Book bits: Updated Missing cover, and new excerpt

A couple of book updates: First up, Doug Drexler posted (on Facebook) an updated version of his cover for Una McCormack's new DS9 novel, The Missing. This has apparently been sent to Doug after the team at Pocket Books made some corrections to remove the very purple tinge that had been applied to the previously released version, and also got rid of the weird line which cut off the background before the edge of the cover. Hopefully this will be the version that appears on the final book, which is due out in January:

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp.

Next month's book meanwhile is also DS9-related, but not released under that series banner. David Mack's Section 31: Disavowed is set to follow up on threads from The Fall, Cold Equations, and the Mirror Universe series. Amazon.com have now released an excerpt, chapter one from the book, which begins like this:

All that stood between Thot Tran and salvation was unrequited love and the edge of the universe.

In recent years his scientific career had been marred by one failure after another. Despite grievous setbacks, he had retained his position as the director of the Special Research Division, one of the loftiest posts in the Breen Confederacy, but one more failure would be the end of him. Domo Pran, the leader of the Confederacy, had made that grim fact abundantly clear. Now Tran’s entire career hinged upon proving a mad hypothesis before Pran’s patience expired.

To make matters worse, his only hope of success lay in the eccentric genius of his Tzenkethi collaborator, Choska Ves Fel-AA. The humanoid outworlder was strangely beautiful to Tran’s eyes. Lithe and silver skinned, Choska was blessed with coppery tresses that fell past her elegant shoulders, and the irises of her ovoid eyes glittered like gold. Upon first meeting her, Tran had shaken her delicate hand—and even through his uniform’s insulated glove his flesh had prickled from an electric tingle. Though he’d been warned ahead of time that Tzenkethi could impart such an effect upon contact, he had been unprepared for the thrill it had given him. Every detail of Choska’s being was rapturous. Her voice was melodic, like the ringing of chimes incapable of striking a false note. Her movements were grace incarnate. Even her most outlandish ideas and outrageous theories possessed a strange elegance.

Tran’s life and career both hung by a slender thread, and all he could think about was the fact that, against all reason, he had fallen in love with an alien who would never love him back.

Not that he hadn’t set limits. When Choska had suggested they convert their shared laboratory space aboard Ikkuna Station into a gravity envelope enclosure, so that all its surfaces—the walls and ceiling, as well as the deck—could be utilized as operational space, Tran had invoked his privilege as project’s director to keep their lab securely on the floor. After all, Ikkuna Station had been built by, and was run by, the Breen, just inside Confederate space, and converting the bulkheads and overheads to serve the same functions as the deck would have been quite tedious and time-consuming. Which had made it all the more shameful, in his opinion, that for a moment he actually had considered granting her request before he’d vetoed it.

Since then, her already inscrutable façade had become impenetrable, hardened against his searching gaze by what he could only presume was resentment. The only discourse that passed between them now was the cold, dry jargon of the laboratory.

Choska spoke without shifting her eyes from the master console in front of her. “The generator is at full power. Membrane penetration anticipated in twenty seconds.”

“Noted. Increase power to the threshold stabilizer on my mark.”

The beguiling Tzenkethi physicist adjusted the settings. “Ready.”

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp. 

Chapter one continues on Amazon.com, and the book should be out in the next couple of weeks.

To keep up to date with all the forthcoming Star Trek book releases, hit the prose or books buttons on my 2014 and 2015 schedule pages.