I've been working my way through the Star Trek: Titan books about the continuing adventures of now-Captain Riker and his exploratory ship, the USS Titan. I've been reading the books in sequence, but I find that I have to pause every now and then to read other books that cover the novel equivalent of comic book crossover events. Midway through the series, I had to read the Destiny trilogy to better understand why everyone was grieving after massive Borg attacks, which wasn't too bad. I was about to start the 7th book in the series when I realized there was another event that changed the status quo significantly. Now I'm diverting to read the Typhon Pact, which is a full 7 books and a novella that I need to cover with at least one more book that sets up the pact that I'm reading first. So now I need to go through some 9 titles before I can go back to the Titan book I had already started.
I used to look at the Star Trek books and the Star Wars books as very different animals. For the longest time, Star Trek books were episodic affairs that just told stories about the different crews and characters, and the only canon they needed to align themselves with was the TV shows and movies. In contrast, the Star Wars books were reined into an Expanded Universe early on, and all books had a clear relationship with an ongoing timeline that factored in the movies but weren't solely beholden to it. This changed a bit with the Disney acquisition and the creation of a new Expanded Universe, and the previous canon was demoted to being Legends content.
I've slowly been dipping my toes into the more recent Star Trek books because there is now a sort of beta canon that ties more and more of the novels together. It's not as rigid a canon timeline as the Star Wars Expanded Universe, but it has specific connection points that benefit from the right knowledge. It's a good way to sell more books, and it helps me figure out which Star Trek novels to read first. My current conundrum is more because I decided to read the Titan books in sequence instead of consulting the Trek-Lit Flow Chart first to get the lay of the land. But if you click that link and see what I'm talking about, you'll see why it can be a bit overwhelming. Plus, I don't necessarily have all the books in my DRM collection, so there's no guarantee that I can read all the books in the right order.
This is a very little thing, so to speak, but personal blogs are all about having a space to nerd out about niche interests at length. Huzzah.
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