When the novel continuity gets to 2387, the destruction of Romulus will need to be acknowledged. But, I don't see a massive novel series about it happening, and I certainly don't want that to be the novel celebration for the anniversary year.
I don't know, I could see the destruction of Romulus in one book and then a few books of follow-up on that - it's a canon-established shake-up of the universe in the shattering of one of the major players in the Star Trek stage, and it can be kicked off with something that focuses on one of Star Trek's most beloved characters. I could easily see this being the basis of the celebration of the anniversary because of how it can stretch across and have an effect on characters of almost all the series. Especially since the novels are only about two years off from it - unless 2386 is planned to have ANOTHER major galactic shake-up (which I think is getting a little tiresome, personally), the next major event would have to be the destruction of Romulus in 2387.
That said, I'd really like there to not be a 'Big Event' for a few years anyway. There's so little connection for me with the cast and crew of the current series, aside from those who came from the shows (and in the case of DS9, the earlier books), I really want to just STOP with the events for a while, even go back in the timeline for a while to actually let us get these characters a spotlight. Take these few years and build up a connection with the characters who are there, so that when these events come up, all of the current cast can play a part.
Yes, I agree, for the most part. The promise at the conclusion to
The Fall that we'd be seeing a more unambiguously upbeat period is one I'll be holding them too. I've loved the drama and the political uncertainty, but we do need some variety. As it is, I think the books have presented us with an interesting journey for the inhabitants of the known galaxy - the 2370s, as we saw on TV in
DS9, were a time of conflict and chaos, and the aftermath of the Dominion War saw pretty much every nation and culture struggling with some fundamental changes and identity issues (see: any number of books). Then that decade ends with the Borg Invasion, the final blow to the galaxy that was. In the aftermath, the novels offered us essentially two subtly distinct periods - the initial aftermath, e.g.
Losing the Peace,
A Singular Destiny, the
Voyager novels, and then a period wherein recovery was underway but politically the new status quo was tense and dangerous (what I call Fun With The Typhon Pact).
The Body Electric went out of its way in an early chapter to note that things were calming down and looking up, that the Federation was well on the road to having recovered its strength, and since The Machine wouldn't have been known to, or affected, most of the UFP or Starfleet, that gives us Bacco's assassination and the fallout that follows as the final wobbly uncertainty that the Federation had to overcome before arriving back somewhere positive. Now that they were back in a position of security, could they stay there, what should they have learned (and not learned?) The UFP's scarred and a bit less innocent but strong and hopeful and (hopefully) joyous again. I think it all works very well as a narrative, and I hope that the books deliver on what the epilogue of
Peaceable Kingdoms set up, giving us a "third" post-
Destiny period that recalls the early seasons of TNG, perhaps.
The problem is that canonically Romulus has to go in two years or less (we're at the end of 2385 now), and to have that be a background event that doesn't cause any angst or difficulty would be silly. I hope the authors can either pull off a difficult balance or hold off on telling that story until we've had a good run of upbeat, lighter material, but either way it leaves things a little awkward, I think.
