Literary Treks: A Star Trek Books and Comics Podcast

Kirsten Beyer: Atonement  The relaunch of Voyager under the direction of Kirsten Beyer has seen the return of the crew and the Full Circle fleet to the Delta Quadrant as well Kathryn Janeway back from the "dead" with the trilogy that began in Protectors coming to a rapid conclusion.   In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther are joined by Kirsten Beyer to talk about...

Peter David: The Returned  There are very few authors out there that can say they have worked for Dc Comics, Marvel and Dark Horse Comics and have written almost every major comic book character at some point in their career and to top it all off have gotten to play in the Star Trek universe, creating completely new characters and working with the established to build his own Trek playground. In t...

Shadows of the Indigent. There are very few times in The Original Series where the trinity of Kirk, Spock and McCoy is not apart of an episode, but during the years between TOS and TMP the characters had taken different paths, Kirk was an admiral, McCoy a country doctor and Spock was on Vulcan attending to a private matter. With the Mere Anarchy series spanning the entirety of TOS, it gives the wr...

David Mack: Seekers 3: Long Shot. What if the laws of probability were no longer a factor and the most improbable and nigh unthinkable things began to happen? This is exactly what the crew of the Sagittarius runs into in the latest Seekers novel and the solution may just cost them more than they bargained for. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther welcome back aut...

Bajor: Fragments and Omens. Unity saw Bajor finally make it into the Federation as a member world, fulfilling one the biggest storylines of the Deep Space Nine television series. Transition is never easy and Bajor now finds itself experiencing the growing pains of integrating itself into the interstellar community. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther talk about...

New Frontier: The Returned Part 2. Part one of The Returned left us with a classic cliffhanger as Calhoun and his crew had traveled to a pocket universe in hot pursuit of the aliens responsible for the genocide of the Xenexians and to rescue the Starfleet personnel they had taken hostage.    In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther discuss The Returned Part 2 . We ta...

Trill: Unjoined. The Deep Space Nine book Unity left the Trill people shaken to their very core with the revelation that the parasites were actually somehow related the symbionts. With the planet in turmoil, Julian Bashir and Ezri Dax travel to Trill in hopes of unraveling the mystery of the parasites and bringing peace to a planet on the brink of civil war.  In this episode of Literary Treks host...

Mere Anarchy: The Centre Cannot Hold. The Original Series is often seen as an anthology show since the Enterprise hops from planet to planet with no real connection to what came before. The literary universe gives the authors the opportunity to show that just because a specific mission is over that does not mean the the crew never returns to further the relationship that has begun. In this episode...

David R. George III: Sacraments of Fire. When The Soul Key ended in 2009, Star Trek fans were left with a massive cliffhanger as Illiana Ghemor stood in front of the Ascendants and proclaimed; " I am the Fire." Unfortunately the story of the Ascendants arc was lost as the DS9 books caught up with the rest of the 24th century in the Typhon Pact series. that is, until now.  In this episode of Litera...

New Frontier: The Returned, Part 1. When the New Frontier series began in 1997 it was a bold experiment for Pocket Books, a series without lead characters from on of the Star Trek series. Over the years it's popularity has grown and has a loyal following which has lead to a new three part ebook series.  In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther discuss The Returned, P...

Ex Machina. The Motion Picture left Star Trek fans with as many questions as it answered and when the story picked up in The Wrath of Khan, a lot of them did not truly get adressed leaving the audience to wonder, what happened to the crew after Kirk said, "Out there..... thataway." In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther discuss Christopher L. Bennett's, Ex Machina....

Andor: Paradigm. The Andorians have always been one of Star Trek's best looking races, yet even by the time the DS9 relaunch started, they had been little more than window dressing. The relaunch team set out to change that by bringing on a new character to the station, allowing the authors to create a vivid culture for the Andorians. It is no surprise that when the Worlds of DS9 series started tha...

Cardassia: The Lotus Flower.  The Dominion War left Cardassia ravaged. The planet is on the edge of a knife, as it's people scrounge for food, power and answers, trying to rebuild a once proud civilization. The question becomes, do they look to the past for answers or forge something new? In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther talk about Una McCormack's book Cardas...

Armageddon's Arrow.  It has been a long road of recovery for the Federation since the events of Destiny. Captain Picard once asked during a previous war, "Does anyone remember when we use to be explorers?". Now the time has come for the Enterprise to once again boldly go and author Dayton Ward has given us a front row seat in Armageddon's Arrow.  In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rus...

Born With Teeth. Kate Mulgrew burst on to the scene for Star Trek fans in the winter of 1995 and became the first female lead in the franchise, but Kate's life did not start there. She had a full life way before Trek came around.  In this episode of Literary Treks host Matthew Rushing is joined by To The Journey's own Charlynn Schmiedt to talk about Kate Mulgrew's new memoir Born With Teeth. We di...

Assimilation². In 1963 a BBC production by the name of Doctor Who premiered and just four years later Star Trek would premiere on NBC. Little did anyone know that these two shows would continue for so long or become such a part of the cultural zeitgeist. Yet the two franchises would not be brought together till 2012 in the form of a comic crossover.  In this episode of Literary Trek hosts Matthew...

Dave Galanter: Crisis of Consciousness. Star Trek books have always been good at filling in the gaps and giving us a deeper understanding for the decisions the characters make on screen, it's one of the joys of Treklit.  In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther are joined by author Dave Galanter to talk about his newest TOS book, Crisis of Consciousness. We discuss h...

Mere Anarchy: Things Fall Apart. 2006 saw the celebration of 40 years of Star Trek and to celebrate Pocket Books put together an ebook series comprising of six books that would span the entire Original Series timeline. Each story would build on the next as Kirk and his crew dealt with the aftermath of a disaster on the planet Mestiko. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan...

Unity. In 2001 S.D. Perry kicked off the Deep Space Nine Relaunch and set Star Trek books on a bold new path, continuing the adventures of the crew like more season of the show. As she started the "season" so she would end it, with two books acting as an epic finale, Rising Son and Unity. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther discuss Unity. We talk how it wraps up...

Gold Key Comics Vol.1 Part 2. Starting with issue one, Gold Key created a unique look at what Star Trek might have been without the philosophy Gene Roddenberry and basis in scientific extrapolation. The pulp wackiness of the series has delighted readers for close to 50 years. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther finish their look at the first volume of IDW's repr...

Rising Son. The last time Jake Sisko was seen in the Deep Space Nine relaunch, he had bought a ship from Quark and was headed into the wormhole, in an effort to fulfill a prophecy that seemed to indicate he would be reunited with his father. It would not be till six books later that we would have an answer to the question, "What happened to Jake?". In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew R...

Gold Key Comics Vol. 1. The first company to produce Star Trek comics was Gold Key. Armed in the beginning with only production art and never having seen the show, these comics give fans a picture of what Star Trek might have been without the philosophy and hope for the future Roddenberry instilled in the franchise.  In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther go back t...

Uncertain Logic. There is always a beginning and The Rise of the Federation series is the story of how a fledgling group of planets will become the shining beacon of hope known as the Federation we see in The Original Series and beyond. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther dive into the latest book by Christopher L. Bennett, Uncertain Logic. We talk about the sur...

Shadow of the Machine. In the aftermath of The Motion Picture the TOS characters were seen supposedly going back to the final frontier but what if they went back to Earth first for repairs and shore leave first?  In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Dan Gunther discuss Shadows of the Machine, the latest enovella by Scott Harrison. We talk about the how heroes are real people...

Tony Daniel: Savage Trade. One of the joys of Star Trek literature is what it can add to the series, even the bad  episodes can be improved upon through a well written book or comic.  In this episode of Literary Treks Matthew Rushing is joined by author Tony Daniel to talk about his latest novel, Savage Trade that follows up on the classic TOS episode, Savage Curtain. We discuss the genesis of the...