Fifteen years ago saw the premiere of Harbinger, the first book in the Star Trek Vanguard series, which I co-created with Pocket Books senior editor Marco Palmieri.
What was Star Trek Vanguard? Dayton Ward sums it up thusly:
Vanguard as created by editor Marco Palmieri and author David Mack is a series of books that served as a “literary spin-off” of the original Star Trek television series. Running in parallel with the original show, Vanguard was set aboard a space station in a hotly contested area of space called “the Taurus Reach.”
In the years that followed, I wound up alternating writing privileges on the series with Dayton and his hetero life-mate and frequent writing partner Kevin Dilmore. This, among other things, led to them becoming two of my closest friends, with whom I shared the most artistically satisfying creative endeavor of my career to date.
Marco, who left Simon & Schuster after editing the fourth Vanguard novel, subsequently returned to the saga as an author, contributing the novella “The Ruins of Noble Men” to the Vanguard anthology volume Declassified. And acclaimed international best-selling thriller author James Swallow took Vanguard into the Mirror Universe with his short story “The Black Flag,” in the anthology Shards and Shadows.
Furthermore, we had the amazing good fortune that all of our series’ cover art was created by the brilliantly talented Doug Drexler. Every single one of his covers is worthy of being enlarged to billboard size and plastered onto the side of a skyscraper.
Dayton has done an amazing write-up about Vanguard — what it is, how it came to be, and what it has meant to all of us who were fortunate enough to work on it. I doubt I could improve upon it; I would only end up paraphrasing it. So I’ll just say, go read his excellent tribute to this series we built with love, sweat, and imagination.
If you’ve never read the Star Trek Vanguard saga, here is your guide:
Harbinger – David Mack
Summon the Thunder – Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore
Reap the Whirlwind – David Mack
Open Secrets – Dayton Ward (story by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore)
Precipice – David Mack
Declassified – four novellas by: Dayton Ward; Kevin Dilmore; Marco Palmieri; and David Mack
What Judgments Come – Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore (story by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore and David Mack)
Storming Heaven – David Mack (story by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore and David Mack)
There also are a few additional stories that, while not essential to enjoying the main “saga,” might be of interest:
Distant Early Warning – Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore (a Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers story and Vanguard prequel)
In Tempest’s Wake – Dayton Ward (sort of a coda to the Vanguard series)
“The Black Flag” – James Swallow
(Included in the anthology Star Trek: Mirror Universe – Shards & Shadows)
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ou can also load up on SPOILER-FILLED, behind-the-scenes goodness with my Vanguard Finale page.
Dayton, Kevin, and I have agreed that we have no intention of ever re-opening the toy box that was Star Trek Vanguard. From the outset, the saga had been planned with a clear beginning, middle, and ending, and ultimately we hewed fairly closely to that original plan. What’s more, we ended the saga on our own terms, by design rather than by necessity, a privilege one is rarely afforded in the world of media tie-in writing.
Sometimes I daydream of seeing Vanguard as a new Star Trek TV series. But then I remember that it likely would never be as good on the screen as it is in the theater of my imagination, and I’m content to leave it where it is.
As Pennington wrote at the saga’s end, “Let the world forget; I’ll remember.”
A week from tonight, I’ll be the guest on the next Zoom-powered episode of Russ’s Rockin’ Rollercoaster, an Internet-based half-hour interview/talk show run by my pal Russ Colchamiro.
We’ll talk generally about my writing for science fiction and fantasy, and specifically about my work for Star Trek and my original fantasy series Dark Arts.
If you want to watch the show LIVE and take part in its Q&A portion, you need to register in advance here. You’ll get the viewing link after you sign up. But be chill—the tickets are FREE!
If you miss the live show don’t sweat it; Russ will post it a few days later to YouTube.
I hope to catch some of your crazy cats live on THURSDAY, JULY 30, from 8:00pm – 8:30pm EDT.
Good news, everyone! All eBook versions of two of my many Star Trek novels are on sale to U.S. readers for just $0.99 now through the end of May 2020.
The first title on sale is my Deep Space Nine action-thriller Warpath. From the back cover:
They were created to be killing machines. Highly intelligent, resourceful, and deceptively complex, the Jem’Hadar are a species engineered for war and programmed at the genetic level for one purpose: to fight until death as soldiers of the sprawling stellar empire known as the Dominion. No Jem’Hadar has ever lived thirty years, and not even their masters, the shape-shifting Founders, know what such a creature is capable of becoming were it to be freed of its servitude.
One Founder, however, has dared to wonder.
Appointed by Odo himself to learn peaceful coexistence aboard Deep Space 9™, Taran’atar, an Honored Elder among the Jem’Hadar, had for months been a staunch, if conflicted, ally to the crew of the station, ever struggling to understand the mission on which he was sent … until something went horrifically wrong.
Consumed by self-doubt and an ever-growing rage, Taran’atar has lashed out against those he was sworn to aid. While Captain Kira Nerys and Lieutenant Ro Laren both lie near death aboard DS9, their assailant has taken a hostage and fled into Cardassian space, pursued by Commander Elias Vaughn on the U.S.S. Defiant. But as the hunt unfolds, Taran’atar’s true objective becomes increasingly less certain, as the rogue Jem’Hadar leads the Defiant to a discovery even more shocking than his crime.
The second title on sale is Harbinger, the first volume in the eight-book (plus two eBook novellas) Star Trek Vanguard saga, which I created with editor Marco Palmieri and alternated writing duties with the team of Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore. From the back cover:
Returning from its historic first voyage to the edge of the galaxy, the damaged U.S.S. Enterprise journeys through the Taurus Reach, a vast and little-known region of space in which a new starbase has been unexpectedly established. Puzzled by the Federation’s interest in an area so far from its borders and so near the xenophobic Tholian Assembly, Captain James T. Kirk orders the Enterprise to put in for repairs at the new space station: Starbase 47, also known as Vanguard.
As Kirk ponders the mystery of the enormous base, he begins to suspect that there is much more to Vanguard than meets the eye. It’s a suspicion shared by the Tholians, the Orions, and the Klingon Empire, each of whom believes that there are less than benign motives behind the Federation’s sudden and unexplained desire to explore and colonize the Taurus Reach.
But when a calamity deep within the Reach threatens to compromise Starfleet’s continued presence in the region, Kirk, Spock, and several key specialists from the Enterprise must assist Vanguard’s crew in investigating the cause of the disaster and containing the damage. In the process, they learn the true purpose behind the creation of Vanguard, and what the outcome of its mission may mean for life throughout that part of the galaxy.
This is a great deal on two of my seminal early works. Grab ’em while the grabbing’s good!
#SFWApro
My preliminary schedule for New York Comic Con (NYCC) 2019 includes both panels and signings!
THURSDAY, OCT 312:15 – 1:15 PM
PANEL: Picard 2020: A Literary Retrospective
Veteran authors David Mack and John Jackson Miller look back on the life and career of Starfleet officer Captain Jean-Luc Picard, as depicted in the official Star Trek tie-in novels and comics over the past 15 years.
— Room 1A18
1:30 – 2:30 PM
SIGNING: Panelists of “Picard 2020: A Literary Retrospective”
— Hall 1A, Table AA01
Due to factors beyond my control, this panel and its signing have been canceled, to my great disappointment.
1:30 – 2:30 PM
PANEL: From 1969 to the Future—Stories in Space!
Long before Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, people have been inspired to travel among the stars. Half a century after that historic moment, authors Kass Morgan (The 100, Supernova), Peter F. Hamilton (Salvation Lost), Elizabeth Bear (Ancestral Night), and David Mack (Star Trek, Farscape) blast off to exciting destinations in the universe, accompanied by Maryelizabeth Yturralde (Mysterious Galaxy)!
— Room 1A18
2:45 – 3:45 PM
SIGNING: Panelists, “From 1969 to the Future—Stories in Space!”
— Hall 1A, Table AA01
4:00 – 4:45 PM
SIGNING: STAR TREK AUTHOR
David Mack, Star Trek: The Next Generation – Collateral Damage
— Booth 2128 (Simon & Schuster)
I will also be hanging around the S&S booth on Saturday, October 5, looking to persuade readers to shell out their cash on early-release copies of Collateral Damage. If you’re at the show, come say “hi!”
Big news, Star Trek book fans! Simon & Schuster has nine Trek novel eBooks on sale through January 31, 2019.
First, the five-book miniseries The Fall (about the rise and fall of a shit-talking would-be Federation president with a shady history—I know, not at all topical). This miniseries includes novels written by me, James Swallow, Una McCormack, Dayton Ward, and David R. George III.
And if that’s not enough, you can get the complete four-book Star Trek Seekers series by me, Dayton & Kevin Dilmore, also for just $0.99 each! That’s a hell of a lot of adventure for less than four bucks, kids.
But act fast, kids — this sale ends January 31!
http://www.startrekbooks.com/c/ebookpromoJanuary2019
#SFWApro
I’m proud to announce that my Star Trek Discovery novel Desperate Hours is a finalist for the Dragon Award for Best Media Tie-in Novel!
http://awards.dragoncon.org/2018-ballot/
Also nominated this year in the Best Media Tie-in Novel category are Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray, Before the Storm by Christie Golden, Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson, Fear Itself by James Swallow, and Legacy of Onyx by Matt Forbeck. It’s a formidable field of very talented authors and superlative works.
If you’ve already registered to vote in the Dragon Awards, you should receive a ballot soon, if you haven’t already.
If you would like to cast a vote for this year’s awards (and be able to nominate works for future ballots), you may register until Friday, August 31, at 11:59pm EDT, at this URL:
If you decide to cast a vote in support of Desperate Hours, you will have my deep gratitude. If you want to vote for one of the other works, that’s okay, too. They are all excellent novels, deserving of praise and recognition.
