Pocket's 2010 Schedule Announced on TrekMovie.com

I'm sort of laughing now at some of the people that mocked me awhile back. I thought of bringing DS9 forward would be nice and look what Pocket does. I know there will be a timespan from 2377 up to 2382 to cover but maybe those gaps should be left along for right now. The lineup sounds interesting though. Can't wait to see covers once they start leaking out.

 

I'm behind in the DS9 relaunch. I'm on the WO Ds9 - Trill/Bajor, and it's going kind of slow. I'm trying to finish up DS9, then go on to the Destiny series. Alot of reading to do.
I'm fairly optimistic about DS9 jumping to 2382 and handling back stories.

We'll see. Lots to look forward to.

 

I'll probably get The Sorrows of Empire and maybe the Pike book.


Not sure yet about the movie tie-in books yet.


Shame there's (likely) no room at the inn for Vanguard, though.

Ditto for ENT. It's been a long wait to see the novel-verse take on the Earth-Romulan War, and it's somewhat unfortunate that it's put on hiatus just as it's getting up and running.

Still, I'll have enough ADB stuff to keep me busy either way, so I'm not too despondent.

 

God, I hope not.

I have been waiting for this conflict from the moment ENT was announced. I got excited when the rumors about a possible Romulan War movie trilogy emerged (what a wonderful film-trilogy it would have been).

This conflict deserves a whole series of books... it is an essential historic event in TREK's history.

 

And it's not a "hiatus," because it's not like there was ever any guarantee of one book per year anyway. It's just that there wasn't room for it on the schedule this year. There have been lots of times where a given series has had a gap of over a year between installments. There is no "normal" release schedule for any single series within the diverse Trek novel line, so if the gap between installments is longer than usual, that's not a hiatus, just a vagary of scheduling.

 

But that wasn't because of uncertainty whether people would like it; the studio was committed to its release schedule no matter what the response. It was because human beings can only work so hard and so fast. It takes time to do post-production on a movie, and a director can only handle one post-production process at a time.

And that's also why every Trek novel can't come out as immediately as fans might like -- because the editor and authors need time to do the work, and have to balance any given project with their other responsibilities.

 

Perhaps my comment came across as somewhat more whiny than I had planned it.


I'm used to delays fiction-wise. Indeed, as the SFU goes, I've been waiting for the Federation sourcebook for Prime Directive to be published for years (not least so I can mine it for future fiction ideas) and even longer for the ISC module for Federation and Empire.

But even though I'm willing to wait for them to be finished (and gotten right) before they are released, that doesn't mean I'm overly thrilled when such delays do come.


If I have to wait until 2011 or later for more Vanguard or Enterprise books (after the ones coming later this year) then I'll wait - but I have the right to say that I'm at least somewhat disappointed not to see them in '10.

 

Thoughts:

1. First and it's the thing I'm most angry about, can someone point out where it was said that the New Frontier TPBs would replace the hardcovers and therefore meant a MMPB a year later? Did I miss that somewhere? Because that's at least 16 bucks and Treason was garbage.

2. The three-pronged approach is interesting albeit kind of risking keeping some away from the book line for quite awhile. Sure they could have mixed it up, but I also like getting these things in batches.

3. I'm a TOS fan, but not what I'd call fanatical. I count some TOS books among my favorites, but at least from the very basic synopsis of the books from early 2010, it's possible I may pass on some of them. I'm so glad S.D. Perry is back and she's written one of my favorite TOS books (Cloak), but the description for Inception doesn't sound interesting. Partially it's the idea of revisiting the Prime characters in their younger years when now the NuTrek is doing that. Seems like it's doubling up.

4. I guess the biggest shocker are the number of books set in the new universe. I found it a little funny how the right after the titles of the first two books, they made a point of saying it's not about the Vulcans when the titles immediately make us think of it. It's like that's what they really want it to be about too, but are deciding not to. Why not? I really look forward to seeing the old hands trying out the new universe. Love the titles too.

5. I guess I'm a little confused about the Typhon Pact. So it's not a trilogy then? Thought I remembered hearing that it was. But then, are there more in this series not yet announced?

6. DRG3 is back! Yeah!

7. SCE is delayed again! Crap! By the time it comes out, I'll have forgotten everything from Wounds.

8. I'll ask again and I still don't think I saw an answer, but what happened to The Millennium Bloom? Or the Tzenkethi War book? Delayed again or can we officially call that one dead? How about Gorkon?

9. DS9's time jump. Trent said it above and I agree that the growing disparate time was just getting to be too noticeable. Maybe not for everyone. For me, DS9 was setting the tone and direction of the 24th century for so long and doing it so well that it just feels wrong to not have it doing so anymore. The conscious efforts to avoid talking about what's going on in the Bajoran sector inadvertently creates the interpretation that well, nothing has been going on. Which in turns makes one think that, 'Well, I guess that whole Ascendant thing turned out to be nothing.' And I really missed the DS9 crew from the Destiny trilogy (and no, the Columbia discovery and Dax & Bowers was not enough to count for me).

Naturally, I still wonder about the storylines we have gotten in the books. Part of me hopes that this jump is just for this book for now and that there is then a big push to finish the current stories and move on. Realistically, I don't see that happening. That makes another part of me want to shake the series by its shoulders for this detour into the MU. Perhaps if the MU is wrapped up in this next book and nothing is said of the Ascendants in TNES, maybe they could do a clean break, say the threat died down and return to it in 2381.

10. Interesting titles for a lot of these books.

 

On the other hand, I've been waiting decades for someone to do a story explaining Spock's history with Leila Kalomi.

It never occurred to me until just now that Seek a Newer World could be taken as a reference to the Vulcan refugees. My book was originally going to be the first (before they wisely decided that Alan Dean Foster's name would sell more books than mine), and I wanted a title that said "Hey, here's something new" while also evoking the TOS narration and the spirit of exploration. (I almost called it To Seek Out New Life, which is one of the few parts of the narration that hasn't been used as a title.) It's a quote from Tennyson's Ulysses: "'Tis not too late to seek a newer world." (Ulysses was also the source of several book and section titles in DS9: Mission: Gamma, though there's no connection.) It does have some plot relevance, but nothing to do with the Vulcan refugees. I wanted to stay away from that in case the filmmakers decided to revisit it.

It was never announced as a trilogy. It's a four-book miniseries.

Did you give away the book? If not, you can reread it.

Millennium Bloom never went past the outline stage; circumstances changed and it was decided not to proceed with it. The Tzenkethi War book was Marco's project and he's gone; however, the Tzenkethi will be involved in the DS9-centric installment of The Typhon Pact, so it might cover some of the same ground.

There was never a timeframe specified for the arrival of the Ascendants. And if matters did peak before 2381, well, it's hardly unprecedented for events in Trek history to be revealed in flashback or out of sequence.

 

It's a shame that they waste four months on Trek XI books, but it was to be expected. It's also a shame that they skip 5 years in the DS9 Relaunch, instead of just letting it continue in it's own pace. I also don't like the fact that they ignored the ENT relaunch.

I do like that they are publishing more mirror and myriad books, though.

 

Umm... to waste is to expend something for no return. Trek XI is the most successful, profitable Trek film of all time and one of the biggest movies of the year. I hardly think it's going to prove wasteful for Pocket Books to invest in tie-ins.

As has been mentioned above, there's no "ignoring" involved; it's simply that different years have different emphases, and if a given series doesn't find a place in a given year's schedule, that's just the way the scheduling works out. Margaret has edited the ENT novels all along (or nearly so) and I'm certain she's always keeping it in mind as she works out the overall schedule for the Trek novel line as a whole. But that schedule is a multiyear thing and only part of it gets announced at any one time. Only 2009 and 2010 have been announced to date, but you can rest assured that there are already 2011 projects under development, because there's always more stuff in the pipeline than what's ready to be announced to the public. So just because you haven't been told about the next project in a series doesn't mean that series is being "ignored."

 

My thoughts, for what they are worth:

Four books set in the new film timeline, not interested, loved the film but have absolutely no interest in reading about them in books, especially ones that hit the reset button at the end of it.

DS9 being brought up to date, mixed feelings, like many i was beginning to become annoyed with the slow pace and release of the DS9 storyline and its seperation from the rest of the pocket books timeline but am also concerned with what we're going to be missing from those 5 years. Best to adopt a wait and see attitude here i think and revisit after Soul Key and TNES.

As for the rest i'm sure i'll be buying them regardless.

 

Setting continuing serialized stories in one year and then suddenly skipping five years -- thus breaking both the serialization of those stories (which, after all, demands continuous and unbroken chains of events) and the foreshadowing that strongly implied that a major conflict with the Ascendents was coming up shortly -- is not unfolding at its own pace, it's pushing it up ahead to bring it in line with the other series.

That doesn't mean that it cannot also be good, but it's a creative decision that I think does not do justice or fulfill the "promissory notes" left by the previous novels when they did continuous serialization.

 

Depends on your definition of reset button- I can't see any of the four chickening out and saying the events of the book suddenly never happened. I doubt they'll choose to do things that the next movie is likely to override either, so as not to annoy the readers.

I suspect we're just going to see self-contained standalones that will stand up even after the next movie.

 

Maybe one of 2011's 4-part series will be a massive DS9 arc covering everything from TSK through to the Typhon Pact book. We can dream... but if Pocket are now going for less balanced yearly schedules in order to block out things a bit more it's certainly possible. We get 4 TOS books next year, no reason not to get 4 DS9 books the year after.

 

^As I've said before, don't assume that any single year's schedule represents a permanent policy. It was decided that it made sense to break 2010 into three "phases," but the factors involved in the scheduling decisions for 2011 may be different.

However, assuming the next movie comes out in 2011, then there'd probably be a fair number of books tying into it, so I doubt we'd have room for four whole books about DS9 in the same year. Indeed, my guess would be that the most likely year to expect any major DS9 "event" would be 2013, its 20th anniversary. Though hopefully it will have a fairly regular presence before then.