Vanguard: The End!

The Simon and Schuster website has been updated with a blurb for, What Judgments Come, the next book in the Vanguard series:

Operation Vanguard has risked countless lives and sacrificed entire worlds to unlock the secrets of the Shedai, an extinct alien civilization whose technology can shape the future of the galaxy. Now, Starfleet's efforts have roused the vengeful Shedai from their aeons of slumber. As the Taurus Reach erupts with violence, hundreds of light-years away, on "The Planet of Galactic Peace," Ambassador Jetanien and his counterparts from the Klingon and Romulan empires struggle to avert war by any means necessary. But Jetanien discovers their mission may have been designed to fail all along . . . Meanwhile, living in exile on an Orion ship is the one man who can help Starfleet find an ancient weapon that can stop the Shedai: Vanguard's former commanding officer, Diego Reyes.


THE END OFTHE EPIC SAGA BEGINS

Commenting on the TrekBBS David Mack confirmed this is the first half the end of the series, with his novel Storming Heaven being the last Vanguard book:

Storming Heaven will be the finale, yes. It was a decision made by us, the authors, to end the saga properly, rather than risk it running out of steam or end up left unfinished for whatever reason.

Although What Judgements Come has Dayton & Kevin's name on the cover, and Storming Heaven has my name on the cover, the title pages for the two books will credit all three of us with the story for each book, because we developed the two-part conclusion as a team. This is a change from our previous operating mode of one-upmanship from one book to the next; we wanted to plan this all out and do it right.

UPDATE: Dayton Ward has also commented on this on his blog, including some interesting incites into the planning of the whole series and the decision to now end it:

We've been plotting this for going on two years now. The series had always been conceived with a beginning, middle, and end, going back to the original "bible" Dave wrote when he co-created the series with then-editor Marco Palmieri. Dave's bible originally included story ideas for six "core" books that would cover the main storyline from beginning to end, with the series concept itself allowing for additional stories if opportunity presented itself.

The idea of ending the series wasn't an easy sell. Both our editor (Margaret Clark at the time), and even the CBS Licensing office weren't on board with the notion at first. Vanguard, we were told, sold well, was popular, and was a favorite of certain folks in the licensing office. Still, they let us make our case: We wanted to end the series on a high note, rather than let it linger for too long. Further, we wanted to be the first to end one of the book series in definitive fashion. We wanted to be able to put the seven Vanguard books (actually eight, now, counting the just-released Declassified) on a shelf, point to them and say, "We did that," and then walk away, proud of our accomplishment. Both editor and licensor finally gave us their respective blessings, and we set to work figuring out how all of the plotlines and character arcs might be resolved.

Check out Ward's original post for more thoughts on the end of Vanguard.

Meanwhile elsewhere in the Trek lit-verse, UnrealitySF has posted an interview with Greg Cox, in which he discusses his forthcoming TOS novel The Rings of Time, the cancelled new timeline novel The Hazard of Concealing, and his work in general. As ever well worth a trip to UnrealitySF.

Thanks to TrekBBS user DarkHorizon who spotted the Vanguard blurb.