Comes the Thud

It’s been a long time coming, but I finally finished reading After the Fall by Peter David; of the New Frontier Series. This book chronologically is the next book after the first New Frontier book I read, Stone and Anvil. But it takes place three years after that book ended. It also apparently takes place days before the events of the movie “Star Trek: Nemesis”. That is said in the “A Note to Our Readers” at the beginning of the paperback. It also states that 3 years have passed, life moves on, and the Universe changes. Big things have happened to the characters you have grown to love and that’s the way things are. There isn’t going to be a fancy travel back in time ending to set all things “right” with the universe. This is life and the passage of time, get used to it. They did.

First of all, I understand this statement at the beginning of the book. Many readers expect ST books with big sometimes unpleasant changes to come with a time travel fix everything ending. I like the warning, because it stops the wasting of brainpower. People can accept the changes without constantly wondering if they will evaporate later. Secondly, is the timetable placing. For many reasons that would be a signal that the book is almost fanfictiony in quality and the story is almost wishful thinking, but David seems to have an excellent knack for bridging other people’s story arcs and plots with well written and thought out adventures of his own. That’s one of the reason’s writing about a crew no one else writes about is such a great palette for him. Long time readers will see characters are gone that you didn’t expect, some come back that you did expect, people are having real problems with family, and a new and mysterious threat has emerged. A kidnapping leads to a murder, and possibly war. And then it’s continued until the next book. PD why do you tease us so?