This week Big Finish have not just announced, but released their first two Star Trek audiobooks! And there's another to follow; they have produced an unabridged audio release of the English edition of Bernd Perplies and Christian Humberg's Prometheus trilogy (which was of course the first Star Trek novel series published originally in German). The trilogy has been narrated by Alex Newman, who is known to Star Trek fans as Malik the augment, from the arc in the final season of Enterprise.
The Prometheus trilogy was originally published by Cross Cult in German (with German audio editions by Bastei Lübbe following a little later), and is currently being released in English print form by Titan Books - Presumably these unusual licensing arrangement for Star Trek novels gave Big Finish an opening to start doing something with Star Trek, where audio releases are more usually covered by Simon and Schuster Audio (who have indeed given us a revival of Star Trek audio releases the last couple of years, with many Star Trek novels getting simultaneous audio releases now). What I find exciting though is that Big Finish are encouraging fans to feedback on social media with what they'd like to see for future - I for one would like to see them take the route they have with Doctor Who and Stargate, and produce entirely original Star Trek audio stories, with full cats and sound effects (something Star Trek hasn't seen since the Captain Sulu Adventures and Spock vs Q in the 90s!).
Anywho, continue below to check out all the cover art (and a reminder of all the blurbs) for Big Finish's edition of the Prometheus trilogy.
With exactly the same cover layout as the German audio release of the book, which awkwardly almost chops the USS Prometheus itself out of the image, the first in the series is Fire with Fire. You can hear a short excerpt from this in Big Finish' latest podcast; it starts at about the thirteen minute mark. Here's the blurb:
The Federation races to discover the culprits of several terrorist attacks, sending their flagship, the USS Prometheus, to stop war breaking out in the galaxy.
A mysterious terrorist organization has carried out several attacks against the Federation and Klingon Empire. Tensions are running high in a region already crippled by conflict. The perpetrators are tracked to the Lembatta Cluster, a mysterious region of space whose inhabitants, the Renao, regard the Alpha Quadrant s powers as little more than conquering tyrants. The Federation are desperate to prevent more bloodshed, and have sent their most powerful warship, the USS Prometheus, into the Cluster to investigate the threat before all-consuming war breaks out.
Book two is The Root of All Rage, and was released this week, simultaneously with the first book.
The Federation races to discover the culprits of several terrorist attacks, sending their flagship, the USS Prometheus, to stop war breaking out in the galaxy.
A dangerous evil is flourishing in the Alpha Quadrant. In the Lembatta Cluster, a curious region of space, fanatics who call themselves the Purifying Flame are trying to start a galactic war, and the warlike Klingons are baying for blood. The Federation have sent the USS Prometheus to settle the crisis, and the crew must contend with both the hostile Renao, the secretive inhabitants of the Cluster, and the Klingon captain of the IKS Bortas, who is desperate for war.
And the final book in the series is In the Heart of Chaos. This isn't going to be released until December, which maybe has something to do with the print edition release, as Titan Books aren't due to release their English edition of the book until November.
The Federation races to discover the culprits of several terrorist attacks, sending their flagship, the USS Prometheus, to stop war breaking out in the galaxy.
The situation in the Lembatta Cluster is deteriorating rapidly. Fleets from the Federation and Klingon Empire are heading for the borders. The crews of the USS Prometheus and IKS Bortas are racing against time to break the cycle of violence that is spreading through the Alpha Quadrant. Adams and Kromm are on the trail of a secret weapons facility, but instead discover an enemy from their pasts who seems utterly unstoppable. Together, they search for the answers to their questions, before the galaxy goes down in flames.
Moving to comics. Amazon listings have revealed IDW appear to have decided to change up the cover for the omnibus edition of their first Discovery comic, The Light of Kahless, and are now going to use a piece of art by George Caltsoudas, which was originally used as a retail incentive cover for the third issue in the series - Feels like a good choice to me; this nouveau gothic (is that a thing?) arrangement of some of the key Klingon characters and designs sums up the feeling of the comic series quite well. The omnibus is due out in September.
Another Amazon listing has also revealed IDW are going to release a mega-omnibus of some of their previous TNG comic series. Five of them in a 568 page hardcover! Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Missions Continue is due out in March, and the blurb below sums up the series included:
Follow the intergalactic adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701D) as they explore new worlds.
Collecting five complete graphic novels into one oversized hardcover edition.
In The Space Between, travel to Tigan-7, Kandom 9, uncharted space, and more--each leading the dedicated crew of the Enterprise into unexpected adventures. By David Tischman and Casey Maloney.
In Intelligence Gathering, what seems to be a series of unrelated missions is soon revealed to be part of a larger conspiracy involving a threat unlike any that Picard has ever faced. Can the Enterprise crew piece together the puzzle before it's too late? By Scott Tipton, David Tipton, and David Messina.
In Last Generation, a Myriad Universe title, Starfleet is no more! The Federation lies in ruin and the Klingons have conquered Earth. But a resistance, led by Jean-Luc Picard, seeks to free humanity from Klingon rule. Now, finally, they may have the means to do it: an android named Data! By Andrew Steven Harris and Gordon Purcell.
In Ghosts, Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise respond to a distress call and find a terribly wounded scientist aboard a marooned ship. While evaluating the planet below (and its two warring nations) for possible Federation membership, Picard discovers to his horror that the survivor of the disaster is foreseeing his death. By Zander Cannon and Javier Aranda.
In Hive, it's the distant future and the entire galaxy has been completely assimilated by Borg and its king... Locutus! The only hope lies in the past, in the hands of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the starship Enterprise! By Brannon Braga, Terry Matalas, Travis Fickett, and Joe Corroney.
TNG fans are also well served by new Star Trek novelty books. Running Press' latest release is the Locutus of Borg Collectable Mask, which like all their novelty gift releases, comes with a small book by Chip Carter discussing related Star Trek stuff. Amazon again have given up out first look at this product; although it is very clearly a mock-up, so we must yet wait to see what the final thing looks like - It's due to arrive in October.
To keep track of all the latest Star Trek book releases, hit the books button on my 2018 schedule page. You can also find series reading lists and author bibliographies on my dedicated Star Trek lists site.
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