From Star Trek to Crocodiles: Chester L. Richards’ “The Trek Continues” Delivers Daring New Memoir

Award-winning author and rocket scientist returns with true tales of hair-raising adventure, heart, and resilience

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thousand Oaks, CA – Author, inventor, and co-writer of the iconic Star Trek episode “The Tholian Web,” Chester L. Richards continues his acclaimed Treks Beyond the Great Potato memoir series with "The Trek Continues: More Memoirs of a Rocket Scientist," releasing worldwide October 7, 2025.

In this second volume, Richards expands on the journey he began in From the Potato to Star Trek and Beyond, blending pulse-pounding adventure with poignant reflections on life, love, and loss. From near-death experiences with crocodiles in Africa to a white-knuckle flight back home in California, The Trek Continues dives deep into the real-life escapades of a man who helped imagine the universe onscreen—and then went out and lived it.

Richards shares what it meant to survive, to grieve, and to grow. Central to the memoir is his late wife Sarah, a brilliant and spirited presence readers first glimpsed in Book 1. Responding to fan letters asking to learn more about her, Richards infuses this new collection with her voice, her stories, and the extraordinary impact she had on his life. There are also stories of eccentric animals (including cats, a dog named Hector, and a horse—almost), scientific breakthroughs in aerospace and on earth, close calls with Neolithic tribes, and the unexpected wisdom of failure.

“Every story is a letter of love to Sarah,” Richards writes. “Each stand on its own. Each is an adventure. And each is true.”

Known for his witty, self-deprecating style and cinematic detail, Richards proves again that memoir can be both thrilling and intimate. A scientist by training and adventurer by instinct, he invites readers to see life not as a linear path—but as a series of treks, each one worth telling.

“Adventure starts when your gut clenches and you do it anyway,” says Richards. “That’s when you find out who you really are.”

ISBN (Paperback): 9781880882344 – $19.99
ISBN (Hardcover): 9781880882351 – $34.99
ISBN (eBook): 9781880882368 – $5.99

"The Trek Continues: More Memoirs of a Rocket Scientist" is published by Pawpress. The book is now available in paperback, hardcover, and eBook for pre-order on Amazon. Advanced review copies may be requested through NetGalley.    
 
About the Author

Chester L. Richards is a retired aerospace engineer and inventor with nineteen patents, and a new one pending. While still in college, he co-wrote “The Tholian Web,” one of the most beloved episodes of the original Star Trek. He went on to lead a life of exploration and innovation—surfing Southern California, navigating deadly rapids in different locales, including Ethiopia in the midst of a civil war, and designing technologies for space exploration. He is the author of From the Potato to Star Trek and Beyond and The Trek Continues, and has had more than fifty essays published, so far. He lives in Thousand Oaks, California, where he writes, plays music, and reflects on a life well lived and still boldly going. To learn more, visit: his website.

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