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I dunno about full books, but I can see something like Strange New Worlds with a bunch of short stories that might explain some of the stuff. A short story about stuff like how Icheb was captured, one of the Fenris Rangers missions, the construction of La Sirena, small stuff like that.
I'm struggling to see how the construction of a ship could possibly make for an interesting story. I guess it was a really eventful time at the shipyards?
Not unlike what happened with the Star Wars line after the new movies started back up. Decades of plots, and then one day they just stopped in favor of a new continuity. No wrap-up or closure,
Likewise with Doctor Who when that show came back in 2005. Really, none of this is unprecedented, and is very common among tie-ins of all franchises. Why Star Wars fans acted like it was something unique to them, or why Star Trek fans are currently acting like that, is the mystery. Star Trek fans especially, since they saw this already happen with the arguably more popular tie-in continuity for Star Wars a few short years ago, and this already happened in Star Trek with its novel continuity in the 80s when TNG premiered.
Although Doctor Who implicitly built in a way to reconcile it, with the Great Time War rewriting the past. Which was mainly done to deal with the discrepancies between the classic series's portrayal of the 1990s-2000s and the ultimate reality (shouldn't we have a moonbase and transmat by now?), but also provides a handy rationalization for the books and audios and comics being inconsistent. (The show even called it the Last Great Time War, perhaps an implicit acknowledgment that there had been a couple of different Time Wars in the tie-ins.)
But yeah, new works of fiction are never under any obligation to continue previous continuities. How many times have Batman and Spider-Man been rebooted in the movies by now? How many different TV continuities have there been for the X-Men and the Transformers and the Ninja Turtles? There are franchises where this happens routinely. It's not a tragedy, it's not an injustice, it's not a betrayal. It's just one continuity stopping and the next one starting. Sure, it can feel sad when the ending continuity has been around for a long time, like when the DC Animated Universe ended, but hey, the old stories will always be there to revisit, and the new continuities that follow can be terrific too.
Although Doctor Who implicitly built in a way to reconcile it, with the Great Time War rewriting the past. Which was mainly done to deal with the discrepancies between the classic series's portrayal of the 1990s-2000s and the ultimate reality (shouldn't we have a moonbase and transmat by now?) [...].
Do I need a source? It's pretty obvious. The new series treats itself as part of the same continuity as the old, but its version of Earth history clearly differs greatly from the old show's just because of the passage of real time. And the Time War was described as having rewritten history massively, over and over. It's hard to believe nobody in the production considered that the latter could account for the former.
Or, y’know, the most obvious way to kill off a species called Time Lords who have time machines was in a Time War, and a Time War would involve rewriting the past virtually by definition.
Very possibly the production team were aware that fans could use the idea to explain continuity holes (though I don’t recall any of them ever saying so), but that’s a different thing from saying it was “mainly done” for that reason. Doctor Who writers have a long history of cheerfully doing whatever works in the moment and leaving fans to explain things themselves. It’s not like the Earth history of the classic series fit together all that well either...
Very possibly the production team were aware that fans could use the idea to explain continuity holes (though I don’t recall any of them ever saying so), but that’s a different thing from saying it was “mainly done” for that reason.
Poor choice of words. I meant it was done more for accommodating discontinuities between the classic series and the new series than for accommodating discontinuities between the tie-ins and the new series. Even if it was a secondary consideration for the show overall, it was more about the show than about the books and comics.
Very possibly the production team were aware that fans could use the idea to explain continuity holes (though I don’t recall any of them ever saying so),
On a similar note, RTD was often hesitant to spell things out too specifically because he preferred fans to come up with their own explanations and theories. For example, although it was his intention the mysterious woman in TEOT was the Doctor's mother, he left her identity unaddressed in the actual episode so that fans could make her whoever they wanted her to be.
Or there was another time, he was looking over a draft of a tie-in reference book that explained what the Cruciform (mentioned by the Master in The Sound of Drums) was. RTD nearly requested they remove that, feeling that as a licensed book many fans would interpret that as official and canon and it could supplant whatever they had thought up what the Cruciform was. But then he realized that to whoever had written that, that's what the Cruciform was to them, and by removing that he would be squashing the very imagination in someone he was trying to encourage in others, so he allowed it in the end.
I mean, I think that depends on whether you think discontinuities in details "overwrite" an entire book vs. just glossing over some things and squinting.
Prime example: There's nothing in Star Trek: Picard that explicitly contradicts the Destiny trilogy that I can remember. I can't remember anything that precludes the major plotlines -- Columbia NX-02 and the Caeliar; the Titan and the Caeliar; the Caeliar and the Borg; the Enterprise and the Borg Invasion. Is it plausible that events so major would go unmentioned in PIC? Probably not. But if you want to be creative and squint a little, you can probably fit most of it in.
In fact, technically, the only major contradiction between PIC and the Cold Equations trilogy is the date. Nothing in PIC precludes the possibility that Noonien Soong survived in an android body and then found a way to constitute a new Data out of his stored memories some time before the Romulan supernova was detected. Yes, a lot of PIC is about Picard's unresolved feelings regarding Data's death -- but as Collateral Damage pointed out, Data 2.0 ("Data Soong") is considered a legally separate person. It's within the realm of reasonable creative interpretation that Data Soong exists somewhere in the universe of PIC, but that Jean-Luc's feelings about the death of the original Data never changed just because of Data Soong being out there somewhere.
I really can't think of anything from the DS9 Relaunch that's contradicted by PIC except possibly some of the dates. The broad plot outlines could all still be true in the canon as defined by PIC. Same with the VOY Relaunch. Hell, I'd say anything up to The Fall could arguably still fit into the PIC continuity if you fudge the dates a bit.
The real challenge comes from trying to fit The Fall in with everything; it seems unlikely that either Nanietta Bacco or Kellessar zh'Tarash would be willing to ban synthetic lifeforms or abandon the Romulans, and it seems improbable that Bacco's assassination would go unmentioned alongside the Mars Attack. But up until The Fall, I think a lot of stuff still mostly fits.
There's nothing in Star Trek: Picard that explicitly contradicts the Destiny trilogy that I can remember. I can't remember anything that precludes the major plotlines -- Columbia NX-02 and the Caeliar; the Titan and the Caeliar; the Caeliar and the Borg; the Enterprise and the Borg Invasion. Is it plausible that events so major would go unmentioned in PIC? Probably not. But if you want to be creative and squint a little, you can probably fit most of it in.
Well, it's not really even about quantity. The Borg attack in Destiny was a very significant event that had huge repercussions in the novel-verse that just aren't present in Picard. And then the Typhon Pact and The Fall storylines were other significant events that can't really co-exist anymore.
Future novel-writers can of course pick up where the pre-Destiny timeline left off at and then make that consistent with Picard. However, I don't see that happening. For one, you never know if a future Picard episode with undue something that happened even earlier in the pre-Destiny timeline. And the other reason is I think future Picard novels will focus mostly on supporting Picard, and not so much pre-Picard novel storylines. At most you might see the occasional Easter egg.
Do I need a source? It's pretty obvious. The new series treats itself as part of the same continuity as the old, but its version of Earth history clearly differs greatly from the old show's just because of the passage of real time.
That reminds me of a debate I ended up getting into on trekmovie.com about Star Trek (2009) and whether that was a parallel universe or rewriting the original universe. Some had argued that since it wasn't explicitly stated in the movie that it was an alternate universe then it wasn't canon and they felt it rewrote the prime-timeline. I and others argued that it was pretty implicit in the movie (and I thought it was pretty obvious in the dialogue--while they did not say "we are in an alternate universe" verbatim, I did understand what they were getting at). And Bob Orci, one of the writers of the movie, said yes, this was an alternate universe, and yes, that was what the dialogue in the movie was getting at. Some fans will argue with anything---now that was before STID and Beyond so I think that's largely been settled at this point.
Yeah, I agree. I give @Sci kudos for giving it a shot, but it's really hard to integrate the novel-verse as it stands now with Picard. And how about Picard being married to Beverly and having a son that is non-existent in Picard? That's a big plot hole. And then there's the lack of any warning of the supernova. For that to happen in the novel-verse in 2387 there would have to be an attack of some sort since there is no warning. Now, I'm sure one of our resident writers could create a story that depicts an attack that causes the Star to go nova (or a nearby star that effects the Romulan system as depicted in Countdown, after all, we saw in Generations that it was possible to destroy a star with a missile). That would explain the lack of a significant warning in the novels. But that too would be inconsistent with Picard because there they knew years ahead of time. My guess is if it were an attack in Picard that led to the stars downfall that in the novel-verse it could be the same attackers but perhaps they changed their tactics after the Borg attack, or perhaps after the formation of the Typhon Pact.
I'm going on a tangent again, but I was really hoping the novels would have taken us to the destruction of Romulus in the novel line. As I noted it probably would involve a story with some attack on a star that took much less time to destroy Romulus than in Picard. In particular it'd be interesting to see the Federations' response in the novel-line. The Federation of 2387 in the novels had reached a much better place I thought after the Section 31 exposure, and Admiral Akaar and the Federation President would do whatever they could to aid the Romulan people (though in that timeline with much less time to react the help would be of a much different sort). And what of the Typhon Pact. The Romulan Empire would be in tatters after such a disaster. What would the remaining Typhon Pact powers do, and the Romulans were an influential member--I could see the Breen and the Tzenkethi vying for increased influence and maybe the Tholians as well. The Romulans were a more moderating influence in the Pact, would the loss of Romulus mean a more aggressive stance against the Khitomer powers? Those were all things I was hoping to see before the novel-verse in the 24th century ended.
Well, it's not really even about quantity. The Borg attack in Destiny was a very significant event that had huge repercussions in the novel-verse that just aren't present in Picard. And then the Typhon Pact and The Fall storylines were other significant events that can't really co-exist anymore.
Yes, obviously nothing from 2380 on is in continuity anymore. That goes without saying. But my point is that that doesn't require throwing everything else out. We could potentially keep the pre-2380 continuity and just branch the novelverse off in a different, Picard-consistent direction from there. I think Star Wars tie-ins did this when new movies contradicted earlier stories -- they just retconned or glossed over the inconsistent bits while keeping the rest. It wasn't all-or-nothing. Heck, the novelverse itself did that a few times during Enterprise. When "In a Mirror, Darkly" depicted the Tholians' anatomy in a way that conflicted with The Sundered's description of them as having a preying mantis-like form, later books retconned them to look like they did on the show, but otherwise kept the Sundered continuity. Similar things were done with the portrayal of Andor/Andoria after the show established it as an icy moon of a Jovian. The parts that didn't fit were erased, but the rest was kept.
Future novel-writers can of course pick up where the pre-Destiny timeline left off at and then make that consistent with Picard. However, I don't see that happening. For one, you never know if a future Picard episode with undue something that happened even earlier in the pre-Destiny timeline.
We never knew before that our books wouldn't be contradicted. That's always, always an occupational hazard for tie-in writers. And it's never stopped us before, because we have never pretended that any of this is guaranteed to be "real." We're just telling stories for entertainment purposes. Heck, all science fiction will eventually be contradicted by new science or by the passage of time. If we let fear of future contradiction paralyze us, there would be no science fiction, let alone any TV tie-in fiction. Of course we never know what the future holds. But that shouldn't stop us from living our lives.
That reminds me of a debate I ended up getting into on trekmovie.com about Star Trek (2009) and whether that was a parallel universe or rewriting the original universe. Some had argued that since it wasn't explicitly stated in the movie that it was an alternate universe then it wasn't canon and they felt it rewrote the prime-timeline. I and others argued that it was pretty implicit in the movie (and I thought it was pretty obvious in the dialogue--while they did not say "we are in an alternate universe" verbatim, I did understand what they were getting at).
SPOCK: You are assuming that Nero knows how events are predicted to unfold. To the contrary, Nero's very presence has altered the flow of history, beginning with the attack on the USS Kelvin, culminating in the events of today, thereby creating an entire new chain of incidents that cannot be anticipated by either party.
UHURA: An alternate reality?
SPOCK: Precisely. Whatever our lives might have been, if the time continuum was disrupted, our destinies have changed.
I have a lot of thoughts on these subjects, but most of them boil down to two points:
1. Be open-minded about the new material coming out (print and screen). You will possibly find something great, as creators usually set out to tell the best stories they can.
2. Treasure the stuff that really speaks to you, and learn to set aside what does not. Even within a single story, there can be some solid gold material and something that you would rather not be there. A prime example for me would be the Luke/Leia kiss in The Empire Strikes Back.
There are many reasons why a series or subseries you like could disappear or disappoint in its next installment. That does not change the fact that something that came earlier gave you joy. Embrace what you love, and use your imagination to add, alter, or ignore other things as you see fit. Head canon and fan fiction are wonderful tools for making your media consumption more enjoyable.
Specifically to Star Wars, I would advise anyone who liked the Legends material to try something in the new material (see #1 above). Out of 7 years of new stories, something will probably appeal to you. Some of them even came from writers who also put out Legends material. For a taste test, I would recommend From a Certain Point of View. It's 40 stories from different authors that each tell something that was going on related to the minor characters seen in A New Hope. For a novel, Dark Disciple is a great one, and it ties in to The Clone Wars.
I have a lot of thoughts on these subjects, but most of them boil down to two points:
1. Be open-minded about the new material coming out (print and screen). You will possibly find something great, as creators usually set out to tell the best stories they can.
2. Treasure the stuff that really speaks to you, and learn to set aside what does not. Even within a single story, there can be some solid gold material and something that you would rather not be there. A prime example for me would be the Luke/Leia kiss in The Empire Strikes Back.
There are many reasons why a series or subseries you like could disappear or disappoint in its next installment. That does not change the fact that something that came earlier gave you joy.
Well-said. These are all just made-up stories. They aren't warring ideologies or competing "truths," because it's all just a bunch of colorful fibs to entertain you. So there's no reason you can't love multiple contradictory stories about the same characters and the same world. Sometimes it's the differences that make them so interesting, that make the experience richer by offering multiple different angles on the same idea, like all the different versions of Batman or Sherlock Holmes or Godzilla. All fiction is invention, so reinvention is a valid and worthwhile part of it.
Yeah, that is pretty explicit I would say. I wish I could find the thread but it'd probably be like looking for a needle in a haystack at this point. The article was from years ago, before STID came out. I can't remember exactly why they were arguing this was a rewritten timeline instead of an alternate timeline. The lines from the movie were pretty obvious and the writer of the movie confirmed it. I mean, what more proof do people need. But if nothing else one thing we Trekkies are united in is our willing to argue every last detail. Trekbbs, trekmovie....doesn't matter. We'll argue until we are green in the face.
Well, I don't disagree with you there. It just seems to me writers might be reluctant to build an ongoing novel continuity like we had in the past while a series is currently ongoing. Back when the relaunches were going on those series were pretty much done and it just seemed 'safer' to write an ongoing continuity. Even with the Abrams movies they were in an alternate universe so they had no effect on the books. The novels that are coming out now are largely standalone stories. They may reference other novels but they really don't build off those prior books anymore. And I don't really see continuing continuities restarting in the near future.
One exception is maybe your most recent novel. It definitely builds off "Ex Machina" and "Mere Anarchy" (in fact I'm at the interlude which fits in nicely with your "Mere Anarchy" story) and as an aside I did pick up your reference to "The More Things Change" by Scott Pearson. But that timeframe, and the Enterprise timeframe are probably two that are reasonably safe from being overwritten by canon so those might be two exceptions. But then I don't see any future Enterprise books coming out. Movie-era--well, maybe I guess. I initially thought not but perhaps since that era still involves the original series characters S&S might be open to stories during that timeframe.
Well-said. These are all just made-up stories. They aren't warring ideologies or competing "truths," because it's all just a bunch of colorful fibs to entertain you. So there's no reason you can't love multiple contradictory stories about the same characters and the same world.
I actually have no problem with this. "Parallels" showed us definitively, along with numerous other stories, that parallel storylines exist in Star Trek. And I have no issues considering the existing novel-verse as a parallel timeline.
What it really comes down to for me is that I'm just saddened it's probably over. I noted I had hoped it would get us a bit further. I'd have no problems reading future relaunch books that are in their own timeline distinct from Picard. But I find that highly improbable that would occur. Even if S&S/CBS were willing to consider that, it probably comes down to economics. What will sell you more books? And with the reduced number of books each year that makes it even less likely.
Well, I don't disagree with you there. It just seems to me writers might be reluctant to build an ongoing novel continuity like we had in the past while a series is currently ongoing.
It never stopped us before. Any reluctance came from the studio's end. All we do is try to tell the best stories we can, and maneuver around what canon does as best we can.
Again, none of this is pretending to be "real." It doesn't matter if it's consistent or if it lasts, because it's not claiming to be anything more than an entertaining exercise in make-believe. Building consistency among different stories is enjoyable, but it's just part of an illusion that makes no pretense of being anything more than an illusion. The consistency is not a higher priority than the entertainment value of the stories.
I actually have no problem with this. "Parallels" showed us definitively, along with numerous other stories, that parallel storylines exist in Star Trek. And I have no issues considering the existing novel-verse as a parallel timeline.
Certainly in some cases, say like the older Bantam and early Pocketbooks novels would be more easily seen as different stories.
But the continuing relaunch stories feel more apt as an 'alternate' universe from Picard. I think because the length of time they covered and the lengths the writers/editors have gone to make it a continuing narrative with it's own internal inconsistency.
I agree with everything you are saying. I'm just disappointed that we likely will not see future stories in the relaunch universe. I was hoping at the very least we'd see some grand finale that closes out the relaunches. But when you peel away all the layers, for me, that is what bothers me the most.
On the other hand, A Singular Destiny established that there were exceptions to the "all Borg tech absorbed." Maybe that's part of why the Artifact is so valuable -- maybe the Artifact is the only one left!
Or, maybe we squint a little bit and accept a modified version of Destiny as our backstory. Maybe in this slightly-different version, the Caeliar absorb most of the Collective but a fragment turns out to have been overlooked, and is out there somewhere.
I'm not saying this'll turn up in canon, mind you. But I do think that aspects of these stories may be salvageable for Trek Lit going forward.
Well, it's not really even about quantity. The Borg attack in Destiny was a very significant event that had huge repercussions in the novel-verse that just aren't present in Picard. And then the Typhon Pact and The Fall storylines were other significant events that can't really co-exist anymore.
I agree that there's just not really a good way to fit The Fall into what PIC established about the mid-2380s, but I think Typhon Pact could still fit in if we squint a little about the dates. In fact, the Romulans being part of the Typhon Pact might help explain: 1) why Romulan casualties weren't a great deal higher; 2) why so many Federates felt so hostile towards the Romulans in 2385. (The hostility of Federates towards the Romulans in the mid-2380s feels a bit less motivated if we only go by the canon, because the major Romulan-related events the UFP has had leading up to that are allying with them in the Dominion War and then Romulan Imperial Fleet ships assisting the Enterprise in stopping Shinzon -- largely positive experiences.)
I could see a broad version of the previous TrekLit continuity fitting into the early-to-mid 2380s: A Borg attack causing a lot of damage to local space; several powers joining together to form the Typhon Pact; Cold War-style conflict between the UFP and the Pact culminating in the attack on Deep Space 9 that wasn't supposed to happen from the Pact's POV; tensions cooling and re-heating again, before everything changes with the detection of the oncoming Supernova.
Future novel-writers can of course pick up where the pre-Destiny timeline left off at and then make that consistent with Picard. However, I don't see that happening. For one, you never know if a future Picard episode with undue something that happened even earlier in the pre-Destiny timeline. And the other reason is I think future Picard novels will focus mostly on supporting Picard, and not so much pre-Picard novel storylines. At most you might see the occasional Easter egg.
On the other hand, PIC's lifespan as a production is limited by -- well, by how long 79-year-old Patrick feels like/is able to maintain the shooting schedule, and they're only doing 10 episodes a year. I think that means there may be room for more creative freedom than there has been in the past, if the novelists are allowed to have good communication with the PIC writing staff.
But in any event, to me this is as much about keeping some stuff in my headcanon as it is about what Trek Lit might do going forward.
Yeah, I agree. I give @Sci kudos for giving it a shot, but it's really hard to integrate the novel-verse as it stands now with Picard.
Nothing in the show (that I can remember) explicitly established that he and Beverly weren't married or that Renee was never born. Maybe that's part of the pathos! Maybe Jean-Luc's anger and bitterness and self-destructive behavior over the Federation betraying the Romulans led to the breakdown of his marriage, and Beverly and Renee are out there somewhere, estranged from him.
Do I expect that to be confirmed by the show? No (although never say never). It may well be overtly contradicted. But for the moment, we as viewers have the creative freedom to choose to interpret it that way, and to choose to imbue the show with that as subtext.
And then there's the lack of any warning of the supernova. For that to happen in the novel-verse in 2387 there would have to be an attack of some sort since there is no warning.
Oh yeah, like I said, my attempts to find ways to carry over as many elements as possible from the "Destinyverse Continuity," so to speak, necessarily requires that we squint on all the dates and mentally reassign them to the early-to-mid 2380s.
Now, I'm sure one of our resident writers could create a story that depicts an attack that causes the Star to go nova (or a nearby star that effects the Romulan system as depicted in Countdown, after all, we saw in Generations that it was possible to destroy a star with a missile). That would explain the lack of a significant warning in the novels. But that too would be inconsistent with Picard because there they knew years ahead of time.
I don't remember anything stating exactly when the supernova was detected, but I figure if we fudge the details, we could maybe put initial detection in mid-2383, have Jean-Luc's promotion to admiral and entire attempt to organize the rescue fleet with Raffi take place mid-2383 to mid-2385, and then the supernova in 2387. So that would give us about three and a half years to squeeze in as much of the events of the old continuity as possible. Clearly some things would need to be necessarily changed in our heads/in this new conception of those events -- the Borg Invasion armada would probably need to have been smaller so that the long-term effects would take less time to start to recover from, for instance.
Actually... I wonder if I could really compress things. Maybe this scenario might work:
Late 2379: Tezwa; NEM; Bacco takes office
Early 2380: Borg Invasion
Spring 2380: Recovery starts; Typhon Pact forms; Project Full Circle returns to Delta Quadrant
Fall 2380: Theft of advanced FTL tech from Utopia Planitia; behind the scenes shenanigans over who rules the Romulan Star Empire
Early 2381: Destruction of Breen shipyards to retrieve advanced FTL tech
Mid 2381: Data Soong created; Lal revived
Late 2381: Tensions ratching up with the Typhon Pact; attack on Deep Space 9
Early 2382: "Cuban Missile Crisis in Space" (events of Brinkmanship)
Mid-2382: Bacco assassinated; events of The Fall; Bashir infiltrating Section 31
Late 2382: Janeway resurrected; Bashir exposes Section 31
Early 2383: Section 31 reveal fallout
Mid-2383: Supernova detected, Picard promoted to admiral
5 April 2385: Mars Attack
Mid-2385: Federation betrays Romulans, bans synthetic research (I would assume these would be acts of the Federation Council done over zh'Tarash's veto, and that President zh'Tarash would resign in protest, paving the way for some asshole to take over); Data Soong, Lal flee the Federation; Bruce Maddux and Alton Soong flee as well; Picard resigns from Starfleet, marriage collapses;
2387: Spock of Vulcan attempts one last desperate mission to save Romulus and fails; Romulan Supernova; Jellyfish and Narada sucked into the Kelvin Timeline; collapse of the Romulan Star Empire
2390: USS Ibn Majid makes first contact with Coppelian android ambassador; Commodore Oh orders Coppelians murdered
2396: Maddux creates Soji and Dahj to try to flush out who's behind attacks on Synths & Mars Attack
2399: Zhat Vash operation to assassinate Dahj exposed to Picard; Soji accepted onto the Artifact; Picard hires La Sirena; exposure of the Zhat Vash and revelation of Coppelius; death and resurrection of Picard; death of Data duplicate consciousness
I'm going on a tangent again, but I was really hoping the novels would have taken us to the destruction of Romulus in the novel line. As I noted it probably would involve a story with some attack on a star that took much less time to destroy Romulus than in Picard. In particular it'd be interesting to see the Federations' response in the novel-line.
Sadly the novels were kept from ever addressing the supernova by the licenser before PIC.
The Federation of 2387 in the novels had reached a much better place I thought after the Section 31 exposure, and Admiral Akaar and the Federation President would do whatever they could to aid the Romulan people (though in that timeline with much less time to react the help would be of a much different sort). And what of the Typhon Pact. The Romulan Empire would be in tatters after such a disaster. What would the remaining Typhon Pact powers do, and the Romulans were an influential member--I could see the Breen and the Tzenkethi vying for increased influence and maybe the Tholians as well. The Romulans were a more moderating influence in the Pact, would the loss of Romulus mean a more aggressive stance against the Khitomer powers? Those were all things I was hoping to see before the novel-verse in the 24th century ended.
Yes, I agree there. That and the year layoff of books basically. I have to think had the novels been able to address the destruction of Romulus they would have, probably a few years ago even. As they got closer to 2387 the stories seemed to slow down in the sense that they didn't cover as much time as some other novels.
It almost seemed like they wanted to leave the door open to covering the destruction of Romulus in the relaunches, but just never got the opportunity.
I was really hoping to see how the relaunches handled that. Plus there's what we saw in the future in Star Trek (2009) with the creation of red matter and Ambassador Spock's involvement. It would have been interesting to see the relaunch novels flesh that out in more detail.
As I've said many times on this subject, the novel continuity was always going to end, for the simple fact that everything ends and nothing is permanent. IMO, we got the best case scenario that it ended because there's new onscreen material supplanting it rather than it ending because of low sales leading to S&S losing the license.
There's the oft touted line that it would be preferred if they could wrap everything up in a grand finale, but there were never any guarantees of that. Had the novel continuity ended because of low sales, there wouldn't be any grand finale wrapping things up at all. It would have just ended. Hell, we've already seen one potential end to the novel continuity, the Cold Equations trilogy which was originally planned to be the finale of the novel continuity. The only difference between the original plan and the version we got, is the original plan ended with Picard's death. But the point is, had that happened in 2012, we still wouldn't have gotten anymore DS9 novels beyond Raise the Dawn, no more Voyager books beyond The Eternal Tide, there'd be no Enterprise Rise of the Federation, The Seekers wouldn't exist. And we most certainly still would not have gotten a Romulan supernova story in the novels. The grand finale would have been the story of Data's resurrection and Picard's death, and then there wouldn't even be any new Star Trek aside from the Kelvin movies until Disco premiered.
We live in the best possible outcome for the Trek novels. I get fans of the novel continuity might miss it, but it is time to move on. Or to paraphrase Be Alright by Dean Lewis "I know you love them, but it's over, mate. Doesn't matter, put the book away..."
Thanks.
