10 Essential Star Trek Books For Pre-Internet Trekkies

9. Ashes of Eden

Star Trek Imzadi
CBS

Ok, so there had to be a Shatner book on this list. It could have been Star Trek Memories or Movie Memories but as an essential autobiographical read, I Am Spock takes the crown. Instead we turn to the Shatz other foray into the franchise with his take on fiction.

Over the course of ten novels (yes, ten!), the former Captain Kirk created the Shatnerverse, a series of novels that taken place outside all other novel series and focuses on well, you can guess.

But why include one of them here and why Ashes to Eden?

Back in the day this was plastered everywhere when it was released in 1995. Onscreen Kirk had been killed off mere months before in Generations but here he got to live again through the pen of his own alter ego in what is categorically the best of Shatner's Star Trek stories. Taking place after the decommissioning of the Enterprise-A, the reader sees the journey of both the retired starship captain and his former command.

While later works chose more liberal paths with the source material (see The Return), Ashes of Eden might even have raised a tear on occasion and in 1995 was essential reading.

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A Star Trek fan from birth, I love to dive into every aspect of the franchise in front and behind the screen. There's something here that's kept me interested for the best part of four decades! Now I'm getting back into writing and using Star Trek as my first line of literary attack. If I'm not here on WhatCulture then you're more than welcome to come and take a look at my blog, Some Kind of Star Trek at http://SKoST.co.uk or maybe follow me on Twitter as @TheWarpCore. Sometimes I force myself not to talk about Star Trek.