Literary Treks: A Star Trek Books and Comics Podcast

New Frontier: Turnaround. When Admiral Jellico seemingly steals a top-secret Starfleet prototype starship, a comic adventure of epic proportions is kicked off. Captain Calhoun of the Excalibur sets off in pursuit, but can he catch Jellico before destruction rains down on Bravo Station? Everything is not what it seems in this week's graphic novel adventure! In this episode of Literary Treks hosts M...

The Jackal's Trick. A Klingon usurper, bent on seizing control of the Klingon Empire. A dangerous con artist who uses trickery to control an army of disgraced Klingons. And enough plot twists and turns to make your head spin! All this and more in the second book of John Jackson Miller's epic Star Trek: Prey trilogy! In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing, Dan Gunther and Bruce Gib...

Children of the Storm. When Kirsten Beyer took over the "Voyager relaunch," she breathed new life into a series that many Trek fans dismissed the first time around. Crafting stories that feature well-developed and fascinating characters and embody the best qualities of Star Trek, Beyer took Voyager and made it amazing, and the subject of this week's episode of Literary Treks is the perfect example...

The Star Trek Encyclopedia: Michael and Denise Okuda. When it comes to modern Star Trek, few could dispute the fact that Michael and Denise Okuda are two of the most important figures in the franchise. Among the many contributions they have made to the Star Trek universe, their reference books stand out as essential items for the most die-hard of Trek fans. So when they finally got the chance to u...

Gold Key Vol.3, Part 1. Spock with 5-inch tall ears! Bored megalomaniacs with aspirations of world domination! Huge rocket flames bursting forth from the Enterprise's warp nacelles! It can only mean one thing: that's right, we're diving into the Gold Key Star Trek comics once again! In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing, Dan Gunther and Bruce Gibson talk the first 3 issues of IDW...

Hell's Heart. When James T. Kirk defeated Kruge on the doomed Genesis Planet, a noble Klingon house was left leaderless. With no heir apparent, the result was a power vacuum. The House of Kruge remained without a leader for a hundred years, until a bitter Klingon named Korgh sets in motion a plan to claim Kruge's house for himself. It's a tale of treachery, deceit, and dishonor a century in the ma...

Time Lock. Defending the fabric of time itself from criminal elements, protecting the Federation from all manner of temporal distortions and time-related technologies, and ensuring that overzealous Starfleet officers don't muck about in time: it's just another day at the office for the agents of the Federation's Department of Temporal Investigations. But when soldiers of a foreign government attem...

Purgatory's Key: Dayton Ward. In the 50th anniversary, it is important to remember Star Trek's roots. Morality plays that take place against the backdrop of high-minded science fiction concepts were the backbone of Star Trek's Original television series. It is fitting, then, that an epic 50th anniversary book trilogy closes out on a classic-style Trek adventure by the ever-talented Dayton Ward and...

To Brave the Storm. John Jackson Miller in News. The Romulan War: a pivotal conflict in the history of the Star Trek universe. This clash of civilizations would bring humanity to the brink of destruction and lay the groundwork for the formation of the Federation. This week, we look at the definitive chronicle of that momentous event and discover how the crew of the NX-01 faced down the existential...

Star Trek Archives Vol 1: The Best of Peter David. Peter David's prolific writing career in Star Trek began in DC Comics in 1988 and would continue in comics though 2008. With such a plethora of material, IDW has begun curating collections for fans so they can experience them all over again or for the first time. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing, Dan Gunther and Bruce Gibson...

Unworthy. When the crew of Voyager finally returned to the Alpha Quadrant after seven years on the far side of the galaxy, they never thought they would have to return. Now, on a long-term mission of exploration, they find themselves back in uncharted space, confronting not only familiar faces, but new life and new civilizations, as well as something they have long been unfamiliar with: character...

Best Defense: David Mack. A dangerous rescue mission into a confusing alternate reality. A critical peace conference between the Federation and the Klingon Empire is threatened. The Enterprise and her crew up against impossible odds. And for Leonard McCoy, the stakes are far more personal than he could possibly imagine. The epic Star Trek 50th anniversary trilogy continues! In this episode of Lite...

Star Trek Archives 4: Best of Deep Space Nine. Writers and artists often struggle to properly emulate the style of a show when adapting Star Trek to comics, especially in the early days of a series. We've recently seen examples of comics wildly missing the mark! However, when it is done well, the results can be impressive. Such is the case with the Deep Space Nine tales we are looking at this week...

Full Circle. The Voyager series of books had relaunched with the Homecoming and Spirit Walk duologies but then found it's story continuing in major ways beyond the Voyager books and a few years ahead of where the relaunch had left off - Enter Kirsten Beyer to save the day and fill in the missing pieces of the story as well as reinvigorate the Voyager series by bringing it "full circle". In this ep...

Rules of Accusation: Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann. Deep Space Nine: for the past few years, the hallmark of this series has been change. Characters have moved on, the setting has changed, and DS9 doesn't quite feel like it used to. However, every once in awhile, it's good to return to familiar territory. In this week's e-book, we do just that as the old gang of Quark, Rom, Leeta, Zek, and e...

Captain to Captain. Landmark anniversary years are traditionally a big deal in the Star Trek book world. For the 40th anniversary, we got the amazing Crucible trilogy of novels, as well as an epic multi-part e-book story with Mere Anarchy. It makes sense that for this, the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, we get another mini-series showcasing the Original Series: Legacies, a trilogy of novels featur...

The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing. The Romulan War, for much of the history of Star Trek, this early conflict between Earth and the Romulan Star Empire lay shrouded in mystery. It was hoped that Star Trek: Enterprise might give us a glimpse of that momentous event, but alas, the series ended too soon. As is often the case, the novels came to the rescue! Now, finally, Star Trek fans could...

Star Trek Classics: Beginnings. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have Star Trek: The Next Generation comics done in the style of the old Gold Key comics? Well, wonder no more! Crazy, incoherent plots, characters that only sort-of resemble the ones we know and love, and Starfleet officers acting in morally dubious ways abound in the subject of this week's episode of Literary Treks! I...

Force and Motion: Jeffrey Lang. A buddy-buddy cop movie featuring Nog and O'Brien: what more could die-hard fans of Deep Space Nine wish for? Of course, as we all know, trouble finds these two whenever they leave the station together, and this week's novel adventure is no different! Throw in disgraced former Captain Ben Maxwell, and you have the makings of a fascinating story exploring an interest...

Star Trek: Avenger. At the end of William Shatner's The Return, Captain Kirk found himself in dire circumstances. Sacrificing his life once again to save countless others, it looked as though we had again lost the Starfleet legend. However, in 1997, William Shatner (along with collaborators Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens), found themselves once again resurrecting galactic hero James T. Kirk! I...

The Last Will Be First: Tristan Riddell. On November 17th, 2012 a new show was added to the Trek.fm network that was dedicated to the books and comics of Star Trek and that would also allow the authors a place to come and talk about their work, giving fans behind-the-scenes access to the stories. With Strange New Worlds winner and Star Trek author Dayton Ward as the first show guest, Literary Trek...

Elusive Salvation: Dayton Ward. In 2013, the novel From History's Shadow was released, in which author Dayton Ward linked together all of the disparate 20th century Star Trek time travel events in a fun and unique story. It was very well-received, and many readers asked one question over and over: when do we get a follow-up? Well, three years later, Dayton has delivered! In this episode of Literar...

Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 1. Superheroes in Star Trek? Star Trek has attempted a number of ambitious crossovers in the comic world in recent years. The universes of Doctor Who, Planet of the Apes, and Green Lantern have all been visited by our intrepid Starfleet heroes. These are always a fun diversion from the main storylines of the comics, giving a whole new meaning to exploring "str...

Kobayashi Maru. One of the things that disappointed fans the most when Enterprise was canceled was the loss of seeing the Romulan War play out, so as the relaunch hit it's stride it continued the series' build into that storyline. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Bruce Gibson are joined by Section 31 agent Brandon-Shea Mutala to talk about Star Trek Enterprise: Kobayashi...

Burden of Knowledge. The Original Series is an era of Star Trek that lends itself to being depicted in the pages of a comic book: bright colors and outlandish plots all make for entertaining comic stories! However, what makes these stories quintessential Star Trek is the fact that on top of being entertaining, they give us the opportunity to think about issues in a way that other forms of entertai...