Star Trek: The Lost Era

For The Sundered, Michael A. Martin presented the concept of a companion race to humans, similar to the relationship between Romulans and Vulcans, while on a long-distance phone call with Palmieri. Martin and co-writer Andy Mangels explored such a premise while plotting the novel and "all sorts of continuity Easter eggs just presented themselves."[1]^:455

The human descended Neyel species created for The Sundered were included in Martin and Mangels novel The Red King (2005).

While completing Twilight, the first book of the Deep Space Nine miniseries Mission Gamma, David R. George III was approached by Palmieri to write a novel exploring the events surrounding the Tomed Incident. The event led to the signing of the Treaty of Algeron in 2311 between the United Federation of Planets and the Romulan Empire, and the Federation's ban of military uses of cloaking technology.[2] The incident was first mentioned in the Next Generation episode "The Neutral Zone".

The novel was written as a form of rehabilitation of the reputation of John Harriman, captain of the Enterprise-B.[1]^:457 Elements from The Captain's Daughter (1995), by Peter David, were also included. George said he included additional scenes in Twilight which "later made [his] life difficult" while completing Serpents.[1]^:457

The Art of the Impossible, written by Keith DeCandido, was inspired on a brief conversation between Julian Bashir and Elim Garak in the Deep Space Nine episode "The Way of the Warrior". The Betreka Nebula Incident, as discussed, was a violent, eighteen-year, territorial dispute between the Cardassian Union and the Klingon Empire.[3] According to DeCandido, the period between the Khitomer Massacre and the forced annexation of Bajor was exactly eighteen years.[1]^:458

Well of Souls began as an amalgam of three pitch outlines developed by Ilsa J. Bick. Palmieri told Bick he liked the first and third, and to combine the stories into one, and to "make up a crew."[1]^:460 Bick wrote the novel during the winter of 2002, with guidance from both Dean Wesley Smith and Keith DeCandido.

According to Bick, Well of Souls was the longest Star Trek novel published by Pocket Books, however, it was not approved for publication until the page count was reduced to less than 500 pages.[1]^:461 Palmieri achieved by removing chapter page breaks. According to Bick, Palmieri insisted the story be told "the way it was" the book be published as is.

Jeff Mariotte's Deny Thy Father explores the relationship between William Riker and his estranged father Kyle, who was featured in the Next Generation episode "The Icarus Factor". Mariotte explained it is a story about how "two men who hadn’t spoken in fifteen years could turn out to be so similar … but also about fathers and sons."[1]^:462

The planned title of the novel was Daedelus.[1]^:462 Daedelus (2003) by Dave Stern, a Enterprise novel, was due for publication to Mariotte submitting his manuscript. Deny Thy Father was chosen as the alternate title.

Margaret Wander Bonanno contacted the editors at Pocket Books to inquire about writing a new Star Trek novel, at the urging of fans.[1]^:463 Ten years had passed since the publication of Probe (1992), which was surrounded by some controversy, and Bonanno was concerned she had been blacklisted by the editors at Simon & Schuster and or by Paramount Pictures, who owned Star Trek at the time. Palmieri assured her there was no such thing, and asked she contribute to the Lost Era.

Uhura was chosen by Bonanno as the novel's protagonist "to show aspects of [her] character we never got to see onscreen."[1]^:463 Bonanno had previously worked with Nichelle Nichols on the novel Saturn's Child (1995).

One Constant Star, by David R. George III, is a sequel to Serpents Among the Ruins, set eight years post.[4] George said the novel explores "the notion of responsibility—to a person's sworn duty, to their loved ones, and to themselves."

The Buried Age (2007), a Next Generation novel by Christopher L. Bennett, and the Terok Nor (2008) miniseries were marketed as "Tales of the Lost Era". Fansites, such as Memory Alpha, grouped the novels with the Lost Era. In a 2014, StarTrek.com referred to the Lost Era as a "long-running" series.[6] It is unclear if long-running referred to the novels marketed as "Tales of…" published after Catalyst of Sorrows (2003), or to the addition of One Constant Star (2014), by David R. George to the Lost Era series.

Novels featuring characters from the series, and as well as novels with a similar premise: