Monday 9 March 2015

Book bits: New covers and blurbs for 2015 books, and more.

It's a big books news day, as Pocket Books have released blurbs for the last four novels of the publishing year, which include a Pike-era story, the next books in the Seekers and Titan series, and a blurb that is sure to make fans of the DS9 relaunch do back-flips and set off fireworks! Continue below for all those, and more. But first:

Coming in July is the first novella in a New Frontier ebook trilogy, by Peter David of course. Previously reported as being titled Return, StarTrek.com have now revealed a revised title, The Returned, and the cover and blurb for the first book in the series, which features an intriguing choice of ship given when this is taking place in the New Frontier continuity:

Captain Mackenzie Calhoun and the crew of the U.S.S. Excalibur are back, picking up three months after the stunning events depicted in New Frontier: Blind Man’s Bluff. Calhoun's search of Xenex has failed to find any survivors, and now he is bound and determined to track down the race that killed them—the D'myurj and their associates, the Brethren--and exact vengeance upon them. His search will take the Excalibur crew into a pocket universe, where he discovers not only the homeworld of the D’myurj, but another race that shares Calhoun's determination to obliterate his opponents. But is this new race truly an ally…or an even greater threat?
Simon and Schuster tend to release their novel blurbs a third of a year at a time, so there latest updates give us summaries of the October to January books, the last four of the 2015 publishing schedule. All four are now available to pre-order, while the blurbs themselves are so far only found on Simon and Schuster's digital catalogue. Continue after the jump to check them out:

Coming in October in Sight Unseen, James Swallow's new Titan novel, which takes place after The Fall, and John Jackson Miller's recent crossover adventure, Takedown.
In the wake of political upheaval across the United Federation of Planets, Admiral William Riker and the crew of the U.S.S. Titan find themselves in uncertain waters as roles aboard the ship change to reflect a new mandate and a new mission. On orders from Starfleet, Titan sets out toward the edge of Federation space to tackle its latest assignment: to work with an alien species known as the Dinac, who are taking their first steps into the galaxy at large as a newly warp-capable civilization.

But when disaster befalls the Dinac, the Titan crew discovers they have unknowingly drawn the attention of a deadly, merciless enemy—a nightmare from Riker’s past lurking in the darkness. Friendships will be tested to the limit as familiar faces and new allies must risk everything in a fight against an unstoppable invader—or a horrific threat will be unleashed on the galaxy!

November's novel, is the fourth book in the Seekers series, the title of which is newly revealed as All That's Left. The series swings between authors and feature ships, so following David Mack's Long Shot in August, Seekers 4 brings us back to Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore, for a new story featuring the USS Endeavour.
Initially charted by Starfleet probes dispatched to survey the Taurus Reach, the planet Cantrel V now plays host to a budding Federation colony as well as a combined civilian/Starfleet exploration team. Ancient ruins of an unknown civilization scattered around the planet have raised the curiosity of archeologists, anthropologists, historians, and other interested members of the Federation scientific community. Together, they are attempting to shed light on the beings who once called this world home.

After a large, unidentified vessel arrives in orbit and launches a seemingly unprovoked orbital bombardment, the U.S.S. Endeavour responds to the colony’s distress call. As they attempt to render assistance and investigate the mysterious ship, Captain Atish Khatami and her crew begin to unlock the astonishing secrets the planet has harbored for centuries. Does the survival of a newly discovered yet endangered alien race pose a threat not only to Cantrel V but other inhabited worlds throughout the Taurus Reach and beyond?

December takes us to the Pike-era, in Greg Cox's new book, Child of Two Worlds:
The year is 2255, not long after the events of the Original Series episode “The Cage.” A young Spock is science officer on the U.S.S. Enterprise, under the command of Captain Christopher Pike, when an outbreak of deadly Rigelian fever threatens the crew. Reviewing the Starfleet medical database, Dr. Phillip Boyce comes up with a highly experimental and untested new treatment that might save the crew. Just one problem: it requires a rare mineral substance, ryetalyn, which is not easily obtained…except on a remote alien colony near the Klingon border. But borders are somewhat blurry in this part of galaxy. Pike will need to tread carefully in order to avoid provoking an armed conflict with the Klingons—or starting an all-out war.

And finally, January picks up the DS9 story after David R. George III's Sacraments of Fire in July. The title, Ascendance, seemed a pretty big hint, and now this blurb confirms, we're finally filling the timeline gap in the DS9 relaunch!
On the original Deep Space Nine, Captain Kira Nerys watches as the nearby wormhole opens and discharges a single, bladelike vessel. Attempts to contact its crew fail, and the ship is soon followed by another vessel of similar design. When an armada subsequently begins to emerge from the wormhole, it seems clear that DS9 is under attack. Kira orders her first officer, Commander Elias Vaughn, to board the U.S.S. Defiant and defend the station, and alerts Starfleet to send additional forces as her crew prepares DS9’s shields and weaponry for the onslaught to come.

Meanwhile, on the lead ship, Iliana Ghemor considers launching an attack on DS9 and finally ending the life of Kira, the fountainhead of all the ills in her miserable life. Her vengeance demands more than mere death, though—it requires pain. Ghemor refocuses, choosing to follow her plan to mete out her revenge on the captain by first decimating the population of Bajor…

Exciting times ahead! And there's even more to come: In his latest round-up of writing projects, Dayton Ward revealed some more details about his forthcoming sequel to the excellent Star Trek exploration of UFOs, From History's Shadow:
More UFOs! More aliens! More time travel shenanigans! Unless something totally weird happens, this will be the novel I work on after I finish the 24 book and Seekers #4. As things stand now, I suspect this will be slated for publication in mid-late 2016, though that’s certainly subject to change. It’s too early to be offering much in the way of details, but I’ll hint now that this won’t be a direct sequel to the first book, either for Kirk and the gang or anybody in the 20th century….sorta.
In other books news, Cross Cult have released a new New Frontier character portrait. These images typically feature on the spines of the books, and Arex here is set to appear on the thirteenth book in their releases, Stein und Amboss, aka Stone and Anvil, which is due out in May.

It appears there is also a new non-fiction book on the way, one that we probably should have expected. There are few details so far, but next January Little Brown will be publishing Set Phasers to Stun: 50 Years of Star Trek, by Marcus Berkmann.

Finally, if you enjoy your author commentaries, then Trek FM's Literary Treks have a couple of new interview episodes worth a listen: John Jackson Miller on Takedown, and Keith R.A. DeCandido on the TNG ebook series, Slings and Arrows.

For full listings of the the latest and forthcoming Star Trek books, and links to all my previous coverage, hit the books or prose buttons on my 2015, and 2016 schedule pages.


2 comments:

  1. I wanna know what the deal is with the NF cover. They have the wrong Excalibur on there unless there is something we don't know about.
    Glad to see we are finally getting that big gap we never got when DS9 was lost for awhile without any more books.
    I'm just wondering where is the story that was mentioned setting onwards with the current DS9 and the fallout after The Fall.

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  2. Flashback maybe? For New Frontier, to explain the earlier Excalibur.

    And I offer the same suggestion for DS9, there are two directly connected DRG3 DS9 books on the way, I don't see why they cant both continue the current timeframe and fill in the earlier events in flashback.

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