Re: Star Trek: Voyager: Children Of The Storm Review Thread
Science Fiction and Trek are not about "real" life. They are escapist literature...
That's bull, and it's needlessly dismissive of an entire genre of literature. It's also incredibly ignorant of the diversity of science fiction as a genre. SF includes everything from pure escapism to deep social commentary -- and
Star Trek does as well. Science fiction is very, very much about commentary on real life through the metaphorical filter of speculative worlds. A great deal of SF is meant as allegory, as social satire, as a critique of real-world trends by extrapolating them to their extremes. And
Star Trek has always included that as part of its mandate. ST has told plenty of stories that involved death and loss and tragedy. The most beloved ST episode ever is "The City on the Edge of Forever," in which Kirk must let the love of his life die. It's beyond absurd to say that ST is nothing but escapist fluff.
and I for one do not want to escape into death, destruction and one bloody devastating war after another.
Who was talking about war? I was talking about Kathryn Janeway. I was saying that these books Kirsten has written, books set after Janeway's death, are even better tributes to her and more moving explorations of her as a person who's affected the lives of others than a lot of books set while she was alive. She lives on in these books through the way her memory inspires the rest of the crew. That's not depressing or painful.
And as for death, well I buried my mother two years ago, after spending three and a half years caring for her, it was a slow losing battle all the way, it was heartbreaking and I have no desire to relive any kind of death for entertainment. There is no honor in death, you are only dead, the real honor is in living and doing what you can to make the world better and the world would be a heck of a lot better for a lot of people if we could read books for entertainment with a living Janeway.
You have my sympathies, more than you know. I lost my father ten months ago after a similarly difficult period of decline, and we threw his ashes into Puget Sound just six weeks ago. I'm not speaking in the abstract here, I'm speaking from immediate personal experience. And I don't think there's honor in death either. But death happens. It hurts, you grieve...
but then you move on. You accept the loss and remember your loved one fondly. You let their absence be part of your life and recognize the continuing presence of their influence on you. Yes, death is tragic. But remembering the departed can be an uplifting and rewarding experience. I actually feel closer to my father now than I did when he was alive, more aware of how much of him is in me. And in the wake of his passing, I've reconnected with the rest of my family, discovered new things about who I am and where that comes from, broadened my horizons through travel to visit my relatives across the country. Out of the loss came a gain. Alongside the grief has been kindness and belonging and hope. Not every story set in the wake of a death, real or fictional, has to be an unhappy story.
If you've only read
Full Circle, then you've only seen the part of the story that was about the pain and grief in the short term after Janeway's death. That's not what
Unworthy and
Children of the Storm are about. They're more about moving on to the next phase of coping with loss. They're about paying tribute to the positive aspects of Kathryn Janeway's legacy and the way her presence in people's memories leaves a continuing mark on the lives they lead. I'd say they're rather upbeat books overall, especially CotS.
