My problems with Kirstens Voyager Novels

[JonLuck Pickerd]

1. She writes Voyager's characters extremely well and they seem to get the short end of the stick. They have to make room for new and improved versions of Dr. House and old grandma-like Farkas. I'm calling this the Vanguard Syndrome where major trek characters are starting to seem like cameos so that the authors can indulge themselves and not be stifled by established back stories.

2. The Borg had conquered a damn good chunk of the Delta Quadrant and so far we've spent two entire novels waiting ankle deep in the DQ! Like Admiral Forrest said, it's time to swim. One whole ship has been wrecked and rebuilt and we've been mucking around with the Kids of the Wind and the Indine. Let's go out there and really see the shape of an entire quadrant of the galaxy and see what has happened now that a trillion or more drones have been freed and sector after sector of space have been liberated from the domination of the Collective.

WHat about Riley and the Borg from Unity? What about the Borg Resistance from Unimatrix Zero? Ichebs people? We get one Voyager book a year and i'm really getting antsy to DO something.

 

[Sci]

1. She writes Voyager's characters extremely well and they seem to get the short end of the stick. They have to make room for new and improved versions of Dr. House and old grandma-like Farkas. I'm calling this the Vanguard Syndrome where major trek characters are starting to seem like cameos so that the authors can indulge themselves and not be stifled by established back stories.

I would suggest that it's a mistake to think of TV-originated characters and novel-originated characters as being in a separate category, or of some as being more or less important. They're all equal.

And considering that Beyer actually gave Chakotay a personality, I'm gonna disagree with the idea that she's giving the TV characters the shaft.

2. The Borg had conquered a damn good chunk of the Delta Quadrant and so far we've spent two entire novels waiting ankle deep in the DQ! Like Admiral Forrest said, it's time to swim. One whole ship has been wrecked and rebuilt and we've been mucking around with the Kids of the Wind and the Indine. Let's go out there and really see the shape of an entire quadrant of the galaxy

I think you're underestimating how large a galactic quadrant actually is. If they're going to give the Delta Quadrant the attention it deserves, that means not rushing things, and giving time to its numerous "regions."

 

[Relayer1]

I think you're underestimating how large a galactic quadrant actually is. If they're going to give the Delta Quadrant the attention it deserves, that means not rushing things, and giving time to its numerous "regions."

True - this is an ongoing series.

Voyager needs to be in the DQ if its not to be a TNG rehash,so if it's to continue, it's got the whole lifespan of the book series to explore...

 

[Christopher]

2. The Borg had conquered a damn good chunk of the Delta Quadrant and so far we've spent two entire novels waiting ankle deep in the DQ! Like Admiral Forrest said, it's time to swim.... Let's go out there and really see the shape of an entire quadrant of the galaxy and see what has happened now that a trillion or more drones have been freed and sector after sector of space have been liberated from the domination of the Collective.

Well, let's face it, former Borg territory is pretty much going to be a wasteland. There's nobody living there now that the Borg are gone, the planets probably can't support life anymore -- it's just a huge desert. That's not very interesting. The only stories worth telling are on the periphery of Borg space, because that's the only place that anyone's left alive to tell stories about.

WHat about Riley and the Borg from Unity? What about the Borg Resistance from Unimatrix Zero? Ichebs people? We get one Voyager book a year and i'm really getting antsy to DO something.

You seem to be defining "doing something" solely as "revisiting stuff we've seen before." I seem to recall that Star Trek has a different mission statement, something about boldly going where... something, something.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Well, let's face it, former Borg territory is pretty much going to be a wasteland. There's nobody living there now that the Borg are gone, the planets probably can't support life anymore -- it's just a huge desert. That's not very interesting. The only stories worth telling are on the periphery of Borg space, because that's the only place that anyone's left alive to tell stories about.

I always felt that there would still be populated worlds in Borg space. Would the Borg have assimilated primitive worlds without tech for them to absorb? Might the Borg bypass such worlds for a time as they are not "ripe" for assimilation yet? Only to return to them later when they have something to offer The Collective?

 

[Christopher]

Well, any civilization as big as the Borg's needs resources -- and since their nature is to take what others have rather than creating, they'd probably need to get those resources by constant expansion and exploitation. And they don't strike me as the sorts who'd be big on conservation (although I guess they do recycle their own tech, as we saw in "Q Who"). It's never been explicitly stated, but I've always assumed that the Borg would just spread through a region of space until they'd completely stripped it of all life and resources and then move on, leaving a depleted ruin behind.

Then again, I could be influenced by the fact that I created such a species for my original fiction long ago. I was somewhat inspired by a high-school biology report I did on fire ants, which spread across a region and do what one book I read described rather euphemistically as "simplifying the ecosystem" -- i.e. basically wiping out everything except themselves.

 

[WarsTrek1993]

"Voyager needs to be in the DQ"
You mean they still have Dairy Queens in the 24th century?
Irrelevant....
Anyway...I think it's a good idea to do some additional exploration of the enigmatic Delta Quadrant. Who knows what else could be around?

 

[ryan123450]

2. The Borg had conquered a damn good chunk of the Delta Quadrant and so far we've spent two entire novels waiting ankle deep in the DQ! Like Admiral Forrest said, it's time to swim. One whole ship has been wrecked and rebuilt and we've been mucking around with the Kids of the Wind and the Indine. Let's go out there and really see the shape of an entire quadrant of the galaxy and see what has happened now that a trillion or more drones have been freed and sector after sector of space have been liberated from the domination of the Collective.

Isn't this exactly what Kirsten's next book is going to be about?

 

[CaptainMatt]

So the books have gone and undone the ending to Endgame. I knew it was a matter of time what with early titles like Homecoming and Resistance. And a certain little book I have yet to read but plan to soon by a certain wellknown writer on here....

 

[CaptainDonovin]

So far my problem with her books is it takes too long for her to write them.

I've liked them, more so than the Homecoming books.

 

[Sci]

So the books have gone and undone the ending to Endgame.

What? No, nothing about "Endgame" has been un-done. Voyager is the lead ship in a fleet equipped with quantum slipstream drive, sent to explore the Delta Quadrant and investigate the fate of the Borg and the Caeliar. But it's not like they're trapped in the Delta Quadrant again; this isn't Return to Gilligan's Island where they get trapped again or something.

 

[JD]

Yeah, they made it pretty clear in Full Circle that if they needed too they could return to the Alpha Quadrant in a fairly short amount of time.

 

[Sho]

Could someone fill me in real quick on what the slipstream drive's capabilities and availability are? I assume it's a follow-up to that Voyager ep, but haven't reached that point in the novels yet.

 

[JD]

I don't think there's been a whole lot established about what exactly it's capabilities are at this point.

 

[captcalhoun]

you push dis button and you go really, really REALLY fast.

 

[Sho]

So who has it?

 

[captcalhoun]

Starfleet. largely limited to the Vesta class vessels and some other ships, including Voyager, which have been refitted with it for a special mission to the Delta Quadrant.

it's by no means standard.

 

[Sho]

Is there some scarceness built in, i.e. is it costly or difficult to use? Guess I'm just trying to grok how it gets used dramaturgically since regularly going beyond warp is a pretty major change of the dynamics of the universe. I know, read and find out ...

 

[SicOne]

Wasn't there a Typhon Pact book involving some kind of terraforming technology that the Gorn were using/planning to use? Couldn't that tech be utilized in the Delta Quadrant to revitalize worlds that the Borg stripped?

 

[Hugh Cambridge]

^ It sure could but the Gorn don't seem willing to share it