I'm reminded of McCoy's reaction to T'Pau's appearence in Vulcan's Heart - "I thought she died 50 years ago!" (Spock's World)
Worse than Enterprise??JD said:
Why no New Frontier in the Typhon Pact?
- Thread starter Gotham Central
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That sounds terrible, like a mix of the Founders, 8472 and the parasites from "Conspiracy".
I've only read The Good That Men Do, and Kobayashi Maru, and I liked them better than the NF books.
Well, after enduring TGTMD and KM, I quit a third of the way into Beneath the Raptor's Wing, after realizing it wasn't gonna get better.
I've been eagerly reading all the NF books (waaaaay behind on those), and am going to start Cold Wars soon. Even when the main plots are lacking or incredibly cartoonish, there's are always the colourful characters to keep me reading.
Each to their own, I guess (and it's always possible NF will warp into the toilet between now and Blind Man's Bluff.)
I've been eagerly reading all the NF books (waaaaay behind on those), and am going to start Cold Wars soon. Even when the main plots are lacking or incredibly cartoonish, there's are always the colourful characters to keep me reading.
Each to their own, I guess (and it's always possible NF will warp into the toilet between now and Blind Man's Bluff.)
What everybody needs to realize is, it's PAD's series, and he can do whatever he wants with it. If you don't like it, don't read the series. While a great deal of people (including me) think he's the best Treklit author currently, a few less people reading NF really won't make any difference. The reason why it's gone the way it has in the last few books is because(and these are his words) he wants to prevent backsliding. So many authors want to keep crews together, the characters' careers are stagnating. PAD didn't want that.
Also, PAD writes other novels. Asking him to churn out new NF novels on a faster basis because you want more would basically be making HIS career stagnate.
Also, PAD writes other novels. Asking him to churn out new NF novels on a faster basis because you want more would basically be making HIS career stagnate.
^ Sure, except apparently he hasn't been contracted for any more yet because sales are declining, so "a few less people reading NF" is making a difference. He has plenty of other stuff to do, but delays in NF aren't because of his other projects, they're because he's not being contracted as quickly.
Don't get me wrong; I want there to be more. If nothing else, he deserves a chance to write a real ending to such a long-running part of the Trek universe. But I think it's pretty clear that in every sense of the word, New Frontier has been declining lately.
Don't get me wrong; I want there to be more. If nothing else, he deserves a chance to write a real ending to such a long-running part of the Trek universe. But I think it's pretty clear that in every sense of the word, New Frontier has been declining lately.
even i, an ardent fanboy of the series, would admit the last 3 books have not been as good.
To me, the biggest problem with NF, was Peter David's comicbook-style writing. I know he wrote a lot of comics over the years, and it tell. Lot's of cheesy one-liners and dialogue, witty comments and over the top action sequences that felt just to much like a comic to me. Sometimes, it worked. Sometimes, it really didn't. And for a few novels, it was fun. But after a while, I really just wanted my more mature Star Trek. And I knew I was not going to get that from Peter David. Perhaps once he could (I keep hearing great things about his earlier Trek work) but NF really lost its appael for me.
It was sort of a cliffhanger ending, in the sense that we don't know what happened to the real Nacheyev, or if she's out there alive and captive somewhere. Plus there's these new bad guys.
I thought the Nacheyev thing was pretty lame - unless they find her and rescue her in a subsequent book, it puts the whole series in an "alternate continuity" because as others have said she is certainly not dead.
Besides, didn't Kersten Beyer just do the same exact thing (though much better done) with a different admiral in Voyager? It wouldn't surprise me if the entire admiralty wasn't just a bunch of alien infiltrators. Like that old episode of Get Smart (or some other comedy?) where the main character infiltrates an international crime organization only to find that every single member has already been replaced by an undercover agent from a different nation.
I really hope Blind Man's Bluff doesn't end up being the last book in the series. Ending it that way, with a buildup and cliffhanger, sucks. It would be nice if they'd at least let him do one more to tie everything up. The series has gone a bit off the rails in the last several books, so I wouldn't be too sad to see it end, but an ending would be nice at least.
As for outgrowing Trek lit? To each his own. I am nearly 40, a lifelong trek reader, and I still haven't outgrown it.
For what its worth the NF series, while sometimes immensely entertaining, is definitely the most juvenile and sophomoric of the series. (The most "grown up" is definitely Vanguard, which just ended.) The recent books in the main trek line have been fantastic as well.
I love, love, love New Frontier and I'm probably one of the biggest fans of the series and more forgiving for its flaws than other people are, but honestly the series has had a very good run. At this point I want one last novel to give it a good and proper ending.
And then the characters can disperse amongst everyone else.
And then the characters can disperse amongst everyone else.
I've had similar thoughts about the later NF books, they just dont have the darker, irreverent feel the early books did. But I still love the characters and wish I could read more of them, outside the confines of PD doing whatever the hell he wants. They could fill a supplementary or auxiliary role similar to the crews of Aventine, Robinson, even (dare I say) new DS9. Ideally, they'd let KRAD at 'em.
He could pick up where PD dropped the ball in the third quarter, and serve up a Hail Mary.
He could pick up where PD dropped the ball in the third quarter, and serve up a Hail Mary.
New Frontier was an innovative series, featuring sustained development of either minor canon or non-canonical characters in a complex and changing setting. The example that it provided was a very good one for the current novelverse that we know and love.
The problem is that, leaving aside the question of compatibility with the main novelverse (the presence of Seven and the Doctor in the most recent NF novel doesn't fit with Voyager, the stories just haven't been very interesting lately.
I agree as to the declining quality of the series in the last few books. I actually haven't read Blind Man's Bluff yet, deciding to wait and see if the cliffhanger got resolved. I knew that the book (and thus possibly the entire series) ended on a cliffhanger before I bought it, but I made the purchase anyway, in support of a series that I still want to see get a proper finale.
However, I do believe that a finale is (over?)due. IMHO, give PAD one more book to tie a bow on things and call it a day.
However, I do believe that a finale is (over?)due. IMHO, give PAD one more book to tie a bow on things and call it a day.
I think that is a great think about PAD. TOS had a bit of a comicbook-style to it with its god-like beings and crazy scenarios. Trek should stay down to earth and relatable for the most part but once in a while it is nice to have that comic feel to break/shake things up.
I love, love, love New Frontier and I'm probably one of the biggest fans of the series and more forgiving for its flaws than other people are, but honestly the series has had a very good run. At this point I want one last novel to give it a good and proper ending.
And then the characters can disperse amongst everyone else.
I've followed this series from its beginning & have loved it. The last one, along w/ PAD's Before Dishonor did make me do wtf, but would like one more as well. Would love to see Calhoun & company have to deal with the Pact.
Was my favourite novel series but I sort of think it was the victim of cutting the books down to 1 a month and PAD's increasingly full schedule.
The early came thick and fast, set up some interesting plots and resolved them, in a fairly traditional setting (seven major characters on an starship). Eventually that seemed to be played out so PAD shook things up, sent characters off to different places, there were the two ships, the starbase, a whole bunch of stuff that painted with a much wider brush. Had the novels kept coming at the prior pace, that would have been brilliant. But reduced to one a year (if that) there just wasn't enough NF being published to handle that sort of story.
I hope we get a finale, though again I wonder if a single book will suffice. I kinda wish we could get a final trilogy in consecutive months, to really give space to tell a final tale, though that seems unlikely to happen.
The early came thick and fast, set up some interesting plots and resolved them, in a fairly traditional setting (seven major characters on an starship). Eventually that seemed to be played out so PAD shook things up, sent characters off to different places, there were the two ships, the starbase, a whole bunch of stuff that painted with a much wider brush. Had the novels kept coming at the prior pace, that would have been brilliant. But reduced to one a year (if that) there just wasn't enough NF being published to handle that sort of story.
I hope we get a finale, though again I wonder if a single book will suffice. I kinda wish we could get a final trilogy in consecutive months, to really give space to tell a final tale, though that seems unlikely to happen.
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