JAMES SWALLOW

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Star Trek

STAR TREK BOLDLY GOES TOWARD THE NIGHT!

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My latest Star Trek novel is out this month – set in the second season of Strange New Worlds, Toward the Night is available in hardcover, digital eBook and audiobook editions!

While patrolling the Federation’s border with the Klingon Empire, Captain Christopher Pike and the crew of the USS Enterprise detect a series of subspace echoes from a desolate planet orbiting a volatile flare star – and when Lieutenant Spock and Commander Una Chin-Riley lead a landing party to learn more, they discover the ruins of a dead civilization and evidence of starship-grade metals… Quite possibly a crash site.

As they continue to investigate the strange signals, Spock and Una find shocking signs of dangerous alien life and remnants of what can only be Federation hardware. The trail soon leads Pike and Enterprise’s helmswoman Lieutenant Erica Ortegas deep into the mystery of a lost Starfleet vessel, missing in action for over ninety years – and to a terrible dilemma that will challenge the crew to question their past… And their future.

Toward the Night is the third Strange New Worlds novel, following Una McCormack’s Asylum and John Jackson Miller’s The High Country (with a fourth book, Ring of Fire, coming from David Mack in August) and I’ve greatly enjoyed the opportunity to write SNW’s mix of new and legacy Trek characters, in a story that connects back to an even earlier era of the mythos.

Click on the title for more details about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Toward The Night – and to order your copy of the novel, eBook or audiobook, follow this link!

Star Trek – The Typhon Returns!

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Star Trek Invasion

My first-ever videogames job was over twenty years ago, a project that I fell into half by luck and half by skill – Star Trek: Invasion, a space-combat action title developed by Warthog Games for Activision for the Sony PlayStation (aka PSOne)…

Stardate 54101.02
It is the 24th Century: Borg vessels are rapidly approaching Federation space, Romulans are attacking Starfleet vessels and a respected fleet captain has turned renegade, taking his starship with him!
As a hotshot pilot in the elite Red Squad tactical strike force, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Worf, you must uncover the truth behind this deadly pattern of events, and fight back to save the galaxy from a doomsday scenario!
Flying a prototype single-seat combat fighter code-named “Valkyrie”, you and your squad members are in for the fight of your lives…

One of the things that gamers and Star Trek fans loved the most about Star Trek: Invasion were the ‘hero’ ships of the story – the agile Valkyrie fighters and their formidable carrier vessel, the U.S.S. Typhon. In the time since the game came out, I’ve spoken to many fan artists, podcasters and youtubers who love the ships and have kept them alive in Trek fandom – and it’s great to see something you’ve worked on inspire people years after the fact.

So it was amazing for me to get a call from Thomas Marrone, art director for the Star Trek Online massively multiplayer game, and learn that the Typhon would be returning to the world of videogames this month in a new “Heritage” pack of starships for STO, featuring vessels from classic Star Trek games from years past. Along with the Typhon and the Valkyrie II/Valor fighter from Star Trek: Invasion, the new pack also includes the U.S.S. Premonition from Star Trek: Armada and the U.S.S. Achilles from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Dominion Wars – but obviously it’s the Typhon I’m thrilled to see back in action. Check out the trailer below…

I was blown away by the care and attention to detail in the new digital models. The team at Arc Games have taken the venerable PS1-era ‘space brick’ from Invasion and given it a full Starfleet glow-up in line with current graphics standards, enabling STO players to launch squadrons of Valkyries and take the ship into ‘Fortress Mode’ – and it looks incredible!

Thomas and I have done some interviews where we talk about this project at i09, Screen Rant and Collider (click the links to read on) and you can learn more about the Heritage Starship Bundle at the official Star Trek Online website.

Exploring Strange New Worlds…

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UPDATED!

Star Trek and me go back a long way, right to the start of my professional career and the beginning of my nerdy odyssey – that galaxy-spanning saga got me my first paid writing gigs and in the intervening years, I’ve come back to revisit it again and again. And today, as publishers Simon & Schuster have officially released the details to the world, it is with great pleasure that I can reveal my next adventure on the Final Frontier…

A thrilling new novel based on the Paramount+ TV series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds!

While patrolling the borders of the Klingon Empire, Captain Christopher Pike and the crew of the USS Enterprise detect a series of subspace echoes from a planet orbiting a volatile flare star — and when Lieutenant Spock and Commander Una Chin-Riley lead a landing party to learn more, they discover the ruins of a dead civilization and evidence of starship-grade metals…quite possibly a crash site.

As they continue to investigate the strange signals, Spock and Una find shocking signs of dangerous alien life and remnants of what can only be Federation hardware. The trail soon leads Pike and Enterprise’s helmswoman Lieutenant Erica Ortegas deep into the mystery of a lost Starfleet vessel, missing in action for over ninety years—and to a terrible dilemma that will challenge the crew to question their past…and their future.

I’ve had a great time watching Strange New Worlds and I’m excited to be writing a novel featuring this crew and this era of the Star Trek universe. The release date for Toward The Night is a way off yet – it’ll be out in hardcover, audiobook and eBook editions at the end of April next year – but pre-orders are already live as I write this. For more details, check out the official page on the Simon & Schuster website here, and keep watch on this blog for more!

STAR TREK: THE POISONED CHALICE 10th ANNIVERSARY

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Ten years ago this month, I got to be a part of an exciting event in the Star Trek literary universe; my novel The Poisoned Chalice formed the penultimate chapter of a five-part miniseries called The Fall, an epic cross-over event that pulled in characters from all across the then-current line of Star Trek tie-in fiction.

Star Trek The Fall The Poisoned Chalice

The events of The Fall take place across a period of sixty days in the year 2385, beginning on the “new” DS9 space station in Revelation and Dust by David R. George III, when an assassination causes shockwaves around the galaxy; in The Crimson Shadow by Una McCormack, the action moves to political fallout on Cardassia Prime; David Mack’s A Ceremony of Losses touches on the events as they connect to a population crisis among the Andorians; my novel The Poisoned Chalice kick things into high gear as the clandestine forces behind the incident show their hand; and finally, Peaceable Kingdoms by Dayton Ward brings the whole series to a dramatic, thrilling conclusion.

The Fall builds on narratives established beforehand in the Star Trek: Typhon Pact series of novels and the Star Trek: The Next Generation – Cold Equations trilogy (along with a few other earlier ‘litverse’ tales), but at its heart it’s a mosaic story showing how the lives of different characters are affected by the aftershock of a terrible event and the discovery of the conspiracy underpinning it. The Fall details an existential crisis for the United Federation of Planets and a clash of ideals that ultimately puts its core fundamental principles to the test.

I had a great experience working on this series; we assembled a virtual “writers room” not unlike what would have been created for a TV series, building out on a project that was first pitched back in the Summer of 2012 by editor Margaret Clark; Margaret’s germ of an idea was to give the Star Trek literary universe its very own “Archduke Ferdinand” moment, in echo of the event that lead to the First World War.

Opening with David R. George III’s novel – which was also the 20th Anniversary Deep Space Nine story, The Fall occurs during the period it takes for the United Federation to choose a new President. We had to dig deep into the fictional workings of the UFP’s political system to make it work, as well as juggling plotlines that ran all over the Star Trek galaxy; David Mack created a huge timeline spreadsheet that became our shared work document, as we broke the storyline down into day-by-day (sometimes hour-by-hour) events to make sure everything dovetailed together.

As for the collective title for the series, as my colleague and fellow Brit Una McCormack noted, it was originally a placeholder to designate a release date, but Una and I “didn’t realize she simply meant the books due to come out in autumn, and immediately said, ‘Brilliant title!’”

The back-cover blurb for my contribution reads as follows:
One simple act, and the troubles of the United Federation of Planets have grown darker overnight. The mystery behind the heinous terrorist attack that has rocked the Federation to its core grows ever deeper, and William T. Riker finds himself beset by rumours and half-truths as the USS Titan is ordered back to Earth on emergency orders from the admiralty.

Soon, Riker finds himself drawn into a game of political intrigue, bearing witness to members of Starfleet being detained – including people he considered friends – pending an investigation at the highest levels. And while Riker tries to navigate the corridors of power, Titan‘s tactical officer, Tuvok, is given a series of clandestine orders that lead him into a grey world of secrets, lies, and deniable operations.

Who can be trusted when the law falls silent and justice becomes a quest for revenge? For the crew of the USS Titan, the search for answers will become a battle for every ideal the Federation stands for…

While The Poisoned Chalice isn’t branded as one, it was my intention as the author that it would also very much be a part of the Star Trek: Titan book series, placing it chronologically between Michael A. Martin’s Fallen Gods and John Jackson Miller’s Absent Enemies. I enjoyed writing a Star Trek political thriller in the style of a Tom Clancy novel, with drama in the corridors of power mirroring boots-on-the-ground action sequences. My touchstone was Clancy’s Clear and Present Danger, and you’ll find a deliberate nod to the movie version of that story in Will Riker’s confrontation with President Pro-Tem Ishan Anjar at the end of The Poisoned Chalice, which I wrote to echo Harrison Ford’s Jack Ryan in the climactic scene in the Oval Office.

The Poisoned Chalice became my 3rd New York Times bestseller, and the book remains one of my favourite Star Trek projects, not just because of the challenge it was to write, but because of the great experience I had collaborating with Margaret, David, Una, David and Dayton. I’m proud to have been a part of it.

Star Trek: The Fall – The Poisoned Chalice is now out of print in paperback, but the eBook is still available along with the other four books in the series from publishers Simon & Schuster – you can find them all right here.

Time for some SHORE LEAVE!

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It’s been a while since I did an in-person Star Trek event and even longer since I did one in the United States – so I’m very pleased to be participating in the 43rd Annual Shore Leave convention, at the Delta Hotels Baltimore in Hunt Valley this coming weekend.

Shore Leave’s guest list is as impressive as ever this year, with stars of Star Treks Voyager, Deep Space Nine and Prodigy, along with Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Universe and The Orville; but the convention is notable as being the event for fans of Star Trek tie-in fiction, with over 40 authors present for a packed program of panels, signings and more.

I’ll be taking part in a number of these, so if you want to catch up with me over the weekend, this is where I’ll be:

On Friday, I’ll be appearing on “What Happened to the Star Trek novels?” panel at 5:00pm in Salon E, with fellow authors Christopher L. Bennett, Dayton Ward, Glenn Hauman and David Mack, where we’ll talk about the impact on the current line of Star Trek tie-in fiction.

Then at 7:00pm in Chase room I’ll join John Coffren, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Scott Pearson, Robert Greenberger and Melissa Scott on the “Writing Tie-Ins” panel, talking about the highs and lows of working in a franchise universe.

And the big event of the day will be “Meet The Pros” from 10:00pm in the Ballroom Hallway, a free-form meet-and-greet for readers to meet writers, get books signed and check out new releases.

On Saturday, my ‘feature’ event for the weekend is a unique panel called “The End Is the Beginning” at 10:00am in the Chase room, where I’ll be joined once more by my colleagues David Mack, Dayton Ward and moderator Scott Pearson, to talk about the making of and after-effects of writing the epic Star Trek: Coda trilogy, discussing the scope of the project and a post-mortem on bringing an end to the Star Trek “litverse.” This will be the first time Dave, Dayton and our editor Scott will be in the same place at the same time to discuss the trilogy, and I fully expect this panel to be a lot of fun!

And then at 2:00pm in the Derby room, I’m joining Robb Pearlman, Dayton Ward, David Mack and Aaron Rosenberg for “More than Prose”, a panel where bestselling, award-winning authors, writers, and game designers discuss their experiences publishing gift books, game books, humour books, cookbooks, and other formats.

I may also be bringing a few extra books along to sign and to sell during the weekend (if I have space in my suitcase!), so if there’s something of mine you’re desperate to get, there’s still time to drop me a line via the email contact AT jswallow DOT com or reach me on social media and let me know!

For more information on Shore Leave 43, visit the website here.

October = Action!

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They say that good things come in threes – well, in this month of October that’s certainly true for me, because I have three, count ’em, three huge new blockbuster releases arriving over the next thirty days!

First and foremost: Marc Dane, the everyman hero of my fast-paced action thriller novels returns in his 6th adventure at end of October in the pages of Outlaw, in the shattering conclusion to the events of Rogue!

For ex-MI6 officer Marc Dane, his friend and colleague Lucy Keyes, and the survivors of Rubicon’s Special Conditions Division, the future is bleak. With no support and no backup, they are living on the edge, and the walls are closing in – so with nothing left to lose, the team will risk everything in a last ditch gambit to strike back at the Combine and bring them down…once and for all.

Gutted by the ruthless power brokers known as the Combine, the Rubicon Group is a shadow of its former self, its founder Ekko Solomon missing presumed dead and the members of its private security and intelligence team in hiding, framed for a terrorist atrocity they did not commit.

Rising from the ashes of Rubicon’s destruction, Marc and the team undertake a high-stakes undercover mission to stop a catastrophic plan to crash the global financial network, with only their cunning and their skills to carry them through. If they succeed, they might just get their lives back. If they fail, it will be the end of everything they’ve been fighting for…

Outlaw brings together plot elements and story threads from all the way back to the first Marc Dane novel Nomad, as the renegade remnants of the private intelligence agency Rubicon come face to face with the power brokers behind every threat they have faced over the last five years in a last-chance fight for survival!

Everything in in Marc’s past adventures has been building to this, and I’m excited about unleashing Outlaw on my readers! The hardcover and ebook edition is available for pre-order at This Link, so grab it now to have it for release day on the 28th!

But two days before Outlaw arrives on the 26th, I also have a double-whammy of all-action science fiction adventures hitting stores…

The first is one I’ve recently blogged about (read more here) – book 2 in the universe-changing Star Trek: Coda trilogy, The Ashes of Tomorrow.

The Future is at war with the Past; As a ruthless enemy spreads fear across the galaxy, leaving devastation in its wake, Captain Benjamin Sisko and Vedek Kira Nerys share a terrifying premonition of an unstoppable apocalypse.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard is forced to take matters into his own hands when Starfleet Command refuses to challenge the invaders, recruiting trusted allies into a desperate, impossible fight.

In the burning skies of the Bajor system, a deadly confrontation threatens a billion worlds – but the price of survival is an act of destruction beyond all reason…

Ashes picks up the baton from Dayton Ward’s novel Moments Asunder, as the heroes of the Star Trek saga come together to fight a terrifying threat to all of space-time – a threat they may not be able to defeat before a temporal apocalypse engulfs everything!

All bets are off with the Coda trilogy – no-one’s survival is guaranteed, and in the aftermath, the Star Trek universe will never be the same… The trade paperback, audiobook and ebook edition of The Ashes of Tomorrow is available for pre-order at This Link, releasing on the 26th!

But if you like your space adventures a little more interactive, and a little more rough around the edges, one universe over that band of trouble-makers and a-holes known as the Guardians of the Galaxy are coming to a games platform near you!

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is an action-adventure videogame produced by Eidos Montreal for Square Enix, placing players in the jet-boots of none other than Star-Lord himself as he does his best to lead Rocket Racoon, Gamora, Groot and Drax the Destroyer on a mission to save the stars…or so he hopes.

Your newly-formed band of legendary misfits is set to save the universe in this fresh but faithful take on the Guardians of the Galaxy. Somehow, you set off a chain of catastrophic events, leading to a wild ride through mind-blowing worlds inhabited by iconic and original Marvel characters. Turn up the all-star ‘80s mixtape and get ready to kick it.

You’re the only thing holding the unpredictable Guardians together, so you’ll have to get better at this leadership thing fast. With this offbeat approximation of a family at your side, there will be tears and laughter as you set about tearing into the cosmos together. Whatever’s waiting around the next corner, you know it’s going to be a blast.

I worked with Eidos Montreal on the Deus Ex series of games, and the narrative team invited me back to do a little work on Guardians – which, as a big Marvel Comics fan, was a great experience for me to write dialogue for some of my favourite comicbook characters.

The game will be released in multiple editions on PC and games consoles on the 26th, and you can pre-order it at This Link.

You can read more on this site about Outlaw, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Trek Coda: The Ashes of Tomorrow by clicking on the titles.

Hold on tight; October is going to be a busy month!