Homecoming

I just watched through Voyager with the wife. It brought back fond memories of watching Star Trek:TNG with my family as a kid. I came to the end of the series wanting to spend more time with the characters.

This is the first Star Trek novel I've read in years. Reading them years ago got me into science fiction. I kind of wish I'd done more than keep a checklist of which ones I read. I'd have a bit more to compare this too.

I enjoyed the continuation of the character stories. However there's something missing. It's not just that it's only 1/2 of a longer novel. There was always something Science Fiction EPIC about how Voyager crew interacted with the absolute unknown. That's kind of missing here, in the familiar territory of Starfleet, the show more Federation and Earth. There are at least 3 main plots: one political, one espionage and one with a familiar foe. They're all definitely related to the Voyager crew, but they don't feel like Voyager plots. We knew we'd have to deal with Seven and the Doctor's place in society after Voyager returns to Earth, but it all comes off a bit heavy handed. That said, I reserve final judgement till I see how they're resolved in the second book.

I was impressed with how many simple references there were to the series. Most of them were superficial, but they offered a comfort to a fan seeking simple continuity. Janeway likes coffee, but knows her future self enjoyed tea. Seven owns a red dress. Stuff like that. I suspect this has always happened in Star Trek novels, but this is the first time I read one after watching a series straight through.

I'll definitely be reading a few more Star Trek novels now that it's easy to cherry pick ones that look interesting for my eReader, but I suspect I won't review many. It's fun to see plot threads (even ones that didn't seem loose) tied up, but if I'm actually going to THINK about what I read I need significantly more substance. Here's hoping I'm proved wrong and encounter a particularly interesting SFnal concept in one that I can geek out about.

I'd rate this 4 stars as a Voyager experience for a fan in withdrawal. On any other scale, it's more like 2 stars. show less

Over the past month or so, I ended up marathoning all seven seasons of Star Trek Voyager (that's 172 episodes, if you're wondering). And when I got to the end my prevailing thought was, "But what happens next?!". A bit of googling lead me to Star Trek Voyager: Homecoming by Christie Golden, a media tie-in novel that directly follows on from that series finale. So I bought it, and I inhaled it. And the only reason I'm not currently inhaling the sequel — for it is part of a duology, not a standalone — is because I'm writing this review. This review (and the blurb below) contains spoilers for the Star Trek Voyager series, including the finale.

The story picks up right where the series left off and follows many of the ensemble cast as show more they are welcomed back to Earth/the Federation. Things, of course, do not quite go as planned. As well as the expected difficulties of reintegrating back into normal society, some unexpected obstacles/disasters crop up.

My main small complaint is that with so many characters, we don't get to spend very much time with each of them. We get the important parts of the picture, but it was a little frustrating that there were so many to cycle through. On the other hand, a new (sort of) character is introduced with good effect: Harry Kim's girlfriend, who we met briefly in an alternate-timeline episode. Turns out, when Harry disappeared for seven years she, among other things, became a spy. She ends up being the character that has the most pieces of the puzzle, letting the reader in on some useful information.

The most pertinent thing to repeat is that this is not a stand-alone novel. The ending is more what you'd expect from the first episode in a two-episode arc of a TV show and offers no resolutions whatsoever. There is only cliffhanger doom.

I enjoyed Homecoming and I will definitely be reading the sequel. I recommend it to fans of Star Trek Voyager who want to know what happens next to the character of that show. Or who are having difficulty letting go of it, like I am.

4 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog. show less

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. I've never read tie-in novels before, but needed something to read during breaks from studying for finals. Watching TV is my go-to, but it really dulls my focus; nonetheless I wanted something lighthearted, fast, and pretty meat-less to read. This really satisfied that desire. It reads like the TV show, the characters are written similarly to the TV show for the most part, and the plot has the nice straightforward shape of an episode of TV.

I didn't like that the crew was split up so quickly, but this book and the next one do a good job of finding a place for everyone. The Torres/Paris stories feel kinda glued on, as they have a very different journey from everyone else.

Overall, not a show more work of stunning literature, but a nice fun romp in a universe I enjoy. I'll definitely be reading more of these. show less

Voyager is my favorite Star Trek series, so I have been leary of starting any of the tie in books. You can never be sure if the characters you grew to love on the show will be the ones they write in the books. I finally broke down and tried this one. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. Most of the characters are fairly accurate, some a little more so than others. The plots were interesting but with several storylines in play I felt like things suffered from being a little too busy. The doctor accidentally inspires a holographic revolution and gets imprisoned, B’Lanna undergoes a Klingon ritual that has her trying to survive with no supplies on the Klingon homeworld, and a mysterious illness is is turning into a plague for show more which Voyager’s crew gets blamed. Adding in the additional perspectives from Harry’s old flame, and the nameless bad guy made for reading that lacked some cohesion. By the time I would get invested in one storyline, we would switch to another. It was also a little bittersweet, because the crew is getting broken up and sent different places. While that is to be expected it lacked the sense of the crew surmounting odds together. And some of the regular characters got almost no scenes. I guess the storyline needs Libby more than Tuvok, but I would have preferred the regular crew over new people. Still I enjoyed it enough to pick up the next book, so I will have to see if things pick up from there. show less

Have you ever picked up a book and gotten almost completely through it before you realize that you've read it before? None of the details from whenever you first read it stick out in your mind, but then nothing from the current reading really sticks out, either. That was my experience with this book and its second part, "The Farther Shore".

That's not to say that it's a bad pair of books. In fact, it's quite an easy read. No one acts out of character. None of the scenes make you roll your eyes. Unfortunately, that in-the-box theme permeates the book. It's not white bread as much as it is white rice -- there's nothing bad, but nothing memorable.

But that's a problem, see, as its supposed to tie up all of the loose ends from the television show more series finale. It does, mostly, but it does it in a lackluster and predictable way. Maybe that's good, as there won't be anyone to scream "oh, that's just all wrong!", but neither are you going to stand out of your chair and pump your fist at the ending.

It's worth a read if you absolutely must know what happened five minutes after the television series ended ... but otherwise, it's skippable. If you do read it, be sure to add it to your LibraryThing catalog, lest you find yourself reading it again someday without realizing it. show less

Excellent fiction extension of the ST:Voyager series story. I took off half a star because the story ends in a cliffhanger and I must now wait to get part 2 from the library:-) But I enjoyed visiting old friends from the TV series and seeing one account of what could happen when they finally return back to Earth.

A continuation after the end of Star Trek Voyager.

As much as I loved the Star Trek: Voyager tv series, the ending always felt a bit rushed to me. Thankfully, Christie Golden picks up right where Voyager left off, bringing you back with your old friends on the crew. Find out what happens after they return to Earth and pick their lives back up. But don't get too settled. Like any good Star Trek mystery, things start going wrong before they start going right. And that's where Homecoming part 1 sets you up with. Now I can't wait to read part 2!

A great companion book to the series, a must-read for any fan of the series. I can't believe I waited so long to read this after I finished the series!