2010 Pocket schedule

Okay, let's take a look at the novels in the schedule, as reported by TrekMovie.com:

January
Sorrows of Empire by David Mack

This is something we haven't really had before -- an expansion of a previously published novella. It's an interesting idea, but with the one-a-month schedule, I'm not sure it's a good one. Still... it's David Mack.

February
Inception by S.D. Perry

Kirk and Spock and Carole Marcus and Leila Kalomi, early in their careers. It could be argued that this is fanwank/gap-filling, but not by me. I want to keep getting stories about the original gang, but I don't need more generic five year mission stories.

March
Treason by Peter David (mass market reprint)

Just a new Frontier reprint? Hello? My birthday is in March. Give me something here.

April
The Children of Kings by Dave Stern

A Pike story. Good. Using Pike is a another good way to explore the TOS era without giving us something we've already seen too many times. We only have a few novels and the Marvel Early Voyages comics, so this is welcome.

Oh, and speaking of Pike... what happened to Mike Barr's The Millennium Bloom?

May
Unspoken Truth by Margaret Wander Bonanno

Saavik after Star Trek IV? This is long, long overdue. The most memorable and intriguing new character from the six TOS movies has always been the opportunity people keep missing. Even the movies dropped the ball, not least by miscasting Saavik after Alley moved on. We only have a few novel appearances and some DC comics stories. (Will the book be consistent with what's been established in the handful of other books that deal with Saavik?)

June (possibly July)
Untitled New Frontier by Peter David [trade paperback]

Ho hum.

June
Refugees by Alan Dean Foster

The first novel to be set in the continuity of the new movie. I suspect one of two things will happen with this and the following books: they will be relentlessly generic Star Trek stories that don't really build on much from the movie, or they will be contradicted in several ways by the next movie. I'm mildly curious but keeping my expectations low. As for Foster, as much as I liked the work he did expanding the animated episode stories for the Star Trek Logs, I was never a big fan of his prose style.

July
Seek a Newer World by Christopher Bennett

Okay, this intrigues me. Bennett's first novel was the excellent Ex Machina, which examined the ways the first Star Trek motion picture changed the characters. Seeing what he can do with the new movie's changes on the characters is a nice parallel.

August
More Beautiful than Death by David Mack

David Mack... yeah, this intrigues me too.

September
Untitled 4th New Star Trek Movie era book

Obviously too early to tell.

October
Seize the Fire (TITAN) by Michael Martin

And now we're into the Typhon Pact stuff. I am interested in the idea of a continuing storyline across the series; I just hope there's nothing like the TNG relaunch's editorial problems. And though I liked some of the early Mangels and Martin books like The Sundered, I've been a lot less impressed by some of their more recent work. Martin solo... could be better, could be worse.

November
Zero Sum Game (AVENTINE) by David Mack

This, of course, I am interested in.

December
The Rough Beasts of Empire (DS9) by David R. George III

This too. DRG3 doing DS9, what's not to like? Well, aside from jumping ahead a few years so this can be a Typhon Pact story. Is this an aberration, and later books will return where The Soul Key and Never Ending Sacrifice leave off, or is it a relaunch of the relaunch, potetnially leaving Marco Palmieri's unfinished storylines behind? I'll be peeved if it's the latter.

January 2011
Path of Disharmony (TNG) by Dayton Ward

Dayton Ward. That's good news too. More Typhon Pact business. If we're lucky, though, this will either wrap the Typhon storyline up, or at least be the last book before we get a run of something else for a few months.

So, for the year, we get basically three things: TOS, JJ TOS, and Typhon Pact (plus a New Frontier novel). The Typhon storyline at least allows us some variety by giving us Titan, Aventine, DS9, and TNG. But no Voyager, no Enterprise, no Vanguard. No exciting return of Gorkon/Klingon Empire or Starfleet Corps of Engineers. Which reminds me, no reported mention of ebooks. I'm still not crazy about them as a format, but does the fact that Pocket tried too soon with original ebooks mean that it shouldn't bother now that the Kindle and other readers are really catching on?