Recommend some TOS books

[finarvyn]

Over the last 50+ years there have been a LOT of Star Trek books out there. I thought it would be fun to have folks recommend some books for others to pursue. Could be "behind the scenes" stuff, fiction, game or RPG books, whatever. I assume that DVD sets of actual episodes don't count and we are looking at supplementary materials.

What are your top all-time Star Trek books?



I thought about a top ten list, but I'll start with five that I think are totally awesome. Interesting to note that no fiction made my top five.

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Inside Star Trek: The Real Story by Herb Solow and Rob Justman. I stumbled on this book totally by accident while looking at the discount rack at a Barnes & Noble years ago. Talks about the creation of TOS from the get-go. I've read it several times, and am actually re-reading it right now.

www.amazon.com/Inside-Star-Trek-Real-Story/dp/0671896288/ref=sr_1_85?crid=1ZP6WF9ZJRTPX&dchild=1&keywords=star+trek+hardcover&qid=1627821888&s=books&sprefix=star+trek+hard%2Caps%2C169&sr=1-85

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Starfleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph Designs. I got a copy of this and the blueprints in 1975 and in general I find it highly inspirational. Some of the stuff is sort of dull (general orders, stuff like that) but I love the technical info about the number of photon torpedo or phaser stations, the names of the ships, and similar information. I bought a later reprint just so I had a "reader" copy and could keep my original safe.

www.amazon.com/Starfleet-Technical-Manual-First-Starship/dp/B071JZMQTV

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The Nit-Picker's Guide for Classic Trekkers goes through each TOS episode one at a time and provides a synopsis, insight, and lists off errors and inconsistencies with the rest of the series. Really a fun read.

www.amazon.com/Nitpickers-Guide-Classic-Trekkers-Guides/dp/0440506832

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Star Fleet Battles. I can't recall if I got the Pocket Edition or Commander's Edition first, but the early ones are my favorites because of the simplicity compared to what came after. At one point I owned boxes of the stuff -- all sorts of SRD books, 3-ring rules binders, and so on -- but the game finally collapsed for me under rules bloat. Getting to command a starship and fight other starships is such a cool idea, and the design of the system with shield "hit points" and also for hull and ship's systems ... just so cool. The early stuff maintains the best feel of TOS, in my opinion.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Fleet_Battles

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Federation Space by Task Force Games. The original, not the Federation & Empire redo. I love the map. I love the ease of play. I love the fleet-level action. Fundamentally a simple game, but can be expanded with optional rules as needed. I ran a play-by-mail game of this with friends back in the late 80's and it was a blast.

boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1594/federation-space

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Anyone want to give me their top list?

[finarvyn]

I had a strange thought. When I look at my bookshelves I notice that my favorite Star Wars books are all fiction books (hardbacks of Timothy Zahn's stuff) but my favorite Star Trek books are either non-fiction behind-the-scenes stuff or game stuff. Hmmm.

[starcruiser]

Oh, there's plenty of good Star Trek fiction books out there too... Most of them are older ones though, with a few more current exceptions.

I have most of what you listed there - including the old Pocket Editions of Star Fleet Battles along withe original boxed edition. I also have quite a lot of the expansions ... until it started getting completely silly.

[Stan]

On the fiction side, I highly recommend the Vanguard series (see classictrek.org/star-trek-novels/taurus-reach-novels/). They have mostly original characters, so there's always the suspense of possible death since they don't have the 'plot armor' of canon characters :-)

[TardisCaptain]

After seeing it in a college library in 1989, The Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology (with art by Rick Sternbach) was my Holy Grail that I was questing for. Every time I found it at a convention it was priced way more than I wanted to pay (around $100).

Then Ebay came along. Guess what was the first thing I searched for after creating an account. Not only did I find a copy to call my own (at a decent price), I also discovered there was an edition published by a British book company that was slightly different.

I have to stay off of Ebay if I want to keep my wallet from screaming at me.

[Falconer]

My best-of-the-best book list (roughly publication order):

The Making of Star Trek
Star Fleet Technical Manual
Star Trek Writers/Directors Guide
Star Trek Concordance (Original Fan Edition)
Star Fleet Handbook #9-13
Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier
Star Trek Maps
Different Worlds #18
Star Trek #16: The Final Reflection
The Triangle + The Triangle Campaign

These have all been majorly influential on me, and most of them are greeeeat! If including non-explicitly-Trek stuff, I would have to add Starships & Spacemen 1e as well as The Lucanii Drift, absolutely brilliant works.