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Pocket Books Preview: 2007

By Jacqueline Bundy
Posted at July 23, 2006 - 3:52 PM GMT

Pocket Books Preview 2007 Releases By Jackie Bundy

In addition to giving those attending Shore Leave a rundown on what's coming up in Star Trek fiction for the remainder of this year, information about some of the titles planned for 2007 was also presented by Pocket Books editors Marco Palmieri, Margaret Clark, Elisa J. Kassin, and freelance editor Keith R.A. DeCandido.

Please note that this schedule is subject to change and additions. This is not a complete schedule of everything that's going to be available in Trek fiction in 2007 and some of the below contains spoilers for titles currently available.


January of 2007 will bring the mass-market paperback reprint of the New Frontier title Missing in Action by Peter David. The hardcover edition of Missing in Action was released this past February. January will also bring the final title in the Crucible trilogy, The Star to Every Wandering by David R. George III, which will bring the 40th anniversary celebration to a close.

Two titles that have generated a lot of excited chatter among fans are Mirror Universe Volume 1: Glass Empires and Mirror Universe Volume 2: Obsidian Alliances. Set to be released in consecutive months in February (Volume 1) and March (Volume 2) these two trade paperback titles will each contain 3 novels set in the Mirror Universe.

Mirror Universe: Glass Empires will contain an Enterprise novel by Mike Sussman, with Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore, an Original series tale by David Mack and a TNG story by Greg Cox. Mirror Universe: Obsidian Alliances will offer a New Frontier book by Peter David, a Voyager story by Keith R.A. DeCandido and a Deep Space Nine tale from new author Sarah Shaw.

February will also bring Book 2 in TOS: Errand of Fury: Demands of Honor by Kevin Ryan, which will be a mass-market paperback.

In March it is full speed ahead with the new direction for Enterprise fiction as developed by Margaret Clark with the release of The Good that Men Do by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin. Margaret Clark is the editor at Pocket who oversees the Enterprise fiction, and like many fans she was very dissatisfied with the final episode of Enterprise, "These Are the Voyages...", particularly the death of Charles Tucker III (Trip). Unlike the rest of us, however, Margaret is in a position to do something about it.

"Thinking like a Star Trek editor you go, wait a minute, if we do this, this and this we can write part two and bring Trip back. The Good that Men Do is the second part of that show ("These Are the Voyages...") and where we find out what actually happened to Trip," stated Clark.

"Go back and watch the episode and there's a whole set-up there for why Trip decided that he had to die, and it leads into what Manny Coto wanted to do if there had been another season."

When the idea first struck Clark, she realized that the concept needed to be set up first, so she asked Mangels and Martin to make some last minute changes to their Enterprise novel Last Full Measure (May 2006).

"Last Full Measure had a prologue and afterward that I asked Mike and Andy to write. I told them I was going to ask them to do something that was going to drive the entire Enterprise community crazy. We find out in Last Full Measure that Trip is still alive and that's he's been hiding his identity for over 100 years."

April will bring the next title in the ongoing saga of Deep Space Nine with the post-finale title Fearful Symmetry by new author Leanna Morrow. Marco Palmieri, who edits the DS9 fiction, has shown a real knack over the years for finding fresh new writing talent.

Fearful Symmetry will be a direct follow-up to Warpath by David Mack (April 2006) and will feature two covers. The book is being packaged as a two-in-one flip book with two parallel narratives intersecting at various points in the story so that when you're finished reading one you flip it over to read the other.

Explaining his reasoning behind the unusual packaging concept Palmieri explained, "Warpath ends with the discovery that Iliana Ghemor is back. Iliana is the Cardassian agent who was surgically altered to look like Kira so you've already got the two Kira's situation. You've also got the situation that Iliana has crossed over to the Mirror Universe and replaced the Intendent. So with those factors in place it hit me one day that this is the perfect situation to do one of the books I always hated when I was younger, a flippable two-in-one book. But it's the kind of situation where the format was just perfectly suited to the subject matter."

In May the final volume of the Vulcan's Soul trilogy Epiphany by Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz will be released as a hardcover along with the mass-market reprint of Exiles (June 2006). Also in May the first five tales in the post-finale Deep Space Nine fiction will be collected together in Twist of Faith a trade paperback omnibus edition that will include Avatar Books 1 & 2 by S.D. Perry, Abyss by David Weddle and Jeffrey Lang, Demon's of Air and Darkness and Horn & Ivory by Keith R. A. DeCandido.

June will bring the next Star Trek Vanguard mass-market paperback title Reap the Whirlwind by David Mack. The next Star Trek Titan novel Sword of Damocles by Geoffrey Thorne will be released next July and the cover will feature the first glimpse of the U.S.S. Titan, which was designed by Sean Tourangeau of Colorado Springs, Colorado, the winner of the Starship Titan Design Contest.

August will bring the 10th volume of the Strange New Worlds anthology edited by Dean Wesley Smith, with Elisa J. Kassin & Paula M. Block. Pocket is currently accepting submissions for this volume through October 2, 2006. Complete contest rules and submission guidelines can be found in Strange New Worlds Volume 9.

2007 is the 20th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Pocket will be commemorating the milestone with some special titles beginning in August with The Buried Age by Christopher L. Bennett. A Lost Era tale, The Buried Age will tell the story of what was happening in Picard's life in the eight years between the destruction of the Stargazer and Picard's taking command of the Enterprise-D.

September will bring the mass-market reprint of Death in Winter by Michael Jan Friedman and the first of three TNG novels set after Star Trek: Nemesis that will showcase the Enterprise-E's new crew beginning with the mass-market paperback title Resistance by J.M. Dillard.

Following in October will be the mass-market paperback Q & A by Keith R.A. DeCandido and a TNG trade paperback short story anthology The Sky's the Limit, edited by Marco Palmieri. In November, an as yet untitled TNG novel by Peter David is planned and a TNG eBook mini-series is planned for fall of 2007 although no information is yet available on that project.

As I stated earlier, this is by no means everything that Pocket is planning for Star Trek fiction in 2007. The above does not reflect the plans for the Star Trek Corps of Engineers series and other eBook series; separate reports on those projects will be coming soon.


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Jacqueline Bundy reviews Star Trek books for the Trek Nation, writes monthly columns for the TrekWeb newsletter and the Star Trek Galactic News, and hosts the Yahoo Star Trek Books Group weekly chat.

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