It's actually a miracle those 90's books were as good as they were.
Where I Re-Read NEW FRONTIER by Peter David
- Thread starter Charles Phipps
- Start date
While the Elvis gag left an obvious hole (Lefler’s inexplicable feeling that she should shriek and faint at the sight of the Promethean acknowledging her), I maintain that the quiet, heartfelt resolution to Shelby hallucinating colors and being embarrassed rather than a long, elaborate put-on puppet show with bunnies is a much, much better choice on every level.
I mean, literally, that was laugh out loud funny for me. I am stealing that for my next Star Trek Adventures game.
I mean, if I had a holodeck, I would be faking my commanding officers all the time. I would eventually get thrown out of starfleet for gaslighting them that the Muppets were real.
The end of this sequence when Kenton says “I don’t need romance, I have goldfish” is one of the funniest moments in the whole series.
Book 7
The Quiet Place
Synopsis: Ever since the fall of the Thallonian Empire, Si Cwan has been searching for his younger sister, the only other survivor of the royal family. His quest has been a hard one, filled with many disappointments, but now it may be nearing its end.... On the planet Montos, a mysterious young woman, whose past is shrouded in secrecy, finds herself pursued by both the fanatical Redeemers and a vicious race of feral predators known only as the Dogs of War. All are in search of information regarding the true nature and location of the Quiet Place, a mystical realm celebrated in myth and legend. Only this same woman, now called Riella, may hold the secret of the Quiet Place, a secret that the Redeemers and others will kill to possess.
Is Riella indeed Si Cwan's long-lost sister? Before he can learn the truth, he and his crewmates must brave the unchecked savagery of the Dogs of War -- and enter the terrifying heart of the Quiet Place.
For those of you unfamiliar with the series: Star Trek: New Frontier is a series which takes place contemporaneously with Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It is a series which manages to avoid the almost painfully continuity-obsessed Star Trek Expanded Universe which could really use a book similar to Star Wars: The Essential Chronology by Kevin J. Anderson.
Instead, the premise of the series is a fairly simple one: there's a starship (U.S.S Excalibur), an area of mostly-unexplored space (The former Thallonian Empire), and a bunch of oddball crewmembers you get to know as the series carries on. Star Trek: New Frontier is the series I tend to recommend for people who want to get into a series without having to know what Y character did in X book as well as Episode 73 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. They're also entertaining, funny, and adventure-filled, books.
The Quiet Place begins with a young woman who has been cursed with visions of the supernatural "Quiet Place" for years on an alien world where she lives as an outcast. Unbeknownst to her, the woman who raised her is a spy keeping her a prisoner. Events conspire to take the U.S.S Excalibur to said world even as a mysterious rogue named Xyon, who steals back cultural treasures stolen from other worlds, finds himself heading that way as well. All of them are in danger of the Redeemers, a fanatical (albeit short) collection of theocrats who will do anything to acquire the Quiet Place. Further complicating things are the Dogs of War, literal dog-men who are some of the most feared mercenaries in the Quadrant.
This novel takes place away from the U.S.S Excalibur for the most part and focuses on new characters Xyon and Riella. Xyon is basically the Star Trek version of Han Solo but is a good deal less mature, being closer to Luke's age rather than Harrison Ford's. Riella is, as the book's back cover indicates, related to one of the main characters as well as being not who she thinks he is. My favorite element is Robin Lefler, mid-level shipwoman, decides to pledge her love to Si Cwan the Prince traveling with the Excalibur only to have one of the most hilarious moments in the book where she gives it without bothering to check who is in the room first.
I like the story but it's not the best example of the series and relies a little too much on the new faces to carry the story. Still, I like both Xyon as well as Riella as they're characters you want to see succeed and are entertaining. Star Trek enthusiasts may be a little put off by the focus on action and adventure over science as well as diplomacy but there's room for all four in the setting. Others may dislike the level of supernatural material which exists alongside science in Peter David with the Redeemer's "Words" being the worst example but if you accept science works like it does in Doctor Who (like magic) it's not a problem. It's not like Star Trek isn't guilty of this to begin with. Q is basically God after all and they cloned Klingon Jesus at one point.
Like all novels in series, the story relies on the strength of the characters and Peter David is a master of crafting quirky but lovable misfits. In a very real way, he's similar to Joss Whedon and one-ups him in several ways. While my favorite character in the series, Mackenzie Calhoun, only makes a couple of minor appearances, I still enjoyed it. The Redeemers and Dogs of War both make good, if two-dimensional, villains who succeed primarily due to the unexpected amount of humor regarding both their appearances. They're immensely funny when they're not being terrifying and that's to the story's benefit.
Overall, this is a good entry into the franchise even if it's unlikely to blow readers away.
The Quiet Place
Synopsis: Ever since the fall of the Thallonian Empire, Si Cwan has been searching for his younger sister, the only other survivor of the royal family. His quest has been a hard one, filled with many disappointments, but now it may be nearing its end.... On the planet Montos, a mysterious young woman, whose past is shrouded in secrecy, finds herself pursued by both the fanatical Redeemers and a vicious race of feral predators known only as the Dogs of War. All are in search of information regarding the true nature and location of the Quiet Place, a mystical realm celebrated in myth and legend. Only this same woman, now called Riella, may hold the secret of the Quiet Place, a secret that the Redeemers and others will kill to possess.
Is Riella indeed Si Cwan's long-lost sister? Before he can learn the truth, he and his crewmates must brave the unchecked savagery of the Dogs of War -- and enter the terrifying heart of the Quiet Place.
For those of you unfamiliar with the series: Star Trek: New Frontier is a series which takes place contemporaneously with Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It is a series which manages to avoid the almost painfully continuity-obsessed Star Trek Expanded Universe which could really use a book similar to Star Wars: The Essential Chronology by Kevin J. Anderson.
Instead, the premise of the series is a fairly simple one: there's a starship (U.S.S Excalibur), an area of mostly-unexplored space (The former Thallonian Empire), and a bunch of oddball crewmembers you get to know as the series carries on. Star Trek: New Frontier is the series I tend to recommend for people who want to get into a series without having to know what Y character did in X book as well as Episode 73 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. They're also entertaining, funny, and adventure-filled, books.
The Quiet Place begins with a young woman who has been cursed with visions of the supernatural "Quiet Place" for years on an alien world where she lives as an outcast. Unbeknownst to her, the woman who raised her is a spy keeping her a prisoner. Events conspire to take the U.S.S Excalibur to said world even as a mysterious rogue named Xyon, who steals back cultural treasures stolen from other worlds, finds himself heading that way as well. All of them are in danger of the Redeemers, a fanatical (albeit short) collection of theocrats who will do anything to acquire the Quiet Place. Further complicating things are the Dogs of War, literal dog-men who are some of the most feared mercenaries in the Quadrant.
This novel takes place away from the U.S.S Excalibur for the most part and focuses on new characters Xyon and Riella. Xyon is basically the Star Trek version of Han Solo but is a good deal less mature, being closer to Luke's age rather than Harrison Ford's. Riella is, as the book's back cover indicates, related to one of the main characters as well as being not who she thinks he is. My favorite element is Robin Lefler, mid-level shipwoman, decides to pledge her love to Si Cwan the Prince traveling with the Excalibur only to have one of the most hilarious moments in the book where she gives it without bothering to check who is in the room first.
I like the story but it's not the best example of the series and relies a little too much on the new faces to carry the story. Still, I like both Xyon as well as Riella as they're characters you want to see succeed and are entertaining. Star Trek enthusiasts may be a little put off by the focus on action and adventure over science as well as diplomacy but there's room for all four in the setting. Others may dislike the level of supernatural material which exists alongside science in Peter David with the Redeemer's "Words" being the worst example but if you accept science works like it does in Doctor Who (like magic) it's not a problem. It's not like Star Trek isn't guilty of this to begin with. Q is basically God after all and they cloned Klingon Jesus at one point.
Like all novels in series, the story relies on the strength of the characters and Peter David is a master of crafting quirky but lovable misfits. In a very real way, he's similar to Joss Whedon and one-ups him in several ways. While my favorite character in the series, Mackenzie Calhoun, only makes a couple of minor appearances, I still enjoyed it. The Redeemers and Dogs of War both make good, if two-dimensional, villains who succeed primarily due to the unexpected amount of humor regarding both their appearances. They're immensely funny when they're not being terrifying and that's to the story's benefit.
Overall, this is a good entry into the franchise even if it's unlikely to blow readers away.
Not doing “Once Burned” or “Double or Nothing”? Personally, I was very confused since I had assumed DN wasn’t an important story for NF and I didn’t read the rest of the Double Helix books, so I wondered for years what happened with Burgoyne’s pregnancy and what Calhoun was talking about when he said Shelby had been acting weird “ever since Riker was here.”
Yeah, Double or Nothing (under the Next Generation - Double Helix branding) and Once Burned (under The Captain's Table label), plus a WildStorm comic Double Time are all set between books six and seven, and all are kinda important in the overall tapestry.
Well I was going to do just the main books first then go back but I'm happy to bow to pressure. I don't think I have a copy of Wildstorm's Double Time and not sure how to get one, though.
I don't know how accessible the comic is in physical form (Amazon lists the issue as at about fifty bucks, which... That's not worth it), and I can't find it specifically on Comixology (which does have the IDW miniseries Turnaround, which is set years down the line, just for the record), but there is The Complete Comic Collection, which is only about thirty bucks on Amazon and carries all the comics from 1979 to 2002 in PDF format.
I recently got Books 1, 3, and 4 of the short-lived Marvel Star Trek series from Eaglemoss. It was my original planned next re-read but the absence of 2 was an issue. I wonder if they have it.
That CD-ROM might be worth it for the same reason if I can get it to work on Windows 10.
It’s a disc of PDFs. Those are OS-agnostic. You just need a program that can read Acrobat files. I like ComicFlow on my iPad, and Adobe Acrobat Viewer on my Windows 10 desktop.
Sold! Thanks! That is very helpful.
Edit:
Also, sadly, the New Frontier comics are unavailable like Starfleet Academy (Marvel) #2.
https://shop.eaglemoss.com/us/hero-collector/star-trek/star-trek-new-frontier-hardback
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Some of my random thoughts on the first 7 books:
1. I think the earliest books really are the best of the series with the exploration of Thallonian Space and dealing with the fall of the Thallonian Empire being a concept that I feel like Peter David got rid of too quickly, I'm not sure how long they could have sustanied the idea of "The Balkans after the Fall of the Soviet Union" but I feel like this was at its most interesting politically and socially. The fact that there were competing powers wanting to rebuild Thallonia as a power also was very realistic.
2. Mackenzie Calhoun remains one of my favorite Star Trek Literature OCs and I like the inherent weirdness of combining Captain Kirk and Conan the Barbarian (or William Wallace to be more historically accurate). The guy from a primitive TOS style savage world who adapts very well to Starfleet despite a lack of formal education because he's just that awesome.
3. Peter David does get a lot of fun out of the concept of contrasting the wild and untamed weirdness of the TOS era with TNG. I don't think the differences are quite as pronounced in the Litverse anymore but when I read this, it felt like they were two different universes and Thallonian Space was meant to harken back to the kind of weird and wacky places that Kirk visited while the rest of the Alpha Quadrant was more "settled." It's why they're the perfect crew for the job. I admit I have always preferred my Star Trek halfway between TOS and the Animated series. Lower Decks, for example, is only slightly wackier than my "canon" Trek.
(The Thallonian Empire is kind of like Marvel's "cosmic" tales and that's not a bad thing--Shi'ar, Corsair, Brood, Phoenix, Skrulls, and so on)
4. Shelby being the straightwoman on a madhouse is a characterization I'm kind of iffy for. I have some issues with the characterizations of all the "imported" characters from TNG to an extent. However, I really like Shelby as a original character and think she does a very good job with the Steve Gutenberg in Police Academy role (no, that's Mac, nevermind). I think one of my favorite moments was when she tried to fit in on the Exeter and everyone found her to be irredeemably weird. That's a bit ahead of our current position, though.
5. Soleta is my second favorite of the characters in the series and I remembered the kind of giddy moment when I realized she was the same Soleta I vaguely remembered from the "Worf In Starfleet Academy" junior high novels I read when I was in junior high. As mentioned, I considered her an EXPY of Saavik and loved her for it. I also quietly shipped her and Mac even though there's never been any doubt about Shelby and Mac. It made the final novel a kind of "be careful what you wish for" moment.
6. I absolutely hate Jellico's interpretation in the books because I am one of those individuals who thinks that "Chains of Command" showed him to be a perfectly reasonable new officer and showing a lot more restraint than the crew probably deserved. That even in the mildly military Starfleet, the Enterprise-D had taken it too far. The one in the New Frontier books is basically J Jonah Jameson except Calhoun is his version of Spiderman. I wouldn't have minded it if it had been an OC but it rankled me with Jellico.
7. Robin Lefler is a character that is so far removed from her original concept that it's hard to compare her to her onscreen persona but that's kind of the double-edge of these things as you are often expanding on characters that don't have much development. Rather than Wesley's oddball girlfriend, she's the daughter of an immortal Majel Barrett character and lover of a alien space prince. I do admit I kind of like how they gave the "green skinned space babe" role to a dude and a woman, though. In a lot of ways, she was a much better straight woman than Shelby and kind of reminded me of Kitty Pryde in being the younger sister of the group.
8. Si Cwan will never be one of my favorite characters but I have to admit I think he added a lot of color to Star Trek: New Frontier as the guy who was the only representative of the old regime and had a lot of values different from the Federation. Being the "pauper prince" was also a good thing for him as well as the whole 'martial arts vengeance' thing. His story's ending is when I think I realized New Frontier was never going to be what it once was but, again, getting ahead of ourselves.
9. Villains wise, I think the Danteri were much better people to deal with than the Redeemers. I LOVE the Redeemers and also kind of hate them. I mean, the inherent concept of aliens that are fanatically evil and not remotely physically intimidating is something that I have used in my RPGs and a couple of my stories multiple times. However, the comedy of them being genocidal theocrats just kind of falls flat. I also felt they kind of broke Star Trek's rules by giving them outright magic by another name in the words of power. I wish the Danteri had shown up more because they were scheming like the Romulans and Cardassians but not so obviously evil about it.
10. Weirdly, despite being the designated corrupt idiot, I tended to agree with Mac's brother about all his political decisions and felt that was deliberate.
11. Xyon thoughts: Deserving its own post is my thoughts on Xyon who is the resident Han Solo EXPY of the series and yet I think does it better than Okona (low bar as that may be). I really like the storyline here that he's acting more mature than he is for his age (rather than less as you might think) and his anger at Mac is pretty much unjustified save for teenage angst. Which I suppose makes him less a EXPY of Han Solo than a predecessor of the movieverse Peter Quill. Like Peter Quill, I also like how the fact that he fudges up his relationship with Kalinda and really has no one to blame but himself. When he walks in on Kalinda (who is revealed to be bisexual in what was still very surprising for the 90s) and another woman having a date, his heartbreak is understandable but all on him. I remembered liking that Peter David was breaking the "rules" about how such relationships were supposed to be.
12. I also like how Mac and Xyon kind of follow up on the Kirk plot that WOK never could. Basically, the two of them actually now forced to make a relationship.
1. I think the earliest books really are the best of the series with the exploration of Thallonian Space and dealing with the fall of the Thallonian Empire being a concept that I feel like Peter David got rid of too quickly, I'm not sure how long they could have sustanied the idea of "The Balkans after the Fall of the Soviet Union" but I feel like this was at its most interesting politically and socially. The fact that there were competing powers wanting to rebuild Thallonia as a power also was very realistic.
2. Mackenzie Calhoun remains one of my favorite Star Trek Literature OCs and I like the inherent weirdness of combining Captain Kirk and Conan the Barbarian (or William Wallace to be more historically accurate). The guy from a primitive TOS style savage world who adapts very well to Starfleet despite a lack of formal education because he's just that awesome.
3. Peter David does get a lot of fun out of the concept of contrasting the wild and untamed weirdness of the TOS era with TNG. I don't think the differences are quite as pronounced in the Litverse anymore but when I read this, it felt like they were two different universes and Thallonian Space was meant to harken back to the kind of weird and wacky places that Kirk visited while the rest of the Alpha Quadrant was more "settled." It's why they're the perfect crew for the job. I admit I have always preferred my Star Trek halfway between TOS and the Animated series. Lower Decks, for example, is only slightly wackier than my "canon" Trek.
(The Thallonian Empire is kind of like Marvel's "cosmic" tales and that's not a bad thing--Shi'ar, Corsair, Brood, Phoenix, Skrulls, and so on)
4. Shelby being the straightwoman on a madhouse is a characterization I'm kind of iffy for. I have some issues with the characterizations of all the "imported" characters from TNG to an extent. However, I really like Shelby as a original character and think she does a very good job with the Steve Gutenberg in Police Academy role (no, that's Mac, nevermind). I think one of my favorite moments was when she tried to fit in on the Exeter and everyone found her to be irredeemably weird. That's a bit ahead of our current position, though.
5. Soleta is my second favorite of the characters in the series and I remembered the kind of giddy moment when I realized she was the same Soleta I vaguely remembered from the "Worf In Starfleet Academy" junior high novels I read when I was in junior high. As mentioned, I considered her an EXPY of Saavik and loved her for it. I also quietly shipped her and Mac even though there's never been any doubt about Shelby and Mac. It made the final novel a kind of "be careful what you wish for" moment.
6. I absolutely hate Jellico's interpretation in the books because I am one of those individuals who thinks that "Chains of Command" showed him to be a perfectly reasonable new officer and showing a lot more restraint than the crew probably deserved. That even in the mildly military Starfleet, the Enterprise-D had taken it too far. The one in the New Frontier books is basically J Jonah Jameson except Calhoun is his version of Spiderman. I wouldn't have minded it if it had been an OC but it rankled me with Jellico.
7. Robin Lefler is a character that is so far removed from her original concept that it's hard to compare her to her onscreen persona but that's kind of the double-edge of these things as you are often expanding on characters that don't have much development. Rather than Wesley's oddball girlfriend, she's the daughter of an immortal Majel Barrett character and lover of a alien space prince. I do admit I kind of like how they gave the "green skinned space babe" role to a dude and a woman, though. In a lot of ways, she was a much better straight woman than Shelby and kind of reminded me of Kitty Pryde in being the younger sister of the group.
8. Si Cwan will never be one of my favorite characters but I have to admit I think he added a lot of color to Star Trek: New Frontier as the guy who was the only representative of the old regime and had a lot of values different from the Federation. Being the "pauper prince" was also a good thing for him as well as the whole 'martial arts vengeance' thing. His story's ending is when I think I realized New Frontier was never going to be what it once was but, again, getting ahead of ourselves.
9. Villains wise, I think the Danteri were much better people to deal with than the Redeemers. I LOVE the Redeemers and also kind of hate them. I mean, the inherent concept of aliens that are fanatically evil and not remotely physically intimidating is something that I have used in my RPGs and a couple of my stories multiple times. However, the comedy of them being genocidal theocrats just kind of falls flat. I also felt they kind of broke Star Trek's rules by giving them outright magic by another name in the words of power. I wish the Danteri had shown up more because they were scheming like the Romulans and Cardassians but not so obviously evil about it.
10. Weirdly, despite being the designated corrupt idiot, I tended to agree with Mac's brother about all his political decisions and felt that was deliberate.
11. Xyon thoughts: Deserving its own post is my thoughts on Xyon who is the resident Han Solo EXPY of the series and yet I think does it better than Okona (low bar as that may be). I really like the storyline here that he's acting more mature than he is for his age (rather than less as you might think) and his anger at Mac is pretty much unjustified save for teenage angst. Which I suppose makes him less a EXPY of Han Solo than a predecessor of the movieverse Peter Quill. Like Peter Quill, I also like how the fact that he fudges up his relationship with Kalinda and really has no one to blame but himself. When he walks in on Kalinda (who is revealed to be bisexual in what was still very surprising for the 90s) and another woman having a date, his heartbreak is understandable but all on him. I remembered liking that Peter David was breaking the "rules" about how such relationships were supposed to be.
12. I also like how Mac and Xyon kind of follow up on the Kirk plot that WOK never could. Basically, the two of them actually now forced to make a relationship.
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Presumably, Robin never ran into Lwaxana on the Enterprise or got freaked out by the Starfleet Computer Voice.
Headcanon:
"I dunno, I always found the Enterprise computer's voice oddly soothing....and irritating at other times."
Presumably, Robin also has a weird relationship with M'Ress too.
Janos' devolution is one of the most emotionally impactful things that I experienced in Trek lit.
Its getting ahead of things but I did feel New Frontier's problems began with the fact while Janos' end is wonderfully tragic, it seemed like everyone started getting knocked off Game of Thrones style.
IMHO, the only thing the "canon" characters in New Frontier have in common with their canon counterparts is their names. With Shelby, it's like PAD had never watched "Best of Both Worlds." Or even read Vendetta.
*leans in* *whispers* Peter David wrote Vendetta.
https://www.amazon.com/Vendetta-Star-Trek-Next-Generation-ebook/dp/B000FC0W8S/
