So does anyone know if the books are going to follow the 2009 Star Trek reboot and the prequel comic book Countdown that sends Spock out of this timeline, destroys Romulus and puts Data in command of the Enterprise? It occurs in 2387 and the most recent published novels take place in 2386, so if it's going to happen, it would have to happen in the next couple books.
The books don't currently have a license to incorporate elements from the Bad Robot movies. While they were advancing pretty quickly for several years, the current plan is apparently to slow down and stay in 2386 for the time being. Recall that the DS9 post-finale novels took seven years to cover 2376. There's no need to rush.
And of course even if any Abramsverse novels ever get written, they won't include Countdown, which is tied to the STO universe and is therefore incompatible with Treklit.
That's interesting, I didn't know that. Have there been any 'hat tips' that you know of that imply the movie is coming? I was reading a Spock-heavy novel from Typhon Pact that also had a lot of scenes set on Romulus and I felt that, well, there was an underlying sense of tragedy that, just as Romulus was getting its act together in terms of reunification, the sword of damocles was waiting to fall. Certainly my dream for the tie-in novels is that they complement, improve on and incorporate the events from Countdown.
STO has tied itself to Countdown in some of its spin-off literature, particularly referencing Data's command of the Enterprise and implying the borg-tech nature of the Narada. That said, I don't think there's anything in Countdown that directly contradicts the current novelverse. Of course, there's not that much time to get everybody in place (e.g. Picard as UFP ambassador to Vulcan) but it could still be done. LJ.
There is. It portrays Data's resurrection and subsequent career in an incompatible way. In Countdown, Data's "neural nets" were imprinted onto B-4's positronic brain, so that version is essentially Data's mind walking around in B-4's hijacked body. That's very different from the novels' approach.
2387 is a bit of a problem for the current novelverse I imagine. You have the competing concerns of not being able to incorporate Bad Robot movie elements into them, while also being required to follow canon, which is essentially anything that occurs on screen. The only real way to make this work is to assume the events portrayed in 2009's Star Trek occurred, but just never actually reference them. This of course becomes a stretch when you consider it would mean ignoring the massive implications that would result from Romulus' destruction. Spock's disappearance can be more easily ignored, although to never bring it up would be a disservice to the character. It's no wonder that the novelverse has slowed down the march to 2387. As Countdown isn't canon, I'm fairly confident the novelverse will simply ignore it.
Given how long novel continuity spent in the year 2376, and that they've only just entered 2386, I don't expect 2387 to be reached until the 2018 or even 2019 novels. They can extend that even further by decreasing the amount of Typhon Pact era novels and increasing how many Enterprise, TOS, Seekers, Lost Era and so on novels get released, or even by doing TV series era novels for the 24th century shows.
It's happened before, though only in comics -- Marvel's post-TMP comic not having a license to elements specific to TOS (though it snuck a bunch in anyway), Malibu only having a license for DS9, IDW only having TOS and TNG licenses (and briefly DS9), etc.
I tend to ignore comic books (I skimmed Countdown in B&N, when it first came out, but that's about it) and STO (wasn't there a STO crossover novel, fairly recently?), but I see nothing incompatible with the Novelverse in Countdown's basic premise, i.e., that the Red Matter (who thinks up these things? Really! "Red Matter"?!?) shipment that Nero commandeered as a means of destroying populated Federation planets was originally intended to get rid of the Hobus hypernova before it destroyed Romulus, but its delivery was delayed by those who wanted Romulus destroyed. Only in the details, and in where STO took the story.
Not a crossover novel. There was a tie-in novel, but it was not set in the main novel continuity and was not binding on it in any way. As stated, so far the only overt inconsistency is in Data 2.0's backstory. But that contradiction suggests that the novelists don't have any plans to be consistent with Countdown.
Also, I don't think any actual Borg appear in Countdown but still, that comic's assertion that the Narada is based on Borg technology (which I actually might believe, since the Narada definitely does NOT look like a mining vessel as we saw it, let alone the massive weaponry it had), but IIRC the ending of the Destiny trilogy would seem to preclude that possibility. Spoiler: Destiny Not only are all Borg drones absorbed into the Caeliar, but the technology they left behind is dissolved, amirite?
That's right (regarding the spoiler), but the Narada didn't seem that out of the question. The missiles could've been later addons, and the giant beam was essentially just a massive drill. Massive mining machinery has something of a reputation for being terrifying-looking beyond what one would expect, after all.
So I'm not familiar with how all of these examples ended up working out, but my guess is that this instance would be distinguishable from all of them, in that it would force the novels to completely ignore the 10,000 lb gorilla in the room in a way that would hurt their credibility/suspension of disbelief. You could do more personal/contained novels, but anything that even touched on quadrant politics would suffer.
There are lots of stories that could still be told in the late 2370's and early 2380s as well. But hopefully the legal issues can be worked out before 2386 gets too packed.
If I remember correctly, it wasn't based on Borg technology. After the destruction of Romulus, some surviving Tal Shiar retrofitted it with Borg Tech Mike
It does make me nervous all the same to worry about the future of the 24th century era novels. Even if it takes seven years to get thru 2387, what then? It would be sad if a decade down the road the novels could no longer move forward because of licensing restrictions.