‘Star Trek: The Original Series: The Antares Maelstrom’ Announced

Star Trek novels are making a comeback in 2019. While the fourth Star Trek: Discovery novel is leading the charge, Star Trek: The Original Series isn’t far behind.

At Star Trek Las Vegas, Simon and Schuster officially announced Star Trek: The Original Series: The Antares Maelstrom as the next installment of the Star Trek: The Original Series novel series.

The novel will be written by Greg Cox. Here’s the synopsis:

“Baldur-3 is an obscure planet just beyond the outer fringes of Federation space, until a group of struggling colonists discover vast quantities of the energy source pergium beneath the planet’s surface. An old-fashioned “gold rush” is now underway—a chaotic situation, as neighboring planets and space stations are vastly ill-equipped to deal with the flood of vessels and aliens competing to get to the planet in time to stake their claims. Although Baldur-3 isn’t technically under Federation jurisdiction, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise are soon diverted to deal with the crisis . . . one which lies on the other side of the dangerous area of space known as the Antares Maelstrom.”

Cox is a veteran author of Star Trek: The Original Series novels. His previous works include The Rings of Time in 2012, The Weight of Worlds in 2013, No Time Like the Past in 2014, Foul Deeds Will Rise in 2014, Child of Two Worlds in 2015, Miasma in 2016, Captain to Captain – the first installment of the Star Trek: Legacies trilogy – in 2016.

This is big news for fans of the long-running Star Trek novel series. There’s been an unusually long silence in regards to new novels reportedly while Simon and Schuster worked out the details of a new licensing contract (it’s retaining the license was never really in doubt since CBS owns the publisher).

The Antares Maelstrom was mentioned by Khan Noonien Singh during his Ahab-like vow to follow Captain Kirk anywhere in the galaxy to exact his revenge. Khan will not appear in the new novel, though he may appear in a rumored limited series event reportedly being considered for development as part of CBS’s expanding Star Trek television franchise with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer at the head.

Meyer previously confirmed that he was working on a “standalone Star Trek-related trilogy” that was currently “on hold.” Whether CBS hiring Alex Kurtzman to develop the Star Trek TV franchise further has affected the development process on the project is unknown.

Are you excited for the next Star Trek: The Original Series novel? Let us know in the comments!

Star Trek: The Original Series: The Antares Maelstrom goes on sale in March 2019.