I’m getting a lot of questions regarding the following comment made by a web reviewer in regards to “After the Fall”:
“Word has it that this is the beginning of the end of the NEW FRONTIER
series, and that Peter David is preparing to retire the series after the end of this three-part arc.”
Why the heck do people say “Word has it” without asking me?
First of all, it’s not my series to “retire.” It’s owned by Paramount and S&S. If I decided I didn’t want to write any more, Pocket would be entirely within its rights to hire–I dunno–my second coming, Keith DeCandido, and have HIM write it. For that matter, if Pocket decides they don’t want to continue it, I’ve nothing to say about it.
While it’s true that there’s no contract beyond the current three book arc, that means nothing. Pocket has never offered me a new contract when I’m still working under the previous one. Once I’ve turned in the last two books that are covered under the current six-book contract, THEN we’ll see what’s what. But if Pocket wants to continue the series and continue it with me, I’m perfectly game.
I mean, geez, think, people. Why would I create a major jumping on point in “After the Fall” if I were planning to jump off two books later?
PAD
• 
Didn’t hear a word about the above rumours, but am glad to hear that there are two more books on the way, with the possibility of more along the road. Great!
the funz.
I have no clue where that reviewer got that lunatic notion, but it’s already been denied by Pocket Books folks. Bizarre, truly.
—your second coming
yah, I think the “only contracted for 2 more books” quote got blown outta proportion.
Anyway, I can’t wait to read “AFter The Fall”. I’ve read every NF book and I’m currently (re)reading them all. I’m up to, uh, book ten. “Renisance”. Can’t wait to reach After the Fall, but I want to experience the original crew one last time before jumping onto a new point.
When I heard about that rumour, I thought it is most likely false. But I thought, I better bring this to your attention for two reasons: To reassure me and other NF fans that it is untrue and to give you the chance to stop it at the beginning before this rumour becomes more widespread and perhaps even more “fact” are getting added.
First of all, I am happy that you intend to stay with NF and am very much looking forward to the next book.
great! life is good again
“I’ve never heard of such a brutal and shocking injustice that I cared so little about.”
Just finished After the Fall yesterday, and enjoyed it very much (seemed way too short though – it’s pretty rare I finish a book in just a few days – I’m a verrrrry sloooooow reader!)
So when’s the next one due to hit the shelves? Please don’t say November, please don’t say November, please don’t say November………
By the way, just convinced my new wife (as of 2 weeks ago!!) to start reading Book 1 of the series (she loved Q-Squared and the Imzadis) … Only another 20 or so before she catches up with me!
I am currently reading After the Fall…great story by the way…and I can’t wait for the next 2 installments.
Regards:
Warren S. Jones III
“Why the heck do people say “Word has it” without asking me?”
Its a new thing in jornalism that Fox news started. You can say whatever you want and not get sued by pretending you have a source, but never actually saying who the source is, or if its reliable. They did this to say whatever they wanted about Kerry with comments like…
“Some folks are saying John Kerry looks French”
or
“Some folks are saying John Kerry wants to turn over all of America to the UN.”
Some folks could mean anyone from “A washington insider” to “two guys talking at a water cooler.”
Welcome to the new America and new standards in jornalism, brought to you, by “Faux” news.
-Jamie
Glad to hear there are another 2 books after this one. Can’t wait for more. Unfortantly back here in good old Blightly (UK) I can’t get old of this current book let alone any new ones when they come out.
Amazon have now informed me there is a further 1-2 week delay on After the Fall. So I hope to catch up any decade now.
When are the next ones out and what will they be called?
Haven’t read the book yet (it’s under the tree), and so of course I’ve been avoiding the reviews, so I hadn’t heard this rumor either. I wouldn’t have put much stock in it anyway, but glad to be assured it ain’t so.
Having not yet read “After the Fall” or the review in question, I can only make a minor speculation (and I mean minor). Perhaps the tone of the book is such that, despite its being a jump off point, lends an air of finality. Or maybe the author is making a supposition based on the current state of “Star Trek” (i.e. its loss of popularity in recent years, mostly evident in the dwindling ratings of “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and correllating it to “New Frontier.”
Or maybe the reviewer was just talking out of his a$$.
BTW…out of curiosity, Mr. David, would you ever reference (even casually) the existance of James T. Kirk in the 24th century in “New Frontier,” based on the Shatner “Kirk” series of novels? Seeing as Calhoun is Kirk’s spiritual heir IMHO, it would be fun to see what sort of spin you would take on that.
Please, no connection whatsoever with the Shatnerverse please! So far it has always been treated as a parallel universe and I most definitely don`t want this to change!
By the way, I got my book from Amazon UK many weeks ago, therefore I am surprised that some people have trouble here to order it.
It seems it is too early to say more here, it seems a lot of people haven`t read “After the Fall” yet. I just want to say, it was an excellent book, a good start of a new NF season.
yup – got mine from Amazon.co.uk too – although I did pre-order it about 2 months before it was released!
Tip: I tend to do an author search on Peter David every month or so and order the results by Publication Date to see what new stuff is coming, and pre-order asap – although I suspect that Wireless Network for Dummies isn’t written by the same Peter David that we know and love!
(although maybe writing about transwarp conduits and tachyon emmissions has inspired him to expand his horizons? Perhaps not, given the recent Verizon probs he was having……)
I love the Shatnerverse. It’s even fun to say…say it with me now “Shatnerverse.”
PAD does a good job working everything else Trekkian into NF, he should have no problem doing the same with Bill’s works, if he wants to. But I don’t see the need. The last Kirk book I read wasn’t all that great. I think they lost steam when Shatner’s wife died, and then Kirk’s wife died in the books. Maybe he’s lost his spark, or at least the ability to spark his *cough* co-writers into translating the fun stories in the first few books lately.
Still trying to make my way through my current book (Jennifer Fallon’s Medalon) so I can get to After the Fall. Need longer lunch breaks…
I just finished reading After the Fall last night and loved it! Now I desperately want to know when the next book(s) are coming out. Any news? 🙂
I can see the headlines now…
Peter David discusses “jumping off” New Frontier
Funny (not so funny for me, but you know…) New Frontiers story. I was flying home from Seattle with 6 or 7 paperbacks I always fly with so I’m never caught short without something to read, and I’m reading number 3 of NF in the Atlanta airport waiting for my flight home. I want to refill my soda at the fountain just a few yards from my table, so I leave the half dozen books on the table to save my place and refill fairly quickly. When I get back to my table, the two NF books are gone, but the other four books were untouched.
Picky crooks, you gotta love ’em.
TallestFanEver: “I’ve read every NF book and I’m currently (re)reading them all.”
That is my habbit as well. When there’s a serious lack of good reading I just go to the PAD section of my personal library (which has recently become the largest section).
Ah, rumors…
I heard that PAD is engaged in secret meetings with one Jim Carey. Word has it that Mr. Carey wants Mr. David to adopt him in exchange for some farmland just west of California. Sources indicate that the negotiations are heated and that George Carlin has been called in to mediate.
Regards,
Mitch Evans
Keith is Peter’s second coming…
That explains the hair and beard. 🙂
Why would I create a major jumping on point in “After the Fall” if I were planning to jump off two books later?
Because you’re a big fan of Kriss Kross?
jump, jump…
“Its a new thing in jornalism that Fox news started. You can say whatever you want and not get sued by pretending you have a source, but never actually saying who the source is, or if its reliable.”
Does it hurt that argument that the New York Times and the Times’ Jayson Blair had been doing that years before the 2004 campaigns… and it’s been done long before that…
Not what I wanted to get into politics.
I’d rather ask the venerable Writer of Stuff a mighty powerful question:
how much respect does Pocket Books and S&S have for you…. to your perception?
If you detonated your creations, those Paramount properties all aboard your Excalibur and set off a warp core breach, for actual creative reasons…
If you gave your characters definitive happy endings…
how likely are the folks at Pocket and/or Simon & Schuster to leave those characters be?
How much more likely are they to honor their instinctual drive towards profit and the dollar than the artistic whatsis involved with your intellectual baby?
Stone and Anvil was just plain incredible. However, I’m a quarter of the way into After the Fall, and I’m not warming up to it. First off, I do NOT like the sudden jump three years ahead and the revelation that the entire status quo has changed. Me not like. I do not like that Soleta’s, Robin’s and Si Cwan’s signature character journeys (fearing discovery of her Romulan heritage, being in love with Si Cwan, and desiring a new Thallonian empire, respectively) has come to be resolved without seeing it happen, as the gradual changes that Peter depicted incrementally were always far more preferable, particularly since they were addressed with twists and surprises, rather than this simplistic “Oh by the way” approach. By suddenly jumping ahead like this, it’s like Future Imperfect(TNG), except that it’s not “imaginary.” In addition, doing this requires a lot of expostion, and that’s what the entire first quarter of the book feels like, and it’s dragging on.
Peter has the ability to make even soon-to-be-killed characters interesting in just a few pages, whether it’s the parents of the little girl in Cold Wars, or the townspeople in the “Ground Zero” storyline in Incredible Hulk, etc. Here, none of the new characters are interesting, and the familiar ones are equally boring, with cutesy dialogue and juvenile retorts that become tedious after a while. The fact that Calhoun has not made an apprearance this far in is also not good. Then again, I’ve been skeptical before with how Peter’s stories seemed to be unfolding, only to fall in love with them as they played out, so hopefully that’ll be the case here, particularly with Soleta, who had BETTER be a double agent for Starfleet.
*MINOR Spoiler Alerts Follow*
Stone and Anvil was just plain incredible. However, I’m a quarter of the way into After the Fall, and I’m not warming up to it.
I felt exactly the same way as you at that point, but business picks up pretty quickly once the time jump scene has been established and we’re back to the familiar interaction and relationships between the characters.
First off, I do NOT like the sudden jump three years ahead and the revelation that the entire status quo has changed. Me not like.
You might not like it, but I guess it was certainly original (typical of PAD) – can’t think of many authors who have the skills to handle that so well (and let’s be honest, there really weren’t that many gaps to fill in – only a small number of characters at this stage have had any life changing events)
and that’s what the entire first quarter of the book feels like, and it’s dragging on.
See first comment above!
Now that the books been out for over a month, I think it’s probably safe to talk about the actual plot, so…… From an Author’s Point of View, I was just wandering if PAD now regrets naming Xyon Jnr after Xyon Snr – the reason I ask is because Xyon Jnr is now referred to as “Xy” throughout the book (obviously for clarity’s sake), but it hardly seems appropiate (or logical) for Selar to be calling her own son that….
To put the cat amongst the pigeons I bothered to write a review for amazon.co.uk about “After the Fall” and actually said I like the charcter evolution after the three year jump.
After all it’s ST folks as we know it, just doen in a very different way, we have character developemnt and shock horror no ‘re-set’ button.
Just a comment on the series in general: My wife and I are both huge New Frontier fans, and we both missed the Calhoun/Shelby interaction. I missed Shelby, period. I mean, we name our cat after her, and she just up and disappears (almost) from the series. What’s up with that?
On the other hand, I laughed out loud through the whole book. Very enjoyable.
Happy Holidays, all!
Eric
First off, I really liked After The Fall. I really only had one problem with it…it was kinda short! The type was HUGE compared to Stone and Anvil…but all in all, still a great read!
Hey, while I’m thinking of it, how’s Pandora?
–Lou
Since I had no job a year ago when Stone and Anvil came out, I could not get it. Unfortunately, I forgot to put it on my wish list and forgot about it until a month ago when someone on this site mentioned it. The good news is that a week ago I ordered both Stone and Anvil and After the Fall on Amazon and both arrived 2 days ago. After I finish my current book (Donaldson’s The Runes of the Earth), I will catch up on the last two ST:NF books.
I rarely buy books anymore. Most (like Donaldson’s) I get from the library. But PAD is the exception. I own just about every Star Trek novel he has ever written (Q-in-Law is probably my favorite). So PAD, keep writing them and I will keep buying them.
Jim in Iowa
What else is the Internet good for, but to spread baseless rumors?—Al of MINDMISTRESS
I’m glad to hear that there will be more. I’m from Germany and since the New Frontier books aren’t published here I have to buy them in Britan or the USA to get them, which of course I always do. So I can’t wait for the next ones to be published.
Greetings
Jen
Jim —
Wait. You’re a Donaldson fan?
Shoot — there might be hope for you yet, son. 🙂
Tim,
Why? Is there something about Donaldson I don’t know? Did he campaign for Howard Dean? 😉
Yes, I loved his first “Covenant” series. My all time favorite series (with apologies to PAD since this is on his site)is the “Gap” series by Donaldson. I consider it one of the best stories of redemption I have read.
Jim in Iowa
Mr. David,
I’ve bought every NF book to date, but looked a the most recent entrant in the book store and … Man, who decides on the type size? I know I’m advancing in years, but that was huge!
Sorry, but I’m waiting for the paperback. But I am buying 2 or 3 copies of Hulk 78, to show Q that you need to be on that title all the frickin’ time.
I’d not heard these rumors…but I’m glad to know there ain’t any truth to ’em…
NEW STAR TREK NEW FRONTIER STORY COMING UP!
I had read After the Fall in less than 3 days as usual with a PAD book. They are just sooo good you cant put it down. Oh and by the way the 3 year jump ahead totally worked and was brilliant.
Now back to the first line!
A new book called: TALES FROM THE CAPTAIN’S TABLE, is coming out in June 2005 and will include a story about Captain Shelby!
“Captain Elizabeth Shelby of the U.S.S. Trident: “Pain Management” by Peter David (NEW FRONTIER : AFTER THE FALL)”
Here is the link to the story:
http://trekweb.com/articles/2004/12/25/41cd1fab097d8.shtml
I am personally VERY excited about this development!
Oh and Mr. David, why not just let your loyal readers in on the titles of the next 2 Star Trek New Frontier books????
http://trekweb.com/articles/2004/12/20/41c70625f16c8.shtml
Wait. You’re a Donaldson fan?
Shoot — there might be hope for you yet, son. 🙂
Why? Is there something about Donaldson I don’t know? Did he campaign for Howard Dean? 😉
I don’t know, but I certainly HOPE he did. 🙂
The Covenant series grabbed me when I was about 13 and has never let go. I never got around to the Gap series, but both Covenant and the “Mordant’s Need” duology are huge, huge favorites (not to mention huge volumes in the case of the latter!).
(Meanwhile, my original post to Jim — the one he’s responding to here — appears to have disappeared. When and how did THAT happen?)
TWL
Off topic I entered an entry on Wikipedia on McHenry and they are considering delteting it thinking I made it up. Someone called it an odd mix of fanfic…kinda odd how people talk about what they don’t know.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_McHenry
Hate to tell you this James, but it does sound alot like fanfic. I recomend that you add in a short bit about PAD creating him, and that he is a ST book character (perhaps throw in a list of the books he is in).
Listen, if those people at Wiki are going to delete your article, move over to H2G2. THey will allow you to post your article. Heck, I went through a list of articles being considered for deleation, and some of them were because the camera was not as good as a different camera and wasn’t revolutionary enough. Later on they said to delete a bio because there was a brief mention of him in a dif article, and that was enough.
The Covenant series grabbed me when I was about 13 and has never let go. I never got around to the Gap series, but both Covenant and the “Mordant’s Need” duology are huge, huge favorites (not to mention huge volumes in the case of the latter!).
Tim,
All I can say is that the Gap Cycle is worth it. It is far deeper, darker, and richer than anything else Donaldson has written so far. Though I must say, you will love Runes of the Earth. It rocks. Big time. Finished it last night and am majorly bummed I have to wait a year or more for the next installment.
Jim in Iowa
Hate to tell you this James, but it does sound alot like fanfic. I recomend that you add in a short bit about PAD creating him, and that he is a ST book character (perhaps throw in a list of the books he is in).
Well the entry is off of the New Frontier books, which is why i didn’t add Peter’s name or the book series, you kinda can’t get to it without knowing the books….but thanks…that’s a good point.
I am nearing the end of After the fall. I have not looked for or wanted a reset button but I would like a ‘what on Earth is going on’ button at times. I am enjoying the book loads but I would have liked to see some of the changes happen. Like when the hëll did Mac and Jellico become so pally with one another? I can accept most of the other changes but this one is a massive leap. I am also missing Shelby loads. I hope all be be explained and explored in the next two books which are coming out when?
I kinda had the same feelings about Mac and Jellico. As I was reading, I wasn’t looking for a Reset, but when I saw that, I remembered the line about it not being an alternate universe. Then I thought that line was just st screw with you, and it indeed WAS, but I gradually accepted it. I DO hope that a Selelvian War chronicle comes out though. It was also nice to see a part of Spider-Man 2099 live on.
ARRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH dámņ three word ending!
Wow, does the first part of the book drag until Mac shows up. And we got a plot we’ve seen before (the challenge for a lady). And nobody who isn’t in Starfleet acts nicely…even the ones we’re supposed to like.
Yet, I was enthused enough to stay up all night reading the end. And then came those *&^%^%*%(*%(* words…
AUGGGGGGGGGGGG Reminds me of 2002 when two New Frontier Books had the same three word ending!!! And one continued into a book in which 3/4 was not New Frontier (I read that in the bookstore).
PAD: You might be going to that three word ending well once too often.
One word on “After The Fall”: Excellent. When is the next one coming out?
I know this is an old thread, but I just wanted to say I finally read After the Fall, and I apologize for the big type crack.
Your deft handling of so many different characters and stories that just pull you along … its great stuff.
I’m just used to pages through Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin, Terry Goodkind and Stephen King … so a 250-page read sometimes seems too short in comparison.
Keep up the good work.
Wisdom is not given it is earned.
Cash Advance Loan: “Wisdom is not given it is earned.”
Well, gosh, with pearls like that, why would I not click on that spam link?