2026 Novel Releases

[JD]

Not necessarily, Pocket has relased a TNG, and a DS9 novel over the last few years, and IDW has been releasing TNG, DS9 and Voyager comics. They're in the midst of a Voyager: Homecoming comic, which is a new version of Voyager's return home that has nothing to do with the novel of the same name.
I haven't read that one, but I just finished rereading their last Voyager comic, Seven's Reckoning, which was really good. Their most recent DS9 comic, The Dog of War was absolutely fantastic, I especially recommend it if you're a dog person.
IDW has also been doing their own original series, like the crossover Star Trek (no subtitle) ongoing series and it's Defiant spinoff. The main series focused on Sisko, who returns from the wormhole and puts together a new crew consisting of himself, Worf, Data, Crusher, Paris, and Scotty. It then spun off into the Defiant series, which featured Worf, Ro Laren, Lore, Spock and I think Sela. I haven't read them, but they do have their fans.
They're also currently doing a Red Shirts series, which focuses on an original Orignal Series era Red Shirt officers on a dangerous mission involving spies. This one does get pretty gory at times, so if that isn't you're thing you might want to avoid it.
I noticed you didn't mention Lower Decks, and as a huge, HUGE fan of that series, I'd highly recommend the Lower Decks comics. The first miniseries, and the early issue by Ryan North are absolutely fanatastic, and the more recent issue by Tyler Sheridan haven't been quite as good, but definitely still worth reading. North also wrote the first ever "interactive graphic novel" for Trek, Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way, which won the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story, and it is absolutely amazing.

 

[Christopher]

Not necessarily, Pocket has relased a TNG, and a DS9 novel over the last few years

Yeah, except it's Gallery Books now. Pocket Books is Simon & Schuster's mass market paperback imprint (indeed, it was the company that first introduced books of that size to the US market, hence the name), and Gallery Books is the trade paperback imprint. Since Trek books are all TPBs these days, that puts them under Gallery. (For that matter, as the company is currently organized, both Gallery Books and Pocket Books are imprints of the Gallery Publishing Group.)

 

[Greg Cox]

Correct me if I'm wrong but is everything Trek-related now focused on either the flogging of the dead horse that TOS has become,

I intend to keep writing TOS books for as long as they let me.

 

[Lynx]

I intend to keep writing TOS books for as long as they let me.

Something I really appreciate!

I suppose that it's about Kirk, Spock and the others, well what I consider as real TOS and not about NuTrek and invented characters from SNW and similar shows.

 

[Lynx]

Not necessarily, Pocket has relased a TNG, and a DS9 novel over the last few years, and IDW has been releasing TNG, DS9 and Voyager comics. They're in the midst of a Voyager: Homecoming comic, which is a new version of Voyager's return home that has nothing to do with the novel of the same name.
I haven't read that one, but I just finished rereading their last Voyager comic, Seven's Reckoning, which was really good. Their most recent DS9 comic, The Dog of War was absolutely fantastic, I especially recommend it if you're a dog person.
IDW has also been doing their own original series, like the crossover Star Trek (no subtitle) ongoing series and it's Defiant spinoff. The main series focused on Sisko, who returns from the wormhole and puts together a new crew consisting of himself, Worf, Data, Crusher, Paris, and Scotty. It then spun off into the Defiant series, which featured Worf, Ro Laren, Lore, Spock and I think Sela. I haven't read them, but they do have their fans.
They're also currently doing a Red Shirts series, which focuses on an original Orignal Series era Red Shirt officers on a dangerous mission involving spies. This one does get pretty gory at times, so if that isn't you're thing you might want to avoid it.
I noticed you didn't mention Lower Decks, and as a huge, HUGE fan of that series, I'd highly recommend the Lower Decks comics. The first miniseries, and the early issue by Ryan North are absolutely fanatastic, and the more recent issue by Tyler Sheridan haven't been quite as good, but definitely still worth reading. North also wrote the first ever "interactive graphic novel" for Trek, Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way, which won the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story, and it is absolutely amazing.

I can go for comics if they have good stories without current trends of doom-and-gloom, are well-drawn and the characters looks like they should look.

I'll probably avoid the Voyager ones since Kes won't be in them but the DS9 could be interesting. In that case I hope that garak will be in them, alive, well and not ruined.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I suppose that it's about Kirk, Spock and the others, well what I consider as real TOS and not about NuTrek and invented characters from SNW and similar shows.

*whispers*
They are all invented characters

 

[Christopher]

*whispers*
They are all invented characters

Well, except Abraham Lincoln and Genghis Khan -- who, ironically, were not real in the story.

 

[Mage]

In that case I hope that garak will be in them, alive, well and not ruined.

He was never ruined.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

Considering that Starfleet Academy is supposed to release in January, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a novel for it before year's end. It'd make sense, at the least, to see something related to the new series within the first year of release.

I realize it's probably more pipe dream than anything else, considering the way the general reception ended up, but I would actually be interested in some kind of tie-in with the 31 movie, if only because I think there were interesting elements in it that I'd like to see explored more somewhere in the franchise.

 

[Greg Cox]

Something I really appreciate!

I suppose that it's about Kirk, Spock and the others, well what I consider as real TOS and not about NuTrek and invented characters from SNW and similar shows.

Thanks for the kind words, but, honestly, I think of it as having plenty of fun new toys to play with.

True story: Years ago, some irate fan vowed to boycott any Trek novels that treated DISCO as "canon." I immediately inserted a couple of gratuitous, throwaway references to DISCO into the TOS book I was working on at the time, because I wasn't about to be bullied by "canon" purists.

It's all "Star Trek" to me.

 

[Stevil2001]

It's funny because these things move in cycles, of course. Nowadays, people complain if you throw a reference to Disco or SNW into your "proper" TNG or Enterprise novel... twenty-five years ago on this very forum, people were complaining when Dayton Ward had the temerity to name-drop Archer in In the Name of Honor.

 

[Christopher]

It's funny because these things move in cycles, of course. Nowadays, people complain if you throw a reference to Disco or SNW into your "proper" TNG or Enterprise novel... twenty-five years ago on this very forum, people were complaining when Dayton Ward had the temerity to name-drop Archer in In the Name of Honor.

Yep, and people in 1979-82 were writing angry letters to magazines about how the movies weren't "real Trek" and should be ignored.

Before the movies, fans mostly just got angry at how bad season 3 was.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I realize it's probably more pipe dream than anything else, considering the way the general reception ended up, but I would actually be interested in some kind of tie-in with the 31 movie, if only because I think there were interesting elements in it that I'd like to see explored more somewhere in the franchise.

As much as I disliked the movie, I do tend to think it might have worked a lot better in the original format of a whole season of a show. So if they did a book, or series of books, where the gimmick was that they fleshed out the story to represent what was originally intended when it was supposed to be ~10 hours of show, I’d buy it/them.

As you say, though, probably not happening, as they wouldn’t want to take such a financial risk when the movie did so poorly.

 

[JD]

Yeah, except it's Gallery Books now. Pocket Books is Simon & Schuster's mass market paperback imprint (indeed, it was the company that first introduced books of that size to the US market, hence the name), and Gallery Books is the trade paperback imprint. Since Trek books are all TPBs these days, that puts them under Gallery. (For that matter, as the company is currently organized, both Gallery Books and Pocket Books are imprints of the Gallery Publishing Group.)

Oh right, I forgot about that.

I can go for comics if they have good stories without current trends of doom-and-gloom, are well-drawn and the characters looks like they should look.

I'm not really sure what fits your definition of "doom and gloom", so I can't really know what books would or would be to your taste.

I'll probably avoid the Voyager ones since Kes won't be in them but the DS9 could be interesting. In that case I hope that garak will be in them, alive, well and not ruined.

I realize it's probably more pipe dream than anything else, considering the way the general reception ended up, but I would actually be interested in some kind of tie-in with the 31 movie, if only because I think there were interesting elements in it that I'd like to see explored more somewhere in the franchise.

As one of the few people who didn't hate Section 31, I wouldn't mind some tie-ins for it. I do remember seeing some adds for a comic, but I'm not sure if it was cancelled or just hasn't come out yet.

Thanks for the kind words, but, honestly, I think of it as having plenty of fun new toys to play with.

True story: Years ago, some irate fan vowed to boycott any Trek novels that treated DISCO as "canon." I immediately inserted a couple of gratuitous, throwaway references to DISCO into the TOS book I was working on at the time, because I wasn't about to be bullied by "canon" purists.

It's all "Star Trek" to me.

It's funny because these things move in cycles, of course. Nowadays, people complain if you throw a reference to Disco or SNW into your "proper" TNG or Enterprise novel... twenty-five years ago on this very forum, people were complaining when Dayton Ward had the temerity to name-drop Archer in In the Name of Honor.

As a fan of the whole franchise, I love when we get crossover references like that. And as a big fan of the Paramount+ shows, especially Strange New Worlds & Lower Decks, I'm looking forward to seeing them incorporated more into the other series books and comics.

 

[Tosk]

I do remember seeing some adds for a comic, but I'm not sure if it was cancelled or just hasn't come out yet.

It already came out.

 

[JD]

Oh, OK. I guess Hoopla never got it then.

 

[Greg Cox]

Well, except Abraham Lincoln and Genghis Khan -- who, ironically, were not real in the story.

And Jack the Ripper, I suppose.

 

[Christopher]

And Jack the Ripper, I suppose.

Except Jack himself didn't appear in Trek, just the alien entity that the story conjectured to have possessed him. (Also, I'm not entirely convinced he wasn't an invention of the tabloids.)

I guess there are other real people who've appeared in Trek, e.g. Samuel Clemens, Jack London, Amelia Earhart, Isaac Newton, and various holodeck characters like Einstein and Gandhi. Come to think of it, the realest person to appear in Trek was Stephen Hawking playing his own holodeck recreation. (Although you could perhaps make a case that Joe Piscopo was implicitly playing "himself" as well.)

 

[FredH]

Except Jack himself didn't appear in Trek, just the alien entity that the story conjectured to have possessed him. (Also, I'm not entirely convinced he wasn't an invention of the tabloids.)

Well, somebody killed those people in Whitechapel, apparently in a consistent manner — but certainly there’s a sort of “stock nightmare figure” version of Jack in the zeitgeist ever since, which is fictional in that sense. (Which has developed a sort of “fandom” in itself, something I find unsettling.)

 

[Lynx]

*whispers*
They are all invented characters

Yes, they are but in this case I was referring to the characters which have showed up in the NuTrek movies and SNW.

Some of them are not good and I definitely don't want to read about the "Spock" or "Kirk" and other nev versions of TOS characters that we have seen in the NuTrek movies and SNW.

He was never ruined.

Garak was utterly destroyed in one book in the PIC book series.

He was turned into a wimp and ridiculous character in that book and then killed off.

I actually took the liberty of reading that book in order to not be accused for "only reading what's on Memory Beta". A horrible experience, I must say. The book was even worse than expected and I got some flashbacks to a certain TV episode which I watched many years ago which also was worse that what I had been warned about.

Fortunately I bought it in a bargain shop so I didn't spend any fortune on it and after reading it, I simply went back to the shop and put it back in the shelf without demanding the money back. It wasn't worth to argue about. Someone must actually have bought it since it was gone some months later when I visited that shop again.

And it's really sad since I actually enjoyed the auhor's previous books and wanted to have more of that.

In fact, Garak could have become a main character in many, many books to come. he could have been Castellan of Cardassia and as such invoved in many interesting events, he could have continued as Ambassador for cardassia to the federation and involved in interesting events, instead he was wasted for no acceptable reason at all.

And as many of you know, I get really angry when my favorite characters are ruined and/or killed off. I just don't accept that.

Which is the reason that i will never watch a future episode or read a future book which are based on the "canon" in PIC or DSC. I can also add the meaningless destruction of Romulus and Vulcan here.

And if that means that I'm stuck with older series and books, so be it!

Considering that Starfleet Academy is supposed to release in January, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a novel for it before year's end. It'd make sense, at the least, to see something related to the new series within the first year of release.

I realize it's probably more pipe dream than anything else, considering the way the general reception ended up, but I would actually be interested in some kind of tie-in with the 31 movie, if only because I think there were interesting elements in it that I'd like to see explored more somewhere in the franchise.

Starfleet Academy could have been interesting.

But since it's obviously based on DSC when it comes to "canon" and background events, I'll pass.
I don't want to be reminded of Captain Hysterica and her half-witted crew.

Thanks for the kind words, but, honestly, I think of it as having plenty of fun new toys to play with.

True story: Years ago, some irate fan vowed to boycott any Trek novels that treated DISCO as "canon." I immediately inserted a couple of gratuitous, throwaway references to DISCO into the TOS book I was working on at the time, because I wasn't about to be bullied by "canon" purists.

It's all "Star Trek" to me.

I don't want to argue with you since you actually wrote one of the best Star Trek books ever, the Voyager book The Black Shore which is a masterpiece and one of my top 3 Star Trek books ever (the other two are A Stitch In Time by Andrew J Robinson and Marooned by Christie Golden).

But I will never read a book or watch a series in which DSC is some sort of foundation and "canon" for future books and series.

Oh right, I forgot about that.

I'm not really sure what fits your definition of "doom and gloom", so I can't really know what books would or would be to your taste.


As one of the few people who didn't hate Section 31, I wouldn't mind some tie-ins for it. I do remember seeing some adds for a comic, but I'm not sure if it was cancelled or just hasn't come out yet.

"Doom-and gloom" is what I call most of the depressing series and movies we have got in the recent decades.

Gloomy, almost dystopian scenarios, boring unlikeable faulty characters, blood-splattering scenes with torture and mutilation and an atmosphere of total darkness and no hope.

Example: Back in better days, a series could be made about space exploring, and intersting adventures, like in TOS, TNG, DS9 and early Voyager, even in other series too like NCIS in which there also was some humor from time to time.

Now the scenario is about people colonizing another planet because the earth is devastated, the characters are troubled persons and there's a lot of bllod, gore and suffering all the way through the stories.

Back in the 90's, I used to watch TOS, TNG, DS9 VOY (up to season 3), NCIS, NCIS LA, NCIS New Orleans, CSI, CSI Miami, CSI NY, The X-files, Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis plus movies of interest.

Now the only series I watch occasional episodes of is NCIS which is not so good as it used to be but still have decent stories. As it is, I can't even count how many series I've abandoned after about 5-6 episodes since I found them gloomy and boring.


Which is also a reason why I don't have any streaming account since 95% of the content are "dooom-and-gloom series and movies from the 2020's.