Poll VOY #10: Bless The Beasts By Karen Haber Review Thread

[tomswift2002]

Voyager #10 Bless The Beasts
Written by: Karen Haber
Other Trek Books by Author: None
Published: December 1996

Plot: (from back cover, as per Memory Alpha)
In desperate need of crucial repairs, the Starship Voyager has come to Sardalia, a planet blessed with great beauty and apparently friendly inhabitants. The Sardalians welcome Voyagerenthusiastically, but Captain Janewaysoon grows suspicious. The Sardalians seem a bit too eager to help. Janeway fears they are hiding some hidden agenda. When Tom Paris and Harry Kimdisappear while visiting the planet, the captain and her crew find themselves caught in the middle of a planetary war – and faced with an agonizing moral dilemma.


Review: MERRY CHRISTMAS! Brand New Voyager Review!

You know, the title of this book always reminds me of the Carpenters Double-A side hit Bless The Beasts And The Children, so I wonder if that’s what Karen Haber has in mind when she came up with the title (or the editor).

It’s been 20 years since I last read the book, and quite frankly I don’t remember anything about it. So it’ll be like a new read.

 

[tomswift2002]

It’s interesting, but on the first page of Chapter 3, Janeway’s fiancé is called Mark Mason. It’s interesting when you think that “Mosaic” came out in October 1996 and established his last name as Johnson, although his last name wouldn’t appear on screen until nearly 14 months after “Bless The Beasts” (December 1996) when “Hunters” aired in February 1998.

Also, it appears that the cover for this book was done before McNeil and Wang were cast, as Kim looks slightly off on the front cover, and, according to Memory Beta, the American cover had Paris redrawn to look more photorealistic to McNeil, but the German publisher used the original unreal Paris cover (that was also flipped) for the book.

https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Bless_the_Beasts

 

[Christopher]

Also, it appears that the cover for this book was done before McNeil and Wang were cast, as Kim looks slightly off on the front cover, and, according to Memory Beta, the American cover had Paris redrawn to look more photorealistic to McNeil, but the German publisher used the original unreal Paris cover (that was also flipped) for the book.

It had to be after they were cast, otherwise they wouldn't look anywhere near as close to the actors as they do. It's just that some artists are better at likenesses than others. There are plenty of '80s TOS novel covers where Kirk and Spock are off-model.

 

[tomswift2002]

So this book feels like it was written prior to “Caretaker” (if I recall VOI correctly, the editor at ths time said that the first 13 numbered novels were commissioned before “Caretaker”). However it seems to be set in the later-part of Season 1 as mention is made of Harry dying and being brought back to life (or its in Season 2)

 

[Kilana2]

It had to be after they were cast, otherwise they wouldn't look anywhere near as close to the actors as they do. It's just that some artists are better at likenesses than others. There are plenty of '80s TOS novel covers where Kirk and Spock are off-model.

Or not featured on a cover at all. I still own Howard Weinstein's German edition of 'Covenant of the Crown'. The Germans had in fact two covers. On of them featured the Crew of the movie The Black Hole on the cover - no Trek at all. The must have started a reprint as there is new cover.....

As to Bless the Beasts: neither the best nor the worst Voyager novel for me. I don't remember Mark Johnson having another name, but it is like Pathways where Miral Torres is Prabsa.....

 

[tomswift2002]

So this book seems to be set sometime in Season 2, as there was a reference to the cheese incident from “Learning Curve”. However, the characterization seem out of place, such as B’Elanna being a real hothead (more so than she ever was).

 

[tomswift2002]

Even though I’ve already read page1, as I was opening to my bookmark today, I noticed that page 1 has Janeway turning her chair to look at B’Elanna, like Pike, Kirk and Sisko would turn their chairs to look around them. Clearly the author forgot that Janeway’s chair was like Picard’s on the D and it was locked in place. Plus Janeway’s was part of a bench that included Chakotay’s chair, so if she turned her chair, Chakotay was flying towards the conn console.

 

[Christopher]

Clearly the author forgot that Janeway’s chair was like Picard’s on the D and it was locked in place.

Or didn't know. As mentioned above, the book was written before the show premiered, so the author wouldn't have been aware of the set design details.

Other early books have similar problems. DS9: Fallen Heroes assumes the Ops turbolift has doors rather than just rising out of the floor. It also mistakenly assumes the station has 28-hour days instead of 26 (and the time intervals are pretty important to the story, so it's not an incidental issue).

 

[tomswift2002]

Or didn't know. As mentioned above, the book was written before the show premiered, so the author wouldn't have been aware of the set design details.

Other early books have similar problems. DS9: Fallen Heroes assumes the Ops turbolift has doors rather than just rising out of the floor. It also mistakenly assumes the station has 28-hour days instead of 26 (and the time intervals are pretty important to the story, so it's not an incidental issue).

The problem with the book is that it may’ve been started prior to “Caretaker” airing, but it was published in December 1996 (maybe Greg Cox could clear up what was going on back then since his book, “The Black Shore” was #13 in the line so if I recall correctly it was the last of the initial order) and it contains numerous references to later Season 1 episodes, like “Learning Curve”, so the author clearly saw later episodes and possible Season 2 episodes during rewrites.

 

[Christopher]

The problem with the book is that it may’ve been started prior to “Caretaker” airing, but it was published in December 1996 (maybe Greg Cox could clear up what was going on back then since his book, “The Black Shore” was #13 in the line so if I recall correctly it was the last of the initial order) and it contains numerous references to later Season 1 episodes, like “Learning Curve”, so the author clearly saw later episodes and possible Season 2 episodes during rewrites.

And a detail as trivial as whether a chair can rotate is easy enough to miss. No matter how many dozens of times a manuscript is gone over by the author, editor, copyeditors, proofreaders, typesetters, etc., some details will manage to avoid being noticed by anyone. It's not the author's fault any more than it's any of those numerous other people's fault. I've seen much more significant errors than this one get into print, sometimes in my own work, like using the wrong character or species name. This one is picayune by comparison, far easier to miss.

Heck, I've watched Voyager multiple times, I've written fiction based on it, and I never knew that Janeway's chair couldn't rotate until you told me. It was never a significant enough detail to pay attention to.

 

[tomswift2002]

Well this book really needed another pass through in the editing phase. On the first page of Chapter 19, Seska is called Seskia.

And B’Elanna, the way she’s written reminds me of how Worf was written in TNG #24: Nightshade.

 

[JD]

And a detail as trivial as whether a chair can rotate is easy enough to miss. No matter how many dozens of times a manuscript is gone over by the author, editor, copyeditors, proofreaders, typesetters, etc., some details will manage to avoid being noticed by anyone. It's not the author's fault any more than it's any of those numerous other people's fault. I've seen much more significant errors than this one get into print, sometimes in my own work, like using the wrong character or species name. This one is picayune by comparison, far easier to miss.

Heck, I've watched Voyager multiple times, I've written fiction based on it, and I never knew that Janeway's chair couldn't rotate until you told me. It was never a significant enough detail to pay attention to.

I'm amazed how many art errors made it through on some of IDW's comics. The comics have a much shorter turnaround, so the probably aren't reviewed as many times as a novel, but art errors are a lot more obvious, so you'd think they'd be easier to spot.

 

[DS9forever]

I noticed Odo holding a phaser in a recent comic. Does CBS have the same licensing department that Paramount/Viacom had to check for such egregious errors?

 

[Christopher]

I noticed Odo holding a phaser in a recent comic. Does CBS have the same licensing department that Paramount/Viacom had to check for such egregious errors?

It's basically the same company, just with a name change due to the corporate reshuffling at the top. The same people were responsible for licensing Trek merchandise both before and after the name change.

 

[tomswift2002]

So I just got time today to finish this book (I’m giving up on Wolverine: Lifeblood, it’s a very boring book and seems to have no direction and is just wandering from the past to the post-9/11 present, even after 110 pages).

Really the best part of this book was the cover art. Otherwise, the book really needed another pass at editing and I think Karen Haber has a very basic understanding of Trek. At one point in the last 75 pages, she called the Doctor a “hologrammic” program. I’m pretty sure that the word “holographic” had been invented.

The end I found was kind of rushed, so the speed of the book picked up quite a bit. But I was not impressed with the whole environmental and animal rights thread basically being bandied about like a hammer trying to hit a nail.

So far this is the first Voyager book in my re-read of the Voyager series that I’ve rated poor.

 

[Christopher]

I’m pretty sure that the word “holographic” had been invented.

Indeed, it dates back centuries and is far older than its modern usage. "Holograph" originally meant a document or text handwritten entirely by its author, rather than a dictated or printed version. It's "hologram" that's the more recent coinage, from the late 1940s.

 

[tomswift2002]

Another thing that I hats about this book is that the next book, #11 The Garden is infamously famous as one of Trek’s oddest novels in that it only has 9 chapters spread over about 300 pages, so each chapter is like 30 to 40 pages in length.