TNG: Available Light cover revealed

[Kertrats47]

StarTrek.com just posted the cover for next year's TNG: Available Light by Dayton Ward. Yay for new cover reveals! It feels good to have new Trek novels coming soon!

Here's the story on StarTrek.com

And here's the cover:

Kinda looks like Star Trek meets the Vorlons! Also, the smaller ships look like they used the Romulan drone ship from Enterprise and modified it a bit (which was of course itself modified from the alien ship from Voyager's "The Fight").

Here's the back-cover blurb, too:

Section 31, the covert organization which has operated without accountability in the shadows for more than two centuries, has been exposed. Throughout the Federation, the rogue group’s agents and leaders are being taken into custody as the sheer scope of its misdeeds comes to light. Now Starfleet Command must decide the consequences for numerous officers caught up in the scandal — including Admirals William Ross, Edward Jellico, Alynna Nechayev, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard who, along with many others, are implicated in the forced removal of a Federation president.

Meanwhile, deep in the distant, unexplored region of space known as the Odyssean Pass, Picard and the crew of the Starship Enterprise must put aside personal feelings and political concerns as they investigate a massive mysterious spacecraft. Adrift for centuries in the void, the ship is vital to the survival of an endangered civilization which has spent generations searching for a world to sustain what remains of its people. Complicating matters is a band of marauders who have their own designs on the ancient ship, with only the Enterprise standing in their way....

 

[Reanok]

Cool cover art I really Like it. The alien ships so look like Vorlan ships from Babylon 5. I look forward to getting this bok and read about the Section 31 fallout. And what's going to happen to Picard and the Enterprise crew.

 

[DimesDan]

The E looks weird and the Nacelles look too stumpy, other than that, it's an okay image.

 

[indianatrekker26]

i hope Dayton Ward makes this a nice jumping back-on point for readers, After the long absense of trek books for a year from this continuity.

 

[Christopher]

i hope Dayton Ward makes this a nice jumping back-on point for readers, After the long absense of trek books for a year from this continuity.

Dayton usually gives pretty detailed recaps of prior events in his books.

 

[Mage]

The E looks weird and the Nacelles look too stumpy, other than that, it's an okay image.

It really does..... But sometimes the ones we see first are covers that are still being tweaked

 

[Scout101]

Ugh, it's a trade paperback size and not the regular MMPB? Amazon also has it up for $16 at the moment...

 

[Stephen!]

Perhaps this is why Picard is exploring the Odyssean Pass. After what happened to him during the "A Time To" series, Uraei/Control knew this would happen and preemptively got him sent far away from Starfleet.

 

[Christopher]

Ugh, it's a trade paperback size and not the regular MMPB?

MMPBs don't seem to be "regular" anymore -- their place in the market has pretty much been supplanted by e-books, so they're getting harder to find.

 

[thribs]

Perhaps this is why Picard is exploring the Odyssean Pass. After what happened to him during the "A Time To" series, Uraei/Control knew this would happen and preemptively got him sent far away from Starfleet.

He was already out there when the news leaked.

 

[Kertrats47]

He was already out there when the news leaked.

Yes, hence the "preemptively." I think it's a really cool explanation, since we find out that Uraei/Control kind of planned it's whole downfall in the first place. A sort of putting pieces in place for after it was no longer in control, as it were.

 

[thribs]

Oh I don’t think it that was planned. I think that his being there is unrelated.

 

[Enterprise1701]

i hope Dayton Ward makes this a nice jumping back-on point for readers, After the long absense of trek books for a year from this continuity.

Dayton usually gives pretty detailed recaps of prior events in his books.

Indeed, his Trek novels are rather renowned for detouring for a paragraph or two to recount the events of a past story being referenced. Or even events from earlier in the novel. Some complain about this writing tactic, though for my part I am often glad to have extensive contextual detail.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

Indeed, his Trek novels are rather renowned for detouring for a paragraph or two to recount the events of a past story being referenced. Or even events from earlier in the novel. Some complain about this writing tactic, though for my part I am often glad to have extensive contextual detail.

I think it depends on the writer and how they tackle it. Dayton's recaps are usually pretty concise as I recall. I don't remember them lasting pages and pages or anything. There are definitely times when these recaps pop up in other books, however, where I'm skimming entire blocks of pages waiting for something to happen because they can be way too thorough.

 

[Christopher]

There are definitely times when these recaps pop up in other books, however, where I'm skimming entire blocks of pages waiting for something to happen because they can be way too thorough.

That's why I always try to make my expository passages more than just a dry plot summary. I try to find a new angle on them, say, by recapping them from a different character's perspective than what we got in the original episode, or mentioning the aired events in the context of a discussion of their consequences or larger context, so that it provides something new to people who already know the story. It also helps to trim the recap to the bare minimum of what's relevant to the new story, or to spread it out in bits and pieces as needed rather than halting the scene for a lengthy recap. I've been going more for the less-is-more approach in recent books.

 

[thribs]

I'm sure Picard will be fine. He controls the Enterprise which makes him the de facto leader of the Federation anyway, No matter what people say.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

@Christopher has good recaps. Nothing is worse than clunky exposition...seriously there are books where it feels like, 'and the breeze was cool, which made her think about [entire plot of previous book that had nothing to do with breezes].'

 

[JD]

Sounds very interesting.
That cover is pretty good, definitely better than some of the other recent covers.

 

[Christopher]

@Christopher has good recaps.

Thanks!

I think the way to approach recaps of previous episodes/books is the same way you'd approach exposition about any other backstory. How, for instance, did "The Cage" fill the audience in on the Rigel VII battle that had Pike so bummed out? Not in one big infodump, but organically in bits and pieces. Pike orders staying on course for Vega Colony to tend to their sick and injured. Pike and Boyce discuss "the fight on Rigel VII" and Pike's anger at how it played out. Then in the illusion, Pike says "it's just as it happened two weeks ago." Just a half-dozen or so lines across three scenes, and it's all we need. Best of all, the main expository exchange with Boyce isn't just a dry recitation of facts, it's informing us about the characters as well as the events, because we see how Pike is beating himself up over his mistakes and considering retirement, and how Boyce tries to keep him grounded.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

I thought Picards role in the min zife affair dealt with in a previous book? I'm sure someone confronted him about it and said Picard would never be offered another command after the Enterprise and would never be promoted to Admiral.