Do the post-Nemesis Star Trek novels reference the destruction of Romulus?

Question

Ever since Star Trek: Nemesis came out, the official Pocket Books novels set in the Star Trek universe had become much more coherent and uniform, forming one long running plot and continuity. (Previous to that, most of the novels were episodic in nature, and were not beholden to each other in any way). This was presumably because Nemesis was to be the last of the TNG-era Star Trek movies, and so the Pocket powers that be felt they had creative control over the universe, that nothing "canon" would override them any longer.

With the release of Star Trek in 2009, that seems to be no longer the case. A fairly significant event did happen in the standard universe - the destruction of Romulus, and the loss of Ambassador Spock. It was this event in the main universe that caused the creation of the alternate universe of the more recent movies.

Have any of the official novels set in the main universe yet referenced this event? If not, (that is, if Romulus is still intact in the novels' continuity) is it because the timeline of the novels hasn't yet caught up to the date in which Romulus was destroyed, or are the novels' authors flat-out ignoring the events of Star Trek?

Answer 1

No - because Simon & Schuster / Pocket Books (the publisher of post-Nemesis books) did not have rights to the Kelvin storyline

However, contract re-negotiations in 2017 now have allowed access to the Kelvin timeline and story

"As part of that renegotiation, Schlesinger revealed that Simon & Schuster had successfully expanded the license to include elements of the Kelvin Timeline film series, likely requiring additional conversations with Paramount Pictures and JJ Abrams’ production company Bad Robot which may have complicated the process."

https://twitter.com/TrekCore/status/893204861625352193

Additionally, Star Trek author Christopher L. Bennett addresses the contract and Kelvin:

It will let authors] finally [be] to show the destruction of Romulus and its Prime Universe aftermath, or being able to refer to/depict the [USS] Kelvin and [Captain] Robau in the 23rd century or the Franklin and Edison in the 22nd….

A number of CBS licensees, like IDW Comics and the Star Trek Online computer game, were able to use Kelvin content, and there were several YA Kelvinverse novels from Simon Spotlight. After all, CBS owns all of Star Trek. Paramount Pictures licenses the movie rights from CBS, as a legacy of their origins as a single company…. so all Trek tie-ins and merchandise, even Kelvin tie-ins and merchandise, have to be approved by CBS.

It’s just that Kelvin material also needs Paramount’s and Bad Robot’s approval, which makes it a little more complicated to license. For whatever reason, Pocket Books didn’t manage to get that license [originally] even though other licensees did.

Source: http://trekcore.com/blog/2017/12/book-report-star-trek-novels-take-a-break-in-2018/

Answer 2

I had a look at the article on Hobus on Memory Beta:

In 2388, Admiral Kathryn Janeway flew the first survey mission of the Hobus Nebula aboard a variant of the Delta Flyer with a crew of volunteers. It was discovered that the supernova's neutrino output was somehow being shunted into subspace, and that the Hobus Cinder continued to output intense streams of X-rays, gamma rays, delta rays, epsilon radiation, Berthold rays and tetryon particles. (STO novel: The Needs of the Many; STO missions: "Revelation", "Ground Zero")

So there's one. Apart from that, I had a quick look at the Wikipedia page for the List of Star Trek novels. I checked the ones that are published on or after 2009, and only the Department of Temporal Investigation novels are set on or after 2387. While some other time travel could provide future information, this seems unlikely and would likely only be a passing remark.

It's possible that I've missed something else, but it seems that because the pace of writing of these novels has slowed, there's little that could reference the Hobus Supernova or the aftermath.

If you're interested in it, I'd actually recommend either playing Star Trek Online or reading materials relating to it. The game has plenty of references to it, being probably the most major event contributing to the events in the game (and explaining much of the weirdness not explained in the movie).

Answer 3

From what I can tell, the books in the main continuity are up to 2386 as of the end of 2017. Since Nemesis took place in 2379 and came out in 2002, that means they've covered 7 years of in-story time in in 15 years, a little less than half a year in-universe per real world universe. It might be a few more year before they get to the destruction of Romulus.