I'm trying to work out the exact placement of the most recent Voyager novels and I'm coming up with two issues. 1) The epilogue of Full Circle is stated to be in June 2381. This tells of Chakotay deciding to resign from Starfleet. The events of Unworthy take place, and then the first chapter of Children of the Storm comes along, which is stated to be in late May 2381. Should I just assume the June date is in error? 2) I'm trying to intersperse the flashbacks of Children of the Storm into their chronological order in Unworthy. The timeline of CotS is pretty plainly laid out by the text: May 24- Chapter 2 May 29- Chapter 4 May 30- Chapter 6 May 31- Chapters 8, 10, 12, and 14 June 2- Chapter 16 June 6- Chapter 18 June 9- Chapter 20 June 10- Chapter 22 June 14- Chapters 1, 3, and 5 June 15- Chapters 7, 9, and 11 June 16- Chapters 13 and 15 June 17- Chapter 17 June 18- Chapter 19 June 19- Chapter 26, 21, 23-25, and 27 The first flashback, Chapter 2 of CotS, seems to take place after Chapter 7 of Unworthy. So the rest of Unworthy must take place between May 24 and June 12 (two days before Chapter 1 of CotS, as stated in the book). However, skimming through I only seem to count 9 days of time passing during the events of that book. Day 1- Chapters 8-10 Day 2- Chapters 11-13 Day 3- Chapters 14-16 Day 4- Chapters 17-18 Day 5- Chapters 19-24 Day 7- Chapter 25 Days 8 & 9- Chapter 26 Am I missing something? I wouldn't assume that all the particulars of the days would work out if it wasn't for the timeline of CotS being so precise. I assume I missed a few days somewhere, but eleven? Thanks to anyone who has anything to clear this up, and kudos for taking the time to delve this deep into something. (Maybe Kirsten herself will see this and clarify the details?)
Wow.... Stuff like this always makes my head hurt because I always try so hard when I'm doing math/time related stuff to be accurate and usually my editors find a number places in any given book where I've failed...and this time...none of us did. Here's what I think happened. Full Circle's Prologue/Epilogue were always meant to be 1 year bookends....The early math said that Janeway died in June of 2380 so Chakotay's moment at her grave had to be June 2381. I had stated that the fleet would launch at the end of May, 2381 and take a few weeks to work out some bugs before hitting the Delta Quadrant maybe the second week of June, so plenty of time for Chakotay and Seven to join them if we assume his resignation happened in the first few days of June. When I wrote Unworthy, all of this was still fresh in my mind and the timeline is accurate. That was all in 2007/2008. Now we're in February, 2010 and I'm starting to write CotS and I've just had a baby and long since forgotten what a full night's sleep is like and I sat down and started to calculate the stardates for the whole thing and forgot completely the two week interim between the Fleet's launch at the end of May and their arrival in the DQ in early June. I figured June 14 for the transition from Unworthy from Voyager's POV and 21 days earlier coincides with the fleet's launch, but NOT when Quirinal and the others went to investigate the Children. So the short answer is, there is no way to reconcile these dates. They are just wrong. The good news is, we're so far beyond them now that they won't affect anything else going forward. The bad news is, again, I suck at math. And apparently even worse now than ever. This stuff happens from time to time. I'm sorry it happened here because until tonight, I was pretty happy with CotS. Now it's added to the list of stuff I wish I'd done better. Apologies. Best, Kirsten Beyer
Wow, thank you Kirsten for the in depth reply. Sorry for pointing out something that you now have on your list of regrets. Please don't feel bad about the mistake. Everything you did right in all your Voyager novels has far outweighed a few chronological errors. I've said this before but thank you for doing such a great job! A personal reply to a question like this is what makes me love this board, and I really appreciate you authors who make this place possible. Kirsten I look forward to getting Protectors in a few months and seeing what wonderful story you have for us this time!
After thinking about this for a bit I've decided that, for myself, the answer to my two questions will have to be 1) The June date in Full Circle is actually in very late May. 2) To line the chapters of the two books up chronologically I will compress the events of the Children of the Storm flashbacks into the time period they should take place during in Unworthy. It seems this is what Kirsten is saying would have happened if she had noticed the discrepancy originally. So basically I'm splitting the difference and accepting the CotS information in one instance and bending it around it in the other.
Kirsten, no apologies necessary. Really ! If, however, you do insist on beating yourself up about it, nothing says sorry like more books !
QFT I thought COS was one of THE BEST Star Trek novels I've read in a long long long time. I am excited that your next novel is just six months away!
Children is my favorite post-Nemesis novel from any of the lines, pretty easily. Incredible novel. I also can't wait for the next one