David Mack Books in Order
Browse David Mack books in order, from Star Trek epics to Dark Arts, with short summaries, series guides, and simple recommendations on where to start.
Last updated: July 7, 2026
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Publication Order
47 books
Invincible, Part 1
by David Mack
2001
The *da Vinci* faces a seemingly unstoppable threat that cannot be solved by brute force alone. What begins as a technical puzzle quickly turns into a fight for survival.
Invincible, Part 2
by David Mack
2001
With the crisis escalating, the engineers have to turn theory into a last-ditch plan. The second half pays off the mystery with higher stakes and very little margin for error.
The Starfleet Survival Guide
by David Mack
2002
This in-universe manual offers a smart, playful crash course in uniforms, away missions, starships, and the unwritten rules of not getting yourself killed in Starfleet.
Wildfire
by David Mack
2002
A Starfleet engineering mission turns into a claustrophobic disaster when the *da Vinci* crew is trapped in a failing environment. Every fix creates a new risk, and time is not on their side.
Buying Time
by David Mack
2003
Another Corps of Engineers emergency becomes a race against collapse, where each repair only delays the next failure. It is a fast technical crisis built around problem-solving under pressure.
Wildfire Book 2
by David Mack
2003
The disaster deepens, escape routes narrow, and the *da Vinci* crew has to keep thinking while the environment turns deadly. This second part finishes one of Mack's most intense engineering stories.
A Time to Heal
by David Mack
2004
In the wake of the previous crisis, Picard and his crew try to steady a damaged situation without losing themselves in the process. It is a direct follow-up about recovery, duty, and hard compromises.
A Time to Kill
by David Mack
2004
The *Enterprise-E* faces a volatile frontier crisis where diplomacy and force are both risky. Picard must split his attention between political danger, crew strain, and a situation that keeps getting worse.
Failsafe
by David Mack
2004
When an observation probe crashes on a pre-warp world, the Corps of Engineers must destroy it before local terrorists turn stolen technology into a weapon. A clean repair job becomes a cultural crisis.
Harbinger
by David Mack
2005
Kirk's *Enterprise* stops at Starbase 47, Vanguard, and quickly learns the Taurus Reach is anything but routine frontier space. Rival powers, secret agendas, and ancient mysteries make a volatile beginning.
Small World
by David Mack
2005
The *da Vinci* crew encounters a civilization that has literally miniaturized its own world to survive. Helping them means solving one of the strangest engineering problems in the series.
Warpath
by David Mack
2006
After attacking Kira and Ro, Taran'atar escapes Deep Space 9 with Prynn Tenmei as a hostage. Vaughn and the *Defiant* give chase while old wounds open across the whole station.
Glass Empires
by David Mack
2007
This Mirror Universe collection moves across multiple eras of a darker Star Trek reality, from imperial power games to rebellion and survival. It is a broad, grim tour of how twisted this timeline can get.
Reap the Whirlwind
by David Mack
2007
The Taurus Reach grows more unstable as frontier politics, military pressure, and older secrets start feeding one another. *Vanguard* shifts from tense outpost drama into a much larger regional crisis.
Gods of Night
by David Mack
2008
The Borg return in force, and the Federation may be facing extinction. Far away, the discovery of a dead Earth ship on an empty world hints that the answers lie deep in the past.
Lost Souls
by David Mack
2008
The Borg war reaches its breaking point, and Picard, Riker, and Dax each face choices that could cost everything. This finale aims for survival, sacrifice, and the true meaning of the trilogy's title.
Mere Mortals
by David Mack
2008
As Earth braces for invasion, Picard and Dax race to cut off the Borg advance while Riker encounters the reclusive Caeliar. The middle *Destiny* book widens the war and the mystery behind it.
Precipice
by David Mack
2009
Operation Vanguard is in chaos. Quinn finds an ancient Shedai conduit, Pennington and T'Prynn chase a desperate lead, and Diego Reyes learns his enemies may not be the people holding him prisoner.
Promises Broken
by David Mack
2009
Promicin is spreading, Promise City is under pressure, and the world keeps moving toward open conflict. This *4400* continuation turns social panic and superhuman politics into a final reckoning.
The Calling
by David Mack
2009
Tom Nash hears prayers that demand action, and one desperate plea sends him from small-town Pennsylvania to New York City. A kidnapped girl, a shaken marriage, and a supernatural gift push him into danger.
The Sorrows of Empire
by David Mack
2010
Mirror Spock becomes emperor and tries to reform a system built on fear and blood. The result is part political thriller, part tragic study of how hard it is to civilize an empire.
Zero Sum Game
by David Mack
2010
As the Typhon Pact rises, Bashir and Sarina infiltrate the Breen on a mission where failure could redraw the balance of power. Ezri Dax and the *Aventine* crew back a plan with no safe outcome.
Declassified
by David Mack
2011
This *Vanguard* collection fills in key gaps around the larger saga with missions, reports, and side stories from across the Taurus Reach. It is a useful way to see how the big plot affects everyone else.
Rise Like Lions
by David Mack
2011
In the Mirror Universe, Smiley O'Brien and his exhausted rebels make a last stand against the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. Victory, if it comes at all, will be brutal and costly.
Silent Weapons
by David Mack
2012
A hidden danger linked to old research and older mistakes threatens to become a catastrophe. Picard has to untangle conspiracy, science, and grief before a secret weapon claims new victims.
Storming Heaven
by David Mack
2012
Vanguard is under siege, and the *Sagittarius* is sent after an ancient weapon that might stop the Shedai. The final *Vanguard* novel turns frontier intrigue into all-out endgame.
The Persistence of Memory
by David Mack
2012
A baffling crisis forces Picard and the *Enterprise* crew to question memory, loss, and what reality they can trust. The first *Cold Equations* novel turns an abstract mystery into something painfully personal.
A Ceremony of Losses
by David Mack
2013
The Andorians are running out of time, and every power bloc wants to exploit their crisis. Bashir risks his career and freedom to find a cure before politics finishes what biology started.
The Body Electric
by David Mack
2013
A crisis tied to artificial life and long-buried secrets forces Picard to confront questions of identity, responsibility, and what counts as personhood. It is a high-stakes finish to the *Cold Equations* trilogy.
Disavowed
by David Mack
2014
Bashir and Sarina Douglas go after Section 31 in the aftermath of *The Fall*. The deeper they dig, the clearer it becomes that exposing the truth could destabilize far more than one covert agency.
Second Nature
by David Mack
2014
The *Sagittarius* and *Endeavour* head into the Taurus Reach and find the Tomol, a species whose children die just before adulthood. Trying to help them means surviving both the planet and Kang.
Long Shot
by David Mack
2015
The *Sagittarius* finds an alien world where experiments with unstable technology have broken the laws of probability. Disasters and miracles start happening nonstop, and the odds keep getting worse.
Rogue
by David Mack
2015
Jack Bauer, now a fugitive without a country, infiltrates an arms dealer's freighter off Somalia. When pirates seize the ship, he discovers a secret cargo that could ignite a world war.
Best Defense
by David Mack
2016
Kirk and the *Enterprise* are drawn into a dangerous mission whose roots reach back into Starfleet's past. Buried history, old enemies, and a larger mystery drive the middle act of the *Legacies* trilogy.
Control
by David Mack
2017
Julian Bashir uncovers a two-century-old secret that could finally expose Section 31. To destroy the organization, he may have to trigger consequences that cost him more than he can bear.
Desperate Hours
by David Mack
2017
Newly promoted Michael Burnham faces her first major test aboard the *Shenzhou* when an ancient threat endangers a Federation colony. Georgiou and Pike must work together before thousands die.
Fortune of War
by David Mack
2017
Abandoned Husnock worlds are full of terrifying technology, and too many factions want it. Riker, Vale, and the *Titan* crew become the thin line between a salvage rush and a quadrant-wide disaster.
The Midnight Front
by David Mack
2018
After Nazi sorcerers murder his family, Cade Martin joins the Allies' secret magical warfare program to strike back. World War II becomes a much darker battleground once every spell comes with a demonic price.
Collateral Damage
by David Mack
2019
Picard is called back to Earth to answer for a buried political scandal while Worf commands the Enterprise against pirates and stolen Husnock tech. Past sins and present emergencies collide fast.
The Iron Codex
by David Mack
2019
The war is over, but the magical damage is not. Former allies and old enemies race across the Cold War world for a legendary grimoire that could reshape the balance of power.
More Beautiful Than Death
by David Mack
2020
Kirk escorts Sarek to the planet Akiron and finds a world under attack by dark-energy creatures some locals call demons. While Kirk tries to save the colony, a Vulcan aide aboard the Enterprise may be planning Spock's death.
The Shadow Commission
by David Mack
2020
Cold War magicians uncover a secret cabal tied to the Kennedy assassination and a much larger demonic conspiracy. Old enemies return, hidden powers move in the dark, and the cost of victory keeps rising.
Oblivion's Gate
by David Mack
2021
As timelines unravel and whole histories begin to vanish, Picard and the surviving crews race for one last answer. The final Coda novel turns a collapsing reality into a desperate farewell.
Harm's Way
by David Mack
2022
Kirk and the *Enterprise* are pulled into a dangerous frontier crisis tied to the Taurus Reach and the long shadow of *Vanguard*. What starts as a mission turns into politics, action, and unfinished business.
Firewall
by David Mack
2024
Denied both Starfleet and easy belonging, Seven of Nine heads into a lawless region and finds the Fenris Rangers. Her new life begins with infiltration, corruption, and a brutal lesson in frontier justice.
Ring of Fire
by David Mack
2025
Pike's *Enterprise* heads to Kathara Station, a secret facility above a black hole, after murder and sabotage threaten a critical mission. Old wounds, hidden agendas, and crew tensions all flare at once.
Echoes in Eternity
by David Mack
2026
Three lives become entangled across twenty-seven years and three missions to a barren world that can be reached only at rare intervals between two black holes. It promises a long-view Star Trek mystery with real emotional weight.
Where should I start?
If you want a huge Star Trek event: Gods of Night → Mere Mortals → Lost Souls
If you want frontier exploration and long-form continuity: Harbinger → Reap the Whirlwind → Precipice → Storming Heaven
If you want spy-heavy Trek: Zero Sum Game → Disavowed → Control
If you want original dark fantasy: The Midnight Front → The Iron Codex → The Shadow Commission
If you want a newer character-focused entry point: Desperate Hours → Collateral Damage → Firewall
Author bio
David Mack grew up in western Massachusetts, where Star Trek reruns were part of the background noise of childhood. He has said he fell for the franchise as a toddler, and what stayed with him was not just the hardware of starships and phasers, but the hopeful idea behind it, the sense that people could choose to build something better.
That stuck.
Around the age of fifteen, he got serious about screenwriting and filmmaking. He went on to study at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts from 1987 to 1991, focusing on screenwriting, film, and television production. While he was there, he also wrote for the student humor magazine The Plague, which feels like a good clue to his later work, big stakes, sharp plotting, and a willingness to let personality cut through the tension.
His route into professional writing was steady rather than sudden. In the 1990s he wrote spec scripts and tried to break into television, eventually teaming up with editor John J. Ordover. Together they sold an unused story to Star Trek: Voyager, then later landed the story that became the Deep Space Nine episode Starship Down. Another pitch from that same period eventually became It's Only a Paper Moon, which gave Mack and Ordover story credit there as well.
Prose fiction opened up through the same orbit. Freelance editorial work for Pocket Books led to Mack writing a short fictional supplement for The Genesis Wave, and that in turn led to his first full-length Star Trek novels. Early work such as Wildfire, A Time to Kill, and A Time to Heal showed how comfortable he was with crews under pressure, technical problems with human fallout, and stories where the action matters because the people do.
He likes large systems under stress.
A lot of readers know him best for event-scale Trek fiction. The Destiny trilogy turned the Borg into a full civilizational crisis. Cold Equations took classic The Next Generation ideas and pushed them into stranger, sadder territory. The Vanguard books, which he helped develop, built out an entire frontier region with its own politics, secrets, and long-running consequences. Even when his casts are huge and the stakes get cosmic, his stories usually come back to duty, loyalty, and what decent people do when institutions start to crack.
He has never stayed only in one lane. Outside Star Trek, he wrote the supernatural thriller The Calling and later launched the Dark Arts novels with The Midnight Front, mixing World War II history, espionage, and demon-powered magic. He has also written across comics, games, film, and television, which helps explain why his books often feel so visual and so driven by scene-to-scene momentum.
That cross-media side of his career kept growing.
He later worked as a consultant on Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy, and in 2022 the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers honored him as a Grandmaster with the Faust Award. Today he lives in New York City with his wife, Kara. If you start with Desperate Hours, Firewall, or More Beautiful Than Death, you will get a clean sample of his later style. If you dive into Destiny or Vanguard, you will see just how much he enjoys going big.
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.


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