Book bits: Kirk Fu cover, Enterprise War excerpt, and more

Got a few book bits today, including new covers and excerpts from several books. Continue below to check them out:

First up, we have the long awaited cover reveal for Insight Edition's forthcoming Kirk Fu Manual. This guide to "Starfleet's most feared martial art" is written by Dayton Ward (of course), with illustrations by Christian Cornia. It's been pushed back in the schedule from the original planned release, so you've got until March next year before you can start preparing yourself for self defense Kirk style:

In unabashed celebration of Captain James T. Kirk’s singular fighting skills, Star Trek: Kirk Fu Manual is every Starfleet cadet's must-have training guide for surviving the final frontier.

As captain of the legendary U.S.S. Enterprise, James T. Kirk engaged in his share of fisticuffs, besting opponents with a slick combination of moves and guile that remains unmatched. Is there anyone you’d rather have watching your back as you take on Klingons, alien gladiators, genetically engineered supermen, and even the occasional giant walking reptile?

Kirk Fu is a series of unarmed combat techniques developed by one of Starfleet’s most celebrated starship captains over several years of encounters with alien species on any number of strange new worlds. A blend of various fighting styles, Kirk Fu incorporates elements of several Earth-based martial arts forms as well as cruder methods employed in bars and back alleys on planets throughout the galaxy. It is as unorthodox in practice as it is unbelievable to behold. Including excerpts from Kirk’s own notes and personal logs, the Star Trek: Kirk Fu Manual is the perfect training guide for surviving the depths of space. With proper training and practice, every Starfleet cadet can become one with Kirk Fu.

Christian Cornia's Advocate Art portfolio now features the following illustration, which isn't captioned, but must surely come from this book. You can see a couple more previews in previous reports.

There's significantly less waiting to be done for the John Jackson Miller's Pike-Enterprise focused Discovery novel The Enterprise War, which is out this week! As ever, Amazon's Kindle gives us a nice excerpt to tide us over until your copy arrives:

Here's a reminder of the blurb too:

A shattered ship, a divided crew—trapped in the infernal nightmare of conflict!

Hearing of the outbreak of hostilities between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire, Captain Christopher Pike attempts to bring the U.S.S. Enterprise home to join in the fight. But in the hellish nebula known as the Pergamum, the stalwart commander instead finds an epic battle of his own, pitting ancient enemies against one another—with not just the Enterprise, but her crew as the spoils of war.

Lost and out of contact with Earth for an entire year, Pike and his trusted first officer, Number One, struggle to find and reunite the ship’s crew—all while Science Officer Spock confronts a mystery that puts even his exceptional skills to the test…with more than their own survival possibly riding on the outcome….

The next novel due is Greg Cox's TOS tale, The Antares Maelstrom, due out next month. The audiobook cover for that one has now been released, revealing a pleasingly expanded version of the regular cover:

It seems that wider view isn't exclusive to the audiobook though, as the back cover of the print edition also features the back end of the ship, suggesting a wrap-around cover design - Cool. You can get a reminder of the blurb from this book by embiggening that back cover image of course:

In other books news, it appears  David Goodman's third in-universe biography, The Autobiography of Mr. Spock has been pushed back a second time, with Titan Books now expecting to deliver in April 2020, the better part of two years from it's original expected release. If you need a reminder what this will be covering:

"The Autobiography of Mr. Spock" tells the story of one of Starfleet's finest officers, and one the Federation's most celebrated citizens. Half human and half Vulcan, the book, written in Spock's own words, follows his difficult childhood on the planet Vulcan; his controversial enrollment at Starfleet Academy; his adventures with Captain Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise; his diplomatic triumphs with the Klingons and Romulans; and his death and amazing resurrection on the Genesis Planet. We meet the friends he's made, the women he loved, and experience the triumphs and tragedies of a life and career that spanned a century. Despite his alien blood, his struggle to find his place in the universe is one we can all relate to.

Finally, a few interesting bits from Star Trek authors: TrekFM's Literary Treks podcast recently released a very interesting episode, where they had both Dayton Ward and David R. George III on to talk generally about the processes of writing Star Trek novels. It's really good insight into writing, and especially tie-in writing, and well worth a listen!

Meanwhile Dayton Ward also recently revealed he's now working for CBS Licensing, helping to coordinate numerous projects:

For the past couple of months, I’ve been quietly working as a contracted consultant to CBS Global Franchise Management. Much of my “portfolio” involves being something of a conduit between them and certain licensing partners for matters pertaining to #StarTrek tie-in projects that involve story/narrative in its various forms.

This means I get to read and advise on all sorts of cool stuff from said licensing partners and tying into the current Trek series as well as scripts and related materials from those same shows. The latter serves two purposes: Staying up to date with the status of the different series so I can properly advise on related tie-in efforts, but also with an eye toward identifying potential future tie-in opportunities. For this, I find myself coordinating on frequent occasions with my “boss,” John Van Citters at CBS, as well as the incomparable Kirsten Beyer, writer/producer for #StarTrekDiscovery and #StarTrekPicard.

Another facet of my duties is helping CBS GFM with various short burn projects where writing and Trek knowledge come in handy. You may see stuff I write popping up in all sorts of places and never even know it. Mwuah-ah-ah.

Sounds like fun! And of course he's not the only Trek author being pulled into the expanding world of Star Trek, David Mack recently announced he's been working as a consultant on Lower Decks too. With so much new Trek in development, Mr Mack had this very reassuring (and amusing) tweet to calm us Trek-lit lovers down (picturing himself with Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore at the Star Trek Set Tour):

As more news about STAR TREK: PICARD emerges from #SDCC2019, it's amusing to compare the reactions of fans of the Star Trek novels ("Oh, no! They're burning down the entire 24th-century Treklit continuity!") vs. the reactions of those of us who write the books: pic.twitter.com/NqQhPZfm9P

— David Mack (@DavidAlanMack) July 19, 2019

To keep track of all the latest releases, hit the prose or books buttons on my 2019 schedule page. You can also find series reading lists and author bibliographies on my dedicated Star Trek lists site.