And yes, I’m quite interested to hear what you thought of my story, too. If Peter can take this level of hardcore criticism, so can I.
And yes, I’m quite interested to hear what you thought of my story, too. If Peter can take this level of hardcore criticism, so can I.
• 
Ok, so I haven’t read the whole thing. Yet.
Mr. Hauman, you and Ms.(Mrs.?) Sullivan did a great job on ‘Xant.’ It reminds me of what I have seen: That people can take a good idea and twist it into something hideous. A job well done indeed.
What I have read in ‘No Limits’ so far has been rather good. I feel that the characters have been well captured by the various writers. I especially like the fact that not all of the stories are ‘pretty.’ I think it’s good for Star Trek to be dark sometimes.
Salutations,
Mitch
Mr. Hauman, you and Ms.(Mrs.?) Sullivan did a great job on ‘Xant.’ It reminds me of what I have seen: That people can take a good idea and twist it into something hideous. A job well done indeed.
It’s Ms., and thanks. Glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
OK, thought all the stories were, great, although some were greater than others. Kebron’s was probably the overall favourite, but Eppy and Mac’s honeymoon, Soleta’s moment of discovery, ‘Lefler’s Logs’ and Arex’s “The Road to Edos” all featured highly amongs my re-reads.
Would have loved to, on the other hand, find out more about Shelby’s family etc.- we’ve had Mac’s, McHenry’s, Soleta’s and even Selar’s to a certain extent and the glimpses of Shelby’s background offered here and in “Stone and Anvil” were tantalising- especially her parent’s reactions to Mac.
Also, the list of NF books at the back of ‘No Limits’ lists Margaret Wander Bonano’s Lost Era novel “The Catalyst of Sorrows” as part of the series. Err, in a word, why?
You’re Welcome, Ms. Sullivan.
Salutations,
Mitch
Well, not really sure I liked this book as well as the others. I think my problem is that I’ve come to expect the New Frontier books to have a singular vision, one guiding force.
When I read NF by someone else it just doesn’t seem right.
I mean, they were enjoyable, but not what I was looking for.
I was thinking and was hoping you would comment Peter…will you make your own set of Trek like characters set in a universe of your own..I love the NF stories but I keep thinking you have fans that love your work and I’d like to see how you’d set things if you had your own starfleet type of universe to do with what you’d like….
I never read fantasy books until your Sir Apropos series…
I would be willing to bet that you could start a science fiction book franchise of your own with another Federation type of series …
why not?
What concerns me with the No Limits anthology is that someone else will be writing your characters…the series won’t be the same without PAD at the helm..
Okay, well I just finished reading all of the books in sequence, over about three weeks (a lot of long nights and resulting painful mornings!). The only stories I’ve not read yet are ‘Double Time’ which I can’t find, and ‘Catalyst of Sorrows’ which I’m going to pick up soon.
BTW: Is Double Time going to be released again?
I would thus characterize my level of familiarity with the characters, characterizations, and ‘universe’ of NF as around a 9 out of 10. I’m quite a fan of the series, and I can’t wait to read what comes next.
I will now go story-by-story through ‘No Limits’ and give my opinion and rating out of 10 points.
(SPOILERS) XANT: Redemtion Great read. I agree with Mitch from above. Sadly, that’s what is happening right now with fanatics in any religion. Looking forward to how those religious fanatics will be blasted out of the universe in future NF books(even if it only happens in a book, I would like
them to have a good beating.)
I also enjoyed your SCE book OATHS. Made Capt. Gold think if Dr. Lense has gone over the edge. I know if I were the captain, I will be sending her in every away mission as much as possible, so she can’t declare me incompetent and take over the ship. Aaah… the power of a doctor in a ship.
Think of the possibilities. And that Solitaire bit—made me laugh. More often than not, I found myself guilty of the same thing.
Burgoyne172: Through the Looking Glass
I enjoyed it very much. Hope Susan Wright will be one of those writers who will be writing NF books. Liked her other ST books as well.
NF Timeline – It’s very helpful, thanks a lot to KRAD. Though, I have a question for him: In Revelations he described Soleta’s eyes as deep black. While in House of Cards, PAD described them as piercing blue. What is it going to be in the future? 🙂
Glenn, are you and Lisa Sullivan going to be a tandem now like Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels, DW Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz and Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore?
By far, I think that Kebron’s story,
‘Waiting for G’Doh’
– or –
‘How I Learned to Stop Moving and Hate People’
was the funniest thing I’ve read in ages. Nice bits about him, and the way he looks at us. I really hope that Kebron manages to keep his dry sarcastic wit now that he’s grown up.
Just something I wanted to add to my last post, kinda nitpicky- in the mention of the honeymoon in “Gateways: Cold Wars”, Shelby says (paraphrashed): “I almost died, you almost died. We both almost died.” and Calhoun’s reply is: “Thats why it was fun.”
So I expected the honeymoon story to be something a little different- what was there was good, just not what I was expecting based on the above exchange.
Oh yeah, and like Mike Parish, I can’t find “Double Time” either…
I’ve only read parts of No Limits because I’ve only read NF 1-4. The parts I read, for the most part I liked. They weren’t EXCELLENT but they were tolerable. When I get the cash, I will buy a bunch more NF books off Amazon. SOON.
There were a nice mix of stories here, some I liked more than others. My favorite would have to be the Kebron story.
Oh, for those who mentioned it above, Double Time was a 1-shot comic book published by DC Comics/Wildstorm.
I read about one third of the stories then stopped and haven’t picked it back up in months. I’ve read every other book in the New Frontier series cover to cover within 3 or 4 days of buying them. I started with your story (which I liked), Peter, but the others that I read so far made me feel as if I was reading adequate fan fiction.
PAD Fan 4 Ever, Peter will be at the helm of NF until they pry his keyboard away. Every story in here had his stamp of approval. Worry not.
LouieCat, I don’t know when or if we’ll go back to Eben– but I do look forward to it. And thank you for the Oaths comments. Regarding partnering with Lisa Sullivan, we’re always on the lookout for other things to do together. The next Trek job that will be out from me, though, will be a two-part SCE collaboration with Aaron Rosenberg. (Of the two of them, Lisa is much cuter.) For me, I wouldn’t mind working with someone else; it’s just finding the right project to do it with, and the right schedule. I’d like to work with Dave Mack again on something, and I certainly would like to do so with Peter– problem with working with him is that by the time you’ve written a paragraph, he’s written a chapter and a half. Fast typist.
I’ve been meaning to ask this for a long time. The name of Eben’s people’s original god, Kolk’r, sounded familiar. Is this a reference to something my addled brain has lost?
Other than that, enjoyed it immensely.
Kolker has appeared in a lot of PAD’s comicbook work, such as Dreadstar and Captain Marvel.
Oh, and Jess (I’d email you, but you didn’t put in an addy), just get the hardcover of the most recent one. It has a CDROM with all the NF novels on it.
>Oh, and Jess (I’d email you, but >you didn’t put in an addy), just >get the hardcover of the most >recent one. It has a CDROM with >all the NF novels on it.
Okee… but I’ll still read the ones I HAVE in paper copies. (I got a load of them at Christmas time.)
I loved the stories of: Dayton, rumor, David Mack, Bob Greenberger, KRAD, Josepha Sherman, Christina York, Kevin, Allyn, Susan Shwartz, and PAD.
I enjoyed the stories of: Terri, Robert T. Jeschonek, Peg Robinson, Mary Scott-Wiecek, and Glenn & Lisa.
I disliked the stories of Ilsa Bick and Susan Wright (though I don’t normally like her books).
And I’d like to see this become a semi-regular (maybe biennially?) event. 🙂
I bought the very first 2 NF book about a week after they were released in the U.K. These were the first ST books I ever bought and to this day I still can’t realy put my finger on why I bought them but, I’ve been hooked eve since and get each new book as soon as it comes out over here.
I got all Three books delivered from Amazon on a Tuesday morning about a 3 weeks before christmas, I read them in order, Gods Above, Stone & Anvil then No Limits, I,d read them all by midnight Fribay. I think that sums up what I thought of these latest NF books.
Keep up the great work PAD and if I can ask just one thing of you, Please could we loose the 2 year wait between books, my NF collection is starting to get a little worn as I have to keep re-reading them to get my fix while I wait for the next installment. Thanks for the great take on the ST universe
This is my review of “No Limits” I wrote quite a long time ago. I am hoping that nobody minds that I am posting it here as well.
I left the text nearly unchanged.
To be safe: The text contains spoilers.
Loose Ends
I enjoyed that story very much. It was an interesting idea to look at the consequences of
I’m sick and really short-changed on time and will post specific comments on all 3 NF books, but wanted to mention that people should carefully examine the title page of No Limits, especially *where it is published. *wink*
Chris
@Chris:
LOL- thats a great Easter egg, I would’ve never picked it up…
You can also find the same on just about any book edited by Margaret or Marco since at least 2000….
Michael Parish: glad you liked the story. What Soleta said was that she confronted Rajari on the brig of the Aldrin, which happens on the latter pages of the story. *grin*
louiecat: glad you liked the timeline. It was fun to put it together, and I hope fans find it useful.
Chris: that addition to the list of places where Pocket Books has offices was my idea, and something that, as Andrew says, several editors have done with Trek novels. *smile*
—KRAD
A few non-spoiler comments on a few of the stories:
Waiting for G’Doh. While not laugh-out-loud funny, it was definitely grin-inducing, especially seeing all the indignities Zak had to go through.
Alice, on the Edge of Night. Scary as heck. While Lefiler’s Logs didn’t do much for me, Alice definitely fitted well with that story, and was better-written to boot.
“Q”uandry. Huh? Sorry, but if there was a point to this story, it went right over my head.
Oil and Water. I enjoyed this story, though I can’t quite place my finger on why. While there weren’t any standout moments or characters in it, the story overall was a well-rounded, well-developed piece, which is always a plus.
The Road to Eidos. A little predictable, but funny. I saw the ending coming from halfway through the story, but the sheer silliness of the trip made it worthwhile.
Redemption. A good start to a story, but hampered by the lack of pages. Someone’s definitely planting seeds for a future New Frontier novel, though…
Out of the Frying Pan. Again, nothing truly noteworthy or life-changing, but a well-crafted read. Spock’s unflappable Vulcan nature just adds to the fun.
A Little Getaway. A case of “saving the best for last,” this is the quintessential PAD comedic short story — a plausible buildup, realistic character responses, and a whole lotta laughs along the way. I had to read this again immediately after finishing it to get another bellyful of laughs. My only problem is trying to decide which joke was the funniest in the entire story — either Eppy’s response to the final trial, or Zak’s remark once the lovebirds cleared the docking bay. I get a big grin on my face just thinking about it…
Oh, for those who mentioned it above, Double Time was a 1-shot comic book published by DC Comics/Wildstorm.
It’s also included in a collection of the DC/Wilstorm Trek books called “Star Trek: Other Realities” which included the great “All of Me” by Tony Isabella and Bob Ingersol and the so-so DS9: N-Vector
David