Star Trek, New Frontier

Books 1-4

By: Peter David, John J. Ordover

Narrated by: Joe Morton

Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Sector 221-G: For the whole of Federation history, this large volume of space has been controlled by the Thallonians, a cruel, militaristic race of whom little is known except that they rule the other races in their sector with an vicious iron hand. Now the Thallonian Empire has collapsed and the systems it once ruled are in chaos. Old hatreds are surfacing. Petty tyrants control deadly weapons. World after world is descending into disorder and self-destruction. The Federation must send a starship to help where it can and report what it finds. That ship is the U.S.S. Excalibur, a newly refit Ambassador-class starship manned by a crew of Starfleet's best and brightest, including some old friends from Star Trek, The Next Generation and some of the strongest new characters ever found on a Federation starship. Join Captain Calhoun and the crew of the Excalibur as they explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go where no one has gone before!

©1997 Paramount Pictures, All Rights Reserved; AUDIOWORKS Is an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc. (P)1997 Paramount Pictures, All Rights Reserved

A good story, but mired in

Having read some of the later chapters of the New Frontier series, I enjoyed the origins of Calhoun. The characters came to life here and I thoroughly enjoyed the little twist at the end.

My only complaints, and why I had to give this only three stars is the narration was done in a peculiarly halting pattern. Speaking - like - a - parody - of - James - Kirk. In addition, the sound track and sound effects were much too loud and had me constantly adjusting volume to avoid the loud effects and to hear the narration which would then be too quiet.

I will be more cautious and try to avoid other titles produced in the same manner.

Conclusion: good story, but overwhelmed by the post-production.

What fun for a Trekkie

These four books, the first in the "New Frontier" series offers up an amalgom of both the old and the new. Cmr. Shelby and Ensign Lefler from the "Next Generation" TV series and of course the new in Capt. Calhoun and several other new characters.

This series will hold you tightly to your ear phones until the very last word. I thoughtly enjoyed the first four books of the "Star Trek: New Frontier" series.

Listening is an uphill battle

I enjoy a variety of Star Trek books on audio and in paper. These are no exception, and Peter David is one of my all-time favorite Trek authors. However, the narrator delivers the majority of the dialogue in a stilting, almost painful, manner. Other reviewers likened it to James T. Kirk's speech, but I find it much more difficult to listen to than Shatner's Kirk. I am seriously considering simply buying the books to read, so I can finish the story without having to suffer any longer. Story: 4 stars. Narration: 0 stars

Great Story

I read these books many years ago and really enjoyed them. Peter David remains the best of the Star Trek fiction writers out there, and <i>Star Trek: New Frontier</i> is one of his better cretions. He mixes in old names and faces from the <i>ST:TNG</i> series with some new characters and races to create a great story. This abridgement of the first four books does a good job of keeping the main story points without losing too much of the character and plot development that sometimes happens with abridgements. As some reviewers have pointed out, this audiobook contains special effect and background noises, which can at times be annoying, but unlike some reviewers I didn't feel it detracted too much for the reading. There were maybe two times when the background noises drowned out the narrator. As to the narration itself, I thought the reader made some interesting vocal choices in his rendering of certain characters that just didn't work, but overall it's a decent enough job. If you like <i>Star Trek</i> and are looking for a new take on the <i>ST:TNG</i> universe, then <i>New Frontier</i> is a great choice. In reading this series I've often wondering why this isn't a series. It would certainly be a better choice than the too often boring <i>Enterprise</i>.

A Hard Listen

I am an avid Star Trek fan but this audiobook was very hard to maintain interest. The story may have been fine but I couldn't get past the narration. The narration made it hard to follow the story line and I found my attention wandering a great deal.

Terrible Narrator

The sound effects are fine, but the narrator is one of the worst I’ve ever heard. The various voices and inflections he uses makes this very hard to listen to.

A good introduction to the New Frontier Franchise

While this audio recording is an abridgement of four books it tells a very cohesive story. Everything that happens fits the story and unless you read the original four books you would be hard pressed to see what was cut out. The use of star trek sound effects was done carefully here so it wasn't overwhelming or annoying but instead added a good accent on a scene and the Joe Morton the narrator did an excellent job on the voices.

Treated as its own work it tells a fun adventure of the Federation sending a ship and crew into a region where the Federation was rarely allowed to go before. With the region becoming politically unstable the story does an excellent job explaining why the Federation cares enough to investigate further and why they send this particular crew. The entire thing feels at once like a series pilot for a tv show and as a singular story and that is impressive.

I felt the cast had a wonderful chemistry and the setting interesting and the story works. It certainly makes me want to read more of the New Frontier series.

Great book/Annoying Reading

I've read the book before and loved it. It was awesome to hear the story come to life. I did however get annoyed with the way the reader used his voice for some of the characters. Especially the main Character, Mac. Having pauses as they speak almost had me turn it off.

Narration Ruined It For Me

What aspect of Joe Morton’s performance would you have changed?

Everything! I love Joe Morton as an actor in Eureka and Terminator 2, but his narration of this book is awful and hard to listen to. For the entire beginning of the book I thought that Captain Calhoun was a Klingon. No matter what character he is reading, it all sounds like a mix of Klingon and Capt. Kirk.

Any additional comments?

I only made it to Chapter 4 before I could not listen to the book any further. I don't think it had anything to do with the story and my buddy that read the real book tells me this is an awesome series. It is the narration that I couldn't stand and found really hard to follow. It's too bad, because this book was really the only reason I joined audible.

An ok read. Interesting story.

This was a good novel for trekkies with some familiar characters. The story was ok.