Spoilers VOY: Acts of Contrition by Kirsten Beyer Review Thread

[JD]

The finale of the Protects, Acts of Contrition, Attonement trilogy, not the whole series.

Amazing page count! That's the biggest KMFB VOY-R book since Full Circle. I can't wait! I want it now

I think that's supposed to be NYTBAKMFB. I think I might have missed a letter in there, but that's all I can come up with.

 

[Reanok]

Wow! 544 pages for Atonement I hope that's true I like the longer length novels. That give the authors a chance to wrap their story arcs up from the previous books.And to tell a great storty to boot.

 

[Stephen!]

Has anyone else in the UK actually found "Acts of Contrition" in book stores? I ended up getting it from ebay UK, since the selection of Star Trek books in the local Waterstones and WH Smiths seems quite limited.

 

[ryan123450]

Finished this last week and finally got around to reading the whole thread. Loved the book (as always), hate the year long wait for Atonement, and now I have to go listen to Kirsten's interview on Literary Treks...

 

[Enterprise1701]

Wait a second, the Voth are part of the Kinara, right? But why do the Voth care about unfettered access to Underspace? They've got transwarp drives!

 

[ryan123450]

I'm sure we'll get all the backstory to the Kinara in the next book. I hope there are permanent repercussions to this alliance, even though it was created by outside forces.

 

[Kirsten Beyer]

Hello friends,

Sorry I've been gone for a bit. The days are flying by right now and there is never enough time...but I wanted to answer a couple of direct questions...issues...

Kirsten, did you watch "Hope and Fear" while writing Acts of Contrition? I recently was on YouTube and saw the part where Arturis rants at Janeway for being a stranger to the quadrant, ruining everything for his species by allying with the Borg, etc. I thought his points echoed those that Kashyk made in Acts of Contrition.

I didn't re-watch it during my research phase, but that scene as always sort of been burned on my brain. I remember thinking the first time I saw it...yes, of course...I always liked that one, despite the abrupt ending. I kind of always thought there was more story there.

A Pocket Full of Lies: I'm guessing this doesn't bode well for many folks.

Having said that, is this a start of a new trilogy or the last VOY (or Star Trek) book you will ever write?

It is neither. PFL will be a stand-alone book beginning what I hope will be the next series of adventures for the fleet, beginning their second year of exploration of the quadrant. While nothing has been confirmed, I do hope to continue taking the story forward from there.

Incidentally, Amazon now has this info for the next book, Atonement:

• Series: Star Trek: Voyager
• Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek (August 25, 2015)

Yeah....this is a typo.

Here's the deal. No matter how many words we write, the novels these days will end up at 400 pages or less. 80,000 to 100,000 words fit nicely with normal size fonts in that many pages. I have gone a bit longer than that on a regular basis, hence the smaller font size in most of the more recent books.

Atonement did come in a little longer than Acts of Contrition...maybe 3,000-4,000 words but these days I always have to write with a sort of drop-dead word count in the back of my mind because if I go any longer than say, 125,000 words, my editors' heads explode. And then there are painful cuts and no one is happy. I try very hard not to put us in that position in the first place.

So page count is never going to be a good indicator of word count, or actual length of these books.

The longest one I have written in this series was Full Circle. I was given some leeway on that one, given how much time we were covering and so that one came in around 135,000 words.

Both Unworthy and Children of the Storm were closer to 100,000....maybe 105,000.

The Eternal Tide was more like 127,000 and we had to do some cutting. Final count was closer to 120,000. I always had to laugh when people said after reading it that they thought it was the shortest one I'd written, but that was the first one where the page count thing was an issue.

Protectors came in around 117,000.
Acts was 122,000 ish.
Atonement again, was around 125,000.

It might also be worth noting that I don't think about the word count or recalculate it after I submit my manuscript. After that there are editor's cuts, copyeditor's cuts, I get a few more passes to make changes, but I never really look again at how many words we have. I just sort of have a feel based upon what we started with and what I know happened in the editing process.

So, yes, Atonement is a little longer than the last three, but not quite as long as Full Circle.

And I have no earthly idea where Amazon got that page count from.

Thanks to all who have reviewed and commented. I'm glad this one worked so well for you.

Best,
KMFB

 

[Man of Steel]

Kirsten,

Couple O' Questions:

1) Do you ever go back and read your previous novels as research for next novel (I'm not sure how to explain this)

2) Ever thought of taking anything that is cut and churning out a "Writer's Cut?" (Sorta like a Director's Cut for movies)

3) Seen the cover for Atonement yet?)

4) Unrelated to current book but in Eternal Tide, is it safe to assume that the continuum is no more? This was a bit confusing. Is Q and son really dead? Would love to see more of him/them.

 

[Markonian]

Wait a second, the Voth are part of the Kinara, right? But why do the Voth care about unfettered access to Underspace? They've got transwarp drives!

Access to Underspace is probably useful whether you've got transwarp or not. If Voth transwarp is like having airplanes, then Underspace is the car highway.

A bonus of Underspace over transwarp is that's a river you can float along swiftly, whereas transwarp (and, by extension, QSD) requires power and constant monitoring to stabilize the transwarp tunnel.

In STO, ships use warp, transwarp, QSD and Iconian gateways to traverse the galaxy, depending one the infrastructure of the "roads".

I wouldn't know how trans-slipstream fits into that. (TNG: Indistinguishable from Magic)

 

[Claudia]

I'm about 60% through... but I really have to vent about that Paris-plotline. It just doesn't make sense that there even is a trial/mediation in the first place. Just because Julia feels slighted hurt doesn't mean Paris and B'Elanna are unfit parents. If that were the case then she and Owen would have been unfit parents for Tom as well in retrospect.

I still don't get why there's a mediation in the first place. Where's the child endangerment? How could there be even the accepted petition that every future child should be taken away as well (why not give B'Elanna and Tom contraceptive implants to prevent them from having kids if there's any doubt about their fitness - why not give Tom his back in New Zealand in that penal colony? Doesn't matter if he's redeemed himself 10-fold, he showed bad attitude once, change won't happen...)?

This goes against my very sense of justice which puts the child first and selfish, insulted, whatever grandmothers very much last. And who says Julia's a fit substitute? Just because she's related? She hasn't seen Miral in years, she's practically a stranger to her. There are many others familiar with Miral who'd be better suited if, and I emphasize if, the child's wellbeing weren't assured with Tom and B'Elanna.

I'm really appalled that the judicial system even allows such ridiculous claims, made by an obviously grieving woman (even if it's the wife of an admiral), based on past mistakes - but claims with possible consequences reaching far into the future to *every* kid the two might have in the future. That's just ridiculous - and a step backward from modern 21st century judicial process. At least where I come from.

The notion that Julia seems to have good chances at winning seriously dampens my enthusiasm for this book. Nothing against a serious and uncomfortable discussion about Tom and B'Elanna's decisions, I'd have appreciated that, but this is just unacceptable (not the storytelling per se, but the fact that such a claim has any chance of success for admittance in the first place and success if it managed to take that first hurdle).

The rest of the book is rather slow paced for my taste - the Confederacy is interesting in its built-up, beliefs and societal structure, but it's stretched out a bit too much so far. More interesting are the Doctor (so he's aware of that black void where all his short term memory vanishes into? Is that a consequence of Zimmermann's tampering?), and Axum and Seven's relationship which isn't really quite sound, either.

But again, all this is really overshadowed by my revulsion about this farce of a mediation which is leading to a foregone conclusion IMO. If it's really going there, I'm not sure I'll even continue reading (safe for the notion that I'm a completist and can't leave storyarcs/trilogies incomplete).

I apologize if that sounds harsh but I really feel strongly about this since in my line of work I met quite a few parents whose children had to be taken from them (and children who had then to be taken away from their parents) - but never because a grandmother made ridiculous claims, but because of real child endangerment. And the way this topic is depicted here oversimplifies things, it turns a very serious topic, the "ultima ratio" to save a child into one woman's crusade to get back at her own child. That's something I can't stomach.

 

[Masiral]

I still don't get why there's a mediation in the first place. Where's the child endangerment?

Tom and B'Elanna are with the Full Circle fleet, which has already lost four ships in a year. And before that, B'Elanna faked her and Miral's death and took her halfway across the galaxy in one small ship to a quadrant that was, until very recently, the home of the Borg. The child endangerment argument is very reasonable to me.

 

[Markonian]

*snip*

I was angry at Julia, too, but still understanding her. However, I wasn't aware that her claim was so baseless in real life.

That's what a physicist must feel like when reading fantastic science fiction. I urge you to see it through, however. Suspension of disbelief and all. Imho, the growth of character for the involved and the emotional payoff are worth it.

On a positive note, it's a relieve to know that for once some of our real-life laws follow the moral high road.

 

[Markonian]

Tom and B'Elanna are with the Full Circle fleet, which has already lost four ships in a year. And before that, B'Elanna faked her and Miral's death and took her halfway across the galaxy in one small ship to a quadrant that was, until very recently, the home of the Borg. The child endangerment argument is very reasonable to me.

True, but B'Elanna took her daughter away from a quadrant mired in a cold war on the precipice of catastrophe, and a quadrant that months before weathered the near-annihilation of entire nations. Miral might've been safer in an obscure Talaxian colony hidden away in an asteroid.

 

[Enterprise1701]

4) Unrelated to current book but in Eternal Tide, is it safe to assume that the continuum is no more? This was a bit confusing. Is Q and son really dead? Would love to see more of him/them.

That's not what happened.

Spoiler: ending of The Eternal Tide

Q Junior and Eden sacrifice themselves to seal the Omega Continuum, restoring the Q Continuum to normal, and thereafter Q swears an eternal grudge against Janeway for facilitating his son's death.

 

[rfmcdpei]

I apologize if that sounds harsh but I really feel strongly about this since in my line of work I met quite a few parents whose children had to be taken from them (and children who had then to be taken away from their parents) - but never because a grandmother made ridiculous claims, but because of real child endangerment. And the way this topic is depicted here oversimplifies things, it turns a very serious topic, the "ultima ratio" to save a child into one woman's crusade to get back at her own child. That's something I can't stomach.

We don't know what she told them exactly, but we do know that the gist of her case was that Tom and B'Elanna went ahead and faked the death of mother and child as preparation for a flight from known space, and that the decision to forsake all of their safety networks to raise their child in unknown space was potentially quite harmful to Miral. Starfleet regulations may also have entered in it, as both parents are serving officers.

(I'm trying to imagine analogies here. A Canadian couple tries to escape their problems with a biker gang by faking their death and fleeing to Southeast Asia?)

The mediator went so far as to say at the end of the process that Julia demonstrably did not have a case against Tom and B'Elanna, implying that for all the drama Julia's case was baseless.

 

[Idran]

She mentioned she's not through with the book yet, so you might want to stick that last paragraph under a spoiler tag just to be safe since you're addressing her directly.

 

[Claudia]

Well, returning to this thread I expected to be beheaded for my earlier comments. *lol* So I'm happy to see it isn't so. I stand by what I said, but it was written in anger, so I do apologize for the tone.

Back to the book, now that I finished it. I think my main issues stem from the heavy handed attitudes of Starfleet - which allude to modern day (American?) politics or ways of life.

* Paris - apart from what I've already written, what bothers me is that serious questions were raised here, but in a way/setting where they don't belong. First of all, we have B'Elanna faking her death and Miral's, Tom lying about it (along with his past criminal behaviour). Should they be punished for that? Were there other options? Maybe to both. Then there's the general issue of having children aboard starships - do they belong there? Is it appropriate for them to be in a danger zone, without age peers? How does Starfleet address this problem - deny couples the right to procreate, forbid them from serving on a ship while having children? And finally, there's Julia who feels hurt, who doesn't understand her son who's always disappointed her - and now she's out to hurt him in return (claiming Miral's better off with her). But she admits to having made mistakes with Tom (even if she doesn't know which), so what would prevent her from making the same ones with Miral? Would she, in all her anger, be an appropriate guardian? And exactly, who is selfish there? Admittedly, in the beginning of the TV-series, Tom was one selfish bastard, but now? Where exactly does that judge get the right to judge Tom selfish - and not Julia? The trial was all about her, her wishes, her disappointment in Tom, her thinking she's better suited. And if Miral's wellbeing was in doubt, then why wasn't social services brought in to actually investigate her living conditions? How could any judgment over her placement be made without researching the status quo? Granted, VOY's in the D-quadrant, but a social services employee could have been sent there with Janeway.

Separated from the first two issues, the Paris family matters should have been addressed in family therapy, not in a court-mandated mediation. There's a lot to work with - and actually, I'd love to see John Torres return as well because apparently despite (or because of?) his being much more removed from his daughter, he gets the underlying issues much better than self-absorbed Julia does.

At least, the ruling itself didn't go where I feared it would, even if the comments were unnecessary. It would have sufficed to reason out the ruling without insulting Tom's character. I don't know, but this awfully reminds me of American court TV-programmes - first off, everyone can sue everyone because of one ridiculous notion or another, and judges rule about other people's characters openly instead of only going over the facts.

* the Confederacy: My main problem here was, on the one hand, the afore mentionned slow buildup of the "getting to know each other", and on the other the attitude of superiority the Starfleet officers displayed. Granted, the Confederacy goes against a lot of Federation ideals - but as seen above and with the catom-situation, Starfleet itself is far from perfect. There's quite a bit of a mirror-situation with modern-day politics here, in so far even as those ideals are usually quickly forgotten when an alliance serves the Federation's purposes (oil...er... dilithium, right of passage). In this case an alliance would only have been convenient, so moral issues are allowed to come to the forefront, I guess.

Of course, the fleet's presence influences the Confederacy quite a great deal. It brings enemies to the gate, and internal issues surface. So what's it about the Indign influencing those enemies? And the Presider leaving (getting removed from?) the bridge, is that a hint at a coup d'etat?

I could have done without Janeway's doubts over her past decisions - live with them, move on.

* the plague: So it was constructed to fight the Caeliar (if they ever come back or didn't vanish like they said they would)? And what about that Commander and his background in genetic engineering? What's the purpose of bringing back extinct species? And all that shrouded in secrecy - does it all come back to Section 31 (which would be a simplistic way to explain evil in Starfleet)? Or are we meant to question every part of Starfleet?

* Seven/Axum: I'm sorry to see Seven reduced lately to the question of her romances. Last book was all about Cambridge doubting their relationship, this book had her back with Axum. That not all was well or real was obvious from the start in Axum's behaviour, his neglect of what's led her there, his overbearing presence, his forcing himself into her thoughts and her life. This whole section felt very uncomfortable - were any of Seven's thoughts and motivations her own during that time in this fantasy or were they forced upon her by Axum? I was looking forward to seeing him because I thought he was the only good thing in the Unimatrix-twoparter. But right now he just gives me the creeps. But was that the real Axum? Or was he manipulated as well to keep Seven quiet?

* the Doctor - as said before, "The Swarm" meets "Latent Image". His decline was painful to read. Was it just Zimmermann's interference? Or did the Indign play a role as well?

Overall, I haven't felt satisfied with the Voyager-relaunch since Eternal Tide and Janeway's return. I feared back then, that the character dynamics would return to what they were before, Janeway overbearing and everyone else reduced to a backseat. Right now, I'm afraid I see that realized. Granted, everyone has their moments, but except for the usual suspects (being Seven and the Doctor) there hasn't been a real character development. B'Elanna's pregnant - last book was about her nesting habits, this time it's how she'll fit into her uniform (where's the further exploration of the treatment of pregnant women in the Confederacy?), Cambridge was reduced to whining last book, this book just had him be around without any real point, Chakotay and Kim played their role as Starfleet officers in investigating the Confederacy but both had not real character-development... and introspection happened again only with Janeway.

I'll keep reading for now - and I hope some kind of balance between Janeway and the rest will be reached soon, otherwise what attracted me to the Voyager re-relaunch in the first place (that being the chance for the other characters to finally shine) will be gone... which would be a real shame, given the potential this series had (as evidenced by the excellent Children of the Storm).

 

[Ylime]

This is my first post on TrekBBS, came here after listening to Kirsten Beyer on the Literary Treks podcast, and just had to post something.

First of all, as backstory, I have binged all of the Kirsten Beyer relaunch novels in the past 4 weeks… which I know is crazy, but as soon as I discovered them I literally could not put them down. The way Beyer writes these characters is so real to me that I can see and hear the actors in my head as I am reading the books, and I have never had a Star Trek book do that for me.

Star Trek to me has always been about its ability to make me think about things, to provide commentary on the problems of our world, and bring up the deeper discussions that can really impact a person. Good Trek does all of that while also allowing us to explore super interesting sci-fi concepts, alien races, new technologies, and I just love it. These books do that for me.

Onto Acts of Contrition specifically: I really loved this book. I completely understand how some people might see it as too complex, but I love the multiple story lines, and how they all weave together. I will try and make these quick, as I don’t want my post itself to be novel-length:

1. The Janeway and Chakotay conversation at the beginning of the book, where they talk about how they have to work together and overcome the differences of the past is basically everything I ever wanted out of these two characters. I love seeing how Janeway is rebuilding herself after the trip back to Earth in Protectors, and I can’t wait to see her character continue to grow.
2. I thought the parts of the book in Tamarian were amazing to read, I have always been fascinated by Tamarains, and I also loved seeing Samantha Wildman back.
3. The poor Doctor! I am so worried for him and what is happening (but also totally fascinated by his character as always)
4. While reading I sometimes wanted there to be a little less Seven/Axum story line, but after listening to you on Literary Treks, I understand that this is super important for Seven to work through, and that she really hasn’t had the time to work through things like everyone else. Also worried about her (lets be real, I am worried about everyone at the end of this novel)
5. The CIF and all the new planets/alien cultures were SO INTERESTING. Again, they play so much into what I love about Star Trek as a whole.
6. The Tom Paris storyline was one I was not looking forward to really, as I thought family court law would be boring, but I was so touched by some of those scenes, and just in awe of how far Tom has come as a character.

I am sure I am leaving stuff out, but I loved this book so much. I don’t know how much I can express my thanks to Kirsten Beyer for writing these stories. I just don’t know how I am going to handle the wait for Atonement for almost a whole year!

 

[Enterpriserules]

This is my first post on TrekBBS, came here after listening to Kirsten Beyer on the Literary Treks podcast, and just had to post something.

First of all, as backstory, I have binged all of the Kirsten Beyer relaunch novels in the past 4 weeks… which I know is crazy, but as soon as I discovered them I literally could not put them down. The way Beyer writes these characters is so real to me that I can see and hear the actors in my head as I am reading the books, and I have never had a Star Trek book do that for me.

Star Trek to me has always been about its ability to make me think about things, to provide commentary on the problems of our world, and bring up the deeper discussions that can really impact a person. Good Trek does all of that while also allowing us to explore super interesting sci-fi concepts, alien races, new technologies, and I just love it. These books do that for me.

Onto Acts of Contrition specifically: I really loved this book. I completely understand how some people might see it as too complex, but I love the multiple story lines, and how they all weave together. I will try and make these quick, as I don’t want my post itself to be novel-length:

1. The Janeway and Chakotay conversation at the beginning of the book, where they talk about how they have to work together and overcome the differences of the past is basically everything I ever wanted out of these two characters. I love seeing how Janeway is rebuilding herself after the trip back to Earth in Protectors, and I can’t wait to see her character continue to grow.
2. I thought the parts of the book in Tamarian were amazing to read, I have always been fascinated by Tamarains, and I also loved seeing Samantha Wildman back.
3. The poor Doctor! I am so worried for him and what is happening (but also totally fascinated by his character as always)
4. While reading I sometimes wanted there to be a little less Seven/Axum story line, but after listening to you on Literary Treks, I understand that this is super important for Seven to work through, and that she really hasn’t had the time to work through things like everyone else. Also worried about her (lets be real, I am worried about everyone at the end of this novel)
5. The CIF and all the new planets/alien cultures were SO INTERESTING. Again, they play so much into what I love about Star Trek as a whole.
6. The Tom Paris storyline was one I was not looking forward to really, as I thought family court law would be boring, but I was so touched by some of those scenes, and just in awe of how far Tom has come as a character.

I am sure I am leaving stuff out, but I loved this book so much. I don’t know how much I can express my thanks to Kirsten Beyer for writing these stories. I just don’t know how I am going to handle the wait for Atonement for almost a whole year!

Thanks for listening! I am so glad you have found KMFB's books. They do for me what I always wanted from Voyager and these characters. It's so much fun to see other people find them and revel in the joy of reading them.

 

[Kertrats47]

This is my first post on TrekBBS, came here after listening to Kirsten Beyer on the Literary Treks podcast, and just had to post something.

First of all, as backstory, I have binged all of the Kirsten Beyer relaunch novels in the past 4 weeks… which I know is crazy, but as soon as I discovered them I literally could not put them down. The way Beyer writes these characters is so real to me that I can see and hear the actors in my head as I am reading the books, and I have never had a Star Trek book do that for me.

Star Trek to me has always been about its ability to make me think about things, to provide commentary on the problems of our world, and bring up the deeper discussions that can really impact a person. Good Trek does all of that while also allowing us to explore super interesting sci-fi concepts, alien races, new technologies, and I just love it. These books do that for me.

Onto Acts of Contrition specifically: I really loved this book. I completely understand how some people might see it as too complex, but I love the multiple story lines, and how they all weave together. I will try and make these quick, as I don’t want my post itself to be novel-length:

1. The Janeway and Chakotay conversation at the beginning of the book, where they talk about how they have to work together and overcome the differences of the past is basically everything I ever wanted out of these two characters. I love seeing how Janeway is rebuilding herself after the trip back to Earth in Protectors, and I can’t wait to see her character continue to grow.
2. I thought the parts of the book in Tamarian were amazing to read, I have always been fascinated by Tamarains, and I also loved seeing Samantha Wildman back.
3. The poor Doctor! I am so worried for him and what is happening (but also totally fascinated by his character as always)
4. While reading I sometimes wanted there to be a little less Seven/Axum story line, but after listening to you on Literary Treks, I understand that this is super important for Seven to work through, and that she really hasn’t had the time to work through things like everyone else. Also worried about her (lets be real, I am worried about everyone at the end of this novel)
5. The CIF and all the new planets/alien cultures were SO INTERESTING. Again, they play so much into what I love about Star Trek as a whole.
6. The Tom Paris storyline was one I was not looking forward to really, as I thought family court law would be boring, but I was so touched by some of those scenes, and just in awe of how far Tom has come as a character.

I am sure I am leaving stuff out, but I loved this book so much. I don’t know how much I can express my thanks to Kirsten Beyer for writing these stories. I just don’t know how I am going to handle the wait for Atonement for almost a whole year!

Thanks for listening! I am so glad you have found KMFB's books. They do for me what I always wanted from Voyager and these characters. It's so much fun to see other people find them and revel in the joy of reading them.

Also, welcome to the Trek BBS! Always great to see new faces!