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I think you did an amazing job with this book! Id been waiting and waiting for someone to finally take the reigns of the Voyager series and set it right.
The only thing I wanted more of was the story... you couldve used another hundred pages easily! I know an author would never be allowed to put in everything they wanted to, so again, bang up job!
Suggestion: more Vorik and Conlon! I think the whole Fleet Engineer for Torres is an excellent jumping off point for many amazing engineering stories that would surely develop in a fleet so far from home!
I can't read most of the thread yet. I picked up Unworthy yesterday during my lunch hour, and spent most of that hour reading it today, but I'm far from done so I need to avoid spoilers. My plan for the rest of the week is to enjoy the cool weather, sit in my car at lunchtime, and read a good book.
It's very good so far. More often than not I can hear the actors' voices in my head as I read the characters speaking. Their method of speaking comes across as in character for just about everyone. I'm developing quite a fondness for Captain Eden, and it was great to see Neelix turn up. The Doctor's medical ship is a great idea, and the brief discussion between B'Elanna and Chakotay about his past relationship with Seven was appreciated, since I was wondering the same thing B'Elanna was.
I really enjoy the direction of the story with regard to the fleet. It's great that Starfleet sent nine ships as opposed to one or two, and the problems with the benzanite crystals give the story some tension, because it leaves the idea that they could be stranded hanging out there. And that's good, because a trip to the Delta quadrant should be an uncertain undertaking, and that particular plot point accomplishes that.
And that's about as far as I've gotten. I miss Janeway and Tuvok, but it's good to see the rest of the familiar Voyager crew moving on and in close proximity to each other. I'm really looking forward to seeing how things progress.
^ Says the voice of authority. What did you do, man, read those chapters in the bookstore? That's tacky. Cough up the 8 bucks and form an honest opinion.
I have to say, Im really very happy with where Unworthy ends with the "family" back together (as much as is possible given the circumstances) with Chakotay back in the center seat and Belanna back in the engineering business. My only little issue was getting through the 1st half was a bit tough, kind of slow and a bit repetative in places but I understand that there was a lot of set up and the 2nd half was worth it.
Im excited to see where things will go from here. There are a lot of stories to be told from this point I think; with Harrys abandonment issues, Sevens new future looking bright, Edens mysterious history, new relationships to explore, new and maybe even some past corners of the DQ to explore (although I certainly hope those are mostly quick visits to the past as I really want new adventures to dominate the landscape but I am curious about a few old favorites like the 37s planet for instance).
Anyway, Im really excited for the future of Voyager, Kirsten did a great job setting it up and I will join in on the call for her to continue what she started. I just hope I dont have to wait 4 years!
I admit that after Full Circle, I wasn't so sure if I really wanted to read further VOY novels. The idea of the Voyager going back to the Delta Quadrant after spending 7 years trying to get out of there did kind of stick in my craw for awhile and I wasn't exactly excited about the whole B'Elanna and Miral business.
Thank goodness for impulsive purchases, though...
Having just finished it in only a couple of days, I have to say that it "felt" like VOY. I could see and hear Robert Beltran as Chakotay in his dialogue as well as the other VOY actors in their roles--the characters and their responses to the new situations felt right. Reservations I had about Captain Eden in Full Circle were resolved in Unworthy and now I think she's a welcome addition to the cast. And lastly, the idea of the Voyager returning to the Delta Quadrant--this time by choice, with other Starfleet ships, and with a means to return home--naturally puts a whole new spin on VOY's original setting that I probably was unwilling to consider at the end of Full Circle.
I read it a couple of weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm not satisfied, however, that Unworthy satisfactorily and convincingly resolved Seven's issues. There's enough meat on those bones to merit a separate novel.
THANK YOU for your very excellent work with Full Circle and now Unworthy. I LOVED both books. I did not care at all for the previous books in the Voyager Relaunch. You have set Voyager fiction on an exciting new course...a journey that I hope you will be able to continue as the author of the next book(s!) in the series.
I just finished this a few minutes ago. I actually liked it better than Full Circle. This book Cambridge didn't annoy me as much which was good, in fact I've even come to like the character. I still think some of his more brusque mannerisms don't fit well within a military-command-like organization and therefore it seems unbelievable to me that he'd be so successful there. I'm both happy and not-to-happy about the majority of the crew all being back together again. Happy because it feels like Voyager again, not happy because that too is unbelievable.
As for the plot of the book, that was great. I enjoyed the use of 8472 very much and the fact that their encounter wasn't hostile, I liked the Indign, LOVED the Meegan character, and was quite happy that the fleet doesn't have an Admiral anymore since it still seems to me that Admirals in Starfleet (regardless of who writes them) are all mindless idiots.
I was hoping that Seven would gain further control over her catoms so that she'd be less of a normal human and more exceptional like she was when she had the nanoprobes, but I still like where her character is going so all's well there. At first I was annoyed with the Harry/Tom conflict, then once they were put in the holodeck under Cambridge's creative counseling session I was intrigued. I was disappointed however when the book ended and that wasn't followed up on. While I'm happy to wait for the next book to wrap this up, there's a little bit of angst since another Voyager book isn't even on the schedule and with the editor shake-up it's not even certain the new editor will continue this continuity.
I still think some of his more brusque mannerisms don't fit well within a military-command-like organization and therefore it seems unbelievable to me that he'd be so successful there.
I absolutely loved it. Seriously, this is what they should have done on the show! I couldn't put it down, and now that I've finished it I want to read it again. That's a sign of a great book!
Kirsten, I'm hoping Pocket will be smart enough to let you have the helm of Voyager for the first book in 2011. You've done a relly good job with Voyager.
I finished the book last night. I still think the show characters were written exactly as they should have been, and Captain Eden has grown on me quite a bit. I figured Chakotay would get his command back, and I'm glad I was right.
To me, it feels like the Voyager novels have found their niche. The ship and crew were never really used well in the Alpha quadrant among the other crews. Voyager's unique slant was the unexplored area of the galaxy they were trapped in, and seeing them go back with the support of the fleet and the means to get home again allows the book series to make use of all the races and situations established in the tv series. It was great to see species 8472 and Valerie, and I had to pull out the DVD of "In the Flesh" today to reacquaint myself with the character since she turned up in the book.
I loved the visit with Neelix. I hope we haven't seen the last of him.
The idea of the Indign, a race devoted to the Borg, also makes sense. The Borg were a huge influence on the cultures of the Delta quadrant, and there's plenty of story potential in exploring how their disappearance has affected the region.
Kristen, well done. Full Circle and Unworthy are the first Trek books I've bought in ages, and I'm glad I did. I hope you get a chance to write some more. I want to see what happens to the fleet, and revisit some Delta quadrant locations.
Kirsten, I'm hoping Pocket will be smart enough to let you have the helm of Voyager for the first book in 2011. You've done a relly good job with Voyager.
^ I agree, loved Full Circle & am about 100 pages into Unworthy & like what I've seen so far. Thought the Spirit Walk Chakotay & Ichib took to get to Seven was something.
Finally read the book... I started last night, spent most of the evening reading it, got right back into it first thing this morning, and kept going until I finished. I was eager to find out what happened and the events of the book kept me hooked. Excellent job, Kirsten.
Cambridge is a lot of fun, particularly now that I'm reading him with Hugh Laurie in mind. I'm glad Voyager finally has a counselor, and a good one, really able to delve into the heart of the characters' issues.
I was a little worried when Species 8472 showed up that it wasn't quite consistent with what I established in Places of Exile, because
the conclusion of that novel had the border between fluidic space and our universe -- in every timeline -- being sealed so that nothing from our universe could access fluidic space. So Voyager opening a rift from our end seemed like a contradiction.
But then I realized it could still work.
Starfleet found that they couldn't open rifts in normal space, and they assumed that was the normal state of affairs, but it could be that it was a result of what happened at the end of PoE, the strengthening of the barrier. Perhaps the barrier wasn't as strong as the characters in PoE assumed, though, and thus had weak points in regions of subspace instability.
As for the pronunciation of "Indign," my dictionary says it's "in-dine." Rhymes with "sign" or "align" or "benign." It means -- wait for it -- "Unworthy." (It's the same "dign-" as in "dignity" -- worthiness -- and "indignation" -- regarding something as unworthy.)
Why would you think she had to? There are plenty of nonhumans in Starfleet. Did anyone in either book ever explicitly state that they considered her human? For most people in the Federation, it would be pretty much a nonissue whether someone's human or not.
As I said before,the idea that both senior officers in the D Q fleet should have secret origins in the delta quadrant seems like lazy storytelling to me.
Except it's not a coincidence, because neither one is there randomly. Both Batiste and Eden got involved with this because of their interest in the DQ. Batiste organized the whole mission as an excuse to get himself back there, so there's a logical cause and effect. As for Eden, it was her interest in the quadrant that drove her to work so diligently on Project Full Circle and establish ties with much of the crew, thus laying the foundations for the decision to make her Voyager's captain. Though it is something of a coincidence that she and Batiste ended up married. Unless maybe he sensed her interest and used her as a means toward his own ends.
(A very minor quibble: Harry's internal monologue referring to himself as a "cool uncle" kind of took me out of the story, because I couldn't remember ever hearing a Trek character using that bit of very contemporary slang.)
You mean "cool"? That isn't really contemporary slang; it's been used as a vernacular term of approval going back to the early 1930s in African-American vernacular and WWII in more general vernacular. A term that's been in use in English for over 75 years is probably not going to vanish.
Besides, there is onscreen precedent. From VGR: "Latent Image":
JETAL: Too busy. We're modifying one of the shuttles, making it more manoeuvrable and more cool.
EMH: I see you've been working with Mister Paris. My condolences.
Also, "Demon" had Vorik pick up the phrase "losing our cool" from Tom Paris, but I think that's more "cool" in the sense of calm and collected, a sense in which it's been repeatedly used in Trek.
(I really have to thank Chakoteya for her Trek transcript site. All I have to do is a Google advanced search for any word or phrase in that domain, and I can find all the ways it's ever been used in Trek. Cool!)
Tom and B'Elanna are resourceful, intelligent people, and this was the best plan they could come up with? Clearly, extreme steps need to be taken to keep Miral safe, but this? Anyway, needless to say, I identify with Harry.
Yeah, the whole "fake their death" thing seemed excessive to me. I mean, slipstream drive is a very advanced technology depending on a very rare crystal, so is it really at all realistic to fear that some obscure Klingon cult is going to be able to pose a threat to them when they're 40,000 light-years from the Federation?
On the other hand, neither Tom nor B'Elanna has ever really been known for calm, reasoned analysis, and they are both new parents, so I can believe that they'd overreact.
I read it a couple of weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm not satisfied, however, that Unworthy satisfactorily and convincingly resolved Seven's issues. There's enough meat on those bones to merit a separate novel.
I finished Unworthy the other day and I must say that I loved it . Coupled with Full Circle, these two books have restored the Voyager lit series and brought it to where it needed to be. Just having Voyager as another ship in the Alpha Quadrant really wasn't interesting. Voyager belongs out there in the far off unknown, and having them back in the DQ seems right. The fact that they have the fleet with them is icing on the cake.
I really like Afsarah Eden, but I was pretty anxious to get Chakotay back with his crew. Acting as an aide to Seven and an advisor to the mission in general, was not the best fit. He belongs in the center seat. Yay Chakotay .
The tension between Tom and Harry is perfectly understandable. The scene with the two of them in the Captain Proton simulation was great. They have some work to do on their friendship, but they seem to be in capable hands with Cambridge. Hopefully the idea of Harry transferring off Voyager will not come to fruition...
B'Elanna getting back in the engine room was the right choice. She left when they got back to the AQ, and needed to get back in the thick of things. Her cool new promotion is interesting as well.
The stuff with Seven exploring herself and the Catoms was interesting, and it seems like more will come down the line. At least potentially...
There's tonnes I failed to mention, but I think I got my point across. Loved the book and Voyager's ressurgence. Hopefully in the eyes of the Pocket editors (whomever they may be at this point) give Kirsten another chance to write more trek-lit. Awesome if it's more Voyager books, but anything by her would be most welcome.
The only question I have about the book was why Afsarah Eden didn't receive a rank bump? Even if they weren't going to make her an lower-half Admiral or Commodore, why not a Fleet Captain (that's what she is now) or an acting Commodore?
Hello friends...
At the end of the day, I had to look at where everyone, but particularly Chakotay needed to end up. It was never going to be my intention to keep him from his command indefinitely. What I felt was missing prior to these books was the sense that he actually belonged where he was. It may sound strange, but I needed him to earn it.
Me too! I think I had a prejudice towards Chakotay in Full Circle that stemmed not from any resentment over Janeway's death but from a notion that Chakotay couldn't conceivably take her seat in a seamless manor.
I really enjoyed Unworthy. It read and felt like good, sharp Trek. The book was much more than I expected. I wasn't much of a fan of Full Circle. Perhaps it felt too different than the Voyager I knew from TV. It was an intense book but Unworthy felt more in line with what I expected and loved about Voyager in the first place. Yes, much in the last 20 pages or so was predictable but on the whole I simply found it had a well crafted plot. With that, a lot of little flaws are forgiven.
I really do hope Ms. Beyer continues with Voyager and Trek in general. I certainly got my money's worth.
I read it a couple of weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm not satisfied, however, that Unworthy satisfactorily and convincingly resolved Seven's issues. There's enough meat on those bones to merit a separate novel.
Very true, Christopher. Clumsy wording on my part. I didn't mean to suggest it weakened the novel, just that I think resolving Seven's issues could carry a book.
. Coupled with Full Circle, these two books have restored the Voyager lit series and brought it to where it needed to be. Just having Voyager as another ship in the Alpha Quadrant really wasn't interesting. Voyager belongs out there in the far off unknown, and having them back in the DQ seems right. The fact that they have the fleet with them is icing on the cake.
