Spoilers VOY: Atonement by Kirsten Beyer Review Thread

[jmc247]

I'm so pleased to hear that you enjoyed the Doctor's story. I, too, was very satisfied when I came upon the final resolution....just because he can't remember all of their relationship anymore, doesn't mean that she can't. That last little scene was pretty emotional to write.

Kirsten, I just wanted to say that I too loved that last scene between the Doctor and Seven. Very poignant.

It was an amazingly well done scene, still this series to date hasn't been easy for me as a long time fan of the Doctor and Seven. The Doctor gets his holographic heart squeezed with a new love triangle for Seven watching painfully from a distance and putting her good before his own wants and now has no memories of the vast majority of their time together and that time together was nearly as important for his development into who he became as it was for Seven.

It creates an reverse situation where she has to help him get back some of what he has lost though memories are a bit like part of you once gone and I have seen it with people with late stage dementia part of them dies along with their lost memories of the most important people in their lives. Now those memories only exist through Seven's mind's eye.

 

[T'Ressa Dax]

Suppose if say the Doctor should be made to watch My Fair Lady with Seven as Eliza means it won't happen, but I can imagine it occurring between books!
Seriously, I loved the book and am another fan of that final scene between them.
And At onement, atonement with a space... nice!

I've decided I could live with the name Owen John Paris. Be a nice break from naming all the kids after dead relatives. Too bad they're not having a girl they could name Joan.

 

[David cgc]

One of the things I liked with the way the Doctor's memory-plot ended up was that it echoed an abandoned thread from the series, when the Doctor (supposedly) lost his memory in "The Swarm," only for it never to be mentioned again. In just a couple pages, that concept was already paid off in a way the show didn't even nod towards.

 

[Christopher]

One of the things I liked with the way the Doctor's memory-plot ended up was that it echoed an abandoned thread from the series, when the Doctor (supposedly) lost his memory in "The Swarm," only for it never to be mentioned again.

Well, it was mentioned in passing in the next episode in production order, "Future's End." When the Doctor was kidnapped by Starling, he said, "I recently suffered a severe program loss and I'm still in the process of retrieving my memory files." But that's about the only followup it received, and I agree, that was a hell of an oversight that always frustrated me.

 

[David cgc]

^Interesting. I missed "Future's End" first run... and every subsequent run. To be honest, I try not to think about how disproportionate the amount of Star Trek I've actually seen is compared to my degree of fandom. One of these days I'll sit down with Netflix and fill in all my gaps.

 

[Claudia]

I just posted my review on my booklikes page.

To make it brief here, I voted Average - it was certainly better than Acts of Contrition, but nowhere near the quality of Children of the Storm or the other earlier parts of the relaunch. Janeway still overshadowing everything and everyone - she's calm and collected, Chakotay's back to doubting himself at every turn... it's just boring. And how should the two every embark on a serious relationship when they don't meet as equals?

Particularly liked Seven's development, well.. the whole sequence on Earth, including the Tamarians and the Paris family. I said it earlier: Give Julia something to do to make her feel not useless and lonely and she'll be able to see beyond her hurt. And it was good that Paris saw her moving in the upper circles with an enviable skill. I also enjoyed the Doctor's conversation with Cambridge (and getting the counselor to pull his head out of his ... in regards to his juvenile angsting over Seven) and particularly Seven's return, and her dialogue with the Doctor. Beautifully understated.

Liked Garak's appearance, even though it felt a bit like small-universe syndrome. And no one else could point out (or think of) the use of the media?

I guess, even after Section 31, after Starfleet officers trying to take power, there's still not a system of checks and balances in place to prevent some paranoid loon to wreak havoc...

I couldn't really relate to the plot in the D-quadrant - Meegan, the Source... I think I'm kind of sick of those non-corporeal entities which can just take over and only technobabble later an idea (that might just work) appears how to get rid of them. Interesting enough that Mattings of the so-called morally inferior Confederation argued for the "Source", when Janeway and Chakotay for once were trigger-happy.

Overall, I got the "end of season" vibe, everything coming together plotwise - and everything being resolved at the end. Even Icheb found his place on VOY - even if I don't agree in the slightest with Akaar's opinion of being reminded of Kirk's actions... Can't detect any similiarity there. But the whole epilogue felt a bit too neat if anything... except for the Doctor and Seven's experiences it felt a bit too much like a reset-button.

 

[Starbreaker]

I'm late to the party again, I'm already a few chapters into the next book, so don't judge me. I read this within 24 hours, which is rare for me. I was pretty glued to the book.

When we found out Conlon has been possessed, I was like "good grief, this is the third time in the post-Endgame novels that a senior officer has been impersonated," but then it was mentioned in the next chapter or so, and I couldn't help but chuckle to myself.

I was expecting the whole book to be the Trial of Janeway, so it was really shocking and welcome to me when it suddenly changed to another adventure. I wish we could have learned more about the Hax. That was pretty alien (even for Star Trek.) I except we'll run into some protectors and/or corridors in the future.

 

[JWolf]

I recently finished Atonement (I am a bit behind). And I loved it. What did frustrate me most was getting into a scene and enjoying it and then being taken to a different scene, getting into that scene and boom, back to a different scene. I enjoyed this very much.

 

[Jedi Ben]

So, had to finish this trilogy.

I'm glad the whole trial plot was dispensed with swiftly, don't need another one of those stacked deck legal systems stories. Also liked the move and counter-moves between the Seriaseen and Voyager, with their final fates being quite satisfying.

Talking of which, the Starfleet plot had a good pay off and a good foundation. The notion of Starfleet officers seeing threats in everything because that's all they've been used to due to the combination of the Dominion and the Borg was scarily plausible. Still renders Briggs a git, as it does Montgomery and Frist.

One strand that didn't work for me were the attempts to redeem Julia Paris. I saw nothing in the way the story unfurled that suggests Julia has even recognised her fatal errors, never mind owning them. No, like too many families, it'll all be swept under the carpet to become a future landmine. Hopefully that's the last of the whole plot in these books.

The book did work well as an overall finale for the line, finishing plots that had started as far back as Full Circle. This is always to be commended. Running plots are good but without conclusion they can become a plague upon and millstone around the neck of a series.

 

[stardream]

One strand that didn't work for me were the attempts to redeem Julia Paris. I saw nothing in the way the story unfurled that suggests Julia has even recognised her fatal errors, never mind owning them. No, like too many families, it'll all be swept under the carpet to become a future landmine..

I have hopes that 'maybe' this will be addressed in a future story when B'Elanna and Julia come face to face.

 

[Jedi Ben]

I can see Paris now:

Public place
Lots of cops
Witnesses

Harry, you're security - come up with a plan.

Not for this, you're on your own.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Frist wasn't personally shown getting punished. I wonder if that's planting a future plot thread where she has to redeem herself by working a dirty job for series protagonists.

 

[JD]

Does a Atonement do a good job of recapping Protectors and Acts of Contrition? I'm getting ready to read Atonement, but I haven't read the other two in ages, and I was wondering if it might be a good idea to reread them first.

 

[DimesDan]

Does a Atonement do a good job of recapping Protectors and Acts of Contrition? I'm getting ready to read Atonement, but I haven't read the other two in ages, and I was wondering if it might be a good idea to reread them first.

Like all Trek novels, they're designed to be someones first and to a lesser and greater extent they remind the reader of what has happened in the past by weaving it into the narrative, with the case of Atonement, Ms Beyer marvellously does this and allows the reader to know what has happened previously without bogging the story down.

 

[JD]

Oh yeah, I know Trek books always do some recapping, but sometimes it's still easier to reread the previous books to get a thorough idea of what was going on.

 

[JD]

I finished up Atonement yesterday afternoon and I loved it.
I was a little surprised the trial ended up taking up so little of the book since it's the only thing mentioned on the back cover, but I think what we got was a lot more interesting than just a trial would have been.
The way that things were left with the Confederacy was nice, instead of the Starfleet officers lecturing them on the evil of their ways and completely upending their way of life, we saw them leave on good terms and but still with a positive impact that could see them reevaluate some of what they do.
I'm a huge fan of Bacco, so it was nice to see her again, especially since I just finished reading The Fall.
The Seriareen were interesting bad guys, and their connections to the corridors the Confederacy used was a nice surprise.
I really liked how all of the big Delta Quadrant story threads that had been building for the last few books were brought together and tied up.
The Alpha Quadrant stories were also brought together and concluded well.
Definitely an outstanding from me.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

My greatest Treklit fear is that Beyer will become too busy with Discovery and will no longer be able to write Voyager novels.

 

[Paris]

^Me too

I know it's selfish to think that. I love her take on Voyager and Trek in general. I guess if she paused her treklit work because she's writing screen-trek, we shouldn't be too worried. It just means that the show has one of the best trek writers in their stable. Hopefully the delay on the next book doesn't get extended because of Discovery's rolling delay..