Second Discovery novel, Drastic Measures, previews

Out this week is the second Star Trek: Discovery tie-in novel, Dayton Wards' Drastic Measures. Like the other Discovery novels so far announced, the book is a prequel to the events of the TV series, this time take us back some considerable time; a decade before the Battle of the Binary Stars, around the events of the Tarsus IV massacre; a historical event of significance (not least to the childhood of James T. Kirk), established in TOS's The Conscience of the King.

Our witnesses to this event will be Discovery's two captains, Philippa Georgiou, and Gabriel Lorca, both some time away from their future postings - Given the recent revelation about Lorca, I'm particularly intrigued to get to know the character from this time (and universe...).

Here's a reminder of the blurb, from the back cover. Continue below for excerpts from the print and audio editions:

Here's an excerpt, care of Amazon's Kindle preview; the prologue and start of chapter one:



The book is available as an ebook, trade paperback, or audiobook, with the latter read by Robert Petkoff. Here's an excerpt of the audiobook, via StarTrek.com:

Additionally German publisher Cross Cult have set Helga Parmiter to work on a quick turn around for a translation, and expect to published their version, Drastische Massnahmen, later this month.

Writing for StarTrek.com, author Dayton Ward has outlined how he got involved in this project and how it evolved alongside the production of the TV series - Apparently one of the story ideas considered would have introduced us to the crew of the USS Buran under Lorca:

In the beginning, I was asked to consider a story focusing on Gabriel Lorca. At the point these discussions began, we knew almost nothing about him - or any of the characters, really - so it was sort of a blank slate with respect to his backstory. As things progressed, I was clued in to specific things like Lorca and his previous command, the U.S.S. Buran, and what happened there. At one point, we talked about fleshing out that whole thing, as it was looking like it would not be portrayed on screen.

We keep going along those lines, and by now I'm starting to see story treatments and concept art and the initial versions of the scripts for the first few episodes, and I realize I'm really digging Georgiou's character. I knew that they were bringing in Michelle Yeoh for the part, but at this point Jason Isaacs had not been cast. I mentioned to Kirsten that I really wanted to write a Georgiou story. We talked about it and eventually one of us had the bright idea of "Hey, why not a story with both of them?"

I'm glad for more Georgiou, but I'd still be up for a Buran novel set either side of Lorca's universe switching!

Drastic Measures is the second of three Discovery novels currently planned, following David Mack's Desperate Hours published last year, and with James Swallow's Fear Itself coming this summer - Both of those feature the crew of the USS Shenzhou.

At the moment we don't know of any novels beyond those, as Simon and Schuster have still not finalised their license renewal, so the entire Star Trek novel line remains in limbo (as I understand it, these Discovery novels are still trickling out now due to be commissioned some time ago, and then being delayed alongside the TV series).

To keep track of all the latest releases, hit the prose or books buttons on my 2018 schedule pages. You can also find series reading lists and author bibliographies on my dedicated Star Trek lists site.