When bestselling novelist John Jackson Miller was tapped to write the first “in canon” Star Wars novel under the auspices of the Lucasfilm Story Group, we knew they’d picked the right guy.

He's known in comic book circles for his work on Iron Man, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: Knight Errant, and Mass Effect, but also as a historian for his long term efforts to document comic book circulation data and for his tenure at Krause Publishing, where he worked on Comics Buyer’s Guide among other publication. He’s also an Overstreet Advisor.

It was Star Wars: Kenobi, though, that made him a New York Times Best Selling author and put him in position to write Star Wars: A New Dawn.

Now he’s turned his attention to the worlds of Star Trek, with a trilogy of novels set to be released by Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books imprint on a monthly basis. The vast story kicked off with Star Trek: Prey – Book One: Hell’s Heart (now on sale) and continues in Book Two: The Jackal’s Trick (due in October).

And while he may be best known for Star Wars, these books could definitely change that.

Miller talked with Gemstone’s J.C. Vaughn about the project.

Scoop: John, both in comics and in novels, you've become very well known – even a New York Times Best Selling author – as a Star Wars guy. Have you been a Star Trek fan all along or is this something new?
John Jackson Miller (JJM): I’ve said on occasion I was born under the sign of Vulcan — having been born the night the original series episode “A Piece of the Action” first aired. (Actually, that episode took place on Sigma Iotia II, but let’s not quibble.) I was familiar with the TV show and the cartoon before I saw Star Wars — and in that stretch between the Star Wars original trilogy and the prequels, I got heavily into Trek. The first licensed fiction I ever submitted anywhere was for the Strange New Worlds contest back in 2000 — and I actually got a Trek short story green-lit before I did any Star Wars prose. That story never saw the light of day, because the series — Starfleet Corps of Engineers — ended, but fortunately I was able to come back around to Trek a few years later with my first Next Generation novel, Takedown.

Scoop: Now that there's so many iterations of Star Trek, what's your favorite and why?
JJM: It’s always difficult to play favorites. Certainly the original series has a warm place in my heart as the thing that introduced me to Star Trek — and the movies really solidified the connection. On the other hand, Next Generation gave me the chance to watch a series from the very beginning all the way through as it was being aired, and that was a special experience. Next Gen also really elaborated on the Klingon Empire in a lot of fascinating ways.

But for sprawling political crises of the sort that we find in Prey, nothing beats the later seasons of Deep Space Nine and the Dominion War.

Scoop: What was the spark for this trilogy? Was it something you'd been thinking about or did they come to you with the idea of doing the three books with a quick release schedule.
JJM: Having followed Klingon/Federation relations from the days when they were adversaries to after they became allies, I wanted to do something that would cause them both to pause and reevaluate. The driving goals of the Federation and the Empire are different in many ways — a lot of stresses there had to be overcome to keep them going in a common direction. In the first Prey book, Hell’s Heart, I follow the aftermath of the death of Commander Kruge — Christopher Lloyd’s character from Star Trek III — and how the battle for control of his Klingon house resulted in winners and losers who would go on to impact relations with the Federation well into Picard’s time. Kruge, as anyone who’s seen the film can attest, would have been infuriated to learn that Klingons and Starlet officers would one day be fighting side by side. He left behind people who definitely share his views.

When my editor told me it was possible to tell one large epic story in three monthly installments, I leapt at the chance. I know from comics the dynamic of looking forward to the next month to continue a story — and I knew that writing it for release during the 50th anniversary would make it feel all the more special.

Scoop: To a layman or even some Star Trek fans, the Klingons can come across as rather monolithic, almost embodying blunt force to a large extent. They're a lot more nuanced in your story, though, with long-lived conspiracies, layers of tension, and complex relationships. What makes them compelling to you?
JJM: Basing an entire culture on honor has interesting ramifications for government, interstellar politics, and justice. It determines who’s in charge, whom they ally with and why — and as we saw in the episode where Worf was discommendated, the perceived lack of honor in an individual can transform everyone’s behavior toward him. So I wanted to take a look at people at all levels — those in power and close to it, and also those who were considered un-persons by the Empire. Prey gave me the chance to visit some corners of Klingon society we haven’t seen, and follow the logical progression of some of the strains I saw in their society. 

Most important: even though they’re warriors, there’s already a lot of nuance on screen. Kruge was a tough-as-nails fanatic, but you also had a Shakespeare-spouting General in Chang. There’s room for varied types.

Scoop: In doing a trilogy that is released over three months, that's pretty much the same as having to have three novels done at the same time. How long did writing all three take you?
JJM: It took about a year and a half, if you count the months I worked on the plot. All three books had to be plotted at the same time, since it was one big story. Once I got rolling, it was about three months per novel.

Scoop: Does that mean that they all went to the editor at roughly the same time and all three came back for proofing at roughly the same time? How did you handle that?
JJM: The books went to the editor as I finished them, but then I would be doing proofreading rounds on the earlier books while I was writing the later ones. It’s a lot like working in comics, actually, or when I was doing my Overdraft: The Orion Offensive serial, where I was working on multiple stages at the same time. Then at the end there was a stretch where I had all three books on my desk for proofreading at once. That was helpful because I was able to smooth out some of the transitions and plant foreshadowing elements earlier. I was also able to catch inconsistencies since I had all three books fresh in my mind.

Scoop: When you were mapping out your plot, how quickly did you know what parts would go in which of the three novels?
JJM: I knew that the crisis took three major stages: Book 1 sets the stage and has all the inciting incidents, establishing the stakes; Book 2 turns the story on its head, as we realize there are other players involved; and Book 3 completes the quest and wraps it up. So I knew generally where the boundaries were and what my cliffhangers would be — and then it was a matter of placing the major events within each book.

Additionally, each book focuses partially on a different antagonist, so there’s a different feel to each.

Scoop: Despite being filled with many great character moments, the scale of your story is epic. As a writer, how do you balance the character-centric moments with a story of this scope?
JJM: Character is everything. Huge events don’t feel real unless we can show the impact on individuals. That was one of the reasons that I wanted to have a full trilogy, spanning three months of story time, in which to let this story play out. I needed to have the time and space to show how people’s lives had been changed by the events we depicted.

One way I handle that is by keeping my chapters relatively short, so I can check in with more characters across time as the story progresses, and show how they’re contributing to what happens next.

Scoop: What is the easiest character for you to get the voice of, and which one's the hardest?
JJM: Worf was pretty easy to work with, and that’s a good thing since he’s really the main character we see throughout. The greater challenges are the original characters that the other authors in the novel line have introduced, for the obvious reason that I haven’t seen them on screen. That took a good deal of reading to make sure I got characterization and appearances correct.

Probably the most fun I had was writing the clone of Kahless, who we met in the TV series in the episode “Rightful Heir.” He hadn’t appeared in the books lately, and I wanted to give him a starring role.

Scoop: What's next for you?
JJM: Quite a bit. In addition to books two and three of Prey — The Jackal’s Trick, releasing October 25 and The Hall of Heroes, releasing November 29. I have two Halo stories out this fall. One is a short story in the already available Halo: Fractures anthology from Gallery Books — and the other, out in comic shops in November, is my first Halo comics story in the Halo: Tales from Slipspace hardcover. That one’s from Dark Horse.

Speaking of video game comics, Dark Horse is also rereleasing my Mass Effect comics in an omnibus edition in November — and then in March Marvel releases the second Star Wars: Legends Epic Collection: The Old Republic, combining the middle third of my run on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

And in January I have an original short story in yet another universe: Planet of the Apes. Titan is doing an anthology called Tales from the Forbidden Zone, dealing with the original five movies. That one was a lot of fun. So it’s a busy few months for new releases ahead.

Folks who want to find out more can follow me on Twitter at @jjmfaraway or can visit my website.