News about early 2014 schedule

[Defcon]

As 8of5 reports on thetrekcollective.com Amazon has added a couple of new Star TRek books for 2014 to their catalog (FWIW they are also mentioned under author updates on the respective authors' S&S pages with the links leading to an error message):

February: Voyager:Protectors by Kirsten Beyer
March: TOS: No Time like the Past by Greg Cox
April: Enterprise - Rise of the Federation: Tower of Babel by Christopher L. Bennett
May: TOS: Serpents in the Garden by Jeff Mariotte

Also finally listed on Amazon is Michel A. Martin's eBook exclusive TOS novella Seasons of Light and Darkness, with a release date of April 28th 2014, which is almost a year later than the June/July 2013 date Martin originally mentioned.

 

[ATimson]

I really hope those aren't 5YM books. I don't anticipate getting my wish.

 

[Sho]

I do think it's nicer to mix things up a little rather than partition the year into TOS and the-rest-of-it halves. It makes it easier to be interested in the individual books.

 

[Defcon]

Yeah, the novels will probably be 5YM stories.

But MAM said on the G&T show that his novella is set during The Wrath of Khan:

It's centered around Doctor McCoy, and the bulk of it actually takes place interstitially early during Wrath of Khan; sort of between scenes. There's an entire story that I teased out of a brief sequence at the beginning of the film.

(Thankfully 8of5 has transcribed that part since I couldn't remember where I heard it at first.)

Not sure how I feel about another Mariotte TOS novel since I wasn't very fond of his The Folded World.

If it has to be more TOS I would rather like to see another Mollmann/Schuster book to be honest. I really liked their A Choice of Catastrophes and would have thought that we would have seen more books by them by now.

 

[ryan123450]

If it has to be TOS stuff why can't it be something interesting? A Arex novel? A M'Ress novel? Something continuing Christopher's post TMP storyline? Captain Spock before TWOK? Something with the crew of the Enterprise-A?

Not the 500th adventure of the five year mission.

 

[Defcon]

Just to be clear: so far we don't know what the two novels are about and when they're set. They could just as well be set in another time-frame, but ...

If it has to be TOS stuff why can't it be something interesting? A Arex novel? A M'Ress novel? Something continuing Christopher's post TMP storyline? Captain Spock before TWOK? Something with the crew of the Enterprise-A?

Not the 500th adventure of the five year mission.

The easy answer? 5YM novels sell. I would like if they would throw in more out there TOS concepts from time to time, but quite frankly I wouldn't be too surprised if the TOS 5YM sales supplement some of the 24th ongoing stuff.

 

[Greg Cox]

I really hope those aren't 5YM books. I don't anticipate getting my wish.

Mine is definitely a 5YM book, but I doubt the Voyager and Enterprise books are!

 

[Mysterion]

I don't mind TOS stuff set during the 5YM.

Although, I am beginnng to think there is no way that the 79 TOS episodes, the 22 TAS episodes AND the hundreds of TOS novels could ALL happen in only 5 years.

I woud also enjoy some of the stuff suggested up-thread. Especialially an Arex/Edoan centric novel.

 

[Greg Cox]

I don't mind TOS stuff set during the 5YM.

Although, I am beginnng to think there is no way that the 79 TOS episodes, the 22 TAS episodes AND the hundreds of TOS novels could ALL happen in only 5 years.

The way I see it, that's just a necessary conceit of series fiction.

I mean, how many mysteries could Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys really have solved in their teen years? And is it realistic that any lawyer, even Perry Mason, could represent that many innocent clients falsely accused of murder? Or that Carl Kolchak would accidentally stumble onto monsters everywhere he went?

A certain suspension of disbelief comes with the territory . . .

 

[Christopher]

Although, I am beginnng to think there is no way that the 79 TOS episodes, the 22 TAS episodes AND the hundreds of TOS novels could ALL happen in only 5 years.

Alternate timelines!

Although there's always the interpretation Roddenberry hinted at in his TMP novelization prologue, that the episodes and stories we see are dramatizations based on the real experiences of Kirk and his crew. So while many of them may be adaptations of actual events, others may be fictional accounts. Kind of like how Desilu Playhouse did an adaptation of the book The Untouchables which was supposedly based on the historical account of Elliot Ness and his role in bringing down Al Capone (although it's now known that book was mostly fictionalized), and then Desilu spun it off into a weekly television series about Ness and the Untouchables having completely fictitious adventures.

 

[Relayer1]

Mine is definitely a 5YM book, but I doubt the Voyager and Enterprise books are!

Now there's an idea for a crossover...

 

[ATimson]

I really hope those aren't 5YM books. I don't anticipate getting my wish.

Mine is definitely a 5YM book, but I doubt the Voyager and Enterprise books are!

You never know, what with time travel. It'll be eighteen years since "Flashback"; Voyager could go back to that well again.

 

[CaptPapa]

To me, TOS is it - so the more the better. However, I'm in no way opposed to movie era, or TAS-related original series adventures. Yes there have been hundreds of adventures detailed in the novels, and some are vocal in saying there have been too many, but as our favorite Vulcan would say, 'there are always possibilities'.

 

[Paris]

Very excited for non-5YM books. Not a fan of the the whole 1/2 a year on TOS and 1/2 on the rest. Mixing it up is better

 

[The Wormhole]

If it has to be TOS stuff why can't it be something interesting? A Arex novel? A M'Ress novel? Something continuing Christopher's post TMP storyline? Captain Spock before TWOK? Something with the crew of the Enterprise-A?

Not the 500th adventure of the five year mission.

Because Five Year Mission novels are the ones that sell the best. The marketing of supporting the type of novels that pull in the most money is pretty obvious, no?

Besides, I don't get all the complaints about "yet another 5YM book." In all honesty, I greatly enjoy them, and found with the ones released this year to be some of the finest Trek novels I've read in awhile. I agree it was probably a bit overkill for the first half of the year to pretty much be exclusively TOS, but I suspect that was partially due to STID's release and partially related to the plans for The Fall series in the second half. But it is a good idea, IMO to split the various releases up next year like they seem to be doing.

 

[Christopher]

I agree it was probably a bit overkill for the first half of the year to pretty much be exclusively TOS, but I suspect that was partially due to STID's release and partially related to the plans for The Fall series in the second half.

Actually it's been the standard practice for about the past four years to have TOS books dominate one half of the year and 24th-century/other books dominate the other half. So I don't think it's a response to STID. It's just the approach that was already in place.

 

[ATimson]

Besides, I don't get all the complaints about "yet another 5YM book." In all honesty, I greatly enjoy them, and found with the ones released this year to be some of the finest Trek novels I've read in awhile.

I had a nice four-paragraph answer about why I'm generally (though not universally) not interested in more 5YM books. But that's not really the topic of the thread, so I won't post it. You're welcome.

 

[Relayer1]

Besides, I don't get all the complaints about "yet another 5YM book." In all honesty, I greatly enjoy them, and found with the ones released this year to be some of the finest Trek novels I've read in awhile.

Oh I get it - I get fed up with 5YM but I have to admit, the standard has been fairly high this year...

 

[ryan123450]

Well Iwill admit there are ways to make them interesting and worthwhile. See:

Allegience in Exile
Forgotten History
The Rings of Time
and I'm assuming From History's Shadow

 

[Avro Arrow]

As 8of5 reports on thetrekcollective.com Amazon has added a couple of new Star TRek books for 2014 to their catalog (FWIW they are also mentioned under author updates on the respective authors' S&S pages with the links leading to an error message):

February: Voyager:Protectors by Kirsten Beyer

Looking forward to this one. I really want to see where the story goes post-The Eternal Tide.

March: TOS: No Time like the Past by Greg Cox

This sounds time-travel-y, and I'm a sucker for a good time travel story!

April: Enterprise - Rise of the Federation: Tower of Babel by Christopher L. Bennett

Not done the first one yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm down for the sequel!

May: TOS: Serpents in the Garden by Jeff Mariotte

Oh. Um... oh. Really? To say I "was not a fan" of his other two books is probably putting it mildly. For me, The Folded World was the low-point of this year's TOS block... and actually the low-point in recent TOS novel history. I guess the question is, will I have the fortitude to resist buying this one, or will I pick it up "just in case" it's good??

Also finally listed on Amazon is Michel A. Martin's eBook exclusive TOS novella Seasons of Light and Darkness, with a release date of April 28th 2014, which is almost a year later than the June/July 2013 date Martin originally mentioned.

Oh, Martin too, huh? Although I see from later in the thread that this is going to be during TWOK, so it could be interesting. I just find it unfortunate that authors I don't enjoy, like Mariotte and Martin, keep getting contracts, but Leisner (whose Shocks of Diversity was, I thought, one of the high-points of this year's TOS block) doesn't appear on the schedule (yet), and someone like KRAD is apparently persona non grata in the ST line. TANJ.

Although, I do agree with what others have said about it being nice that they're mixing up the eras a little more next year.

Besides, I don't get all the complaints about "yet another 5YM book." In all honesty, I greatly enjoy them, and found with the ones released this year to be some of the finest Trek novels I've read in awhile.

I had a nice four-paragraph answer about why I'm generally (though not universally) not interested in more 5YM books. But that's not really the topic of the thread, so I won't post it. You're welcome.

Hey, I love TOS, but I'd still be interested in reading this!!