Book bits: Prey cover, new TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Section 31 blurbs, and more!

Lots of book news today, including brand new blurbs for the first four novels on the 2017 novel schedule, which continue the adventures of the Enterprise-E, new-DS9, Voyager and the Full Circle fleet, and Docotr Bashir's efforts to thwart Section 31. But before we get to all those exciting stories, there's new cover!

Coming in November is the middle book in John Jackson Miller's Prey trilogy, The Jackal's Trick. The TNG era story is Klingon focused, and the cover, released by StarTrek.com, certainly demonstrates that, with a couple of Klingon ships and a big--scary-demon-thing (anyone recognise what that is?).

Here's a reminder of the blurb:

The Klingon-Federation alliance is in peril as never before. Lord Korgh has seized control of the House of Kruge, executing a plot one hundred years in the making. The Klingon cult known as the Unsung rampages across the stars, striking from the shadows in their cloaked birds-of-prey. And the mysterious figure known as Buxtus Cross launches a scheme that will transform the Klingon Empire forever.

Into danger flies Admiral William T. Riker and the U.S.S. Titan, charged with protecting the peace forged nearly a century before during the Khitomer Accords. Aided by Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the U.S.S. Enterprise, Riker and his officers scour the stars, seeking to find the Unsung and uncover the truth behind the conspiracy before time runs out.

Yet even as Commander Worf departs on a deeply personal mission of honor, hidden sinister forces seek to turn the crisis to their advantage. And the conspirators’ plans threaten to spiral out of control, jeopardizing the very empire they aspire to rule...

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

Looking to next year, Amazon have now added listings, with blurbs, for the first three novels on the schedule. The February book (which as always will arrive a little before, in this case in last week or so of January), is the next TNG mission following the Prey trilogy, Dayton Ward's Headlong Flight.

An exhilarating thriller from bestselling author Dayton Ward set in the universe of Star Trek: The Next Generation, following Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew as they explore the previously uncharted and dangerous Odyssean Pass.

Surveying a nebula as part of their continuing exploration of the previously uncharted “Odyssean Pass,” Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Starship Enterprise encounter a rogue planet. Life signs are detected on the barren world’s surface, and then a garbled message is received: a partial warning to stay away at all costs. Determined to render assistance, Picard dispatches Commander Worf and an away team to investigate, but their shuttlecraft is forced to make an emergency landing on the surface—moments before all contact is lost and the planet completely disappears.

Worf and his team learn that this mysterious world is locked into an unending succession of random jumps between dimensions, the result of an ambitious experiment gone awry. The Enterprise crewmembers and the alien scientists who created the technology behind this astonishing feat find themselves trapped, powerless to break the cycle. Meanwhile, as the planet continues to fade in and out of various planes of existence, other parties have now taken notice….

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr. 

In March the DS9 saga will continue with David R. George III's The Long Mirage, which appears to pick up right where his last book, Ascendance‬, left off.

Continuing the post-television Deep Space Nine saga comes this thrilling original novel from New York Times bestselling author David R. George III!

More than two years have passed since the destruction of the original Deep Space 9. In that time, a brand new, state-of-the-art starbase has replaced it, commanded by Captain Ro Laren, still the crew and residents of the former station continue to experience the repercussions of its loss. For instance: Quark continues his search for Morn, as the Lurian—his best customer and friend—left Bajor without a word and never returned. Quark enlists a private detective to track Morn down, and she claims to be hot on his trail. Yet the barkeep distrusts the woman he hired, and his suspicions skyrocket when she too suddenly vanishes. At the same time, Kira Nerys emerges from a wormhole after being caught inside it when it collapsed two years earlier. She arrives on the new DS9 to discover Altek Dans already there. While inside the Celestial Temple, Kira lived a different life in Bajor’s past, where she fell in love with Altek. So why have the Prophets moved him forward in time…and why have They brought him and Kira together?

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr.  

Then April takes us back to the Delta Quadrant, for Architects of Infinity, to pick up some of the tantalising threads left dangling at the end of Kirsten Beyer's latest Voyager masterpiece, A Pocket Full of Lies.

An original novel set in the universe of Star Trek: Voyager, from the New York Times bestselling author.

As the Federation Starship Voyager continues to lead the Full Circle Fleet in its exploration of the Delta Quadrant, Admiral Kathryn Janeway remains concerned about the Krenim Imperium and its ability to rewrite time to suit its whims. At Captain Chakotay's suggestion, however, she orders the fleet to focus its attention on a unique planet in a binary system, where a new element has been discovered. Several biospheres exist on this otherwise uninhabitable world, each containing different atmospheres and features that argue other sentient beings once resided on the surface. Janeway hopes that digging into an old-fashioned scientific mystery will lift the crews' morale, but she soon realizes that the secrets buried on this world may be part of a much larger puzzle—one that points to the existence of a species whose power to reshape the galaxy might dwarf that of the Krenim.

Meanwhile, Lieutenants Nancy Conlon and Harry Kim continue to struggle with the choices related to Conlon’s degenerative condition. Full Circle’s medical staff discovers a potential solution, but complications will force a fellow officer to confront her people’s troubled past and her own future in ways she never imagined…

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr.  

UPDATE: One further blurb has appeared on a new listing on the Simon and Schuster website for Section 31: Contorl, David Mack's sequel to Section 31: Disavowed, which had previously been put on hold release due to competing demands, but will now be coming in May!

From the New York Times bestselling author David Mack comes an original, thrilling Section 31 novel set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation universe!

No law…no conscience…no mercy. Amoral, shrouded in secrecy, and answering to no one, Section 31 is the mysterious covert operations division of Starfleet, a rogue shadow group pledged to defend the Federation at any cost. The discovery of a two-hundred-year-old secret gives Doctor Julian Bashir his best chance yet to expose and destroy the illegal spy organization. But his foes won’t go down without a fight, and his mission to protect the Federation he loves just end up triggering its destruction. Only one thing is for certain: this time, the price of victory will be paid with Bashir’s dearest blood.

Purchase: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr.  

Finally, some bits of news of books further ahead, via Jeffrey Lang, who recently appeared on TrekFM's Literary Treks podcast to discuss his recent DS9 book, Force and Motion. As you might recall, Lang has been itching to pick up the adventures of Data, following his last Data and Lal story, The Light Fantastic. Editor Margaret Clark has set a high bar for the use of the resurrected Data, which has held off any more books featuring him so far - The latest pitch certainly sounds ambitious:

In Terminator 2 you have Arnold, he's the terminator; what can you possibly throw at him where you have to have the next generation, you have to have your T-1000. With Data and Lal you have to have a T-1000, you have to have something that you can throw against them that has even more agency. So that's the concept that I'm working on - The problem with that is, when you introduce that kind of character or threat to the 24th century, that's just not going to be something that going to effect them. So I think that's the problem that we have to solve if we're going to do this sort of story; where does it land, what impact does it have, is it something that we can absorb into the bigger picture.

Essentially we are introducing a new threat that is on the level of the Borg, or... what else? What else have been at that level, the Dominion maybe? And that's what I've pitched, and I think Margaret is kind of sitting there going "Do I want to do this?", or is this too much?

To keep track of all the latest releases, hit the books buttons on my 2016 and 2017 schedule pages. You can also find series reading lists and author bibliographies on my dedicated Star Trek lists site.