Tell me about "The Lost Era"

[teacherkarl]

I've never read any of the TLE books, and I've heard generally good things about them overall.

Tell me, though, are there any books in the series that aren't as good as the others? Which are the best in the series? Is it worth it for me to read the entire series or should I concentrate on only specific titles?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I've never read any of the TLE books, and I've heard generally good things about them overall.

Tell me, though, are there any books in the series that aren't as good as the others? Which are the best in the series? Is it worth it for me to read the entire series or should I concentrate on only specific titles?

Thanks in advance.

Well, speaking personally, I loved 9 out of the 10 and quite liked the one left over. I think it is one of the best Trek lit series we have, of high quality throughout. The one I think is beneath the others is "Deny Thy Father", which isn't actually bad by any means. It is in fact quite good, but besides the other nine it can't help but suffer. I'd heartedly recommend the series- all 10, if you have the time

 

[Jbarney]

I agree. I have not read all of the "Lost Era" books, but almost all of them are well worth reading. The setting for the books is pretty much between the last of the movie era years (2290s) and the beginning of TNG (2360s).

"Art Of The Impossible" is up there as one of the best trek books ever. "Deny Thy Father" is probably the weakest of the books. Even then it was nice to get a Kyle Riker story.

 

[JD]

The Lost Era has given us two of my all time favorite novels (not just Trek, but novels in general), Serpents Among the Ruins, and The Art of the Impossible. I think the best way to describe those two would be historical epics. Both are big (more in scope than page count) stories that show us major events in the history of the galaxy, the Tomed Incident in Serpents, and the Betreka Nebula Incident in tAofI. The first book in the series, The Sundered is also pretty good, although it is much smaller in scope than these two. I would definitely recommend all three of them. I haven't read any of the others, but based on what I've read the only other one I have any interest in is Catalyst of Sorrows.

 

[Christopher]

The Lost Era isn't so much a series as a category. Aside from the Terok Nor trilogy, each book is completely self-contained and independent of the others, so there's no need to read them all or read them in order or whatever. There's a bit of an astropolitical throughline from Serpents Among the Ruins to The Art of the Impossible, but otherwise they all tell unrelated stories. The TLE heading only means that the stories take place between the end of the TOS era (defined as Kirk's "death" in the prologue of Generations) and the start of TNG.

 

[LutherSloan]

You can go ahead and skip 'Well of Souls'. Other than that they are fine, although I have not read 'Deny Thy Father' or the book with Sisko.

 

[Thrawn]

I loved Well Of Souls.

I haven't read all of them, but everything I've read so far has been outstanding. I'm on the second Terok Nor book now.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I loved Well Of Souls.

As did I. One of my favourites, though it seems to be the one that most divides readers. . I'd say it is a must-read.

 

[Wally]

I would highly recommend:

The Sundered, Serpents Among the Ruins, the Art of the Impossible, and The Buried Age.

 

[Geoff]

The TLE heading only means that the stories take place between the end of the TOS era (defined as Kirk's "death" in the prologue of Generations) and the start of TNG.

Of course, given that criteria you could retroactively toss in Vulcan's Forge, Vulcan's Heart and the Stargazer series.

 

[teacherkarl]

I appreciate the info. I decided to start "The Sundered" last night, and I'll read the entire series. Maybe not consecutively. But I'll read the entire series.

 

[Paris]

The TLE heading only means that the stories take place between the end of the TOS era (defined as Kirk's "death" in the prologue of Generations) and the start of TNG.

Of course, given that criteria you could retroactively toss in Vulcan's Forge, Vulcan's Heart and the Stargazer series.

...and you can also add The Captain's Daughter and Burning Dreams . I would also say that the period between the Enterprise novels and the TOS/Vanguard timeframe would fit into the lost era, albeit, a different era.

 

[D Man]

I would definitely recommend Serpents Among the Ruins and the Art of the Impossible, and The Buried Age is one of my favorite Trek books ever published. Put that one at the top of your list, if you have a list.

 

[EmperorKalan]

For the sake of making a list and checking it twice...

The Lost Era books are:
(the original 2003-2004 mini-series)
The Sundered (Captain Sulu on the Excelsior)
Serpents Among the Ruins (Captain Harriman and the Tomed Incident)
The Art of the Impossible (The Betreka Nebula Incident -- Klingons vs. Cardassians)
Well of Souls (Captain Garrett and the Enterprise-C)
Deny Thy Father (Early Riker)
Catalyst of Sorrows (early Sisko)

Later additions to the series are:
The Buried Age (Picard between the Stargazer and Enterprise-D)
and the Terok Nor series
Day of the Vipers (occupation of Bajor)
Night of the Wolves (rise of the Bajoran resistance)
Dawn of the Eagles (the final years of the occupation and the Cardassian withdrawl)

(as an aside, though the Terok Nor books are obviously related, they can each be read independently. The main characters shift from book to book, and you don't need to have read a prior book to understand what's happening in a later one.)

Other novels in the "death of Kirk to start of TNG" timeframe include:
The Captain's Daughter (Sulu and Harriman, a year after Kirk))
Vulcan's Forge (Spock and Uhura (mostly Spock), a few years after Kirk)
Vulcan's Heart (Spock, Saavik, Romulans, and "Yesterday's Enterprise")
and the entire Stargazer series:
The Valiant
Gauntlet
Progenitor
Three
Oblivion
Enigma
Maker

In addition, there are short stories in this period in Tales from the Captain's Table and Enterprise Logs anthologies, plus a number of TNG-era books with flashbacks to that period, and a few TOS books with "flash forwards".

Anything I missed?

 

[Thrawn]

Burning Dreams is set in that period as well, but almost all of it is flashbacks to prior to TOS. "Now" is a pretty small percentage of the book.

 

[JD]

Catalyst of Sorrows (early Sisko)

Actually wouldn't that be early Bevery Crusher, Tuvok, Sisko, and Selar? I haven't actually read it but those are the characters listed on Memory Beta.

 

[garamet]

Catalyst of Sorrows (early Sisko)

Actually wouldn't that be early Bevery Crusher, Tuvok, Sisko, and Selar? I haven't actually read it but those are the characters listed on Memory Beta.

Yup. Not to mention vintage Uhura and McCoy.

 

[Cuhl]

How about J.M. Dillard's The Lost Years and the other books set after TOS that were published in the late 80s and early 90s? Or is "The Lost Era" considered to include only the '03-'04 miniseries and the books that came after it?

 

[Christopher]

As stated, the Lost Era is defined as the period between the Generations prologue (2293) and "Encounter at Farpoint" (2364). It's the interval between the TOS era and the TNG/DS9/VGR era.

 

[DarKush]

Definitely read Art of the Impossible and Serpents Among the Ruins. I can recommend those wholeheartedly. After that, I thought The Sundered, Catalyst of Sorrows, and Well of Souls had both good and bad parts. I enjoyed them in parts I guess.

I haven't read the other TLE books. The one I've read the most disappointing reviews about was Deny Thy Father, but I don't know how true those reviews are since I haven't read the book. It was the novel that interested me the least among the original TLE line-up.