Christie Golden Post-Voyager Novels

[Thrawn]

I summarize each book I read, for my own future use; I used to re-read books a lot, now I just keep summaries of the things I know I'll find important, so I can refer to them later.

Spoiler: Golden's VOY books

Homecoming: We begin with lots of happy emotional resolutions; briefly: Janeway meets Mark and his new wife and daughter and adores them, becoming fast friends, and is promoted to Admiral; Chakotay visits his sister Sekaya who we’ve never heard of before and breaks up with Seven; Tuvok is instantly cured of his disease by his son and goes home to his wife, then becomes an Academy teacher; Paris & Torres are reunited with their respective estranged fathers and all is smiles; Kim gets back together with Libby (who’s a Starfleet Intelligence spy now, assigned to stay close to him); and Seven meets her aunt and moves in. Then, the Doctor is approached by Baines, someone inspired by his holonovel to create holographic revolt; the Doctor tells him this is a bad idea, but he does anyway, making every holographic person on Earth go on strike. The Doctor is held under suspicion of helping, and his case isn’t made better when Baines blows a bunch of shit up, killing 8 people. The Doctor is to be lobotomized, made into an automaton, to be made an example of. Meanwhile, a virus is spreading that’s assimilating people, and Seven and Icheb are held under suspicion of causing it. Janeway doesn’t like any of these imprisonments, and as we close, she has a plan of some sort to fix them, involving someone on the Enterprise. Libby is assigned to watch Admiral Montgomery, in charge of all this, thinking he’s treasonous, but she has doubts. We also meet a trill doctor, Jarem Kaz, who’s working for Montgomery but on our side. Finally, Torres gets a note from her mother saying she’s waiting for her in a forest on a vision quest, after the Barge of the Dead experience they shared, so Torres goes on the quest to find her.

The Farther Shore: Let’s start with Torres, who finds her mother in the middle of the forest after a lot of struggle, only for her mother to die in the next fight. This, for some reason, makes Torres want to stay at Boreth and study. Paris decides that’s cool. In the mean time, Baines, the instigator of the Holographic Revolution, kidnaps someone named Vassily Andropov and throws him in a simulation of torture with another hologram, Allyson. This convinces Andropov that holograms are people too, and then Baines kills himself and transfers his mind to a hologram, and they’re all living together (no good will come from this). As for the virus, Janeway & the non-Torres senior staff break the Doctor, Seven, and Icheb out of prison with the help of Data, retake Voyager, and find a solution, as Libby discovers that the virus is being activated by her boss, Brenna Covington, who’s turned herself into a Borg queen because of a psychologically disturbing childhood. Convinced our heroes are in the right, Montgomery finally joins them, and they all storm the new queen together, killing her entirely. Finally, Seven and the Doctor go to work for a Federation think tank, Janeway and Tuvok continue teaching for the Academy, and Janeway offers Chakotay a new command – Voyager.

Spirit Walk 1: Some brief check-ins: Janeway is trying to get Paris the respect he deserves, so she’s taking him to a diplomatic conference with races that want to quit the Federation; Torres is researching her baby’s apparent messiah status when she reads some alarming yet to my mind still vague prophecies; the Doctor is still campaigning for holographic rights but is shot down; Libby is hunting down some other vaguely defined conspiracy. With Tuvok teaching, Seven at the think tank with the Doctor, and Neelix still in the Delta Quadrant, that leaves Chakotay and Kim, now tactical officer (and Lyssa Campbell, ops, and Taurik, engineering, I suppose) as our only old characters still on board. We meet Andrew Ellis, “Priggy”, new very by-the-book First Officer; Jarem Kaz, the Trill, as CMO; Akolo Tare, warrior woman and recent victim of the Holographic kidnappings, at helm; Devi Patel, tiny Indian science officer; and Astall, a Huanni counselor (Huanni are particularly attuned to emotions). First mission: some ex-pats from a colony have lost contact, but want to resettle, so Voyager takes them. They pick up Chakotay’s sister Sekaya as spiritual advisor. Arriving, they find a storm centered over the colony (see the episode “Tattoo” for backstory) and know the Sky Spirits are here, but after beaming down to investigate, Priggy, Chakotay, and Sekaya find themselves captured by a changeling and the evil Cardassian scientist Crell Moset (The Battle Of Betazed; VOY: “Nothing Human”). We also feature a subplot in which some crewmembers rant at the Voyager crew for being “lucky” to miss the Dominion War, and a subplot in which Astall attempts to help Kaz deal with the PTSD of his prior host (a Maquis), but instead just brings that personality to the surface, fucking him up pretty solid.

Spirit Walk 2: The “conspiracy” Libby is hunting down is actually one particular shapeshifter, who’s been impersonating Andrew Ellis for 7 years as well as a friend of a diplomat who represents one of the planets that wants to withdraw from the Federation. He also was the Bajoran that betrayed all the Maquis, leading to their deaths; for this, he was banished from the Great Link and made solid, and he’s hired Crell Moset to un-solidify him. As a reward, he’s given Moset the resources to play around with transforming the colonists with DNA from the Sky Spirits (“Tattoo”) which is present in all of Chakotay’s tribe. He’s been trying to track down Chakotay ever since Caretaker. “Priggy” assumes the form of Chakotay to try and convince everyone to leave the planet alone, but it fails when Kim and Kaz realize he’s an impostor and contact Janeway, who sends Paris to help reclaim the ship. The ship is reclaimed, and in the mean time the real Chakotay has convinced Moset that “Priggy” does not have his best interests at heart, and so Moset injects him with the Sky People DNA, because Sekaya thinks that if Chakotay is on a Spirit Walk at the time, he can deal with the superpowers (which have driven the colonists crazy). It works (Chakotay even meets Wesley Crusher in the spiritual realm) and “Priggy” is defeated, though he escapes. Kaz’s former host also owes Moset revenge, and gets Moset to realize he’s become a monster before we recapture him. Paris is given XO of Voyager. Meanwhile, Torres gets a message – her daughter is in danger! OH NOES!

Suddenly I want to read your entire collection of these.

It's full of politically incorrect statements and random inside jokes that you won't get, but I'll send you the whole 250,000 word document if you want me to...

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

True, but Kim just never struck me as a very security-type person.

And Chekov did? In TOS, his typical response to danger was screaming.

Hehe, that is very true.

I wonder if, back in the day, they ever considered making Sulu the Security Chief and adding Ilia as Helm Officer?

 

[Christopher]

I wonder if, back in the day, they ever considered making Sulu the Security Chief and adding Ilia as Helm Officer?

There's no evidence of that. The Phase II bible and the first-draft script for "In Thy Image" (the pilot episode that became TMP) both specify Sulu as helmsman, Ilia as navigator, and Chekov as security chief/weapons officer.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

It's full of politically incorrect statements and random inside jokes that you won't get, but I'll send you the whole 250,000 word document if you want me to...

If that's a serious offer, then, yes, I'd love to have a look.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Why is it that flight controllers get so much attention in Star Trek?

 

[stardream]

I just finished the four Golden Re-launch books. Homecoming and The Farther Shore weren't bad but Spirit Walk Lost me. The Klingon bits were mildly interesting but they didn't last all that long.

 

[DonIago]

I think what pains me most about Golden's VOY novels receiving tepid reviews is that I enjoyed (and enjoy re-reading) some of her other fiction. It seems in this case she may have just not been well-suited for the material.

 

[Christopher]

I think what pains me most about Golden's VOY novels receiving tepid reviews is that I enjoyed (and enjoy re-reading) some of her other fiction. It seems in this case she may have just not been well-suited for the material.

Ironically, Golden's VGR novels written during the series were by far the best-received books in the VGR line, which is why she was picked for the post-finale series in the first place. I wonder if maybe the real problem is that VGR just doesn't work as well when it's taking place within the Federation.

 

[DS9Continuing]

There is that problem with it, certainly. If they're not in the Dairy Queen, they're just another Starfleet ship bumbling about. I think that was even alluded to in Full Circle - Chakotay all but said "We've done absolutely nothing interesting for the last three years. I'm looking at you, writers!"

.

 

[Christopher]

On the other hand, you couldn't just immediately turn around and send Voyager back to the Delta Quadrant without dealing with the homecoming and its consequences. So those first few books may have had the deck stacked against them no matter who'd written them.

 

[Idran]

I dunno, though; Full Circle was received really well, I thought, and it was entirely set before the titular project started.

 

[ryan123450]

Homecoming and The Farther Shore would be much better remembered if they hadn't been followed by the misstep that was Spirit Walk. If those books had been great, people would have been more forgiving of the first two. Instead they are all four lumped together in people's minds as horrible. The first two really weren't that bad.

 

[Christopher]

I dunno, though; Full Circle was received really well, I thought, and it was entirely set before the titular project started.

But its plot was largely catalyzed by the plan to send a fleet back to the DQ. So even though it wasn't set there, it was informed by the idea of going there. That's different from just open-endedly being back in the Federation.

Homecoming and The Farther Shore would be much better remembered if they hadn't been followed by the misstep that was Spirit Walk. If those books had been great, people would have been more forgiving of the first two. Instead they are all four lumped together in people's minds as horrible. The first two really weren't that bad.

Honestly, I've never seen the problem with Spirit Walk. I wouldn't say it's Golden's best work, but I don't think it's bad. And I gather the duology sold very well.

 

[Idran]

I dunno, though; Full Circle was received really well, I thought, and it was entirely set before the titular project started.

But its plot was largely catalyzed by the plan to send a fleet back to the DQ. So even though it wasn't set there, it was informed by the idea of going there. That's different from just open-endedly being back in the Federation.

Fair enough, though it was mostly the second half that was catalyzed by that, the first half was all about the Kuvah'magh plotline. Though I do have to admit that personally I was more interested in the second half, so the point does still stand for myself I suppose.

 

[20fridge]

Homecoming and The Farther Shore would be much better remembered if they hadn't been followed by the misstep that was Spirit Walk. If those books had been great, people would have been more forgiving of the first two. Instead they are all four lumped together in people's minds as horrible. The first two really weren't that bad.

I remember liking Spirit Walk when it first came out. I think the biggest problem with Spirit Walk is that it made Voyager too much like TNG/DS9 but with Voyager characters. Golden understands the characters well, that's why Homecoming and The Farther Shore work. The problem is that she didn't know where to take them. Part of what made Voyager more than TNG-lite was the quest to get back home. It drove so much of the show. I think that's part of why Endgame ends so abruptly. Once they're home what can they do that compare to the amazing journey they just had? Golden's answer was to have them carry on like any ordinary crew.

Part of what makes Beyer's books so good is that she found the best possible answer to this problem: send them back. The crew belongs in the Delta Quadrant, but this time on their terms. She gave them a new mission, a purpose beyond just boldly going. Both Golden and Beyer get the characters, but Beyer gets what makes Voyager something more than "just another Star Trek."

 

[ryan123450]

I agree totally. However I didn't enjoy Chokatay's arc in Spirit Walk at all.

 

[20fridge]

I agree totally. However I didn't enjoy Chokatay's arc in Spirit Walk at all.

Yeah, most stories involving Chakotay's heritage are unfortunate... It's still better than the early numbered novels where he went on a vision quest just about every book and it always resulted in a vague warning about the aliens of the week.

 

[stardream]

I just read The Murdered Sun by Golden and I enjoyed it very much. It was the first book in the numbered series that I felt captured the characters as I knew them on the series. The earlier books were alright but the characters came across as a bit of blank slates to me but that was more than likely not the fault of the authors. It was probably just early in the TV series and things hadn't been established yet.

I admit I had a laugh at Paris' thing about Lizards. I wondered if it was a joke or just a coincidence.

For the record I'm part Native American. Rez born card carrying casino check cashing Native and while I like that Chakotay's heritage is respected in the show and in the books there are other ways of getting out of situations apart from taking a spirit walk. There are times when you need to find other ways to work around the problem because sometimes your animal guide likes to take a nap.

 

[Idran]

I honestly haven't yet gotten to Golden's relaunch Voyager books myself yet, largely because of the quality issues I've heard around them, but I know that's probably not fair to her so I do have them on my list. I am curious, though: are they bad for Christie Golden, or are they just bad in a general sense? Because I did like her Gateways entries and I thought "Seven of Nine" and "Hard Crash" were great (and going outside Trek, I thought her Ravenloft books were the best of that series, and I've always heard she was the best writer among the Warcraft novels) so I was always a little disappointed to hear that her Voyager relaunch stuff was generally considered below par.

 

[stardream]

I don't think they were 'bad'. I believe the problem was addressed earlier in the thread that Voyager does not belong in the Alpha Quadrant doing routine Alpha Quadrant things which would essentially make the ship another version of The Enterprise. Voyager needs to shine in her own space and for her that's the Delta Quadrant.