Literary Treks: A Star Trek Books and Comics Podcast

Live By the Code. In his Rise of the Federation series, Christopher L. Bennett has attempted an ambitious project: telling the story of the early days of the Federation, and showing how we got from there to here (to coin a phrase). Brain-sucking computers, smooth-headed Klingons, and interplanetary bigotry and conflict are just a few of the challenges that the young United Federation of Planets fa...

Star Trek: Mirror Images. The Mirror Universe: there are many familiar faces there, but the reality is very different from our own. Rather than the kind, benevolent Federation we know and love, Earth is at the center of a vast empire, ruled by dark passions and the desire for conquest. There have been many stories set in this dark reality in the 50 years Star Trek has existed, each featuring famil...

The Return. Shortly after Star Trek: Generations was released, William Shatner pitched a story featuring the return of Captain Kirk to the land of the living. Paramount passed on the story, but undeterred, Shatner sold the idea as a novel. The Return would prove to be a great seller, with many fans wanting to read the story of the resurrection of a Star Trek legend. In this episode of Literary Tre...

The Latter Fire: James Swallow. Star Trek has always featured outlandish ideas such as huge space creatures and other pretty out-there science fiction concepts. However, at its core, Star Trek is really about the struggles that we all face in overcoming negative forces such as violence and fear to come together to build a better world. No one understands that basic idea more than renowned Trek aut...

Gold Key: Vol. 2: Part 2. The Gold Key comics: The Star Trek that might have been. Though the stories may be somewhat ridiculous and the artwork might not quite look like the Star Trek we know and love, there is still a lot to enjoy about these stories from Star Trek's early days. Giant space genies, disembodied Vulcan boogeymen, and swashbuckling pirates are the subject of this week's episode! In...

Miasma. The TOS movie era is a period of Star Trek history rife with story possibilities. Kirk's crew aboard the Enterprise-A has been through a lot together, and that experience has molded them into some of Starfleet's most valuable officers. Imagine if a television series had been set in this period. The episodes of that imaginary series might have been very much like the e-novella we are discus...

The Ashes of Eden. In 1995, the first novel of what came to be known as the "Shatner-verse" hit bookshelves. This book spawned a series that would last for ten books and twelve years, featuring all-new adventures about James T. Kirk, penned by William Shatner himself. Journey with us back in time as we take a look at where it all began! In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and D...

A Pocket Full of Lies: Kirsten Beyer. Ever since Full Circle hit bookshelves in 2009, the Voyager relaunch novels under Kirsten Beyer have become a highlight of the Star Trek novel line. In this, the 50th anniversary year of Star Trek, the bar is raised once again as another stellar Voyager novel continues the story of the Full Circle fleet's exploration of the Delta Quadrant. In this episode of L...

The Good That Men Do. When the final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise aired, it was promoted as a "valentine" to the fans. However, it's reception left much to be desired. Featuring a nonsensical plot and laughable villains, "These Are the Voyages" was not well-loved. Therefore, when it was announced that an Enterprise "relaunch" story would undo some of the worst parts of that episode, many Enter...

Ascendance: David R. George III. The Deep Space Nine relaunch had been building to a showdown with the Ascendants and The Soul Key left fans with a massive cliffhanger but with Star Trek Destiny bringing all the crews together, the Ascendants story line was dropped in order to align the DS9 books with the rest of the 24th century. Fans have long wondered what transpired with the Ascendants and how...

Gold Key Comics Vol. 2, Part 1. If the writers and artist in Far Beyond the Stars who worked with Benny wrote and illustrated a comic that imagined the universe of Star Trek, what they would have produced would have surely looked and felt like the Gold Key Comics. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther talk about Gold Key Comics Volume 2. We discuss the evolution o...

Child of Two Worlds. 2015 has been a banner year for Star Trek literature. With just one more book to talk about, we go back to where it all began: The Space Ship Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike. An incident involving a young woman torn between two worlds may lead to open conflict with the Klingon Empire! In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunt...

Mere Anarchy: Its Hour Come Round. The film Star Trek: Generations saw the loss of a legend: Captain James T. Kirk, presumed dead during the maiden voyage of the Enterprise-B. The loss is a devastating one, especially for his former crew and the lives he has touched over the many years of his Starfleet career, including the people of the ravaged planet Mestiko. As the people of that world debate j...

When the Deep Space Nine relaunch began in 2001, readers were treated to a great series of stories that laid the groundwork for the shared continuity of the 24th century novels. Unfortunately, the ongoing story of DS9 under Captain Kira came to an unexpected halt with The Soul Key, the final novel before the narrative was jumped forward to catch up with the rest of the shared universe. In this epi...

Who Killed Captain Kirk? Comics have been an integral part of Star Trek, from the first Gold Key Comics in 1967 to Marvel Comics which picked up the license in 1979 and ran until 1982, after which DC Comics continued the adventures of the Enterprise with writers like Diane Duane and Peter David. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther talk about Peter David's Who Ki...

Mere Anarchy: The Blood-Dimmed Tide. Journeying thought The Original Series timeline the Mere Anarchy series have given fans a taste of what was happening in every period of the characters lives as well as the important events they were apart of and the penultimate book in the series is no exception. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther talk about The Blood-Dimme...

Seekers 4: All That's Left. Seeking out strange new worlds and new civilizations was not just the mission of the Enterprise, there were many other ships in Starlet who boldly went forth to do just that and the crew of the Endeavor was no exception. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther welcome authors Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore to talk about their latest book i...

Assimilation²: Volume 2. Doctor Who and Star Trek both continue to delight fans and create new converts even though they have both been around for 50 years and as each new generation finds them, the inevitable question becomes, "What would happen if the two shows crossed over?". Luckily there are comics to answer that question! In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunthe...

Fearful Symmetry. Deep Space Nine was the first Star Trek series since the original to make use of the Mirror Universe and as the relaunch series worked it's way to telling the showdown with the Ascendents, a wrinkle was thrown in as Iliana Ghemmor from the prime universe was revealed to be the one behind Taran'atar's recent madness and that was only the beginning of her diabolical plan to become...

Mere Anarchy: The Darkness Drops Again. The film era of TOS is rife with story possibilities since there is so much time between The Motion Picture and The Undiscovered Country and the films only give us a small percentage of the story, leaving space for the authors to fill in the details. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther talk about Mere Anarchy: The Darkness...

Warpath. Deep Space Nine was the one Star Trek series that was not afraid to show the darker side of the universe, so it should come as no surprise to readers of the relaunch novels that the books continued that tradition as the story continued to unfold. In this episode of Literary Treks Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther talk about David Mack's book Warpath. We discuss going from bad to worse, lack...

The Dominion: Olympus Descending. As Deep Space Nine ended, The Dominion was left in disarray, they had lost the war and found themselves without clear direction. As Odo rejoins the Link he works to influence it, sharing his experiences among the solids with the changeling community, with the hope of fostering change, but something else has captivated the Link and it's nothing Odo could have ever...

James Swallow: Sight Unseen. The Fall series brought about massive changes for the crew of the Titan as the ship was recalled from the Gum Nebula region and Riker was promoted to Admiral, but the changes continue as the ship receives a new mission and some new crew members. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther are joined by James Swallow to talk about his book Si...

David A. Goodman: The Autobiography of James T. Kirk. There are very few characters from television, film or literature that loom as large as Captain Kirk, he's become a part of the cultural zeitgeist alongside Bond, Superman and Darth Vader, but never before has he been presented to the world in his own words. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther are joined by D...

Ferenginar: Satisfaction is Not Guaranteed. The world of Ferenginar was first seen on Star Trek in the Deep Space Nine episode, Family Business and would only be seen one other time in the series yet the planet was home to some of the show's most beloved characters so it was an obvious choice to visit again in the Worlds of DS9 books. In this episode of Literary Treks Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunth...