Saw some posts and comments from a while back about the Trek books and decided to give them a try. Starting out with “Q-Squared” because it was on sale for $1.99 and I figured a Q-centric story would be a fun entry point. I am now kind of regretting that frugal decision.
It follows multiple parallel realities (called “tracks” in the book) with Q and Trelane central to the plots, so my usual casual reading style of a chapter each evening is not working out well because I just cannot keep up.
The only saving grace is that I’ve at least read “A Stitch in Time” so I know not all Trek books are this confusing. Probably going to have to just power through this one and not let it ruin the medium. It’s not that it’s a bad story, just hard to follow.
Very nice and…way more detailed than I would have imagined. I don’t even see the book I’m currently reading in that chart. I did find “Destiny” in there (recommended here twice) and it has the indicator for “good starting point” even though several others lead into it. So if I needed a third reason to buy that set, there it is.
Luckily (YMMV) I’ve come to appreciate ebooks so it’s just a matter of finding ones that don’t have DRM and putting in my credit card.
Are you against DRM for technical limitations or convenience? I do it for convenience and started writing down before choosing what to buy, but even some short trilogies have mixed DRM and no DRM. I mostly use Kobo for buying but I have no strings attached.
The main thing that personally drives me nuts about DRM is as a Linux user, many streaming services will only give you 480p or even 360p video even though you’re paying for more. With that bullcrap, combined with buggy streaming services, the high seas is sometimes literally a better experience than streaming. Then the hippy moral stuff gets involved:
Although of course, if I can buy it used on Blu-Ray at a local business (Zia and Bookmans are probably the two best places to do it in my area), I’ll do that instead, and just rip the Blu-Rays; it funds places I like while still being (more) legal (than just straight up pirating).
(Granted, I’m a bit of a hypocrite, as I don’t pirate that much. I’m still on Paramount+ for now because my parents still pay for it, but we’re so focused on Star Trek that my idea to just get the Blu-Rays and DVDs is tempting them to get off.)
Both technical limitations, convenience, and moral objections to DRM (if it has to phone home or I can’t use it how I want, I won’t buy it). I have a Kobo but prefer to have a clean epub for whatever I buy so I feel like I actually own it.
The online shop I bought “Q-Squared” from has most of them DRM free, including all 3 of the Destiny books. Not sure how deep the DRM-free well is, but spot checking it shows most of the ones I looked at were clean. Worst comes to worse, I’ll do like I did when I still bought ebooks from Amazon and buy the DRM’d version and high-seas a clean copy.
I’m usually not big on ebooks, as I tend to read in the evening and haven’t had a good e-reader for a long time, and I just don’t enjoy blue light at night.
However, I got a bunch of Star Trek comic eBooks in a Humble Bundle recently, and I need a good way to read those; I’m thinking I’ll pick up one of the Kobo Colors. I’ve seen their limitations, and while it’s enough to annoy a lot of comic readers, I’m personally fine so long as I can distinguish the division colors and think it would still be a good purchase for my use case. It might also be nice for my many Star Trek Adventures RPG PDFs; it’d be one less window on my laptop when I (occasionally) GM.
I also like to read in the evening, usually right before bed. My Kobo has adjustable color temp but I usually leave the backlight off and just use my lamp like with a normal book. Looks better and easier on the eyes IMO and also makes the epaper seem more magical. I dunno why, but the backlight on them ruins the effect for me.
Haven’t tried a color one. TBH, the Kobo I have is the very entry-level one since I wasn’t sure if I’d use it often or not. Turns out I love it so may upgrade at some point.