The in-universe book can be found in all sorts of genres.  In Star Trek we’ve seen this type of book recently with Star Trek Federation: The First 150 Years and The Autobiography of James T. Kirk.  You’re either a fan of this type of work or you aren’t–these books attempt to take readers deeper into the world and stories of our favorite characters.  More than found in the basic canon, in a way that often seems less imaginative than something like a tie-in novel.  Rarely have we read this type that knocked our socks off.  An exception is DK’s Star Trek: A Visual Dictionary–a simple but enjoyable look inside all facets of Star Trek (reviewed here previously at borg.com).  A new in-universe book by DK qualifies as a good read and maybe even a great Star Trek work.

The Star Trek Book celebrates 50 years of Star Trek with what amounts to a school textbook from Star Trek’s future.  Detailing the lives of key players in the Federation, chronicling major events, technologies, cultures, and locales, The Star Trek Book lives up to its promise.  The chronicle itself is brilliantly executed.  Not simply a time period by time period account, such as taking each series one by one, instead this account weaves the facts and features of all series and movies together as a singular whole.  This makes for a reference you won’t simply read and file away on the shelf, but one you keep coming back to (as we have in the weeks since we got a first look at the book).

The reboot universe of Star Trek, here designated for the first time as the Kelvin timeline, is handled alongside the original series cast and stories.  The Enterprise series is intermingled with Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek Voyager, and the key events from the movies, all in a way that finally gives each component equal coverage.  So fans of one or all the series will find something of interest here.

You’ll find segments on subjects as varied as The Temporal Cold War, the role of the Defiant, the role of he Maquis, the five species of Xindi, the Earth-Romulan War, transporters, and cloaking devices.  All major races are covered, including Talosians, Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans, Tellarites, and more.  And each major crew member of the NX-01, the Enterprise, the Enterprise-D, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, each have pages of biographical data.

If you missed it, check out some preview pages from The Star Trek Book here.  The Star Trek Book is available now here at Amazon.com.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com