Star Trek: New Frontier is a series of interlinked novels written by Peter David, published by Simon & Schuster imprints, Pocket Books, Pocket Star, and Gallery Books, from 1997 to 2015. New Frontier was the first Star Trek tie-in fiction property not to be based on a television series. The series was created by John J. Ordover.^[1]: 332

The novels explore life aboard the USS Excalibur, commanded by Capt. Mackenzie Calhoun. New Frontier is concurrent with The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager television series and their tie-in book lines.

John J. Ordover said in Voyages of Imagination (2009), "One of the major problems with the novels at the time [the mid-nineties] … was you couldn't put any inherent continuity into them and you couldn’t make any significant changes, so characters couldn’t die, they couldn't change, they couldn't leave. The core characters always had to remain the same. After a few years, that gets frustrating for an editor."^[1]: 332 Ordover devised New Frontier to accomplish what he couldn't with the other Star Trek book lines—to create a serialized, internally consistent, series of novels set in the Star Trek universe. According to Peter David, "Paramount's belief was that there would be little to no interest from the fans in a [Star Trek] series that did not stem directly from the [television] shows."^[1]: 333 He was given "their blessing", with the caveat a number of characters from The Next Generation were to be included.

“Peter David made up MacKenzie Calhoun on his own," said Ordover. Likewise, David said, "I’m pretty sure John came up with the Excalibur. He told me the characters he wanted to use and I was allowed to run with it."^[1]: 332 David then "fleshed out the concept and created the original characters."^{[2][1]: 333}

Four novels were published in paperback novella format in 1997, similar to the release of The Green Mile by Stephen King.^[1]: 333 An omnibus was published in 1998. The novels that followed were published in mass-market paperback format. No Limits (2003), an anthology of short stories edited by David, was published in trade paperback format.^[3]

WildStorm published a graphic novel in 2000, written by David, with artists Mike Collins and David Roach. A five-issue comic book miniseries was published by IDW Publishing in 2008, also by David, with artist Stephen Thompson.

In total, twenty four novels, a short story anthology, and two graphic novels, have been published as of 2015^[update], in addition to several short stories, and related works, by other writers. Characters and settings from New Frontier have appeared appear in other Star Trek novels, most of which were written by David. Novels have been included in crossovers with other Star Trek book lines, such as: The Captain's Table (1998), Double Helix (1999) Gateways (2000), The Lost Era (2003), and the Mirror Universe (2007–2009) anthologies. A short story by David was anthologized in the Tales of the Dominion War (2004), edited by Keith DeCandido.

The Returned (2015), the most recent installment of the series, was published as a three-part ebook exclusive by Pocket Star.^[4]

The once-powerful Thallonian Empire has collapsed following a popular uprising, destabilizing a vast region of space known as Sector 221-G. Starfleet has dispatched the USS Excalibur (NCC-26517), under the command of Captain Mackenzie Calhoun, to fly the flag, and offer aid to those affected by the political and economic instability of the region.^[5]

Katherine Trendacosta of io9 said New Frontier filled in "a gap in the [Star Trek] universe that you didn’t even realize was there. And it did it all while being fun and smartly written."^[6] She said the character Calhoun is "so perfect he feels like a stealth parody of a Mary Sue." Dan Gunther, in his review of Cold Wars (2001), said "David has a solid handle on his characters."^[7]

Alison Baumgartner of ScienceFiction.com described New Frontier as having "all the space adventuring" of The Next Generation and Original Series, "mixed with all the political intrigue of Deep Space Nine, making it the best of all possible Star Trek worlds."^[8]

All novels published as paperback editions, except where indicated.

Collections that include New Frontier short fiction. All written by Peter, except those collected in No Limits (2003).

Characters and settings from New Frontier appear in other Star Trek book lines:

• List of Star Trek novels
• List of Star Trek: The Next Generation novels