Um, I didn't write that, not sure why my username shows up as the quoted. I think you edited wrong.
Thanks for that, Ill have to review it I guess (although I love it when Picardo plays crazy!!)
Full Circle Review Thread (Spoilers)
- Thread starter Kirsten Beyer
- Start date
I think that comes across - it's a really nice little bit of interaction that captures their odd relationship and makes a point without belabouring it. Zimmerman strikes me as someone who'd be a lot of fun to write.
That's very good to hear. Harry tends to come across as fairly bland, and really needs someone to spend the time to make him shine in and of himself. The Doc usually gets fairly short shrift in the novels (probably because he had so much screen-time).
Now I'm a happy Voyager fan.
Ask me in a few years few years if I agree with the decision. In the mean time, insult, injury, agree to disagree and all that.
Ironically, the more I think about it, the more I support killing off Janeway in the first place - I think it offers up a lot more in terms of dramatic storytelling for the other characters than keeping her around ever would. She was such a dominant mother-hen presence in their lives for almost a decade - how do they cope when she's gone?
It does make me wonder, though: with a three-to-four year lead time, just how far in advance is the Voyager arc plotted? Just to the end of Unworthy? Beyond?
Quite to the contrary - you have just risen quite considerably in my esteem for enduring such hardship!
(but at least it wasn't in Threshold)
Thanks for taking the time out to reply, as well.
He is. He doesn't really play a role in Full Circle, but gets mentioned a few times. He's still at the Academy and in regular touch with Seven and soon will be keeping tabs on Naomi Wildman.
Harry's got more time in Unworthy for sure, and I think once it's done the pieces are in place for his further development but I'm not certain we're going to get to "shine" just yet. I dont' want to raise expectations here to a place where they cannot be fulfilled.
And I don't think the Doctor gets short shrift because of previous screen time. It's a prose problem. You can give him dialogue, which is awesome becuase he is so damn funny. But when you go "inside" his thoughts, you have to be super careful. With every other person in the crew, they can have as rich an internal life as external one. Their thoughts, hopes and dreams resonate with us. With the Doctor you have to walk a finer line. He's a sentient hologram. What the hell does that mean? We're figuring it out as we go along but you have to realize that so many descriptions we could use with everyone else's internal life, really can't apply to him. He doesn't "think" or "feel" or "imagine" etc. in the same way humanoids do. He has his own version of these things but they are challenging to write.
If anything, I think that's where the struggle lies for novelists.
It will be interesting to see, at least I hope.
I have no idea at this point what, if anything, might be in the planning stages after Unworthy. And the three years was an anomaly. It doesn't usually take that long but in this case, it went on hold for almost a year until Destiny's outlines were approved.
QFT. Even I have my limits.
He is and will be seen more in Unworthy.
I just started Full Circle yesterday (I'm on Chapter 2 or 3) and I was just wondering where the mirror that Chakotay wanted to give Janeway in the prolouge came from? Was it Isabo's Shirt? I'm pretty sure it's not from an episode, and I know IS was supposed to have some kind of impact on the book.
^I think it was from "Isabo," yes.
I just finished the book this morning. I really enjoyed. I too, felt it was a little disjointed in places, but not terribly so. I love Cambridge. The first scene with him, I just knew he was going to be fun to read and he was.
There were scenes I wanted to smack Chakotay, and honestly was surprised we did not see more of a confrontation with the crew.
Interesting turn of events with Seven as well. Glad to see she did not just become human and all is well with the world.
I liked the set up of the next book and am truly looking forward to it. That is something I have not said about a VOY-R book before.
There were scenes I wanted to smack Chakotay, and honestly was surprised we did not see more of a confrontation with the crew.
Interesting turn of events with Seven as well. Glad to see she did not just become human and all is well with the world.
I liked the set up of the next book and am truly looking forward to it. That is something I have not said about a VOY-R book before.
It was mentioned in the Destiny Trilogy.
Yeah, that didn't work on 'Heroes' either...
Just finished this one, enjoyed it a lot. Had to pay attention to the date in places, but it was great all around, and tied a lot of things together well. The characters felt pretty much dead on, and liked the direction the series is taking. Actually a good reason to keep this crew (or most of it) together after the last few books were scattering them. Expected 7of9 and Chakotay to catch up with the crew, but we'll see where that plot line goes...
Well done, enjoyable story, and it read very quickly for such a long book with so much packed into it!
Well done, enjoyable story, and it read very quickly for such a long book with so much packed into it!
I finally had the chance to read Full Circle...and I liked it. 
Especially Chakotay was very well written and for the first time I thought he was more than a very poor Will Riker standin....
I found the story sometimes a bit confusing, must be because it was actually meant as two novels (now was it?).
The Janeway and Chakotay thing was adorable...which makes me all the way more sad and helpless that Janeway seems to be gone for good. I think it would have been a very good starting point for both characters...which now leads me to my greatest 'problem' with the novel: Janeway is gone and I still don't like it and I still feel that it was not the best decision. It's really not the wrting nor the story, I liked both really fine, I just feel that this Chakotay drama is totally unnessecary. All too much misery for me. I don't need big emotional shake-ups to care for a story, I would have cared for the story without it. But this is only my personal taste.
The ending leaves me devided. I kinda want to know how the fleet does in the Delta Quadrant and what happens to Chakotay and Seven, but on the other hand, since it seems very unlikely that Kathy will return...I don't know if I want to be that stressed by a novel...
Please, I thought that Kirsten Beyer's writing was imaginative, it captured me and her true characterizations of the Voyagers were very touching.
Seems that I have to read the follow-up to decide what to think about the new direction of Star Trek novels after my disappointment about Destiny.
Especially Chakotay was very well written and for the first time I thought he was more than a very poor Will Riker standin....
I found the story sometimes a bit confusing, must be because it was actually meant as two novels (now was it?).
The Janeway and Chakotay thing was adorable...which makes me all the way more sad and helpless that Janeway seems to be gone for good. I think it would have been a very good starting point for both characters...which now leads me to my greatest 'problem' with the novel: Janeway is gone and I still don't like it and I still feel that it was not the best decision. It's really not the wrting nor the story, I liked both really fine
, I just feel that this Chakotay drama is totally unnessecary. All too much misery for me. I don't need big emotional shake-ups to care for a story, I would have cared for the story without it. But this is only my personal taste.The ending leaves me devided. I kinda want to know how the fleet does in the Delta Quadrant and what happens to Chakotay and Seven, but on the other hand, since it seems very unlikely that Kathy will return...I don't know if I want to be that stressed by a novel...
Please, I thought that Kirsten Beyer's writing was imaginative, it captured me and her true characterizations of the Voyagers were very touching.
Seems that I have to read the follow-up to decide what to think about the new direction of Star Trek novels after my disappointment about Destiny.
Is she really that much more protective of her crew than Picard or Kirk? You can always separate Janeway and Chakotay from the rest of the crew just like Riker and Troi have left Picard's crew and Worf went to DS9. Killing the captain so the crew can "live" seems a bit extreme, imo.
I think so, absolutely. Of course, that was in large part due to the circumstance of being alone 70,000 lys from their homes and families, and in her situation, Picard and Kirk may well have developed similarly. But, that's neither here nor there.
But why would anyone want the VOY relaunch to be "just like" another book series? Why not explore different things than TNG does? (Which was one of the worst sins of the TV series, IMHO -- just doing what TNG did, with another cast.)
Of course, that's not the reason they killed the captain, which I'm sure you already know.
That's an assumption on your part. What I don't know is why as a Janeway fan I haven't seen a decent story with her since mid-Season 7 with the exception of fanfic.
Is Voyager like the other novel lines? Of course not. For one thing the other novel lines haven't been as neglected as Voyager. There's a difference right there.
In the past four years, VGR has had four novels (counting String Theory), two alternate-universe short novels, and an alternate-universe short story. In that same interval, DS9 has had four novels, two alternate-universe short novels (if we count Seeds of Dissent as DS9), and an alternate-universe short story. Also in that interval, New Frontier has had only two novels, one alternate-universe short novel, and a few short stories. Stargazer has had zero books published in that interval. Corps of Engineers has ceased publication altogether. It is quite simply a falsehood to say that VGR has been neglected compared to other novel lines. It's been exactly as active as DS9, and more active than several other series.
And you've been told why plans were postponed by editorial changes, why they chose to take their time to do it right rather than rushing out a new book, and why Full Circle was postponed by a year because of Destiny. You know there was no deliberate neglect involved, that the vagaries of publishing can cause unforeseen delays in any series for any number of reasons. So not only is your statement untrue, you must surely know it's untrue. Yet you said it anyway.
What's an assumption on my part? You quoted my entire post, and I have no idea what part you're talking about. And the rest of your post is complete non sequitur.
I just finished the book this morning. What a great ending but also a great start to the return of exploring the Delta Quadrant. I can't wait to see who will pop up in the Unworthy. I can see now why Tom and B'Elanna had to fake her and Miral's death.
I also liked the little tie in to A Time to... Series. I can't remember right off which book it was that featured Kahless as being a hologram on Qo'noS.
I do have a question regarding Tom through. I think this was answered somewhere in the thread but is Tom a full commander now instead of a lieutenant commander? I'm only asking cause near the end of the book noone really said lieutenant commander to him but more as in commander. I hope I make sense there.
I also liked the little tie in to A Time to... Series. I can't remember right off which book it was that featured Kahless as being a hologram on Qo'noS.
I do have a question regarding Tom through. I think this was answered somewhere in the thread but is Tom a full commander now instead of a lieutenant commander? I'm only asking cause near the end of the book noone really said lieutenant commander to him but more as in commander. I hope I make sense there.
can't say for sure about the promotion (can't recall), but from a language standpoint, junior officers would call him Commander whether he was a commander or a Lt. commander. You say "commander" in both situations.
What I really liked about this was that it sets up something for the crew to DO. Sets it apart from the other series (although I guess Titan is taking a somewhat similar line at the moment, just not in a convoy), gets the crew doing what they are good at, and also allows for some VOY tie-ins as they get further out, can follow up on great storyline ideas from the series that got cut short due to the 42 minute "solve it and move on" necessity of the tv series.
Seems to be a plot line that makes good sense, as many of the VOY fanfic lines have taken similar missions back to the DQ. They were just wasted as another crew in the AQ wandering around.
As for VOY being neglected, I'd argue that's even FARTHER from the truth than others have said, because not only has VOY gotten its fair share of books recently (although i now want the next VOY book very badly, as Kristen has piqued my curiosity!), but plenty of VOY characters are getting time in the other series. Tuvok has gotten plenty of face time with Titan, for example...
What I really liked about this was that it sets up something for the crew to DO. Sets it apart from the other series (although I guess Titan is taking a somewhat similar line at the moment, just not in a convoy), gets the crew doing what they are good at, and also allows for some VOY tie-ins as they get further out, can follow up on great storyline ideas from the series that got cut short due to the 42 minute "solve it and move on" necessity of the tv series.
Seems to be a plot line that makes good sense, as many of the VOY fanfic lines have taken similar missions back to the DQ. They were just wasted as another crew in the AQ wandering around.
As for VOY being neglected, I'd argue that's even FARTHER from the truth than others have said, because not only has VOY gotten its fair share of books recently (although i now want the next VOY book very badly, as Kristen has piqued my curiosity!), but plenty of VOY characters are getting time in the other series. Tuvok has gotten plenty of face time with Titan, for example...
