So, I liked Before Dishonor...

[Therin of Andor]

You can imagine her calling him David?

Gees, it sounded funny to me.

Works for J. Jameson and P. White.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

Calhoun was coming from the far-away sector where New Frontier is set; his fleet encountered Picard on their way back to Earth. They didn't fly out to meet him on purpose.

Really? Hmmm, I'll have to double-check that. *goes and grabs copy of Before Dishonor*

Ah, you were right about that. I was also wrong about the number of ships-it's nine (counting the Enterprise) plus the Planet Killer.

Interesting...

 

[Deano2099]

I've yet to actually find anything where PAD says he dislikes Janeway specifically. I do remember him admitting to not really finding Voyager all that compelling, but even that was in the context of "Why aren't you doing a Voyager book?" back when it was still on air, rather than in response to "Hey, does Voyager suck?"

 

[William Leisner]

And Before Dishonor opens with Janeway heading out to face the Borg for the first time in two years, an enemy threat she'd thought she had neutralized at that time, and which she stubbornly refused to believe existed throughout most of Resistance. Should she have been playing Irish milkmaid on the holodeck instead?

It's not a stroll through the park, to be sure, but she wasn't actually heading out to face a threat since the cube was supposed to be dead; series of experts had examined the thing and pronounced it such,

Wrong. As established on page one, (that's page ONE, folks, as in the very first page) Janeway only had the reports of Picard and Seven. And the one expert at whom she was not actively pissed off (for the crime of being right when she was wrong) very, very strongly suggested that the cube, despite appearances, was a threat to Janeway specifically.

And the only reason Janeway is on the Einstein in the first place is because she didn't feel she could allow the other Borg experts to take a risk she isn't willing to take herself. An admiral doesn't do that when assigning scientists to take a walk in the park, but here's Janeway, willing to face the danger in a way that some might characterize as brave and heroic.

Clearly, a job of character assassination.

 

[Trent Roman]

Wrong. As established on page one, (that's page ONE, folks, as in the very first page) Janeway only had the reports of Picard and Seven. And the one expert at whom she was not actively pissed off (for the crime of being right when she was wrong) very, very strongly suggested that the cube, despite appearances, was a threat to Janeway specifically.

I checked the book (since I have little desire to recall BD, page ONE is the least recalled ), and while you're not wrong... I don't think I am either. The matter is nebulous. Series of experts was overstating the matter, as it turns out; however, Janeway did send Seven to examine the cube, and I assume she didn't do so alone. And Seven did not 'very, very strongly suggest that the cube (...) was a threat to Janeway specifically'... at least, not to Janeway before she embarked on her mission. That was something she said to Jellico, after Janeway had already been absorbed. That same conversation reveals that the report Seven filed indicated that "[t]he Borg cube currently shows no sign of life" (p. 49) - which, as she herself points out, isn't equivalent with 'dead' as Jellico believes due to the modifier 'currently', but isn't exactly ringing alarm bells either. I mean, Seven was back at the Academy, teaching her classes... and if Seven of Nine thought there was a threat, I assure you she wouldn't stop getting into people's face about it until something was done (as, I think, the novel demonstrates very well, once Seven receives Janeway's 'telepathic scream'). That Seven went back to her usual life after examining the cube is itself evidence that, despite her later claims to Jellico, she didn't think the cube presented an immediate threat to the Federation or Janeway personally.

Clearly, a job of character assassination.

I never said it was entirely negative. I'll point out that I disagreed with you upthread about the precautions Janeway took being insufficient; that, as far as I'm concerned, the book did not show her 'rushing in', but coming at the cube cautiously, in a manner that probably would have worked had the Borg not spontaneously developped new, emergeant behaviour.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman