Book bits: New Frontier covers, and 50th anniversary trilogy!

Books news! Including new covers and the first details of fiftieth anniversary novels!

In a recent interview with Visionary Treks' The Captain's Table podcast, David Mack revealed his next Star Trek novel, following Seekers 3: Long Shot in August, will be one book in a TOS trilogy, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Star Trek next year:

I do have one more, that I'm going to be writing this fall, which will be out in the fall of 2016. The story line hasn't been approved yet, so I don't know for sure that it's a go. But what we're working on is a special set of stories to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Star Trek. And I'm working on one volume of what is hoped to be a trilogy, which will play homage to classic Star Trek, in fine Original Series style.

I wonder who else will be filling out the trilogy? Following this, David Mack will be missing in action from the Star Trek universe, while he is busy working on his original trilogy of World War II era fantasy novels. He doesn't expect to be returning to Star Trek until at least 2017, and doesn't seem entirely sure about that, not be able to foresee his own, or the Star Trek books, schedule. What has become of Section 31: Control? Well, the fiftieth anniversary book has displaced his writing of that until a later date. Mack being busy could also effect the ongoing nature of the Seekers series, and one of the points discussed in the interview was who Mack might favour to fill in for him if he is otherwise occupied when the next books come along. Check out the full interview, with discussion of this and much more, on Visionary Treks: Part one and part two.

Also, do you notice the fiftieth anniversary logo at the top? That was recently discovered by TrekCore, and I'm sure will be appearing all over Star Trek products in the not-to-distant-future. Check out TrekCore's report for more on that.

Meanwhile, new cover time! The last two covers for Peter David's New Frontier ebook trilogy The Returned have now been revealed. The first was released a couple of weeks ago. Continue below to check them both out:

At the moment the same blurb is being used for all three books, the same one that was released with the first cover from the trilogy:

Captain Mackenzie Calhoun and the crew of the U.S.S. Excalibur are back, picking up three months after the stunning events depicted in New Frontier: Blind Man’s Bluff. Calhoun's search of Xenex has failed to find any survivors, and now he is bound and determined to track down the race that killed them—the D'myurj and their associates, the Brethren—and exact vengeance upon them. His search will take the Excalibur crew into a pocket universe, where he discovers not only the homeworld of the D’myurj, but another race that shares Calhoun's determination to obliterate his opponents. But is this new race truly an ally…or an even greater threat?

The Returned will be released from July to September this year.

Finally, another podcast to open your ears to: John Jackson Miller recently appeared on the G and T Show, to talk about his recent novel Takedown, and all manner of other things! Including a few hints at Star Trek stories he didn't get a chance to write.

For full listings of all the forthcoming Star Trek books, and links to all my previous reports, hit the prose or books buttons on my 2015 and 2016 schedule pages.