If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about Jean Luc Picard, you’re in luck: you’ll be able to read his autobiography later this year. We also have news about the first book tied into Star Trek: Discovery.
Autobiography of Picard coming this fall
Titan Books has announced that they are following up with last year’s “Autobiography of James T. Kirk: The Story of Starfleet’s Greatest Captain” with a new book, “The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard: The Story of One of Starfleet’s Most Inspirational Captains.” Like the Kirk book, this bio about the Star Trek: The Next Generation’s captain will be written from an in-universe perspective. Returning to pen the book is David A. Goodman, who wrote the Kirk book and Titan’s in-universe history book “Federation: The First 150 Years.” As a life-long fan, Goodman is well-versed in Trek lore and served both as a writer and producer on Star Trek: Enterprise and as a writer/producer for Futurama, where he scripted the love-letter-to-Trek episode “Where No Fan Has Gone Before.”
Cover for Jean-Luc Picard bio coming this fall
Here is the official description:
The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard is an in-world memoir chronicling the story of one of the most celebrated names in Starfleet history. His extraordinary life and career makes for dramatic reading: court martials, unrequited love, his capture and torture at the hand of the Cardassians, his assimilation with the Borg and countless other encounters as captain of the celebrated Starship Enterprise.
“The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard” will be released in hardcover this fall with a retail price of $24.99.
First Discovery Book Gets A Title
As previously reported, David Mack will be writing the first novel tie-in to the upcoming CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery. Mack has now updated his website with a title for the book which is Star Trek: Discovery – Desperate Hours. His site lists the date of the book as January 2018, however Mack tells TrekMovie this is only a guess and that for now all he knows for sure is the book will come out after the premiere of the show. As of now there is no description or cover, but you can already pre-order the Kindle edition at Amazon.
Out now or soon in Star Trek books
Two novels have been released so far this year, Star Trek: The Next Generation book “Headlong Flight” by Dayton Ward and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel “The Long Mirage” by David R. George III. Later this month, Pocket will release the next book in their Star Trek Section 31 series, “Control” by David Mack.
Star Trek novels from the first quarter of 2017
Just released in non-fiction is the fun hardcover book “Star Trek Cats” written and illustrated by Jenny Parks, described as a “astonishingly vivid homage to the original Star Trek series with an unexpected twist: a cast of cats.”
The book you never knew you needed – Star Trek: Cats – out now
Also of interest to Star Trek fans is the memoir by Oscar and Emmy-winning Make-up designer Michael Westmore, titled “Makeup Man – From Rocky to Star Trek The Amazing Creations of Hollywood’s Michael Westmore.” The book has just been released this week and features many photos from behind the scenes on Star Trek and a forward by Patrick Stewart.
See our books category for TrekMovie’s news and reviews of Star Trek books.
I tried to read the ‘Biography of James Kirk’ and it was terrible. An interesting concept but rehashes of 40 year old tv episodes just did not work.
“I had my first sip of Earl Grey when I was eleven…”
I hated “The Autobiography of James T. Kirk”! The author knows a lot of facts about Jim Kirk but understands nothing of his heart or soul. The Kirk in this book is full of angst, paralyzed by self-doubt, and constantly tortured by his lack of a stable romantic relationship. He’s also a mean-spirited jerk who tries to break up OTHER people’s romantic relationships because he has none of his own and is jealous of theirs. That doesn’t sound like Kirk to me!
Goodman may be a Star Trek “expert,” but he doesn’t understand Kirk at all. Here’s hoping he actually GETS Picard … but if I were you, I wouldn’t pre-order that book.
Oh well, I guess I can’t please everyone. :)
Mr. Goodman,
Haven’t read the Kirk book and so can’t comment. But if you had never done anything else, my eternal thanks for WNGHGB. Just thinking about it makes me want to laugh, and especially these days, that’s priceless.
That’s WNFHGB, dammit! Thanks, Mellvar!
That’s Melllvar, dammit. ;)
I found it an entertaining read, myself.
Thanks Paul, Michael and Douglass! And Melllvar…
Paralyzed by self-doubt ant constantly tortured by his lack of a stable romantic relationship? That sounds a lot like Kirk as presented in D.R.George’s Crucible trilogy, especially the third book. It’s nothing but “Waaah, I miss Edith / Antonia / Edith / Antonia / Edith…” ;)
I haven’t read that trilogy, but it sounds like I surely don’t want to.
The man I saw prowling the bridge of the Enterprise was a bold and confident man who absolutely adored being the captain of the ship. He was a tactical genius and a persuasive orator. He was a man who treated his crew like family and who was, in turn, adored by them and given everything they have. Unfortunately, that man was not present in Goodman’s book, and it sounds as if he’s not in George’s either…
Don’t get me wrong, those three books are a majestic work, with vibrant character psychology. Kirk’s middle age crisis is so believable it’s scary – and the notion that losing Edith left him unable to truly love anybody else has some rather surprising implications, if you think about it in the context of the show. DRG3’s Kirk is in no way a weakling; he’s still a brilliant leader and tactical genius, but somewhere under all that, he is also a tortured, haunted man. It was an interesting perspective on a familiar character. Not necessarily a perspective I agree with, but interesting nonetheless.
(Still I enjoyed the McCoy book a lot more than the Kirk one.)
What is the McCoy book? Have not read much Trek lit since my youth reading Blish, Dean Foster, and a few assorted sundries, but McCoy is my favorite character in Trek, so I’d love to read backstory if it is done well.
I’ll try to sum it up. The DRG3’s “Crucible” trilogy is based around the events of City on the Edge of Forever and exploring the influence it had on the lives of the Big Three. Each book follows one of the characters. The first book is McCoy (Provenance of Shadows), the second Spock (The Fire and The Rose), and the third is Kirk (The Star to Every Wandering). DRG3’s writing is quite somber (if somewhat lacking in the aspect of action and adventure), stuffed with introspective, dripping with psychology and relationships.
The first book actually follows *two* parallel McCoys: the one that got rescued from the past, and the one that got stuck in 1930s forever. Their story is told side by side for most of the book, and it spans several decades. Much of it is conjecture, of course, it is quite neatly woven around all the important events and facts of Star Trek universe, not contradicting anything, even picking up several episodes and following up on them to let us see what happened “off-screen”. McCoy’s daughter shows up for a few pages, too.
The second book is based around (and explaining the reason for) Spock’s Kolinahr training, and his relationship with his parents. The third book’s focal point is Kirk’s encounter with Nexus in the fallout of his middle-age crisis, and his attempts to get his life going once again. While interesting on their own, I found them nowhere as involving as the first book. Luckily, each one can be read separately; all you need to follow the story is the intimate knowledge of the show.
I read the Kirk autobiography and wasn’t impressed. Read it in one sitting, but wasn’t able to recall anything of any significance that I hadn’t already read, or seen before. It does offer a different perspective about his past missions, but if I didn’t know any better I would think it was written by William Shatner- due to the the self-righteous portrayal of Kirk in the book.
Well, thanks for reading it anyway. :)
I should at least comment that it was written well- which it was. I would recommend it to fans who don’t already know the exploits of Captain Kirk. The fact that I read it in one sitting was because how smoothly the narrative flowed, but for a hardcore Trekker, such as myself, there was very little I hadn’t already read, or seen before. That being said, it goes great with my collection, and I will likely purchase Picard’s. He’s always been a deeper character anyways.
Well, you gave it a chance, that’s all I can ask! And you bought it too!
“written by William Shatner”??? What, like all the books he has had ghost-written by real writers?
The Futurama episode is actually titled “WHERE NO FAN HAS GONE BEFORE”.
Looks interesting. Picard was always my favorite. I really really hope they can convince Patrick Stewart to read the audio version.
If they asked him, I could see him doing it. He has mention in the past that, if it felt right, he would jump back into the role. This would be a great way for that to happen.
Have not read the Kirk book, understanding that is a work of fiction within a science fiction universe, I’d have to wonder how much liberty any author would have to explore the warts of a character when so much of how Trek, the franchise, is tied to a set of rules governing what characters can, and can’t do? If the book is a run-down of the Federations most inspirational captain’s achievements…it might not be all that interesting.
I enjoyed (bar some real niggles that the author threw in) the Kirk bio. So will give this a read :)
Well, I loved The Autobiography of James T. Kirk so I am looking forward to this. Thought it did an excellent job of exploring the character and filling some gaps in the shows and movies.
Now, when does the one for Sisko come out? However, that one should not be an Autobiography, it should obviously be written by Jake.
Thanks for the kind words!
I personally loved the way Star Trek V and all its inconsistencies was explained
Wait, “court martials”? That’s actually a tricky and interesting phrase. The plural should be “courts martial”.
I may pick up that Discovery novel if the show is good. I haven’t read a Trek book in many many years. I used to love the ones that came out in the 80’s. I think between myself and my cousin, we had just about all of them. I still see them in Value Village and it’s fun to look through those great covers.
Uhm, Kirk has *always* been a tortured soul. In one of the first ever episodes, he has a lie-down during the middle of an on-going crisis for Bones to come in with the pep-talk.
The fact that he is internally conflicted does not make him any less of a hero. In fact, the opposite is true; it’s that he can rise above his self-doubt and work through those issues that makes him a hero.
It’s a matter of degree. Kirk has doubts — he’s human — but those doubts don’t own him.
that’s what I was hoping to get across, it worked for some readers, not for others.
I enjoyed the fact that Kirk was willing to let his frailties show in the book. At the risk of making a controversial statement, the autobiography was the first time that Kirk ever felt to me like a real flesh-and-blood human being, even with all the hours of William Shatner and Chris Pine playing him on screen.
thanks Thomas!
Tortured seems a bit strong, but he was conflicted. In the TOS run, he almost always was bemoaning the fact the captain is responsible for his crew, and a couple of episodes took a hard look at that conflict. The movie franchise clearly portrayed an older Kirk where regret was a constant in his life….
There are some great world building in the Kirk autobiography, especially within Starfleet and some “issues” inside it. I wonder how the “non-linear” past of Sisko is going to be dealt with.
Oh good. I can’t wait for the autobiography i which Picard acts out of character throughout the entire thing, skips major notable events in his life to only mention important fanfic connective tissue that the author wants to insert or retcon into popular episodes, and espouse beliefs that the original character never did just to serve as a mouthpiece for the authors political views. Because one volume of that wasn’t enough…
Well, thanks for reading the first one anyway. :)