New Frontier Help

[NightJim]

I started reading New Frontier at the start of the year, and is pretty much responsible of reigniting my Star Trek love and me finding this place.

Anyway, just bought books 5 & 6 (Martyr and Fire on High) as well as the graphic novel Double Time because someone had it on Amazon relatively cheap. However, looking on wikipedia I see the Captain's Table and Double Helix books fall between them. How much do I need to worry about them? Is it worth me reading all of Double Helix, or is it even any good?

 

[Thrawn]

Skip all of the rest of those miniseries and just read the New Frontier entries. Captain's Table books all stand alone anyway, and Double Helix theoretically has an overarching plot but it's really thin and mostly consists of vague foreshadowing for the NF entry anyway.

Read them both like they were just New Frontier books, and you won't miss anything.

(Definitely don't skip the NF entries; they're awesome and pretty essential. Same goes for Gateways later on - you definitely want to read the NF entry, as well as the NF short story in the concluding volume. Bunch of stuff won't make sense without it.)

 

[zarkon]

^ What Thrawn said

all essential, all awesome. Especially the Captains Table entry.

 

[Thrawn]

Yeah, the Captain's Table entry is arguably the best book in the whole series.

 

[ryan123450]

Well crap I'm reading the Excalibur trilogy now and the only book I skipped was The Captain's Table. I may go back and read it now.

 

[Paris]

Once Burned, the Captain's Table NF entry, is awesome. It'll answers several questions you may have about Calhoun and his past. Definitely the best of the CT books, and one of the best NF books in general

 

[NightJim]

Thanks guys, while the graphic novel might be on a shelf for a while, at least I don't have to be a ton of books just to catch up

I know this is looking quite a way forward, but what about the Mirror Universe novels. I would have thought they were completely separate, but wikipedia has them in the main group.

These are actually the first Peter David Star Trek works I've read, having tried a few of the books in the late 90s. Now I wish I had the Imzadis too.

 

[RoJoHen]

I skipped the Double Helix story when I first read the NF series, and I definitely missed out on some big foreshadowing for a future event.

 

[dansigal]

Related but independent question. I have been doing my own Trekverse read for the last year or so. I started with the DS9 relaunch, read the first Voyager relaunch and was about to start on the TNG relaunch and Titan into Destiny and beyond, but at the last minute decided to read the "Time To" series first. Now I'm pondering if once I'm done with that I should move on as planned or go back and start NF. I think its something like 18 books of NF to catch up to where the "Time To" series ends. Any suggestions?

 

[zarkon]

I know this is looking quite a way forward, but what about the Mirror Universe novels. I would have thought they were completely separate, but wikipedia has them in the main group.

It's been a while, but I don't _think_ they ever tie up to the prime universe, so they're ok to skip. There was a decline in quality following the heady heights of the superb "Stone & Anvil" so I don't remember the plots of the books after that particularly well :/

These are actually the first Peter David Star Trek works I've read, having tried a few of the books in the late 90s. Now I wish I had the Imzadis too.

Imzadi, Q Squared & A Rock and a Hard Place are must reads. Q in Law & Imzadi 2 are a great deal of fun too(none of his books are bad really, although others disagree when it comes to "Before Dishonour").

Since you're reading through NF, I'd also recommend "Strike Zone", a good romp that introduces a species that gets a fair amount of time in later NF books(by no means is it required reading though, just gives you a fun extra bit of reference).

 

[ryan123450]

Now I'm pondering if once I'm done with that I should move on as planned or go back and start NF. I think its something like 18 books of NF to catch up to where the "Time To" series ends. Any suggestions?

I'd say they are separate from the storyline you are reading. The only time they really intersect is a case where they don't merge well together at all. So it would probably be better if you read them seperately so you won't be as taken aback by the continuity gaffs.

However there is speculation that The Fall miniseries could pick up a plot thread from the latest NF book. If that end's up being the case then that would change my recommendation.

Since you're reading through NF, I'd also recommend "Strike Zone", a good romp that introduces a species that gets a fair amount of time in later NF books(by no means is it required reading though, just gives you a fun extra bit of reference).

What species is that? I've never read Strike Zone.

I know this is looking quite a way forward, but what about the Mirror Universe novels. I would have thought they were completely separate, but wikipedia has them in the main group.

The only way in which they connect are the fact that mirror versions of the New Frontier crew are in quite a few Mirror Universe tales.

 

[Thrawn]

Related but independent question. I have been doing my own Trekverse read for the last year or so. I started with the DS9 relaunch, read the first Voyager relaunch and was about to start on the TNG relaunch and Titan into Destiny and beyond, but at the last minute decided to read the "Time To" series first. Now I'm pondering if once I'm done with that I should move on as planned or go back and start NF. I think its something like 18 books of NF to catch up to where the "Time To" series ends. Any suggestions?

Don't worry about NF. You can see from the flowchart in my signature that the only places it intersects are Gateways, which is totally skippable, and the Mirror Universe, which actually causes some continuity problems anyway and is thus pretty skippable there too.

There are some references, but nothing too specific. I'd just go through the flowchart starting from A Time To... and keep going on your current plan.

 

[zarkon]

What species is that? I've never read Strike Zone.

Spoiler: new frontier

Selelvians.

Related but independent question. I have been doing my own Trekverse read for the last year or so. I started with the DS9 relaunch, read the first Voyager relaunch and was about to start on the TNG relaunch and Titan into Destiny and beyond, but at the last minute decided to read the "Time To" series first. Now I'm pondering if once I'm done with that I should move on as planned or go back and start NF. I think its something like 18 books of NF to catch up to where the "Time To" series ends. Any suggestions?

Don't worry about NF. You can see from the flowchart in my signature that the only places it intersects are Gateways, which is totally skippable, and the Mirror Universe, which actually causes some continuity problems anyway and is thus pretty skippable there too.

There are some references, but nothing too specific. I'd just go through the flowchart starting from A Time To... and keep going on your current plan.

one of the final NF books has destiny spoilers mind. I remember someone here got in hot water by saying otherwise a few months back.

 

[dansigal]

Yeah, I would only read NF through to approximately the time period where Time To ends, and then mix them in chronologically after that. My only concern is that I do want to read the NF at some point (maybe should have said that initially) and I heard there is some NF involvement in Destiny and some of the TNG relaunch stuff.

 

[Thrawn]

There is, but it's nothing that would spoil the NF series at all. It's just cameos of the ship and captain, nothing important.

 

[dansigal]

Good to know!

 

[JD]

...

I know this is looking quite a way forward, but what about the Mirror Universe novels. I would have thought they were completely separate, but wikipedia has them in the main group....

The two versions of the cast do meet up in the IDW comic book miniseries, Turnaroud, which is vaguely referred to in Treason. It isn't essential though, so you could probably skip it with no problem. Be warned that if you decide to follow the Mirror Universe series, I believe there are some inconsistencies between Turnaround and Rise Like Lions. I've read them both, but I don't remember what the inconsistencies are.

 

[NightJim]

Since I writing a retrospective of Voyager as I go through it, and had done a review previously for the first book, I figured I'd keep one going for New Frontier too. Here's Martyr.

Thanks to the advice in this thread, and the Trek Reading Flowchart, I've decided to read Fire in the Sky, then the Captain's Table entry and then stop. As Captain's Table entry is a flashback it felt like the perfect jumping off point to go back and read a bunch of Peter David's TNG work, eventually ending with Double Helix, bringing me back into New Frontier. It helps that on Kindle there's only a £2 difference between just the NF entry and the whole thing.