I read an article a while back saying that book cover design is changing in response to the fact that more people now buy books online than in bookstores, so cover art and text are now being designed to catch the eye when seen as a thumbnail or on a phone screen. Thus, bigger and flashier text and more minimalist, boldly colored artwork.
I'm excited for To Lose the Earth next year finally and hope Collateral Damage is able to somehow satisfyingly tie up the TNG Relaunch series. Unfortunately I've never really had much interest in standalone TOS (or Kelvin-verse) novels although I understand they sell very well especially with more casual fans.
Very glad to see Kelvin books back. I hope this leads to a novelization of Beyond, as its the only Trek movie to not have a novel.
Star Trek.com has posted their article on Picard: Countdown and The Last Best Hope, which includes a new quote from Veronica Hart, the EVP of Global Franchise Management. She talks about the backstory playing out over the book and comic, so it sounds like they will at least create a single consistent backstory, even if they aren't directly connected.
I get the impression that Countdown is set much closer to Nemesis and shows the events that led to Picard's retirement, while The Last Best Hope is more of an immediate prequel to the show and introduces its cast.
Glad to hear it. Trek Collected posted the old descriptions for The Order of Peace (former known as Refugees), and More Beautiful than Dead. The authors have made some changes to the books, so depending on how signifcant the changes are these might not apply anymore, but it's still a good way to get at least a vague idea what to expect. The Order of Peace: More Beautiful than Death: Earlier I mentioned wanting a Franklin novel, but now I just remembered the Kelvin movies related thing I've been wanting even more, a USS Kelvin series.
Makes sense, and this setup would still leave room for the actual TV show to depict the Hobus supernova-event onscreen if they choose to do so (and it’s guaranteed that we’re gonna be getting some new information on it to some extent or other in conversations on the show at the absolute minimum, here).
Thinking on the seventh Discovery book that's due in 2020... I wonder if this one will be about Ash. He's the most high-profile character who <I>hasn't</I> featured in a novel yet, and there is much that could be filled in about what he's been doing when away from the ship.
I've read an article on Trecore that there maybe more Kelvin Universe books than the original four books that were canceled and the stories maybe taking place after Star Trek Beyond.I'm glad the Voyager novel To Save the Earth will be finally coming out at long last.
AFAIK, there were only to be the four Kelvin timeline novels, and none of them were after Beyond. There was another one in development than the four that were announced; David McIntee had a proposal in, but for whatever reason it didn't work out and was replaced by Greg Cox's novel.
I think Reanok is referring to this article: http://blog.trekcore.com/2019/08/2020-star-trek-book-news-star-trek-picard-kelvin-timeline/ In other words, I think they're saying that there could be more KT books ahead beyond the resurrected novels, rather than talking about the original plans a decade ago. Which, of course, was before STID or Beyond, so they could only take place shortly after the first movie. And while there were only four novels that had been commissioned and written so far at the time of their cancellation, I'm sure there would have been more if the line had gone ahead as planned back then.
It’d be neat if the Kelvinverse novels could take place ongoing from Beyond. I know there are comics doing so, but, hey, multiple takes, same subject, right? I’m still hoping for something that expands on the Discovery bridge crew, myself. Ash seems likely to be involved in the Section 31 show, so they might hold off a character novel for him until that starts up in earnest (or just make it a tie in to that show).