String Theory Trilogy

[NurseChapel39]

Beyer's new Voyager novel references events from the string theory books. I haven't read them yet. Please let me know if you have read them and what your thoughts are. I am considering downloading them on my nook and would appreciate your opinions. Thanks

[ronny]

I'm not much of a Voyager fan so take this with a ton of salt.

The books starting with Full Circle are far and away the best Voyager books as far as I'm concerned, I haven't read anything else that I've liked nearly as much. As far as String Theory goes, I remember liking the first 2 books more than the 3rd and even though Ms. Beyer wrote the 2nd book I still like here work from Full Circle on much more.

[KimM]

I enjoyed them all and feel like they are definitley worth the $ & time. I struggled with the science apsects; but I'm a English major and so struggle with even the idea of transporters, fwiw.

I felt like they added a lot of character development to B'Elanna, who is a personal favorite too.

[Mage]

ORSE wrote:

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I enjoyed them all and feel like they are definitley worth the $ & time. I struggled with the science apsects; but I'm a English major and so struggle with even the idea of transporters, fwiw.

I felt like they added a lot of character development to B'Elanna, who is a personal favorite too.

As my girlfriend, who's also an English Major, would say: I'm an English Major, you do the math!

[KimM]

or the temporal mechanics! oy! it almost made my eyes bleed!

[JD]

I read them back when they originally came out and over all I would recommend the trilogy. The first two books are better than the third, but #3 isn't bad enough to counter the quality of the first two.

[tomswift2002]

I read the String Theory books when they first came out. Compared to the other books set during the series, I found that the plot and writing just got bogged down and it was a chore to get through all three.

[Enterprise is Great]

^^^ I had a tough time getting through it as well.

[datalogan]

Coincidentally, I happen to be reading the String Theory trilogy right now. (For the first time. Just wanted to get it in before I read The Eternal Tide.)

I am finding the 3rd book a little harder to get through, as people have said here. I'm almost done and it's taken me about twice as long to read the third book compared to the first 2. My problem wasn't the science or technobable so much as the fact that it just seems more boring, with Voyager people not doing much and much of the "action" being directed by "higher-order" beings like the Nacene or Q (or q). Plus, Janeway is out of play most of the book.

The books take place between the 4th and 5th seasons of the show. Seven is still in here early stages of "becoming human", still learning to work with others after her recent decision in 4th season finale to back Janeway and stay on Voyager versus returning to the Borg. B'Elanna and Tom romance in early stages. B'Elanna still dealing with learning recently (late 4th season) that all the Maquis are dead. (It's a few episodes into the 5th season when Chakotay has to stop her from doing dangerous stuff on the holodeck, and the writers do a good job capturing her feelings in these books building towards that later episode.) Janeway getting reminded of the part she played in the whole Caretaker affair that trapped Voyager in the Delta Quadrant; this is a good novel lead-in to the first episode of season 5, in which she seems to be suddenly mopey about it for no reason.

1st book a good look at Torres and Seven.
2nd book (the one by Kirsten Beyer) has good stuff with Tuvok and Janeway in particular. Plus it has some good world building to set up situation for book 3.
3rd book has some interesting revelations about Ocampa, of all places. Plus, it has lots of Universe-altering stuff happening where we are minor, but altogether important, players, surrounded by much more powerful and ancient beings.

[datalogan]

I also liked getting to "meet" Janeway's artistic non-Starfleet sister in the second book, when she suddenly shows up on the ship and everyone acts like she's been there all along.

[purplebookworm]

I just finished reading the first book last night for the first time. I got interested after reading The Eternal Tide. I liked it, especially the situation between B'Elanna and Seven. I did think the scene with Chakotay and Janeway in the ready room was a little odd. Has there been a scene in the show showing Janeway drinking?

[tomswift2002]

datalogan wrote:

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I also liked getting to "meet" Janeway's artistic non-Starfleet sister in the second book, when she suddenly shows up on the ship and everyone acts like she's been there all along.

I found that too have been a very odd plot line. I had no idea where the sister had come from.

[datalogan]

Where she came from is clearly explained in the book.

I know this is a story that has been done before in sci-fi: suddenly there's a new character and all the old characters are acting as if the new character was there the whole time even though the audience knows that's not right. See Buffy the Vampire Slayer's little sister Dawn. Or the Farscape episode "Rapsody in Blue". Still, I like that story trope. It's interesting. And we get to "meet" a new character.

[Christopher]

^Or TNG: "Conundrum," sort of. The other characters don't remember MacDuff, since they don't remember anything, but he's just suddenly there as if he's always been. So it's another case where we know the character's out of place but the cast doesn't.

EDIT: Oh, and "Adam" on Torchwood.

[tomswift2002]

Well I found that her appearance wasn't explained that well. And I was even trying to find reference to her in the episodes.