Customer Reviews

Bless the Beasts (Star Trek Voyager (Paperback Numbered))

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Do some research first. While I'm not a major hardcore trekker, I do at least expect the books I read about the Star Trek universe to be accurate with technical information and charachter accuracy. This book was neither, by far. I also expect at least some realism when it comes to diplomacy. In this, the book also lacked....atrociously.

It seems Janeway is constantly annoyed at something. It's like Janeway's PMS week through the whole book. Then she can't find any coffee...yah, sure.

She's rude to dignitaries sent aboard the ship, makes stupid mistakes throughout the book that just would not be possible.

The technical mistakes are so glaring that anyone who has actually watched the show on a regular basis would notice it. I'd expect an author writing about this ship to consult the technical manuals which are out on the ship to at least be consistent with the show.

The diolouge is choppy, unnatural, and it seems like the the crew members alternate between complete dopy, stupid decision making, and getting annoyed at something or someone. I barely made it through the book....at every chapter I just kept thinking "It can't get any worse"...but it only got worse with each following chapter. I started off thinking this book might get three stars, but it quickly dropped....by chapter eight it was such a rediculous bore I wished I could give it no stars.

This was the first of the Voyager books I've read, I think I need to find some others, they can't be this bad.

I'm a big Voyager fan, and I've read many of their books. This book doesn't even compare to the other ones. The auther doesn't seem to know the characters, their moral values, or even the Prime Directive! In this book the part of the delimna is thaat this whole Pre-warp clvilization that they've come in contact with is suffering with this sickness, and Janeway won't help them because it's against the Prime Directive. I have at least two things against that: 1: It is not against the Directive, because they've already come into contact with this civilazation, they know that they exist. From that point on, the Prime Directive doen't say anything about curing an entire planet from a horrible deasise that anyone has. and 2. Even if it actully was against the Prime Directive, Janyway would still help them. I'm sure that every Trekkie reading this would know that. And about the character personalties: They make the Captain mean, they make Neelix manipulative, and they make the Doctor stupid. This book has an interesting plot, but for a while it doesn't go anywhere. Plus, near the end, when they're debating wether thay should give the planet the medicine for this plague, the arguemeant is that if the crew doesn't provide the cure, then these slightly sentient animals called the Darra will be hunted more (they provide a postponement of pain for the victoms of the sickness). Not that I'm against not hunting animals, espically if their setinent, but that was practically the only arguement: "what about the Darra?" "If we don't provide the medicine, the darra will become exctinct". What about the millions of people who need the cure? Also, the auther over exagarates in this book and writes immaturely: I noticed at the first line. If you're a big Star Trek fan, you should read this book, but please don't expect Christie Golden material.
P.S.: I'm not really 12, this form was just easier to fill out.

I was taken by surprise when on the first page of this book, Kathryn Janeway managed to swing her command chair around. If the author had ever seen a Star Trek Voyager episode, she might have noticed that Janeway's chair is attached to Chakotay's, with a small "computer table" (also attached) in the middle. So, if Janeway against all odds, had managed to swing the chair around, Chakotay would have been swung over Tom Paris's head until he bounced back against the viewscreen. Not a bright start.

The storyline in the book was tolerable. But the Voyager crew was not necessary for it to unroll. They could have easily been replaced by some local heroes. The crew's characters weren't explored very deeply eighter.

All in all these three things give the impression that the writer has rewriten an old story to fit as a Voyager book, on the basis of some brief character descriptions.

Three stars nevertheless, because with all this said, it wasn't too bad a plot, and a nicely written story.

When I picked up Bless the Beasts, I have to say I expected a bit more than the book delivered. The plot was all right; rather predictable, but interesting. However, there was little else that was "all right" about this book. The writing was flat and to me, seemed as though the author was trying far too hard to write well, and in the end just managed to write badly. If you like a book that you don't have to think about, then this is for you. However, if you actually like a little content in your books, don't read this.

Karen Haber's "Bless the Beasts" offers once again a Voyager story with a seemingly peacefull planet, with the seemingly friendly inhabitants turning out to be something else than they seem in one way or the other.

No spoilers there I assume...

The book has interesting settings and situations, but as a whole it's lame.

Some information is flawed and inconsistant with the series and it's technology, and in the case of sensors, there's flawed information that affects the plot tramaticaly.

It's a fast read, but nothing special.

not because she's a fan. Tired old plot contrivance - the helm explodes and need this rare mineral. They find it on Sardalia. (Why do they always explode. When my TV dies, it doesn't explode in a shower of sparks. Nor my blender or microwave or oven or.. anything really).

Now the whole rest of the book is the premise of the Prime Directive. Prewarp civilisation, not supposed to contact them, theoretically your supposed to die rather than violate that, but *they* contact her- so that should take care of that, but the Prime Directive is still the focus of the rest of the book. They ask for the metal they need. They get it. And get pretty snarky when its not up to Federation high standards. Its free you wankers. Rude rude rude.

Sardalia isn't at war with Micaszia. Yet. But Sardalia and presumably Micaszia, though its not directly said, suffer from the gray plague. But Micaszia is doling out the alleviating enzyme that can only be gotten from the flesh of the Darra, another (unknown to either inhabitant) sentient species on the planet (think whales or dolphins with teeth)cared for by the M-s.

Tom and Harry have disappeared but apparently sensors are in worse shape than they were in TOS time because they can't be found out of all the birdlike Sardalians on the planet.

Captured and put to work on a 'whaling' vessel, Harry 'discovers' the Darra are sentient because they come for food when called. (Later on, that idea is solidified when the Darra help them when they are drowning.)

In another cliche of bad writing, Janeway discovers the whole history of the gray plague which no one talks about, in a museum computer (a cliche plot device and a contradiction all in one - no one talks about it, but they have a museum for it) when she wanders away from an official function by herself (Sardalia has no guards? for government functions?).

They aren't allowed to help the Sardalians medically- even though every other incarnation of Star Trek has humanitarian aid allowed to non-Fed members at various times (the series has been inconsistent with this).

Chakotay finds Tom and Harry through scar tissue on Tom's chest (????, not the incredibly different biology, but scar tissue).

Holodoc finds a cure and Voyager pays the Sardalians for the metals with it, not violating the Prime Directive as they see it. But then they totally do by showing the upstart rebel looking to overthrow the Sardalian government a fabrication guaranteed to make him look nuts and ruin his credibility and his chances for continued subterfuge, strengthening the current government. Is that not pretty much a heinous violation of the Prime Directive?

And Voyager happily leaves.

Without telling the Sardalians that the Darrans are sentient. But since they have the cure, they won't need to kill the Darrans, right? Except maybe for sport. Thanks alot Voyager.

It is a sore spot among many of my Voyager friends and I that I am not a Christie Golden fan. However, compared to Karen Haber, I would be urged to declare Christie Golden the goddess of all Voyager books. In reading a Voyager book I generally only find one or two errors in character traits, terminology, ship logistics, etc. "Bless the Beast" is full of glaring mistakes. After finding five mistakes in the first chapter, I took the initiative to earmark every page with a mistake. There were 79 pages with errors on them, several of them with more than one! That is quite a feat in a book with only 274 pages. Some were small errors such as the over abundance of curse words. Four letter words are used more in this book than probably in all of the seven seasons of Voyager. Others were glaring mistakes such as Janeway spinning her command chair on the bridge around to face the turbolift. I don't feel the need to explain this one since if you've ever seen an episode of Voyager you'd realise the imposibility of that. I also found it highly annoying that Janeway would "give the bridge" to Chakotay when she left her ready room. Clearly if she was in her ready room, Chakotay already had command of the bridge. Ofcourse the best instance of this was when she actually "gave the bridge" to Tuvok when Chakotay was on the bridge. I wonder how the first officer felt about that? The author also failed to realize that Janeway's ready room and the briefing room were two seperate areas. As such, throughout the story, Janeway has a huge conference table in her ready room. I am interested in how this was missed. Janeway is constantly asking someone else to do everything for her. Anyone familiar with Janeway knows that she is a hands on captain and this would never fly. And at one point she participates in an act so cruel and completely out of character that I was shocked. Normally I would say that I am simply being too cruel on the author due to my intense like of Janeway, however, that is not true in this instance. If you are looking to read the worst Voyager book ever written, this is the one for you? Otherwise, I'd avoid it like the plague.

Star Trek Voyager #10 "Bless the Beasts" is author Karen Haber's one and only Star Trek novel. The end result of this novel may be the primary reason that she only visited this genre this one time. Just as with many of the other early novels, this novel is plagued with some of the same tired plot device; Voyager's on her own and in need of supplies and repairs. While the basic premise of Star Trek Voyager itself demands such plot devices, which were used in the episodes quite frequently and too frequently in many Voyager novels, there were many different avenues that could've been taken without consistently focusing on this one.

While the basic premise of "Bless the Beasts" was a very good one, the execution of the story was not. The characterizations are off and the pacing of the novel unfortunately leaves much to be desired, all resulting in a novel that is fraught with unrealized potential and an unsatisfying read. The one minor saving grace is that at far too late in the novel, it does come together for a respectable ending. Just as with many of the other Star Trek Voyager novels from the time when this one was published, the cover art is fairly decent.

The premise:

Captain Janeway and crew find themselves once again in the position of being in desperate need of repairs and they come across a planet they find to be named Sardalia. The inhabitants at first seem to be friendly and are living on a planet blessed with natural beauty. It's not long before Captain Janeway finds that the hospitality being extended by the Sardalians is a bit too generous and then Lieutenant Tom Paris and Ensign Harry Kim disappear. Captain Janeway soon finds that the situation is untenable as they discover the planet is in the midst of a planetary war and that she must face a moral dilemma...

What follows from there is, as stated above, a story that is fraught with potential that quickly becomes unrealized as the author takes the novel in directions that just do not capture the reader. Overall, I would recommend the novel to only those, like myself, that are collector's/completists, not those looking for a Star Trek "starter" novel as this is most certainly not a novel that represents the quality possessed by a majority of the Star Trek novels. {ssintrepid}

The book, is not so bad, but some characters are no so good. Tom and Kim are too childish, they don't even think before to act. A new world, and they eat native food, they don't try it, they eat it right away. They go everywhere, even alone. Well, the plot is ok, it is fast, but their character are naives.

When I finished this book I found it very exciting and enjoyable. I recomend it highly.