Mega update #6: Cross Cult

A few new covers from Cross Cult's Star Tek Facebook page and website. These are all out now or in the next couple of months:

New Frontier #1: Kartenhaus (House of Cards and Into the Void)

New Frontier #3: Märtyrer (Martyr)

TNG #6: Den Frieden Verlieren (Losing the Peace) (updated cover art)

Enterprise #1: Das Höchste Maß an Hingabe (Last Full Measure)

Mega update #5: Simon and Schuster

Lots has been going on in the past few months from the various Simon and Schuster imprints that now deliver us new Trek prose:

All four books of the Typhon Pact series are now available. Since my last updates there are now excerpts up for the last three books in the series on Simon and Schuster's website: Seize the Fire, Rough Beasts of Empire, and Paths of Disharmony. You can also find and excerpt from the latest Myriad Universes book, Infinity's Prism, which was released at the end of last year.

Also already out is the second book in the new Starfleet Academy series, The Edge. The cover was released on startrek.com before publication, and looks like this:

The next book in the series, out in April, now has a title: The Gemini Agent, and has apparently been pushed back from April to June release date, if the listing on Simon and Schuster's website is accurate. Correspondingly the listing on Simon and Schuster's online catalogue for the as yet untitled fourth book in the series notes a September publication date, moved from the initial May listing.

The Simon and Schuster catalogue has also been updated with new (preliminary) covers and blurbs for several forthcoming books:

DTI: Watching the Clock is on its second stand-in cover, but according to Christopher L. Bennett on his blog not the final. This version is apparently an element of the final cover though, and is a rendition of the clock at the Royal Greenwich Observatory:

Bennett also talks a bit about his work on the novel on his blog; have a read.

The next Voyager relaunch book, Children of the Storm, has a new cover and blurb:

In the aftermath of Destiny, the third novel in the Voyager series that takes original characters—and all new ones—into the Star Trek universe.

Three Federation starships—the Quirinal, Planck and Demeter —have mysteriously vanished, and a contingency plan is developed for the crew to search for the missing ships. An unknown alien race who call themselves the Children of the Storm is at fault, announcing to the Federation that they do not negotiate with destroyers of worlds—and it is not the Borg being referenced, but the Federation itself!

So does the next Vanguard book, the anthology, Declassified:

In this fifth Vanguard novel, the stakes are raised for all those embroiled in the mystery of the Taurus Reach.

Four great Alpha Quadrant superpowers—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 ancient technologies of the interstellar hegemons known as the Shedai. Go back into prehistory and see the reign of the Shedai as it really was; follow journalist Tim Pennington as he investigates the most bizarre story of his career; see how the Cold War of the original Star Trek era plays out between two groups of colonists; and get a glimpse of the lighter side of life aboard Starbase 47….

This cover has been confirmed as not final, owing to being too similar to previous covers in the series according to the author Dayton Ward. You can see a larger version of the unused cover art on the artist, Doug Drexler's, blog.

The TOS novel A Choice of Catastrophes too has a new cover and blurb:

An all-new novel based on Star Trek: The Original Series—one of the most popular television series of all time!

It is mid-2268. The Enterprise, under the command of Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu, is returning from a mission to deliver medical supplies to one of Starfleet’s most distant installations. All is routine until the Enterprise comes within a light-year of the planet Mu Arigulon; the ship is suddenly thrown from warp and suffers a momentary power cut. There’s only one injury—a minor one, and the Enterprise is again underway. Before the ship can reach full speed, it hits another distortion, this one much worse. There are a few more physical injuries, but what’s more worrying is an officer that’s entered into a coma…for no apparent reason.

The ever impressive Unreality SF also recently posted an interview with the authors, Steve Mollmann and Michael Schuster, who describe the books plot as follows:

While McCoy has to find a way to save the lives of a handful of people that have inexplicably fallen into a coma as well as the lives of everybody aboard the Enterprise when the ship is threatened by a destructive space phenomenon, Kirk et al. are exploring a mysterious planet that seems abandoned by the civilisation it was once inhabited by. What they discover is a terrible crime in progress, and they will need all their skills to put a stop to it and capture the perpetrators before they escape.

Mollmann and Schuster also revealed the book was initially pitched as a potential new movie timeline novel, with the idea in mind it could be tailored to either timeline, as is the case with it eventually falling into the prime timeline. They also offered a summary of a story that is from another timeline, Tears of Eridanus, their story in the recently released new Myriad Universes anthology. The point of divergence in this story is:

...the death of an obscure young computer scientist called Surak who died in a surprise terrorist attack. Consequently, his place in history is empty, but it is soon occupied by somebody else who will be familiar to readers of certain Vulcan-related novels. The result is that the planet is embroiled in a millennia-long period of clan warfare, preventing its people from shaping and affecting interstellar affairs as they did in the ‘original’ universe.

The lack of Vulcans to vie with the Andorians causes a lot of changes in ‘Federation’ history, and the lack of Romulans to vie with the Klingons certainly has some major repercussions too!

The authors talk extensively about these two stories and their previous Trek offerings in the Unreality SF interview.

Finally the online catalogue also gives us a new cover and blurb for the post-The Undiscovered Country novel, Cast No shadows. Which the author James Swallow has also posted on his blog, albeit with this longer version of the blurb:

The year is 2300, and seven years have passed since the events of the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. A space station orbiting the Klingon colony Da'Kel is being used as a staging area to undo the disastrous fallout from the destruction of Praxis. With the help of aid supplies from the United Federation of Planets, reconstruction is in progress–but the peace process begun by the Khitomer Accords is still fragile.

Unknown to either the Federation or Klingon representatives warily watching one another over Da'Kel's skies, a third group is plotting. Unnoticed by security, a civilian transport ship with a skeleton crew docks at the station. The ship transmits an ancient Klingon proverb–"Traitors cast no shadow"–before destroying itself in a massive blast of subspace energy that obliterates the space station.

Meanwhile, light years away in a Starfleet penal complex, former officer Valeris is in counselling with her Betazoid therapist. But the process is proving difficult, as Valeris refuses to let down her defenses. She has little hope of ever regaining her freedom or returning to her native Vulcan; guilty of murder and treason against the Federation, she believes she will never be able to go home again. An observer has also been watching - none other than Spock himself, recently retired from Starfleet service and now a representative of the Federation Diplomatic Corps. Spock has come to Jaros II to see Valeris because he believes he is to blame for failing to prevent her attack. He is as marked by that incident as Valeris, carrying the guilt of what he was forced to do...

 The novel has also been moved forward, from October to August.

Mega update #4: Music

La La Land Records have released a newly expanded edition of the Star Trek V: The Final Frontier soundtrack, which includes the original soundtrack release, plus 45 minutes of newly released music and alternate cues.

The two disc set is available from La La Land in a limited edition of 5000 units.

Mega update #3: Games

A couple of game updates:

TrekMovie have revealed the first of Wizkids’ Heroclix miniature games. Star Trek: Expeditions is based on the new movie and is described as follows:

Players take on the roles of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Uhura responding to an invitation from the Nibian government to open discussions about the planet joining the United Federation of Planets. However, now that the Enterprise has arrived, you find the President of Nibia less happy to see you than the invitation suggested, and Mr. Spock has detected evidence that another starship may have recently been in orbit.

Lead your away teams made up of crew and resources from the Enterprise to solve the major story arcs plus key side missions before the Klingon Fleet arrives or the lone cloaked Klingon Battle cruiser in orbit destroys the Enterprise and her crew. Three difficulty levels, random side missions, player strategies and a unique branching mission tree ensure every game will be a unique memorable experience.

The game will be out this summer, and features six miniature models, including what I think must be the first model in any format of the new movie style Klingon battle cruiser.

In a completely different sort of game, Gameforge have revealed two ships from their forthcoming online game, Star Trek Infinite Space. Interactive 3D models of the Galaxy class and Klingon Bird of Prey can be seen (and played with) on their website. And look rather good!

Mega update #2: Star Trek Magazine

Several issues of the Star Trek Magazine have flown by since my last update!

The December issue featured Star Trek's "Bad Boys" and also included a nicely illustrated excerpt from Rough Beasts of Empire.

January saw the spotlight shift to the girls of Trek, this time with an extract from Paths of Disharmony.

There are features from both issues on Startrek.com, here, and here. And you can also preview both those issues and the March issue, which focuses on Trek-relationships, on the Zimio online version of the magazine.

Finally Titan also released the Star Trek Souvenir Special, to celebrate 15 years of the Star Trek Magazine. The special features material from the Magazine archive over 150 pages.

Mega update #1: Star Trek Online

Three months without updates to this blog and there is surprisingly little to report on Star Trek Online!

Season 3: Genesis, has been launched, with highlights including a revamp of sector space and the ability to create your own missions.

Season three and subsequent updates have also seen various new items added to the C-Store, these include several Klingon faction ships:

Fek'lhri Kar'Fi class battle carrier

Orion Fek'lhri Marauder class patrol cruiser

Gorn Varanus class fleet support vessel

Nausicaan Guramba class siege destroyer

The Klingons also get an updated B'rel class bird of prey, while the Federation get the option of a "replica" NX class, with 25th century specs.

The Federation also get several new uniform options with costumes from All Good Things..., The Motion Picture and Enterprise (prime and mirror) as well as cat-suits modelled on Troi, Seven and T'Pol!

 

Cryptic also launched a competition to design the Enterprise-F, which is now closed to entrants, but voting continues.

And finally Cryptic have announced the next series of feature episodes, "Cloaked Intensions" which starts in February. The five "episode" series is described as follows:

Battles between former allies threaten to tear the Romulan Star Empire apart. Find the heart of the conflict before it engulfs the quadrant!

Episode 1: "The Vault" sees:

"The crew find themselves in a tight situation when they are ordered to investigate an energy surge on an abandoned Romulan starbase."

While descriptions have yet to be posted for the final four episodes: "Mine Enemy", "Frozen", "Coliseum", and "Cutting the Cord".

And we're back...

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Another Cross Cult New Frontier character image

Those busy people at Cross Cult have released yet another New Frontier character illustration. This time Burgoyne 172:

More Infinite Space

GameForge has launched a website for its forthcoming browser game Star Trek: Infinite Space. There's not much there yet, but the information section reveals the game will feature two factions, either Federation and Klingon; and the game's story will be written by Lee Sheldon, a game designer, author and producer, who's credits including producing several TNG episodes and writing the episode Remember Me.

You can also sign up to test the game, starting this year, prior to release next summer.

The site also has a couple of new concept art images:

 

Haynes Manual preview, and something new in the works?

StarTrek.com have posted an interview with the Haynes Enterprise Manual's author Ben Robinson. The interview highlights how Robinson hopes the book will be a little more accessible than previous similar books which have been a bit, intense. It also discusses how he worked with co-author Marcus Riley, and Michael Okuda; Robinson wrote most of the chapters, with Riley taking on the Enterprise-D, and then both authors working on revisions after Okuda's consultation.

The NX-01 sections sound very promising:

I have to say that the single most satisfying chapter was the NX-01, and a lot of the credit for that should go to Doug Drexler, who designed it. Doug was amazingly generous with his time and pulled out sketches and diagrams from his files that revealed all sorts of things he'd put into the ship that never made it on to screen. That ship's incredibly well thought-out and there's masses of fantastic detail that we were able to include in the book.

My highlight of the interview though is this tease at something else on the way:

I still have a full-time job working for the company who produced the Fact Files. We do a lot of 007 and Doctor Who publishing and we've got some top-secret Trek stuff in the pipeline that I think will make a lot of people very happy.

There's also a new preview page:

The book is out just about now. (Amazon.co.uk tells me mine is "Dispatching Soon", can't wait!)