I mentioned with my Conan post yesterday that I’d been broadening my horizons this year with work in some other science fiction and fantasy sandboxes — and here is some quite fun news indeed that I’ve been sitting on for a while. I am delighted to report that I am writing a Star Trek: Titan novella for electronic release by Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books. Coming soon: Absent Enemies!
The Star Trek: Titan series tells of the adventures of my favorite and yours, William T. Riker, named captain of the Titan back in the final Next Generation movie. He’s joined in the stories by a trusty crew including some familiar TV faces like wife Deanna and the former Voyager officer, Tuvok. There have been several works in the series, written by talented writers including Michael A. Martin, James Swallow, Christopher L. Bennett, Andy Mangels, and Geoffrey Thorne; Titan also appeared prominently in David Mack‘s Destiny trilogy.
My own Absent Enemies picks up in the “present day” of the post-NextGen literature timeline — and it is inspired by and in part picks up on the events of one of my favorite TNG episodes. I won’t say which one yet, but for years, I had thought the episode held the potential for another story to be told — and I’m happy to get to do it here. Riker is my favorite character from what I still think of as the “new crew,” and I’ve been greatly enjoying writing him.
I doubt anyone will be surprised that I’ve been a lifelong Trek fan (just as I’ve been a Wars fan, a Whovian, a Marvel Zombie, etc., etc.); in fact, as I’ve mentioned here on the site, the very first prose fiction pitch I had accepted was years ago for the Starfleet Corps of Engineers series, back during my earliest days writing Star Wars comics. That line folded before the story could come to pass, and I ended up using one of the concepts in Pandemonium, the bonus novella in Lost Tribe of the Sith. Many years have disappeared since then, but not my interest; speaking both as a writer and a fan, I’m pleased to finally be writing a Trek novella after all. (And I’m pretty certain there are a lot more electronic readers out there today!) It doesn’t even feel strange to commute between universes — I’m not even the first guy named J.J. to do so!
For you Trek fans visiting this site for the first time, welcome! While I continue to write the Star Wars material that I’m probably best known for — my Kenobi hardcover releases August 27 — I’ve written a lot of harder science fiction in the Mass Effect and Iron Man realms, and I have just released my first creator-owned SF project, Overdraft: The Orion Offensive, which is now available in ebook and print editions. You can get a taste of the work with the “Human Error,” the prequel short story, which is available for free download through Sunday. I have behind the scenes pages on my site for ever
There’s no release date announced for Absent Enemies, but I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, I can report also my San Diego Comic-Con signings have been set for the Del Rey booth in the Lucasfilm area: 2-3 on Friday and 11:30-12:30 on Saturday. And don’t miss our Star Wars Writers panel at noon on Friday in room 7AB!
Awesome, please give us some continuity nuggets.
Heh! A little early, but here's a little one: we will be seeing other non-Titan TNG crew in it. I'll explain more later.