Synopses and Final Cover For Destiny Trilogy

The big Star Trek book event of 2008 is the crossover ‘Destiny’ trilogy by David Mack. Destiny brings together Jean Luc Picard and the USS Enterprise, William Riker on USS Titan, along with ties to both DS9 and even Enterprise. This week new synopses and the final cover for the series has been released. [see below, w/ spoilers]

 

Synopses and covers for Destiny trilogy
 

STAR TREK DESTINY: GODS OF NIGHT (September 2008)
Half a decade after the Dominion War and more than a year after the rise and fall of Praetor Shinzon, the galaxy’s greatest scourge returns to wreak havoc upon the Federation – and this time its goal is nothing less than total annihilation.

Elsewhere, deep in the Gamma Quadrant, an ancient mystery is solved. One of Earth’s first generation of starships, lost for centuries, has been found dead and empty on a desolate planet. But its discovery so far from home has raised disturbing questions, and the answers harken back to a struggle for survival that once tested a captain and her crew to the limits of their humanity.

From that terrifying flashpoint begins an apocalyptic odyssey that will reach across time and space to reveal the past, define the future, and show three captains – Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise, William Riker of the U.S.S. Titan, and Ezri Dax of the U.S.S Aventine – that some destinies are inescapable.


Cover art by Cliff Nielsen
"Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night" available for pre-order at Amazon
 

STAR TREK DESTINY: MERE MORTALS (October 2008)
On Earth, Federation President Nanietta Bacco gathers allies and adversaries to form a desperate last line of defense against an impending Borg invasion. In deep space, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Captain Ezri Dax join together to cut off the Collective’s route to the Alpha Quadrant.

Half a galaxy away, Captain William Riker and the crew of the Starship Titan have made contact with the reclusive Caeliar – survivors of a stellar cataclysm that, two hundred years ago, drove fissures through the structure of space and time, creating a loop of inevitability and consigning another captain and crew to a purgatory from which they could never escape.

Now the supremely advanced Caeliar will brook no further intrusion upon their isolation, or against the sanctity of their Great Work. … For the small, finite lives of mere mortals carry little weight in the calculations of gods.

But even gods may come to understand that they underestimate humans at their peril.


Cover art by Stephan Martiniere
"Star Trek: Destiny: Mere Mortals"available for pre-order at Amazon

 

STAR TREK DESTINY: LOST SOULS (November 2008)
The soldiers of Armageddon are on the march, laying waste to worlds in their passage. An audacious plan could stop them forever, but it carries risks that one starship captain is unwilling to take. For Captain Jean-Luc Picard, defending the future has never been so important, or so personal – and the wrong choice will cost him everything for which he has struggled and suffered.

For Captain William Riker, that choice has already been made. Haunted by the memories of those he was forced to leave behind, he must jeopardize all that he has left in a desperate bid to save the Federation.

For Captain Ezri Dax, whose impetuous youth is balanced by the wisdom of many lifetimes, the choice is a simple one: there is no going back – only forward to whatever future awaits them.

But for those who, millennia ago, had no choice … this is the hour of their final, inescapable destiny.


NEW! Cover art by Rick Berry
"Star Trek: Destiny: Lost Souls"available for pre-order at Amazon

More Destiny to come
TrekMovie has full coverage for Destiny coming up including an interview with the author, excerpts. Also look for early reviews of each of the three books.

Synopses from David Mack’s website, covers from Pocket Books

 

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Awsome, First?

They still make books?

To quote egon from Ghostbusters..

“print is dead”

Looks like a great series, does anyone know if these three can be read as a standalone series? And who’d have though Ezri would have her own ship. Second!

This sure as hell better get rid of the Borg. I am so SICK of the Borg. The last Q-Knows-How-Many book have been about BORG. Okay… it’s only been 2, but still! “Before Dishonor” was, well… dishonorable. It ate Pluto? Wtf?

As long as they don’t kill off Ogawa, Deanna, or Tuvok, I’m fine with the series. And as long as they bring Janeway back.

Another story with the Borg. Geez it’s gotten so bad I miss the Klingons.

I’m not sure about this whole post air Star Trek continuity. It was bad enough that Sisko was turned into a prophet in the worst finale of any Star Trek series (for the best Star Trek series no less!) but Ezri a Captain? Ugh. She may be Dax but Ezri is like 12 years old. It just doesn’t work.

Don’t kill off Ogawa? I mean, I guess she was ok for a nurse that was around sometimes…weird.

What the hell is Ezri doing as a captain?

Two comments.

First, the Borg? Again?

Second, how in the world did Ezri go from Lt. JG just a few years ago (chronologically speaking) to a captain? Plus, how did she develop the constitution of a captain whereas she never had anything approaching one before?

I agree with #6, 7, and 8. I don’t understand how Ezri could be a Captain so soon. She barely functioned at all after getting the Dax symbiont. Plus, I thought she just wanted to be a counselor. What made her suddenly want to be a Captain?

And the Borg really need to find something better to do. They can never assimilate the Federation and Voyager kicked them round the block.

Gorgeous covers. Damned if I’d ever vote for someone named “Nanietta,” though.

Ezri has advanced logically and realistically in the DS9 relaunch novels. I won’t say any more since that’d be kind of spoilerish.

That being said, between David Mack and KRAD (under the guidance of Marco Palmeiri), Trek writing has never been better or more topnotch. I’d love to see a straight-up collaboration between the two, but not sure that’ll ever happen. You never know, though! It’d be no less than epic in size and scope. :)

Wee in your pant at the kirk bit then skip the rest.
0:28 to 1:04
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-eeLl-yAKWjY/ytmnd_uncut/

“Before Dishonor” was an abomination unto the Lord. Since someone already spoiled it above me, I’ll point out that Peter David is an awful writer and should have stopped writing after “Vendetta” (go look it up – it was so bad, it was sold at half price at Toys R Us for crying out loud). I had hoped he’d have grown past that awful piece but it seems he felt it was one of his best, so he basically grafted major pieces of it onto a post-TNG story, and figured that was that! I don’t care what you think of Voyager, you don’t kill Janeway, you don’t give Seven that rogue, and you don’t turn the Borg into the crappy people-eating slime things from “Pulse”.

Yo kirklover here’s the vid without the crap

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-E32Pc38Mo8Q/shatner_is_the_only_kirk/

13,

Hear hear! Fortunately, Janeway might not be “dead.” She’s just with Q drinking coffee for all eternity…

I now fear what Destiny will do. It can go one of 2 ways:

1. Resurrect the TNG Relaunch
2. Shove into a deep, dark corner, even further than Before Dishonor already did.

These books sound lame. I am not interested in the slightest. Ezri Dax a Captain? She was so wimpy and insecure, she wasn’t even supposed to receive a symbiot. It’s like a young Reg Barclay getting his own command. And the Columbia part of this plotline? Who are these god like beings? And give it up with the Borg already! Write about something else! These books sound way too far out there for me.

If you ask me, we are experiencing a serious drought of good Trek novels.

” I’ll point out that Peter David is an awful writer and should have stopped writing after “Vendetta” (go look it up – it was so bad, it was sold at half price at Toys R Us for crying out loud). “

…A lot of people would severely disagree with you. But then again, there’s people who like Michael Jan Friedman’s hack jobs. Which just goes to show that people are like tribbles, and there’s no accounting for taste.

But what the frack? At least it’s not Diane “Mary Sue” Carey, Vonda McIntyre or Della “K/S” Van Hise butchering the franchise…

I don’t know about Peter David being horrible, the New Frontier novels are excellent and he was a pretty good comic book writer. He may have just had a few bombs as all writers do from time to time.

I wish they still made Star Trek audiobooks…so much easier than actually reading.

I like Trek novels, but I don’t care how they spin it in the DS9 relaunch series, Ezri Dax was never going to be command material.

What makes these novelists think that any minor character in a past Trek series should eventually have a command of his/her own? And she goes from Lt., jg. to Captain in 5 years (and even that is assuming she just got her promotion)? That is a promotion every 15 months!

Even James Kirk didn’t accomplish that. It took him approximately 12 years to reach the rank of Captain from the time he graduated from Starfleet Academy (and that’s if he graduated at age 22), averaging a promotion every 2 years. I’m sorry, but how could anyone buy into an ascension to command that would surpass that of Starfleet’s greatest ever hero and youngest ever Captain—-by the likes of Ezri Dax?

This series won’t get a dime out of me…

How is Ezri a Captain? She could barely handle being a psychologist.

Oh, and I kinda wish they would bring back the Sulibans, and Daniels back into the 24th Century timeline.

#17—-“But what the frack? At least it’s not Diane “Mary Sue” Carey, Vonda McIntyre or Della “K/S” Van Hise butchering the franchise…”

You’re right about one thing for sure….there is no accounting for taste.

I just recently read Vonda McIntyre’s novelizations of TWOK and TSFS for the first time in twenty years (after repurchasing them on EBay), and I enjoyed them every bit as much as I did the first go around.
I haven’t read Diane Carey in decades, but I don’t remember either one of them ever “butchering the franchise”. I just think that, back then, there were not nearly as many canon restrictions as there are now. I am sure that if I went back and read “Web Of The Romulans”, or something like that again, I would probably find that it would no longer fit into what more recent live action Trek has established as canon.

How exactly do you find that they “butchered the franchise”?

#11 – Re: your desire to see a collaboration between myself and Keith R.A. DeCandido, it has already happened. In fact, my first Star Trek prose fiction credit is one that I co-authored with Keith — Star Trek S.C.E. “Invincible”, now available in the paperback collection Star Trek S.C.E. Book Two: Miracle Workers.

As for everyone who wonders how Ezri became a captain, I will say simply that you need to read the post-finale Deep Space Nine books to see how her character has changed, and then you need to learn the meaning of the phrase “battlefield promotion.”

that pretty much sums it up

Whoever it was that drew that picture of Frakes for the cover obviously is not a very good artist because that does not look like him. Although they were able to capture the “alcoholic” look, maybe a little too well.

Yeah #25…they left out the triple chins.

If you want something good to read, check out the Vanguard books. I love them… Can’t wait for the next one!

#23 David Mack, the Vanguard books are my favorite Trek novels in years, they are really good and I love the diversity of characters, like DS9, non star fleet personel, etc. I highly recommend them to all… P.S. Love the covers for these too, very 70’s sci-fi novel feel I think…

It sounds like this book is not about the borg but about a new species. I think your just picking out the fact that it mentions the Borg, I don’t think the entire series is about them.

Mack,
Your works have always been exquisite. I am in the process of reading over “Twist of Faith” and “These Haunted Seas,” and Ezri has definitely progressed as a person.

As for the rest of you,
Every Trek novel has something to offer the franchise. While I despise “Before Dishonor,” I did enjoy some aspects of it. Though, I wouldn’t put it on my X-Mas list… ever. Maybe if I was ridiculously drunk.

I love David Mack… and yet I hate the way these synopses sound… and Greater Than The Sum was not a fun read for me… and yet… I mean, it’s David Mack!

*is torn; hopes for the best*

>.I just recently read Vonda McIntyre’s novelizations of TWOK and TSFS for the first time in twenty years (after repurchasing them on EBay), and I enjoyed them every bit as much as I did the first go around.

Closettreker–they were excellent, ARE excellent, aren’t they? I think the whole made up “K/S” controversy over one of Vonda books colors some people’s judgment about ALL their writing.

People should remember that these books take place something like a couple years after the latest DS9 relaunch (although don’t quote me on the exact time of the gap), so I’m sure we’ll see soon enough the whole story of Ezri’s rise to a captaincy, and also keep in mind that we don’t know what type of ship she’s in command of. It could just be a small ship like a saber class vessel.

Best Trek writer ever, in my opinion, is Diane Duane. Someone said once that her books weren’t canon, but they ought to be…and I agree. Which is not to say that I haven’t enjoyed other books immensely as well. It is, however, a habit I’ve gotten out of …it got to be too much to keep track of!

#33: Greater Than the Sum says the Aventine is a prototype for a new form of propulsion. Didn’t say what the class would be.

You people really should listen to yourselves (or read what you are saying).

“Peter David is a horrible writer… Dax will never make it a captain, she could barely handle being a psychologist… The artwork doesn’t look at all like Riker… they forgot his three chins… the artist captures the alcoholic look… some people seem to like Jan Michael Friedman’s hack jobs…”

Yeesh!!!! Those of you posting these comments sound like a bunch of bitter little old ladies (apologies rendered if that analogy offends anyone) stuck on their front porch wilting under the summer heat in their rocking chairs.

It is so easy to sit here on the sidelines and criticize, but I don’t see many of us who are posting these hateful jabs who have taken the plunge to write a novel, a short story, a script… but diatribes are easy, they just don’t pay well. so I say…

Get over it! As a writer I know how hard it is to please all of my readers… in fact, I think I’ll let Ricky Nelson close this one out…

“Ya see you can’t please everyone so ya gotta please yourself.”

and while we’re on the subject of writers…

I’d like to put in a plug for TREK writer extraordinaire Christopher L. Bennett. His books are wonderfully crafted, dense with characterization and plot… He is spot on 95% of the time! I thought his TOS novel Ex Machina and NG’s The Buried Age were both a top notch, fun, fast and furious read… I could not put them down!

He knows his TREK lore. His books are well worth your time and money!

It wouldn’t hurt to read the Titan series and the TNG andDS9-relaunch novels that run up to the Destiny trilogy.

Characters have developed beyond their portrayal on screen, some significantly. In particular, Ezri’s seemingly rapid ascension to a captaincy is depicted in the DS9 books. LIkewise, the Borg are not quite what they used to be, a development outlined in the TNG books.

I’ve no problem with any of this. People change and stuff happens. Actions have consequences. (As far as I’m concerned, that last is the keynote of recent Trek books.)

2 – print will never be dead, as long as human beings continue to have opposable thumbs.

Ah… these bitter Trekkies, who cling to their phasers and their canon, with antipathy towards those whose visions of the Trek universe are not like theirs….

By the way, I love the collective works of Carey, Friedman, McIntyre and PAD.

And I LOVE the smell of Phaser Coolant in the morning!

Most Trek tie in novels read like glorified fanfic. The “what ifs” and “wouldn’t it be cools” are enjoying for a fan but rarely if ever move you on an intellectual or substantively emotional level. The only Trek writer I respect is the guy who wrote “the Final Reflection”- John Ford. That book is so immersive,unique, and intellectually provocative that you put it down regretfully.

Valar1, #41, said:

“… (Trek novels) rarely if ever move you on an intellectual or substantively emotional level…”

And the moveis and TV shows do?

Not every Trek novel I’ve read hit the mark, but almost all were at least on a par with the screen version in terms of making me think and feel. Certainly, they are far above the level of fanfic.

The Trek world of fiction is a character driven world that just happens to be set 3 and 4 centuries in the future. (If we were attracted solely by the imagined technology, the frequent time travel events would fall flat.)

Most episodes and most movies appeal to us not because they are great literature, but because they depict incidents from the lives of people we care about. Some do it better than others. Ditto the novels.

in other words, we watch the shows and the movies for the same reason we read the books: We care about these people and we want to see what happens.

And, what happens takes place in a dynamic universe in which things and people change. They are not in stasis, doomed to behave exactly as they did before, as some here apparently would like.

The novels are simply continuations of those characters’ lives in print, rather than digital, form. They have as much legitimacy as anything done for TV or film.

Just think of the Trek novels as the episodes that would have aired if each series had been renewed for another 3 or 4 years.

Print is not dead, just not as fast as an Xbox or PC. Reading Star Trek or any novel is mostly about entertainment , if you want intellectual or emotional movement take a class. Trek started as a 16 page screenplay idea to a bunch of no imagination television producers and executives. Look at how far this story has travelled and evolved. I was there at the beginning, that first night in 1966 and i have enjoyed Star Trek is all it’s forms. Star Trek is just as fun today. David Mack is a good writer, his Vanguard series is outstanding, takes you back to the beginning, the original time, but with a larger take. I look forward to this new series.

You stupid Trekkies. Don’t you have anything better to do besides nit-pick Star Trek novels in your mom’s basement all day. All of you post-college virgins should get a life! I

Instead of dissecting someone’s work, why dont you go do something worthwhile and go try to lose your virginities before you turn 40. Or better yet, why don’t you try to write a Trek novel of your own. Let’s see your work get featured on this site for a change.

yo #17
diane carey is a gifted writer, i think. outside of trek, she’s outwritten rowlings and was quite first to do by many years.
but as with most of you armchair critics, i look forward to your stellar novels. can’t wait.
dick.

#35: Dax on a ship that’s testing a new propulsion system? Now why does that sound so familiar?

Why do people think the Trek books can’t be criticized?

What makes them so special? Nothing.

Some are great. Some are middling. Some are absolute crap.

Just like everything else.

– When i heard the first rumors about the making of d.s.-9…i thought that the series is about a starbase with a whole..fleet of ENTERPRISE – D like starships infiltrated into a unknown space where is a war with borgs leaded by Locutus..When i heared the first rumors about VOYAGER..i thought that the show is about a new starship..wich explores a distant zone into a near future from TNG. era.. S.T ENTERPRISE -rumors where about exploring the past of klingons..vulcans ..and romulans..and the FEDERATION past..not about the xindi race or..another new (old races)..

#42- I would say that most Trek tv and films don’t challenge the intellect too much, but sometimes they really hit it out of the park. Personally, I can think of some TOS and TNG episodes that really expanded my way of thinking- as a kid I would watch stuff like “A Private Little War” and later get the allegory to Vietnam, or as an adult watch “Darmok” and be moved by the concept of communication and how important something that simple is. Rarely, and boy have a read a ton of Trek tie-in books, rarely has a Trek novel ever had that affect on me.

I don’t see what everyone is complaining about in regards to “Before Dishonor”, ok yes they killed off Janeway (or did they), but they brought a new dimension to the borg, yes the borg absorbed pluto but they added in current affairs with regard to pluto being a planet/planetoid/dwarf planet or plutoid.

The TNG relaunch books have been amazing, and personally I think the Borg is the best alien in the series.

Someone made a comment that “so long as they dont kill Troy”, why not kill her? she is quite possibly the most useless character in all of Trek.

I cant be the only one that liked Before Dishonor and Im looking forward to Greater than the Sum which is another Borg book from the synopsis and this trilogy sounds good too, yes because it has the borg in it.

I know plenty of people that have read and liked Before Dishonor and the rest of the TNG relaunch books, I know plenty that have downloaded it to their sony reader (like me) or kindle or some other device and I dont know anyone who hated it.

As for Ezri, no clue how she became captain but DS9 was boring personally so I dont care, but yes characters can change and grow from how they originally were on screen.

Keep the books coming, keep the borg alive, the best Trek baddie, kill troy and make more Voyager books, this is not some 40 year old virgin asking but someone who holds down 3 jobs and is stressed to hell, going though divorce and relocating countries and the only peace of mind i get in my cr@ppy life is to read a little trek when I cant sleep from too much work.
The current trek books are wonderful and if you dont like the Borg, dont read Borg based stories.