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Spoilers VOY: The Eternal Tide by Kirsten Beyer Review Thread

Rate The Eternal Tide.

  • Outstanding

    Votes: 85 47.2%

  • Above Average

    Votes: 56 31.1%

  • Average

    Votes: 30 16.7%

  • Below Average

    Votes: 2 1.1%

  • Poor

    Votes: 7 3.9%
  • Total voters
    180
I should have loathed this book.

As a general rule I've rarely been happy with the way long-running series tend to go for:
  • Bring in new writer and give them considerable latitude
  • Writer revives book and raises it to new heights
  • Story innovates and goes into new territory
  • Writer starts to prepare to exit so starts to restore prior status quo before they started.
In the case of Trek, it can be split between writers - writer A does one move, later writer B undoes it. Whether you approve of either direction depends on what you make of the move, for instance: I loved the idea of multiple Bat-operatives in Batman Incorporated and didn't care for how Morrison then went and tore that down. On the other hand I loved Fraction bringing back Kitty Pryde from the indignity Whedon inflicted on her.

For this one? To be fair, it was foreshadowed in some vague form by the Q being involved in Before Dishonour, but I did really like the new dynamics that having Eden in charge gave rise to. Still, if it had to be done, at least it was done smartly, with a great deal of ingenuity that used the continuity well.

All of this could give you the idea I didn't like the book, which wouldn't be the case. No, it's rather this one had far more significant hurdles to overcome than its predecessors and it managed to pass them. Nor do I get the sense that Janeway's story is done, no, it feels like there will be a real weight of consequences to all this.

I particularly liked the metaphysical aspects - a story like this is going to mind-frell as it involves Q, time travel, resurrection then throws in the Omega Continuum yet the whole time the narrative didn't go out of control.

The other aspect is exploring the absence of the Borg - that only adds to Destiny for me.

So, despite my wariness, this was a fun and entertaining read. It's going to be interesting to see what I make of the next act, which is a trilogy.
 
I noticed this thread had been updated recently so I decided to trawl back through it to see what people's reactions were to Janeway coming back; it was a couple years before my time as a trekkie and this was the first Trek book I read after becoming so invested in the Voyager characters - so I was interested to see what everyone at the time thought.

Real bummer someone spoiled the surprise. That's bad form and if I'd been on at the time I'd have been so pissed off, as quite a few were anyway. Yeah, it has "Spoilers!" in the title but spoiling before the book is even out? Without warning? Bad form.

I enjoyed the book myself, took a real gamble when buying it because I hadn't read anything else, seemed to be jumping into the middle of something, blah blah; so I caught myself up on main plot points via the wiki and bought it anyway. Then went back and read everything else. KB handles what can be super cheesy/soap opera plots with the grace and dignity that the Trek universe deserves, so I was happy with Janeway coming back and the way it was handled. And I've enjoyed all the books since :bolian:
 
Christopher said:
By the way, has anyone started a review thread for A Pocket Full of Lies yet? I can't find one.
Click to expand...

You mean this one, about halfway down the front page and which has had quiet a few responses.

Could it be that you can not for which ever reason see posts and by extension threads created by the individual who created the thread because it would be silly to assume after the batting average of how great Ms Beyer and her Voyager novels are that there wouldn't be a thread this long after the release of it.
 
roseake said:
I noticed this thread had been updated recently so I decided to trawl back through it to see what people's reactions were to Janeway coming back; it was a couple years before my time as a trekkie and this was the first Trek book I read after becoming so invested in the Voyager characters - so I was interested to see what everyone at the time thought.

Real bummer someone spoiled the surprise. That's bad form and if I'd been on at the time I'd have been so pissed off, as quite a few were anyway. Yeah, it has "Spoilers!" in the title but spoiling before the book is even out? Without warning? Bad form.

I enjoyed the book myself, took a real gamble when buying it because I hadn't read anything else, seemed to be jumping into the middle of something, blah blah; so I caught myself up on main plot points via the wiki and bought it anyway. Then went back and read everything else. KB handles what can be super cheesy/soap opera plots with the grace and dignity that the Trek universe deserves, so I was happy with Janeway coming back and the way it was handled. And I've enjoyed all the books since :bolian:
Click to expand...

Why is it bad form to spoil something in a thread that is clearly marked spoilers? :shrug:

I liked the Eternal Tide but it was one of two of Beyer's books that took me a while to get through. The other one was Children of the Storm.

I think it might have been because I would read a chapter and then have to take the time to process it and then read it again. There was a lot going on in this one and not just the return of Janeway. In the end while I did like it very much but it just wasn't a page turner for me like some of the others.
 
roseake said:
Real bummer someone spoiled the surprise. That's bad form and if I'd been on at the time I'd have been so pissed off, as quite a few were anyway. Yeah, it has "Spoilers!" in the title but spoiling before the book is even out? Without warning? Bad form.
Click to expand...

If you enter a thread which says spoilers quiet clearly in the title then the ownership is on yourself if you get spoiled, to enter a thread with spoilers and then complaining about said spoilers about the story thread you have entered (as it feels routinely occurs around here even after the big ol' conversation about what counts as a spoiler and the spoiler rules being a sticky at the top of this forum) is bad form by yourself, not the other way around.

Now if I now posted massive spoiler about A Pocket Full of Lies here or in say, the what I am reading thread, that is bad form and is clearly not Cricket.
 
Dimesdan said:
If you enter a thread which says spoilers quiet clearly in the title then the ownership is on yourself if you get spoiled, to enter a thread with spoilers and then complaining about said spoilers about the story thread you have entered (as it feels routinely occurs around here even after the big ol' conversation about what counts as a spoiler and the spoiler rules being a sticky at the top of this forum) is bad form by yourself, not the other way around.

Now if I now posted massive spoiler about A Pocket Full of Lies here or in say, the what I am reading thread, that is bad form and is clearly not Cricket.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I concede to the point that if it says spoilers in the title, be prepared to be spoiled, obviously.

It just feels like bad etiquette to post something like that before the book has even come out? Maybe it's just me or I'm reading too much into it, but personally if I found out the ending of a book before it was released, I wouldn't share until everyone had the opportunity to get their hands on it. It's one thing to discuss spoilers after the book comes out, but I think it's another when no one else has it.

There just seems to be a lot of discussion/speculation in the threads before the book comes out, so someone, without warning, declaring what happens in the last two pages seemed.... crass? Does that makes sense, or is it just me?
 
Oh I understand where you are coming from, but, the point still stands, I very rarely enter a review thread before I have read the book or seen the film.
 
roseake said:
Yeah, I concede to the point that if it says spoilers in the title, be prepared to be spoiled, obviously.

It just feels like bad etiquette to post something like that before the book has even come out? Maybe it's just me or I'm reading too much into it, but personally if I found out the ending of a book before it was released, I wouldn't share until everyone had the opportunity to get their hands on it. It's one thing to discuss spoilers after the book comes out, but I think it's another when no one else has it.

There just seems to be a lot of discussion/speculation in the threads before the book comes out, so someone, without warning, declaring what happens in the last two pages seemed.... crass? Does that makes sense, or is it just me?
Click to expand...

I understand that and I would never deliberately spoil anyone who clearly indicates that he or she does not want to know how something ends.

But there are those weird individuals (like myself) who enter these threads with the expectation of being spoiled. We don't mind them and it does not in any way diminish our enjoyment of the story. To me it would be bad form to enter a thread marked 'spoilers' and find no spoilers there.
 
It took me a along time to read Children of the Storm and Eternal tide and also Atonement. I really liked the books but the only problem is the small print is hard to read after awhile.
 
As alwais Beyer is a very good writer, maybe the best for representing the psycological aspects of the characters. But I'm not sold on the plot. Too much god-like and too less Fed-like, really all of the important plot point are carried out by god-like beings. I like tidy stories, maybe more traditional one that involve the characters are they best for resolving the situations.
 
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