Star Trek Book Update

[Ineti]

I attended the Star Trek Shore Leave 27 convention this past weekend. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Shore Leave is the largest fan-run convention in the US, and is the main Star Trek convention for the editors and writers of Trek books to attend.

Many Trek writers were there this weekend (including David Mack, Michael Jan Friedman, Peter David, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Kevin Dilmore, Dayton Ward, Robert Greenberger, and many more; as well as two of the Trek editors from Pocket Books (Marco Palmieri and Elisa Kassin).

Lots and lots of Trek book products were revealed or teased, and I thought I'd post a short list in case anyone was interested.

In no particular order:

Star Trek: Vanguard
Book One: Harbinger

This paperback is due out in stores in August, but Shore Leave 27 was the official debut. Copies were available for sale, and the author, David Mack, was on hand to sign books and held a panel on the book and series.

Vanguard is a new series of books that runs concurrently with the timeline set in the Trek Original Series. Events in the book will often tie into events in the episodes or expand bits seen in the episodes.

The cast of characters is largely new to the series, though IIRC a couple characters from other books and from the TV show will play roles.

Star Trek: Titan

This series follows the adventures of Captain Riker following the events in Star Trek: Nemesis. The first book in the series, Taking Wing, is already out in stores. The second book, The Red King, will be out in October. Both books are written by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin. The third book in the series is Orion's Hounds, by Christopher Bennett.

The series is set on the brand-new USS Titan, and will take Trek back to the 'exploring the unknown' concept following 10+ years of war and strife as we've seen in the later seasons of DS9 and the movies. The crew of the Titan is the most diverse crew in Starfleet, so there will be a lot of internal exploration of the characters as much as there will be exploration of the universe and so on.

Other Projects
Some other projects that were announced or that are coming soon:

• A new Voyager trilogy
• Lots of stuff to celebrate the 40th anniversary of TOS, including a trilogy and a short story anthology
• A 20th anniversary TNG short story anthology
• A duology of Mirror Universe stories (3 stories per book: TOS, TNG, ENT in one; DS9, VOY, and New Frontiers in the other)
• The Voyager 10th anniversary short story anthology Distant Shores coming out this fall
• More SCE books than you can shake a stick at (many more eBooks, and continuing reprints in paperback format; due to the revised release schedule, SCE will probably be released in trade paperback format rather than mass-market sized paperbacks)
• A TNG hardcover titled Death in Winter, by Michael Jan Friedman, detailing the Picard/Crusher story around the end of Nemesis
• A new DS9 novel titled Warpath, by David Mack. Has Taran'atar on the cover, and will largely explore his character as well as continue the storyline of that series of novels.
• The continuation of the Vulcan's Soul trilogy
• The next Strange New Worlds short story anthology due in July 2006 (SNW8 should be out in stores any day now.)

And I'm sure there are many I forgot to add.

Lots and lots of Trek books to read if you're so inclined. With the TV series out of production, the novels are pretty much the only place to get new stories of all our favorite characters.

[Squick]

Thanks for the rundown Ineti

You're right, the novels are all we have now.

Anyone read that first Titan novel ("Taking Wing")? It wasn't too bad; paced awkwardly and not altogether the best read, but OK. What did you think?

I still think my favourite Trek novel has to be "A Stitch in Time". And yours?

[Ineti]

Anyone read that first Titan novel ("Taking Wing")? It wasn't too bad; paced awkwardly and not altogether the best read, but OK. What did you think?

Yeah, I thought the pace was a little off, but that was outshone by the larger themes going on. I love the idea that we'll be getting back to exploration, and I love the highly diverse crew.

[Owen E Oulton]

Diversity is one thing, but I can live without the "Let's get every one-episode guest character all on one ship as crew." It was bad on Peter David's Excalibur, here it just gets into silly terriroty.

[Ineti]

Diversity is one thing, but I can live without the "Let's get every one-episode guest character all on one ship as crew." It was bad on Peter David's Excalibur, here it just gets into silly terriroty.

Erm, isn't Melora the only bit TV character on the ship? I didn't recognize the others from any of the TV shows...

[Owen E Oulton]

I remember looking at the site and seeing at least 3 or 4 characters. It was a few months ago, when they announced the "Design the Titan" contest, so I s'pose I could be misremembering...

OK, checked out the crew list and found three re-treaded characters besides Troi and Riker: Tuvok, Nurse Ogawa, Sariel Rager and Melora. Now, it's reasonable that Ogawa and Rager may have decided to transfer along with senior officers they have served with, but Tuvok and Melora are just gratuitous. Granted, my characterisation of them all as "one-shot guest stars" was hyperbole, but there are millions of people in Starfleet (at a conservative estimate, there have to be at least 3 million on starship service alone), and it's just a little silly to keep playing the "It's a small world" card.

The Ferengi female Chief Petty Officer stretches things a bit - it's only been a few years since Ferengi females were even allowed to wear clothes or go off-planet, but here's one who already has enough time in Starfleet to be a senior non-commissioned officer.

[Squick]

Yeah, I found the "humans a minority" shtick a bit lame too.

The gay thing was also, well, gay. It was done a bit too heavy-handed.

I initially disliked Dr Ree, but he kind of grew on me.

The "small universe" approach recycling canon characters isn't too bad, in my opinion. I've always been a fan of Tuvok (my favourite Vulcan actually), so I don't mind his presence. After all, new characters very often invite resistance from fans -- it's difficult to compete with canon personalities.

I also liked the Cardassian rookie.

On a bit of a side note, what is the usual human/alien racial mix on an average Starfleet vessel? Does anyone have an idea?

[AslanC]

The gay thing was also, well, gay.

What else could it possibly be? Straight?

[Ineti]

Interesting. I didn't even notice the gay character as being overly noticeable, and I happen to like having the occasional known character mixed in with the new.

I guess there is IDIC at work, both in the book and in everyone's responses to it.

[Turloigh]

You're right, the novels are all we have now.

Well, there's always the fanfilms:
New Voyages
Hidden Frontier
Starship Exeter
Intrepid
Sorry for hijacking the thread...

[Balok]

It was bad on Peter David's Excalibur, here it just gets into silly terriroty.

On top of that, I was left with the distinct impression that he was attempting to create a crew full of Mary Sue characters. Peter David's work varies widely in quality; there was a period where his work was just awful. Prior to that and now, it ranges from serviceable to excellent. Martin and Mangels have written stories I've enjoyed; I'll probably give their Titan books a try. I think the first story of theirs I read was their entry into the four book "Section 31" novels (not really a quadrilogy, there was one novel for each of the four major television series).

I suspect the recycled characters are more of a marketing idea than an author idea. When you play in someone else's sandbox, there's the hazard of having to play by their rules. (There's also the hazard of discovering what the cat left in there, but I digress). The problem is that part of the Trek universe is the established characters. That's what the editors think the readers want, and this is probably backed up by detailed sales record analysis suggesting it *is* what the readers want.

[kalamaro]

in Star Trek: Titan which class is U.S.S. Titan?

I know is very stupid but that a long time, don't touch any star trek book other than rpg

+@
kalamaro, le poulpe qui rougit de honte

[First of Two]

in Star Trek: Titan which class is U.S.S. Titan?

I know is very stupid but that a long time, don't touch any star trek book other than rpg

+@
kalamaro, le poulpe qui rougit de honte

Luna class. They're all named for Moons in the Sol system. (Amalthea, Callisto, Charon, Europa, Galatea, Ganymede, Io, Luna, Oberon, Rhea, Titan, and Triton).


They held a design contest (now over- too late), and the winning design will be shown a few books from now - probably Book 4, as the cover for 3 has already been pictured.

What make me snicker was the description of Huilan, Assistant ship's counselor and S'ti'ach male. He's obviousy meant to resemble Stitch, from the Disney movie "Lilo & Stitch."

People said "Sariel Rager." I said "Who?"

The reasons there are more aliens in the book is twofold:

1: Having every species in the galaxy be bumpy-headed humanoids is both unscientific and boring.

2: There would BE more aliens on the TV shows, but CGI is expensive. In the books you can have many nonhumanoids (as should exist in the "real" galaxy, and it doesn't cost anything.

[kalamaro]

Thanks First of Two

Well, well, Well..... Luna class.......

Now, I just looking for pic and stats

@+
kamaro, le poulpe qui soupir

P.S. it is the first time how a borg hepl me....

[C5]

Since we're talking about Trek books, I just wanted to check something concerning the DS9 novels (PLEASE NO SPOILER!!! I have not read them all yet ) :
As far as I understand, the continuity is such :
Mission Gamma series
(Rising Son)
Unity
The Worlds of DS9 series

Are there other books set after that, or is Warpath (the book mentioned above) the next one of the series ?

He he... 1984th post... I like this number