For pretty much the first time since I started this blog, I am in the position of having no unread Star Trek novels in my TBR. That makes it as good a time as any to run through the numbers and see where the best of these novels can be found.

For those unfamiliar with how the Star Trek Litverse works, there are tie-in novels for every series except for (at present) The Animated Series and Lower Decks, though characters from The Animated series do appear in novels associated with The Original Series. I have not personally read books associated with Prodigy or Strange New Worlds, though I hope to get to the latter sooner rather than later. The tie-ins generally fall into two categories: those set before and during the series whose characters they feature, and those set after their respective season finales. This latter category is generally referred to as Relaunch novels, and tend to have more connections between books.

In addition, there are books that don’t directly tie-in to any specific TV series. Some feature crossovers of various TV show characters, while others are largely concerned with characters devised originally for the books. The Litverse novels, as they are commonly known, built a complex timeline spreading from Star Trek Nemesis, through to the Coda trilogy, which quite literally ended the literary timeline to pave the way for the new canon created by Star Trek: Picard and other new TV series.

Today I’m only going to be talking about the books, but for context I will include a quick ranking of the TV shows, starting with my favourite, and ten decreasing in order. Like all such lists, it is subject to change, especially since some of the shows are still on air.

1. Voyager
2. Enterprise
3. Deep Space Nine
4. Strange New Worlds
5. The Next Generation
6. Discovery
7. Lower Decks
8. Picard
9. The Original Series
10. I have not seen Prodigy

With that out of the way, I’ll move straight on to an equivalent ranking of the novels. Any series not directly tying into a TV series comes under the Litverse section. The number in brackets is the average score out of 5 for those books.

1. Picard (4.25)
2. Enterprise (4.16)
3. Voyager (3.73)
4. The Next Generation (3.73)
5. Litverse (3.65)
6. The Original Series (3.48)
7. Deep Space Nine (3.30)
8. Discovery (2.67)

A few notes on this. First is that Picard benefits from a very strong crop of writers, whereas earlier series were the work of far more hands. The Original Series, Next Generation, and Deep Space Nine all suffer from having many books written before the series had been properly established. Deep Space Nine also suffers from a particularly weak Relaunch phase, in contrast to Enterprise and Voyager, which had very strong relaunches.

Within the Litverse, there are several distinct series, which I will rank here. I have also included series which crossover between TV show lines.

1. Destiny (4.75)
2. Prometheus (4.33)
3. Section 31 (4.25)
4. Vanguard (4.00)
5. The Lost Era (3.82)
6. The Fall (3.80)
7. Titan (3.78)
8. Seekers (3.75)
9. A Time To . . . (3.67)
10. Coda (3.67)
11. Typhon Pact (3.43)
12. Prey (3.30)
13. New Frontier (3.28)

Again, I have some notes here. Destiny is in many ways the cornerstone of the Litverse, and I have included both David Mack’s initial trilogy and Keith R.A. DeCandido’s A Singular Destiny follow-up. Prometehus is unique as the only series which originated in a non-English format, specifically German. Vanguard and Seekers are a linked pair of series that represents some of the most ambitious storytelling set in the era of the Original Series. Typhon Pact and The Fall are similarly linked series set post-Nemesis that reshape the political geography of the Star Trek universe. The Titan series and New Frontier are perhaps the closest to a TV show that the Litverse ever reached. New Frontier was written solely by Peter David, and featured an almost entirely original crew. Titan, in contrast, is a direct follow-on to the Next Generation, centred on Captain Riker and his predominantly alien crew, written by a variety of authors.

Finally, I would like to rank some of the most prolific Star Trek novelists. All of the following have written at least three novels, and you can find individual reviews throughout this blog.

1. S.D. Perry (4.33)
2. James Swallow (4.29)
3. David Mack (4.28)
4. Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin (4.25)
5. Michael A. Martin (4.25)
6. Kirsten Beyer (4.09)
7. Christopher L. Bennett (4.00)
8. Keith R. A. DeCandido (4.00)
9. Dayton Ward (3.86)
10. Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore (3.67)
11. Una McCormack (3.60)
12. John Jackson Miller (3.50)
13. Peter David (3.40)
14. Michael Jan Friedman (3.40)
15. Diane Carey (3.00)
16. David R. George III (2.67)

I won’t be making any notes on individual authors, save to give my usual caveat that you should always read them yourself to make up your own mind. I’ll also note that there’s a good spread of talented authors across the multiple decades of Star Trek tie-in fiction, and that the franchise remains in good hands today.

These statistics were based on the first 203 Star Trek books I’ve read. If I ever make it to 300, I’ll make an updated version.