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Spoilers New Picard TV Series and Litverse Continuity (may contain TV show spoilers)

I would be amazed if the second or third Picard novel isn’t a Seven of Nine backstory novel so they can put Jeri Ryan on the cover of a hardback novel without impacting future plot lines (like the first year of Discovery novels were set in the past). Probably Riker and Troi too.

I am ready for a reboot beyond just the commercial sense of the move, but a wrap up novel for lit verse continuity does sound like something they could market.

I am very curious what the names of Riker and Tori’s child/children are, as that seems like a natural way for K Beyer to give a nod to the litverse
 
While a wrap up novel or trilogy would be nice I’m not holding my breath.

Anyway I’m way behind on my Star Trek reading and I’m not going to stop just because the continuity has been contradicted by Picard.
 
DGCatAniSiri said:
I wouldn’t discount Voyager novels completely, considering Seven’s appearance in Picard - it wouldn’t surprise me to see a novel that explores Seven’s development in the time between Endgame and Picard, for example, and while the Picard name could certainly be used for it, since producers have said that they’re going with the idea that her appearance in Picard is the first time they’re properly encountering one another, I think that it would be easy to classify it with the Voyager name, since it would probably feature at least a few Voyager characters in various ways.
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I would think such a book would be more likely to have the Picard banner on it than the Voyager one. After all, to do it your way would be like using the TOS banner on The Enterprise War instead of the Disco one.
Krupp said:
Couple of threads to pull on there.

Firstly, we’ve been paying the sticker price on the books for years. These books have been marketed and sold on the premise of having some continuity and development across them and I don’t think there’s major controversy in the idea that diligent fans deserve some closure to those arcs.

Secondly, in the world of Star Trek there is some history of diligent fans consuming the media and asking persistently for a continuation of or conclusion to that media. Star Trek literally wouldn’t be more than a 3 season ratings failure from the 1960s without fans who felt some ownership of the franchise. Everyone who has ever earned a paycheque from Star Trek since 1968 or so owes it to a dedicated fan base who watched and then actively clamoured for more. This has occurred with other franchises too and it is worth acknowledging.

Thirdly, nobody is suggesting however that the people involved are slaves to Star Trek or anything else. But looking after your dedicated hardcore fans is good business. Maybe in ten years Star Trek is back out of vogue and you’re dipping back into this well of (hopefully expanded) hardcore fans to keep the novelverse lit. Having those fans feel they can invest in long term arcs and get satisfying conclusions is probably a good idea. A wrap up book would likely sell well, yes be a fan service but also provide reassurance to fans that yes, this is how we do it, we look after you.

I know there’s strong and fair arguments that you take what you get from a franchise, I don’t particularly mind the canon arguments and so on. But I do think that when you’ve had a good, what 15 or 20 year run of relaunch novels it would be good business as well as showing respect to your fans to close it out.
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Thing is, as profitable as the Litverse clearly was, it was still the TOS 5YM novels that made real money for Pocket, and those will likely continue. So from the perspective of the bean counters, that covers the "debt" owed to fans who kept the novels running during the wilderness years, and the can sever the Litverse as is.

And besides, the old Star Wars EU had better sales than Star Trek novels had, and they never wrapped up the EU before switching to the new Disney Canon novels. No real incentive for Star Trek to do any kind of a wrap-up either.
 
This is like the third time the novel continuity has been tossed aside because new on screen stuff has started. I realize it's been like 30 years since the last time, but I would think fans would expect it by now.
 
iarann said:
This is like the third time the novel continuity has been tossed aside because new on screen stuff has started. I realize it's been like 30 years since the last time, but I would think fans would expect it by now.
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What's worse is it's hardly unprecedented. Doctor Who had its novel continuity wiped clean when it returned to TV in 2005, and then there's the nullification of the Star Wars EU back in 2014. But, everyone apparently expects Star Trek to be special and unique apparently.
 
If I had a choice I'd like at least one more DS9 book. Sure I'd love the litverse to continue, but if it really came down to it and there were going to be no more, I'd like to see one last DS9 book to finish off that series (you'd never wrap everything up but just to end on a note sort of like Collateral Damage did---they sort of go off into the sunset on their continued voyages). That'll be the only 24th century series without some sort of wrap up (if you consider Collateral Damage and To Lose the Earth wrap ups of TNG and Voyager).

I was just thinking, it is interesting the way Collateral Damage ended, that Picard would never be admiral, he would forever remain a captain, while Picard obviously went in another direction. I wonder if David Mack knew Picard would make it to admiral at the time he wrote the book.
 
Damian said:
I was just thinking, it is interesting the way Collateral Damage ended, that Picard would never be admiral, he would forever remain a captain, while Picard obviously went in another direction. I wonder if David Mack knew Picard would make it to admiral at the time he wrote the book.
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This was discussed in the LiteraryTreks interview towards the end of the episode (01:23)
http://www.trek.fm/literary-treks/286
 
The Wormhole said:
What's worse is it's hardly unprecedented. Doctor Who had its novel continuity wiped clean when it returned to TV in 2005, and then there's the nullification of the Star Wars EU back in 2014. But, everyone apparently expects Star Trek to be special and unique apparently.
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My point is it's not even unprecedented in Star Trek novel history. The novels in the early 80s being contradicted every new movie that would come out, or almost every single novel involving Romulans and Klingons written at that time being contradicted by TNG when it hit.

We were the one set of fans that always understood the novels are not and never have been canon. They practically beat it into us. It's weird to see people thought it would be different this time.
 
Stephen! said:
This was discussed in the LiteraryTreks interview towards the end of the episode (01:23)
http://www.trek.fm/literary-treks/286
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Very enlightening. That does answer a couple questions also. I was a bit curious when I started reading the novel as to whether David Mack would include any tidbits or hints to Picard in his novel. Even something last minute (sometimes an author will add something late in the process if they discover some tidbit they wanted to include). But it sounds like that just wasn't possible. By the time the book was finalized it sounds like they hadn't even settled on a basic outline for the show yet. I have to imagine if Mack did know even a little bit about what we know now he would have hinted at it in some fashion in the novel.

The other thing I found interesting is it doesn't sound like the authors have completely abandoned the current litverse. I kind of assumed everyone had written off continuing stories in the relaunches, including the authors. But it sounds like they are at least bouncing some ideas around. Now that's a long way from actual books and there's no way to know whether S&S would even be on board with some sort of continuation. But perhaps, just perhaps, there might be just a glimmer of hope.

I'm not sure there's a market for those in print. But a niche market like that might be ideal for e-books, and there are no e-book only stories on the horizon. It might not be worth S&S's while to do trade novels of TNG, DS9, etc. but maybe there's enough interest to continue them as E-book only entries (or maybe there is enough interest to do print novels...I honestly don't know).

iarann said:
We were the one set of fans that always understood the novels are not and never have been canon. They practically beat it into us. It's weird to see people thought it would be different this time.
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I don't think many of us ever expected them to become canon. That the shows could always do their own thing. For myself I know I've just gone through 20+ years of continuing stories in the various series. That's a bit unprecendented in Star Trek books. They've never had ongoing stories for that length of time. So some of us have become invested in those continuing stories and see more that can be done in the future with those stories. It'd be nice to just have some closure. I'm sure Star Wars fans feel the same way about their stories. It would have been nice to see some plot threads resolved. I don't expect the shows to follow the books though.
 
Damian said:
There's all kinds of reasons the current litverse won't continue. One is the books generally have to be consistent with the on screen canon. Though it's interesting to read from Greg Cox that this isn't spelled out in any sort of contract per se. But outside a few specific exceptions we know books generally stick to what's on screen (and when what's on screen goes in a different directions the books almost always follow suit).
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Alternate universes have been established.
Two, as some have noted, S&S is in the market to make money. They're going to commission books for series that are currently on the air because that's what makes money. The only exception is the original series for obvious reasons. Sure there's a niche market for DS9, Enterprise and Voyager books. But I think it's safe to assume they'll make more money off a Picard novel than a Voyager novel.
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The Novelverse continued without planned interruptions for almost 20 years, so they clearly made quite a bit of money.

And others are right my books aren't going anywhere. What's disappointing as I've noted before is they won't continue. I wish they could but they won't. Though at the very least I was really hoping the novels would get us to the destruction of Romulus in some sort of big epic finale tying up the 24th century, maybe like Destiny, that includes TNG, DS9 and Voyager.
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I know it's very, very, very unlikely, but I'm not ready to say that it is absolutely impossible.

The Wormhole said:
I would think such a book would be more likely to have the Picard banner on it than the Voyager one. After all, to do it your way would be like using the TOS banner on The Enterprise War instead of the Disco one.

And besides, the old Star Wars EU had better sales than Star Trek novels had, and they never wrapped up the EU before switching to the new Disney Canon novels. No real incentive for Star Trek to do any kind of a wrap-up either.
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The reason for that is that Lucasfilm has decided to declare everything equally canon,. And even though they have, that didn't prevent them from going back to the old Legends EU for the Marvel 80th anniversary comics.
Another thing to keep in mind that is that right now there are only 2 new shows on the air, and they are releasing more than 2 or 3, if we want to include TOS, books a year, so there is plenty of room to put out at least a few litverse novels alongside the new series novels.
Just to repeat again, so people don't think I'm totally out of touch with reality, I know the chance of the Novelverse continuing is very, very, very small, but I don't think we know enough to rule it out with absolute certainty.
 
Maybe the next Voyager novel will tie in DS9 in some way and give us the send off. I hope so. It’d just be nice to get closure on the 20 years of continuous storytelling we’ve been following before moving on for entirely understandable reasons. I’m really excited for new literature invigorated by the stories and visuals of the TV shows, but it’s no bad thing to wish for a proper closure on what we have today.
 
Trek novels have been overwritten by onscreen continuity constantly, since 1979 when The Motion Picture shitcanned Spock Must Die! First Contact overwrote Federation, "Second Chances" overwrote Imzadi, both "Blood Oath" and "Affliction"/Divergence" overwrote several attempts to explain the differences between smooth-headed and ridge-headed Klingons, the presence of Spock, Number One, and Pike in Discovery season 2 overwrote several Pike-era novels and comic books and short stories, the general development of Romulans and Klingons on the spinoff TV series overwrote the work that Diane Duane and John M. Ford, respectively, did with those two empires, etc., etc., etc.

This is nothing new. And unlike certain other franchises, Trek has never ever claimed their fiction was canon (well, okay, John Ordover tried to convince everyone that Mosaic and Pathways were canon, but that only lasted until Jeri Taylor stepped down as Voyager's show-runner).
 
Krupp said:
Everyone who has ever earned a paycheque from Star Trek since 1968 or so owes it to a dedicated fan base who watched and then actively clamoured for more. This has occurred with other franchises too and it is worth acknowledging.
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Yeah and you got repaid with thousands of hours of free entertainment when it was televised and now you can pay $12 to have full access to the entirety of the franchise via streaming services. You purchased a book for $15 and your reward is an entertaining story you can read again and again. Heck Paramount and CBS even let people make fan films of their intellectual property, before a segment of the fan base took advantage of their good will. So I would say that CBS and by extension pocket books have done more than enough to settle the apparent debt owed to fans.

Wanting a satisfying conclusion and demanding one because 'they owe you' are two very different things.
 
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