Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Picturing the USS Titan

In the 2002 movie Star Trek Nemesis it was revealed Captain Riker would be taking command of a starship of his own, the USS Titan. Almost nothing else was revealed about the ship on-screen, other than that Deanna Troi would be joining Riker on the new ship, and their first mission would be to deal with the fall-out on Romulus after the events of the film.

With the TNG-era done on-screen, the door was left open for new adventures of this new ship in Star Trek fiction, and Pocket Books made sure those adventures came, starting in 2005 with new book series featuring Riker's new ship, Star Trek: Titan.

Taking Wing, the first book in that new series, established the Titan as Luna class, a medium sized vessel of exploration. That book also included details of a competition to design the Luna class Titan. The winning design would be selected by a panel of Star Trek experts, and would become the official design of the new ship, and be featured on a future book cover. As the rules described:
All designs will be judged by the Star Trek editorial staff at Pocket Books, together with Star Trek designers Doug Drexler, Michael Okuda, and Rick Sternbach; Associate Producer, Star Trek: Enterprise David Rossi; Senior Director of Licensed Publishing for Viacom Consumer Products Paula M. Block; and Manager of Licensed Publishing for Viacom Consumer Products John Van Citters, all of whom are fully qualified to apply the stated judging criteria. Entries will be judged on the basis of originality (25%), execution (25%), consistency with the U.S.S. Titan Concept Notes (25%), consistency with Star Trek Starfleet style (25%). The winning design will be published in an upcoming Star Trek: Titan novel, and will be used as the basis for cover art on the same book. The winning designer will be credited on the novel's copyright page. In the event that there is an insufficient number of submissions received that meet the minimum standards determined by the judges, the prize will not be awarded.
The rules also included details of the Luna class, which the winning design would have to conform to (continues after the jump):

Monday, August 8, 2011

Covers: Spock Must Die!

Spock Must Die! was Bantam Books first original Star Trek novel, first published in 1970. It was written by James Blish, who had by then already written several of Bantam's Star Trek novelization anthologies. The book was later reprinted many times by Bantam, by Corgi in the UK, and in French, German and Italian translations.

Original 1970 edition
  • Publisher: Bantam Books
  • Cover: Photomontage



1972 Williams-Verlag German translation
  • Title: Enterprise 7
  • Publisher: Williams-Verlag
  • ISBN 380710029
  • Cover artist: Eddie Jones, signed as S. Fantoni
  • Language: German
  • Number 7 in Williams-Verlag's Enterprise series. The only book in the series that is not a reprint of one of Blish's adaptation anthologies.
1974 Corgi reprint
  • Publisher: Corgi Books
  • ISBN 0-552-09498-6


1978 Bantam reprint
  • Publisher: Bantam Books
  • ISBN 0553125893
  • Cover artist: Bob Larkin


1978 Star Trek Reader omnibus


1984 Bantam reprint
  • Publisher: Bantam Books
  • ISBN 0-553-24634-8
  • Cover artist: Bob Larkin, reuse of 1979 edition artwork.


1984 Corgi reprint
  • Publisher: Corgi Books
  • ISBN 0-552-09498-6



1988 Goldmann-Verlag German translation
  • Title: Spock Muß Sterben!
  • Publisher: Goldmann-Verlag
  • ISBN 3-442-23742-4
  • Cover artist: Bob Larkin, reuse of 1979 edition artwork.
  • Language: German
  • Translator: Hans Maeter and Hermann Urbanek
  • Number 12 in Goldmann-Verlag Raumschiff Enterprise series
  • Note: There seem to be two different versions of this book, but as far as I can tell both have the same ISBN and publication date. One of my readers has suggested the top cover was the one used in the first printing of the book, and that subsequent reprints used the second version of the cover.

1998 Garden Editoriale Italian translation
  • Title: Spock Deve Morire
  • Publisher: Garden Editoriale
  • Cover artist: Bob Larkin, reuse of 1979 edition artwork.
  • Language: Italian
  • Translator: Annarita Guarnieri
  • Number 5 in Garden Editoriale's Star Trek series
  • The book also contains an adaptation of Patterns of Force, and articles on Vulcan physiology and Star Trek: The Next Generation

1993 Fleuve Noir French translation
  • Title: Spock Doit Mourir
  • Publisher: Fleuve Noir
  • ISBN 2-265-04787-2
  • Cover artist: Bob Larkin, reuse of 1979 edition artwork.
  • Language: French
  • Translator: Gilles Dupreux
  • Number 3 in Fleuve Noir's Star Trek series


1999 Bantam reprint
  • Publisher: Bantam Spectra
  • ISBN 0-553-24634-8
  • Cover artist: Kazuhiko Sano

1999 Fanucci Editore Italian translation
  • Title: Spock Deve Morire
  • Publisher: Fanucci Editore
  • ISBN 8834707109
  • Cover artist: Kazuhiko Sano, reuse of 1999 Bantam reprint edition artwork.
  • Language: Italian
  • Translator: Annarita Guarnieri


Saturday, July 16, 2011

Covers: Mission to Horatius

Mission to Horatius, by Mack Reynolds, was the first ever original Star Trek novel, published in 1968. It was not the first novel, as it was preceded by James Blish's first book of novelizations the previous year. It was first published by Whitman Publishing, and a near identical reprint was produced by Pocket Books in 1999.

1968 cover
Original 1968 edition
  • Publisher: Whitman Publishing.
  • Cover artist: Sparky Moore.
Original artwork
1970 Franz-Schneider-Verlag German translation
  • Title: Notruf aus dem All.
  • Publisher: Franz-Schneider-Verlag.
  • ISBN 3-505-03876-8.
  • Language: German.

1999 cover
1999 Pocket Books reprint
  • Publisher: Pocket Books.
  • ISBN 067102812X.
  • Cover artist: Sparky Moore; reuse of original 1968 art, with minor adjustment to the text "AUTHORIZED EDITION".
  • Promotional slip-cover added.
1999 cover with slip

2000 Heel-Verlag German translation
  • Title: Notruf aus dem All.
  • Publisher: Heel-Verlag.
  • ISBN 3893658556.
  • Cover artist: Sparky Moore; reuse of original 1968 art.
  • Language: German.