An original novel set in “The Lost Era” time period between Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation!
When Captain Demora Sulu leads the crew of U.S.S. Enterprise-B on a mission near Tzenkethi space, they explore Rejarris II, a planet they cannot explain. A strange structure on the surface could hold answers, but when a landing party transports down to study it, chaos erupts. After communication fails with one officer and another is horribly injured, Captain Sulu deems the planet too dangerous to continue exploring. She decides to leave Rejarris II, but not until she can retrieve her lost crew member. But when contact is ultimately severed with the captain, a Tzenkethi force subsequently appears. Could they be behind the mysteries on the planet, or the disappearances of the Enterprise officers? Regardless, will Sulu's crew be able stand up to them long enough to find and retrieve their captain and the other missing personnel?
Once, John Harriman commanded Enterprise-B with Demora Sulu by his side as his first officer. Eight years after stepping down as a starship captain—in the wake of the Tomed Incident—Harriman now serves as an admiral based out of Helaspont Station, on the edge of the Tzenkethi Coalition. When he receives a mysterious message from Rejarris II, he realizes that he might hold the key to finding his former crewmate. In choosing to help recover Demora Sulu, though, he could risk losing everything he holds dear. What price is Harriman willing to pay to attempt to rescue his longtime friend?
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Returning to the story begun in the novel Immortal Coil and continuing in the bestselling Cold Equations trilogy, this is the next fascinating chapter in the artificial life of one of Star Trek’s most enduring characters.
He was perhaps the ultimate human achievement: a sentient artificial life-form—self-aware, self-determining, possessing a mind and body far surpassing that of his makers, and imbued with the potential to evolve beyond the scope of his programming. And then Data was destroyed. Four years later, Data’s creator, Noonien Soong, sacrificed his life and resurrected his android son, who in turn revived the positronic brain of his own artificial daughter, Lal. Having resigned his commission, the former Starfleet officer now works to make his way on an alien world, while also coming to grips with the very human notion of wanting versus having a child. But complicating Data’s new life is an unexpected nemesis from years ago on the U.S.S. Enterprise—the holographic master criminal Professor James Moriarty. Long believed to be imprisoned in a memory solid, Moriarty has created a siphon into the "real" world as a being of light and thought. Moriarity wants the solid form that he was once told he could never have, and seeks to manipulate Data into finding another android body for him to permanently inhabit...even if it means evicting the current owner, and even if that is Data himself.
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Coming in August is the start of the Vanguard follow-up series, Seekers. There are blurbs for both of the first two books in the series, which form a two-part story. However, Dayton Ward has tweeted me to note that these blurbs are the copy originally written for the retailer catalogues, and may or may not be the actual final back-cover text.
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| Teaser cover, not final |
A new mission: The late twenty-third century—Starfleet’s golden age of exploration. Desperate to stay one step ahead of its rivals, the Federation sends two starships, the scout Sagittarius and the cruiser Endeavour, to plumb the secrets of the vast region known as the Taurus Reach.
A doomed race: Drawn by mysterious energy readings to a lush green world, the crew of the Sagittarius find the Tomol: a species whose members all commit ritual suicide just as they reach the cusp of adulthood.
An old foe: The crew of the Sagittarius wants to save the Tomol from their cycle of self-destruction, but first they’ll need to save themselves—from the most nefarious Klingon starship commander in history.
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Seekers then continues in September with Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore's Point of Divergence:
The second novel set in The Original Series/Vanguard universe…
The Taurus Reach. Once the conquered realm of a powerful alien species, this region remains largely shrouded in mystery even as it brims with potential for exploration and colonization. The Federation has sent in two of its finest starships on a quest to uncover the secrets it may yet hold...
The Tomol are a primitive civilization occupying a lone island on a remote world. Their culture is an enigma, centered on every member’s commitment to a painful, fiery self-sacrifice upon reaching maturity. But one of their clan has shunned this obligation, triggering a transformation into a new, powerful life form. Answering the distress call of the U.S.S. Sagittarius—which has crashed on the planet following a fierce battle with the Klingons—Captain Atish Khatami and the crew of the Starship Endeavour must now attempt a rescue mission…even as they are locked in battle with the evolving, increasingly malevolent Tomol who, if allowed to escape their home world, pose an imminent threat to the entire galaxy!
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I'll have to make sure I get out to a book store sometime next September. Assuming there are any left by then. These Seeker novels sound like they'll be good reads. Not that this is a bad thing, but it does seem odd to have two novels in the series being released so close to each other. I like the image used for the teaser cover, so I hope that doesn't change. That said, the text could use some work. If you hadn't said it before the blurb, I would not have guessed that Second Chance was the title of the book. Also, the giant number one seems kind of pointless... unless there is a set number of these books they plan on releasing.
ReplyDeleteThe first two Seekers books are a two-part story, and as the books alternate between focusing on two different ships, it probably made sense to establish the series with an intro for each.
ReplyDeleteThe number is because the series is meant to be a bit retro, like the old Blish novelizations, which were also numbered. Originally they were hoping to just title each book by number, but the publishers insisted on normal titles too. Not sure if they still intend to use the big numbers on the final covers, sure we'll find out soon enough.
A couple of notes. First, the cover shown here is just a temp based on an old image of mine. The actual cover is different and completely new... though I can say it's a treatment of the same visual elements seen here.
ReplyDeleteAt the time of this writing the plan is still on for using the big numbers. That's really one of the concept cores - to evoke an element of 70's/80's Trek nostalgia.
I just submitted the covers to the publisher today. Hopefully they'll be smoothly accepted and see print next Summer.
I'm really looking forward to seeing them Rob! And glad to hear the numbers are still in, they really make for a unique aesthetic.
ReplyDeleteI've only been a trekkie for the past... four or five years, so I'm not real familiar with the older novels. That said, I can definitely get behind the idea of making them look retro. Anyways, not sure why it took me till just recently to make this connection in my head, but I'm currently reading Ward's novel "That Which Divides". Really good book, and makes me even more excited for the Seekers books.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to the covers you've designed. If the image used for the temp cover is anything to go off of, I'm sure the real cover will be excellent. Not to sound nitpicky, but there is one element to it that I'm not a huge fan of. The Klingon bird-of-prey. When thinking of TOS Klingons, my mind can't help but think of the big gray battlecruisers. That said, I've always kind of wondered what a TOS Klingon bird-of-prey would look like. Depending on how long it had been since they traded tech, probably just a modified Romulan bird-of-prey... lol