2013 Star Trek Book Preview: ‘Into Darkness’ Novel (& Audio) + 6 TOS books + 24th Cent. Mini-series & more

With the current year rounding out, TrekMovie begins looking ahead to the Trek fiction schedule coming from Simon and Schuster. 2013 in Star Trek books will include the novelization of Star Trek Into Darkness along with a heavy emphasis of books set in the TOS era, but Enterprise is also featured and there is a big mini-series set for the fall. Get all the details (and some covers) below

 

2013 STAR TREK NOVELS PREVIEW

2013 is, predictably, Original Series heavy, with fully nearly half of the anticipated releases set in the prime TOS timeline. Each of the TOS stories are standalones, so, while they may from time to time reference other novel events, readers have no need to be current on the recent Original Series releases to enjoy the stories

The big event of the year, aside from Foster’s novelization of Star Trek Into Darkness will be the mini-series event running under the banner of “The Fall”. It kicks off in September with a Deep Space Nine centered story, and progresses through the January release. While the Titan series will get some face time this year, there will be no new Voyager novel until next year; that according to current Voyager relaunch author Kirsten Beyer.

Please note that the following listing is for narrative fiction to be published by one of Simon and Schuster’s imprints, and does not include any technical manuals, resource guides, or similar publications. All titles are available as massmarket paperback and e-book except when otherwise noted.


JANUARY
(Street Date: December 26, 2012)

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Cold Equations "The Body Electric"
by David Mack

Wesley Crusher, a full fledged Traveler, enlists the aid of Captain Picard and the Enterprise crew to stop a planet-sized machine of unimaginable power. It’s goal, destroy all life in the galaxy. But Picard cannot stop the beserker alone, and with time running out, there is only one person to whom he can turn.

FEBRUARY
(Street Date: January 28, 2013)

Star Trek: The Original Series – "Allegiance in Exile"
by David R. George III

A rich, fertile, temperate planet with no life signs, but with the evidence of past life attracts the attention of Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise, but evidence of sabotage leaves the Enterprise crew seeking answers, and exploring the possibility of a new alien threat.

MARCH
(Street Date: February 26, 2013)

Star Trek: The Original Series – "Devil’s Bargain"
by Tony Daniel

When a Federation colony faces an extinction-level event, an irrational desire to remain behind prompts Spock to suggest an unorthodox alliance to resolve the crisis. The Horta appear to figure in this story, if the author’s online comments are to be taken at face value.

APRIL E-BOOK EXCLUSIVE
(Street Date: March 25, 2013)

Star Trek: The Next Generation – "The Stuff of Dreams"
by James Swallow

When Captain Picard is summoned back to the Nexus, he and his crew become embroiled in a desperate plot to rewrite history, no matter what the cost. According to the author, the story picks up a dangling narrative thread left over from Generations. It is Picard centric, and follows on from the conclusion of the Cold Equations trilogy.

[NO COVER YET]

APRIL
(Street Date: March 26, 2013)

Star Trek: The Original Series – "The Weight of Worlds"
by Greg Cox

An extra-galactic threat brings Kirk, Spock, and Sulu to a remote colony; but the entire Federation may be at risk from the ways of a people who are seeking starships and opening dimensional gateways to get what they want. The current publicity blurb mentions the name of the threat as the Coven, but author Greg Cox states that the name was from an early draft, and that the name, as such, does not appear in the final book.

[NO COVER YET]

MAY
(Street Date: April 30, 2013)

Star Trek: The Original Series -"The Folded World"
by Jeff Mariotte

The Enterprise responds to a Starfleet vessel’s distress call, only to find it trapped (along with many others) in an odd spatial distortion which appears, from the outside at least, to have a single enormous vessel at its center.

MAY
(Street Date: No later than May 21, 2013)

Star Trek Into Darkness  (Hardcover & Audiobook)
by Alan Dean Foster (based on script by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof)

Hardcover from Gallery Books, novelization of feature film "Star Trek Into Darkness," novel will also be released as an audiobook. Narrator has not yet been announced.

[NO COVER YET]

JUNE
(Street Date: May 28, 2013)

Star Trek: The Original Series – "The Shocks of Adversity"
by William Leisner

The Enterprise is attacked while making contact with the Goeg Domain, a political union that, on the surface, seems similar to the Federation. The Goeg offers to help by assisting the Enterprise in her repairs so that she can make the voyage back to Federation space. However, the crew soon learns that there are some pretty big differences between the Federation and the Goeg Domain, but it may be too late, because the Domain’s enemies are coming again, and Kirk may have parked his ship on the wrong side of the lines.

[NO COVER YET]

JULY
(Street Date: June 25, 2013)

Star Trek: Enterprise – Rise of the Federation – "A Choice of Futures"
by Christopher L. Bennett

In what is possibly the first in a series, the formational years of the Federation will be explored. The action will pick up approximately a year after the end of the Romulan War, and will explore the evolution of the Federation and Starfleet from its nascent state in Enterprise to its more fully realized form in the Original Series. This book won’t cover nearly that length of time, however. Keep your eyes peeled to TrekMovie.com for our forthcoming interview with the author.

[NO COVER YET]

AUGUST
(Street Date: July 30, 2013)

Star Trek: The Original Series – "From History’s Shadow"
by Dayton Ward

Set after the events of the episode “Assignment: Earth”, the August novel involves a pair of space/time travelers who have been busy with some nefarious business back in 1968. In spite of the fact that Gary Seven won’t appear, author Dayton Ward stated that Teri Garr, circa 1968, was envisioned to play a role in the story – leading to the conclusion that Roberta Lincoln will be present.

[NO COVER YET]

AUGUST – YOUNG ADULT
(Street Date: August 27, 2013)

Star Trek – Starfleet Academy – Title TBA
Author TBA

Six months after Kirk (of the new continuity) joins Starfleet Academy, he is still doing things his way, but the Academy is showing him how to transform his headstrong manner into leadership skills. Given the fact that this particular installment of the Academy story seems to be backpedling in time (the previous book was set two years into his Academy stay), and taking into account the lack of a title or author, this particular story description should be taken with a grain of salt.

[NO COVER OR PRE-ORDER YET]

THE FALL MINI-SERIES

Simon and Schuster’s current digital catalog entry for The Fall states: “The Federation is rocked to its core as the Typhon Pact is suspected of being behind a barbarous act that shatters the fragile peace of the Alpha Quadrant.” The five book mini-series takes place over a sixty day period, but, according to the catalog entry, it is not necessary to read each novel to follow the storyline, which involves all aspects of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine universes.

The remainder of the announced fiction schedule is filled with the installments of this series. While specific setting information is currently avaliable on only two of the books, Pocket has shared with us the authors and tentative titles of the entire series. Note that the street dates provided by Pocket appear to be placeholder dates, as the month’s new release is usually formally ‘streeted’ on the last Tuesday of the preceding month.

SEPTEMBER
(Street Date: August 27, 2013)

Star Trek – The Fall – “Revelations and Dust”
by David R. George III

Deep Space Nine centered opener to the five part mini-series.

OCTOBER
(Street Date: October 1, 2013)

Star Trek – The Fall – “The Crimson Shadow”
by Una McCormack

NOVEMBER
(Street Date: November 1, 2013)

Star Trek – The Fall – “A Ceremony of Losses”
by David Mack

DECEMBER
(Street Date: December 1, 2013)

Star Trek – The Fall – "The Poisoned Chalice”
by James Swallow

Titan centered second novel of the five part mini-series

JANUARY 2014
(Street Date: January 1, 2014)

Star Trek – The Fall – “Peaceable Kingdoms”
by Dayton Ward

[NO COVERS YET…ONLY FIRST TITLE AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER]


 

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Folded world is the pick here

I hope they’ll get Zachary Quinto to narrate the Star Trek Into Darkness audiobook. He did a great job last time.

That is a year of TOS to be sure.

Definitely reading “The Weight of Worlds” and Rise of the Federation – “A Choice of Futures.” Still need to read The Romulan War, first

Haven’t read ST fiction in some time. Had there been quite a dry spell in TOS novels?

This article is putting me in to the mood. Now, to find time….

No Voyager books next year?

Honestly not sure, Obsidian. Maybe this is standard practice. I’m just now realizing it if so, haha.

A couple of the TOS novels sound good; interested in the Rise of the Federation thing too.

I could care less about TOS.

Most of us posting on a Star Trek website could, I imagine.

Sounds like a good lineup. Well-sounding TOS storylines plus cant wait on Typhoon-Pact progress, hope the Mack story will be a Cpt. Dax novel…

I miss the days when you could buy the latest Star Trek novel at the local drugstore, or grocery chain. Now you can only get them at high-end bookstores. Just wish they were a little more mainstream like they used to be.

I’ve been finding Trek novels at my local Walmart(s), grocery stores and even the CVS drugstore in fairly consistent fashion since the 2009 movie. Guess it just depends on what sells at the stores in your area.

Alan Dean Foster. That still freaks me out!!

Yay an ENT book :)

Weren’t there novels set in the JJ-verse that were put on hold 3 years ago so they could come out when the sequel did? So they’re still not coming out, even in a new movie year?

Nollaig shona dhaoibh

“Star Trek: The Original Series – “Allegiance in Exile”
by David R. George III” – this one looks the most interesting of all of them. ” Star Trek: Enterprise – Rise of the Federation – “A Choice of Futures”
by Christopher L. Bennett” – I hope this is better than the ‘ROMULAN WAR’ books. Very disappointed in those.
Hope ADF does a better job on Star Trek Into Darkness than he did on STAR TREK. That was a waste of paper and ink. So much was different and/or left out it read like it was from an early script. There was no additional exposition or insight as usually is given in novelizations of movie.

ADF? why??? Wasn’t Peter David available?

@17

Translation “happy Christmas
:)

New TOS novels look interesting to me. I’d like new comicbooks, too.

Please tell me that not all of the TOS novels take place during Kirk’s historic, five-year mission. Kirk commanded the Enterprise for 30 years (“ST Generations”), so we have a wide time span for new stories. It seems that most recent TOS novels take place between years 2268-2270. I hear it’s because this time period sells well, but the covers don’t necessarily reflect this time period to help increase the books’ sales.

I really like the Cover of “The Folded World”! The Story sound god too.

Any chance that the Titan series will be made available as an audiobook in English? They are available on iTunes but only in German. Frakes (and McFadden and deLancie) did a fantastic job of reading Trek novels in the 90’s. Id buy them all.

#2

I also hope they get ZQ for the audiobook, he was a fantastic narrator.

Unfortunately the only audiobook is for the movie adaptation. The last Trek audiobook was for the last adaptation. S&S Audio have essentially stopped doing Trek books for the most part

Keep bringing on the TOS books! Sometimes the new TNG “novel cannon” seems to be confusing. One set says Data returns one way, the other a different way…just odd.

I do love folks bashing the new trek, yet staying kinda silent on just how rotten and violent a world the new “continuation” books of the post nemesis time line are. Tons of wars, folks blowing things up, whole worlds dying, space monsters a plenty. Oh well.

Cold Equations: Book III has already been released…as I received it and Books I-II as a Christmas gift yesterday. So unless my wife is a time traveler… ;)

If you look pocket releases books on the last tuesday of each month but consider those to be the releases for the following month so Cold Equations is their January 2013 book so we stick with their definition. But we also included the first book of 2014 which actually will be released in the last week of 2013.

Sometimes the books come out a bit earlier as well but again the above schedule is how Pocket/S&S see their 2013 schedule

No “Making of” or “Art of” books for STID???

22–I agree, It would be nice to see more original series books that take place in the period between TMP and TWOK (about 10 years worth of stories there). Also, there is about a 7 to 8 year gap between Star Trek V and VI. There have been very few books that cover the mission of the Enterprise-A. There are far more stories during the 5 year mission then could possible ever fit in 5 years, yet, few books that cover those 2 periods.

27–The continuities of the novels and the comic books (both of which have Data’s return occur differently) are typically separate from one another. I sort of made a conscious choice to follow the novels because I like to read books. However, there does seem an effort on the part of the authors of the novels to take some of what occurred in the “Countdown” comics into account (i.e. that Data does return, Captain Picard is considering diplomacy when he leaves the Enterprise, and I noted before Captain Sisko made a reference to what would happen if the wormhole created by the Breen were to take place in a star–I believe foreshadowing Red Matter).

16–Paramount and/or Pocketbooks put those on hold probably because they wanted to make sure it did not contradict what the next film would portray (I’m not sure if that was confirmed or not). It’s possible the Star Trek Into Darkness makes the stories in those novels impossible. I still hope that whatever is contradicted can be revised and the books released, but it looks like if that happens, it won’t be until next year. Or they may never be released.

I am not surprised the first half of the year is heavy on the original series. It’s nice to see Deep Space Nine and Enterprise getting some stories (I honestly thought the way they abruptly ended the Romulan War books, that Enterprise was done). BTW, I’ve noted ad nauseum that a Tales of the Romulan Wars would be welcome to fill in what was missing in the novels.

Yay! Another ENT book :D i hope they will tell us how Trip survived XD

There are certainly some unique books coming out next year. A craft book. A cross- stitch book. I am looking most forward to the Star Trek and History book. http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-History-Wiley-Culture/dp/1118167635/ref=sr_1_17?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356740413&sr=1-17&keywords=star+trek

THE FOLDED WORLD looks really good. I’ll pick that one up for sure.

To 29. Anthony Pascale:

Is the publisher considering re-releasing audiobooks that were available on tape on MP3s thru Audible.com, iTunes, Amazon, or any outlet? There are so many that I have on tape that I’d buy in a heartbeat if they were efiles such as TNG: The Devil’s Heart, TNG: Dark Mirror, TNG: Reunion, and several others. If they are already recorded, what’s the cost associated in converting them to efiles? Can’t be much and should be well worth it.

TCal

good question. Next chance i get i will ask them

Audible already has many of those older audiobook titles available:

http://www.audible.com/search/ref=sr_pg_?advsearchKeywords=star+trek&searchPage=1