Full Circle Review Thread (Spoilers)

[captcalhoun]

i've read three VGR novels. Caretaker, Echoes and this. this was brilliant. i admit, i bought to get the goat of the janeway fans who were screaming about not buying it, but man, i LOVED it. can't wait for Unworthy.

hell, i even liked Chakotay after reading it.

 

[Silent_Bob]

hell, i even liked Chakotay after reading it.

That was the books biggest achievement if you ask me. I was fairly dubious about Full Circle before reading it, the previous Voyager relaunch books hadnt really done anything for me, and no offense intended to Kirsten Beyer, i was not fond of her String Theory book.

Instead of hating the book however, it has instead become my favourite Voyager book, in fact i would go so far as to say its in the top ten Star Trek books full stop.

This one book has not only made the continuing adventures of Voyager a must read for me, it has also conclusively proved that Janeway's death was a good decision. Chakotay's descent into depression was extremely well written and gripping. It actually achieved something i had previously considered impossible - Chakotay is an interesting character at last.

So big thumbs up from me as well, excellent work Kirsten Beyer, and i will certainly be purchasing Unworthy, and if that is of the same high quality, probably anything else you write that appears in bookstores

 

[Kirsten Beyer]

Hey guys,

Sorry I've been awol for awhile. But I have been checking in from time to time and just wanted to say a big thanks to those who added their thoughts to this thread.

A few general things...

As far as Harry Kim goes...he is still very much a work in progress. Of course, all of the characters are to a degree, but his situation is unique. I honestly think if you look at FC and Unworthy together, you'll see more of an arc for him than may be apparent at this moment. I'm not saying everyone is going to love the direction, but I share the belief that he needs to move...not necessarily on or away...but we need to see the maturity and growth that's more clear in some of the other characters. We need to see new possibilities in him that can only come if all he has been through of late has some sort of impact or suggests new directions to him.

As for Chakotay...I can't tell you how happy it makes me to hear that his story worked for you. This was one of my bigger challenges. He was never cardboard to me, but I understood the complaint, which I read often here before the book came out. I think the potential was always there, but he, too, was tricky. All first officers suffer that to a degree. We have to feel comfortable with them where they are but we also have to feel that they could move to the center seat at a moment's notice, and we'd also be fine with that. Somehow, even though he had become Voyager's captain, part of me always felt he was still kind of a first officer. And that had to change. Janeway's death provided a very unique possibility in terms of his character. It gave me the chance to break him, badly, but then rebuild him. Someone up there suggested it took one five minute conversation for that to happen. It's my feeling that the groundwork for that five minute conversation began at the funeral and contiued right through the epiphany. He couldn't have felt as much at peace at that moment if he hadn't already done more healing than he realized. One critical fact was holding him back. It didn't all happen at the end of the book. He went through the pretty standard stages of grief..and by the time he requested his extended leave, knew he had to work on himself. That's why he went to the island, and he did find a lot of important stuff alone. But it took an outside perspective to show him the rest. That's all Cambridge did. That...and push him to a place where he could be honest about how much pain and anger there still was...how much was tied to Janeway...and how much was more appropriately directed at Command.

Anyway...thanks again.

Best,
Kirsten

 

[JD]

I finally finished the first half a couple days ago (it took my several weeks, since I've been reading two other books, and spending alot of free time reading the through the comic collection DVD), and I thought it was really good. This is the fist Voyager relaunch book I've read, and I was actually able to follow it perfectly fine. I know alot of people didn't care for the Klingon stuff, but I actually really liked it. The Klingons have always been one of my favorite races, and I thought that the stuff that was done with them in the book was pretty interesting. I also read A Singular Destiny so I was very curious to see what happened with B'Ellana, and Miral, and I was not disapointed. I know some people have said they thought it didn't make sense, but I thought it did, and I look forward to seeing where things go with them in the second half of the book, and the rest of the series. The only real issue I had, which might have been explained without me noticing, was how quickly command was willing to overlook the fact that Chakotay and Voyager ignored their official mission to go take care of personal buisiness. Although I guess the fact that they helped stop what could have been a major threat to the Klingon Empire probably did help.

I was very happy with the characters both old and new,in this first half of the book. One of my big concerns going in was what kind of hoops the story would have to jump through to get everyone together, but I there actually weren't any. Everyone was worked into the story in a way that made sense for who they were and the situation they were in. The characters were also all very well written, the known characters were done very well, and I thought that all of the new characters were very interesting. Although I do have one quick question about Eden, did she recognize the one item specifically, or was it more of a general recognition of it's style?
So my overall ranking for the first 1/2 of the story would be 4.5/5.

 

[Sci]

I'd just like to chime in a give a big ol' kudos and thanks to Kirsten Beyer for writing the very first VOY book that I've ever enjoyed reading, injecting much-needed depth into characters from a series that was far too often nothing more than an action/technobabble show, and for making me really excited about the series's new direction -- Voyager going back to the Delta Quadrant!

 

[Hoshi_Mayweather]

I just finished this novel.

It was okay. I thought it was interesting how everyone is so affected by what befell their former captain, that for some (i.e. Chakotay) it affects their performance.

I like the new characters: Hugh Cambridge and Asfrah Eden....

[The B'Ellana/Miral storyline didn't really appeal to me, probably because the character never really appealed to me in the series.]

Since this is the first in the VOY relaunch, I'm interested in how the characters grow in 'Unworthy;' something that many viewers didn't see in the series.

 

[captcalhoun]

um, it's the fifth VGR relaunch book...

 

[Frazzled]

I just finished this novel.

It was okay. I thought it was interesting how everyone is so affected by what befell their former captain, that for some (i.e. Chakotay) it affects their performance.

I think Paris sums this situation up when he thinks something about 'Only the death of B'Elanna could break me like Chakotay is broken' - people saw Chakotay as overreacting to the loss of his former Captain, because he didn't tell them he'd slept with her ... and much more than that, saw her as a life partner/soul mate.

 

[JB2005]

um, it's the fifth VGR relaunch book...

first re-relaunch book

 

[Hoshi_Mayweather]

um, it's the fifth VGR relaunch book...

I think JB2005 said it best below...

I just finished this novel.

It was okay. I thought it was interesting how everyone is so affected by what befell their former captain, that for some (i.e. Chakotay) it affects their performance.

I think Paris sums this situation up when he thinks something about 'Only the death of B'Elanna could break me like Chakotay is broken' - people saw Chakotay as overreacting to the loss of his former Captain, because he didn't tell them he'd slept with her ... and much more than that, saw her as a life partner/soul mate.

I wonder if that is foreshadowing something?

um, it's the fifth VGR relaunch book...

first re-relaunch book

 

[Dancing Doctor]

I literally just finished it about 3 minutes ago, and I will say that it was a very good, mostly enjoyable Voyager novel, which is something I haven't really had an experience with.

It took me a while to get through it, partly because of my ADD reading style, and partly because it felt a little plodding and repetitious at times. (Emphasis is on felt, as I'm not a big Voyager fan to begin with, and considering the fact that previous entries ranged from "meh" to "ick", and considering that this had the big task of breaking with all that, I'm willing to take what I got, and what I got was good.)

I liked the scope and range of the book, considering that it covered 2 years and had to take into account the End Of Life As The Alpha Quadrant Knows It, AKA the Borg Invasion of 2381 AKA the "Holy-Sweet-Mother-Of-Mercy-I-Didn't-Expect-That-Hot-Damn" series called Destiny, and what was most enjoyable was how it sort of accepted the Golden-entries, but then built upon them and made everything better.

The whole Klingon and B'Elanna/Miral part of the plot kinda didn't work so well for me, which is interesting because I liked B'Elanna. I'm not a big fan of Klingons anyway, and the whole "OMG Miral is important" aspect felt a little forced, as if to say "Well, gee, we don't have enough chaotic things going on already for the Voyager crew, so let's introduce this and cause more conflict". Again, it's a personal thing. There were times when I felt like Full Circle was a two part miniseries, which helped me get through the parts that I didn't enjoy so much.

I liked Afsarah Eden, hated Admiral Batiste, and am not really sure how to feel about Admiral Montgomery.

I liked the way Seven/Annika was portrayed because it felt so realistic and in line with what I would have thought she would have felt after the Caeliar removed her implants.

All in all, it made me care about Voyager beyond the little bit I had after watching some episodes. And I'm looking forward to Unworthy now.

Good job.

 

[Hoshi_Mayweather]

I literally just finished it about 3 minutes ago, and I will say that it was a very good, mostly enjoyable Voyager novel, which is something I haven't really had an experience with.

It took me a while to get through it, partly because of my ADD reading style, and partly because it felt a little plodding and repetitious at times. (Emphasis is on felt, as I'm not a big Voyager fan to begin with, and considering the fact that previous entries ranged from "meh" to "ick", and considering that this had the big task of breaking with all that, I'm willing to take what I got, and what I got was good.)

I liked the scope and range of the book, considering that it covered 2 years and had to take into account the End Of Life As The Alpha Quadrant Knows It, AKA the Borg Invasion of 2381 AKA the "Holy-Sweet-Mother-Of-Mercy-I-Didn't-Expect-That-Hot-Damn" series called Destiny, and what was most enjoyable was how it sort of accepted the Golden-entries, but then built upon them and made everything better.

The whole Klingon and B'Elanna/Miral part of the plot kinda didn't work so well for me, which is interesting because I liked B'Elanna. I'm not a big fan of Klingons anyway, and the whole "OMG Miral is important" aspect felt a little forced, as if to say "Well, gee, we don't have enough chaotic things going on already for the Voyager crew, so let's introduce this and cause more conflict". Again, it's a personal thing. There were times when I felt like Full Circle was a two part miniseries, which helped me get through the parts that I didn't enjoy so much.

I liked Afsarah Eden, hated Admiral Batiste, and am not really sure how to feel about Admiral Montgomery.

I liked the way Seven/Annika was portrayed because it felt so realistic and in line with what I would have thought she would have felt after the Caeliar removed her implants.

All in all, it made me care about Voyager beyond the little bit I had after watching some episodes. And I'm looking forward to Unworthy now.

Good job.

^^
Good review...

 

[Dancing Doctor]

Thanks! I haven't done reviews of Trek Lit in a while, and I'm trying to get back into the groove.

 

[Mirmotte]

I got Full Circle 2 days ago,I finished it in one night because I kept wanting to know what would happen next.I got a bit confused about the jumping of stardates,and I didn't really get the B'Elanna and the Klingon warriors bit.But after re-reading it,everything made sense to me and I enjoyed the book a lot.Captain Eden and Cambridge are interesting characters,and I can't wait for Unworthy to come out so I can see what the Delta quadrant has in store for the fleet.But,I wonder why the other characters like Vorik,Patel and Tare had so 'screen time' and why Montogremy (sorry for wrong spelling) was,um,really....not so nice.However I still think the book was fantastic,and it was worth the $17 I paid for it,and I will definitely be getting Unworthy when it comes out.

 

[Pegaritaville]

I think Paris sums this situation up when he thinks something about 'Only the death of B'Elanna could break me like Chakotay is broken' - people saw Chakotay as overreacting to the loss of his former Captain, because he didn't tell them he'd slept with her ... and much more than that, saw her as a life partner/soul mate.

That's one thing I didn't understand: Why were both Chakotay and Janeway so secretive about their relationship? I'm not suggesting that they should have broadcast it over subspace, but I'm surprised that in all that time neither bothered to even mention it to their close friends or family.

 

[JB2005]

I think Paris sums this situation up when he thinks something about 'Only the death of B'Elanna could break me like Chakotay is broken' - people saw Chakotay as overreacting to the loss of his former Captain, because he didn't tell them he'd slept with her ... and much more than that, saw her as a life partner/soul mate.

That's one thing I didn't understand: Why were both Chakotay and Janeway so secretive about their relationship? I'm not suggesting that they should have broadcast it over subspace, but I'm surprised that in all that time neither bothered to even mention it to their close friends or family.

Because they were only just starting out with their relationship proper, and didn't want to preempt anything...

 

[marhancow]

I think Paris sums this situation up when he thinks something about 'Only the death of B'Elanna could break me like Chakotay is broken' - people saw Chakotay as overreacting to the loss of his former Captain, because he didn't tell them he'd slept with her ... and much more than that, saw her as a life partner/soul mate.

That's one thing I didn't understand: Why were both Chakotay and Janeway so secretive about their relationship? I'm not suggesting that they should have broadcast it over subspace, but I'm surprised that in all that time neither bothered to even mention it to their close friends or family.

Because they were only just starting out with their relationship proper, and didn't want to preempt anything...

Definately agree with that rational. But although Chakotay mentioned he never told anyone, I got the feeling that Janeway told her direct family and Mark since they were still close. Maybe not the details! But the way Mark was the one to break the news to Chakotay was very sensitive and understanding of what Chakotay was going through, since he had pretty much gone through it himself when Voyager was lost in the DQ. Anyway I got the feeling he knew he wasnt just breaking the news to one of her crew members. And needless to say, I thougt it was a great scene.

 

[Pegaritaville]

I think Paris sums this situation up when he thinks something about 'Only the death of B'Elanna could break me like Chakotay is broken' - people saw Chakotay as overreacting to the loss of his former Captain, because he didn't tell them he'd slept with her ... and much more than that, saw her as a life partner/soul mate.

That's one thing I didn't understand: Why were both Chakotay and Janeway so secretive about their relationship? I'm not suggesting that they should have broadcast it over subspace, but I'm surprised that in all that time neither bothered to even mention it to their close friends or family.

Because they were only just starting out with their relationship proper, and didn't want to preempt anything...

But there was almost a year between the time they got together and when Janeway died. Sure, they didn't physically meet in that time, but their relationship had changed. I just find it odd that (with the possible exception of Janeway telling Mark) neither confided in anyone about the change in the status of their relationship.

 

[Turbo]

My first reaction: YES YES YES YES YES!
My second reaction: YES!

This was a fantastic book. Well worth the wait. I'll post some coherent thoughts on it after I re-read it.

That's one thing I didn't understand: Why were both Chakotay and Janeway so secretive about their relationship? I'm not suggesting that they should have broadcast it over subspace, but I'm surprised that in all that time neither bothered to even mention it to their close friends or family.

Because they were only just starting out with their relationship proper, and didn't want to preempt anything...

But there was almost a year between the time they got together and when Janeway died. Sure, they didn't physically meet in that time, but their relationship had changed. I just find it odd that (with the possible exception of Janeway telling Mark) neither confided in anyone about the change in the status of their relationship.

I don't think that they were intentionally keeping it a secret, but it's highly possible that neither of them had a good opportunity to tell anyone, and neither was the type to go bragging about romantic conquests. It just never came up in conversation with their friends.

 

[Madzilla]

My first reaction: YES YES YES YES YES!
My second reaction: YES!

This was a fantastic book. Well worth the wait. I'll post some coherent thoughts on it after I re-read it.

Because they were only just starting out with their relationship proper, and didn't want to preempt anything...

But there was almost a year between the time they got together and when Janeway died. Sure, they didn't physically meet in that time, but their relationship had changed. I just find it odd that (with the possible exception of Janeway telling Mark) neither confided in anyone about the change in the status of their relationship.

I don't think that they were intentionally keeping it a secret, but it's highly possible that neither of them had a good opportunity to tell anyone, and neither was the type to go bragging about romantic conquests. It just never came up in conversation with their friends.

IIRC, Chakotay thinks at one point that he hadn't wanted to tell people because he was afraid of jinxing it before they'd had a chance to begin their relationship properly, and after she died there was no point (which he later realises isn't quite the case). As someone mentioned above, I assumed Janeway had told at least Mark (who said in the prologue she'd told him weeks previously she was meeting Chakotay in Venice) and possibly Phoebe as well, though that's only based on their two lines of conversation at the memorial service.