Alan Dean Foster's Kelvin timeline novel now has a full catalog entry. What was originally titled Refugees, and then The Order of Peace, is now The Unsettling Stars; out April 14, 2020. The blurb: Taking place in an alternate timeline created when the Starship Kelvin was destroyed by a Romulan invader from the future, this bold new novel follows Captain James T. Kirk and an inexperienced crew commandeering a repaired U.S.S. Enterprise out of spacedock for a simple shakedown cruise. When a distress call comes in, the Enterprise must aid a large colony ship of alien refugees known as the Perenorean, who are under siege by an unknown enemy. But Kirk and his crew will find that the situation with the peaceful Perenorean is far more complicated than they bargained for, and the answers as to why they were attacked in the first place unfold in the most insidious of ways… https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Unsettling-Stars/Alan-Dean-Foster/Star-Trek/9781982140601 I think the blurb writer doesn't know what "commandeer" means, but the story seems to be largely intact from the original Refugees version of the blurb (although it is more vague about the plot, and the name of the refugee species has changed a bit).
It’s going to funny Reading that story with the tos crew in mind. Be interesting to see if it will fit.
I've waited 10 years for this book. I'm really looking forward to it. Nice that it's still seemingly set right after the 2009 movie.
I also love the coincidence with the novels finally reaching the year 2387 for this to come out. Perfect timing since that’s the year the JJVerse was created in Prime.
I have to confess, of the original batch of Kelvin Universe books, this is the one I was least interested.
I've been wanting to read more original ADF Trek fiction for a long time. Although yeah, the one I was most eagerly awaiting a decade ago was Greg's one about a galactic scramble for Spock Prime, but that was completely rewritten as that Seven-meets-Kirk novel from a few years ago (which I own but have yet to read)
I don't think I've ever read anything by ADF, which is probably why I wasn't as excited for his book, as I was by the one by authors I already like.
I was interested in all of them, but I agree, Greg Cox's intrigued me the most. I also snagged the TOS rewritten version, as the premise sounded so familiar, but I also haven't gotten around to it yet. Both versions sound awesome. I would love to have both versions, too, regardless of the similarities.
Anyone else think it's odd how they've completely switched over to trade paperback format? I read ebooks almost exclusively now, so it took me a while to notice, but when I was at my local B&N recently, I noticed the last four or five novels have all been published that way. I'm sure this has been mentioned on here somewhere, but after a cursory look, I couldn't find any recent mention of it.
It's an industry-wide trend. Mass-market paperbacks aren't really profitable anymore, since e-books have largely taken over their niche in the market, and book vendors prefer TPBs for the higher price point and because they can be kept on shelves longer.
The book industry is a weird beast. Who knew the size of the book means you have to treat them differently.
Paperbacks grew out of the magazine industry, where the newsstand tossed last month’s edition when the new one came out. Mass market paperbacks work the same way. The vendor rips the cover off, tosses the unsold book, and gets full credit for their next shipment of books. Vendor gets his money back, and the publisher gets half his print run in the dumpster. Trade paperbacks don’t work like that — to get credit for unsold copies, the vendor has to send them back. So, the publisher not only gets 100% higher cover price (one book for the price of two) but it gets copies back that can be sold as “remainders,” on sales tables at the fronts of the handful of Barnes & Nobles still hanging on.
I once visited a mass-market distribution plant and witnessed a sight no author or editor or book-lover should ever see: a vast assembly line in which unsold paperbacks were stripped of their covers before being pulped. It was the abattoir of author's dreams . . . .
I guess as an author you probably wanted to cry or throw up or maybe both. Though a fair number do end up in used book stores (though I guess that's different since those once had a home). We are a funny species. Why does that happen to MMPB when they don't to trades. What's the difference, other than the size is a bit bigger and the price higher? I have bookshelves full of MMPB's (much to my wife's chagrin) and I don't ever plan to get rid of my Star Trek book collection. Hell, I even kept "Price of the Phoenix" despite my rather low opinion of it Whenever I watch "Fahrenheit 451" the scene when they go into the old lady's attic reminds me of my attic. I have 4 1/2 bookshelves full of nothing but Star Trek books.
My dad worked part-time as a shoe salesman. I remember explaining how mass-market publishing worked and he thought it sounded totally insane. "Hang on. So if I ordered a dozen green tennis shoes and only sold half of them, I could just destroy the unsold shoes, send the laces back to the manufacturer, and get reimbursed for the unsold shoes? If the shoe business worked the same way as publishing?" "Yep. That's pretty much how it goes."