u/DanTheMeek

Interested in getting into Star Trek books but finding it both daunting an confusing. It seems like there's numbered books, non numbered books, books that are part of something called a "lit-verse", books that aren't, books that are connected to each other, books that aren't, and on and on. Written books, comic books, audio books. A series by Simon and Schuster, a series by Pocket Books. Miniseries, anthologies, trilogies, duologies, I think I might have even seen what looked like a manga.

All of which is to say, I'd really love a documentary like break down of the history of star trek books, explanations on how all this came to be, why some are numbered, how to tell if something is in this "lit verse" or stand alone, what books or series if any have an intended reading order, what if any are considered the cream of the crop that people think of first when they think of trek books.

From what I understand of star wars books, there's a generally recommended starting point (Heir to the Empire) for their expanded universe, not the first book but the first one that was so good that everyone felt they needed to expand on it, so its both worth reading because of it being good, and because anything you pick up printed after it will likely benefit from the context of it, does Trek have something similar?

Seems like there's over a thousand books out there, so a history of those books, even if not helpful for me on where to start, could just be an interesting listen/read, at the least.

Lots of talk lately about Rodgers maybe coming to town, but what are people's thoughts on Brendan Sorsby, a QB many had as a top 3 QB prospect, who...

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(Bold814 better explained the situation so I'm posting his explanation here)

"He didn’t have sports betting issues that prevented him from entering the draft this year. He transferred to Texas Tech from Cincinnati. The gambling issues could cause him to lose NCAA eligibility for the year (this is currently a legal issue). Thus, if his eligibility is not restored - he would apply for the supplemental draft."

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Assuming he enters the supplemental draft, which is not yet a given, and some one took him, he'd be the first player taken in the supplemental draft for any team since we took Jalen Thompson (who obviously worked out well for us) with a 5th. He was usually still behind Mendoza on most people who evaluated him (that I saw) big board, but seemed to be viewed favorably to Ty, with a higher ceiling (but lower floor).

I personally wouldn't mind us bidding as high as a 4th on him. I don't think he's worth a high round 2027 pick, and if we won him we would unfortunately have created a sort of Dillon Gabriel + Shedeur Sanders situation, two young mid round guys guys fighting over reps, but I do think Sorsby's ceiling is higher then Becks. For a fourth rounder, I feel he'd be worth rolling the dice. At the least it'd create a real QB competition this year that could make watching the games more interesting.

So I'm re-reading the manga from the beginning again, and I know I'm not the first to notice how protective Sanji is of Usopp in the early sagas, especially compared to the rest of the crew, frequently coming to his defense when no one else was. The biggest stand out was probably during the water 7 arc where he's very aggressive in defending Ussop, both verbally, and physically when Luffy was about to say something particularly cruel to Ussop and Sanji kicks Luffy to shut him up. He also tries to tell Ussop about the coming flood in a way that wouldn't hurt his pride (with choppers help), and much much more.

But it was only on this read that the realization came upon me, Usopp has been to the straw hats crew found family, what Sanji was to his biological family, growing up. He's the lone guy with out super powers in a family full of them. Yes Nami isn't a super human fighter, but aside from the fact she repeatedly proves more reliable in a fight then Usopp in these early arcs, her super human navigation skills still make her an indispensable part of their crew, while Usopp's sniper abilities are, for most of the series, never really needed or even acknowledged. Even when giving his big speech to Arlong where Luffy announces why each of his crew are indispensable to him, the reason he gives for "needing" Ussop is that he (Luffy) isn't good at lying, which unlike the rest who are heart warmed by Luffy's comment about them, Ussop takes offense to as it appears even in such a powerful moment, Usopp is just a joke to Luffy (from Usopp's perspective).

A consequence of this is that Sanji is uniquely positioned to be the only crew member who can truly relate to Usopp when he expresses his feelings of inferiority and uselessness relative to his family. It thus makes sense that Sanji would be so defensive of Usopp, so quick to protect and support him, while at the same time always doing so in a way that allows Usopp to keep his pride, to not feel like he's being pitied or looked down upon by Sanji for doing so. He's been there, he knows how Usopp is feeling all too well.

It really re-contextualized their relationship on this read through, and made some of their sweetest scenes together all the sweeter. Sanji's not just the big brother to Usopp, he's the big brother Sanji wished HE had growing up.