Cross Cult's Foundations, and schedule updates

Cross Cult have revealed (on their Star Trek books Facebook page) the new cover art for several of their forthcoming German translations of Corps of Engineers ebook novellas. The three new designs below are for the Foundations trilogy, by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore. They are books seventeen to nineteen in the Corps of Engineer series, and will get their German release starting in December.

Cross Cult have also released finalised versions of several other Corps of Engineers books they previously posted artwork for. Continue after the jump to check out those, and news of German books schedule updates:

Book bits: New Voyager blurb, TOS excerpt, and more

Books news! First up there is a new blurb for Kirsten Beyer's next Voyager novel, Atonement, which comes via the Simon and Schuster digital catalogue. The book, due out next September, will be completing the trilogy begun in Protectors and Acts of Contrition, and this early-stage blurb unsurprisingly makes clear several plot points form those books will be resolved:

Admiral Kathryn Janeway faces a tribunal determined to execute her for supposed crimes committed during Voyager’s maiden trek through the Delta Quadrant. Captain Chakotay knows that the Kinara, several species now allied against the Full Circle fleet, are not all they appear to be. The Confederacy of the Worlds of the First Quadrant—a pact he cannot trust—is his only hope for unraveling the Kinara’s true agenda and rescuing Admiral Janeway. Meanwhile, Seven and Tom Paris are forced to betray the trust of their superiors in a desperate bid to reveal the lengths to which a fellow officer has gone in the name of protecting the Federation from the legendary Caeliar.

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Meanwhile, the next book on the schedule should be starting to show up in the coming days. Amazon now has an excerpt up for Greg Cox's TOS book, Foul Deeds Will Rise. You can read all of chapter one, which starts like this:

Captain’s log. Stardate 8514.6

The Enterprise has embarked on a peacekeeping mission to the Savinia system, where two warring planets, Pavak and Oyolo, are attempting to end years of bitter hostility. Although neither planet is a member of the Federation, we have been invited by both parties to act as an impartial mediator. The Enterprise will serve as neutral territory for the upcoming peace negotiations, while also patrolling the space between the two worlds in order to deter any attacks. Given the atrocities and bloodshed on both sides of the conflict, there are bound to be hard feelings among the delegates. I don’t envy the Federation ambassador assigned to this mission.

Who just happens to have a familiar face . . .

“Well, they’re not shooting at each other yet,” Ambassador Kevin Riley said. “That’s a positive sign, I suppose.”

The Enterprise approached the rendezvous point. On the bridge’s main viewer, two small diplomatic courier crafts from Pavak and Oyolo faced off against each other in the demilitarized zone between the planets. The couriers were essentially streamlined shuttlecrafts, designed for interplanetary travel within the solar system. Kirk recalled that both races possessed rudimentary warp technology, but had scarcely ventured beyond their own system. He briefly considered raising the Enterprise’s shields, but he decided against it. The shuttles posed little threat to the starship, and arriving with shields up, as though expecting trouble, hardly sent the right message.

“I admire your optimism, Ambassador,” Kirk said from the captain’s chair. He was wearing his dress uniform in anticipation of the delegates’ imminent arrival. Medals adorned the front of his double-breasted maroon jacket. “From what I gather, you have your work cut out for you.”

“You can say that again.” Riley stood beside Kirk’s chair in the sunken command circle at the center of the bridge. His conservative gray suit was a good deal less colorful than the then-regulation gold tunic he’d worn when he’d first served aboard the original Enterprise, some two decades ago. Years in the diplomatic corps had added some seasoning to his face and a neatly trimmed brown beard made him look more mature as well. “I have to say I’ve enjoyed the trip here, though. It’s good to be back on the Enterprise again . . . well, an Enterprise at least.”

“I know what you mean,” Kirk said. This new vessel wasn’t quite the same as his old ship, which had gone down in flames above the Genesis Planet a few years back, but he was getting used to it. And certainly it had proven itself during some tight situations, beginning with that business on Nimbus III. “And it’s been a pleasure to have you back aboard, if only for this mission.”

“We’re being hailed by both delegations,” Uhura reported from the communications station. “They’re ready to be beamed aboard.”

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Continue after the jump for a behind the scenes book-cover development tale, and the latest updates from the German Star Trek publisher.

More on The Fall, and other Trek-lit bits

A few days ago we learnt the first details about The Fall, which will be set over just a few weeks in the 24th century. That series is to include David R. George III's DS9 anniversary book, Revelations and Dust, and now news is starting to trickle out about who else is involved in the series. In recent podcast interviews, David Mack and Dayton Ward have confirmed their involvement.

David Mack from the Chronic Rift podcast:

There is something big in the works... A five book Star Trek 24th century miniseries event. Five books, five different authors, scheduled for the end of 2013.

Dayton Ward on Trek FM:

I'm working on a book that will be part of a four or five book arc for Pocket. That will be out in later 2013, early 2014. I haven't even figured out what that story's going to be yet, other than knowing which crew I'm going to be writing.

Both interviews should be of interest to Trek readers. The Trek FM interview was in fact the first episode of a new series on Trek FM dedicated to Star Trek books, Literary Treks; co-hosted by one of my frequent twitter correspondents Mathew Rushing. Dayton Ward talked on several subjects, in particular his recent coda to the Vanguard series, In Tempest's Wake. Also mentioned was that fact he is already in preliminary discussions about books after his contribution to The Fall. Whether those might include some of Ward's desired projects is unknown, but he did mention wishing to write an Enterprise-D era novel, a Voyager TV era novel, and proposals for an entire trilogy of Captain Proton books!

David Mack's interview meanwhile centered on his new TNG trilogy, Cold Equations. Discussing it's development, and how the whole trilogy ended up becoming a sequel to Jeffrey Lang's novel, Immortal Coil. Here is Mack's summary of the trilogy:

Once I settled on this notion of the storyline that I selected, there are some big ideas within the trilogy: What constitutes a soul? What constitutes life or death? Is it different for artificial intelligence; there definition of life? What are the differences in the needs and drives of article sentients versus biological sentients? Then there are also some political ideas, and ideas about betrayal, about the political future of the Federation and its neighbours. There's also just the small personal dramas of the crew (those are really the driving engine behind all of it): There's a struggle between Picard and his wife to try and figure out exactly how they want their lives to evolve now that they have a child. Worf is dealing with some major upheavals in his personal life and potentially in his career. Geordie is still coping with the empty hole in life where Data used to be, and the fact that this creates a sense of duty in him when he finds out that the last part of Data, in B-4, has been put in peril.

What I found most interesting though, was a comment he made about editorial changes leading to changes in the trilogy:

My first few proposals were rejected for various reasons. A certain number of assumptions in-house changed about what they were doing with the Star Trek books overall; and that necessitated some changes on my end.

It leads me to speculate, that as the litverse inches ever close to the Hobus supernova there must be discussions going on about how to approach integrating the novel continuity with what was established in the 2009 movie - And maybe what was established in Countdown; a comic series that has a bit more continuity clout than most maybe?

On a less positive note regarding the novels' editing, Cold Equations has revealed an apparent editorial decision to ignore another recent novel, David McIntee's Indistinguishable From Magic. As Mack mentioned in the podcast, and elaborated on on the TrekBBS, he was instructed to ignore some of the character developments established in that novel; in particular the details of Geordi's love life:

I know that DRG3 did his best to reconcile the continuity details from [Indistinguishable From Magic] with [Plagues of Night/Raise the Dawn], but I was instructed by my editors simply to move on and proceed as if with a clean slate. So before you start accusing me of making "errors," be advised that I worked in good faith based on the instructions I was given.

Something I think is regrettable; IFM did draw in characters from all over in somewhat awkward ways regarding continuity, but it wasn't something that was impossible to reconcile - And I for one would be more interested to see something come of Geordi and Leah Brahms long struggling relationship (as established in IFM), than return to newbie Tamala Harstad. It was also a novel that had probably the most character development for Geordi just about ever, not to mention a pretty major outcome for Scotty!

Unfortunately McIntee's blogging and TrekBBS posts seems to indicate this spells the end of his time as a Trek novelist. Something which is even more regrettable, as IFM was rather fun, and a decidedly, and refreshingly, different take on Star Trek.

Interestingly Keith R.A. DeCandido also commented on McIntee's blog, indicating he also feels abandoned by Pocket; explaining his recent absence from Trek writing. A waste of a good author if you ask me; with Articles of the Federation and A Singular Destiny alone DeCandido established so much of the modern continuity (and that's only scratching the surface of his huge contribution to Trek lit). Get him back on board Pocket!

The Persistence of Memory excerpt

The Persistence of Memory, the first book in David Mack's new TNG trilogy, Cold Equations, is starting to show up in shops about now, with the ebook release a week away. Simon And Schuster have posted an excerpt on their website to entice you. Here's the start of chapter one:

With a sonorous hum and a luminous flare, the transporter beam faded and Commander Geordi La Forge found himself alone in the dark, staring down the barrel of a phaser rifle. The hard-eyed Tellarite security officer behind the weapon lurched forward, tensed for confrontation as he challenged La Forge in a harsh voice. “Identify yourself!”

Hands raised and palms open, the veteran Starfleet engineer recoiled, only to freeze in place as he noticed on the edges of his vision more rifles being brought to bear against him. “La Forge, Enterprise. What’s going on?”

The Tellarite glared down his snout at La Forge, his bearing laced with suspicion and hostility. “We’ll ask the questions.” He nodded at someone behind La Forge. “Search him.”

Singsong tones from a tricorder broke the eerie silence as La Forge was scanned, then rough hands patted him down, stripped his field tricorder from his hip pocket, and plucked the padd from his left hand. A burly Denobulan with sinister-looking ocular ridges stepped into his line of sight and showed the confiscated devices to the Tellarite. “These are all he had on him, sir.” Somewhere in the distance, sirens wailed in the night, their cries faint but drawing closer.

Despite his subordinate’s assurances, the Tellarite lieutenant commander kept his rifle aimed squarely at La Forge’s face. “What are you doing here?”

Continue reading on the Simon and Schuster website.

The Body Electric cover

Simon and Schuster have now released all three covers of David Mack's new TNG trilogy Cold Equations, with Worf finishing off the set on the cover of The Body Electric:

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp.

David Mack has posted all three covers as a triptych, which looks like this:

The Persistence of Memory cover

StarTrek.com has revealed the cover for The Persistence of Memory, the first book in David Mack's TNG trilogy, Cold Equations. This time we've got Doctor Soong and Geordi to keep us company, joining Picard from the book two cover; who will finish out the cover crew on book three, I wonder. My guess is Worf is Wesley (while my dream is T'Ryssa and Jasminder).

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp.

Silent Weapons cover

Simon and Schuster's listing for Silent Weapons, the second book in David Mack's new TNG trilogy, Cold Equations. The cover for the first hasn't been released yet, but I'm sure it will be along soon. In the mean time, here's Captain Picard, with lots of equations:

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp.

Brikmanship and The Body Electric blurbs

A couple of new blurbs: Amazon posted the first description for Una McCormack's Typhon Pact novel, Brinkmanship; which it seems will feature both the Aventine and Enterprise-E:

The Venette Convention has always remained independent, but it is about to become the flashpoint for a tense military standoff between the two power blocs now dominating interstellar space-the United Federation of Planets and the recently formed Typhon Pact. The Venetan government turns to the Typhon Pact's Tzenkethi Coalition for protection in the new order, and has agreed to allow three of their supply bases for Tzenkethi use. But these bases-if militarized-would put Tzenkethi weapons unacceptably close to Federation, Cardassian, and Ferengi space. While Captain Ezri Dax and the crew of the U.S.S. Aventine are sent to investigate exactly what is happening at one of the Venette bases, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the U.S.S. Enterprise are assigned to a diplomatic mission sent to the Venette homeworld in order to broker a mutually acceptable resolution. But the Cardassian delegates don't seem particularly keen on using diplomacy to resolve the situation, which soon spirals out of control toward all-out war...

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp.

Simon and Schuster meanwhile have posted a blurb for The Body Electric, the third novel in David Mack's Cold Equations trilogy (oddly skipping over the first two!) which sounds, well, huge!:

The climax of a new trilogy by the national bestselling author of Star Trek: Destiny!

At the center of the Galaxy, a planet-sized Machine of terrifying power and unfathomable purpose hurls entire star systems into a supermassive black hole. Wesley Crusher, now a full-fledged Traveler, knows the Machine must be stopped…but he has no idea how. He enlists the help of Captain Picard and the Enterprise crew, who also fail to halt the unstoppable alien juggernaut’s destructive labors. But they soon divine the Machine’s true purpose, which threatens to exterminate all life in the Milky Way Galaxy. With time running out, Picard realizes he knows of only one person who might be able to stop the Machine in time to avert a galactic catastrophe—but he has no idea how to find him.

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp.

More details of Cold Equations

8of5 cover mock up

David Mack has posted on his blog some more details of his forthcoming TNG 25th anniversary trilogy, Cold Equations. Describing the structure of the trilogy:

Unlike the Star Trek Destiny trilogy, which was one epic story split across three volumes, Cold Equations will comprise three separate novels that are set during a brief span of time (a few months), and share a cast of characters, a number of themes, and some narrative subplots.

One of those themes also inspired the title of the trilogy:

...each of the three stories hinges on a moment in which one or more characters must make terrible moral or ethical choices, weighing the cost of one life, or a few lives, against those of many more, or deciding how much — and who — they are willing to sacrifice for the sake of victory.

He also posted slightly longer descriptions of each novel, revealing more plot details and appearances from familiar characters:

Book One of the trilogy, which is written and now with the editor, is The Persistence of Memory, and it will put the Enterprise crew at the forefront of an effort to stop the Typhon Pact from exploiting stolen Soong-type android technology as a weapon of war.

In Book Two, Silent Weapons, Captain Picard and his crew must protect Federation President Nan Bacco when it becomes clear she has been targeted for assassination. However, in the course of their mission, the Enterprise crew discovers that there might be an even greater conspiracy lurking behind the assassination plot.

In Book Three, The Body Electric, the Enterprise crew is brought to the center of the Milky Way by an old friend — Traveler and former shipmate Wesley Crusher — to try to stop a massive sentient machine whose mysterious labors threaten the future of every civilization in the galaxy.

Sounds good to me! I wonder if any familiar Soong-types might make an appearance.

Details of David Mack's next trilogy: Cold Equations

The latest issue of the Star Trek Magazine includes a run down of this year's novel releases, which finally reveals titles and descriptions for David Mack's TNG trilogy, which is to be titled Cold Equations. Here's the descriptions of each book in the trilogy:

In Book I: The Persistence of Memory, Picard and the Enterprise crew try to stop the Typhon Pact from raising an army of androids. Book II: Silent Weapons sees the Enterprise crew race to avert the assassination of the Federation president - only to confront an even greater conspiracy. Finally, in Book III: The Body Electric, Picard and his crew must stop a massive sentient machine from unleashing a catastrophe that will exterminate all organic life in the galaxy.

David Mack promises life changing events for the TNG crew, and to once again set the stage for their continuing adventures. The article suggests the trilogy will be out from October to December. However the recently revealed Typhon Pact novel Brinkmanship, is currently in the October slot but is not listed in the magazine article; so perhaps this late addition to the schedule might push the trilogy back a month?

The article includes descriptions and comments from the authors for all of the rest of this years novels, as well as an illustrated extract from the recently release TOS novel The Rings of Time.

Aside from novel news, this issue of the magazine is focused on espionage in Star Trek, and is also the final edition from the editor Paul Simpson.