Ships of the Line and other 2015 calendars revealed

There are four Star Trek calendars announced for 2015 so far, and while there do not appear to be extra calendars for the UK and German markets this year, Universe Publishing will be continuing with all four of their designs: Ships of the Line, TOS, a daily calendar, and an engagement calendar. Amazon have now updated their listings for these four, revealing the covers, and (one of the most exciting Star Trek moments of each year) what ships we get to enjoy in Ships of the Line. So, here are the covers for Ships of the Line 2015:

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

You might recognise a couple of the images from book covers, and indeed 2015 will be a great year for Star Trek books fans, with the first ever appearances in Ships of the Line of both the USS Titan and Starbase Vanguard. Here's the run down:

• The cover is "Vanguard Down", by Doug Drexler, featuring the USS Enterprise and Starbase 47 under attack from the Tholians. This image comes from the cover of the final Vanguard novel, Storming Heaven.
• January is "Explorers", by Jenny DeSalle and Ali Ries, featuring the refit Enterprise NX-01.
• February is "Xindi Reptilian", also by DeSalle and Ries, with the refit NX-01 again, but this time in the background behind two Xindi Reptilian ships.
• John Eaves (whose pictures are normally painted) will be giving us a cool image of the Enteprise-E after a saucer separation. Apart from concept art, I think this might be the first time we've seen this (unless you count the toy version made by Romando).
• Douglas Graves will be giving us a new view of the Klingon D4 class.
• Gabriel Koerner has produced an encounter between a Constitution class and what looks like a variation of AMT's "Interplanetary U.F.O. Mystery Ship", a model kit ship designed by Matt Jefferies.
• Tobias Richter has brought together his beautiful models of the USS Titan and Vanguard, or, considering the station is over a planet, another Watchtower class station.
• Doug Drexler gives us a wider view of the construction site for the new Deep Space 9, as originally featured on the cover of Raise the Dawn.
• D.M Phoenix has what looks like a fleet of Sabre class ships being attacked by a moon!
• From Alain Rivard we have an encounter between movie era Constitution and Miranda class ships, not a Wrath of Khan scene remake though, as there's a shuttle flying about.
• After a few years waiting for it, we finally get to see Andrew Probert's Wolf 359 clean-up operation painting.
• Alain Rivard's second image takes us back to the original DS9, with a lot of Klingons visiting.
• It looks like a potential Romulan War scene from Dan Uyeno, who has a fleet of Daedalus class ships under attack by a Romulan bird of prey.
• And finally Michael Wiley has an encounter between the original USS Enterprise and the NX-01 refit.

Amazon also posted preview pages, giving us a good look at two of the images:

Continue after the jump for a look at the other three 2015 calendars:

Book bits: KRAD's Klingon return, next Voyager novels, and latest German and French titles

A few bits of book news: Starting with news that Keith R.A. DeCandido finally has a new Trek book on the way! Now listed for release next May, from Simon and Schuster, is Klingon Art of War. A hundred-and-sixty page hardcover release, I expect this is a new "non-fiction" book. No other details just yet though. Thanks to dhorizon to pointing this out via Twitter. UPDATE: UnrealitySF's Jens Deffner has unearthed a bit more about this (via Chronic Rift), and pointed me towards it: Like so many of the recent Star Trek non-fiction books, this is being developed by Becker and Mayer, and the listing on their website has a cover a blurb:

Klingons fight, but they do not merely fight. For Klingons, battle is a dance, a way of living with dignity and purpose. This is central to the concept at the heart of Klingondom: honor.

The Klingon Art of War lays out the principles of the Klingon code that animates their entire culture. Each chapter introduces another part of the Klingon ethic and explores the ways it informs Klingon life, behavior, and history. Each chapter also celebrates famous Klingons, warships, and battles, and the role they've played in advancing the Klingon Empire.

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.jp.

There's also news of the next few Voyager relaunch novels! TrekCore recently interviewed Kirsten Beyer, where she talked about all her work on the Voyager relaunch, and more. She gave this summary of next year's new Voyager novel, Protectors:

Protectors picks up right where The Eternal Tide left off, but it does cover more time than my books have up to this point, with the exception of Full Circle. It has a lot of ground to cover. In addition to beginning Janeway on her new journey, the reality of the fleet’s new circumstances must be addressed.

They started out as nine ships. Now they are three with one more back in the Alpha Quadrant and a big job still unfinished. There is a new mission and lots of new discoveries that will continue to play out as the stories continue. Neelix does make an appearance. And no, I haven’t forgotten about Meegan, nor has the crew.

The Eternal Tide changed so much. One of the main tasks of Protectors is to show how those changes play out for all of the characters who started the journey of Project Full Circle, to bring closure to some of them, and to set the stage for resolutions yet to come.

She also mentioned early work has already begun on the next books following Protectors:

There was no way to begin the new book, however, without thinking long-term. Luckily, my editors embraced this possibility, which is great for a number of reasons. It allowed me to think big, while knowing that I would have the time to develop those thoughts into a cohesive narrative.

There were issues already established prior to The Eternal Tide that need to be addressed. The massive alteration of the status quo came first, but also had to set the stage for what is to come. To do that, I had to know what that was going to be. Now, I do.

Although the paperwork has yet to be completed, so nothing can be stated to an absolute certainty, I am now in the process of outlining the book that will follow Protectors along with one more that will tie up currently dangling threads and stuff that is about to start unraveling with Protectors. This will include the return of some familiar faces, along with the introduction of lots of new ones.

Meanwhile in France, Amazon.fr have a listing up for a French edition of Star Trek: The Visual Dictionary. L'Encyclopedie Illustrée Star Trek is due out in November, and has a new cover:

Over in Germany, Cross Cult have announced they will be reusing the US cover art when they release Dayton Ward's Vanguard ebook, In Tempest Wake, and David R. George III's Typhon Pact novel, Plagues of Night. German translations of both are due out early next year.

The Seekers to become real books!

One of Rob Caswell's original The Seekers covers

A year or two ago I posted a couple of interviews with artist Rob Caswell, who had produced an amazing series of new cover designs for James Blish's TOS novelizations, and then followed that up with a series of covers for novelizations of an imagined TOS spin-off called The Seekers, featuring the Archer class from Vanguard. Pleased to have helped spread the word about some particularly awesome fan art I continued on my merry way.

Imagine my delight when I come online today to discover Seekers (minus the the) is to become a real book series! David Mack and Dayton Ward have announced they will be writing the series, along with Ward's regular writing partner and fellow Vanguard author, Kevin Dilmore. They will be using the same ping-pong style as the Vanguard series, with releases alternating between Mack, and Ward and Dilmore. The series will be a follow-up to Vanguard, featuring the small Archer class USS Sagittarius, and the Constitution class USS Endeavour, familiar to readers of the series, as they return to the Taurus Reach on a mission of exploration. Each book will also alternate between featured starships, with Mack's books focusing on the Sagittarius, while Ward and Dilmore will be taking the helm of the Endeavour.


Keen to give Seekers a different flavour to Vanguard, the series will be focused more on stand-alone exploration stories, Ward summarised their approach on his blog:

Unlike the Star Trek: Vanguard saga, Seekers is not intended to be a sweeping, serialized tale. Instead, most books would be “stand-alone” stories within the shared continuity, though the premise will allow for occasional “team-up” or multi-book adventures. Our intention is to bring to this new series the same “TOS-plus” storytelling style that made Vanguard so much fun, also while serving up a broader range of stories with an emphasis on exploration and discovery as characterized by the original Star Trek and, more recently, the Star Trek: Titan novel series.

Also, whereas Vanguard by design was intrinsically linked to the “canon” and even specific events and episodes of the original Star Trek, Seekers has for its playground the period following the original series (starting in 2269) as well as the largely untapped early movie era of 2270 and beyond.

In a homage to the original TOS novelizations, and Rob Caswell's covers, the series will not have titles, just numbers, and fittingly Rob Caswell will be producing the cover designs! Both authors posting about the series, posted this new cover design, which Dayton Ward noted is a mock-up, not the actual cover for Seekers 1:

The first two books in the series will be release in consecutive months next year, David Mack's Seekers 1 in August, followed by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore's Seekers 2 in September.

Check out Dayton Ward and David Mack's site's to see their announcements. Mack also posted a presentation about the series, which he has shown at the Shore Leave convention; the other images on this page come from that.

I for one am very excited by this! A Vanguard sequel, Titan-style exploration, stories taking us into the TOS movie era, and awesome retro titles and covers. Moreover I'm elated to see Rob's idea become real books!

UPDATE: Little note from Rob: The USS Rama, the Archer class ship that featured on his original The Seekers covers, has apparently been added as one of the Archer class ships in the Seekers series bible, so while it wont be the star of the show, it has been worked into the Trek-lite fleet. Neat! 

Meet Cross Cult's M'Ress

Cross Cult are a busy bunch lately, prepping lots of new covers for their next catalogue, and showing them off on their Star Trek books Facebook page. Their latest image is a new draft portrait (ready for use on future New Frontier covers) of everyone's favourite Caitian, Shiboline M'Ress:

The next New Frontier books coming from Cross Cult are the Excalibur trilogy, due to start in April, and they have also released finalised version of those covers. They are largely unchanged from the previous versions (which you can see here, here, and here), except Robin Lefler has a snazzy new hair-style, and the titles have been added on, with the Excalibur title going up the sword blade which appears on every Cross Cult New Frontier cover:

 

 

Cross Cult have also announced they will be finishing their run of Vanguard audiobooks, with the final three books in the series coming out from March to May.

Prose updates, covers and more

The cover for David R. George III's forthcoming TOS novel Allegiance in Exile has been released. The rather stylish design looks like this:

UPDATE: Somehow completely failed to notice: They added "The Original Series" as a subtitle. About bloody time!

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

In other 2013 novel news, William Leisner's TOS novel, formerly using the stand-in title, A Conflict of Strangers, has been rechristened, The Shocks of Adversity. At the moment the Simon and Schuster listing for this is using the blurb previously (and still) used for Jeff Mariotte's The Folded World.

Meanwhile on Amazon.co.uk (but seemingly no where else yet), there is a new blurb for Greg Cox's next Trek novel, The Weight of Worlds:

Kirk and the Enterprise crew face off against an ancient extra-terrestrial cult known as the Crusade, who believe that ancient prophecies proclaim the universe will soon be destroyed and recreated, but only those who surrender to the Truth will be saved. The Crusade is on a sacred mission to bring the Truth to Kirk's universe before the End comes. But how do you fight an idea? And is the Crusade here to save or subjugate the Federation?

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

Back to this year; this month's novel, Brinkmanship, and ebook, In Tempest's Wake, don't seem to have excerpts on the Simon and Schuster site, but if you want to try before you buy, both have a small sample you can read using Amazon's look inside feature. So, have a look, here, and here.

On the subject of In Tempest's Wake, Doug Drexler posted on his Facebook an unused alternate cover for the book:

He also posted the artwork for Raise the Dawn, which reveals the final artwork was cropped in quite significantly. Check out the runabouts with cargo modules! Curiously he refers to this as a cover from Pocket's Omega series.

Finally the Star Trek Czech books Facebook page posted a higher res version of the new cover for Kobayashi Maru, coming soon in Czech from Laser Books:

In Tempest's Wake blurb

A couple of days after the cover appeared, StarTrek.com have now posted the blurb for Dayton Ward's Vanguard ebook novella, In Tempest's Wake. Here's what it's all about:

The U.S.S. Enterprise and other starships that participated in the final battle in the Taurus Reach have been remanded to a remote starbase. While evacuees from the station are processed and the ships repaired, restocked, and re-staffed as needed, Captain James T. Kirk is ordered to report to Admiral Heihachiro Nogura, Starbase 47’s second and final commanding officer. Through flashbacks intercut with the ongoing conversation between Kirk and Nogura, the Enterprise’s involvement in the last days of Operation Vanguard—and the conflict between Starfleet and Tholian forces at Starbase 47—is now told from the perspective of Kirk and his crew.

In Tempest's Wake cover, and other book bits

Simon and Schuster have released the cover for Dayton Ward's forthcoming code to the Vanguard series, the ebook novella, In Tempest's Wake. Due out in a little over a month we're still awaiting a blurb:

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

Meanwhile UnrealitySF's Jens Deffner, who normally fills me in on all things German, has pointed me towards a snippet of news: In the "About the authors" section of ReDeus: Divine Tales, a recent fantastical anthology with contributions from many regular Trek writers, the section on William Leisner notes that "He is currently at work on a Star Trek Original Series novel". If said novel is intended for the 2013 schedule that will take us up to five TOS novels net year, yikes!

Not to leave me lacking on news from Germany, Jens also reports that an audiobook release of the Destiny trilogy in imminent. With Lutz Riedel's reading of Die Götter der Nacht (Gods of Night) due next month.

Finally a cover for The Assassination Game. Plus Harbinger reprint?

The latest book in the new timeline Starfleet Academy series, The Assassination Game, is supposed to be out in a week, but it's only now that the Simon and Schuster listing has finally been updated with a cover for the book! Here it is, with everyone in red; perfect assassination colour!

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

You can also read an excerpt, chapter one from the book, here.

The Simon and Schuster online catalogue also has a new entry; under the Gallery Books imprint there is now a listing for the first Vanguard book, Harbinger. Gallery Books normally do the larger format Trek books (plus the new ebook releases, but this is listed as paperback), so one assumes this will be a trade paperback reprint. It's listed with an August release.

The Light Works' pretty ships

I came across an awesome animated flyby of Vanguard on youtube today, made by Tobias Richter of The Light Works. Eager to find more I made my way to The Light Works website and found some things I'd not seen before. It turns out The Light Works had been working on GameForge's probably-now-dead Star Trek game Infinite Space, making models of ships and station. Including these neat new Vulcan and Ferengi designs:

You can also find behind-the-scenes images of The Light Works' contributions to the Ships of the Line calendars. Including lots of different views of the Ambassador class prototype from this year's edition. Like this one:

You can see lots more from Infinite Space, Ships of the Line. and more, on the Light Works website. And here's the Vanguard video that led me to find these little treats:

In Tempest's Wake, a Vanguard coda

In his latest summary of writing projects, Dayton Ward has provided some clarification on what In Tempest's Wake, his forthcoming TOS/Vanguard ebook, actually is. Here's what he had to say:

Back in early February, I was approached by my editor at Pocket Books about writing an e-Book exclusive novella for publication later this year. Specifically, I was asked to write a “coda” for the Star Trek: Vanguard novel series, which recently was given its grand finale in the form of the kick-ass book Storming Heaven by series co-creator David Mack. Though I admit I was reluctant at first to take on such a project, I was able to work with my editor to develop an idea I thought might work, told primarily from the points of view of non-Vanguard characters.

The Seekers

A few months ago I shared with you the amazing work of Rob Caswell, otherwise known as Arcass, on his deviantART page. Rob is a New England based illustrator who has worked on role playing games, computer games, web design, and comics; including part of FASA's Star Trek: The Next Generation - Officer's Manual, and the new TOS-remastered inspired covers for James Blish's Star Trek novelizations I highlighted last time. Since then Rob has been working on more Trek-inspired novel covers, this time for a TOS spin-off from an alternative timeline; The Seekers, which featured the adventures of an Archer-class scoutship (Masao Okazaki's design from the Vanguard series).

This is how Rob described The Seekers in his description for the first cover in the series:

The one-season series spin-off featured the new tiny Federation scout ship designed by 7-year-old Masao Okazaki through the studio fan-mail-in contest. It followed the adventures of this intimate crew on a series of epsidoes that would set a new standard for TV sci-fi that would not be met for decades.

And this is what Rob told me about the conception of the series:

My previous series of (fan art) Trek book covers, readdressing the original Blish novelizations in a style that was both respectful of seventies graphic sensibilities but at the same time brought the series a Post-Trek detail polish, seemed to be pretty popular with my Deviant Art viewership. Folks had been nudging me to do a follow up – maybe by revisiting Foster’s TAS “Logs” – but the fire didn’t get lit under my butt until someone suggested doing a fictional Trek book series based on a smaller ship. Thus was born “The Seekers” project.

The idea was that these were novelizations done for a late sixties Star Trek spin-off…. which obviously never happened so I had to throw in some "artifact from an alternate timeline" fiction to massage my raison d'être. If such a series were to be launched, they probably would have followed the Star Trek novelization model in having an established SF writer take on the duties. I chose Fredrick Brown as a) he’s the author of the notable “Arena” episode, and b) he’s heavily associated with the 60’s scifi scene. I went with the name “Seekers” in an effort to evoke the original show’s mission, as stated in every opening credit sequence: “…to seek out new life and new civilizations.”

Graphically I tried to give this short series the same treatment as I did the Blish covers. I wanted it to look like it was part of the publisher’s product line from the time and I wanted to evoke that wonderful late sixties to mid-eighties paperback cover illustration style. The covers on those old reads were just as inspirational to me as “the guts”, back when I was a teenager. Between each story I’d close the book, consider what I just read, and soak the cover art in again… perhaps with a little new meaning or added observation. Those covers were part of the whole experience and I wanted to try and recapture that effect for a new audience. Of course in the case of “The Seekers”, as there are no “guts”, the covers ARE the experience.

Another stunning series you must surely agree? And I hope not the last I'll feel compelled to share with you. You can see more of Rob's cover designs, here, and view his entire gallery, here, which is filled with all sort of pretty pictures, including lots more Star Trek goodness!

Thanks once more to Rob for allowing me to share his work!

A new Trek ebook on the way

The Simon and Schuster website has been updated with a listing for a new Star Trek ebook coming in October: Vanguard: In Tempest's Wake, by Dayton Ward. Although according to Dayton Ward's response to the news on twitter, it should actually be TOS rather than Vanguard (which is due to come to a conclusion with the imminent release of Storming Heaven).

Hopefully this is also an indication that last October's release of the Typhon Pact ebook, The Struggle Within, was also a success. And hopefully if this one does well too, we might be lucky enough for this to be made more than annual event?!

Coming soon(ish) from Cross Cult

My German correspondent, Jens Deffner (a regular contributor to the excellent UnrealitySF), has been in touch to inform of the latest news on Cross Cult's German language translations of Star Trek novels. Despite previously suggesting they might slow down their releases of Trek books, Cross Cult still seem to be churning them out at an impressive pace. There are new listings for Vanguard, Typhon Pact, Voyager and TOS in the next year or two.

They are also apparently hoping to acquire the rights to print translations of omnibuses of the Star Trek ongoing comic series; if they get them they hope to publish the first omnibus shortly after Volume One is released in English.

To top it all off they have also released their latest new cover, a neat combo of Bajor and the Federation emblem for Unity, their version of which, titled Einheit, is due out in April:

Continue after the jump for the full schedule of forthcoming Cross Cult releases:

New Storming Heaven blurb

Simon and Schuster have updated their listing for the next and last Vanguard novel, Storming Heaven, with a new blurb; which sounds a bit more final and a lot more dramatic!:

“I WAS THERE UNTIL THE END, MATE. THE BITTER, BLOODY END.”

Vanguard is under siege. Surrounded by enemies, Admiral Nogura sends the scout ship Sagittarius to find an ancient weapon that might be the Federation’s only hope of stopping the alien threat known as the Shedai . . . Qo’noS is wracked by scandal. Councillor Gorkon fights to expose a Romulan plot to corrupt members of the Klingon High Council, only to learn the hard way that crusaders have few allies, and even fewer friends . . . Tholia teeters on the brink of madness. To prevent Starfleet from wielding the Shedai’s power as its own, the Tholians deploy an armada with one mission: Kill the Shedai—by destroying Vanguard.

THE EPIC SAGA’S EXPLOSIVE FINALE

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

Alternate art for Kobayashi Maru

Doug Drexler has posted on his blog a variant of his artwork for the cover of the Enterprise novel Kobayashi Maru:

I think this might be the first time this art has been seen in colour; a black and white version was released in early solicitations for the book.

Drexler has also posted his cover art, without the titles, for the more recent/forthcoming books, To Brave the Storm, and Storming Heaven. Both of which were apparently inspired by Frank McCarthy movie posters. Go have a looksie.

News blurbs for Storming Heaven and Plagues of Night

Simon and Schuster have updated their listing for the next, and final, Vanguard novel, Storm Heaven, by David Mack. UPDATE: David Mack has tweeted me to point out this is not the blurb for Storming Heaven, but a re-use of and early one for Declassified (albeit with a misleading sentence plonked in front). So hopefully something less generic will be forthcoming in the future:

The final novel in the acclaimed Vanguard saga, based on Star Trek: The Original Series!

Secret operations, sealed orders, high-risk military special operations—such dangerous missions have been at the core of the Star Trek Vanguard series since its inception. Four great nations—the Federation, the Klingon Empire, the Tholian Assembly, and the Romulan Star Empire—have all taken tremendous risks in their race to learn and control the technologies of the ancient interstellar hegemons known as the Shedai. Now get ready for the mystery of the Taurus Reach to be revealed….

They have also added a blurb to their online catalogue listing for the next Typhon Pact book, and part one of David R. George III's new duology, Plagues of Night:

In the wake of the final Borg invasion, which destroyed entire worlds, cost the lives of sixty-three billion people, and struck a crippling blow to Starfleet, six nations adversarial to the United Federation of Planets—the Romulan Star Empire, the Breen Confederacy, the Tholian Assembly, the Gorn Hegemony, the Tzenkethi Coalition, and the Holy Order of the Kinshaya—joined ranks to form the Typhon Pact. For almost three years, the Federation and the Klingon Empire, allied under the Khitomer Accords, have contended with the nascent coalition on a predominantly cold-war footing. But as Starfleet rebuilds itself, factions within the Typhon Pact grow restive, concerned about their own inability to develop a quantum slipstream drive to match that of the Federation. Will leaders such as UFP President Bacco and RSE Praetor Kamemor bring about a lasting peace across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, or will the cold war between the two alliances deepen, and perhaps even lead to an all-out shooting war?

Ships of the Line: Active Duty

Doug Drexler has updated his blog with a new compilation video of the Ships of the Line: Active Duty animations, which features animated versions of Ships of the Line images and Vanguard covers. Amazing:



More Active Duty is promised in future Drex Files updates!

Wouldn't it be great if things like this could be worked into the calendars and book covers, using those little square barcode things, or augmented reality...

Wouldn't it also be great if Vanguard (and Titan while I'm at it) actually got into a calendar some time soon!

Books bits

A few book newslets: StarTrek.com recently posted an interview with Dayton Ward on the out-just-about-now next and penultimate Vanguard novel, What Judgments Come. Here's an interesting bit on how the book works as part of the two-part conclusion to the series:

What Judgments Come resolves a few character arcs and storylines on its own, while also "lighting the fuse" for what will be the climactic finish in Storming Heaven. There's even a shared framing sequence that starts and ends both books. Though Storming Heaven will pick up precisely where What Judgment Comes leaves off, Dave, Kevin and I made sure that each book tells its own story while at the same time working together to provide something of a "feature-length series finale episode" feel.

You can read the rest at StarTrek.com. Meanwhile the Simon and Schuster online catalogue has been updated with a new listing for a TNG book by David R George III. Titled At the Prophet's Door, it's due out next June. Might this be a new title for one of the books in the duology we're expecting from George next year?

Finally, Amazon.de has posted an updated version of Cross Cult's cover for Überträger (Vectors), with Kira and Pulaski now swapped:

This is also the version used in Cross Cult's latest catalogue. There aren’t any new listings or covers in said catalogue, but if you want an idea of Cross Cult's output (Trek and otherwise), it’s worth a look (pdf link).

Cover updates

Just a couple of days ago Simon and Schuster put up the first covers for several 2012 books on their online catalogue, and now they have already updated two of those covers:

The Rings of Time:

That Which Divides:

Some fo the authors have also been commenting on the new covers. Dayton Ward on (the first version) of That Which Divides:

I know it’s not the final cover is because I saw this image a couple of weeks ago, and was asked for my input. I provided feedback based on info from the actual manuscript, which the cover artist didn’t have at the time he created this interim image. He was working from some pretty basic info provided to him by my editor, and given what he had to work with, this is actually a pretty slick image. My feedback was aimed more at tweaking the image to bring it in line with the events from the manuscript this is supposed to depict, and to “juice it up” some. I’m still waiting (and excited) to see what he brings with the next go-around.

Christopher L. Bennett on Forgotten History:

Granted this is a tentative cover, but I like the continuity with the Watching the Clock cover, the reuse of the Shepherd’s Gate Clock face from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich as a design element. Having Kirk’s Enterprise fly through it is a great touch. And looming above it all, the face of James T. Kirk, the bogeyman of the DTI… it’s an excellent design, really fitting for the book.

David Mack was also keen to lavish praise on Doug Drexler for his work on the cover of Storming Heaven:

Is that sweet or what? CGI master Doug Drexler has outdone himself again, and I’m in his debt. Want to be even more impressed? I’m told this might not even be the final cover. That’s right; the final cover might be even more awesome than this.

New novel covers and blurbs

The Simon and Schuster online catalogue has been updated with a load of new (not final) covers, plus the odd blurb:

The Rings of Time

That Which Divides

The Xondaii system—located in an area of non-aligned space near Federation and Romulan territory—is home to a unique stellar phenomenon: a spatial rift which opens every 2.7 Earth years, remains open for a period of approximately twenty-one Earth days, and allows access to a small planetoid that orbits in proximity to the system’s fourth planet. During this brief window, the people of Xondaii undertake a massive interplanetary operation: mineral ore is ferried from the mining operation while supplies, crew replacements, and so on are transported from the planet. Also, communications with the mining colony on the planetoid are possible only when the rift is open.

Science vessel U.S.S. Robert Ballard is severely damaged during its mission to the system, and the U.S.S. Enterprise is dispatched to investigate and render assistance. But Kirk, Spock, and Sulu also collect the data about the rift, and the evidence they’ve gathered regarding its artificial nature is compelling. How has this not been discovered by anyone from Xondaii, especially when considering the extensive mining operations that have been in place for decades? And what can prevent enemies of the Federation from exploiting this newfound power?

Storming Heaven

Forgotten History

I'm guessing the The Rings of Time cover is just a sketch of what's to come, but I'm loving impressionistic style. And have you ever seen so many Tholians! Links to previous coverage of these books and others coming out in 2012, can be found on the 2012 schedule page.