Are 'Mosaic' and 'Pathways' by Jeri Taylor good places to start?

[Shalashaska]

I heard these are the two of two canon novels in the Star Trek universe, and since I'm watching VOY at the moment, I thought I may as well add these to my watch-through (at their appropriate times).

Any problems starting with these?

 

[Greg Cox]

They're aren't really "canon":. Maybe Jeri Taylor treated them as such while she was working on the TV show, but when she moved on, subsequent TV episodes were free to ignore them . . and occasionally did.

No tie-in novels are ever really "canon," no matter what you might hear.

 

[Jinn]

You might want to read the Voyager relaunch by Kirsten Beyer (and Christie Golden) after the series. While it isn't canon it is better than a lot of the stuff that happened in the actual TV series.

 

[ryan123450]

I would say absolutely yes. If you are watching threw Voyager read these two as you come to their places in the series. You don't need to have read anything previously and they are both really interesting. There are slight differences in a few of the characters backstories then what was eventually hinted at in the series, but they are still worth the read. Those two were actually the first Treklit I ever read.

You should also throw in the String Theory trilogy when you get to that part of the timeline. And the anthology Distant Shores which has stories taking place in all seven seasons. Those would really be the 6 main books for someone new to Voyager books to read while going through a Voyager rewatch. Check out my website for help on where to go from there.

www.startreklitverse.yolasite.com

 

[Christopher]

They're aren't really "canon":. Maybe Jeri Taylor treated them as such while she was working on the TV show, but when she moved on, subsequent TV episodes were free to ignore them . . and occasionally did.

Right. Taylor used elements from Mosaic in the episode "Coda," so that book's pretty much consistent with canon, but a number of things in Pathways were contradicted by later episodes -- e.g. the names of B'Elanna's parents and the planet she grew up on. "Canon" is basically just a word we use to refer to the stories told by the creators. As long as Jeri Taylor was the one in charge of the writing staff, she treated her own books as part of the universe as she saw it. But once others took over from her, they didn't feel bound by her view of things.

 

[Greg Cox]

Exactly. And if a book can be contradicted any time the movie and TV people want to do something different (and it will be), then it's not really "canon" in the sense most people mean.

 

[Christopher]

Exactly. And if a book can be contradicted any time the movie and TV people want to do something different (and it will be), then it's not really "canon" in the sense most people mean.

Well, even canon can be contradicted. See Bobby Ewing's retconned death on Dallas, or George Lucas's changes to the Star Wars films. I think Taylor intended her books to be part of the canon, but "canon" is not a guarantee of consistency as some people believe it to be. It simply refers to the source of the story. Any story, whether canon or otherwise, is just a bunch of stuff someone made up, so there's nothing to prevent it from being changed or ignored later on.

Although you're right that "secondary canon" like tie-ins by the series creators are easier to disregard than the "primary canon" of the series itself. Although there can be exceptions. The Gargoyles comics by showrunner Greg Weisman are considered by fans to be more canonical than the third season of the show, which was made without Weisman and diverged from his plans for the show. I'm not sure Disney would agree if they ever revived the show, though.

 

[Idran]

And then there's the weird situation I've mentioned before with World of Warcraft novels, where not only are they as canon as the primary media that is the game itself, but oftentimes major storyline developments are shown exclusively in the novels and only ever referenced in the game rather than depicted. (Though that's probably additionally weird in the sense that the reason it's even feasible is because as far as I understand things, their novelists are basically given a very general outline of what should happen in the novel by the game's writers, and allowed to expand on that outline how they'd like so long as they stick to the essential framework.)

 

[Greg Cox]

I confess I'm not very well versed in how computer gaming tie-ins work.

 

[Mage]

I liked them, I'll admit. But there has been better TrekLit if you ask me.

 

[tomswift2002]

Mosaic's wrap-around story takes place in the second season or early third-season, as the Kazons are major players in the book, and Kes is still on Voyager. Pathways wrap-around story takes place in Season 4, after Seven of Nine is brought on board, but Kes still makes an appearance.

 

[Christopher]

Mosaic is in the latter part of season 2. It refers to the Doctor being online for "a year and a half," which would put it some 8 months after "Cold Fire" -- although that would put it during "Resolutions," so I put it a couple of months earlier. (The Pocket Timeline, oddly, puts it just before "Cold Fire.")