The lead-up to the Battle of Binary Stars.
A series of tie-in novels for the television series Star Trek: Discovery published by Simon and Shuster.
It is before the era of Captain Kirk and the U.S.S Enterprise is still under the command of Captain Pike. The events of the Battle of Binary Stars have not happened for most of the stories but looms over the fates of the U.S.S Discovery's future crew. The majority of novels serve as Prequel stories for the series with it moving from the 23rd century to 32nd century.
The books in this series include:
- Desperate Hours by David Mack
- Drastic Measures by Dayton Ward
- Fear Itself by James Swallow
- The Way to The Stars by Una McCormack
- The Enterprise War by John Jackson Miller
- Dead Endless by Dave Galanter
- Die Standing by John Jackson Miller
- Wonderlands by Una McCormack
These novels contain the following tropes:
- Adaptational Villainy: Kodos the Executioner was a Tragic Villain in his episode of TOS but is portrayed as a monstrous lunatic in Drastic Measures.
- All There in the Manual: What the Enterprise was doing during the Klingon War in The Enterprise War.
- Canon Discontinuity: Despite being one of the early books, Desperate Hours is overridden by the second season due to their dramatically different takes on the Burnham/Spock relationship. (Though The Enterprise War does make attempts at smoothing out some of the discontinuities between the two.)
- Canon Welding: Drastic Measures does this with the Conscience of the King episode of the Original Series and Discovery.
- Coming-of-Age Story: This is the basis for The Way to the Stars and Cadet Tilly.
- Dramatic Irony: The story about how Captain Lorca became the jaded, cynical, and ruthless officer in Discovery has nothing to do with the character in the show because they're completely different people.
- Prequel: The majority of books provide backstory on the politics and characterization of characters in the series.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Captain Pike plays a minor role in Desperate Hours. This is before he showed up (along with Spock) in the second season of Discovery.
- Lighter and Softer: The Way to the Stars is a much-much nicer book than is typical even for Star Trek. It's mostly about a girl just exploring her options and gaining self-sufficiency.
- No Antagonist: The Way to the Stars is a book that revolves around Tilly's own insecurities.
- Spoiled Sweet: Tilly is a young woman who wants for nothing in the Federation and as one of the elite families but still is unfulfilled and likes it better on the frontier.
- Trapped by Mountain Lions: The Enterprise is revealed to have been in this to explain why it wasn't involved in the Klingon War.
- Villain Protagonist: Die Standing stars Emperor Georgiou from the Mirror Universe, working for Section 31.
