2026 Novel Releases

[Tosk]

Come to think of it, the realest person to appear in Trek was Stephen Hawking playing his own holodeck recreation.

Or Doctor Erin Macdonald who played Doctor Erin Macdonald on Prodigy. Though we don't yet know if she was playing herself who traveled to the future, or if she's playing a different person who has her voice, name, and face.

 

[Christopher]

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.)

I've seen it suggested that some of the claims of a common M.O. may have been inventions or exaggerations of the sensationalist press -- that newspapers invented the idea of a single hand behind multiple separate killings to scare people and sell more papers. And of course, it's always possible that highly publicized murders could attract copycats -- although I admit I don't know if copycat crimes are as common in reality as they are in fiction.

And I agree the glamorization of the Ripper is disturbing. It always bothered me that the sitcom Three's Company named its lead character "Jack Tripper," as if it were funny to equate a womanizing protagonist with a homicidal sexual predator.

Or Doctor Erin Macdonald who played Doctor Erin Macdonald on Prodigy. Though we don't yet know if she was playing herself who traveled to the future, or if she's playing a different person who has her voice, name, and face.

She was playing a fictional character named after herself as an homage; the text implies nothing more. Hawking was explicitly, textually playing a holodeck recreation of the real Stephen Hawking.

 

[Tosk]

She was playing a fictional character named after herself as an homage

No way!

Hawking was explicitly, textually playing a holodeck recreation of the real Stephen Hawking.

Or he was playing a fictional character that was named and modeled after him as an homage.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I guess it’s time for another reminder that this thread should be about upcoming books, not things like serial killers or grievances against past books.

 

[The Gatekeeper]

And on that note, Simon and Schuster's Canadian site as well as Canadian Amazon have a listing for a new DS9 novel by Una McCormack titled The Peacemakers. No blurb or plot details, release date currently scheduled for August 4, 2026.

 

[Tosk]

DS9 novel by Una McCormack

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