Hardcover versions of Star Trek paperback books

[mindx2]

As I continue building my collection I'm finding more and more old TOS books, that were originally published as paperback, in hardcover. I've found a list on The Complete Starfleet Library website but I once had a hardbound copy of Shadow Lord yet it isn't listed. It could have been a UK published edition as it was slightly smaller than the other HB TOS books I had. Does anyone have a comprehensive list? Were any other books reprinted in HB (TNG, DS9, etc.)? If so what other place besides ebay and Amazon should I look for them?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

 

[OmahaStar]

It's more muddy than you may realize. There are companies, such as Perfection Form (which later became Perfection Learning) which do what they call "library bindings" ... They strip the paperback cover off the book and re-bind it with a hard cover, mostly for use in schools and other libraries. The last time I had checked in on them, back in 2005, they were still doing this, and had for more than 20 years.

So ... it's not just S&S/Pocket who is publishing/releasing the Trek books in hardcover.

 

[Doom Shepherd]

If so what other place besides ebay and Amazon should I look for them?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

Do you have access to a Half-Price Books store? I've seen a number of those kinds of Star Trek hardbacks there over the years.

 

[FatherRob]

I have come accross several of these books that were put out by various book clubs. For example, my standalone copy of My Enemy, My Ally was a book club edition. My Janus Gate trilogy is a Science Fiction Book Club edition of the three books under a single cover. I've seen several other HC book club editions of various novels, mostly from before 1990... though it disrupts my Star Trek shelf to display them, so I rarely buy them.

Rob+

 

[Daddy Todd]

There was a thriving business publishing hardback editions of "paperback originals" during the '70's and '80's, primarily for the library market, and numerous Star Trek titles found their way into this pipeline.

In the USA, Gregg Press had a huge presence doing SF and fantasy reprints, until they were acquired, and subsequently shut down, by Macmillan in 1985. The Gregg Press SF line was edited by David G. Hartwell, who was also the SF editor at Pocket Books responsible for beginning the Star Trek and Timescape lines, so it was no great surprise that Gregg reprinted 17 of the early Pocket Star Trek titles between 1984-1986.

There were a number of small presses in the UK who did similar reprints. Severn House did 5 of the 6 Original Series movies (they missed Wrath of Khan, which was published in hardcover by Macdonald.) Severn House also did some of the Star Trek Log series of TAS adaptations by Alan Dean Foster. I don't know how many they did; I've only ever managed to snag Star Trek Log 2. The rest either don't exist, or are so scarce they don't even show up on AbeBooks.

Speaking of the Logs, there was an American publisher (Aeonian Press, a.k.a. Amereon House) who reprinted all 10 in hardback, despite never paying for the rights to do so. All of Aeonian/Amereon's Star Trek hardbacks are bootlegs.

A UK publisher called Firecrest published British editions of most of the Gregg titles (same covers, same sizes.) After Gregg was shut down, Firecrest published 6 additional titles in 1987 on their own. These six are pretty rare -- I've never seen a copy of the Fircrest Ishmael for sale anywhere at any price.

The Science Fiction Book Club in the USA used to regularly reprint Star Trek titles. They started by reprinting the Dutton Star Trek Reader series in the late '70's. The Star Trek Readers reprinted the first 11 volumes of the Blish adaptations (+Spock Must Die!) in 4 hardcover omnibus volumes. SFBC proceeded to reprint the novelizations of the first 5 films (for some reason they skipped The Undiscovered Country.) They also did a number of "original" omnibuses, such as the first 4 Rihannsu books, the first 4 New Frontier books (as well as the 5th and 6th in a separate volume) and the first pair of Stargazer titles. SFBC's last Trek omnibus was the Vulcan's Soul trilogy, in 2007. They also did reprints of many (most?) of the Pocket Books hardcover Trek titles over the years. I don't know how many they did, because I always preferred the publisher's edition to the shabbier SFBC reprint. SFBC's last Trek title was the novelization of the 2009 film (unless you count last year's Night of the Living Trekkies.)

I could do a list of all the titles I know about, if anyone's interested. I realize there are very few as obsessively completest as I am!

 

[OmahaStar]

I realize there are very few as obsessively completest as I am!

Sorry, what website do you think you're on?

 

[mindx2]

I could do a list of all the titles I know about, if anyone's interested. I realize there are very few as obsessively completest as I am!

Thanks for the information! I would love to see any list that you have. The Shadow Lord book must have been from the UK company Firecrest but it was slightly smaller in size.

 

[Greg Cox]

SFBC definitely did a hardcover omnibus of my Q Continuum trilogy. They seem to have skipped my Khan books, alas, which disappointed me a bit . . . .

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I never read the Q Continuum Trilogy. Is Q in it?

 

[Greg Cox]

I never read the Q Continuum Trilogy. Is Q in it?

Yes. In a big way.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

And the rest of the alphabet?

 

[Greg Cox]

And the rest of the alphabet?

No, just the number 0. Really.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I dunno. I was really hoping to get the whole alphanumerical experience... But your Terminator novel was awesome so I'm going to have to give this trilogy a peek.

 

[FatherRob]

I sense a Sesame Street joke in 3... 2... 1...

"Star Trek: The Q Continuum by Greg Cox is brought to you by the letter Q, the number 0, and the symbol *."

Resuming regularlly pathetic sense of humor.

Oh, wait...

Rob+

 

[Daddy Todd]

Thanks for the information! I would love to see any list that you have. The Shadow Lord book must have been from the UK company Firecrest but it was slightly smaller in size.

Yep, Shadow Lord was from Firecrest. The first 5 Gregg Press titles were the same smaller size; the next 2 batches were bigger. Firecrest went back to the smaller size for its final 6 titles.

Here are the titles, publisher, (very) approx. publication date and ISBN of titles I have in my collection (or have somewhat confirmed):

Star Trek Log One Aeonian Press 4/1975 0-88411-081-8
Star Trek Log Two Aeonian Press 4/1975 0-88411-082-6
Star Trek Log Three Aeonian Press 4/1975 0-88411-083-4
Star Trek Log Four Aeonian Press 4/1976 0-88411-084-2
Star Trek Log Five Aeonian Press 4/1976 0-88411-085-0
Star Trek Log Six Aeonian Press 4/1977 0-88411-086-9
Star Trek Log Seven Aeonian Press 4/1977 0-88411-087-7
Star Trek Log Eight Aeonian Press 4/1977 0-88411-088-5
Star Trek Log Nine Aeonian Press 4/1979 0-88411-089-3
Star Trek Log Ten Aeonian Press 4/1979 0-88411-090-7
The Wrath of Khan Macdonald 12/1982 0-356-08687-9
Web of the Romulans Firecrest 7/1984 0-85997-562-2
The Entropy Effect Firecrest 7/1984 0-85997-561-4
The Klingon Gambit Firecrest 7/1984 0-85997-563-0
Yesterday's Son Firecrest 7/1984 0-85997-560-6
The Final Reflection Firecrest 10/1985 0-85997-602-5
Corona Firecrest 10/1/1985 0-85997-601-7
Mutiny on the Enterprise Firecrest 10/1985 0-85997-604-1
The Covenant of the Crown Firecrest 10/1985 0-85997-605-X
Uhura's Song Firecrest 10/1985 0-85997-603-3
The Tears of the Singers Firecrest 6/1986 0-85997-635-1
Triangle Firecrest 6/1986 0-85997-634-3
The Wounded Sky Firecrest 6/1986 0-85997-632-7
Black Fire Firecrest 6/1986 0-85997-630-0
The Abode of Life Firecrest 6/1986 0-85997-631-9
The Prometheus Design Firecrest 6/1986 0-85997-633-5
Mindshadow Firecrest 9/1987 0-85997-923-7
Shadow Lord Firecrest 9/1987 0-85997-927-X
Ishmael Firecrest 9/1987 0-85997-924-5
Killing Time Firecrest 9/1987 0-85997-925-3
Pawns and Symbols Firecrest 9/1987 0-85997-926-1
Dwellers in the Crucible Firecrest 9/1987 0-85997-922-9
Web of the Romulans Gregg Press 8/1984 0-8398-2833-0
The Wrath of Khan Gregg Press 8/1984 0-8398-2832-2
The Klingon Gambit Gregg Press 8/1984 0-8398-2834-9
The Entropy Effect Gregg Press 8/1984 0-8398-2831-4
Yesterday's Son Gregg Press 8/1984 0-8398-2830-6
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Gregg Press 1/1985 0-8398-2839-X
Corona Gregg Press 12/1985 0-8398-2889-6
The Covenant of the Crown Gregg Press 12/1985 0-8398-2886-1
Uhura's Song Gregg Press 12/1985 0-8398-2888-8
Mutiny on the Enterprise Gregg Press 12/1985 0-8398-2887-X
The Final Reflection Gregg Press 12/1985 0-8398-2885-3
The Prometheus Design Gregg Press 3/1986 0-8398-2936-1
The Abode of Life Gregg Press 3/1986 0-8398-2931-0
The Tears of the Singers Gregg Press 3/1986 0-8398-2932-9
Black Fire Gregg Press 3/1986 0-8398-2935-3
Triangle Gregg Press 3/1986 0-8398-2934-5
The Wounded Sky Gregg Press 3/1986 0-8398-2933-7
Star Trek White Lion 11/1974 0-85617-888-8
Star Trek 2 White Lion 5/1975 0-85617-898-5
Star Trek 3 White Lion 8/1975 0-85617-908-6
Star Trek 4 Severn House 1977 0-7278-0263-1
Star Trek 5 Severn House 1977 0-7278-0271-2
Star Trek 6 Severn House 1978 0-7278-0322-0
Star Trek 7 Severn House 1978 0-7278-0323-9
Star Trek 8 Severn House 1978 0-7278-0408-1
Star Trek 9 Severn House 1979 ?????
Star Trek 10 Severn House 1979 0-7278-0454-5
Star Trek 11 Severn House 1979 0-7278-0504-5
Star Trek 12 Severn House 1979 0-7278-0547-9
Star Trek Log Two Severn House 1982 0-7278-0820-6
Star Trek: The Motion Picture Severn House 1980 0-7278-0631-9
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Severn House 6/1985 0-7278-1142-8
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Severn House 7/1987 0-7278-1519-9
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Severn House 10/1989 0-7278-4021-5
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Severn House 6/1992 0-7278-4385-0

 

[Idran]

I dunno. I was really hoping to get the whole alphanumerical experience... But your Terminator novel was awesome so I'm going to have to give this trilogy a peek.

Well, there's technically a 1 in there too, if it helps. Though that one prefers to have it spelled out.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Pocket Books did a hand-numbered, signed, limited edition, slipcase hardcover of Roddenberry's TMP novelization - it contains a dedication "For Majel", which the regular MMPB doesn't have. Supposedly, ST II also got a slipcase version, though I've never seen it.

Somewhere here, in a box, I have a hardcover omnibus - not from Pocket - called something like "The Year's Best Science Fiction". It contains four or five SF short novels, including Vonda McIntyre's ST II novelization.

 

[Daddy Todd]

Pocket Books did a hand-numbered, signed, limited edition, slipcase hardcover of Roddenberry's TMP novelization - it contains a dedication "For Majel", which the regular MMPB doesn't have.

Simon & Schuster, actually. At that point the "Pocket Books" imprint was only used on mass market paperbacks.
And every one of the 500 LE copies is numbered "1" because whoever did the hand-numbering (Roddenberry himself?) was unclear on the concept.
S&S also did a non-limited "trade" hardcover that came out a couple months into 1980.

Supposedly, ST II also got a slipcase version, though I've never seen it.

Never heard of this. Shall investigate further...

ETA: No evidence of this edition on either AbeBooks or ISFDB. Known hardcovers of the Wrath novelization all came from other publishers. I think it's unlikely S&S/Pocket would do a signed & numbered hardcover without also doing a non-limited hardcover printing from the same plates.

 

[Christopher]

Simon & Schuster, actually. At that point the "Pocket Books" imprint was only used on mass market paperbacks.

Which is what the term "pocket books" literally meant, originally. The imprint was named that because it published books small enough to fit in a pocket.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I think it's unlikely S&S/Pocket would do a signed & numbered hardcover without also doing a non-limited hardcover printing from the same plates.

Sure, but a forthcoming limited slipcase edition was definitely announced in "Starlog". I know that means it didn't necessarily happen, but it was announced. So it may have at least been assigned an ISBN.