The feline is out of the proverbial bag. Don't know if the copy and cover drop at TrekCentral was planned or not, but yes — Star Trek: Picard - Rogue Elements releases in August, and follows Santiago Cabrera's freighter captain Cristóbal Rios on an odyssey set years before the CBS All Access show. Here's the solicitation copy: “Starfleet was everything for Cristóbal Rios—until one horrible, inexplicable day when it all went wrong. Aimless and adrift, he grasps at a chance for a future as an independent freighter captain in an area betrayed by the Federation, the border region with the former Romulan Empire. His greatest desire: to be left alone. But solitude isn’t in the cards for the captain of La Sirena, who falls into debt to a roving gang of hoodlums from a planet whose society is based on Prohibition-era Earth. Teamed against his will with Ledger, his conniving overseer, Rios begins an odyssey that brings him into conflict with outlaws and fortune seekers, with power brokers and relic hunters across the stars. Exotic loves and locales await—as well as dangers galore—and Rios learns the hard way that good crewmembers are hard to find, even when you can create your own. And while his meeting with Jean-Luc Picard is years away, Rios finds himself drawing on the Starfleet legend’s experiences when he discovers a mystery that began on one of the galaxy’s most important days…" Picard viewers met Rios, whose freighter La Sirena is crewed by his multiple holographic doppelgangers, later in his career; I begin his story earlier. It's a freewheeling odyssey into the territories made newly lawless following the Romulan disaster. Plus lots of familiar faces! This was my "lockdown novel," and I specifically asked both to write about Rios — and also to write a book that would be FUN, something readers could really look forward to and would enjoy. Mission accomplished! We'll see you in August! There's no copy at Amazon yet, but this link appears to be the preorder one. Ignore the page count listed there — it's boilerplate number, and the true figure is considerably larger.
I was really hoping for a book fleshing out Rios' backstory. He was easily my favorite new character from Picard.
I've been hoping we'd get a novel about Rios. I'm definitely looking forward to getting the next book in the Picard series.
Great idea! I really liked the character, and the actor did a terrific job with all the different versions of himself, especially in that one episode. Sounds like a really promising book.
I think he might be the best actor in the show but he makes it all look so effortless that we don’t give him credit. His “default” Rios accent is not his natural voice.
I had occasion (as you might imagine) to study all his performances — and the various accents he employs. He's amazingly versatile -- and that's one reason I wanted to write the book. There are characters that are difficult to write for even with multiple seasons to draw upon; Rios is the complete opposite.
Can't wait since I 1) loved Die Standing and 2) greatly enjoyed the two Picard novels published so far. [Also, it's nice to have pretty Star Trek hardbacks ;-) I know I'm weird but I think that even the typesetting is better in the Picard novels then in the TOS paperbacks.]
Based on this part of the publisher’s summary, it kinda sounds like it “But solitude isn’t in the cards for the captain of La Sirena, who falls into debt to a roving gang of hoodlums from a planet whose society is based on Prohibition-era Earth.”
And their location as posited in the Stellar Cartography 2nd Edition, isn't that far from Klingon holdings and the Romulan successor states...