The Two-Front War

"Two-Front War" is the third in a series of three short, interlinked novels designed to introduce the reading world to the "New Frontier" novels. The refugees Excalibur has protected have come to what they hope will be a happy home on a planet home to a species known as the Nelkar. However, these Nelkar seem to have nefarious plans, and Excalibur's commander, Mackenzie Calhoun, suspects something ill is at play. Meanwhile, security chief Kebron and guest-ambassador Si Cwan are on a mission to find Cwan's younger sister -- which also reeks of subterfuge. A direct continuation from the previous two books, "Two-Front" continues the bold new tradition of New Frontier. These books, exceptionally well-crafted, are in this reviewer's opinion, some of the best Trek to be found on or off-screen. 7.5/10

In this, the third book of the series, Peter David finally starts to really get moving. The plot, for the first time in the series, really seems to be going somewhere, and the characters are finally beginning to feel real and fleshed-out. This is the first book of this series that didn't leave me feeling disappointed; this is what I expect from Peter David. Really, the only thing NOT to like about this book is my continuing kvetch about the serial nature of the series; this book is only a story fragment, not a full story in itself. It has neither beginning nor end, but starts in midaction (due to the previous book leaving off in a cliffhanger) and ends with a cliffhanger itself. Two of them, actually. This is annoying enough when the story is legitimately too long to fit in one book; the first four books of this series are all 150-200 pages, and therefore could easily have fit into one large book, but marketing took precedence over art.The only reason that this book didn't get five stars is that I will never give five stars to a story fragment.

This was a great book. It had all of the qualities of a great sci-fi book and more. The favorite character of all readers would have to be Burgoyne 172. Reading about him made you realize you can feel for any character, any species

Don't do like me. This is only 1 of 4 books. To really know what is going on, you need to read the first 2 first. Why? Because, at the end, they leave it hanging and say "To Be Continued". Instead of making one big book, they broke it up into 4 parts. Now I need to buy the first 2 parts and then the last. Other than that it was a good book.