I tried reading the Voyager Relaunch books, but they were just so bland that I gave up. Here they had the chance to introduce some amazing new characters, but aside from the Trill doctor they were all human and pretty weak. Why did they not have a new Cardassian helm officer? Someone who would be a great source of conflict fo the former Maquis that remained aboard, or other little things like that? I can't stand when crews are written and they follow the TV theme of lots of humans. Alien characters are often far more interesting and have great perspectives to read from. But the one thing I found really pretty unbelievable was Harry Kim becoming the new Security Chief. Promote him yes, but leave him at Ops. There was nothing in the series that ever made him out to be a tactican or a fighter, so where did that come from?
What you are talking about is an original character book, like Peter David's New Frontier books. There is nothing wrong with that desire, it's just not "Voyager". Next Gen books need to be about Next Gen characters, and the same with DS9 and Voyager. There are whole groups of people that buy Voyager books and expect to read about Voyager characters. Perhaps one of the author's will set new characters on another Intrepid Starship.
Ops is a job for an Ensign. It's a waste of resources to use a higher rank. If Harry wanted to get promoted on Voyager in the DQ, he had to give up Ops and move to a larger department that had room for advancement. Security? Security was folded into tactical with Tuvok. Was that because Tuvok was so awesome that he could wear two hats or was it just that the ship was so small? If it was just because the ship was small, does that mean that Kim is such a dunce that he has to wear half a hat?
Writers on the series seemed to have a easier time exploring alien societies and expanding alien characters, than doing the same thing with the Humans. With very few exceptions, most Humans were the same people when we last saw them, as when we first saw them.
Operations is really a related field--monitoring all of the ship's systems and reporting anything amiss both aboard the ship and outside of it.
Voyager didn't use the Maquis to any effect during the show, so I'm not sure why you expected them to in the books.
I've been watching some DS9 and Worf keeps saying something in Klingon and then qualifying "There is no human word for this" and then he finishes explaining this completely Klingon concept and I think Bullshit! Because it's always either horny, angry , a death threat or some combination of the three. Sometimes the lengths the writers go to prove an aliens alieness is so obtuse. In the aftermath of the baseball game episode where the evil Vulcan is mocking the human sentiment at the end i found it hilarious when Ezri says "Human? What? Human? Me? Did I forget to put my spots on this morning?"
I don't want to complain too much about the books, after all Janeway is back but Kim as Security Chief is just one of those details I don't like. I mean, there must have been a lot of people in Tuvok's security Team who would have been better suited for that job. As for other characters, Dalby, Rollins, Ayala, well there must have been someone.
That's because they just give them their culture as their personality. With humans we are too familiar with the mono-vanilla culture that is Federation earth so we need actual personality traits. That was so completely retarded. I wouldn't call Kim to clean up in aisle 9 much less deal with alien intruders. There is nothing in his personality that leads to this. Paris would do a far better job of it.
Lieutenant Ayala? Why on Earth would Lieutenant Ayala be further up the command totem than Ensign Kim?
The same could be said of Chekov yet apperently he was the Enterprise-A security chief. http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Pavel_Chekov Just a guess but this is probably one of the reasons why the author got the idea to make Kim security chief of Voyager.
That Russian was already Security Chief as of the Motionless Picture. You'll remember the bald girl in the navigators seat on the bridge? She was Miss India once upon a time. I doubt she would have still won with such a shorn doo.
Skip Homecoming, The Farther Shore, and Spirit Walk Books I and II. They're shit. Start with Full Circle by Kirsten Beyer. Then read Unworthy, Children of the Storm, and The Eternal Tide.
Kim as security chief would be as effective as a high school hall monitor. "Come with me or I'm gonna tell on you."
I enjoyed Homecoming and The Farthest Shore. Cracking pace as I recall, lightweight but fun. But I could not finish Spirit Walk and I never read Spirit Walk II. Klingon mysticism is godawful stuff.
whoever said higher than ensign is wasted on Ops, should talk to Lieutenant Commander Data about that one. kim is just incompetent, whatever his rank.
That was me. Bigger ship. More prestigious ship. Voyager's XO, either of them, were only Lieutenant Commanders. Smaller ship means less rank required, because it's easier and less stressful. Makes me wonder... Did Kathryn have a choice of being the Captain of a tiny ship, or a Commander on a regular sized ship, and she chose to be the Captain of a tiny ship?