The Voyager Novels

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

I said the same thing a few comments back. I'm almost finished Mosaic and then once I start S4 (halfway done S3) I plan on reading Fire Ship (another Janeway-centric novel), I might read Seven Of Nine as well. After I finish the series I will continue my reading with Homecoming and The Father Shore. Then dive into Full Circle. I've got it all figured out Captain Kathryn. Thank you for your concern regarding my Voyager education

 

[Captain Kathryn]

Haha. Sorry. I didn't mean to sound like a mom. LOL

These are THE THINGS THAT MATTER IN LIFE. Not really.

And I am so sorry, I didn't read back too far!

Unrelated, but I *think* Pathways was the next one written after Mosaic? I could be wrong though. However that one includes some Seven of Nine stuff, however not much. I think it's a pretty safe read for pre-finishing the series. Goes a lot into Neelix, Chakotay, Paris, etc's backgrounds. Basically... you know how Jeri did Mosaic with Janeway's story as a full novel? Pathways is like each character gets their own long chapter on their own life kind of thing.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

No need to apologize You didn't say anything wrong. Yeah I've read up on Pathways but I don't have any interest in it. Have you read Mosaic? What did you think of it?

Also yes. Deciding which Voyager novels to read is extremely important. We are talking life and death here!

 

[Captain Kathryn]

No need to apologize You didn't say anything wrong. Yeah I've read up on Pathways but I don't have any interest in it. Have you read Mosaic? What did you think of it?

Yup I read Mosaic. It was my first Voyager novel that I read.

I enjoyed it. It was tragic at times (the chapters about her former fiance before Mark and how he and her father died). I really enjoyed it and once in a while in the series (in seasons 1-3 at least) they call back to that novel a bit.

I really liked the whole story about the relationship between Janeway and her father too.

All in all, I enjoyed it. I read the novels in order of when they were written because I an anal about books.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

Mine too! I really wish that we had seen her and Justin (fiancée before Mark) as a couple. It just went from the beginning of their relationship to the tragic end. Also don't spoil it! But I have a feeling that Hobbes (her friend as a teenager) is Mark.

The one thing I don't like about Mosaic is the "present" parts. I would rather it have just been about her past.

And have you read Fire Ship?

 

[Captain Kathryn]

I am a bad girl and have not read it yet. However, I assure you I have every single Voyager related novel in my Nook waiting to be read. What happened was I wanted to read the "initial" ones first (Mosaic, Pathways), then did the relaunch novels from Start to Finish (well, to what is completed).

I am starting on the offbeat VOY novels though. However, right now I am reading the DS9 Garak-centered novel written by the actor who played him, Andrew Robinson.

And yeah of course I won't spoil you on Mosaic!

I did read Distant Shores though and enjoyed that one.

Some of the weird ones like Janeway in Myriad Universe are waiting to read in my Nook.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

So I take it you have read all the original "during series" novels? What about Seven Of Nine? Sorry I just like other peoples opinions on things

 

[F. King Daniel]

So I take it you have read all the original "during series" novels? What about Seven Of Nine? Sorry I just like other peoples opinions on things

The book Seven of Nine is pretty much the episode "Infinite Regress". I'm not sure if the episode was inspired by the book or if it was a fluke.

 

[borgboy]

I think Pathways is a better book than Mosaic, so if you like Mosiac, you should enjoy Pathways.
I also really like Greg Cox's Voyager novel The Black Shore, it's a rare Kes centered novel, and very good.

 

[Steve Roby]

I plan on reading Fire Ship (another Janeway-centric novel)

Definitely curious what you'll make of that one. Some people whose tastes often line up with mine loved that book; I hated every single page of it. I don't remember many "meh" reactions to it. People tended to love or hate it.

For what it's worth, I remember liking Seven of Nine (the novel) fairly well. It's been ages, but I seem to recall liking Christie Golden's novels set during the series. Her post-finale novels, though, built on all my least-favourite elements of Voyager.

 

[Captain Kathryn]

There are so many novels... Lol.

 

[Enterprise1701]

I know that parts of Pathways and Mosaic were contradicted by canon, and I think those discontinuities can be glossed over. But what about the other novels? For a long time, I've included all VOY and ENT novels in my personal canon because I figured that they were few enough and recent enough not to be outright incompatible with canon.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

I plan on reading Fire Ship (another Janeway-centric novel)

Definitely curious what you'll make of that one. Some people whose tastes often line up with mine loved that book; I hated every single page of it. I don't remember many "meh" reactions to it. People tended to love or hate it.

For what it's worth, I remember liking Seven of Nine (the novel) fairly well. It's been ages, but I seem to recall liking Christie Golden's novels set during the series. Her post-finale novels, though, built on all my least-favourite elements of Voyager.

I'll let you know my thoughts on Fire Ship.

 

[tomswift2002]

No need to apologize

I enjoyed it. It was tragic at times (the chapters about her former fiance before Mark and how he and her father died). I really enjoyed it and once in a while in the series (in seasons 1-3 at least) they call back to that novel a bit.

I really liked the whole story about the relationship between Janeway and her father too.

There's another novel that explores Janeway's relationship with her father: "Lifeline". Plus "Chance Factor" and "Quarantine"are all about Janeway's years at the Academy.

 

[JD]

Captain Kathryn, Janeway's Girl, if you plan to read all of the Voyager novels, you might also want to check out the Mirror Universe novel, The Mirror-Scaled Serpent, in the second MU collection, Obsidian Alliances.

 

[Captain Kathryn]

Yeah. I am still working on reading all of the regular ones.

I have one of the mirror universe ones downloaded (Dark Passions I think?) on my Nook though. Havent gotten to it yet.

 

[Gul Re'jal]

See I would have felt all wrong and dirty if I didn't read *every single* Voyager novel.

Those first few books were a bit meh though.

I even went back and read Jeri Taylor's books and few other stray Voyager books. I MUST READ THEM ALL!

I have the same with another series. Good, bad, or ugly, no matter, I must have them all and read them all

I'm catching up on my VOY novels, though. Soon I'll become a "favourite buyer" from a certain eBay book seller.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

So I take it you have read all the original "during series" novels? What about Seven Of Nine? Sorry I just like other peoples opinions on things

The book Seven of Nine is pretty much the episode "Infinite Regress". I'm not sure if the episode was inspired by the book or if it was a fluke.

It was the first book to feature Seven, so definitely a fluke. According to Memory Alpha, it came out in September 98, and Infinite Regress didn't air until December.

Christie Golden, the writer of the novel Seven of Nine, was rather consistently hired for Voyager novels - she wrote The Murdered Sun, Marooned, Seven of Nine, the Dark Matters trilogy, and the Voyager entry in the Gateways miniseries, plus the first four post-finale books. Personally, I thought she did a good job with the voices of the characters and telling interesting stories, so it'd probably be worth a read - as I recall, it's shorter than average, so it probably shouldn't take too long to read. Though since it does have the first appearance of Seven in the novels, it may not have her voice down pat.

As for recommendations, I would add Echoes (it doesn't have a specific timeframe beyond before the Scorpion two-parter, since Kes is still part of the crew) to the list. That was always a favorite of mine. Also I have a favorable memory of the Voyager entry in the Section 31 mini-series, Shadow, though I don't remember too much in specific of it.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

Captain Kathryn, Janeway's Girl, if you plan to read all of the Voyager novels, you might also want to check out the Mirror Universe novel, The Mirror-Scaled Serpent, in the second MU collection, Obsidian Alliances.

For now I plan on reading just Fire Ship, the Homecoming series, and the relaunch novels. I might go back and read the other ones after.

 

[Christopher]

The book Seven of Nine is pretty much the episode "Infinite Regress". I'm not sure if the episode was inspired by the book or if it was a fluke.

There have actually been several cases where a book or comic has ended up having much the same plot as an episode that aired within a few months before or after its release, and it was never on purpose. It's just that different creators working with the same characters and universe and concepts will inevitably come up with parallel stories. The most common reason that pitches to the Trek shows (or any shows, really) got rejected was "We're already doing one like that." Fans keep assuming that writers are somehow actively trying to copy each other's work, but in fact the exact opposite is true: writers try very hard to avoid duplication, and if it were known that a book and an episode were doing similar stories, every effort would be made to change things to get rid of the similarity (although of course it would be the book that had to give way). The problem is that book production is so slow compared to episode production that it may be too late to change the manuscript of the book by the time the overlap with the episode becomes clear.

Although there have been cases where the parallel has been caught early enough that there was time to insert some last-minute changes in the book to account for the episode, as with ENT: Surak's Soul, which had some overlap with "The Seventh" and was able to work in an acknowledgment of its events.