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

Good stories, poor execution

The halting speech patterns grew annoying about half way through. The "accents" made it worse. But, I love Star Trek, so I put up with the short comings.

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.

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.

Oh my stars and garters! - F.L. Smith, Jr.

Loved this 1st introduction of the New Frontier; the characters are unique and yet still familiar. Peter David just blows me away with his writing. Joe Morton has always been more than "Poppa Pope"! I wish that this had been the unabridged version!

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.

A New Frontier Indeed

What did you love best about Star Trek, New Frontier?

Not the standard schlock from a Star Trek book. It mixes secondary characters from the Next Generation with a new ship, a new captain, and a new mission. This series isn't limited by the Star Trek cannon as the other books are. Because Peter David launches a new crew and a new ship which is limited only by the author's imagination. And Peter David is one of the greats.

It still gets mired down at times trying to impress Trekkies/Trekkers. In this storyline it is the

What did you like best about this story?

The fresh new characters. Captain Calhoun and Si Cwan are standout characters.

What about Joe Morton???s performance did you like?

A great performance. This is not my first audio performed by Mr. Morton. He never disappoints.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The action and adventure of the first Star Trek, back in the 24th Century

Any additional comments?

For Trek fans, it's a new adventure. For newbies, this is the beginning of a new adventure. Beam on board from the beginning.

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.

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>.

Pretty good.

The story was good, however, the narrator needed to be replaced with someone else. The person doing the narration was horrible.

Nice addition

Good use of known characters and solid group of new ones and new species. Good story in the ST tradition.