in years past, before the list became so long that it was considered impractical to include in every book. I also have a list of all the ebook exclusive Trek stories which have been published and never been released in print. Then there's a vast examination of the minutiae of Klingon date keeping systems. I've keep an exact count of every Star Trek story ever published, updated with each new month's releases, and a count of just how many stories have been told that take place in the Five Year Mission. And for the first two seasons of Discovery, I kept an examination of the dating of each episode. Don't miss pictures of my 1:5000 scale Star Trek ship model collection, and a page where I log all the updates to the site, for those interested in seeing what is new and what has changed.

       Forthcoming is the Complete Lit-verse reading list, which will include every story from the main reading lists in order. Also to come will be more specific reading lists (character specific lists, species specific lists, storyline specific lists). I also want to build a "Simple Pre-Nemesis Reading List." Someday I will develop an explanation of my own personal continuity and a list of what it includes.

       Each anthology is broken up into individual short stories, and each novella and comic issue is included separately. Special cases were The Lives of Dax and No Limits. These were both broken up into their individual stories (which spread them out over different series) and also placed in their respective series as a whole (for those only reading that series.) For example the short story 'Q'uandary from New Frontier: No Limits is essentially a TNG story and is included in that reading list, but for those only reading New Frontier , the entire No Limits anthology is listed there as well. In addition to being broken up across series lines, each story from Tales of the Dominion War is also included on the DS9 page, because of the centrality of the overall story to that series.

       New Frontier presented a specific challenge in that much back story had to be presented to get the series established, because of its Lit-only nature. Thus to experience many of its short stories in chronological order without breaking up some of the New Frontier flashbacks into separately listed sections would have been somewhat unintelligible to a new reader. This is not the case for the TV series based book lines, nor is it a circumstance shared by the other Lit-only series. So with New Frontier some of the flashbacks are presented as separate portions of the list. This is explained further on the New Frontier page.

       With comic series, miniseries were treated as whole unique stories, but only individual linked issues of anthology or ongoing series were included. I didn't consider the "Previously in Star Trek--" intros in Marvel comics to rise to the level of a story reference. Where possible, I have condensed miniseries or story arcs into single entries to trim the length of the reading lists. Above all the proceeding considerations, however, my overriding rule was that if multiple stories were published in the same work, such as a short story anthology or multistory comic book, all stories between those two covers would be included if anything from that volume was connected to the Lit-verse.

       The Strange New Worlds anthologies were forced to break this rule though. At least one story from almost all the volumes of SNW was referenced, and this would have necessitated putting almost every SNW story into the reading lists. Also specifically not included are references involving RPGs or video games.

       The timeline used for these lists was derived from the Timeliners chronology in Voyages of the Imagination by Jeff Ayers and lots of research done on my own, with the Memory-Beta timeline being a very important resource. Much of my process of figuring out the timeline of the various series was recorded on the TrekBBS. Starting here , with more to come in the future.

Note of Inspiration and Thanks

      Very special thanks goes to turtletrekker of the TrekBBS message boards. His work in compiling at least half of these continuity connections was both the inspiration of and basis for this website. This entire idea began from the dozens of message boards questions about what books had to be read before reading Keith R.A. DeCandido's Articles of the Federation. The specific thread that can be considered the grandfather of this website can be found here . Turtletrekker ran with this and compiled the vast Charting the Novel-verse project, the second version of which can be found here . My interest in the project began and was first manifested in a discussion here and continued here .

       More thanks to all the TrekBBS members who contributed to these discussions. Thanks also to Steve Roby, whose amazing Complete Starfleet Library is a great resource. And on the other side of the literary coin is Mark Martinez's Star Trek Comics Checklist , which is invaluable to me, and Curt Danhouser's Guide to the Star Trek Story Records

       None of this would be possible without the original Timeliners who created the Voyages of the Imagination timeline, and all of my colleagues who have kept it alive over the years. I thank them for their allowance to include small tidbits of information here and there. Keep in mind this is simply my interpretation of Star Trek continuity. Your mileage may vary. Enjoy, everyone!

      Questions? Comments? [email protected] Twitter: @ryan1234560 Or vist the Trek BBS Thread

The Star Trek Litverse Reading Guide is not affiliated with CBS Studios Inc.. Star Trek ® is a trademark of CBS Studios Inc.

Star Trek: The Original Series Books In Order

Publication order of star trek: tos: yesterday saga books, publication order of star trek: the original books, publication order of star trek: tos: rihannsu books, publication order of star trek: tos: fortunes of war books, publication order of star trek: tos: worlds in collision books, publication order of star trek: tos: the lost years saga books, publication order of star trek: invasion books, publication order of star trek: day of honor books, publication order of star trek: the captain's table books, publication order of star trek: tos: my brother's keeper books, publication order of star trek: tos: new earth books, publication order of star trek: section 31 books, publication order of star trek: tos: the eugenics wars books, publication order of star trek: gateways books, publication order of star trek: tos: the janus gate books, publication order of star trek: tos: errand of vengeance books, publication order of star trek: tos: vulcan's soul books, publication order of star trek: tos: errand of fury books, publication order of star trek: tos: crucible books, publication order of star trek: tos: legacies books, publication order of star trek: tos (numbered) books, publication order of star trek: tos (original) books, publication order of star trek: tos: starfleet academy books.

Star Trek: The Original Series is a series of novels written by various authors and based on the science fiction genre. The novels of the series are adapted from the popular television series and movies of the same name that were telecast between the year 1966 and 1969. The original movies based on The Original Series television series were created and produced by Gene Roddenberry. The plots of the novels of the series are set on the starship named USS Enterprise, which is controlled by Captain James T. Kirk. Captain Kirk is assisted by his first officer named Spock. At the start of every mission on the USS Enterprise, Captain Kirk would utter the same message to his crew in order to make them aware of the mission as well as prepare them for the upcoming ups and downs in the mission. The missions of the USS Enterprise would normally be long voyages for exploring new and strange worlds and seek out new civilizations in the space.

Captain Kirk and his crew would always remain in search of a new life on their missions and go to places where no one else have ever gone to. The novels of The Original Series have been published by many publication houses, but the one published by the Pocket Books or the Titan Books in U.K is very popular. The Star Trek: The Original Series was started in the year 1979 when the first novel of the series was published by the Pocket Books. Since then, many authors have contributed to the series and have helped the series to be ongoing. The main character of The Original Series, Captain James T. Kirk is described by the authors of the respective novels as the youngest captain in the history of the Starfleet, taking command at the age of 34. HE goes on to exploit a career that lasts for more than 40 years. There are many tales that the authors have shared in the novels about the voyages of Captain Kirk, most of them being true in many senses. He was also the first captain who had brought his starship in a good condition after a 5 year mission. Kirk’s success as a captain can never be questioned by anyone as she has become an independent voyager.

Kirk was also involved in many violations of the rule of the USS Enterprise and has to his name a record 17 temporal violation. The ancestors of James Kirk have also served in various starships of the USS Enterprise and hence he has deep roots in the service of the USS Enterprise. He had an elder brother named George Samuel Kirk, who died along with his wife Aurelan in 2267 in Deneva. They are survived by a son named Peter, who is looked after by James Kirk. At the age of 13, James Kirk witnessed the massacre of around 4,000 people by the governor of Tarsus IV, during a famine. Even though he was a romantic person, he never indulged himself in long-lasting romantic relationships because he was devoted more towards his career. He had a short term relationship with Dr. Carol Marcus and had a son with from her named David. James eventually could not do the upbringing of David because of his service and so he did not know that his son had grown into a scientific genius, but was later killed. Kirk grieved the death of his son for a long time. He also had a relationship with a woman named Antonia for 2 years and regretted not being able to marry her.

James was helped in gaining entry into the Starfleet Academy by one of his family friends. Soon, he was able to earn starship duty as a fresh cadet. At one point in his career, James became an instructor for the fresh cadets and made friendships with them, who later saved his life on many occasions. He considers Captain Garth and Abraham Lincoln as his heroes. Because oh his dedication towards his duties, James was able to achieve the rare feat of beating Kobayashi Maru scenario, which was otherwise unbeatable. Actually, he had reprogrammed the system which allowed him to win in the scenario. James Kirk received his first mission after graduation on the USS Farragut as a new lieutenant. By the year 2267, Kirk had risen rapidly to the rank of the captain and had the opportunity to command a respectful and loyal crew of 430 members. During his successful career, he received many commendations and awards. On one of his missions, Kirk had accepted the offer of becoming the admiral in charge of the fleet operations, which he turned down later after regaining his command over the USS Enterprise in the year 2271. Just before his retirement from the Starfleet in the year 2293, James Kirk helped to maintain the peace in the galaxy by exposing a conspiracy from terrorists. He always involved in peace negotiations heavily with the Klingons.

One of the initial novels of The Original Series was published in the year 1981 by the Pocket Books. The novel was titled ‘The Entropy Effect’ and was written by the author Vonda N. McIntyre. The plot of the novel opens up with a mission in which the Starship Enterprise in order to transport Dr. Georges Mordreaux, who is a dangerous criminal and is being taken to rehabilitation. He is also one of the brilliant physicists by profession. He was taken under custody because of doing experiments on people by luring them to send back in time, but rather killing them. During the course of the transportation, Dr. Mordreaux manages to escape and bursts onto the bridge. He kills Captain Kirk in front of all the crew members of the starship. Kirk first officer named Spock decides to go back in time and stop Dr. Mordreaux from killing Captain Kirk. However, there is a great risk in doing so. Spock realizes that the experiments of Dr. Mordreaux have created a lot of chaos in the universe an he keeps fighting in order to bring peace back in the universe.

The other novel of the series was published in the year 1981 by the Pocket Books under the title ‘The Klingon Gambit’. The plot of this novel shows the Kingons trying to target the Enterprise and fight against its crew members. Captain Kirk gets the order to challenge the Klingon starship Terror, but he and his crew are unaware of the deadly effects of Terror. Other than fighting the Klingons, Captain Kirk is also on a mission to find an ancient city on the Alnath II mission. The Klingon does not let go their intention of destroying the Enterprise. Feeling stuck in the battle against the deadly Terror, Captain Kirk and his crew begin to lose their minds and do not know what to do. Slowly, they begin to become the targets of the Klingon gambit.

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Published Mar 29, 2016

Pocket Offering 700-Plus Trek eBooks

Pocket Books, the long-time publisher of Star Trek books, and CBS Consumer Products are teaming up to celebrate the Trek franchise's 50th anniversary by releasing more than 700 Star Trek ebooks free of Digital Rights Management (DRM). Starting today, in fact, fans will enjoy unfettered access to their favorite Trek novels -- readable on the electronic devices of their choice, via a dedicated site. “Pocket Books is thrilled to make this iconic series widely available and accessible for the many readers who have enjoyed them, and to introduce Star Trek novels to a whole new universe of fans," Louise Burke, President and Publisher of Pocket Books, said in a statement. "We’re excited to re-introduce many classic stories and to enable discovery and the ease of purchase that DRM-free provides."

Trek fans may peruse the whole DRM-free library and purchase ebooks directly at www.StarTrekBooks.com or buy them at most other e-retail sites. Further, to mark this occasion, Pocket Books has lowered the prices of the popular Mirror Universe and Vulcan’s Soul trilogies to 99 cents. New visitors to the site will be eligible for a free digital copy of the Star Trek III: The Search for Spock movie tie-in novelization when they join the mailing list. These special offers will be followed each month throughout the year with more ebook deals, special offers, free ebook giveaways, sweepstakes, unique content and more.

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Order of Star Trek: The Original Series Books

Although there have been multiple Star Trek: TOS series, on this page we have listed simply the series published by Pocket Books (Titan Books in the UK). Written by various authors, the Pocket Books series has been an ongoing publication since 1979. For other Star Trek series, please see Star Trek . Below we have listed the Star Trek: The Original Series Pocket Books novel series in order of when the books were originally published, as well as our best effort to list the novels in chronological order:

Publication Order of Star Trek: TOS: Yesterday Saga Books

Publication order of star trek: the original books.

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Publication Order of Star Trek: TOS: Rihannsu Books

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Publication Order of Star Trek: TOS: Worlds In Collision Books

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Publication Order of Star Trek: TOS: The Lost Years Saga Books

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Publication Order of Star Trek: Invasion Books

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Publication Order of Star Trek: Day Of Honor Books

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Publication order of star trek: tos: my brother's keeper books.

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Publication Order of Star Trek: TOS: New Earth Books

Publication order of star trek: section 31 books.

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Publication Order of Star Trek: TOS: The Eugenics Wars Books

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Publication order of star trek: tos: the janus gate books.

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Publication order of star trek: tos: vulcan's soul books, publication order of star trek: tos: errand of fury books.

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Publication Order of Star Trek: TOS: Starfleet Academy Books

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2 Responses to “Order of Star Trek: The Original Series Books”

The Star Trek: New earth books (Wagon Train to the Stars through Challenger) take place between ST:TMP and Wrath of Khan. A big part of the plot of these books is that Chekov is preparing to leave to become first officer of the Reliant, which he does in book 4. That’s the post he held at the start of Star Trek II, and the Reliant was destroyed in that movie. It’s not possible for these books to be placed after Star Trek II.

Thanks for the correction!

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Doctor's Orders (novel)

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Doctor's Orders is a Pocket TOS novel – #50 in the numbered series – written by Diane Duane . Published by Pocket Books , it was first released in June 1990 .

• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3 Characters
• 4 References
• 5 External links

Summary [ ]

Memorable quotes [ ].

" Doctor, as the captain might put it, it would not matter if I were commanding admiral of Starfleet and had a note from God. "

" Can I at least have a restroom break? " " Give the conn to Lt. DeLeon, but don't be away too long. Though I believe the captain would say, 'you should have gone before we left.'"

Characters [ ]

References [ ].

Enterprise , USS ; Federation ; Guardian of Forever ; Klingon Empire

External links [ ]

• Doctor's Orders at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Doctor's Orders at Wikipedia
• Doctor's Orders at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• 1 Marlys Burdette