Reading New Frontier from the beginning
- Thread starter Faldor
- Start date
Yeah, I get that, and it would be a very difference experience reading these in 2024 closing in on the last published books than reading them as they came out.
18 - Blind Man's Bluff
At the beginning of this thread, I was asked how NF holds up with the changes from CODA.
Right here is where NF goes out with the reformatted timeline as we meet Seven Of Nine, hot off her appearance in Before Dishonor.
The book follows Calhoun’s distrust of the immortal turned ship's computer, Morgan Primus. It feels like it comes a bit out of nowhere, one book he’s happy with her running the ship and now he wants her terminated. It feels like we missed something.
The ending with the genocide of Mac’s people felt, unnecessary and overdone. It could easily have been more effective if scaled down.
I enjoyed this final print book in the New Frontier series but a lot of the whimsey that made the earlier entries really jump off the page is gone.
At the beginning of this thread, I was asked how NF holds up with the changes from CODA.
Right here is where NF goes out with the reformatted timeline as we meet Seven Of Nine, hot off her appearance in Before Dishonor.
The book follows Calhoun’s distrust of the immortal turned ship's computer, Morgan Primus. It feels like it comes a bit out of nowhere, one book he’s happy with her running the ship and now he wants her terminated. It feels like we missed something.
The ending with the genocide of Mac’s people felt, unnecessary and overdone. It could easily have been more effective if scaled down.
I enjoyed this final print book in the New Frontier series but a lot of the whimsey that made the earlier entries really jump off the page is gone.
If Peter David were to write another New Frontier novel -- which I think would be more likely be a Picard novel with New Frontier characters and elements -- I imagine he'd just retcon this in some fashion. Like, this wasn't actually Seven at all (maybe, as @Christopher suggested jokingly a few days ago, a Doombot), or there was some sort of temporal distortion that reformatted a few things, or it's all a dream, and probably play it all off as a joke.
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As I recall, the reference when Seven appeared in the book was so ambiguous we couldn’t figure out if it was supposed to be referencing “Before Dishonor” or “Destiny.” I’ve also been wracking my brain trying to remember if Morgen did anything untoward or suspicious in the “Turnarond” comic miniseries that set up her becoming an antagonist.
19 – 21 The Returned
It seemed initially that this book would be some sort of time travel adventure we start with Calhoun attempting to access the Guardian Of Forever and I prepared to hate it. I love time travel stories, especially on Trek but at some point, they never really feel like they matter.
Instead, we get Robin Lefler being taken to New Thallon with Mark McHenry to save the Excalibur and Calhoun taking the ship through a wormhole to a pocket universe to get his revenge.
It has been argued that this was too dark for Trek but I don't think that is necessarily true. The Best Of Both Worlds is hardly the height of optimism, Is the Dominion War is optimistic Trek? whilst Trek does usually find itself back on that path not necessarily every story needs to.
Instead, this is Calhoun balancing his barbaric past with his role as starship captain which has always been at the heart of his best storylines. at times I genuinely didn't know which way he was going to go I don't think The Returned was the best of New Frontier but it certainly wasn't the worst.
It was an attempt to find a big enough following for the series to continue in this short e-book format.
considering the series started with a series of four short books as was in vogue in the late 90s it's a nice way for the series to end but it is a shame that they weren't able to produce more e-books or full novels, certainly a story to act as New Frontiers Undiscovered Country is greatly missed.
Peter David's whimsical take on space opera has been unique and the more it refuses to fit in with the rest of Star Trek's style the more it works. it looks incredibly less likely that we'll ever see another entry in the series which is a crying shame the way things are going it's also unlikely that another novel-centric spin-off will happen any time soon either.
NF was an experiment and it could have stopped anything of the sort from ever being attempted again. In many ways New Frontier reminds me of Farscape it's epic yet silly it takes risks and whilst they didn't always pay off it was always more interesting than if they just played it safe.
So, that is what I made of Star Trek: New Frontier. Thanks for everyone who popped in to read these reviews, also:
I should probably catch up on some of my non-Trek reading now, but I do want to go back to some of the previous series that I never got around to.
I've read the DS9 Relaunch up to the first Mission Gamma book, and Death In Winter through Destiny. I was also considering rereading Vanguard which is some of my favourite Trek novels.
Any suggestions?
It seemed initially that this book would be some sort of time travel adventure we start with Calhoun attempting to access the Guardian Of Forever and I prepared to hate it. I love time travel stories, especially on Trek but at some point, they never really feel like they matter.
Instead, we get Robin Lefler being taken to New Thallon with Mark McHenry to save the Excalibur and Calhoun taking the ship through a wormhole to a pocket universe to get his revenge.
It has been argued that this was too dark for Trek but I don't think that is necessarily true. The Best Of Both Worlds is hardly the height of optimism, Is the Dominion War is optimistic Trek? whilst Trek does usually find itself back on that path not necessarily every story needs to.
Instead, this is Calhoun balancing his barbaric past with his role as starship captain which has always been at the heart of his best storylines. at times I genuinely didn't know which way he was going to go I don't think The Returned was the best of New Frontier but it certainly wasn't the worst.
It was an attempt to find a big enough following for the series to continue in this short e-book format.
considering the series started with a series of four short books as was in vogue in the late 90s it's a nice way for the series to end but it is a shame that they weren't able to produce more e-books or full novels, certainly a story to act as New Frontiers Undiscovered Country is greatly missed.
Peter David's whimsical take on space opera has been unique and the more it refuses to fit in with the rest of Star Trek's style the more it works. it looks incredibly less likely that we'll ever see another entry in the series which is a crying shame the way things are going it's also unlikely that another novel-centric spin-off will happen any time soon either.
NF was an experiment and it could have stopped anything of the sort from ever being attempted again. In many ways New Frontier reminds me of Farscape it's epic yet silly it takes risks and whilst they didn't always pay off it was always more interesting than if they just played it safe.
So, that is what I made of Star Trek: New Frontier. Thanks for everyone who popped in to read these reviews, also:
I wanted to say thanks to Charles for his encouragement early on. I've never been great at writing reviews and it helped.
I should probably catch up on some of my non-Trek reading now, but I do want to go back to some of the previous series that I never got around to.
I've read the DS9 Relaunch up to the first Mission Gamma book, and Death In Winter through Destiny. I was also considering rereading Vanguard which is some of my favourite Trek novels.
Any suggestions?
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