Pocket's 2010 Schedule Announced on TrekMovie.com

[Thrawn]

^ Yeah, we've seen a couple times now that large jumps in time aren't really a problem; Trek stories can clearly handle them just fine. And as much as I agree there were definitely advantages to letting DS9 do its own thing, there are definite advantages too to having all the 24th century books happening roughly concurrently. Much easier to do Big Things that way, and a lot less confusing to new readers.

 

[Saul]

The only problem is that with this time jump it could mean people have to wait even longer for the gaps to be filled.

 

[Warp Coil]

The only problem is that with this time jump it could mean people have to wait even longer for the gaps to be filled.

DS9's jump forward is pretty far - a good three to four years into the future. Are we, as readers, supposed to just gloss over the huge gaps in the characters' histories? It's not like we're going to get a massive book on the scale of VOY's "Full Circle", or maybe a nice duology, to push the series ahead and catch up to the rest of the 24th century. It seems like Margaret Clark is rushing to catch DS9 up with the other series when it isn't necessary to do so. DS9 was progressing nicely at its own pace, and despite the unbalanced release schedule, I was happy to let the series proceed until it seemed like a good time to push forward at a faster pace. Now is NOT the time to force a time-jump.

 

[Paris]

The only problem is that with this time jump it could mean people have to wait even longer for the gaps to be filled.

Technically, aren't we always waiting when it comes to trek-lit ? I've been an avid comic book collector for 12 years, and I used to think waiting for a month in between issues was long. After I got into treklit, the real meaning of waiting was revealed to me. Most of us blow through the new books as soon as they hit the shelf, and then all of us ask, "when is the next part coming out?" These books take these authors months of work and it only takes us hours to enjoy it. Recently, i've finished Full Circle in 24 hours, Treason in even less time, and Losing the Peace in just under 48. Now I have to wait 17 months (until January 2011) for a new TNG book; after Unworthy, i'll have to wait for at least a year and a bit for more Voyager (if i'm lucky), and the next New Frontier will only be 11 months now as opposed to a few years (like the last time).

Hopefully we'll get some more DS9 in 2011, and it can expand on what we've all missed .

 

[Thrawn]

The only problem is that with this time jump it could mean people have to wait even longer for the gaps to be filled.

DS9's jump forward is pretty far - a good three to four years into the future. Are we, as readers, supposed to just gloss over the huge gaps in the characters' histories? It's not like we're going to get a massive book on the scale of VOY's "Full Circle", or maybe a nice duology, to push the series ahead and catch up to the rest of the 24th century. It seems like Margaret Clark is rushing to catch DS9 up with the other series when it isn't necessary to do so. DS9 was progressing nicely at its own pace, and despite the unbalanced release schedule, I was happy to let the series proceed until it seemed like a good time to push forward at a faster pace. Now is NOT the time to force a time-jump.

It's not "necessary" to do anything, creatively speaking. She thought this would be the best way to service that series, its fans, and 24th century Trek as a whole. And you're a fool if you don't see how someone could think that. Obviously you disagree, but this isn't an invalid decision.

I would also point out we have two more fairly substantial DS9-R books before the time jump, so who knows if it's "the time" for this or not.

And finally, as if nothing else Babylon 5 proved many times, knowing how a story ends is not the same thing as knowing how it got there. Jumping forward and seeing our characters in really different places, without explanation, is a very special kind of mystery all to itself, and one you actually don't see very often. I completely trust the writers, especially DRG3, to make that jump as interesting as it can be, and then post-Typhon Pact to use that gap for storytelling purposes.

I actually started the DS9 Relaunch after stopping watching the show in its second season, and so I had much the same experience already. I enjoyed it a lot.

 

[Paris]

DS9's jump forward is pretty far - a good three to four years into the future. Are we, as readers, supposed to just gloss over the huge gaps in the characters' histories?

The New Frontier people had to . The characters were still pretty much the same. It was just the circumstances that had changed in the intervening years...

It's not like we're going to get a massive book on the scale of VOY's "Full Circle", or maybe a nice duology, to push the series ahead and catch up to the rest of the 24th century.

Maybe we will. Just not in 2010. We don't even know what happens in the next two books that are coming out this summer. A "Full Circle"-type book would probably be pretty nice after the jump .

It seems like Margaret Clark is rushing to catch DS9 up with the other series when it isn't necessary to do so. DS9 was progressing nicely at its own pace, and despite the unbalanced release schedule, I was happy to let the series proceed until it seemed like a good time to push forward at a faster pace. Now is NOT the time to force a time-jump.

Maybe it was. Margaret, Pocket, and the authors all want to forge ahead into the 2380's. With DS9 so far behind, it may have been frustrating. Especially when it comes to tying the universe together. I know that I was wondering if Sisko was an Admiral at the time of Destiny, or if maybe he was dead. All we got to see was Dax. Maybe jumping ahead, and then looking back, is the best way to go. We can't know for sure until we read DRGIII's next masterpiece. At least the "jump-forward" book is in the most capable of hands .

 

[Clem1029]

Put me in the category of being disappointed with the DS9 jump...with the caveat that we don't actually know where the overall threads are going to be after the two books this year. We assume the Mirror Universe stuff is going to get mostly cleaned up in SK, and a Cardassian-centric story in TNES...but even that provides some leap forward options - we know at least some details of where Cardassia stands in 2380-81 from "Articles of the Federation" and "Destiny." So we don't know WHERE things will end this year, so the jump has that as a big question mark over it.

That said, there's one way I can imagine the DS9 Typhon Pact novel to work well and not obliterate the current storylines - do something astoundingly out of the blue, like only one or 2 faces that we know, and then spend the novel fleshing out the TP side of things without advancing a DS9-specific storyline. To some degree, this will be happening anyways - we know Ezri and Bowers aren't going to be around (they're off on Aventine), we'll find out soon where people end up after Soul Key comes out, etc. It's not impossible to imagine, in a story having taken place 5 years after the last time we see everyone, that there has been significant turnover. I mean, while I'd miss some characters, I can imagine a DS9 story in the post-Destiny track where the only character we know up front is Quark (and throw in a transfer we've seen in other places). That doesn't mean characters like Kira and Bashir are gone forever, but they could have moved on/had something happened, etc in that 5 year span.

I guess what I'm saying is that a jump like that provides lots of possibilities, and the DS9R has been so quality so far that I've got faith it'll be handled in a way that works within the stories we've seen, doesn't significantly shortchange the characters, and doesn't make it look like the DS9 universe was static for 5 years.

 

[Turtletrekker]

The DS9 time-jump is disappointing, but I'll wait till I read it to judge.

I'm afraid that I have zero interest at this point in the JJ-verse books, despite the names attatched. The movie just wasn't that compelling to me.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

The DS9 time-jump is disappointing, but I'll wait till I read it to judge.

I'm afraid that I have zero interest at this point in the JJ-verse books, despite the names attatched. The movie just wasn't that compelling to me.

The names attached are the only reason I'm buying them, otherwise sadly I'd have to change my "all but Shatnerverse" rule to "all but Shatnerverse and Trek XI". Bennett and Mack could well save this new timeline for me, though...we'll see...

 

[Admiral_Young]

Okay so my post didn't post yesterday. Anyways wow another interesting year for Star Trek literature. I guess I should be excited about the four JJ verse books released in the summer time but until there is more detail released about them I'm not yet. An Aventine book makes me very excited. Deep Space Nine flashing forward to 2382 (isn't a Presidential Election coming up soon too?) has some nice possibilities. I wonder how the Soul Key will real and wrap up...Destiny explained the circumstances of how Ezri obtained her command rather than a book dealing with the event it's self. Perhaps the book will do something similar.

Again until there is more information on the JJ books I will hold my opinon. I am liking the TNG and TOS books though. The Romulan War follow up interests me. Also I was curious as to why the Haynes Star Trek Technical Manual was not included on the list, I though the publisher was partners with Simon and Shuster on the project. Is it as simple as it just isn't under the Pocket umbrella?

 

[Rush Limborg]

there's one way I can imagine the DS9 Typhon Pact novel to work well and not obliterate the current storylines - do something astoundingly out of the blue, like only one or 2 faces that we know, and then spend the novel fleshing out the TP side of things without advancing a DS9-specific storyline. To some degree, this will be happening anyways - we know Ezri and Bowers aren't going to be around (they're off on Aventine), we'll find out soon where people end up after Soul Key comes out, etc. It's not impossible to imagine, in a story having taken place 5 years after the last time we see everyone, that there has been significant turnover. I mean, while I'd miss some characters, I can imagine a DS9 story in the post-Destiny track where the only character we know up front is Quark (and throw in a transfer we've seen in other places). That doesn't mean characters like Kira and Bashir are gone forever, but they could have moved on/had something happened, etc in that 5 year span.

I guess what I'm saying is that a jump like that provides lots of possibilities, and the DS9R has been so quality so far that I've got faith it'll be handled in a way that works within the stories we've seen, doesn't significantly shortchange the characters, and doesn't make it look like the DS9 universe was static for 5 years.

And finally, as if nothing else Babylon 5 proved many times, knowing how a story ends is not the same thing as knowing how it got there. Jumping forward and seeing our characters in really different places, without explanation, is a very special kind of mystery all to itself, and one you actually don't see very often.

PHEW!

Well, I must say, those ideas calmed me down a GREAT deal.

Agreed. These folks know what their doing more than we do. Let's wait, and see what happens....

 

[Therin of Andor]

I'm sure if Marco was here he'd say that one of the most common questions asked on the board was "When is DS9 going to 'catch up' to TNG?"

Now that it's actually happening we've got the opposite, "How dare they jump DS9's timeframe up to TNG's!"

Hilarious.

The lack of trust in the Pocket writers to continue telling compelling ST stories is amazing, even after they prove themselves time and time again. DS9, with its Wormhole Aliens, was the show that often had discussions of what is "linear". Good storytelling doesn't have to be "linear".

 

[Therin of Andor]

I'm afraid that I have zero interest at this point in the JJ-verse books, despite the names attatched. The movie just wasn't that compelling to me.

The names attached are the only reason I'm buying them...

Ha! See, Margaret's evil plan is working already. (And there was Marc, calling for her head?)

 

[DeeEss57]

A year and a half before the next TNG book? Great.

I long for the days when each series was on a regular rotation and it was only two months, at most, that you had to wait for the next book of your favorite flavor of Trek. This one book every year, punctuated by the occasional three book special series, is for the birds.


DES

 

[Man of Steel]

I'm afraid that I have zero interest at this point in the JJ-verse books, despite the names attatched. The movie just wasn't that compelling to me.

The names attached are the only reason I'm buying them...

Ha! See, Margaret's evil plan is working already. (And there was Marc, calling for her head?)

Well Ian, Marc's retracted his statement and decided to wait on passing judgement till the books come out. In fact, Marc's going to buy some of those books.

 

[Clem1029]

I'm sure if Marco was here he'd say that one of the most common questions asked on the board was "When is DS9 going to 'catch up' to TNG?"

Now that it's actually happening we've got the opposite, "How dare they jump DS9's timeframe up to TNG's!"

I want to make one comment here to make sure the "catch up" question is not completely unfair...

Remember that for most of the DS9R, books were coming pretty fast and furious (relatively speaking). That said, since Articles of the Federation (which advanced the book storyline a full year) and the other books in that timeframe, there have been a total of two DS9 books advancing the storyline. Granted for completely legitimate reasons - the author switch and all that is pretty well unavoidable.

So you've got a scenario where the storyline is preceding very quickly, and a fair question is "when will it get to Nemisis?" On the flip side, comparitavely speaking, the post-Nem books in the Trek universe have been coming out extremely quickly - all of Titan, 4 books pre-Destiny, the Destiny trilogy, and now 4 follow ups. With the reduced release schedule of recent years, you've now got a scenario where the people who where asking "when will this catch up?" are now asking "wait...what about what's dangling out there?"

Like I said before, I've got faith that the leap isn't the last we've heard on the subject, and that the DS9R will be handled with the same care it as been up to this point. I just think it's worth pointing out that not everyone questioning "why the jump?" is in the OMG!!11!!! Fanboy [TM] category.

 

[Clem1029]

I know this was just announced, so the details might not be available, but I've got a quick branding question...

How is the ST09 universe going to be branded on the books? Will it strictly be under the title graphic of "Star Trek" with the character images being from the movie, or will there be some other branding/subtitle/some other indication to say "hey, this takes place in the ST09-verse, as opposed to these others that are in the Prime (or whatever) universe?"

 

[Sci]

I'm sure if Marco was here he'd say that one of the most common questions asked on the board was "When is DS9 going to 'catch up' to TNG?"

Now that it's actually happening we've got the opposite, "How dare they jump DS9's timeframe up to TNG's!"

Hilarious.

The lack of trust in the Pocket writers to continue telling compelling ST stories is amazing, even after they prove themselves time and time again. DS9, with its Wormhole Aliens, was the show that often had discussions of what is "linear". Good storytelling doesn't have to be "linear".

It's not that I don't trust them to do good work -- but it's a creative decision that I completely disagree with.

I'm sure that in the end, it'll be a good book. I just think the story line would have been better without skipping five years.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I just think the story line would have been better without skipping five years.

Judging the story before it's even been published? Edited? Finished?

How is the ST09 universe going to be branded on the books? Will it strictly be under the title graphic of "Star Trek" with the character images being from the movie, or will there be some other branding/subtitle/some other indication to say "hey, this takes place in the ST09-verse, as opposed to these others that are in the Prime (or whatever) universe?"

Maybe cover art featuring the new cast?

I long for the days when each series was on a regular rotation and it was only two months, at most, that you had to wait for the next book of your favorite flavor of Trek. This one book every year, punctuated by the occasional three book special series, is for the birds.

Good reason to become a completist, I reckon.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I'm afraid that I have zero interest at this point in the JJ-verse books, despite the names attatched. The movie just wasn't that compelling to me.

The names attached are the only reason I'm buying them...

Ha! See, Margaret's evil plan is working already. (And there was Marc, calling for her head?)

Sneaky, Margaret, sneaky...