Finding which book to start in TrekLit can be an overwhelming decision, after all there’s nearly 1,000 books, and that’s not counting the comics!

The easy answer is to pick a book that just came out, swing by /r/TrekBooks and ask if it’s a good one for a first time reader and just dive right in feet first.  The entire purpose of this site (other than to track my personal collection) it to get people talking about Trek books, so if you do that one thing I would consider my job done!

If you want to make the decision your self, choice paralysis is easy to overcome with just three questions:

1. Have you already watched  Star Trek? If you have a franchise you like, you should start with a book in that franchise, as you’re already familiar with the characters and settings. Don’t have one? Just skip over this question!
2. How do you feel about the multiverse? There’s an entire massive series of books that fill in the time period after Trek went off the air in 2005 and is a “What if” story of what the galaxy got up to in the years after TNG, DS9, and VOY were no longer on TV.  Characters had children, others returned from the dead, major villains received awesome origins, and yet others got promotions!  It was all wrapped up in the Coda series that gave a definitive end to that particular splinter universe.
3. Do you want a self contained story?
   1. 1. Yes? Check out one of the numbered series for TOS, TNG, DS9, or VOY.
      2. No? Check out one of the many series that have continuity between books in the series: DTI, DS9: Mission Gamma, New Frontier, Prometheus, Seekers, SCE, Titan, or Vanguard.