Saturday 24 October 2020

The next Picard novel, is a Titan novel!

Simon and Schuster have revealed new details of the forthcoming second tie-in novel to Star Trek: Picard, which notably appears to be a Titan novel in a cunning disguise! The Dark Veil(ad) is written by James Swallow, and like the previous Picard novel, Last Best Hope(ad), will be a hardcover release, as well as ebook, and audiobook of course. Here's the cover, featuring Troi and Riker in Picard flashback uniforms. Continue below to find out more:

And here's the blurb, which sets-up a plot spinning out of the Synth attack on Mars, and leaning into Picard's exploration of the Romulans too:

The Alpha Quadrant is mired in crisis.

Within the United Federation of Planets, a terrorist strike on the shipyards of Mars has led to the shutdown of all relief efforts for millions of Romulans facing certain doom from an impending super­nova.

But when the USS Titan is drawn into a catastrophic incident on the Romulan-Federation border, Captain William Riker, his family, and his crew find themselves caught between the shocking secrets of an enigmatic alien species and the deadly agenda of a ruthless Tal Shiar operative.

Forced into a wary alliance with a Romulan starship commander, Riker and the Titan crew must uncover the truth to stop a dev­astating attack—but one wrong move could plunge the entire sector into open conflict!

It will be interesting to see if Swallow pulls in familiar elements of USS Titan and crew as we know it from the previous books featuring the ship, several of which he wrote - The wider events of the novelverse of which the USS Titan has previously been a part are no longer compatible with the canon continuity of Picard, but that needn't mean wiping the slate clean entirely. This will also be the first visit to the Titan in books since we've learned what happened to the Riker/Troi family later on in Picard, and the recent appearance of the Titan in Lower Decks.

UPDATE: James Swallow has given some additional details on his blog:
Long-time fans of the Titan series will notice some differences, but also some familar faces too…!
The Dark Veil is set a year after Jean-Luc Picard’s resignation from Starfleet (as seen in flashback in the episode “The End is the Beginning”) and several years before Will and Deanna retire from the service (as mentioned in the episode “Neptenthe”).
He also noted Jim Salvati is the cover artist.

UPDATE 2: And here's the back cover, which features a short excerpt:



In other novel news, author Kirsten Beyer recently appeared on TrekFM's Literary Treks to discuss her new Voyager book, To Lose the Earth(ad). Well worth a listen for some book behind the scenes goodies, although best to wait until you finish reading the novel, to avoid spoilers.


Support The Trek Collective, via order links for mentioned books:
The Dark Veil, Picard novel, by James Swallow.
Last Best Hope, Picard novel, by Una McCormack - Review.
Titan novels, by James Swallow:
SynthesisAmazon(ad).
The Fall: The Poisoned ChaliceAmazon(ad).
Sight UnseenAmazon(ad).
To Lose the EarthVoyager novel, by Kirsten Beyer.
Bookshop(ad)Amazon(ad)Barnes and Noble(ad), Ebay(ad).

To keep track of all the latest releases, hit the books button on my 2020 and 2021 schedule page. You can also find series reading lists and author bibliographies on my dedicated Star Trek lists site.



1 comment:

Fox said...

That's... interesting, considering the LitVerse and PIC continuities are incompatible. One of the writers (I forget who) hinted on Twitter about possibly doing something to reconcile to two timelines... I guess we'll see what happens.

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