Before all the moments go asunder…..

So, here we are. The eve of the official release date for Moments Asunder, the first book in the Star Trek: Coda trilogy.

Along with its two companions – James Swallow’s The Ashes of Tomorrow and Oblivion’s Gate by David Mack – this is the culmination of more than two years of planning, plotting, scheming, writing, sweating, agonizing, doubting, cursing, and maybe even a bit of crying. It was a difficult path to navigate for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the sense of responsibility and obligation the three of us felt as we developed the story and then went to our corners to write our books, reconvening as necessary to discuss some plot point or weird idea one of us conjured late some evening. Then came the reading each of our respective manuscripts, poring over page after page to ensure consistency. I’m abolutely certain there’s something in there somewhere missed by at least one of us, but I promise you it wasn’t for lack of trying.

All of that’s done, now, with nothing for us along with our editors to do but wait.

Oh, and perhaps also offer links to where you can pre-order each of the books: Follow the links below for each book in trade paperback, e-Book, and audiobook editions:

Book I: Moments Asunder by moi
Book II: The Ashes of Tomorrow by James Swallow
Book III: Oblivion’s Gate by David Mack

There’s been much speculation about these books since word about them began to trickle forth back in February 2021. Jim, Dave, and myself have been rather annoyingly coy and evasive whenever we’ve confronted all manner of questions about the books, the story, its implications for the future of Star Trek novels, the end of civilization as we know it and perhaps even the heat death of the universe.

No matter how one chooses to look at it, there’s no denying we’ve reached a turning point in the state of “Star Trek literature.” Books, comics, and other means of extending the brand into other storytelling realms have always walked alongside those adventures we’ve watched on our TVs and movie screens. They’re created in service to those tales, co-existing with Star Trek even as it adapts and evolves for new generations of viewers.

Anyone who works on books like these – or reads them for any length of time – knows that there come those occasions when such transitions are necessary in order to support the property to which they connect. Fans who read DC’s Star Trek comics in the 1980s saw how those writers tap-danced to different tunes every few years as they wove storylines and then backtracked or side-stepped to avoid conflicts with the latest Star Trek film hitting theater screens, or how the advent of Star Trek: The Next Generation and its fellow spin-off TV series constantly redefined a Star Trek universe left largely untouched to that point save for those voyages told in print or comics form.

Those of us who pay attention to such things saw what happened when Disney acquired Star Wars from Lucasfilm and decades of novels, comics, and other “expanded universe” media were summarily reclassified as “Legends,” with storylines ended or simply left unresolved as new films were put into production. In many ways it was a “clean slate” so far as tie-in efforts were concerned. After being told for years that all of this material “mattered” and was even considered “canon” (albeit on a “level” different from that of the Star Wars films), this sudden paradigm shift came as something of a shock, and for some it even felt more than a bit like betrayal.

Star Trek has always been very clear and up front about its own “expanded media” efforts: they’re official and receive studio approval to be published, but they’re not “canon.” The people writing Star Trek TV shows and films are not obligated to acknowledge or align themselves with anything put forth in a novel, comic, videogame, or whatever else you care to name that’s not a television episode or movie. With that said, when it became apparent that new Star Trek television projects would cause a conflict with the existing Star Trek “literary continuity” and other efforts like, for example, the Star Trek Online game, the good folks at ViacomCBS in charge of approving such things very much wanted to avoid a replay of the Star Wars situation. They welcomed and in fact championed our desire to do what we could to transition to the “new paradigm,” as it were.

And so here we are.

So, what comes next? Well, “Star Trek literature” has been around since the original series was still in production and 55 years after that show’s premiere, new stories are still being told in prose and comics form. So long as there’s Star Trek on our screens, there will be “expanded media” to support it…and hopefully even to scratch the itch during those times where the Final Frontier isn’t being revisited on screen every week or every couple of years at your local movie theater.

For this moment, however, I think it’s okay to pause and reflect on what’s come before. With that in mind and as an exercise in complete and flagrant self-indulgence, I extend my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to those with whom I’ve been privileged to share this journey since 1979, first as a reader and fan and later a contributor to more than four decades of Simon & Schuster publishing Star Trek fiction:

Dafydd ab Hugh, Rigel Ailur, Mark Allen, Chuck Anderson, Lorraine Anderson, jaQ Andrews, Richard J. Anobile, Kem Antilles, Nathan Archer, Derek Tyler Attico

Rick Barba, Steven Barnes, Patricia Barnes-Svarney, Mike W. Barr, Greg Bear, Ira Steven Behr, R. S. Belcher, M. Shayne Bell, Christopher L. Bennett, John Gregory Betancourt, Kirsten Beyer, Ilsa J. Bick, Randall L. Bills, David Bischoff, Emily P. Bloch, Paula M. Block, Margaret Wander Bonanno, Vince Bonasso, Jeff Bond, Michelle A. Bottrall, Jonathan Bridge, Greg Brodeur, Neil Bryant, Martin R. Burke

Allison Cain, Kelly Cairo, Diane Carey, Marc Carlson, Carmen Carter, Scott W. Carter, Karen Rose Cercone, Chris Chaplin, Scott Ciencin, Lisa Clancy, Margaret Clark, Cassandra Rose Clarke, Anne E. Clements, Carolyn Clowes, John Coffren, Loren L. Coleman, Mike Collins, Sonni Cooper, Lee Correy, Steven Costa, Jaime Costas, Greg Cox, Melissa Crandall, Ann C. Crispin, Russ Crossley, Jackee Crowell, Myrna Culbreath, Patrick Cumby, Brad Curry

Landon Cary Dalton, Tony Daniel, Peter David, Keith L. Davis, John de Lancie, Cynthia K. Deatherage, Nancy Debretsion, Keith R.A. DeCandido, David DeLee, M. C. DeMarco, Britta Dennison, Pat Detmer, Gene DeWeese, Melissa Dickinson, Rick Dickson, J. M. Dillard, Kevin Dilmore, Louis E. Doggett, Charlotte Douglas, John S. Drew, Diane Duane, Elizabeth A. Dunham, Doranna Durgin, Dan C. Duval, David Dvorkin, Daniel Dvorkin

Julia Ecklar, Ian Edginton, Terry J. Erdmann

Brad Ferguson, Kelli Fitzpatrick, Denny Martin Flinn, Eloise Flood, Lynda Martinez Foley, Dorothy C. Fontana, John M. Ford, William R. Forstchen, Alan Dean Foster, Aimee Ford Foster, Michael Jan Friedman, Esther Friesner

Dave Galanter, Diana Gallagher, Alan James Garbers, Mark Garland, David R. George III, David Gerrold, Craig Gibb, Allyn Gibson, Mel Gilden, Marc D. Giller, Christie Golden, Edgar Governo, Christian Grainger, Victoria Grant, Alan Gratz, Glenn Greenberg, Robert Greenberger, Carol Greenburg, Robyn Sullivent Gries, Gordon Gross, Ben Guilfoy, James Gunn

Karen Haas, Karen Haber, Barbara Hambly, Laurell K. Hamilton, Scott Harrison, David G. Hartwell, Simon Hawke, Jennifer Heddle, J. G. Hertzler, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Kevin Hosey, Sarah A. Hoyt, Brett Hudgins, Bobbie Benton Hull, Julie A. Hyzy

Bob Ingersoll, Tony Isabella

Jeff D. Jacques, Heather Jarman, Michael J. Jasper, Robert T. Jeschonek, K. W. Jeter, Kij Johnson, Jim Johnson, Dan Jolley, Rudy Josephs

Janet Kagan, Paul J. Kaplan, Susan Kearney, Kevin Killiany, Frederick Kim, A. Rhea King, James Kirkland, Judy Klass, Diana Kornfeld, Eric Kotani, Dana Kramer-Rolls, Dylan Otto Krider, Paul Kupperberg, J. Noah Kym

Jeffrey Lang, Majliss Larson, Kevin Lauderdale, Gerri Leen, William Leisner, Peter Lerangis, S. N. Lewitt, Rebecca Lickiss, Alan L. Lickiss, Jean Lorrah

David Mack, T. L. Mancour, Andy Mangels, Jeff Mariotte, Sondra Marshak, Michael A. Martin, Muri McCage, Bill McCay, Una McCormack, Roger McCoy, Susan S. McCrackin, Mike McDevitt, Charles G. McGraw, David A. McIntee, Vonda N. McIntyre, Kristen McQuinn, Robert J. Mendenhall, Victor Milan, John Jackson Miller, V. E. Mitchell, Steve Mollmann, Dustan Moon, Stuart Moore, Susan Ross Moore, Drew Morby, Peter Morwood, Mark Murata, M. S. Murdock

Ann Nagy, Rebecca Neason, Juanita Nolte

Jerry Oltion, Kathy Oltion, Kathleen O’Malley, John J. Ordover, Terri Osborne

Logan Page, Mimi Panitch, Marco Palmieri, Craig D.B. Patten, Barbara Paul, Scott Pearson, Ted Pederson, John Peel, Charles Pellegrino, S. D. Perry, Catherine E. Pike, Gary Piserchio, Steven Piziks, Michael S. Poteet, Tonya D. Price, Penny A. Proctor

Ken Rand, J. R. Rasmussen, Annie Reed, Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Robert Burke Richardson, Steven Scott Ripley, Chris Roberson, Andrew J. Robinson, Peg Robinson, Gene Roddenberry, Alara Rogers, J. A. Rosales, Aaron Rosenberg, William Rotsler, Paul Ruditis, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Cory Rushton, E. Cristy Ruteshouser, Kevin P. Ryan

Pamela Sargent, Ed Schlesinger, Lawrence Schoen, Sandy Schofield, Michael Schuster, Melissa Scott, Shawn Michael Scott, Mary Scott-Wiecek, Sarah A. Seaborne, Brian Seidman, Keith Sharee, William Shatner, Sarah Shaw, Kim Sheard, Robert Sheckley, Josepha Sherman, Jill Sherwin, Armin Shimerman, Susan Shwartz, Robert Simpson, Amy Sisson, Charles Skaggs, Dean Wesley Smith, Melinda Snodgrass, S. P. Somtow, Dave Stern, J. B. Stevens, Brad Strickland, Barbara Strickland, Bill Stuart, Theodore Sturgeon, Jeff Suess, Lisa Sullivan, Kevin G. Summers, Michael Sussman, James Swallow, James J. Swann, Louisa M. Swann, Mary Sweeney

Frank Tagader, John Takis, Randy Tatano, Jeri Taylor, Franklin Thatcher, TG Theodore, W. R. Thompson, Geoffrey Thorne, Lois Tilton, E. Catherine Tobler, Geoff Trowbridge, Paul C. Tseng, Micheal Turner

Rob Vagle, Della Van Hise, Robert E. Vardeman, Amy Vincent, John Vornholt, Kelle Vozka

Laura Ware, David Weddle, Howard Weinstein, Bobbi J.G. Weiss, David Cody Weiss, Phaedra M. Weldon, Alex White, Richard C. White, Ryan M. Williams, David Niall Wilson, Carolyn Winifred, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Jerry M. Wolfe, G. Wood, Olivia Woods, Susan Wright

Laurence Yep, Jeremy Yoder, J. Steven York, Christina F. York

Thomas F. Zahler, George Zebrowski, Charity Zegers, and Shane Zeranski.

(I sure hope I didn’t forget anyone.)

Now then, for those of you who’ve only just recently jumped on the “Star Trek books train,” because perhaps you’ve heard about Star Trek: Coda and you’re curious as to what the fuss has been about all these years, all I can say is “Wow.” Have you got a lot of cool stuff just waiting for you to discover. Go have a look-see:

Star Trek Books at Simon & Schuster

What are you waiting for? Adventure awaits!