Novel Reviews

Pathways by Jeri Taylor 
Plot: Captive in an alien work camp, the main characters tell their life stories.

Probably the longest Trek novel in history at a whopping 500 pages of tiny tiny text, the origan stories of the characters are very interesting little novelletes of @70 pages, but the framing story was very lame and forgettable, but just a tad better than the one in "Mosiac", the Janeway origan book.  The Chakotay story was pretty good, I particularly love the Maquis references and the Cardassian War.  I don't know why Jeri Taylor always puts the Cardassian War in her books, but I love it!  The Kim story but decent but ultimately forgettable (except for his MALE roommate falling in love with him!).  The Torres story was a tad better, I like her aliennation from both cultures and joining the Maquis.  The Paris story is pretty good too.  Here's the bad thing:  all four of these stories get VERY repetitive in that they both focus on their times at the Acadamy, and with the exception of a few tidbits their Acadamy days are EXACTLY THE SAME.  Particularly Chakotay and Kim being harassed by the same DI in the same mannor.  Drove me crazy!  Then we get a nice change of pace, the story of Neelix.  This was suprizingly good with its focus on the Talaxian War that killed his family, plus his dark period when he's a druggie/smuggler.  The Kes story was decent, I like her spirit which went quickly absent from the show.  The last story, Tuvok, is the longest and is good but a tad long.  Tuvok's journey through a desert is really freaky and seems more like it should be Chakotay's, but it's good.

The Badlands Book Two by Susan Wright 
Plot:  Set around "Caretaker":  Chakotay leads a Maquis raid on the Cardassians complicated by Seska and Gul Evek.  Janeway takes the Voyager on her first mission and encounters Gul Evek and the Badland anomoly.

I really love this 130 page 'mini novel' concept!  This story was just wonderful and never slowed down a bit!  I absolutely love the heavy continuity as the story weaves in and out of the "Caretaker" pilot and features TONS of DS9/Maquis references.  Wow!  It was great seeing Chakotay, Torres, Tuvok, and Seska going on a Maquis mission!  It was great seeing Seska and Tuvok spying on the Maquis!  It was great how much detail was given to Gul Evek, he was a true hero of Cardassia (and Seska's operator) and his suicide was pretty touching.  The Janeway half of the story was just as interesting because we get to see Paris the prisoner interacting with the Soon-Dead Regulars of Voyager.  I particularly like his bonding with Betazed pilot Stadi and Evek, nice stuff.  While I haven't read Badlands Book One, this story of a Romulan prototype drive being this Badlands anomaly was very interesting.  Great action and wonderful continuity make this an extremely entertaining prequel to the "Caretaker"pilot, too bad Voyager couldn't always be this great.  Just really neat seeing Voyager vs. Maquis!

Mosaic by Jeri Taylor 
Plot:  Voyager encounters the Kazon messing with hibernating aliens.  Janeway recalls her past from a child to a Captain, set against the backdrop of the Cardassian War.

While the sub-plot was extremely pedestrian and right out of a typical lame Voyager episode, the flashbacks of Janeway's past were extremely well done and interesting.  The Kazon mess with hibernating aliens and awake something they can't control, a sympathetic Kazon scientist defects to Voyager... who cares?  It's all so by the numbers, though a brief appearance by TNG's metaphasic shielding was vaguely interesting.  The Janeway origan was just amazing though; while her fundementalist childhood was a bit slow this novel gives us the first story of the Cardassian War, a hole in history begging to be plugged.  We learn that there was a large prologue to the war as Adm Janeway spent many years working on the matter prior to the war.  Janeway's interest in cave diving made for some neat scenes, and 'Hobbes' completely threw me (he was actually her future fiancee Mark!).  There's neat cameos by Data and Riker as Janeway attends Starfleet Acadamy and befriends Admiral Paris.  Things get great on Cadet Janeway's first mission; she and Paris conduct secret spying on Cardassia and get captured, leading to a great sequence where Paris is tourtured and Janeway is held captive, then there is a neat escape scene.  It was very involving, who knew if Janeway would be tourtured or not.  Janeway's loss of her father AND her new lover in a ship accident which she miraculously survived was a little bit too much though.  Janeway's grieving was touching as was her falling for Hobbes/Mark.  Then finally, we get her first meeting with Tuvok.  Unfortunately there is no real conclusion to the origan story, and we miss a very interesting decade of story material, but it's still great.