Spoilers VOY: Architects of Infinity by Kirsten Beyer Review Thread

[jaime]

To be honest, I'm not sure what a "rogue star" would even be within the galaxy per se. Generally the term refers to a lone star wandering in the intergalactic void. Within the galactic disk, stars follow all sorts of different orbits around the center of the galaxy. They often pass close to each other and disrupt each other's planetary systems, but that doesn't make them rogues. The only way a disk star could be considered a rogue, as best I understand the term, is if it's moving faster than galactic escape velocity and thus is just passing through the disk on its way elsewhere. But since this star was moving slowly enough to be gravitationally captured by another star, it's unlikely to have been a rogue in that sense. So I'm not sure what the term was supposed to signify in this context.




I don't think that can be it. As the book explained it, bonding with an unborn embryo/fetus was the only way a metamorph could bond without losing their identity. Any bond with an adult, of either sex, would subjugate their own identity to the other person entirely, and that's exactly what the Kriosian women found a way to escape. So they must've found a way to bond with each other's unborn children, or perhaps newborns.




Even so, it bothered me that the Doctor and Cambridge didn't even seem to consider the possibility that a person could be naturally asexual, and that they treated the capacity for sexual response as if it were an indispensable part of any healthy relationship. Even if Icheb's particular lack of sexual response is abnormal for him, they did seem to be making the generalized assumption that it was abnormal for anyone.

Well, I guess the topic of asexuality as a distinct identity is one that society is still learning about. I didn't even know it was a thing until the past couple of years, I think.

Am with you on all points really.
Especially the icheb thing. Even ignoring the asexuality angle (the characters did) given his relative maturity and age level, it’s not beyond likelihood that he simply wasn’t homosexual...he simply hadn’t figured out hints like that for himself yet. There was this odd sense of...grooming...to people trying to get him into the situation they thought he should be in, and I never once got the impression Icheb himself had any agency there. He was going along with what he thought should be happening, possibly confusing friendship for something else. With the relative power positions too, the whole thing started looking really...icky. Given Manus recent discussions around the Kevin spacey and Anthony Rapp stuff, I would have walked that storyline back faster than a greased slipstream drive.
I am a fan of Kirsten’s Voy books, but am starting to find all the relationships apart from Tom and Bells to be very odd in their portrayal. Harry and...thingy (I have a serious hard time remembering the names of lit only characters) is pretty interesting, I guess. And now other...thingy...Empathic Metamorph girl...is possibly involved, that’s going to be a complex set up.

Edit: forgot to mention some of this may be down to the doctor messing with his own program and being ethically compromised in some ways. Not sure that was resolved yet.

 

[Sophie74656]

I really didn't see anything avout them ignoring the asexual thing. Icheb made it clear that he wanted to be physical and have the physical responses. I honestly thought they just examined him to humor him and then happenes to find an actual problem.

 

[Christopher]

I really didn't see anything avout them ignoring the asexual thing. Icheb made it clear that he wanted to be physical and have the physical responses.

But that's my point. I'm not talking about Icheb. I'm talking about how the doctors generalized beyond Icheb, talking about sexual responsiveness as if it were a fundamentally necessary part of any and every intimate relationship by default. I didn't get the sense that any of the characters were even aware of the possibility of asexuality as a natural state for anyone. (Which is particularly illogical in a multispecies civilization, given that there must be some species that are only sexually receptive during mating seasons or something.)

 

[jaime]

I really didn't see anything avout them ignoring the asexual thing. Icheb made it clear that he wanted to be physical and have the physical responses. I honestly thought they just examined him to humor him and then happenes to find an actual problem.

I think there’s a line where I he simply basically describing it as though it’s something he’s read about ‘should be happening’. It’s almost like similar accounts of homosexual people ‘not feeling anything’ and feeling ‘something should be happening’ when in heterosexual pairings before realising their own sexuality. Icheb thinks x should be happening, because that’s what happens right? Except in his case it isn’t, and he therefore thinks something is wrong with him. Which is then going to be medically treated....the parallels are...icky.

 

[Sophie74656]

I think there’s a line where I he simply basically describing it as though it’s something he’s read about ‘should be happening’. It’s almost like similar accounts of homosexual people ‘not feeling anything’ and feeling ‘something should be happening’ when in heterosexual pairings before realising their own sexuality. Icheb thinks x should be happening, because that’s what happens right? Except in his case it isn’t, and he therefore thinks something is wrong with him. Which is then going to be medically treated....the parallels are...icky.

That's not how I saw it. He liked the guy and had an attraction to him. Had this been with a woman i would agree with you.

 

[jaime]

That's not how I saw it. He liked the guy and had an attraction to him. Had this been with a woman i would agree with you.

That’s the thing that shows it as problematic imo...if you change either characters gender, the icky becomes apparent. I would have done it differently for that reason.

 

[Sophie74656]

That’s the thing that shows it as problematic imo...if you change either characters gender, the icky becomes apparent. I would have done it differently for that reason.

i don't entirely disagree with you. I'm just happy they showed the same sex couple at all

 

[jaime]

i don't entirely disagree with you. I'm just happy they showed the same sex couple at all

That’s like the..second or third for Trek lit? Bit of a sausage fest though... xD
Second to feature a screen character too, after Lt. Hawke.

 

[Sophie74656]

That’s like the..second or third for Trek lit? Bit of a sausage fest though... xD
Second to feature a screen character too, after Lt. Hawke.

I've only read the voyager novels i don't know if there have been others

 

[jaime]

I've only read the voyager novels i don't know if there have been others

There have been. But can’t think of any female pairings.

 

[Mage]

Well, I guess the topic of asexuality as a distinct identity is one that society is still learning about. I didn't even know it was a thing until the past couple of years, I think.

Speaking as a straight man that is close to two bi-women and knows someone who's asexual, I've come to learn that the ideas people have of bisexuality and asexuality are almost always completely off. What I used to think and what actually is, has been an eye opener.

 

[Avro Arrow]

There have been. But can’t think of any female pairings.

Etana Kol and Krissten Richter from DS9. Also Lurqal and T'Prynn from Vanguard.

 

[jaime]

Etana Kol and Krissten Richter from DS9. Also Lurqal and T'Prynn from Vanguard.

Haven’t read vanguard yet, and must have blinked and missed ds9. But the new crew does slip my brain, and I have an unread spot around mission gamma.

 

[tomswift2002]

I just finished the book. I'm still trying to figure out what the cover is suppose to be in terms of the scenes in the book. Aside from Kim firing Voyager's phasers off-screen (and other shuttle craft and personnel firing a few phasers), neither Voyager or Vesta fired phasers at anything in this book. Its an interesting image for the front cover---but what does it have to do with the story?

Storywise, I was finding it was too similar to Shore Leave from TOS. Ship finds nice planet for shore leave and then everything goes wrong.

The Galen being destroyed at the end didn't really shock me, as I remember that in The Light Fantastic the Galen, along with the Doctor and Barclay are still intact and alive and in the Delta Quadrant in 2385 (considering that Architects of Infinity takes place in late-2382, also Barclay would transfer to the Challenger briefly in 2383, so we already know the fates of 2 Galen crew members).

As for Icheb and Bryce, I found that it seemed to be rushed. I would've liked to have seen them more as best friends before getting any romance thrown in.

Overall, I gave the story an average rating.

 

[Christopher]

I just finished the book. I'm still trying to figure out what the cover is suppose to be in terms of the scenes in the book. Aside from Kim firing Voyager's phasers off-screen (and other shuttle craft and personnel firing a few phasers), neither Voyager or Vesta fired phasers at anything in this book. Its an interesting image for the front cover---but what does it have to do with the story?

There's never been a requirement that a book cover be a literal depiction of a specific moment from the book. The purpose is to catch a potential reader's eye with an engaging image. So covers are often symbolic or approximate.

 

[tomswift2002]

There's never been a requirement that a book cover be a literal depiction of a specific moment from the book. The purpose is to catch a potential reader's eye with an engaging image. So covers are often symbolic or approximate.

Yeah, but they are usually a relevant cover. This cover, aside from having Voyager and Vesta on the front, was in no way relevant to the story.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, but they are usually a relevant cover. This cover, aside from having Voyager and Vesta on the front, was in no way relevant to the story.

Both ships are actually in the novel, and the whole series is named after the former ship. And it shows two ships acting together, in a book about the entire fleet acting together. So, yeah, it's relevant in several ways. Is it any less relevant than the cover to my Tower of Babel, which was just the two hero ships against a generic nebula backdrop? There are literally hundreds of Trek novel covers that are just generic shots of the hero ships or main characters.

 

[Sophie74656]

I just finished the book. I'm still trying to figure out what the cover is suppose to be in terms of the scenes in the book. Aside from Kim firing Voyager's phasers off-screen (and other shuttle craft and personnel firing a few phasers), neither Voyager or Vesta fired phasers at anything in this book. Its an interesting image for the front cover---but what does it have to do with the story?

Storywise, I was finding it was too similar to Shore Leave from TOS. Ship finds nice planet for shore leave and then everything goes wrong.

The Galen being destroyed at the end didn't really shock me, as I remember that in The Light Fantastic the Galen, along with the Doctor and Barclay are still intact and alive and in the Delta Quadrant in 2385 (considering that Architects of Infinity takes place in late-2382, also Barclay would transfer to the Challenger briefly in 2383, so we already know the fates of 2 Galen crew members).

As for Icheb and Bryce, I found that it seemed to be rushed. I would've liked to have seen them more as best friends before getting any romance thrown in.

Overall, I gave the story an average rating.

I thought the pacing of their relationship was fine. They had established in the previou book that they had clicked together.

 

[Sophie74656]

I just finished the book. I'm still trying to figure out what the cover is suppose to be in terms of the scenes in the book. Aside from Kim firing Voyager's phasers off-screen (and other shuttle craft and personnel firing a few phasers), neither Voyager or Vesta fired phasers at anything in this book. Its an interesting image for the front cover---but what does it have to do with the story?

Storywise, I was finding it was too similar to Shore Leave from TOS. Ship finds nice planet for shore leave and then everything goes wrong.

The Galen being destroyed at the end didn't really shock me, as I remember that in The Light Fantastic the Galen, along with the Doctor and Barclay are still intact and alive and in the Delta Quadrant in 2385 (considering that Architects of Infinity takes place in late-2382, also Barclay would transfer to the Challenger briefly in 2383, so we already know the fates of 2 Galen crew members).

As for Icheb and Bryce, I found that it seemed to be rushed. I would've liked to have seen them more as best friends before getting any romance thrown in.

Overall, I gave the story an average rating.

Are you referring to The Light Fantastic that was pubished in 2014?

 

[tomswift2002]

Are you referring to The Light Fantastic that was pubished in 2014?

Yeah. The “Light Fantastic” takes place in 2385.