Just finished VOY's "Spirit Walk"

[Elemental]

I was glad to find that overall, these much maligned novels were more enjoyable than I expected. I admit, I found the first novel to be incredibly slow. I don't think anything interesting happened until the last several chapters. The second novel, however, I would put on-par with most other Trek lit I've read. The Changeling story was pretty intriguing and showing us the real Crell Moset was an interesting idea.

I can see how the ending with Chakotay gaining all these spirit powers to take on the baddies could be annoying to some, but it didn't really bother me. At least it wasn't a totally deus ex machina style of solution. The only thing about the ending that I would maybe gripe a bit about is how easily Crell Moset is turned into a blubbering idiot after Kaz confronts him and tells him what a bad person he is.

Also, Torres' story has been going nowhere fast so I look forward to seeing what will be changing in Full Circle. I am also very interested to see how things get shaken up in general for the crew. I hope that established relaunch characters (Kaz, Libby...) are still given a significant role.

 

[Elemental]

So no one has any other thoughts to offer on Spirit Walk?

 

[brcarthey]

it's been awhile since i've read those. but overall, i found them pretty enjoyable too. however, you and i are in the minority as most people, after reading these last two books by christie golden, are glad she's no longer writing voyager novels.

i had two problems with these books, the whole supernatural powers of chakotay and then the mega-cliffhanger involving b'elanna and miral. i read these books about three years after they came out so i was pretty peeved at ms. golden for leaving such a big open ending and then deciding she didn't want to writer voyager novels anymore.

but, rest assured, the FC novel is great and any loose ends leftover from these two books are tied up nicely in it.

 

[Steve Roby]

So no one has any other thoughts to offer on Spirit Walk?

Well, you're already aware that it's much maligned, so there's not much point in offering any fresh maligning, is there?

 

[Paris]

I recently re-read both books in anticipation of Full Circle's release. They really were better than I remembered. I fully agree with Elemental that the first book is kind of slow, but things do pick up in the second. I liked that Tom became Janeway's defacto aide when she was trying to prove to SF that he was XO material. I thought it was perfectly in line with how Janeway would act towards one of her "kids". She had all the confidence in the world when it came to the kind of officer that Tom could be.

I was also a fan of the "wandering Admiral"-type situation that was being set up for Janeway. It seemed like Ms. Golden was going to have her doing the trouble-shooter thing in future stories, much in the way that Kirk was a trouble-shooter and not a desk jockey....

...what could have been, eh?

 

[kimc]

I was also a fan of the "wandering Admiral"-type situation that was being set up for Janeway. It seemed like Ms. Golden was going to have her doing the trouble-shooter thing in future stories, much in the way that Kirk was a trouble-shooter and not a desk jockey....

...what could have been, eh?

Now that would have been cool.

 

[Elemental]

So no one has any other thoughts to offer on Spirit Walk?

Well, you're already aware that it's much maligned, so there's not much point in offering any fresh maligning, is there?

Because I hadn't read the book until this point, I tried not to read too much in the way of details of other people's opinions but it was impossible to miss the overall negative impressions. Now that I am finished the novels, I'm interested in hearing more specifics about what problems people had with it. Or were there others like me who did find more enjoyment from it than problems?

 

[Elemental]

I recently re-read both books in anticipation of Full Circle's release. They really were better than I remembered. I fully agree with Elemental that the first book is kind of slow, but things do pick up in the second. I liked that Tom became Janeway's defacto aide when she was trying to prove to SF that he was XO material. I thought it was perfectly in line with how Janeway would act towards one of her "kids". She had all the confidence in the world when it came to the kind of officer that Tom could be.

I was also a fan of the "wandering Admiral"-type situation that was being set up for Janeway. It seemed like Ms. Golden was going to have her doing the trouble-shooter thing in future stories, much in the way that Kirk was a trouble-shooter and not a desk jockey....

...what could have been, eh?

I really enjoyed Janeway's dilemma about whether she should stick to her duty of trying to prevent a world from seceding from the Federation or her more personal investigation of Chakotay's odd behaviour. And I too mourn her loss. I'm really hoping that the reactions to her death and the story developments resulting from it can make up for the loss of this character. I'm currently only a few chapters into Full Circle.

 

[Trent Roman]

So no one has any other thoughts to offer on Spirit Walk?

I have thoughts, but most of them involve a roaring bonfire.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Paris]

I really enjoyed Janeway's dilemma about whether she should stick to her duty of trying to prevent a world from seceding from the Federation or her more personal investigation of Chakotay's odd behaviour. And I too mourn her loss. I'm really hoping that the reactions to her death and the story developments resulting from it can make up for the loss of this character. I'm currently only a few chapters into Full Circle.

IMO, FC delivers when it comes to story. I miss her too, but with what happens to Chakotay's character (finally!), and how everyone else steps up...it just makes the death all the more easy to live with. I've said this around here before; character death is fine, as long as it makes the story better and is not done as some kind of stunt to bolster sales. Agree?

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

IMO, FC delivers when it comes to story. I miss her too, but with what happens to Chakotay's character (finally!), and how everyone else steps up...it just makes the death all the more easy to live with. I've said this around here before; character death is fine, as long as it makes the story better and is not done as some kind of stunt to bolster sales. Agree?

Quite agreed - I feel that character death, when coupled with a good story and good development for the surviving characters, is a perfectly valid choice. The biggest problem with Janeway's death, up until Full Circle, was how we weren't getting the character development, not to mention that we didn't have the full story. Janeway going to the cube in an attempt to spare the Voyager crew from returning to the Delta Quadrant gives her a far better reason to be out there than just 'hey, empty Borg artifact here, let's look it over.'

 

[Octavia]

So no one has any other thoughts to offer on Spirit Walk?

I have thoughts, but most of them involve a roaring bonfire.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

Same here. I'm afraid I can't stand that all that mystic shit - I like my SF hard, it's supposed to be science fiction after all - and ever since the first episode about it on Voyager I've thought the Miral storyline painfully stupid. (In fact, one character I would be happy for the books to kill off is Miral, if only to end that particular storyline for good and ever.)

Magic spirit powers and special child fulfilling prophecy? Now all SW needs is a unicorn, yay!

Seriously: together they pretty much torpedo the story by making it impossible for me to take at all seriously.

 

[Christopher]

I've never understood why people have trouble accepting the powers of the Sky Spirits in Spirit Walk. They're no more fanciful than the powers of Q, the Prophets, the Organians, or any other Trek-universe super-aliens. True, Chakotay chooses to interpret these aliens' power through the filter of his spiritual belief, but Kira does the same with the Prophets and I've never heard anyone object to that.

 

[Elemental]

I've never understood why people have trouble accepting the powers of the Sky Spirits in Spirit Walk. They're no more fanciful than the powers of Q, the Prophets, the Organians, or any other Trek-universe super-aliens. True, Chakotay chooses to interpret these aliens' power through the filter of his spiritual belief, but Kira does the same with the Prophets and I've never heard anyone object to that.

Agreed. I was going to make a similar post with the same points but you beat me to it. I found the more fastasy-style approach to the special powers a little refreshing after the huge amount of sci-fi supernatural abilities we see.

 

[Steve Roby]

I've never understood why people have trouble accepting the powers of the Sky Spirits in Spirit Walk. They're no more fanciful than the powers of Q, the Prophets, the Organians, or any other Trek-universe super-aliens. True, Chakotay chooses to interpret these aliens' power through the filter of his spiritual belief, but Kira does the same with the Prophets and I've never heard anyone object to that.

It's been some time since I read it, but the impression I remember having is that the mystical woowoo is how the author presents it, not just how Chakotay perceives it. If it didn't come after a series of poorly thought out story elements throughout the first four books (Libby, the dumber than a sack of dumb things holorevolution, the hyperemotional ship's counselor, etc), it's possible that it might not have had so powerful a straw -> camel's back effect.

 

[Christopher]

It's been some time since I read it, but the impression I remember having is that the mystical woowoo is how the author presents it, not just how Chakotay perceives it.

Either way, there's plenty of precedent for similarly implausible things in Trek. I recall nothing in Spirit Walk that was as implausible or silly as Q snapping his fingers and turning the Enterprise into Sherwood Forest. So it sounds to me as if the problem people are having is not about credibility, but about discomfort with spirituality.

And again, plenty of DS9 novels uncritically present the Prophets as divine beings; the narrative in those books doesn't distance itself from the spiritual interpretation any more than it does here. So I still see a strange double standard.

 

[Steve Roby]

DS9 sidestepped issues of mysticism and such by presenting the Prophets as aliens. They're beings who could be worshipped, just as the Q could be, just as several others are, but their status as deities is a matter of Bajoran cultural baggage. You can't be a Bajoran atheist because the Prophets actually do exist. But you can reject the idea that they have any spiritual authority or divinity. I don't remember Spirit Walk allowing for that kind of ambiguity.

 

[borgboy]

I found SW to be pretty bad too. The Spirit stuff didn't really bother me much, but there were so many new characters that got a lot of attention that I couldn't warm up to, and the writing was dull. CG seemed much more interested in writing about Libby and the Trill Dr than the VOY cast. CG's earlier VOY novels were enjoyable, so I don't know why things went wrong.

 

[Octavia]

CG seemed much more interested in writing about Libby and the Trill Dr than the VOY cast.

Oh, Libby. I'd successfully wiped her from my mind... Another one who's disappearance would actually help an ongoing story, if only from the negative perspective of "Thank goodness she's gone and that idiot plot stopped in its tracks."

Dr. Kaz, on the other hand, I did like.

 

[Christopher]

DS9 sidestepped issues of mysticism and such by presenting the Prophets as aliens. They're beings who could be worshipped, just as the Q could be, just as several others are, but their status as deities is a matter of Bajoran cultural baggage. You can't be a Bajoran atheist because the Prophets actually do exist. But you can reject the idea that they have any spiritual authority or divinity. I don't remember Spirit Walk allowing for that kind of ambiguity.

But the Sky Spirits were introduced in the episode "Tattoo," and they were explicitly portrayed as aliens there. And even though DS9 initially presented the Prophets as aliens, later episodes and plenty of the books seem to present them more as divinities. There's no difference.