Rating: Summary: Holograms, Borg, and Klingons Oh My Review: "The Farther Shore" by Christie Golden is the second series of the Voyager re-launch. In this book, B'lanna is on the Klingon moon trying to find the spirit, While Janeway and the remaning crew members are trying to fight off an invasion and the up rising of holograms.
I was hoping the second book in the series would be better, but once again Ms. Golden just rehashed the same storylines that made the the television show in the end boring. Its a shame that Ms. Golden could not follow the writers of the "Deep Space Nine" and provide the reader with old favorites and new characters that the readers enjoyed
Rating: Summary: Fair to midlin'... Review: ...after the adequate cliffhanger setup in ST: Homecoming, I was a bit disappointed w/the resolution in Farther Shore. The recreation of the Borg Queen was inspired but the execution lacked a feeling of menace and terror you'd expect from the Borg Queen. Data and the Doctor worked well but the B story (B' Elanna's search for her mom) and the C story (holograms revolting for their rights) fell short...again, a good idea but ran out of steam. ST:TOS The Lost Years and ST:DS9 Mission Gamma did better w/their relaunches. Voyager's relaunch is satisfactory but lacks the "wow" that would have made it memorable...
Rating: Summary: Decent entertainment, but publishers rips you off! Review: 3 stars for the book itself but the marketing lowers it to 2 stars.
This book was entertaining. If you expect a reasonably entertaining read, you will like it. If you expect a work of literature, you won't. It is worth buying and reading if you like Star Trek: Voyager.
My biggest problem with it is the marketing. It is not a book but a half of a book. The publisher literally took one book, divided it in half and published each half as a book. So, much to the publisher's profit, you have to buy two books in order to read one complete story. It all but has a "too be continued..." at the end of Home Coming.
Someone might counter that there is nothing wrong with a series of books. I agree but this is not a series. It is one book cut in two. In a series there is typically some sort of ending in each book even if a larger plot or story line is continuing. So, you might not want to buy this book to protest the cheap, cheesy, pathetic marketing ploy of the publisher.
On the one hand: It is a modestly entertaining book.
On the other hand: The publisher rips you off by dividing one book in two and publishing each half as a complete book.
Rating: Summary: Let's Make A Movie! Review: After the disappointing returns from Nemisis, perhaps Paramount should consider a TV movie combining TNG and Voyager personnel. Heck throw in a Deep Space miscreant if necessary as long as they're not central to the plot. The two book series, Homecoming and The Farther Shore would make an good film. Perhaps even a two parter. Many of the characters are familiar to the viewing public and Enterprise needs all the interest in StarTrek it can get.
Rating: Summary: Better than expected Review: After the first book of this two-part "mini-series," I did not have high expectations for Part 2. While there are still many areas that could have been improved upon, I am impressed that Pocket gave the author permission to have important things happen to a few of the characters, particularly B'Elanna. In addition, the Borg situation turned out to be much more clever and interesting than I expected.The hologram rights' storyline was still kind of silly, and implies that every holographic waiter and every holographic Orion slave girl can and will develop self-awareness and sentience. Previously, we've been led to believe that the Doctor's unique situation in developing self-awareness was due to his being left "on" all the time and having to exceed his original program by being the Chief Medical Officer when he was was meant to be a supplement. I don't buy the holographic rights advocates' view that if you coalesce a bunch of photons into a projected 3-D image carrying a tray of food, the hologram is instantly going to feel unsatisified with its menial job. The Doctor is special. Minuet from Next Gen was also special, with a particular reason. Moriarty was special, with a particular reason. That Irish village on Voyager sort of became special, although I never bought that and thought it was silly. Anyhow, this book was better than expected and definitely better than Part I. Also, the very last page (don't want to give it away) sets things up nicely for further adventures.
Rating: Summary: "Endgame" is finally over. Review: As B'Elanna Torres fights to stay alive in the wilderness of a sacred Klingon moon, where she's gone to find her missing mother, the rest of the recently returned Voyager crew (including B'Elanna's husband, Tom Paris) fights Starfleet Security as they fall under suspicion of bringing a Borg assimilation virus back to Earth with them. Seven of Nine and Icheb, both former Borg drones, are imprisoned because Starfleet fears that they may be able to contact the Collective - especially if they're allowed to regenerate. If they are NOT allowed to regenerate, though, they'll die. The holographic Doctor, also imprisoned, faces reprogramming equivalent to giving a Human a lobotomy. In order to put down a rebellion by Earth's huge population of sentient holograms, Starfleet (as the Doctor's "owner") has decided to make an example of him. Admiral Kathryn Janeway isn't about to let such things happen to her people. With close friend and former first officer Chakotay by her side, aided by Tom Paris, Harry Kim, and others whom Trek fans will recognize, Janeway sets out to rescue her endangered friends from detention. After that she'll have to find the real source of the assimilation virus, and expose it to Starfleet and Federation authorities. If she can't do all of that within a frighteningly brief time frame, though, it will be too late. Earth will already have become part of a vast Collective. I enjoyed the first "Homecoming" book, but this one is better (I'd give it 4 ½ stars if that were possible). It spends far less time telling regular Voyager viewers what we already know, and it contains (mercifully) only one encounter between Janeway and her former fiance Mark Johnson's insipid bride, Carla. Maybe that's why Janeway seems solidly in character throughout the book. The mystery's solution works quite well despite making use of a motivation that's become a literary and dramatic cliché in recent years, and that in my opinion feeds a social prejudice which doesn't need help from Star Trek authors. I would like to comment on this at greater length, but won't because I'd be giving away too much. B'Elanna's story plays out separately, and I found its resolution both shocking and satisfying. I'm left with the feeling that "Endgame" is finally over. Now the characters can get on with their lives!
Rating: Summary: The Farther Shore- Best Voyager book yet by far Review: First, I'll say, this was up to par with Echoes, my other favorite Voyager book, and kind of dark like Echoes... I recommend both. When you read the Farther Shore, it seems like Homecoming was just a prologue, this one is where the real story begins. The story gives good detail to what's going on with each Voyager character (well, except Neelix, but that's a given). Favorite part: definatly B'Elanna's quest... which ends, well... rather sadly and.. graphicly but it's great closure. And theres a gut wrenching twist in the middle. From then on... completely suspenseful. The only bad thing, I would say... is that it lacked... *proper closure* (for a P/T fan, anyway), but left it open for more adventures.
Rating: Summary: Enjoyed these two books by C. Golden Review: I am an avid Star Trek Voyager fan. I was greatly disappointed when the show concluded. Both Homecomming and The Farther Shore helped me find a bit of closure to this series that End Game did not provide. I'm especially gratified that Ms. Golden rectified the romantic relationship between Chakotay and Seven. It was a silly contrivance by the show producers. I'm glad that this problem was rectified here. I disagree with some of the other reviewers of these two books. I think Ms. Golden did an excellent job! I would vote for a Voyager movie based upon the story these two books tell. It would be a great movie and maybe provide a better ending to the show than the producers came up with! Thanks Christie! I hope you have further ideas for continuing the Voyager series and characters. They don't have to be lost in the Delta Quadrant to continue the story! Thanks!
Rating: Summary: Better than Homecoming but still lacking Review: I must say that I got over many of my hard feelings from the first book of the dulougy after reading this book. Janeway seemed to be back in character as well as most of the crew. Seeing how there was an isolated Starfleet conspiracy made me feel better about how the Voyager crew was treated overall. However, the Borg plotline seemed contrived and out of sync with the rest of the star trek universe. Also much of the book was spent on characters not pertaining to Voyager which became redundant after a while. While the B'Elanna b-plotline was satisfying for the most part, the end made one wonder if Golden remembered who B'Elanna was. With Voyager being my favorite Star Trek series I was sad to see it in such poor form.
Rating: Summary: A disappointing sequel Review: I suppose that if you've read Homecoming you have no choice but to read the Farther Shore. Unfortunately, I quickly felt that I was reading this sequel out of necessity rather than for pleasure. The problem lies with Golden's emphasis on secondary characters. I'm sorry, but I didn't buy a Voyager book to read about Harry's girlfriend and all of her cohorts that Voyager's crew hasn't seen for the past 7 years, if ever, to the neglect of the crew. The plot eventually comes back around to our heroes, but by that point I was just about ready to put the book down and forget about it in favor of the Voyager DVD set. And that's a shame, considering how much I enjoyed Christie's Homecoming. Here's hoping the author's next venture follows the Homecoming model rather than that of the Farther Shore.
|