Rating: 
Summary: Group Therapy?
Review: This is one of those books I enjoyed, but still found serious fault with at the same time. The point of the story is to tell the backgrounds of some of the main charachters of voyager. In that, it does quite well. I found the stories of each of the charachters to be well writen and invigorating. However, the way it was presented.....the crew captured and held in a prison camp, and to pass the time they tell the stories of thier life which led to becoming part of the Voyager crew. It just doesn't seem right. Some technical problems as well, I seriously doubt the method used to escape would have been possible in those conditions. Secondly, it was a bit on the sappy side in the transitions between stories. I was almost expecting a big group hug in parts. Thirdly, some of the stories don't match up with the series.....perhaps the book was written before those episodes were made? Dispite these problems, it was an enjoyable read which gives insight into the crew of the Voyager.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't Anyone Else See It?
Review: This novel by one of the producers (note: Taylor left the series at some point, but she came up with it with some other people) is about the "Pathways" that took the crew of Voyager to that ship. The structure of the book, except for the very beginning and the very end, is a short chapter (10-15 pages) of actual plot followed by a long chapter (35-70 pages) where a character tells his life story. The main plot of the novel is that the command crew of Voyager has been captured and is being held as prisoner. Captain Janeway and the Doctor are the only members of the crew that managed to escape capture. The breakdown of the novel is obvious, approximately 16% (82 pages) of the 501 total pages is spent on discussing the crew's activities in the POW camp and their attempts to escape. I think a better format for the stories would be to design it as a series of the crew member's personal logs or perhaps simply as a series of short-stories/novellas in anthology form. At this point, I will discuss some of the stories. If you want to avoid having the story spoiled, stop reading here. I think the most interesting parts of the novel were the explanation for why Chakotay joined the Maquis, why Tom Paris was in a prisoner's colony and the back history to the less colourful characters; Ensign Kim and Lieutenant Tuvok (I know he is promoted later) are the simple Starfleet people but even here there are some interesting things. Apparently, Kim actually had to apply twice to get into Starfleet Academy and Tuvok originally wanted to become monk rather than enter Starfleet. It has been years since I read a Trek, but I probably read about two dozen (all the series-based ones, excluding Enterprise) novels and this is fairly good. Unfortunately, a novel like this would only appeal to fans. I may also read Taylor's novel, "Mosiac," the background story of Captain Janeway, but it does not seem that likely. I think the next Trek book I read will probably be the Deep Space Nine Millennium series or "A Stitch in Time," by Andrew J. Robinson (about Garak, and written by the actor who played him).
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