New Star Trek novel seeks to bridge gap between seasons for Picard

Star Trek: Picard will get a new novel called Second Self by Una McCormack.

A new Star Trek novel is on its way, and it’ll be here in just 10 months. Yup, a new novel due out in the spring of 2022 will come out and seek to tie up some events and help bridge the gap between Picard season one and Picard season two.

The fourth book to carry some sort of tie-in to the Picard series won’t feature Jean-Luc Picard, however, but it’ll feature Raffi (Michelle Hurd). The book is called Second Self by Una McCormack, who has already written one prior book in the Picard series of books.

Simon and Schuster’s official description of the book is below.

"Following the explosive events seen in season one of Star Trek: Picard, Raffi Musiker finds herself torn between returning to her old life as a Starfleet Intelligence officer or something a little more tame—teaching at the Academy, perhaps. The decision is made for her though when a message from an old contact—a Romulan spy—is received, asking for immediate aid. With the help of Cristobal Rios and Dr. Agnes Jurati, and assistance from Jean-Luc Picard, Raffi decides to take on this critical mission—and quickly learns that past sins never stay buried. Finding the truth will be complicated, and deadly…."

The book may set up season two of Star Trek: Picard to some extent.

The book will go on sale after the events of Star Trek: Picard’s second season. Making it a book that may help answer lingering questions left by the series. How canon these books actually are cannot be fully understood at this moment. Most literature is hit or miss with its accepted place in the canon, and many books are sometimes viewed in Star Trek as a filler piece while not being technically canon.

We’ve seen Star Wars mishandle their canon for years, making just about every book that ever was published canon, and then when Disney bought the franchise, making all of those books and comics not canon anymore.

Star Trek has never mass-erased anything like that but with so much fan influence and fan-made creations, it can be hard to truly know what is canon, what’s based on canon, or what’s just some person’s idea of what Star Trek should be.

For those curious in the book, it comes out on April 26, 2022.