star trek books alternate universe

A Brief History of STAR TREK’s Mirror Universe

On the mid season finale of Star Trek: Discovery , Captain Lorca ( Jason Isaacs ) initiated a daring move to defeat the Klingons with their experimental “spore drive.” The maneuver helped bring an end to the Klingon war, but also propelled the show’s titular ship someplace far, far away. How far? Current speculation from much of the fanbase has it that the Discovery has been thrust not to the other side of the galaxy, but into a parallel universe .

In fact, many fans theorize that the series might have been taking place in a parallel universe from that in the original Star Trek  TV series timeline all along, which maybe explains how Spock never once mentioned he had an adopted sister named Michael. However, due to recent comments made at various conventions by cast members, the popular theory is that the Discovery is now stranded in the legendary Mirror Universe.

Alternate universes and parallel timelines have been a subject of Star Trek stories from the word go, most recently showing up in th form of  J.J. Abrams ‘ movies’ Kelvin Timeline. But the best known parallel timeline in Star Trek lore is the so-called Mirror Universe, introduced 50 years ago in the beloved original series episode “Mirror, Mirror,” which aired on October 6, 1967.

Written by Jerome Bixby, “Mirror, Mirror” introduced to mainstream television viewers the concept of alternate parallel universes, ones where everything is basically the opposite from what you know. In this episode, Captain Kirk and his landing party are accidentally transported to an alternate universe, where instead of a benevolent Federation, we instead have an evil Terran Empire in its place. Stories like this had already been staples of sci-fi novels and comic books, but this episode propelled the idea into everyone’s living room… as well as the concept that your evil counterpart will no doubt have a goatee, and probably wear a sash for some reason.

Although the original crew of the Enterprise never revisited the Mirror Universe in any episode, it nevertheless became a favorite for non-canon spin-off material, like the comics and the novels for the next several decades. Rumors persisted it would be the subject of a feature film for the original crew, but such never came to be. Nevertheless, in the ’80s, when DC Comics acquired the Star Trek license, they printed several issues that took place in the revisited Mirror Universe. There were also a series of paperback novels dedicated to that universe, and William Shatner himself wrote a whole trilogy in the late ’90s set within that framework.

Sadly, The Mirror Universe never made an in-canon return appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation either, despite many writers pitching the concept over the years. (Can you image Pirate Picard? We were robbed!) The closest fans ever got was a non-canon novel called  Dark Mirror.

However, the Mirror Universe concept finally came back for real in Deep Space Nine ‘s second season episode “Crossover,” and that series made visits to the Mirror universe every subsequent season thereafter. On those many episodes, we learned that the events of the original series’ “Mirror, Mirror” forever altered its universe, leading to humankind being conquered by a Klingon/Cardassian alliance.

While the Mirror Universe never showed up on Voyager , it did come into play in the final season of the prequel series Enterprise . There, we actually learned the origin of the Mirror Universe, as well as that this particular timeline “went bad” during the events of the movie Star Trek: First Contact , when humanity first made formal contact with the Vulcans in the year 2063. Instead of initiating peace, in this quantum reality, these humans killed the Vulcans and used the new tech they stole from them to eventually become the Terran Empire.

Most recently, publisher IDW Comics has been doing Mirror Universe stories, and fans are finally getting to see Picard and the Enterprise crew’s evil, alternate versions in a new comic book series. It’s very unlikely any of these comics will have any impact on whatever Discovery is planning to do with the Mirror Universe, but there are too many hints that something is up regarding that beloved staple of Star Trek history to ignore.

Could the actual discovery that Discovery does be an in-depth exploration of this alternate universe, or even better, several different mirror universes? We’ll know for sure when Discovery returns in 2018, but it seems one thing is for sure:  Star Trek isn’t done with this wicked little corner of their mythology, and we might now be poised to see more than ever before.

Are you excited for a potential return to the Mirror Universe on Star Trek: Discovery? Be sure to let us know your thoughts down below in the comments.

Images: CBS / IDW Comics 

More on Star Trek !

• Play the real-life version of Star Trek ‘s “The Game”
• Anthony Rapp talks making Star Trek history on Discovery
• 7 things  Discovery  needs to do in season two

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The Star Trek Lit-verse Reading Guide

Since 1967, when the first Star Trek comic was published, 2,651 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.

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Best of Alternate Universes

• 3.1 Credits
• 3.2 Cover gallery

Summary [ ]

Contents [ ].

• #9: " Promises to Keep "
• #10: " Double Image "
• #11: " Deadly Reflection! "
• #12: " The Tantalus Trap! "
• #13: " Masquerade! "
• #14: " Behind Enemy Lines! "
• #15: " The Beginning of the End... "
• #16: " Homecoming... "

Background information [ ]

Credits [ ].

• Mike W. Barr
• Tom Sutton (pencil art)
• Ricardo Villagran (inking)
• Michele Wolfman
• John Costanza
• Carrie Spiegle ("Masquerade")
• Marv Wolfman

Cover gallery [ ]

• 1 Bell Riots
• 3 Daniels (Crewman)

The Best Sci Fi Books

Find a great science fiction book, 25 best star trek books.

As one of the most popular franchises in movie and TV history, Star Trek is not lacking for extensive and thoughtful source material.

As of November 2019, approximately 850 novels, short story anthologies, novelizations, and omnibus editions have been published.

Star Trek books are often ignored (sometimes rightly so) by review sites like Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly , so you’ll have to decide for yourself if a certain book sounds like your cup of Earl Grey tea (hot).

Section 31, the covert organization which has operated without accountability in the shadows for more than two centuries, has been exposed. Throughout the Federation, the rogue group’s agents and leaders are being taken into custody as the sheer scope of its misdeeds comes to light. Now Starfleet Command must decide the consequences for numerous officers caught up in the scandal—including Admirals William Ross, Edward Jellico, Alynna Nechayev, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard who, along with many others, are implicated in the forced removal of a Federation president.

Meanwhile, deep in the distant, unexplored region of space known as the Odyssean Pass, Picard and the crew of the starship Enterprise must put aside personal feelings and political concerns as they investigate a massive mysterious spacecraft. Adrift for centuries in the void, the ship is vital to the survival of an endangered civilization which has spent generations searching for a world to sustain what remains of its people. Complicating matters is a band of marauders who have their own designs on the ancient ship, with only the Enterprise standing in their way….

The ancient Thallonian Empire has collapsed, throwing an entire sector of the galaxy into chaos and unrest. Billions of sentient beings are faced with starvation, warfare, and worse. Faced with a tragedy of interstellar proportions, Starfleet assembles a new, handpicked crew to help where it can and report what it finds.

Captain Mackenzie Calhoun, recommended by Jean-Luc Picard himself, takes command of the USS Excalibur , which is manned by Starfleet’s best and brightest (including some familiar faces from the Next Generation series).

They are a race of warriors, a noble people to whom honor is all. They are cousin to the Vulcan, ally to the Klingon, and Starfleet’s most feared and cunning adversary. They are the Romulans—and for eight years, Federation Agent Terise LoBrutto has hidden in their midst.

Now the presence of a captured Starfleet officer forces her to make a fateful choice—between exposure, escape, maintaining her cover, or saving the life of Dr. Leonard McCoy.

Spock’s mother, Amanda Grayson, is dying. Spock returns to the planet Vulcan where he and Sarek enjoy a rare moment of rapprochement. But just as his wife’s illness grows worse, duty calls Sarek away, once again sowing the seeds of conflict between father and son. Yet soon Sarek and Spock must put aside their differences and work together to foil a far-reaching plot to destroy the Federation, a plot that Sarek has seen in the making for nearly his entire career.

The crew of the USS Enterprise journeys to the heart of the Klingon Empire where Captain Kirk’s last surviving relative has become a pawn in a battle to divide and conquer the Federation. With Sarek’s help, the crew of the starship Enterprise learns that all is not as it seems. But before they can prevent the Federation’s destruction, they must see the face of their hidden enemy, an enemy more insidious and more dangerous than any they have faced before.

The USS Enterprise is on a peaceful mission at Starbase 12 when a bizarre cosmic phenomenon causes a Klingon ship to suddenly vanish—with Spock aboard for the ride. Spock’s last message from the Klingon ship is cryptic and frightening. The Klingons are traveling into the past, searching for the one man who holds the key to the future. If they can kill that man, the course of history will be changed—and the Federation will be destroyed!

“Fifteen years ago…you led us out of the darkness. You commanded the greatest rescue armada in history. Then…the unimaginable. What did that cost you? Your faith. Your faith in us. Your faith in yourself. Tell us, why did you leave Starfleet, Admiral?”

Every end has a beginning…and this novel details the events leading into the Star Trek TV series, introducing brand-new characters featured in the life of Jean-Luc Picard—widely considered to be one of the most popular and recognizable characters in all of science fiction.

Starfleet’s most sacred commandment has been violated. Its most honored captain is in disgrace, its most celebrated starship in pieces, and the crew of that ship scattered among the thousand worlds of the Federation.

Spock, McCoy, and the rest of the former crew of the Starship Enterprise to Talin, the planet where their careers ended. A world once teeming with life now lies ruined, its cities turned to ashes, its surface devastated by a radioactive firestorm, because of their actions. There, they must find out how—and why—this tragedy occurred and discover what has become of their captain.

Trelane is revealed to be a member of the Q Continuum. He taps into the power of the continuum and uses this ability to tamper with time and reality, resulting in the intersection of three different parallel universes, which are also referred to as time “tracks.”

Track A is a universe in which Beverly Crusher’s husband Jack never died, and now serves as captain of the Enterprise with Jean-Luc Picard as his first officer; in this universe, Jack’s son Wesley died as a boy and Jack and Beverly divorced.

Track B is the traditional universe depicted on Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Track C is akin to the more militaristic alternate universe shown in the Next Generation episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” in which the Federation is at war with the Klingons.

Q, who had been charged with the task of “mentoring” Trelane (a task each “adult” Q must accept at least once for an “adolescent” Q), enlists the help of Picard and the crew of the Enterprise -D in the three different timelines in order to teach Trelane discipline, and eventually, to stop him from destroying the fabric of the universe by collapsing the alternate universes together.

The final frontier erupts into chaos as vast quantities of a rare energy source are discovered beneath the surface of Baldur-3, a remote planet beyond the outer fringes of Federation space. Now, an old-fashioned “gold rush” is underway as a flood of would-be prospectors, from countless worlds and species, races toward the planet to stake their claim.

The galactic stampede threatens the stability of neighboring planets and space stations, as widespread strife and sabotage and all-around pandemonium result in a desperate need for Starfleet assistance. Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise are dispatched to deal with the escalating crisis… which lies on the other side of a famously perilous region of space known as the Antares Maelstrom.

Half a decade after the Dominion War and more than a year after the rise and fall of Praetor Shinzon, the galaxy’s greatest scourge returns to wreak havoc upon the Federation—and this time its goal is nothing less than total annihilation.

Elsewhere, deep in the Gamma Quadrant, an ancient mystery is solved. One of Earth’s first generation of starships, lost for centuries, has been found dead and empty on a desolate planet. But its discovery so far from home has raised disturbing questions, and the answers harken back to a struggle for survival that once tested a captain and her crew to the limits of their humanity.

From that terrifying flashpoint begins an apocalyptic odyssey that will reach across time and space to reveal the past, define the future, and show three captains—Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise , William Riker of the USS Titan , and Ezri Dax of the USS Aventine —that some destinies are inescapable.

In this award-winner for cheesiest title, Kirk and McCoy accompany Spock to the Vulcan Academy Hospital seeking experimental treatment for a badly wounded Enterprise crew member. Spock’s mother is also a patient in the hospital, and Kirk soon becomes involved in the complex drama of Spock’s family.

Suddenly, patients are dying, and Kirk suspects the unthinkable—murder on Vulcan! But can he convince the Vulcans that something as illogical as murder is possible? Until the Killer is caught, everyone is in danger!

Five thousand years ago, on the planet Sarpedion, Spock knew a beautiful, primitive woman. When the USS Enterprise is called upon to protect the Guardian of Forever, a mysterious time portal, Spock uses it to journey to the past, and to discover his own son.

A spy for the Typhon Pact—a new political rival of the Federation—steals the plans for Starfleet’s newest technological advance: the slipstream drive. To stop the Typhon Pact from unlocking the drive’s secrets, Starfleet Intelligence recruits a pair of genetically enhanced agents: Dr. Julian Bashir, of station Deep Space 9 , and Sarina Douglas, a woman whose talents Bashir helped bring to fruition, and whom Bashir thinks of as his long-lost true love.

Bashir and Douglas are sent to infiltrate the mysterious species known as the Breen, find the hidden slipstream project, and destroy it. Meanwhile, light-years away, Captain Ezri Dax and her crew on the USS Aventine play a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a Typhon Pact fleet that stands between them and the safe retrieval of Bashir and Douglas from hostile territory.

In crystalline form, dilithium is the most valuable mineral in the galaxy. It powers the Federation’s starships and the Klingon Empire’s battlecruisers. Now on a small, out-of-the-way planet named Direidi, the greatest fortune in dilithium crystals ever seen has been found.

Under the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty, the planet will go to the side best able to develop the planet and its resources. Each side will contest the prize with the prime of its fleet. For the Federation, Captain James T. Kirk and the starship Enterprise . For the Klingons, Captain Kaden vestai-Oparai and the Fire Blossom .

Only the Direidians are writing their own script for this contest—a script that propels the crew of the Enterprise into one of their strangest adventures yet.

Aboard the starship Shenzhou , Lieutenant Michael Burnham, a human woman raised and educated among Vulcans, is promoted to acting first officer. But if she wants to keep the job, she must prove to Captain Philippa Georgiou that she deserves to have it.

She gets her chance when the Shenzhou must protect a Federation colony that is under attack by an ancient alien vessel that has surfaced from the deepest fathoms of the planet’s dark, uncharted sea.

As the menace from this mysterious vessel grows stronger, Starfleet declares the colony expendable in the name of halting the threat. To save thousands of innocent lives, Burnham must infiltrate the alien ship. But to do so, she needs to face the truth of her troubled past, and seek the aid of a man she has tried to avoid her entire life.

While Kirk and his crew struggle to free scientist Zefram Cochrane from captors, ninety-nine years in the future Jean-Luc Picard must rescue a mysterious individual who holds the key to the Federation’s ultimate survival.

For nearly a decade, Garak has longed for just one thing—to go home. Exiled on a space station, surrounded by aliens who loathe and distrust him, going back to Cardassia has been Garak’s one dream. Now, finally, he is home.

But home is a world whose landscape is filled with death and destruction. Desperation and dust are constant companions and luxury is a glass of clean water and a warm place to sleep.

Klingon Captain Krenn is a ruthless war strategist. But on a mission to Earth, Krenn learns a lesson in peace. Suddenly he must fight a secret battle of his own. His empire has a covert plan to shatter the Federation. Only Krenn can prevent a war—at the risk of his own life.

When a freak transporter malfunction during a Klingon attack creates an imposter Spock, Captain Kirk must discover how to save his friend from the machinations of his exact replica.

Hearing of the outbreak of hostilities between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire, Captain Christopher Pike attempts to bring the USS Enterprise home to join in the fight. But in the hellish nebula known as the Pergamum, the stalwart commander instead finds an epic battle of his own, pitting ancient enemies against one another—with not just the Enterprise, but her crew as the spoils of war.

Lost and out of contact with Earth for an entire year, Pike and his trusted first officer, Number One, struggle to find and reunite the ship’s crew—all while Science Officer Spock confronts a mystery that puts even his exceptional skills to the test, with more than their own survival possibly riding on the outcome.

Returning from its historic first voyage to the edge of the galaxy, the damaged USS Enterprise journeys through the Taurus Reach, a vast and little-known region of space in which a new starbase has been unexpectedly established. Puzzled by the Federation’s interest in an area so far from its borders and so near the xenophobic Tholian Assembly, Captain James T. Kirk orders the Enterprise to put in for repairs at the new space station: Starbase 47, also known as Vanguard .

As Kirk ponders the mystery of the enormous base, he begins to suspect that there is much more to Vanguard than meets the eye. It’s a suspicion shared by the Tholians, the Orions, and the Klingon Empire, each of whom believes that there are less than benign motives behind the Federation’s sudden and unexplained desire to explore and colonize the Taurus Reach.

But when a calamity deep within the Reach threatens to compromise Starfleet’s continued presence in the region, Kirk, Spock, and several key specialists from the Enterprise must assist Vanguard’s crew in investigating the cause of the disaster and containing the damage. In the process, they learn the true purpose behind the creation of Vanguard , and what the outcome of its mission may mean for life throughout that part of the galaxy.

The Enterprise is summoned to transport a dangerous criminal from Starbase prison to a rehabilitation center: brilliant physicist, Dr. Georges Mordreaux, accused of promising to send people back in time and then killing them instead.

But when Mordreaux escapes, bursts onto the bridge and kills Captain Kirk, Spock must journey back in time to avert disaster before it occurs.

Now there’s more at stake than just Kirk’s life. Mordreaux’s experiments have thrown the entire universe into a deadly time warp. Spock is fighting time, and the entire universe is closing in on itself.

On the planet Vulcan, a crisis of unprecedented proportion has caused the convocation of the planet’s ruling council, who summoned the USS Enterprise from halfway across the galaxy, to bring Vulcan’s most famous son home in its hour of need.

As Commander Spock, his father Sarek, and Captain James T. Kirk struggle to preserve Vulcan’s future, the planet’s innermost secrets are laid before the reader, from its beginnings millions of years ago to its savage prehistory, from merciless tribal warfare to medieval court intrigue, from the exploration of space to the development of o’thia—the ruling ethic of logic.

Spock, torn between his duty to Starfleet and the unbreakable ties that bind him to Vulcan, must find a way to reconcile both his own inner conflict and the external dilemma his planet faces, lest the Federation itself be ripped asunder.

Years ago, Lt. Uhura befriended a diplomat from Eeiauo, the land of graceful, cat-like beings. The two women exchanged songs and promised never to reveal their secret.

Now the USS Enterprise is orbiting Eeiauo in a desperate race to save the inhabitants before a deadly plague destroys them. Uhura’s secret songs may hold the key to a cure, but the clues are veiled in layers of mystery. The plague is killing humans, threatening other planets, and Kirk must crack the code before the Starship Enterprise succumbs.

Years before they became crewmates on the USS Enterprise , Commander William Riker and ship’s counselor Deanna Troi had a tempestuous love affair on her home planet of Betazed.

Now, as their passions have cooled, the two serve together as close friends. Yet the memories of what passed between them linger, and Riker and Troi remain Imzadi , a powerful Betazoid term that describes the enduring bond they still share.

On a delicate mission involving negotiations with an aggressive race called the Sindareen, Deanna mysteriously falls ill, and dies. But her death marks the start of an incredible adventure for Riker—an adventure that takes him across time, pits him against one of his closest friends, and forces him to choose between Starfleet’s strictest rule and the one he calls Imzadi .

9 thoughts on “ 25 Best Star Trek Books ”

Missing “Strangers from the Sky.”

Imzadi is my favorite read of the Star Trek universe. I don’t really remember how many I read, but it was a lot, mostly in Next Gen and DS9. Around the time Imzadi was published I was obsessed with the Star Trek universe and read nothing else but tie-in novels. Good times.

Would have been very disappointed had The Final Reflection not made the list. Awesome look into the Klingon Empire prior to the advent of the Next Generation

I was so happy to see Ishmael on the list. I still have the original copy I purchased back in 1985. I loved almost all the TOS books from around that time, but Ismael was my favorite. Only one I kept.

How is Destiny not on this list? You’ve got some wonderful titles here, but I think I’ve read the Destiny trilogy at least 5 times!

Zero for 25 here.

I did read the Star Trek Log books by Alan Dean Foster back in the 1970s. https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Alan-Dean-Foster/dp/0345250427/

Best Destiny should be on here as a great alternative Kirk coming of age story versus the JJ trash. Probe would have been a good book to include, as would Strangers from the Sky as someone else pointed out. I’m also disappointed that Starfleet Year One wasn’t included. Otherwise, I agree with this list mostly.

So glad Federation made the list. It’s my all time favorite Trek novel. The Ashes of Eden is great too and deserved a spot but overall, it’s a solid list.

I am amazed the Uhura’s Song is rated second best book let alone it is on this list at all. That book is awful – probably the worst of all the Star trek books I’ve ever read and that is a lot. I’m glad to see Yesterday’s Son on the list and surprised the First Frontier is not.

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Published Apr 27, 2022

5 Star Trek Novels Every Fan Should Read

These adventures span the universe and tell stories we didn't have a chance to see onscreen

StarTrek.com

If there’s been one constant in Star Trek ’s 56-year history, it’s been the franchise’s presence on fans’ bookshelves. The first series of novels came from James Blish as he adapted certain episodes from The Original Series , and those books opened the floodgates for dozens of authors to inscribe hundreds of Star Trek stories on the printed page. A few are just fine, most are good, and some are excellent – but which are which?

For fans who want to explore the massive catalogue of Star Trek novels, here are five stories that you should definitely seek out at some point in your exploration of the wonderful Star Trek novel universe.

Star Trek: Discovery: Dead Endless – Dave Galanter, 2019

This first pick is one of the more recent Star Trek novels, based on Star Trek: Discovery, that spotlights the relationship between Paul Stamets and Hugh Culber, played by Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz in the show, respectively.  As his last book, the late Dave Galanter certainly delivers a quintessential Star Trek story – one that perfectly encapsulates the Star Trek ethos.

The adventures of the Discovery amid the mycelial network produces some fascinating science-based storytelling, but the real spirit of this book comes from the connection shared between two star-crossed lovers. The aforementioned men are coupled within the metaphysical fiber of the universe thanks to their loving connection, but the fact that the Stamets in Dead Endless is an alternate universe version of Culber’s real partner makes this connection much more complicated.  Galanter ensures readers will chuckle in awe of a smart, unexpected plot twist, smile at a clever or funny line of dialogue, or become misty eyed thanks to the author’s incredible description of love that defies space and time.

Star Trek: Coda: Book III – Oblivion’s Gate – David Mack, 2021

This book is one of the most recent entries in the Star Trek literary universe; in fact, in one sense, it’s the final one. Yes, you should probably read the first two entries in this amazing trilogy — Moments Asunder and The Ashes of Tomorrow — first, but the third book is extra special. Oblivion’s Gate serves as the final word in the long-running so-called Star Trek “novel-verse,” or “lit-verse,” the collection of non-canonical books by numerous authors since 2005 that deeply expand the adventures of familiar and new characters in the Star Trek universe. Therefore, Oblivion’s Gate is a herculean effort by Mack, as it is the final book in a series that is designed by its authors to shut the door on well-loved characters and their adventures. By itself, that’s a good reason to pick this one up.

But Mack steps up to the plate in an unexpectedly powerful way. He clearly deeply cares about the novel universe he and other authors have inhabited for so many years. Oblivion’s Gate sees Captain Picard and his allies stop an existential threat by the Devidians – even when that means destroying the universe they inhabit. Think about those stakes! Mack weaves a deeply emotional tale that adroitly balances intergalactic stakes amid interpersonal ramifications. For example, how does Captain Picard, a man who has fostered a loving family throughout multiple novel-verse books, have the courage to end their existence in service of a greater goal? And what exactly is that greater goal? You’ll have to read to find out.

Star Trek: Federation – Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, 1994

Released in 1994, this is one of the oldest books on this list, but pay that no mind. Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens are legendary Star Trek novelists, producing some of the best fiction in this franchise. Federation features a centuries-spanning storyline that unites two of Starfleet’s most famous captains. The Reeves-Stevens duo tie together multiple canonical entries in the Star Trek universe, including a vital The Original Series episode, to craft a story that showcases their intricate knowledge of Star Trek lore using their densely detailed but highly readable writing style.

Readers will journey with Captains Kirk and Picard as a time and mind-bending mystery unfolds in a fashion that will keep readers blazing through the pages, only to find themselves at a remarkable ending that challenges their conception of what’s possible within the Star Trek universe. If that doesn’t sound like a fantastic book, what does?

Star Trek: New Frontier: House of Cards – Peter David, 1997

Peter David is a legendary author to Star Trek fans, and for good reason. He’s written 48 works of Star Trek fiction, the most prolific of which is the New Frontier series. This collection of novellas and story stories stand as fascinating additions to Star Trek lore, as the cover of the first New Frontier book promises, “A new ship, a new crew, a new mission!” Yes, most of the main players in this story are either new characters, ones that were only briefly introduced in Star Trek canon, or returning popular characters who help launch this new series.

In the spotlight is Captain Mackenzie Calhoun, the charming and roguish leader of the U.S.S. Excalibur . Thanks to David’s well-developed characterization of Captain Calhoun, he can confidently stand along franchise mainstays like Picard and Kirk just fine. What’s more, his crew bring their own wit, charm, and mystery to this short adventure that serves as the introduction to an entire literary franchise. House of Cards reached the top 10 of the New York Times best seller list in 1997, a testament to the grand new adventures David created with a mostly new crew. If you want to branch beyond the literary adventures of Picard, Kirk, and other franchise favorites, New Frontier is the place to do it.

Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars: Book One – Greg Cox, 2001

This list of novels was created before the recent episode of Star Trek: Picard featured the same kind of supervisors that permeate The Eugenics Wars trilogy, so it's a neat coincidence!

Cox, who scribes all three books in The Eugenics Wars trilogy, hooks readers immediately with the lengthy but fascinating inaugural entry in this series. The Eugenics Wars feels at once like an expertly told Star Trek story and a history lesson, a seemingly dichotomous feat for a science fiction novel. Cox chronicles the rise – and fall – of the infamous Star Trek villain Khan Noonien Singh during the 20th century and uses numerous real-world historical events to frame Khan’s tale.

Cox leans so much into history that he feels compelled to provide readers with a thorough afterward section that explains every little historical detail used in the book. His expert use of history to build a grand science fiction story is the main reason why readers shouldn’t sleep on this intelligent, thoughtful, and intriguing book – but beyond that, Khan’s story, even if it’s not strictly canonical, really helps add complexity to the character we see on screen.

Kyle Hadyniak (he/him) is a life-long Star Trek fan who lives in Gray, Maine. He is assistant editor for TrekNews.net, and can usually be found reading, playing video games, or arguing why The Final Frontier and Nemesis are the best Star Trek movies. You can find him on Twitter at @KHADY93

Star Trek: Discovery currently streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. Internationally, the series is available on Paramount+ in Australia, Latin America and the Nordics, and on Pluto TV in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave. Star Trek: Discovery is distributed by Paramount Global Distribution Group.

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Star Trek: 20 Great Alternate Reality Tales (Besides the Mirror Universe)

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The Next Star Trek Series Has Officially Started Production

2024's most embarrassing flop continues a problematic 128-year-old movie trend, 2022’s most slept-on horror film is coming to max in september.

Given how groundbreaking it was in terms of science fiction, it’s no shock Star Trek worked in alternate realities quite a lot. The classic episode “Mirror Mirror” introduced the Mirror Universe, a reality where a brutal Terran Empire dominated the galaxy. It included a bearded Spock, scarred Sulu and other characters who were twisted and evil. Deep Space Nine returned to this universe to reveal how the Empire was overthrown by a Klingon/Cardassian alliance with more twists to characters. Discovery also played on it as the Mirror Universe is a major part of Trek lore.

However, it’s not the only alternate history the Trek mythos have given us. Time travel has led to quite a few different takes on history although it’s set right in the end. But episodes have offered other turns on classic moments, showing how vastly different things could have been with just one minor alteration. The comics and novels are able to use it even more. A trilogy called Myriad Universes each offer three novellas showing amazing alternate realities that put wild spins on Trek history. These books offer writers the chance to be very daring by bumping off major characters while letting smaller folk step up majorly. A few have obvious plotlines but others are more original and present intriguing histories. Here are 20 of the best Trek alternate realities besides the Mirror Universe to show how fans just love seeing characters in a new light.

20 ENGINES OF DESTINY

If there’s one guy you think would know better than to mess with time, it’s Montgomery Scott. The fabled engineer spent decades trapped in a transporter beam before revived by the TNG crew. In the novel “Engines of Destiny,” Scotty launches an audacious plan while on board the Enterprise -D. Without anyone knowing it, he manages to get the Enterprise-D to take him to the area where Kirk perished in Generations . Scotty uses a shuttle to go back in time with the Enterprise following. He beams Kirk out of the Enterprise-B to save his life. Scotty returns with the Enterprise to the present…where they find themselves attacked by a Borg fleet.

Because Kirk survived, he wasn’t there to save the Enterprise-D crew from the events of Generations . Which means they weren’t around to stop the Borg from changing history in First Contact . Which means the Borg assimilated Earth in the past. The Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons, Cardassians and others form an Alliance led by Sarek to try and protect the rest of the universe from the Borg. As the Enterprise tries to survive this darker universe, Scotty has to figure out a way to fix the timeline as he realizes Kirk’s survival came at too high a cost.

19 THE WORST OF BOTH WORLDS

In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, DC published a regular TNG comic that had some intriguing stories. Easily the best was the four-part “The Worst of Both Worlds” storyline. Investigating an anomaly, the Enterprise is pulled into an alternate universe. They’re met by another Enterprise crew that includes a one-eyed Riker, a bitter Shelby and others. This is a universe where the Enterprise’s attempt to stop the Borg cube failed. Earth has fallen to the Borg and the rest of the Federation is on the ropes.

The story has some rough writing but still intriguing ideas. Worf is jarred at how his double feels dishonored not able to help save Picard. Shelby’s obsession with taking down the Borg borders on mutiny. O’Brien is a broken man after losing his wife and daughter. The alternate Riker openly asks the regular universe’s Troi to stay as he realizes how much he loved her after her doppelgänger was killed. Plus, the idea of Picard literally face-to-face with Locutus is dramatic. It even has a nice coda that reminds you that even in a dark universe of the Borg dominant, it’s the humanity that makes a TNG story shine.

18 ROMULAN EARTH

“Deviations” was a series of specials and mini-series by IDW showing different realities for some of the properties they published comics on. For Star Trek , they imagined a rather interesting difference. In this universe, instead of the Vulcans, it’s the Romulans who make first contact with Earth. Needless to say, the Romulans do not have Earth’s best interests in mind and turn the planet into a penal colony. Riker, Geordi and other crewmembers are prisoners on the planet.

Riker goes to track down a captured Picard with news of how the legendary Federation exists. Some of the touches are nice like how Geordi is truly blind and only able to “see” through Data’s eyes. The idea of the crew in a Mad Max like setting is intriguing and the search for an Enterprise is also well done. It shows how Earth could have suffered a darker fate but the TNG crew would still fight for its future.

17 THE SHATNERVERSE

Aside from his acting, William Shatner is also a novelist, including the Tek War series. It makes sense he would take part in a novel meant to revive his beloved character. “The Return” has Kirk brought back to life following the events of Generations thanks to an alliance of the Romulans and the Borg. At first programmed to believe he’s a loyal Romulan aide, Kirk remembers his true identity and goes on the run. This leads to a reunion with an aged Spock and McCoy and the twist that the Borg were actually partially created by V’ger.

Shatner helped write more adventures as Kirk soon runs into a different version of the Mirror Universe where his sinister double is Emperor Tiberius. Another trilogy has Kirk investigating the apparent assassination of Spock which could cause a Romulan civil war. While aided by other authors, it’s clear Shatner had good influence on these books which show how not even death can stop Jim Kirk from saving the universe.

16 THE LAST GENERATION

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country revolves around the Klingons and the Federation trying to make peace at last. A group of Klingons, Starfleet officers and Romulans aren’t happy about this and set up a plan to continue the war. It was to culminate in the assassination of the Federation President but Kirk was able to stop it. In the “Last Generation” comic book mini-series, the plan works and kicks off full-scale war. This backfires on the Starfleet plotters as the Klingons end up conquering Earth. Sulu is the sole Starfleet captain, nicknamed the “Silver Ghost” for his actions. Picard leads a rebel cell which includes everyone from his usual crew to Ro, Tasha Yar and Annika Hansen (a non-Borg Seven of Nine).

Worf is a major Klingon commander while Wesley leads a more militant rebel sect. Guinan tells Picard this timeline is “wrong” and Picard discovers that a time ship from the 29 th century is responsible. Its commander claims the Federation falling is all that can save the future and doing what he can to keep this timeline set. Surprisingly, the comic doesn’t end with history put back to rights but a new future developing from this universe. It just shows how in any timeline, Picard is always a man willing to fight the odds.

15 XINDI DESTROY EARTH

The second season finale of Enterprise raised the stakes dramatically for the series. An insect-like race called the Xindi, believing humanity will wipe them out in the 26 th century, do a preemptive strike. They send a craft to fire a single energy beam that ravages a great portion of Earth. This sets up a brutal war with the Xindi that dominates the third season. In “Twilight,” Archer wakes up to find he’s now 12 years in the future with T’Pol his lover. At first thinking this might be some sort of trick, Archer realizes it’s true and that humanity is on its last legs.

In this history, Archer took a severe injury which led to him being relieved of duty and T’Pol made captain. While capable, T’Pol couldn’t match Archer’s skills and was unable to stop the Xindi from destroying Earth. What’s left of Earthlings (just 6000 people) is now living on the doomed world of Ceti Alpha V and the rest of the galaxy have decided to just leave humanity to their fate rather than risk the wrath of the Xindi. It takes some time travel antics to set things right and prevent this dark future which shows how close humanity came to being wiped out long before the time of Kirk.

14 SHERMAN’S FALL

While a hilarious episode, “The Trouble With Tribbles” also has a serious plotline. Arne Darvin, the supposed underling to Federation official Niaz Baris, is a Klingon spy who is out to poison the grain to be used on the settled world of Sherman’s Planet. It was stopped by Kirk and Darvin’s name was ruined (the character returned in the DS9 episodes “Trials and Tribble-ations”). The Myriad Universe tale “Honor in the Night” plays like a Star Trek version of Citizen Kane as Baris, the Federation President, dies whispering Darvin’s name. A journalist tries to figure out what that means and begins a long investigation that uncovers an amazing truth.

In this reality, the tribbles never uncovered Darvin’s plot and the poison got to the colonists, causing hundreds of deaths. Rather than be pleased, Darvin was horrified at what he’d done and sought to make amends. The Klingons gained more worlds, including Bajor where Darvin ended up being its governor and ruling it the best he could (meaning different lives for Kira, Quark and many other DS9 characters). Meanwhile, Baris used the incident to rise up into a respected diplomat and eventually Federation President who managed to forge an earlier peace with the Klingons. It’s an intriguing tale with the journalist deciding it’s best the public never knew how two “heroes” rose under such dark circumstances.

13 DATA’S DAUGHTER

In the TNG episode “The Offspring,” Data shocks everyone by creating an android “daughter” named Lal. Sadly, she became victim to a cascade failure that caused her to be shut down. In the Myriad Universes tale “The Embrace of Cold Architects,” Lal’s creation comes a bit later than it did before. She’s thus around when Picard is captured by the Borg and plays a part in ensuring the Enterprise’s weapon against the Borg cube is successful. Thus, Picard is lost and Riker becomes captain (it also means no Battle of Wolf 359 and so a different path for Sisko).

Riker adjusts to being captain in major ways. For example, the episode “The Wounded” has Riker making a different choice regarding the Cardassian’s rise to power. Meanwhile, Starfleet has decided to use Lal as the model for a new line of robotic soldiers to send against the Borg. Data is concerned about this move for good reason as it leaves the Federation open to another cybernetic menace. All it took was a delay in a few weeks and the course of the entire galaxy turns on Data’s daughter.

12 YESTERDAY’S ENTERPRISE

While Kirk and Picard both made the Enterprise famous, there was another iconic version of the ship. In 2344, the Enterprise-C aided a Klingon outpost under attack by the Romulans. It was destroyed in the process but the Klingons were so impressed by this show of honor for an enemy that it pushed them to make peace with the Federation. In the classic TNG episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” the Enterprise-C falls through a temporal portal and emerging 22 years later. The episode shows the usual TNG bridge but as soon as the Enterprise-C shows up, everything changes. The ship is darker, the uniforms more military and the long-dead Tasha Yar is alive.

Meeting with Captain Rachel Garrett, Picard tells her how that Klingon outpost was destroyed, the Klingons blaming the Federation for it and a state of war has existed ever since…and it’s not going well for the Federation. Only Guinan is able to sense something is wrong with the timeline. She tells it to Picard with Tasha also discovering her useless death in the main timeline. This pushes her to join the Enterprise-C as it goes back through the rift to repair history. This timeline was brief but still notable as it set up the character of Tasha’s daughter, Sela and stands as a darker look at how TNG could have been.

11 ISIOLANIST EARTH

A subplot on Enterprise was the “Earth Prime” movement planning a violent extremist attack meant to drive Earth from joining the Federation. In the Myriad Universe novella “A Less Perfect Union,” Earth Prime succeeds. Earth has a space fleet but remains isolated from the rest of the galaxy, which is part of the Interstellar Coalition. Kirk is first officer under Captain Pike and has a major hate of Vulcans as he blames them for the death of his wife and son. Kirk is thus not happy when the Enterprise’s mission is to transport an aged T’Pol to a conference to discuss the possibility of Earth opening alliances with the Coalition.

Kirk is approached by Sarek (who, in this universe, never married a human so Spock doesn’t exist) for a secret meeting with T’Pol. It’s not until too late Kirk realizes he’s a pawn in a game played by the Romulans to keep Earth out of interstellar affairs. This sets up a battle where Kirk gets his first taste of command. The ending isn’t as pat as you’d expect but the story is intriguing for a much darker Kirk and a bitter T’Pol both overcoming differences just as Earth and Vulcan must to move into the future.

10 THE DELTA COALITION

The Myriad Universes  novella “Places of Exile” openly asks “how often does history come down to a choice of words?” When Voyager is offered their alliance with the Borg in “Scorpion,” Chakotay gives different advice to Janeway. This sets up an attack that causes Voyager to be wrecked with Tuvok and Paris among the casualties. The crew are rescued by the friendly Vostigye as they adjust to being stranded. Torres joins an extremist group while Janeway is borderline obsessed with getting back to their journey. But as time goes on, Janeway realizes that’s a faint hope and accepts a new life on this world (which includes a romance with Chakotay).

Circumstances soon lead the crew to aid the Vostigye in reaching out to other worlds for alliances. This means different fates for characters, especially Kes and Seven of Nine. Making it more complex is Species 8472 showing up for an alliance that gives the crew a look at other realities. Before long, Voyager has helped forge a version of the Federation called the Delta Coalition. They also end up aiding in the war with the Dominion. It’s a fascinating look at how, had Voyager taken a break in their journey, they could have done much more good for the Delta Quadrant.

9 KHAN TRIUMPHANT

One of the greatest Trek villains of all time, Khan Noonien Singh was a genetically enhanced warrior who helped spark World War III in the Trek universe. For a time, he ruled a huge section of Earth before finally being overthrown. Khan and his followers thus fled Earth on the Botany Bay where they were frozen for decades. In the Myriad Universes story “Seeds of Dissent,” Khan was successful in his campaign to conquer all of Earth. He eventually expanded it into the stars with his forces crushing all resistance to establish a galactic Empire. Long dead, Khan lives on in his successors.

The story opens with Julian Bashir the captain of a ship that finds the Botany Bay . The crew here are scientists and rebels who fled Earth centuries ago. They’re naturally horrified to realize Khan won and his forces control this galaxy. Led by Shannon O’Donnell (the lookalike ancestor of Kathryn Janeway), the crew find allies in rebel Dax and the unlikely team of Kira and Dukat. While they have little chance against the strength of the Khan followers, they have one unbeatable weapon: The records showing the truth of Khan as a dictator, not a noble hero. The story may not have a true ending but it still leaves an open path with Bashir realizing he’s been on the wrong side worshipping Khan rather than hating him.

8 Q SQUARED

Peter David’s Trek novels are always good fun and this is one of his best. It confirms the fan theory that Trelane, the childish all-powerful being from the TOS episode “The Squire of Gothos” was an immature member of the Q Continuum. Q has been put in charge of Trelane and taken him to the Enterprise, begging Picard for help as the brat has been driving him nuts. Obviously, Picard just enjoys Q’s misery but that changes when Trelane has “fun” mixing this timeline with the one from “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”

Trelane soon brings in another timeline where Picard is first officer to Jack Crusher (while in love with Beverly), Troi is married to a Riker reeling from Klingon captivity and Data is a mechanical mind in a human body. The game turns sinister as Trelane treats everyone like his personal toys. The mixing of the three timelines is wild but David manages to pull it off nicely. It comes into a great story that pays tribute to TNG lore while still offering fun looks at what could have been.

7 SAVAGE VULCAN

Eons ago, the Vulcans were an incredibly harsh and brutal race. It was the wise Surak who provided a template that turned the Vulcans to logic and paved the way for their rise as a galactic power. In the Myriad Universes story “The Tears of Eridanus,” Surak was killed before he could show his teachings. Vulcan thus remains a primitive planet of warriors so savage that even the Klingons don’t want to mess with them. It also means the Vulcans never split off into the Romulans. Instead of the Federation, there’s an Interstellar Union although it’s not as successful without Vulcan’s influence.

Sulu is the commander on a ship when he learns a Union observation team led by his daughter, Demora, has been captured on Vulcan. Against orders, Sulu leads the ship there but his crew is unprepared for the savagery of the Vulcans. Meanwhile, Demora meets one noble Vulcan, S’Vol, who needs her help finding a lost scroll that could be the key to turning his people around. For anyone who thinks Vulcans are just logical thinkers, this story offers a chilling look at how gritty they could have become.

6 A UNIVERSE WITHOUT SPOCK

The classic Animated Series episode “Yesteryear” briefly imagines Spock dying as a child and an Andorian named Thelin being first officer and Kirk’s best friend. The Myriad Universes  novella “The Chimes at Midnight” expands on this idea with the passionate Thelin still serving with Kirk with the fun touch of McCoy being the voice of reason. Thanks to Thelin, the ending of Wrath of Khan goes differently. This leads to David Kirk and Saavik held captive by Klingons. Kirk leads a rescue mission which goes badly as Kirk finally faces a “no-win scenario.”

Incredibly, things get worse. Without Spock to provide an answer, the Whalesong Probe from The Voyage Home ravages Earth. This leaves the planet open to a full-scale Klingon invasion and occupation. To David’s horror, the Federation plans to turn the Genesis Device into a weapon which riles up the Romulans. Thelin is made a great character to the point of making a bold sacrifice at the end. It shows how critical Spock was to the universe and Earth would suffer badly without his presence.

5 PLANET DATA

Originally, Dr. Noonien Soong planned to have Data be just the first of an entire race of androids. That never came to be in the main TNG series. In the Myriad Universes  story “Brave New World,” Soong’s dream comes true. Androids are now part of the Federation with many serving on ships. There’s also the concept of people able to upload their minds into android bodies. The Enterprise receives a message from the long-missing Data that takes them to a distant planet. There, they’re amazed to find Data has created an entire city for his android race.

Data wants to reach out and prove to the Federation androids deserve fully equal rights. He’s aided by “daughter” Lal but Lore thinks androids should be above humanity. Complicating matters is Picard discovering that Data has been sending out androids disguised as other races as agents working behind the scenes. Data thinks it’s a good move to prevent future conflicts but Picard notes how this is a step away from a robot takeover. When the Romulans get involved, the tension rises up even more. It’s an intriguing story to show how androids are never fully accepted in the Federation.

4 PARALLELS

TNG had touched on alternate timelines and such before. But season 7’s “Parallels” brings it front and center. Worf is returning from victory in a fighting tournament when he runs into an odd anomaly. Once on the Enterprise , Worf notes how things are shifting, events are different, people are changing and records show how he went from victory in that tournament to second place to not attending at all. Somehow, Worf is jumping between quantum realities and has to figure out how to stop it.

He eventually lands into a reality where Picard was killed fighting the Borg, Riker is captain, Worf first officer and married to Troi. An attempt to get him back causes tens of thousands of Enterprises from other realities to converge together. This includes the chilling sight of a frantic Riker from a reality where the Borg have taken over. From a Doctor Ogawa to a competent Wesley to Bajor dominating Cardassia, this episode offers plenty of fun looks at the ways TNG could be much different.

3 THE UDILITE WAR

Star Trek Online was never a huge hit but still had potential. After all, a MMORPG based on the Trek universe is ripe for some fun. It’s set in 2409 and focuses on a very dark galactic conflict. It doesn’t match the canon “Expanded Universe” of the various Trek novels and so is recognized as an alternate timeline. Here, the Federation’s refusal to aid the Klingons against the Gorn led to the Klingons declaring war on the Federation. The conflict was complicated by the discovery of the Udilites aka Species 8472, who were manipulating things behind the scenes.

The events of the game do conflict with the current Trek EU (Garak is still a Cardassian operative, not its President and the Borg are still around). In a tie-in novel, The Needs of the Many , Jake Sisko talks to those who took part in the “Long War.” This includes an agent of the Federation’s time travel agency who notes how this is just one of various histories he’s seen (“How could the Borg invade Vulcan when the planet was destroyed a century ago?”) and showing different fates for characters. While not as well-known as others, this “Long War” forms another major reality for Trek fans.

2 THE DOMINION DOMINANT

In a Myriad Universe novella it opens in what would be the fifth season of Deep Space Nine but it’s still Terek Nor. The Cardassians never left Bajor and never forced the treaty that created the Maquis (meaning Voyager is still in the Alpha Quadrant) although they have taken over Ferengi space. Immediately following First Contact , the Enterprise is informed that the Klingons and the Romulans have gone to war. Dragged in, the Federation feels the heat with all three sides making odd moves that cause more damage. The Cardassians then launch attacks with advanced weapons that wipe out Voyager among other ships. It’s at this point that resistance fighter Kira and Odo show up to reveal this is all the work of the Dominion.

In this reality, the Cardassians found the Bajor wormhole and forged an alliance with the Dominion that quickly became one-sided. Key figures on all sides have been replaced by Changelings who ensure the war drags out in a costly manner to leave the galaxy ripe for a Dominion invasion. Unsure who they can trust, the Enterprise is on a deadly mission that just ends up working into the Dominion’s hands. It’s a brutal conflict that costs numerous characters their lives and even with a huge defeat near the end, it still indicates that in this reality, the Dominion will be triumphant after all.

1 THE KELVIN TIMELINE

When the plans for a big-screen reboot of the Trek saga were announced, fans were wary. After all, they loved the Trek universe and hated the idea of having it all thrown away. Leave it to JJ Abrams to find a way to honor the past while creating a new future. The plotline is that Nero is a Romulan scientist from the early 25 th century who’s rocked when a supernova wipes out Romulus. Blaming Spock for failing to stop it, Nero creates a massive ship to go back in time in hopes of destroying the Federation and thus saving his world (or at least gaining revenge). This leads to the attack on the U.S.S. Kelvin that kills George Kirk. Without his dad in his life, we see a much different James Kirk joining the Enterprise .

The movie openly discusses the alternate timelines thanks to the arrival of the “Prime” Spock (Leonard Nimoy). Thus, Abrams allows the classic Trek history to exist but this new timeline offers more storytelling options. It’s since spawned two sequels and a terrific IDW comic series that explores how events of classic Trek episodes go differently in this universe. Thanks to this move, newer fans can enjoy the fresher take of the movies while still respecting the expanded universe as canon.

Weird Star Trek Novels That Are Enjoyable To Read

I n February 1970, Bantam Books published the first original Star Trek novel. James Blish's Spock Must Die! received mixed reviews from critics, but it laid the foundation for many hundreds of further novels . Perhaps the golden era of Star Trek prose was under Pocket Books, who produced an ambitious continuation of TNG and DS9 long before Star Trek: Picard .

Some of the tie-in novels are good, some are bad, and some are just plain strange. From vanity projects to starship-sized plot holes, Star Trek's authors went where no one had gone before (and sometimes where they shouldn't have gone). Though they may be on the stranger side, here are a few books that fans of the franchise will doubtless enjoy.

The Enterprise War - John Jackson Miller

John Jackson Miller's 2019 novel answers a pertinent question: where was the Enterprise during Star Trek: Discovery 's Federation–Klingon War? Miller shows Pike's Enterprise caught in a different war between the Boundless and the Rengru, aliens who hope to use the starship to tip the scales in their favor.

RELATED: Most Charismatic Star Trek: The Next Generation Characters, Ranked

The Enterprise War has an exciting plot, but stumbles slightly when it comes to reconciling the Pike era with the rest of contemporary Trek. Spock's references to Michael Burnham seem out of place alongside obscure characters from Star Trek 's failed pilot, while the Enterprise 's saucer separation recalls TNG rather than TOS or Discovery . Miller's novel walks a fine line between anachronisms and tropes. The result is a weird blend of eras, but one that readers are sure to enjoy.

The Good That Men Do - Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin

Few fans were impressed when Star Trek: Enterprise ended by killing off one of its crew. In terms of both scriptwriting and direction, the noble sacrifice of engineer Trip Tucker is an anticlimax. This shortcoming inspired authors Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin to consider an alternative: what if Tucker's death was a hoax?

RELATED: Star Trek: The Relationship Between Vulcans & Romulans, Explained

The Good That Men Do (2007) claims that Tucker never died; instead, he left the Enterprise to work for Section 31 . This coverup allowed him to investigate a new threat posed by the Romulans. The book holds a strange place in Star Trek canon: it is as much an apology as it is a novel, although the Romulans' machinations make for an entertaining read.

Disavowed - David Mack

While the Star Trek Relaunch series provided fans with some franchise highpoints, it had started to stumble by the time of David Mack's Disavowed (2014). Six years earlier, Mack had torn up the status quo with his Destiny trilogy, focusing on a massive Borg invasion . The trilogy is excellent—but its fallout left subsequent novels unsure of where to take the series.

Mack's story, centered on Julian Bashir, reinvents the Star Trek novel as a tense espionage thriller as the Starfleet doctor and Section 31 operative travels to the Mirror Universe to halt a scheme by the evil Breen. Mack's prose is propulsive, but Disavowed represents the Star Trek world at a crossroads. The book's weirdness lays not in its writing, but in its attempt to reinvigorate the series with a focus on espionage rather than exploration.

Broken Bow - Diane Carey

Star Trek 's writing has been the subject of parodies aplenty, from shows like The Orville to movies like Galaxy Quest . In 2020, the franchise itself got in on the fun, with cartoon series Lower Decks spoofing on Star Trek 's tropes. Yet Lower Decks was not the first time that Star Trek' s own writers took a swipe at the franchise. The 2001 novelization of "Broken Bow" derided the Star Trek: Enterprise episode it was meant to retell.

RELATED: Star Trek: Enterprise Actor Slams How Her Character Was Written

Author Diane Carey wrote extensively for Star Trek 's novels (the hero of her 2000 novel Challenger was written to resemble Enterprise 's Scott Bakula, though the book predated his casting). Yet when it came to novelizing Bakula's first real adventure, Carey was so unimpressed with the script that she used the characters' internal monologues to criticize the story's plot. The author was allegedly blacklisted for her mischief, but she turned an otherwise by-the-numbers novelization into a sneaky practical joke.

A Singular Destiny - Keith R.A. DeCandido

Readers might expect a sequel to TNG and DS9 to feature a hero like Captain Picard, or a fan favorite like Kira Nerys. Yet although Keith R.A. DeCandido's 2009 novel does feature DS9 's Ezri Dax, its star is diplomat Sonek Pran, a wholly original character. This stylistic deviation allows A Singular Destiny to interrogate the state of the Relaunch universe . The Borg may be gone, but a new threat is rising in the form of the Typhon Pact, an alliance of several hostile states including the Breen and the Gorn.

Despite the scope of its universe, Star Trek can become bogged down by revisiting the same characters and tropes. DeCandido's novel bucks this trend, making this immersive political thriller an essential chapter in the Relaunch saga.

Fearful Symmetry - Olivia Woods

Viewers of DS9 may recall the episode "Second Skin," in which Bajoran Kira Nerys was disguised as a Cardassian. Fearful Symmetry claims that the woman that Kira impersonated, Iliana Ghemor, was also altered to look like Kira, but fell into the clutches of Gul Dukat , who imprisoned and abused her. Driven mad, the impostor plots her revenge in Olivia Woods' 2008 novel.

While it's odd that Dukat never mentioned his prisoner, the novel's true weirdness is its two-in-one physical format. Fearful Symmetry is made up of two narratives: the front cover depicts Kira, while the rear is an alternate cover showing Ghemor. Starting the book in one direction shows Kira's investigation into her duplicate, while starting in the opposite direction provides the troubled life of Ghemor. This parallel structuring allows the novel's form to mirror its content, a clever gimmick.

Killing Time - Della Van Hise

The possibility of a deeper, potentially romantic bond between Kirk and Spock has intrigued fans for decades (the term "slash fiction" is attributed to stories about the pair), but Star Trek 's writers were unwilling to offer any confirmation. Father of the franchise Gene Roddenberry was particularly opposed to the idea. He was displeased, to say the least, when author Della Van Hise snuck suggestive material into her 1985 novel.

RELATED: Captain Kirk's Redemption Of Spock In The Mirror Universe

First editions of Killing Time (which involves the Romulans altering history to try and defeat the Federation) were recalled and destroyed, although some were purchased by fans. A revised edition removed the offending content. Rumors circulated that an even more explicit version existed, although Van Hise denied these claims. If nothing else, Killing Time demonstrates the importance of checking a book before it's sent to the printers.

The Return - Garfield Reeves-Steven & William Shatner

Actor Leonard Nimoy was so impressed by Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , in which his character died, that he asked for Spock to return from the dead . William Shatner, on the other hand, was so unimpressed by Kirk's death in Star Trek: Generations that he decided to take matters into his own hands, co-writing a series of novels in which a resurrected Kirk continues the fight against evil.

The resulting Shatnerverse (comprising ten novels by Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Steven) is generally considered non-canon even by novel fans, with some regarding it as an ego trip for Shatner. Kirk's transition into a quasi-Messianic figure certainly has all the hallmarks of a vanity project, as does his role in the total defeat of the Borg in 1996's The Return . The Shatnerverse novels may not fit into any version of canon aside from their own, but they represent an interesting diversion for those who like their books heavy on fan-service and light on common sense.

MORE: Best Starfleet Ships Of The 23rd Century

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Star trek voyager’s doctor actually beat janeway's ship home twice.

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The Complete Star Trek Timeline Explained

Jeri ryan would have turned down star trek: voyager because of 1 scene, star trek: voyager abandoning “year of hell's" original ending was a huge mistake.

It took most of Star Trek: Voyager 's crew seven years to get back home, but the Doctor (Robert Picardo) made it to and from the Alpha Quadrant twice before anyone else. As a hologram, the Doctor was unique among Voyager 's cast of characters and became one of the show's most popular additions as a result. Although the Doctor started Voyager with a very limited scope, by later seasons he had not only gained sentience but the ability to travel independently and even participate in away missions , two of which included risky trips to the Alpha Quadrant.

Most Star Trek TV shows already take place in the Alpha Quadrant, but Voyager 's setting in the Delta Quadrant helped breathe new life into the franchise with a completely new region of space to explore . Being stranded in the Delta Quadrant also gave the USS Voyager and her crew a core mission to strive towards throughout the entire show, instead of their only mission being exploration. This drive to return to the Alpha Quadrant, however, only came to fruition in the series finale for everyone but the Doctor.

Star Trek's timeline spans a thousand years of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets, with alternate realities and time travel galore.

The Doctor Is Star Trek: Voyager's Only Character To Return To The Alpha Quadrant Twice

The doctor made it home before anyone else did.

Thanks to his holographic status, the Doctor was able to return to the Alpha Quadrant twice and accomplished some major victories while he was there. The first time the Doctor was sent home was in Voyager season 4, episode 14, "Message in a Bottle," where he found himself on a top-secret Starfleet ship near the Romulan Neutral Zone. Not only was the Doctor able to keep the ship out of Romulan hands, but he also set the record straight with Starfleet about Voyager being lost, a huge turning point for the crew in their mission to find a way home.

Despite Voyager attempting numerous other ways to contact Starfleet in earlier seasons, "Message in a Bottle" was the first time they made direct contact and confirmed their status after being declared dead 14 months previously.

The second time the Doctor returned to the Alpha Quadrant, in Voyager season 6, episode 24, "Life Line," his victory was more personal. The Doctor was sent as a compressed data stream to Jupiter Station to treat the supposedly life-threatening condition of his creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman (Robert Picardo). Thankfully, the Doctor succeeded in saving the life of the closest thing he had to a father , and his return also allowed for "Life Line" to feature some incredible guest characters like Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz) and Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) .

Other Star Trek: Voyager Characters Only Returned To The Alpha Quadrant In Alternate Timelines

Voyager never returned home in the right time or universe.

While it is true that other Voyager characters returned to the Alpha Quadrant and even got back to Earth, the Doctor is the only character to make it back in real time . The entire Voyager crew made it back to Earth in the 1990s during the two-part episode "Future's End," and Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) actually returned home on two separate occasions: once during the season 2 episode "Non Sequitur," and once with Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) in Voyager 's 100th episode "Timeless." However, both of these instances were alternate timelines that were erased by the episodes' end.

As a hologram, the Doctor's physical body was non-corporeal and could be transmitted across greater distances without the need for something like a transporter.

Having the Doctor be the only character to return to the Alpha Quadrant makes the most sense out of everyone on the show. As a hologram, the Doctor's physical body was non-corporeal and could be transmitted across greater distances without the need for something like a transporter. However, the Doctor's record for making it back to the Alpha Quadrant on Star Trek: Voyager is still notable and not something that's discussed often, despite the character's popular status .

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The 10 best Star Wars books ever

Our list of the best 'Star Wars' novels includes titles from both Legends and new canon.

California Dreams was better than Saved by the Bell. There, I said it.

Where to begin when ranking 10 best Star Wars books ever? It’s almost an impossible task considering the sheer volume of expanded universe novels over 45 years. For example, there are 19 New Jedi Order books alone, and 10 in Michael A. Stackpole’s Star Wars X-wing series.

Making things even more confusing is the fact that due to a recent reset, anything written before 2014 is no longer even considered official canon. All those earlier novels — some of which are the franchise’s finest ever — have now been classified as “Legends” titles.

Design: Alex Sandoval

Finally, every reader has their own personal preference on the type of story they enjoy, the style of writing that hooks them, and the particular characters they want to learn more about. So consider this top 10 list — ranked from 10 to 1 — less of a definitive ranking, and more of a guide for folks looking to dive deeper into the expanded universe (both Legends and canon) with some key "can’t miss" titles.

10. 'Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade' by Delilah S. Dawson (2023)

The majority of recent Star Wars novels have been wrapped up in Lucasfilm’s sprawling High Republic initiative, as Jedi have been forced into conflict against the Path of the Open Hand and the Nihil. However, the most exciting offering of late has been a standalone story telling the tale of a Padawan Iskat Akaris. Set across many years, Inquisitor follows a descent into darkness, and shows what could transform a Jedi into a Jedi-hunter. The novel is packed with action and shocking moments. However, this strong outing is almost undone by the book’s epilogue, which offers a peek into the future that undoes some of the mystery surrounding one of the most intriguing expanded universe characters in years. That said, Rise of the Red Blade offers the most complete backstory we’ve ever been given to one of the Inquisitors and how they were recruited into the fold, which alone makes it worth a read.

9. 'Outbound Flight' by Timothy Zahn (Legends, 2006)

Timothy Zahn revisits some characters from Heir to the Empire (more on that later) to tell a story in prequel form of the Outbound Flight project first mentioned in that landmark 1991 novel. In this story, Jedi Joruus C’baoth (the original, not the mad clone), is obsessed with his proposed voyage of 50,000 people traveling to the most remote corners of the galaxy to explore and colonize — a voyage that Palpatine/Darth Sidious wants to destroy. But the plans of both men are complicated when they come into contact with a mysterious blue skinned, red-eyed alien named Thrawn. This page-turning entry is for those who crave military maneuvering, underhanded political dealings, and the exploration of deep space. Throw in the original (now retconned) first meeting between Palpatine and Thrawn, as well as some Anakin and Obi-Wan action, and Outbound Flight does indeed take flight.

8. 'The Han Solo Adventures' trilogy ('Han Solo at Stars’ End', 'Han Solo’s Revenge', 'Han Solo and the Lost Legacy') by Brian Daley (Legends, 1979-1980)

Who’s ready to swashbuckle? If you’re the type who loves old school Han Solo, why not read some old school Han Solo books? This trilogy of adventures by Brian Daley (which has been compiled into one handy-dandy compilation ) was written after the very first Star Wars movie and follows everyone’s favorite scruffy nerf-herder as he takes on dangerous jobs, and even a treasure hunt. The action takes place two years before the events of A New Hope and features Han, Chewie, droid Bollux, and computer Blue Max as the Millennium Falcon crew attempt to avoid entanglements with the dreaded Corporate Sector Authority. And in a universe filled with gunslinger archetypes (Boba Fett, Cad Bane, Han Solo himself), this trilogy introduces another dandy in the enigmatic Gallandro — the fastest draw in the galaxy. I'm still waiting for him to somehow make it on screen.

7. 'Master & Apprentice' by Claudia Gray (2019)

For my money, Claudia Gray is the finest of the writer of Star Wars ’ new canon era. Not only is this but one of two Gray books on this list, but I easily could have put her YA entry Lost Stars — which tells the tale of two friends who grow up with one joining the Rebellion and the other fighting for the Empire — on here as well. What makes this story set eight years before The Phantom Menace so riveting is not just the structure of Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi traveling to the planet Pijal to oversee a teenage princess’ coronation and the accompanying corporate complications that come with that, but the deep dive into the tense and troubled relationship between teacher and student. As Qui-Gon contemplates an offer to sit on the Jedi Council and pass his pupil off to another master, Gray focuses on the clash of not just styles and personalities, but belief-systems. That juxtaposition includes lots of flashbacks to Qui-Gon’s training under Count Dooku, and the obsession with Jedi prophecies that may or may not hold the key to the future. For those longing to see more the master and apprentice dynamic in Episode I, Master & Apprentice is the perfect place to start.

6. 'Dark Disciple' by Christie Golden (2015)

Love The Clone Wars TV series? Wish there were more than what already aired? Well, there are… kinda. Dark Disciple is based on unproduced scripts that were originally supposed to comprise an eight-episode arc of The Clone Wars . And what an arc it is. In a somewhat shocking development, the Jedi Council decides they want to assassinate Count Dooku. But since it would not be very Jedi-like of them to do the deed themselves, they ask Quinlan Vos to pair up with former Jedi-slayer Asajj Ventress to take down the count. What follows is an riveting push and pull not just between Vos and Ventress, but between light and dark itself. It’s a complicated philosophical dance that lands all characters involved in the murky morass between both worlds, and culminates with one of the most surprising relationships in all of Star Wars canon. Author Christie Golden crafts a story that is filled with both heart and yes, heartbreak, and Dark Disciple offers a titillating peek at what could have been — both for the characters themselves, and for Clone Wars fans to have enjoyed onscreen.

5. 'Kenobi' by John Jackson Miller (Legends, 2013)

The Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series told the tale of what happened to the venerable Jedi master once he settled on Tatooine after dropping infant Luke Skywalker off with his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. However, that story set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope had already been told in equally dramatic form by John Jackson Miller. Kenobi centers on the generations-old distrust between the farmers surrounding the Dannar's Claim trading outpost and the Tusken Raiders who live — and occasionally attack — along its edges. Obi-Wan (or Ben, as he’s known in these parts) gets caught in the middle of the dispute, and while the story may be somewhat small scale in that it does not involve off-world kidnappings or Jedi-slaying Inquisitors, Miller gets at the heart of what makes one of Star Wars ’ most beloved characters tick — a charismatic mix of wit and wisdom alongside the emotional battle scars of a tutelage gone horribly wrong. Kenobi fans owe it to themselves to check out Kenobi .

4. 'Bloodline' by Claudia Gray (2016)

Let me first say this: Bloodline — the second Star Wars novel by Claudia Gray to make this list — is not for everybody. Because more than perhaps any other book in either the new canon or Legends line, Bloodline is first and foremost a political — and not an action — thriller. That means lots of debates about policy and the role of government in everyday lives. And considering it takes place 25 years after Return of The Jedi and six years before The Force Awakens , this is a key and perilous time as politicians raise questions as to if and how things have improved since the toppling of the Empire. With the rise of the First Order just around the corner, Bloodline intriguingly shows the seeds of that uprising being planted here. All of this is what makes Bloodline stand apart from all the other Star Wars books out there.

It also introduces one of the most fascinatingly complex expanded universe characters ever in Centrist Senator Ransolm Casterfo — a man who collects Imperial artifacts and admires tenets of the Empire way of rule while holding a personal deep disdain for Darth Vader. But where the book really shines is in offering the most complete literary portrait of Leia Organa. Here, we see all of Senator Organa’s strengths — diplomacy, leadership, and, yes, kicking ass when need be. Entertainment Weekly ’s number one Star Wars character ever gets her long overdue close-up.

3. Darth Bane trilogy ('Path of Destruction', 'Rule of Two', 'Dynasty of Evil') by Drew Karpyshyn (Legends, 2007-2009)

We’ve heard about the infamous Sith Rule of Two — one master and one apprentice; no more and no less — a million times before, but where did it start? Drew Karpyshyn gives us that origin story through a trilogy of books chronicling the rise of the man who helped tear the original Brotherhood of Darkness apart to chart a new path from the shadows — a path that would ultimately come to fruition 1,000 years later when Sheev Palpatine would all but wipe out the Jedi and take control of the galaxy. The books follow Bane from his humble beginnings as the son of an alcoholic miner, to becoming a failed Sith student, to transforming into an unstoppable dark force eluding detection from the Jedi. Along the way, he takes on his apprentice, Darth Zannah. But how long until the student becomes the master? It all concludes in an ending that had fans debating to the point where the author had to come out and publicly explain what had actually happened. Read the books to find out for yourself.

2. 'Darth Plagueis' by James Luceno (Legends, 2012)

“Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?” It kicks off a super creepy scene at the space opera from Revenge of the Sith that many people — including Star Wars director J.J. Abrams — consider to be the prequel trilogy’s best ever . While in the film Chancellor Palpatine gives Anakin Skywalker the Cliffs Notes version, explaining how the Sith Lord had the power to create life and avoid death — here we get the entire, unfiltered tale of the enigmatic Plagueis. But even more so than that, the book serves as Palpatine’s ultimate origin story, taking the reader from his discovery as a teenager, to Sith apprentice, to full-fledged mentor-murderer. And if you are looking for an expanded universe novel that gives context to and sets up on-screen story, it doesn’t get any better than this. Even if Darth Plagueis is no longer considered canon due to the 2014 literary reset, this book is still essential fan reading for showing all the years-in-the-making schemes that led to the Naboo trade blockade and creation of the clone army in the prequel trilogy. If you have yet to hear the full tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise, now is the time. 

1. The original Thrawn trilogy ('Heir to The Empire', 'Dark Force Rising', 'The Last Command') by Timothy Zahn (Legends, 1991-93)

There are so many Grand Admiral Thrawn books out there now, and while the newer installments — featuring a kinder, gentler Mitth'raw'nuruodo — tend to be of varying quality, there is a reason Heir to the Empire was such a seismic force (slight pun intended) in the expanded universe when it was first published in 1991. Not only did the original Thrawn trilogy of books — which takes place five years after Return of the Jedi — first introduce us to the brilliant Chiss-turned-Imperial officer, but it also gave us our first Star Wars clone in the form of Joruus C’baoth as well as Luke Skywalker’s feisty future wife Mara Jade. Watching Thrawn play chess against the three Ls (Luke, Leia, and Lando) is an absolute delight, but there is one move at the end of the trilogy that neither the miliary tactician nor readers will see coming. All Star Wars reading should begin right here.

For more Star Wars news and views — including interviews with folks like Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Rosario Dawson, Diego Luna, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni ,and more — check out EW's Dagobah Dispatch podcast.

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