Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Forgotten History by Christopher L. Bennett

According to Christopher L. Bennett, Forgotten History (New York:  Pocket Books, 2012) “is both a sequel and a prequel to [his] previous novel, Star Trek:  Department of Temporal Investigations–Watching the Clock” (347).  As nearly as I can tell, in Forgotten History, Bennett mentions all of the time traveling incidents from the original and animated series.  Forgotten History was easier to follow than Watching the Clock because there were fewer new characters and subplots to follow.

I haven’t been able to find out if there are more books to come in the DTI series.

Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock by Christopher L. Bennett

I just finished reading Watching the Clock, Christopher L. Bennett’s first novel in the Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations series.  I enjoyed the book, though it took me a while to get through, and I still can’t translate star dates into contemporary dates, which made it harder to follow.  I was amazed at how Bennett was able to tie in incidents from all of the Star Trek TV series, including the cartoons, and some of the movies.

The sequel, Forgotten History, also by Bennett, should be out next month.

Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Glass Empires

Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Glass Empires is a collection of three relatively short novels set in the mirror universe introduced in the parallel universe originally introduced in “Mirror, Mirror” in the original Star Trek series:

• Age of the Empress, which follows the episode of Star Trek: Enterprise “In a Mirror, Darkly” in which Hoshi Sato becomes the empress of the Terran Empire
• The Sorrows of Empire, which follows the mirror Spock from “Mirror, Mirror“
• The Worst of Both Worlds, which features a mirror Jean-Luc Picard

Of the three novels, I preferred The Sorrows of Empire.  I was never much of a fan of Star Trek: Enterprise, and the only regular characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation appearing in the third novel were Picard and Wesley (Crusher), who had no last name in the novel.

There are more novels set in the mirror universe:

• Obsidian Alliances, another collection of three novels
• Rise Like Lions

I just started reading Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Fearful Symmetry, in which characters also cross over to and from the mirror universe.

Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card

Since I read the last book in the Ender’s Shadow series by Orson Scott Card,  Shadow of the Giant (2004), I’ve been waiting for the sequel.  It finally came out this year:  Shadows in Flight.  At first, the dynamic among Bean’s three children reminded me of Ender and his siblings.

Card may have intended this novel to wrap up the Ender’s series, but I think he needs another one.

Star Trek: Vanguard Novels

Yesterday I finished reading the first book in the Star Trek Vanguard series:  Harbinger (New York:  Pock Books, 2005) by David Mack.  As I recall, one of my nephews mentioned the series.  I like the first book better than I have some other “non-canon” series and plan to read at least the next one in the series.  I think Mack did a good job of integrating familiar characters from the original series to keep the interest of hard-core Star Trek fans.

So far, four more novels in the series have been published, and one is scheduled for release next year:

• Summon the Thunder
• Reap the Whirlwind
• Open Secrets
• Precipice
• Declassified
  

Sasha by Joel Shepherd

I just finished reading Sasha, Book 1 of A Trial of Blood & Steel, by Joel Shepherd.  I haven’t figured out yet how to categorize the book.  It’s obviously set on another Earthlike planet, but it’s definitely not science fiction–no science.  I wouldn’t classify it as fantasy, either, because while the non-humans have superhuman abilities, they don’t appear to have supernatural abilities.

I plan to read the other books in the series, of which there are at least two:

• Petrodor (just released in the U.S.)
• Tracato

Shepherd has also written The Cassandra Kresnov Series, which seems to be science fiction:

• Crossover
• Breakaway
• Killswitch

Star Trek: The Lost Era Novels

I discovered a series of Star Trek books that are set between The Original Series and The Next Generation.  Here’s the list as it appears on Memory Alpha:

• 2298 – The Sundered
• 2311 – Serpents Among the Ruins
• 2328–2346 – The Art of the Impossible
• 2336 – Well of Souls
• 2355–2357 – Deny Thy Father
• 2360 – Catalyst of Sorrows
• 2355–2363 – The Buried Age
• 2318–2369 - Star Trek: Terok Nor

I just finished The Sundered, which was set on the U.S.S. Excelsior with Sulu as captain, Chekov as first officer, Chapel as chief medical officer, and Rand as a communications officer.  I liked it enough to want to read the rest of the novels in the series.

Memory Alpha also lists some related novels:

• 2289–2295 – Forged in Fire
• 2290s – Cacophony and Envoy
• 2294 – The Captain’s Daughter
• 2314 – Transformations
• 2315–2316 – Tales from the Captain’s Table, “Iron and Sacrifice”
• 2333 – the Star Trek: Stargazer series
• 2329–2344 – Vulcan’s Heart
• 2355 – Tales from the Captain’s Table, “Darkness”

Star Trek: A Singular Destiny by Keith R. A. DeCandido

Star Trek: A Singular Destiny (New York: Pocket Books-Simon & Schuster, 2009), “commences in late April 2381, about two months after the conclusion of the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy, and a year and a half after the feature film Star Trek Nemesis” (“Historian’s Note”).  I read the Destiny trilogy earlier this year.  Unfortunately, A Singular Destiny doesn’t include as many of the characters from the television series and movies as the trilogy did.  In fact, the only major character in A Singular Destiny from any of the series is Ezri Dax.  Leonard McCoy has a “cameo appearance.”

More novels based on the events in the Destiny trilogy have already been published:

• Titan: Over a Torrent Sea
• Voyager:  Full Circle
• The Next Generation:  Losing the Peace
• Voyager:  Unworthy
• Titan:  Synthesis

From the titles, I’m hoping to “see” more of the original characters in these books.

The Judas Strain by James Rollins

In The Judas Strain (New York:  Harper Collins-WilliamMorrow, 2007), James Rollins ties together Marco Polo, angelic script, the plague, and modern discoveries about bacteria and viruses.  I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and would love to know where he gets his ideas.

The next book in the Sigma Series is The Last Oracle.

Black Order by James Rollins

In Black Order (New York:  Harper Collins-WilliamMorrow, 2006), the second Sigma Force novel (not counting the prequel), James Rollins only goes back a few decades in history, to the Nazis, rather than centuries as he has in the other novels that I’ve read.  The Black Order was Heinrich Himmler’s SS.  It’s interesting how Rollins ties the Nazi’s search for the ideal Aryan to quantum mechanics and evolution.  In his “Author’s Note: Truth or Fiction,” Rollins mentions a couple of books that sound interesting:

• The Hunt for Zero Point by Nick Cook
• Quantum Evolution by Johnjoe McFadden

As I mentioned when I wrote about Steve Berry’s The Venetian Betrayal, which was published in 2007, in that novel Berry made “a passing reference to Painter Crowe from James Rollins‘ Sigma Series.”  That may have been in response to Rollins’ mention in Black Order of a book store in Copenhagen owned by “an ex-lawyer from Georgia” (43), who must be Berry’s protagonist Cotton Malone.

The next book in the Sigma Series is The Judas Strain.