New Frontier book series and New Earth. Anyone else like them?

[Timo]

New Earth seems to be a sordid case of failure of the authors to hold a meeting. Not only is the same story told about thrice (with the Carey books and the L.A.Graf one being the exceptions), the bigger story arc was apparently never laid down, nor were the recurring characters characterized or the hidden threats revealed. The Oltions' take on a massive threat to the colony is way cool, but he thinks the Formless were the Tholians, and his Shucorion is more like G'Kar or Dukat than his own thing. Carey could have set that record straight with a very simple memo!

Apart from that, D.W.Smith can't write. There are a few cool concepts and character moments in the joint book with Rusch nevertheless - so the books I'd skip are Belle Terre (because the jarring hop into Rough Trails then works to the dramatic advantage of the whole) and then either Flaming Arrow or Thin Air, depending on whether you like Jerry Oltion as much as I do or not. He does some good Scotty stuff...

New Frontier is the flip side of this coin, with a single author and all that this entails. It's sorta all-or-nothing, although I only found myself in the nothing camp after devouring half a dozen of the books.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Reanok]

I don't care for the New Earth books I thought they were uninteresting & repetative. I got them from the library.I had harda time finishing reading this miniseries years ago

 

[JD]

In “Gateways: Cold War”, as I remember, Kira Nerys, Elias Vaughn And Captain Picard and Riker appeared via holo conference to discuss the Gateways crisis.

Unless I forgot something that was the one and only time something unique to the Relaunch appeared in NF. It was a single scene that appeared in all of the 24th Century, so I'm thinking he probably had to include it, and was probably told what to write so it would match up with the others.

Captain Picard and Spock also appeared in the first book of the series.

Yes, but they are not unique to the Novelverse, and since the Novelverse didn't exist yet when NF began there are no references to elements from it.

And as far as Voyager goes, I don’t think it’s had any missions near Thallonisn space since it returned.

We did get Seven's appearance in Treason, but it didn't seem to be entirely consistent with her appearances in the post-Destiny novels.

But “New Frontier” was also part of the “Tales Of The Dominion War” anthology

Yes, but that anthology wasn't based solely on elements from the Novelverse. It did have a couple Novelverse stories, but most of the stuff in the rest of the stories was either original to came from the onscreen series.

and the Captain’s Table Series

.
The Captain's Table predated the Novelverse, and even when the anthology did give us Novelverse stories, I believe the NF story did not have any connections to anything but that series.

And the “Double or nothing” was released under the TNG umbrella, but it did feature the TNG cast in a New Frontier story.

Yeah, but it was before the Novelverse, so it's only connected to TNG and NF, and only has stuff from those series and the overall miniseries.

 

[tomswift2002]

New Frontier is the flip side of this coin, with a single author and all that this entails. It's sorta all-or-nothing, although I only found myself in the nothing camp after devouring half a dozen of the books.

Peter David may be the main author, but the New Frontier “No Limits” anthology was written by other authors.


And JD, The Doctor And His mobile emitter play a role in “Blind Man’s Bluff”. Seven’s also in that book.

 

[ronny]

The "No Limits" anthology was pretty interesting. They they dealt with other writers playing in the New Frontier world was to make all the stories prequels.

The highlight for me was the David Mack story. It's a Zak Kebron about an early mission of his. And the funniest Star Trek story I've ever read.

 

[JD]

And JD, The Doctor And His mobile emitter play a role in “Blind Man’s Bluff”. Seven’s also in that book.

OK, but that was still just stuff introduced in Voyager the show, not in the Novelverse, so it still doesn't count towards what I was talking about.
NOTE: I went back and fixed my other post so the whole thing wasn't in a quote box.

 

[tomswift2002]

OK, but that was still just stuff introduced in Voyager the show, not in the Novelverse, so it still doesn't count towards what I was talking about.
NOTE: I went back and fixed my other post so the whole thing wasn't in a quote box.

It may’ve been introduced in the show, but “Blind Man’s Bluff” (2380) occurs after Voyager reached Earth (which did not occur in the TV show) in “Homecoming” in 2378 and before “Destiny” in 2381. “The Returned” evokes Series also takes place in 2380.

So for the rest of the novelverse, I would argue that “New Frontier” is in the same boat as Voyager. It’s occassionally mentioned in post-Destiny books, but the Pocket editors want to leave it open so that Peter David or another author doesn’t get hemmed into a corner regarding a plot detail.

 

[Christopher]

“Blind Man’s Bluff” (2380) occurs after Voyager reached Earth (which did not occur in the TV show)

Wow, that's really splitting hairs. We weren't shown their return to Earth in "Endgame," but it was obvious that they were going there. So it hardly qualifies as a concept exclusive to the novelverse.

So for the rest of the novelverse, I would argue that “New Frontier” is in the same boat as Voyager. It’s occassionally mentioned in post-Destiny books, but the Pocket editors want to leave it open so that Peter David or another author doesn’t get hemmed into a corner regarding a plot detail.

Nobody's denying that other books referenced NF. The assertion is that NF didn't reciprocate, at least not after a certain point.

 

[WebLurker]

Nobody's denying that other books referenced NF. The assertion is that NF didn't reciprocate, at least not after a certain point.

Wonder if that's how the novel-verse will handle the DSC stuff and future tie-ins connected to the TV shows; just do their own thing? I mean, the only other alternative I can see is to just slowly convert the novel-verse to new canon, which would be a lot messier and eventually erase most of the novel-verse anyways.

 

[donners22]

New Frontier was great. Once Burned and Excalibur: Restoration are among my favourite Trek novels. I kept buying every one of them even after I gave up on the rest of Trek books.

I’d argue that the ebook trilogy a couple years back went beyond outright bad through did the editor even read this territory and into JFC WTF, but I’ve posted about that at least a couple of times around here already.

I didn't mind it, but can absolutely understand a negative reaction. PAD tweeted something along the lines of "What would Roddenberry think?" after the Discovery premiere. I was tempted to respond and ask what on earth he'd think of the events in that trilogy.

 

[tomswift2002]

Wow, that's really splitting hairs. We weren't shown their return to Earth in "Endgame," but it was obvious that they were going there. So it hardly qualifies as a concept exclusive to the novelverse.

How do we know that Voyager didn’t dock at Utopia Planitia and then all the crew were shuttled to Earth as a security precaution? Maybe the Voyager crew were held at Jupiter Station for a year in quarantine?

Nobody's denying that other books referenced NF. The assertion is that NF didn't reciprocate, at least not after a certain point.

It’s kind of hard for NF to reciprocate on major things that occur in other books, when it’s not even up to “Destiny”, which as I recall there was a New Frontier cameo, just like there was a Voyager cameo, just like we had been getting Janeway & Seven cameos in the TNG relaunch that had started in 2005, and “Full Circle” wouldn’t be out until 2009 to bring Voyager from 2378 to 2381.

And as I recall, before “Destiny”, all the series were at different points in the timeline between 2376 and 2380, with not much cross storytelling, aside from “Gateways”, and even with “Gateways”, TNG & Voyager weren’t even in relaunch yet, and it was only DS9, NF & SCE that were in the “relaunch” phase. And once the TNG relaunch occurred in 2005 with “Death In Winter” and “Taking Wing”, TNG & Titan were in 2379/80, while DS9 was still back in 2376, and NF had only fast-forwarded to 2379 a few months earlier. And, while I haven’t read “The Returned”, apparently that trilogy only takes place 3 months after “Blind Man’s Bluff”.

So if NF hasn’t even hit “Destiny”, how could it even have books that deal with the Typhon Pact, or the events of “The Fall” or anything post-“Destiny”?

 

[JD]

The TNG and DS9 books crossed over characters, and referred back and forth to each other a lot even before Destiny. There is no reason the NF books couldn't have been a part of that.

 

[Christopher]

How do we know that Voyager didn’t dock at Utopia Planitia and then all the crew were shuttled to Earth as a security precaution? Maybe the Voyager crew were held at Jupiter Station for a year in quarantine?

Again: Really splitting hairs. Wow.

 

[tomswift2002]

The TNG and DS9 books crossed over characters, and referred back and forth to each other a lot even before Destiny. There is no reason the NF books couldn't have been a part of that.

I think you are thinking of references where DS9 or the characters are referred to.. Also, the “A Time To” books don’t chronologically take place until 2378, which is 2 years after “Avatar”. So with TNG’s Relaunch, you are going from the time Kira Nerys leaves Starfleet to enter the Vedek Assembly and Voyager returns onward. Anything else before, like the “Gateways” is only loosely (or in the case of the one book directly) connected. And then between Nemesis & Destiny, TNG had the Borg/USS Einstein arc that led into “Destiny”

From what I can remember, and have seen on Memory Beta, even before “Destiny” there were only crossovers in maybe 4 books and the majority are cameos (like William Ross giving orders over subspace), with the major ones being “Avatar Book 1”, and Gateways unless you want to count Worf or Ro but really they fall in TNG & DS9 together, as Ro was made a permanent DS9 character.

Kat Mueller and Elizabeth Shelby appeared in “Q&A” and Calhoun and the Excalibur are referenced in the book as well.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I love New Frontier. I would still read them if I could.

It's my Sarek Day wish that Peter David gets a chance to do a sequel series.

 

[JD]

I think you are thinking of references where DS9 or the characters are referred to.. Also, the “A Time To” books don’t chronologically take place until 2378, which is 2 years after “Avatar”. So with TNG’s Relaunch, you are going from the time Kira Nerys leaves Starfleet to enter the Vedek Assembly and Voyager returns onward. Anything else before, like the “Gateways” is only loosely (or in the case of the one book directly) connected. And then between Nemesis & Destiny, TNG had the Borg/USS Einstein arc that led into “Destiny”

From what I can remember, and have seen on Memory Beta, even before “Destiny” there were only crossovers in maybe 4 books and the majority are cameos (like William Ross giving orders over subspace), with the major ones being “Avatar Book 1”, and Gateways unless you want to count Worf or Ro but really they fall in TNG & DS9 together, as Ro was made a permanent DS9 character.

Kat Mueller and Elizabeth Shelby appeared in “Q&A” and Calhoun and the Excalibur are referenced in the book as well.

Even before A Time To we had Tiris Jast appearing in the Maximum Warp books, Christine Vale being introduced in the first SCE e-book, several crossovers between DS9, TNG, and SCE, Vaughn appearing in the Lost Era books, and a lot of other crossovers and references. I'm positive, but I also believe one of the early IKS Gorkon books also refers back to the Left Hand of Destiny. The books have been pretty solidly connected since the DS9 Relaunch started.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Here's my recent review of New Frontier 1-4.

http://booknest.eu/reviews/charles/1660-startreknewfrontier

 

[Daddy Todd]

Here's my recent review of New Frontier 1-4.

http://booknest.eu/reviews/charles/1660-startreknewfrontier

I tried to read your review, but when you refer Treklit as “licensed fan fiction,” I closed the window and moved on.

 

[Christopher]

I tried to read your review, but when you refer Treklit as “licensed fan fiction,” I closed the window and moved on.

Right. That's a contradiction in terms. "Fan fiction" refers to a recreational exercise, something a fan does as part of their hobby of fandom. Licensed fiction, by definition, is professional work. It's a paying job, not a hobby.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I tried to read your review, but when you refer Treklit as “licensed fan fiction,” I closed the window and moved on.

???

Seriously, what?

Right. That's a contradiction in terms. "Fan fiction" refers to a recreational exercise, something a fan does as part of their hobby of fandom. Licensed fiction, by definition, is professional work. It's a paying job, not a hobby.

Agreed.

The context was being critical of Paramount's dismissiveness to the novelverse and praising the continuity of the New Frontier books. I said they should have been treated differently than something that didn't count. It was in the context of, "Paramount treated the novels as effectively licensed fanfic, which is a shame since they were often amazing."