Full Circle Review Thread (Spoilers)

[Hardin]

Great book, even more so considering how much (and how difficult) ground it had to cover. Of all the post Endgame VOY books this is the one I have enjoyed the most and one of my favorites of the entire series. I wouldn't have mind it as a two books affair, tbh. Congratulations and thank you. I wish Unworthy was already out.

I loved both major plotlines, the little callbacks (like the musing on Tom's ability to get out of stasis), the characters interactions. And the new mission in the DQ fills me with anticipation: it's like old times except it really isn't at all. Perfect.

On top of everything else, this book made Janeway's demise more palatable. Not only for the reason why she went to investigate the Borg ship, which is nice and perfectly in character, but mostly for the (very) quality time devoted to her in the book: she's a freaking major character and died like a guest star. I hated that. I still don't like it one bit that she's dead, but Full Circle is definitely balm on the wounds.

I also loved that B'Elanna's engineering talent was displayed in full force, that she was responsible for Kahless's hologram and could make perfect use of all the tech Voyager had amassed during its travel. Back in the day I wanted the show to end with the crew coming back because they finally (they being mostly B'Elanna ) made some of that tech work. So, loved it.

By the end I was struck by how much I feel as Harry does: I think I really resent Captain Eden and for reasons that have nothing to do with the character itself or how it's written (she's interesting). I resent her because she's in Janeway's ready room, on Janeway's ship. I could accept Chakotay there (except I haven't really liked him that much since season 4), anyone else? Usurpers! But I'm saying this as a good thing: the book engaged me completely.

Oh, I also hope Batiste gets infected by Species 8472 at their earliest convenience Love Cambridge. And I really think Starfleet should not promote people to admirals. Just have captains. Captains are smarter and cooler. More than four pips adversely affect higher brain functions. And revoke the immortality card. Badness all around.

 

[Judith Sisko]

By the end I was struck by how much I feel as Harry does: I think I really resent Captain Eden and for reasons that have nothing to do with the character itself or how it's written (she's interesting). I resent her because she's in Janeway's ready room, on Janeway's ship.

Good! I've been waiting for someone to bring this up. Only problem is, I'm too tired to add to the discussion right now. Hopefully I can elaborate tomorrow.

 

[CommanderTroi]

By the end I was struck by how much I feel as Harry does: I think I really resent Captain Eden and for reasons that have nothing to do with the character itself or how it's written (she's interesting). I resent her because she's in Janeway's ready room, on Janeway's ship.

Good! I've been waiting for someone to bring this up. Only problem is, I'm too tired to add to the discussion right now. Hopefully I can elaborate tomorrow.

I have to say, I feel the same way. For me it's just downright wrong to have somebody else than Janeway sit in that chair and drink coffee in that ready room. It's not Voyager anymore...and that's just sad. Star Trek, for me, is about the characters and not the ships or whatever, and if one of these characters is removed, I lose interest because I don't care for the new (non canon) crewmembers. As I said before, I kinda liked Full Circle as a book, but I don't like Star Trek Voyager this way, without Kathryn Janeway.

 

[Judith Sisko]

By the end I was struck by how much I feel as Harry does: I think I really resent Captain Eden and for reasons that have nothing to do with the character itself or how it's written (she's interesting). I resent her because she's in Janeway's ready room, on Janeway's ship.

Good! I've been waiting for someone to bring this up. Only problem is, I'm too tired to add to the discussion right now. Hopefully I can elaborate tomorrow.

I have to say, I feel the same way. For me it's just downright wrong to have somebody else than Janeway sit in that chair and drink coffee in that ready room. It's not Voyager anymore...and that's just sad. Star Trek, for me, is about the characters and not the ships or whatever, and if one of these characters is removed, I lose interest because I don't care for the new (non canon) crewmembers. As I said before, I kinda liked Full Circle as a book, but I don't like Star Trek Voyager this way, without Kathryn Janeway.

Actually, I want to address Harry Kim's character growth. But, alas, I'm in between classes right now.

 

[shanejayell]

So does that mean Chakotay was 'wrong' to be in that seat too?

 

[JD]

By the end I was struck by how much I feel as Harry does: I think I really resent Captain Eden and for reasons that have nothing to do with the character itself or how it's written (she's interesting). I resent her because she's in Janeway's ready room, on Janeway's ship.

Good! I've been waiting for someone to bring this up. Only problem is, I'm too tired to add to the discussion right now. Hopefully I can elaborate tomorrow.

I have to say, I feel the same way. For me it's just downright wrong to have somebody else than Janeway sit in that chair and drink coffee in that ready room. It's not Voyager anymore...and that's just sad. Star Trek, for me, is about the characters and not the ships or whatever, and if one of these characters is removed, I lose interest because I don't care for the new (non canon) crewmembers. As I said before, I kinda liked Full Circle as a book, but I don't like Star Trek Voyager this way, without Kathryn Janeway.

So I take it you don't read the TNG or DS9 Post-Finale books, then?

 

[CommanderTroi]

So I take it you don't read the TNG or DS9 Post-Finale books, then?

Well no. I read nearly all of them, but I did really like only a few of them (the Titan novels were really good, DS9 had some cool books in there, too. DS9 worlds e.g.).
I wouldn't want to walk around and say that I don't like the relaunches without having read them, that would be kinda strange...

 

[JAG]

Yet it happens all the time.

 

[AuntKate]

Criticizing without first reading (or watching) doesn't just happen in the book forum. There are lots of posters who go onto the Voyager forum, for example, and blast the series or the characters when they have seen only a few episodes and are just parroting the criticisms they've heard others make. I'm guessing it happens elsewhere, too, as I've heard ENT fans complain about the same thing.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Good! I've been waiting for someone to bring this up. Only problem is, I'm too tired to add to the discussion right now. Hopefully I can elaborate tomorrow.

I have to say, I feel the same way. For me it's just downright wrong to have somebody else than Janeway sit in that chair and drink coffee in that ready room. It's not Voyager anymore...and that's just sad. Star Trek, for me, is about the characters and not the ships or whatever, and if one of these characters is removed, I lose interest because I don't care for the new (non canon) crewmembers. As I said before, I kinda liked Full Circle as a book, but I don't like Star Trek Voyager this way, without Kathryn Janeway.

So I take it you don't read the TNG or DS9 Post-Finale books, then?

Or TNG he series since it introduces a new crew for the Enterprise.

 

[CommanderTroi]

I have to say, I feel the same way. For me it's just downright wrong to have somebody else than Janeway sit in that chair and drink coffee in that ready room. It's not Voyager anymore...and that's just sad. Star Trek, for me, is about the characters and not the ships or whatever, and if one of these characters is removed, I lose interest because I don't care for the new (non canon) crewmembers. As I said before, I kinda liked Full Circle as a book, but I don't like Star Trek Voyager this way, without Kathryn Janeway.

So I take it you don't read the TNG or DS9 Post-Finale books, then?

Or TNG he series since it introduces a new crew for the Enterprise.

Hmmm TNG he series?
If you are referring to the fact that Next Gen introduced a new crew for AN Enterprise, I don't care. I grew up with Next Gen and only later realized that TOS exsisted, too
But it's not the same Enterprise, the ships had the same name, but c'mon, you can't really compare apples to strawberries. If I say that I don't like VOY without Janeway, it would be true for TNG without Picard or DS9 without Sisko etc...and anyway, why can't you just accept that some people don't like that the bookline killed off Kathy? Is it mandatory to like everything which is written just because it has Star Trek on the cover?
I don't think so. As I said before, I read nearly every relaunch novel set in the 24th century (and I said before that I, except for that part, liked Full Circle) and I watched the TV shows so often that I know a lot of the dialoges by heart, so what is your problem with my statement?
And it's just my opinion, nothing more and nothing less.

 

[Judith Sisko]

So, anyway... back to Harry Kim.

What did we learn about Harry in the early years of the series?

- He was naive,
- Voyager was his first assignment,
- He was an only child who was doted on by his parents,
- He missed his parents and wanted to be home,
- He was unlucky in love and,
- He could become petulant when he didn't like the way things were going. (I'm being nice here.)

What did we know about him seven hears later?

- He was naive,
- He was an only child,
- He was unlucky in love (the wrong twin, a hologram, a terrorist, the dearly departed, etc)
- He could be petulant...

Well, you get the idea.

Poor Harry didn't have much to do at the Ops station to begin with, but once Seven came on board, many of those Ops conversations centered around Seven and took place in Astrometrics, shutting Harry out even more.

So it wasn't surprising to see that Harry would be the crew member to take an instant dislike to Captain Eden simply because she wasn't Kathryn Janeway. After all, didn't he simply replace one maternal figure with another after they became stranded in the DQ?

Hopefully we'll see Harry mature during this new mission. Who knows? Maybe he'll even appreciate Captain Eden based on her own merits and strengths.

And, Kristen, thanks for ending the Harry/Libby romance. The guy was so clueless with respect to Libby's assignment, it was almost painful to read at times. The poor schmuck. Again.

 

[Christopher]

I think Harry became a lot less naive over the course of the series. He grew up, he learned to assert himself, he found strength through enduring hardships, etc. Not a hugely dramatic character arc, perhaps, but he's not a babe in the woods anymore.

 

[Rat Boy]

Now if only he could get a babe in the woods.

 

[Christopher]

Now if only he could get a babe in the woods.

Well, he got Libby, and he plays the clarinet. So he's got a babe and a woodwind.

 

[TenLubak]

This was my favorite Voyager book I've read. Too tierd to get into details. But super! 5 popcorns!

 

[KimMH]

Now if only he could get a babe in the woods.

Well, he got Libby, and he plays the clarinet. So he's got a babe and a woodwind.

I came away from FC hoping to see Harry Kim some more too - it seems he has a lot of room to grow. As a loyal VOY fan I confess I'm not too terribly interested in Batiste or Eden, I want to see more of the core crew and it would be interesting if some of the lower deck characters got a little more flesh too. For example, how many of the originally Maqui returned for the second run into the DQ?

And since TrekLit is into babies of course we all want to see little Miral grow up to be the first Klingon Empress! (I do - and I do know that a 1/4 Klingon as Empress is unlikely but a kid can dream can't she?)

 

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

I've put my mini-review up: http://www.voxbomb.net/?p=630

In short: Wasn't thrilled with Full Circle, but liked some of the elements enough to pick up Unworthy and see where it goes.

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

I won't write a long review, but some of the nitpicks that stand out in my mind after reading it are...

...I felt that some of the dialogue was stilted and oddly worded. Characters spoke like they were penning a novel, rather than the way 'real' people speak. I don't know if that makes sense, but it seemed like word choices were odd/awkward in some situations. I also found myself having to go back and parse out the clauses in quite a few sentences so that I could make sense of them, which is not something I have frequently needed to do in other books.

...I thought the framing of the 'second book' was unwieldy at times, and I had to go back and check the dates on the chapter headers several times just to make sense of when stuff was going on.

...Several major conflicts in the book struck me as being rather conveniently resolved. Chakotay's months-on-end of drinking and misery were solved in 5 minutes of dialogue with the Councillor - okay, so he had an epiphany - but to convince the Klingon warrior women to change their minds about centuries'-worth of deeply held beliefs in one conversation? Not buying it; sorry.

...Shaking. Everytime anything happened, the characters started shaking.

...and a final nitpick: Chakotay's wearing cotton pants while living on a wet, cold island? WTF? Anyone who's spent even a little time outdoors (hiking, camping, etc.) will tell you that wearing cotton in wet, cold weather is an invitation to hypothermia. Wet cotton chills you to the bone! Chakotay would never choose cotton to wear out there.


Overall, I enjoyed it, though. I particularly liked Chakotay's arc, although I think that the most interesting aspect of it was his descent into drinking and questionable decision-making. That would have made for a great book all on its own. Seven's arc was fairly compelling, but it needs more fleshing out in future novels. The Klingon 'book' bored me, frankly - it just seemed like random, fairly generic, mythological crap got thrown in wherever it fit the desired plot direction. I was fascinated by the atavistic Fek'lhr (sp?) children, though. Creepy description. The 'Destiny' portion of the book was better, although I felt that the nanoprobe trick didn't get much resolution (besides the fact it obviously worked in only a limited fashion).

Finally, Eden's origin seemed to me to be a rehash of Odo's predicament in early eps of DS9. I was bored again by the ex-spouse bickering, and although I was a tad surprised by Eden getting the center chair, I think that how she got it was poorly executed (We spend a novel listening to Chakotay's psychological evaluation, then it's summarily overrulled, and nobody says much about that?). To me, it almost made more sense for Paris to be offered the chair.

Well, that's a bunch of poorly-arranged thoughts of mine, but there you have it.

 

[Inyx]

Great book. Can't wait for Unworthy.