Customer Reviews

The Garden (Star Trek Voyager, No 11)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book seems out of order in the series. Instead of number 11 I would have guessed it to be one of the first three by the problems faced by the crew and references made by the author about the journey ahead and the conditions on the ship. It sounds as if the crew is still struggling for survival here, but in previous stories their situation seems to have already stabilized somewhat.

This was one of the most interesting story concepts that I have come across in the Voyager series. The only reason I could not give this book five stars and then some is because of the vast number of disconcerting typos throughout the book. I'm not talking about the simple occasional letter left off a word... at one point one ensign's gender pronoun references change back and forth several times in the same chapter. Proofreaders are worth the money! But if you're not distracted by grammatical incongruities, this is a wonderfully engaging story.

Not a great book by any stretch of the imagination, it was certainly closer to a three-star than to a five-star, but I really felt that it was just a little bit too good not to jump it up to four stars. The characterizations were handled pretty well, the plot was an interesting if fairly standard early-first-season Voyager plot (or at least, the problem driving the plot was typical early-first season; the ramifications were somewhat more original) and the pacing and action were better than average. Worth reading if you're a fan of the series; maybe not if you aren't.

It's pretty rare that I don't fully enjoy a Voyager novel. Even if the story or the characterizations aren't the best, I just adore the show so much that I enjoy the book anyway.

The Garden is the exception.

It's well written, but the story itself just didn't entertain me. From beginning to end, I kept waiting for it to capture my imagination, but it just didn't happen. The aliens seemed a little flat to me, and the main characters were a bit off as well.

Janeway seemed more like a female version of Captain Jellico than the fair-minded leader we came to know on the show. She was constantly reprimanding someone, or sending a sharp glance. And Harry Kim or Tom Paris were continually blushing or apologizing in response. Maybe it's me, but I just don't see the characters that way. It quickly went from amusing to distracting.

While this story has some interesting moments, it fell short for me. It's not one I'd knock myself out to get a hold of.

I have to say it, I did not like this book... Usually it takes me a week, tops, to read a good Star Trek book. But with this book it took me Three months to strugle through it... The only reason I keept going was because I paid for it and did not want to waist good money (Books are twice as expensive in Denmark than in the US). I the other reviews, and the only one I agree with is the first... Unless you absolutly have to have every single book in the series, I would NOT recommend thins book. For me personally it was a waist of money. Worst ST book I ever read, and I have read A LOT...

Average - kept me reading but nothing I would push on a friend or even a fan for that matter.

I am an avid Star Trek (TNG & up) fan and am reading some 300 of the books in as close to consecutive order as I can (full disclosure: my books were downloaded via BitTorrent). There are a LOT of lousy Star Trek books out there, but this sits above the others, not because the SciFi aspect is particularly strong (several other reviewers noted their disappointment), but because the writer puts in such strong character detail in the prose. I was impressed at the mature level of writing, and this is the first Voyager novel I've read that properly humanized how far removed their trip is.

A pretty ordinary Star Trek Voyager tie-in story. The crew of the Voyager are hungry, and need to get supplies, given that they are, as usual, stuck on a ship in the middle of nowhere.

This story deals with having to go to a planet to get food, and, the boss leads the expedition, because the boss always goes shopping, don't they?

There have been very few times over the years that I've started a Star Trek novel in any of the series and seriously entertained the idea of putting the novel down for good without finishing it but this novel fell into that rare category for me. Not surprisingly, this is the second of only two novels in the Star Trek universe for Melissa Scott, an author that I would hope found a more suitable niche in her own or other genres. Much to my chagrin, I found her writing to be somewhat lackadaisical in that the pacing was slow, the plot set up fairly plodding and the characterizations are off by a notch and the overall feel of the novel to be unimaginative.

The strange thing about Star Trek Voyager novels published at this time is that quite often the cover art is better for them while the stories weren't while novels in the other series were exactly the opposite.

The Premise:

"The Garden" is one more example in the Star Trek Voyager line of novels where the premise of "We're lost in the Delta Quadrant and we're desperately in need of supplies" was way over done! This time around, Neelix leads the valiant crew of Voyager to the Kirse homeworld. The Kirse are renowned for their bountiful crops and their enigmatic nature. As timing never seemed to be on their side, Captain Janeway attempts to negotiate a trade agreement with the Kirse when the Andirrim attack the Kirse and she finds herself and her crew caught in the middle and unsure as to which side to trust...

What follows from there, as stated above, is a novel that in its premise alone had lots of potential but ultimately falls flat in its execution. Despite panning this novel, I would still recommend it to other fans of Star Trek fiction but only on the basis of it being part of the "line" for those, like myself, who attempt to read them all. {ssintrepid}

...then hey, this book was written just for you! Otherwise... it's just too thick with description; it's a struggle just to finish some of the pages. While I realize that "finding foodstuffs" could be a real dilemma in the Delta Quadrant, the show never gives this a second thought; so, a novel that's based entirely around "Away Team searches for edible plants" is not going to be very compelling. No, nothing stands out as "out-of-character," but at the same time, just about anybody could say these lines the same way--even a non-Trek character. Please do *not* make this your first VOY novel, and if you already have, please do *not* rate the whole series of novels based on this one! There are many better ones out there!

This is a book that describes the characters of the series very well. It is full of adventure and mystery. I f you are in any way a trek fan or just a science fiction lover you will enjoy this book. It's descriptions are so real you would think you were there. A must read for anyone who enjoys this hobby. A splended book!