Rating: 
Summary: One of the most memorable Voyager books!
Review: "Fire Ship" is a particularly intriguing and well written book by one of "Trek's" best authors. In "Fire Ship" Captain Janeway tells the story of how she was once separated from Voyager. Believing Voyager was destroyed when she escaped from an alien spacestation aboard an extremely small escape pod. She's picked up by a less technologically advanced race in the middle of a war. From there she attempts to warn them that a more viscious species is coming, to no avail. In order to do something about it, she is forced to basically start off on this ship as a deckhand and work her way up to captain.
A great concept carried out extremely well by the author. Clearly one of the best Voyager books as a stand alone and a fine addition to "The Captain's Table" series. Thank you to Diane Carey for a great read.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most memorable Voyager books!
Review: "Fire Ship" is a particularly intriguing and well written book by one of "Trek's" best authors. In "Fire Ship" Captain Janeway tells the story of how she was once separated from Voyager. Believing Voyager was destroyed when she escaped from an alien spacestation aboard an extremely small escape pod. She's picked up by a less technologically advanced race in the middle of a war. From there she attempts to warn them that a more viscious species is coming, to no avail. In order to do something about it, she is forced to basically start off on this ship as a deckhand and work her way up to captain.
A great concept carried out extremely well by the author. Clearly one of the best Voyager books as a stand alone and a fine addition to "The Captain's Table" series. Thank you to Diane Carey for a great read.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most memorable Voyager books!
Review: "Fire Ship" is a particularly intriguing and well written book by one of "Trek's" best authors. In "Fire Ship" Captain Janeway tells the story of how she was once separated from Voyager. Believing Voyager was destroyed when she escaped from an alien spacestation aboard an extremely small escape pod. She's picked up by a less technologically advanced race in the middle of a war. From there she attempts to warn them that a more viscious species is coming, to no avail. In order to do something about it, she is forced to basically start off on this ship as a deckhand and work her way up to captain.
A great concept carried out extremely well by the author. Clearly one of the best Voyager books as a stand alone and a fine addition to "The Captain's Table" series. Thank you to Diane Carey for a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome and deep - it swallows you up!
Review: A totally wonderful book! At first I did not warm up to the idea of Janeway 'losing' everyone on Voyager, but Diane Carey did a great job! With first-person narration by Janeway, we get a look at what makes her tick, which adds a great deal to the TV character we're used to. Carey's portrayal of Janeway threw me off a little at first, but in the end it gave me a greater understanding and 'respect' of the CAPTAIN.
A great read if ever there was one -- and an extra comforting ending too!
Rating:
Summary: Awesome and deep - it swallows you up!
Review: A totally wonderful book! At first I did not warm up to the idea of Janeway 'losing' everyone on Voyager, but Diane Carey did a great job! With first-person narration by Janeway, we get a look at what makes her tick, which adds a great deal to the TV character we're used to. Carey's portrayal of Janeway threw me off a little at first, but in the end it gave me a greater understanding and 'respect' of the CAPTAIN.
A great read if ever there was one -- and an extra comforting ending too!
Rating: 
Summary: Where is Voyager?
Review: Although I have enjoyed Carey's past Trek novels I found this one to be a bit dull. Voyager's strength is in its' ensemble cast. Writing an entire book around one character (Janeway) with no interaction with other crew members is a mistake. And why give so much attention to aliens? I thought a requirement for Trek novel publication was to adhere to Trek characters...not base an entire story on non Trek characters. If I buy a Star Trek book I want to read a story with STAR TREK CHARACTERS. Are you reading this Pocket Books?????
Rating: 
Summary: Fast paced original story, odd portrayal of Janeway
Review: Although my biggest complaint is that I couldn't imagine captain Janeway doing or saying many of the things that she is purported to have done in this story, overall the story was pretty original. So often, star trek novels fail to flesh out the cultures that litter the stories like so many props. The aliens here are definitely more thought out than normal. Very involving, quite a fast pace and it kept me turning the pages. I would actually have liked it to have continued another 300 pages or so, and then we could really have had something quite worthwhile. Alas, the 275 page limit that seems the standard for Star Trek is still in force here. Still, for voyager fans, a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: Although not as good as its predeccessor in the series, it's an interesting look at Capt. Janeway in a role of a subordinate peon rather than a fearless, take-charge leader. I could see her confusion as she enters the bar, feel her frustration as she knows the answers but isn't allowed to speak them, and all the emotions she goes through in this book. The story itself isn't as thrilling as Capt. Sisko's, but the way it's told makes it a very good read.
Rating:
Summary: The best addition to the Captin's Table yet
Review: An ever so excelent story. Well executed, and Janeway is excelently protrayed. Just imagin what it would be like for Janeway to lose her ship and be dumped with some backward technological race. It was great, and deserves the best of reviews.
Rating:
Summary: An outstanding story with Janeway on her own as a deck swab
Review: As our story opens Voyager is in an Iscoynian spacedock when the Menace arrive and destroy everything. Trapped aboard a badly damaged shuttle during the brief battle, Captain Janeway can only watch in horror as her ship is apparently destroyed. Suffering from severe burns she escapes the carnage in a space pod that flees the sector, eventually being rescued by the Warranter Zingara and its Commanding Shipmate Quen. Her saviors are not sure what to make of her, since no sane woman would want to be on a space vessel and especially since this alien with the very long name that they shorten to "Kay" insists that the Menace are coming to conquer their home world. Things look equally strange from Janeway's perspective: these people have technology completely different from anything she has ever seen before and run their ships in a disorganized, inefficient manner that baffles her. In short, they run their ships as a democracy while obeying the dictates of a dictatorial "temporary" government on the planet. But the most important thing is that her new shipmates neither trust or belief this strange alien woman. Fortunately she has her hatred of the Menace to keep her going until she is proven right about everything she has told her new shipmates. It only took a couple of chapters to recognize that "The Fire Ship" was the best of the first four books in the Captain's Table series. Half way through it became clear this is one of the best Star Trek novels I have ever read. Unlike a few of the other novels in the series that keep disengaging from their narrative to work in the reactions of the audience in that special bar that transcends space and time (and the gecko), Diane Carey goes in the other direction, with only a couple of comments indicating Janeway recognizes she has a physical audience outside of the framing device at the beginning and end of the novel (apparently there were comments and interruptions, but Carey conveniently omitted them all). The two things that define this series are that the stories are told First Person and that they reflect upon being a captain of a starship. In this latter regard "The Fire Ship" is the best of the bunch, reducing Janeway to this new culture's version of a deck swab (imagine cleaning a house made of bathroom tiles with a toothbrush for days on end). Janeway is very aware of how much her life has changed and Carey does an excellent job of charting the adjustments "Kay" makes to be accepted, as well as her planning for the imminent arrival of the Menace. However, there is one slight additional twist to the tale, because Janeway does not know everything she needs to know about the people she has dismissed with that perjorative label. This is a story about Kathryn Janeway, exploring her not only as a captain but as a person in a way few stories have done, whether on the television series or in a novel. If you burn her hair and clothing off, wrap her in foil, drop her on a ship, injured, alien, and raving, would she still be able to cope? After all, there is a good chance she will be spending the rest of her life on this new ship above a strange new world, which means she needs to be accepted even if she is not believed. However, doing so requires taking the Pledge, a new oath to her new captain and her new shipmates that would replace the vow she took when she joined Starfleet. The problem is that Kathryn Janeway does not take or break vows lightly. If she takes the Pledge, there would be no going back to her old life if she were to find Voyager had survived the attack. "The Fire Ship" takes both its characters and its story quite seriously. I am working my way through this set of six novels in order and so far this is far and away the best of the lot. Even if you do not read the entire series or do not especially care for Voyager, I have to think you will really enjoy this book if you are a Star Trek fan. Final note: Do not hold your breath waiting for the meaning of the title to become clear, because that comes near the end and its not worthy of being the title of this good of a story.
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