Star Trek: Coda Trilogy Revealed

The Star Trek: Coda trilogy will push forward Star Trek's 20-year-old literary continuity this fall. Since 2001's Avatar picked up where Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's finale left off, authors have told new tales starring characters from Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Star Trek: Voyager in a shared universe of interconnected novels. Those novels told new stories in the 24th century, sometimes with drastic changes to the Star Trek universe's status quo. With no new movies or shows set after Star Trek: Nemesis, the authors were free to be as bold as they liked (within licensor approval, of course) with these characters and their universe. That changed when Star Trek: Picard debuted with its official canon version of Star Trek's post-Nemesis future, which does not match up with that of the novels. Could the Star Trek literary universe survive alongside Picard's new future? Dayton Ward hinted to ComicBook.com last year that he and other Star Trek authors had a plan to see that happen. Now, that plan is starting to take shape.

This week, the first information about the Star Trek: Coda trilogy began to appear online. Details are scarce, but we know that Ward, David Mack, and James Swallow wrote the trilogy, collaborating on the tale as part of "The Plan" to chart the literary universe's future. While the three veteran Star Trek writers worked together on the trilogy's plot, they were each the primary author of a different book. The three parts of the Coda trilogy are:

• Book 1: Moments Asunder by Dayton Ward, releasing September 28th.
• Book 2: The Ashes of Tomorrow by James Swallow, releasing October 12th.
• Book 3: Oblivion's Gate by David Mack, releasing November 30th.

The trilogy's Coda title suggests this may an end for Star Trek's literary timeline. Yet, what few hints the writers shared online suggest things might not be as they seem, with Swallow stating that the "epic trilogy" will "change," not end, "the face of the Star Trek 'literary universe' forever."

Ward shared more details about the Coda trilogy's origin. "David Mack and I sat down at the Shore Leave convention for the first of what would be many conversations that quickly expanded to include James Swallow, and we got to work on a project that we've been calling 'The Plan.' The result of all that scheming is a new #StarTrek trilogy, CODA, which will push forward the ongoing 24th century Trek novel continuity."

Mack tweeted, "Dayton, James, and I plotted the STAR TREK: CODA trilogy as a team. As of this posting, I'm nearly done drafting the manuscript for OBLIVION'S GATE. I hope to have a first draft done by next week."

Is this the end of 20 years of shared Star Trek storytelling or a new beginning? Hopefully, we'll know more details as the trilogy nears its fall release.