Customer Reviews

The Farther Shore (Star Trek Voyager, Book Two of Two)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Star Trek - Voyager: The Father Shore book two is the conclusion to Homecoming of a two part series about the return of the Voyager and her crew to Earth. I must say this, the author will make you think as you enjoy this latest adventure to the relaunch of the Voyager series.

As "The Father Shore" begins right where "Homecoming" left off we are in the middle of a conspiracy, the Voyager crew is being questioned, some of the crew are in prison (the Doctor, Seven and Icheb) and there is a hologram strike as the people of Earth try to cope with a cut in services. But, that is only half of the adventure as B'Lanna Torres is searching for her mother on Boreth a highly religious planet in the Klingon Empire, there is also a Borg virus spreading on Earth.

There is suspense, intrigue, and mystery in this book as the Voyager crew trys its best to solve these trials by fire that have erupted since their return. I found the story to be very engrossing and entertaining as I read through the book... I didn't want to put it down as the adventure kept my interest and I wanted to find out what happens next.

If you're a TREK fan, Christie Golden's two part series will keep you very well entertained. I just hope that this relaunch of Voyager will continue as the members of the Voyager crew lead their lives on Earth, Vulcan and Boreth. The book leaves some very interesting possibilities opened for the author or others to explore.

The character development and the plot were excellent... there are some real good twists in this book and I'm not going to ruin it for you. "The Farther Shore" is a solid 5 star book as it will shake the reader up, just like the author intended, and make you think along the read. Being an avid Star Trek reader, I must say, "Homecoming and The Farther Shore" are a welcome addition to the Star Trek genre known as Voyager.

The second book of the Homecoming adventures picks up from where book one left off. However, with all the catchup handled in the first book you get right into the meat as soon as the second book begins.

Finally, after a bit of inaction in the first book the Voyager crew gets back together and starts moving. Our favorite charactes are once again put together and put in a familiar setting. It was great having them back on Voyager and working in their old posistions.

The books ends comfortably enough, giving readers the feeling that all has been wrapped up nicely. Most fans of the TV show loved how it ended but have been left wanting to find out more. Even after the first book, I had the feeling that I needed more and wondered how they would all move on after such a huge adventure. I have to say that this book quenched my thirst for info on my favorite crew and TV show, although it would be great to see them in movies and even more follow up books. I think most readers will feel comfortable with how all ends up.

As a reviewer stated from the first book, the plot is not all that original with the Borg and all and it almost was too easy and making Libby into a super spy was a bit much. However, I don`t know if we who were waiting for this book were really looking for a great plot in as much as we were looking to find out what happened to all these people we almost grew to know over the past seven years on TV. If you were looking for the later, as I was, you won`t be disapointed.

...after the adequate cliffhanger setup in ST: Homecoming, I was a bit disappointed w/the resolution in Farther Shore. The recreation of the Borg Queen was inspired but the execution lacked a feeling of menace and terror you'd expect from the Borg Queen. Data and the Doctor worked well but the B story (B' Elanna's search for her mom) and the C story (holograms revolting for their rights) fell short...again, a good idea but ran out of steam. ST:TOS The Lost Years and ST:DS9 Mission Gamma did better w/their relaunches. Voyager's relaunch is satisfactory but lacks the "wow" that would have made it memorable...

I must say that I got over many of my hard feelings from the first book of the dulougy after reading this book. Janeway seemed to be back in character as well as most of the crew. Seeing how there was an isolated Starfleet conspiracy made me feel better about how the Voyager crew was treated overall. However, the Borg plotline seemed contrived and out of sync with the rest of the star trek universe. Also much of the book was spent on characters not pertaining to Voyager which became redundant after a while. While the B'Elanna b-plotline was satisfying for the most part, the end made one wonder if Golden remembered who B'Elanna was. With Voyager being my favorite Star Trek series I was sad to see it in such poor form.

What is it with Star Trek two-part stories? The television series always had problems with conclusions, and now the book series is following suit. Unlike the television series, though, the book series is just taking flaws in the first book and expanding on them in the conclusion, making the final installment a step down from the first. Such again is the case with Voyager's relaunch novel, The Farther Shore. After writing my review for Homecoming, I read some other reviews that mentioned that Christie Golden's writing had way too many romance novel tropes. While I don't necessarily agree with that for Homecoming (or at least I don't agree that they were prominent), it is true in spades with A Farther Shore. The writing is trite and evokes too many "bodice-ripper" images for my taste. If this is the way the relaunch is going to continue (and it evidently is completely Golden's ball, handed to her by the editors), then I hope she learns to rein them in.

There are a lot of problems with this book, so I'll start with the good stuff. Golden continues to write the regulars well, as far as characterization goes. She's obviously a fan of the Janeway/Chakotay relationship, though she avoids them falling into bed together, instead giving them a "very close friends who could almost have been lovers" feel. Hopefully, she'll keep it that way in subsequent books. The friendship between them is very well done. Seven is still a little too emotional, but she otherwise is also written well. Torres, off on her own quest for her mother, is finally coming to terms with her dual-heritage, and the scenes between Torres and her mother are very interesting. In fact, the sequences on Boreth with Torres are the best part of the book. Too bad that they didn't have anything to do with the main plot. Also, the Borg plot is interesting in its own way, though I truly hope this is the last gasp of the Borg. Thankfully, the problem ends up being a lot less predictable than "they brought the virus with them," which is nice.

Unfortunately, while the regular characters are done pretty well, the others are not. The main villain of the piece, once revealed, is *way* overdone, sounding shrill at times. The Starfleet admirals that Janeway and others have to deal with also seem way too strident in their feelings toward the Voyager crew. Also, the final resolution, as hard as it is to get there, ends up being way too simple when it finally occurs. It's almost an afterthought, which is not a good thing. The leader of the holographic rebellion is written way over the top, especially when we get the scenes in his fantasy world. I found myself shaking my head way too many times in this book. I also have to wonder at the abrupt end to the holographic rights plot. Perhaps this is going to be picked up in future books?

Which leads me to the main problem with A Farther Shore: the writing. I can live with descriptions of men and women as "muscular" and "beautiful" without thinking a lot about it. I think that's what many reviewers had a problem with in Homecoming. But A Farther Shore takes it one step further, especially with characters we care nothing about. There is a sequence where many Starfleet personnel, as well as other workers, are replaced by holograms, and the real people are placed in some holographic world where they are slaves to the holograms. This is supposedly to teach them what it's like to be oppressed. These scenes involve characters we aren't familiar with at all, and the limited scenes they have in the book before this happens just didn't make me care about them. What's even worse, though, is the way the sequence is written. It seriously is like a romance novel come to life. Lieutenant Andropov is described as being extremely muscular, and the woman who he takes under his wing is quite beautiful. He's old enough to be her father, and thankfully we are spared any romantic entanglements, but we still get prose that's ripped from the bodice of those novels. It made me cringe every time Golden went back there.

Finally, there is one major internal continuity gaffe that is so bad only because the scenes happen one right after the other. In the first scene, the Trill doctor suggests that Data go off for the rendezvous with the other Voyager crewmembers by himself while he continues to work with the holographic Doctor in sickbay. The very next scene, however, is the rendezvous, and the Trill is right there. He speaks quite a lot, and it's obvious not a communication from sickbay. He is right there. Surely this should have been caught in editing even if Golden was writing the scenes out of order and forgot this?

A Farther Shore has an interesting premise with some good characterization (but some horrible characterization too), but the writing just fails it. Romance-lite, overbearing and overdrawn, this book just seems such a let-down after Homecoming. Problems that were below the radar rear their ugly head, and don't bode well for the series. I hope Golden can do better than this.

David Roy

This was pretty decent. The main storyline is one of a Borg virus that seems to be spreading at will throughout Earth, and Voyager and her crew, having recently returned from one heck of a battle with the Borg, are dead centre in the suspicion category.

In the first book of this duet, I was a little worried about the Doctor's sub-plot: a holo-revolution, and found Torres' story about trying to find out if her mother is really dead or not to be quite interesting.

This time, the effects of the sub-plots on me reversed.

The conclusion of the Torres storyline had an ending that really really frustrated me, but the holo-strike/revolution, which I thought was going to be such a dud, actually had a decent recovery (and some interesting side-characters, including one hunk of a security officer who was described in perfect detail to make me wish I could beam on over). Ahem. Where was I?

The main story, the borg-virus plotline, I found quite well done. The characterizations were really "on" in this one - no one felt out of character, or forced. And the very ending of the story leads me to believe that we are going to see more of the "post-show" Voyager in the same way we saw it in the DS9 relaunch. I hope so, anyway, as I'd like to see Chakotay in his new position, and really enjoyed the inclusion of the trill doctor. All in all, a decent effort.

'Nathan

I suppose that if you've read Homecoming you have no choice but to read the Farther Shore. Unfortunately, I quickly felt that I was reading this sequel out of necessity rather than for pleasure. The problem lies with Golden's emphasis on secondary characters. I'm sorry, but I didn't buy a Voyager book to read about Harry's girlfriend and all of her cohorts that Voyager's crew hasn't seen for the past 7 years, if ever, to the neglect of the crew. The plot eventually comes back around to our heroes, but by that point I was just about ready to put the book down and forget about it in favor of the Voyager DVD set. And that's a shame, considering how much I enjoyed Christie's Homecoming. Here's hoping the author's next venture follows the Homecoming model rather than that of the Farther Shore.

Once again Ms. Golden places too much emphasis on secondary characters until the latter end of the book. I mean it is interesting to read about these characters, but at the same time with the Voyager TV finale leaving us wanting more I wanted the book to be more about the Voyager crew.

The ending is typical, and the climax is all too predictable. The only thing I really found interesting was the revelation of the true form of one of the secondary characters.

First of all, this book is a continuation to a sequel. So now, let's say what is good about this book. The plot is wonderful and kept me reading the book despite what I did not like about the book. The storyline, itself is the saving grace to the book.

Now, what I did not like, ... much of it is written like it is a cheap romance novel. I'm sure for some, romance novels have their charms, and I'm not knocking them, but I come to Star Trek to stimulate my brain. Now don't get me wrong, and this is IMPORTANT.... this has very few romantic moments in it. I'm talking about the composition of Ms. Golden's sentence structure.... I'm talking about her descriptions of people's bodies and the "dreamy" quality of SOME of the things that she describes.... those things just changed the quality of the body of work that she produced.

I gave the book 4 stars because, afterall, we read these books hoping for a great storyline, and it does tell a great story (I do applaud Ms. Golden's imagination); however, I couldn't help but picture myself enjoying this more as a teenager sitting with a dictionary next to her. I hope in the future, that Ms. Golden comes up with the story and writes the book, then has a second author come in and help her edit it,.... make it "grow up" to what I expect from Star Trek.

Sad to say, this book was disappointing. I thought Homecoming got the Voyager Realunch off to a good start, but this book kind of lets you down. The focus shifts from the characters interacting with familiar friends and relatives on Earth, to an attempt to unearth a coverup at Starfleet regarding the Borg. The B'Elanna "B"-story was predictable and dull, although it was refreshing because it had nothing to do with the main plot line.

The main plot was, however, completely unbelievable. The reason given for "why" a Borg virus is spreading on Earth makes no sense.

I'm looking forward to more stories in the relaunch, but I'd like to see a return to the style of "Homecoming" where there are lots of things happening with different characters all at once.