Greg Cox

Though I liked the show a lot — minus a couple of character caveats, this is the first book I’ve ever tackled in the Star Trek universe dealing with the Voyager crew. This also happens to be one of the most enjoyable reads I’ve ever experienced in the book franchise based on the various shows. Whether it’s the Original Star Trek, Next Generation, or Deep Space Nine, everyone knows the quality of writing and stories for the paperbacks of their continuing adventures in that universe show more can run from dreadful to really good — but sadly, heavily weighted toward the former. Usually the characterization is off, or the story is lackluster, or the writing is terrible. I’m ecstatic to say that NONE of those things apply here.

Greg Cox has done a marvelous job of capturing the essence of the characters from the show, and he’s wrapped them in an entertaining and enjoyable story that while no new shakes, is like a splendid episode we simply weren’t allowed to see. Sure, if you critically examine it upon finishing, it has some standard similarities to an oft-repeated narrative — a seeming paradise with a dark underbelly — but it’s so well done and so entertaining, while you’re reading you simply don’t care. There’s humor and drama, a few thrills, a few dark moments but not so much it takes away from the good feeling throughout that you’re “watching” a lost episode.

Perhaps Cox’s greatest achievement is the way he chose to criss-cut the story, seamlessly flowing from one portion of the crew to the next to give us, the “viewer,” a cohesive overall picture, just as the film editors did on the show. Other writers in the Star Trek universe often choose to focus on one or two main characters, perhaps to make it easy on themselves, but Cox takes the road less traveled, giving most of the crew a chance to shine, and moments that provide us humor or drama, even a tiny bit of insight. It makes this one feel full and well-rounded, much more like a terrific episode where everyone is involved. That brings me to my next point:

By including Harry, Paris and Chakotay, Tuvok and Kes, Neelix and The Doctor, and especially Kes, this lessens the role the grating Janeway has to play in this. If you’re one of the millions like myself who laments that producers did not cast Erin Gray in the role of Janeway, and went with Kate Mulgrew instead, you don’t have to worry about the character as she was written, or as portrayed by Mulgrew, nearly ruining another great episode with her caustic, Kathryn Hepburn-level grating voice, and condescending personality. To be fair, that was the way Janeway was written, but I truly believe Gray would have brought more to the role, and perhaps found a way to dissuade the six people who wrote her character from turning her into such an infuriating mess. With her “screen time” wisely lessened here, though she does play an important role as Captain, she slides down the literary palate much easier here than in the show.

On the technical side, I did run into a number of typos in the print version — either an actual typo, or a “to” missing in a couple of sentences, for example — but they appear in as many mainstream books as they do self-published, despite what you hear from reviewers trying to pull the wool over your eyes. In this case, as is so often the case, it was ticky-tack stuff not relevant enough, nor frequent enough to ever become a distraction, or even an annoyance. And, this was a pretty big book as well. I only mention it as a preemptive strike because someone else is certain to laser in on it. Trust me, it’s nothing. If it was, I’d tell you.

I won’t go into fine detail about the plot on this rare occasion, since the premise is well explained on the back cover of the book and in the introduction of the listing, but suffice it to say I LOVED this one, and had an enjoyable time flying through it. For those wondering about the time frame on this one, Kes is still with Neelix, and Paris and Torres aren't even beginning to come together yet. A great read; a blast, in fact, and a book I’ll be keeping around so I can read it again at a later date. That says it all. show less

Here's the deal, I don't like the Original Series, I can't stand Kirk. I also wanted to finish reading this book before 2022, so I stayed up till 1 listening to it.

With all of that out of the way I thought this book was a bit disappointing, but okay. I think Cox should have just focused on two storylines and not three. Even though I like Spock, I felt his storyline was not needed and he could have stayed on the Enterprise for the entirety of the novel. Kirk and the election storyline was my show more personal favorite and could have played a more center role instead of becoming an afterthought just a few chapters in. The whole Ozalor, sick Princess, Dr. McCoy storyline was boring to me and should not have become such a long drawn out side/main story. In many ways Cox made the cast of the Original Series a little more interesting for me and more palatable, and Robert Petkoff as the narrator for the audiobook did a great job, but this whole book could have been a 100 pages shorter. show less

Prose and comics are two mediums that have very different strengths, and nowhere is that more evident than here. One of the things that made 52 so successful was its very investment in the comics model of long-form serialized storytelling: it told a single story in 52 parts, adding up to over a 1,000 pages of comics. Though obviously you could in theory reproduce this in other mediums (prose, television, &c.), I don't think it would play to their strengths, at least not as those mediums are show more produced in contemporary America.

So while a novel version of 52 could in theory work, I suppose, this novel version never could. The whole point of the story was its hugeness, its sprawl, its peeking into every corner of the DC universe/multiverse. That just cannot happen in a 359-page novel. Cox is hampered by trying to simulate the very format of the original comics; while in his later novelization of Countdown to Final Crisis, he can just lop out whole subplots, here he emulates the original comics in having 52 chapters, one for each week. This means at least some part of each issue has to make it into the book, which makes it much more difficult to cut the story down. Countdown focuses on just a couple of the subplots in great detail; the novel of 52 hits most of the subplots at a very superficial level.

The result is a book that would probably be mildly interested if you hadn't read 52 as a comic, but is thoroughly uninteresting if you have. I'm sure Greg Cox did his best with the hand he was dealt, but in this format, I just don't see a way this project could have ever succeeded.

(Also I'm pretty sure there's just one flat-out error: the Nightwing who meets Batwoman in Gotham is Dick Grayson here, but I'm pretty sure that in the comics he's meant to be the undead fellow former Robin Jason Todd impersonating Dick.) show less

'Read a Star Trek novel for old time's sake,' I thought; 'a quick, fun read will help to lift the dreaded book slump,' I thought. Nope. This adventure was horrendously sluggish, pardon the pun, the characters were off kilter, and the promise of a sequel depressing.

I watched (most of) Strange New Worlds recently, and despite the bizarre choice to recast every single character from the original series, was bored with Captain 'Dad' Pike and 'Number One' - Kirk and crew remain first and best. show more Here we get a reunion of sorts between Una and Spock onboard Kirk's Enterprise, with the former first officer now captain of her own ship. Unfortunately, Greg Cox seems to think that she is a strong enough character to carry half of the plot in flashback and she's really not. He throws all the adjectives at her, brave, fit, strong, smart - 'Fuel barrels blocked her path and she hurdled over them like the champion she was. Her eidetic memory called up the layout of the camp' etc - but she gets captured and has to be rescued in both timelines. And the crew members she is hoping to recover, including her 'best friend' who she names her shuttle after, are instantly forgettable and the reader is left wondering why she spent so many years obsessing over getting them back. Captain April is another boring 'dad' figure - he actually addresses the crew as 'children' at one point, wears cardigans and has his wife on board - and the Kirk drift is in full swing in the present timeline. I think Cox watched the whole original series once over and took notes to 'borrow' from - the Transfer Key that Una steals from Kirk is exactly like the Tantalus device from 'Mirror Mirror' - but doesn't have a feel for the characters. Apart from Number One, and then he might be Gene Roddenberry reincarnated.

The 'slugs vs Ewoks' battle on the usual M class planet is also underplayed, and the weird choice of pronouns drove me mad (s/he and 'hir' - just use they, ffs!) I think the dialogue and the belaboured plot points might have been aimed at a younger readership, but I did like the occasional nudge nudge in-joke from the original series - Bones permanently on the bridge and Majel Barrett voicing the computer while playing Number One/Nurse Chapel. As I say, Cox definitely took notes, but there is no heart in recreating the familiar. show less