Hallmark's 2008 ornaments

Toy News International have confirmed TrekMovie.com's reporting early in the year on this year's Hallmark keepsake ornaments will be: The USS Reliant, Kirk in a pile of tribbles and a TOS communicator. And TNI provides pictures:

See TNI's report for further details.

Myriad Universes blurbs

Via TrekWeb, Jeff Ayers and Marco Palmieri have released the blurbs for the Myriad Universes anthologies and the next DS9 relaunch omnibus, These Haunted Seas:

Myriad Universes
It's been said that for any event, there is an infinite number of possible outcomes. Our choices determine which outcome will follow, and therefore all possibilities that could happen do happen across countless alternate realities. In these divergent realms, known history is bent, like white light through a prism-broken into a boundless spectrum of what-might-have-beens. But in those myriad universes, what might have been . . . is what actually happened.

Infinity's Prism:
A LESS PERFECT UNION by William Leisner: More than a hundred years after the Terra Prime movement achieved its dream of an isolationist Earth, humanity is once again at a fork in the river of history . . . and the path it follows may ultimately be determined by the voice of a single individual: the sole surviving crewmember of the first Starship Enterprise.

PLACES OF EXILE by Christopher L. Bennett: Midway through Voyager's journey across the galaxy, Captain Kathryn Janeway and Commander Chakotay must choose whether to brave a deadly war zone or abandon their quest for home. But an attack by Species 8472 cripples the ship, and the stranded crew must make new choices that will reshape their destinies . . . and that of the Delta Quadrant itself.

SEEDS OF DISSENT by James Swallow: Khan victorious! Almost four centuries after conquering their world, genetically enhanced humans dominate a ruthless interstellar empire. But the warship Defiance, under its augmented commander, Princeps Julian Bashir, makes a discovery that could shake the pillars of his proud civilization: an ancient sleeper ship from Earth named the Botany Bay.

Echoes and Refractions:
THE CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT by Geoff Trowbridge: In a continuum where Spock died during childhood, an Andorian named Thelin became Captain Kirk's stalwart friend and first officer. But at the moment of Khan's final defeat, history takes an even stranger turn, and the emerging potential of Project Genesis is revealed as the galaxy's greatest hope . . . and its most ominous threat.

A GUTTED WORLD by Keith R. A. DeCandido: Terrorist Kira Nerys-from a Bajor that was never liberated-may hold the key to winning a war that has engulfed half the galaxy. But with the Romulans and the Klingons at each other's throats, and the Federation pulled into the conflict, even victory may not bring salvation.

BRAVE NEW WORLD by Chris Roberson: Dr. Noonien Soong's dream has been realized: androids are now woven inextricably into the fabric of the Federation, revolutionizing Starfleet and transforming the quality of humanoid life. But when Soong's long-missing breakthrough creation, Data, mysteriously resurfaces, civilization reaches a crossroads that could lead to a bright new future, or to ruin.

These Haunted Seas:
It is a time of renewed hope. As the U.S.S. Defiant sails through the wormhole and charts a new course of discovery into the unknown ocean of the Gamma Quadrant, powerful individuals from distant worlds gather at station Deep Space 9 to usher in a bright new era; with the Dominion War now only a memory, Bajor is poised at last to enter the Federation. For Colonel Kira Nerys, Commander Elias Vaughn, and all those who follow them, these are the voyages they were born to undertake.

But where they seek to go is defined by the journeys they have made before, and ghosts populate these uncharted waters-the spectres of lost leaders, fallen friends, forsaken lovers, vanquished enemies, and earlier selves. Some of these shades drive the travelers on, others are drawn inexorably into their wake; but all make their presence felt, and in feeling, the men and women of DS9 and the Defiant must somehow navigate the perilous rapids of their pasts in order to find the future.

Originally published as Twilight and This Gray Spirit-the first two novels in the critically acclaimed Mission: Gamma series- These Haunted Seas is the next chapter of the epic saga begun in Twist of Faith, continuing the chronicles of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine beyond the small screen, propelling its heroes to realms they could never have imagined, and truths they cannot escape.

KRAD puts Klingons in the Spotlight

More news! Keith R.A. DeCandido, that busy fellow of many talents, has announced which alien he will be putting in the spotlight in his issue for the second series of IDW's Alien Spotlight *drum role* (because the title didn’t give it away): The Klingons, in a story titled "Four Thousand Throats..."

Update: KRAD has stated the story will not be an IKS Gorkon one. Further he has also reported on an interview with Andrew Steven Harris in the latest Star Trek Magazine (not available to me in the UK for a few weeks yet). Other species in the series will be the Tholians, Ferengi and Betazoids, with "a couple that will be surprises along the way". The writers (in no particular order) will be Scott and David Tipton, James Patrick, Andrew Steven Harris and Mike W. Barr.

See Mr DeCandido's announcement, here, and TrekBBS post on the series, here.

More Romulans amongst new projects coming from John Byrne

On his own forums John Byrne has announced he is working on a number of new Star Trek projects for IDW. He has four new TOS era projects in the works, three of which have already been approved by CBS.

The first will be a sequel to his Alien Spotlight on the Romulans (which itself was a prequel to Balance of Terror and The Enterprise Incident). This project will begin with a two-parter, with more to follow. When another poster asked about Byrne doing an adoption of Balance of Terror Byrne responded by whistling (so perhaps a Romulans eye-view of the episode or some such variation me thinks)

One of the other projects is apparently a TOS prequel, set earlier than Captain April's captaincy.

See these posts: for Romulans II, and continuing Trek projects. Thanks to GustavoLeo on IDW's message boards for pointing out the Romulan story.

Greater Than the Sum cover confirmed

Kieth R.A. DeCandido has released (in another TrekBBS post) a larger colour version of the cover for Greater than the Sum - the next TNG novel, leading into the Destiny trilogy - (which was previously seen in pocket summer catalogue in black and white, and smaller version in colour on Amazon for a little while) which would seem to confirm this is the final cover for the book:

The image looks a lot like (identical as far as I can tell) an image from one of the Ships of the Line calendars. I wonder if the atmospheric flight is an accurate portrayal of a scene in the book...

Trek comics coming... to DVD...

More news from the comic con. This time care of Mr Christopher L. Bennett, in a post at the TrekBBS he reports that he spotted a poster advertising the company Graphic Imaging Technology (who have released several DVD collections of Marvel comics) will be releasing "a complete DVD collection of Star Trek comics" in October.

When he pestered the GIT people about this rather exciting sounding product they told him it "will contain the complete runs of "all four" publishers of Trek comics", which if one assumes WildStorm falls under DC will mean everything before IDW; Gold Key, Marvel, DC and Malibu! Wow.

2009 from Pocket Books

In a post at the TrekBBS Mr. DeCandido has been kind enough to fill in the rest of the news from Pocket Books at the New York Comic Con.

The books from February to April, which KRAD dubbed "cleaning up Mack's mess" will all be follow-ups to the Destiny trilogy

KRAD's own A Singular Destiny kicks it off in February. As described by KRAD: "The people who've been clamoring for a Clancy-style political thriller will like this one, as it's about the political fallout from Destiny's events (which will be considerable). It won't feature any of the main crews, although a ship that plays a big role in Destiny will also play a big role here, as well as familiar faces from other parts of the Trek universe. The protagonist will be a civilian character of my own creation.

Oh, and those of you who want to see more of the Bacco Administration from Articles of the Federation, both the Destiny trilogy and A Singular Destiny will feature those characters in good-sized roles."

March brings us the latest Titan novel; Over a Torrent Sea, by Christopher L. Bennett

And April's novel is Full Circle, a Voyager novel by Kirsten Beyer which will: "pick up initially where Spirit Walk Book 2 left off, and take Voyager aaaaaaall the way through to Destiny and beyond -- which means the book will cover a few years, all told, and it will set the tone for future post-finale VOY fiction."

In addition to the Destiny fallout; March will see the omnibus edition of Mere Anarchy, the TOS ebook miniseries; The forth Vanguard book (as yet untitled) is scheduled for May; And the author list for the Mirror Universe short story anthology Shards and Shadows has been announced, they are: Christopher L. Bennett, Margaret Wander Bonanno, Peter David, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Michael Jan Friedman, Jim Johnson, Rudy Josephs, David Mack, Dave Stern, James Swallow, Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore and Susan Wright

See the original post, here.

DST tricorder

At the New York Comic Con. Diamond Select Toys have revealed their TOS tricorder prop, previously announced (but not seen) at the US Toy Fair. Here is it (c.o. Entertainment Earth, via TrekMovie.com):

As one would expect from a DST prop toy/replica, it will look the part and come with a variety of lights and sounds. Available form October apparently.

A Singular Destiny

News is coming out of the New York Comic Con.; the first story coming from Keith R.A. Decandido, who has reported on his live-journal that he will be writing a follow up novel to this year's Destiny trilogy.

The book will be titled A Singular Destiny and will be out in February next year. KRAD promised more details when he can get to a computer, all else he said for now was "Voyager fans will be very happy next April"...

Wounds cover

TrekWeb.com has released the cover for the next Star Trek: Corps of Engineers print omnibus; Wounds. By the artist Rick Berry apparently:

Wounds is out in October and will contain eBooks of 50-56 of the SCE series (including three stories that have some level of cross over with the DS9 relaunch).