Customer Reviews

Incident at Arbuk (Star Trek Voyager, No 5)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Incident At Arbuk is a good book.It started out slow, but picked up at the end. It's about the voyager crew finding a deadly weapon, more powerful than any starfleet vessel. Inside a shuttle, they find a Sperian unconcious. Could the Sperian be a link to the weapon? Can they make him concious again? If you want to find out more, I suggest you to read it.

The superweapon and Star Trek are well known bedfellows in the universe of sci-fi. From the Doomsday Machine in the original TV series, to this novel, Captains in Star Trek must overcome the impossible with almost nothing.

Arbuk brings us a new characters' take on the man vs. superweapon scenario. Betancourt brings off the culmination of this conflict as well as any of the other authors who have attempted it. Involving the Voyager and Captain Janeway does bring a refreshing twist to this solid Star Trek storyline.

Before discussing the substance of this story, I have to say I was dismayed by the lack of proofreading. Not only were there simple typographical errors, but often extra words were inserted where they did not belong. Also, characters spoke in ways we didn't hear them speak on the television show; for instance, B'Elanna refers to Voyager as "the Voyager," so, instead of saying she was returning to Voyager, she'd say she was returning to "the Voyager." (Where was the editor? How about continuity?) I've read several Voyager books, and noticed this one had the most mistakes. Beyond that, it was a somewhat interesting story.

CAUTION: Mild spoilers follow.

In what appeared to be a crossover from the original series, Voyager encounters a "doomsday machine," but, aside from mentioning this, the book doesn't offer any further linkage. It might have been more interesting if this had been Matt Decker's doomsday machine, but as far as we know from this book, it probably was not.

The alien species was interesting if for nothing other than morphology. The Sperians have no eyes, ears or noses, just mouths and many tendrils atop their heads. Turns out these tendrils provide their visual, auditory and olfactory senses. Other than this, perhaps the most engaging part of the story comes when Tuvok enters a mind meld with a Sperian. After the meld, the two are still linked -- I don't recall this happening before in Trek lore. Tuvok has part of the Sperian's personality, and vice versa. It was curious, and added to the story, but...it was never resolved at the end!

There was an entertaining side story about the disgruntled ex-Maquis, Paul Fairman, who sets out to find his way off Voyager by amassing funds via a black market replicator. He and Neelix have some amusing interactions, and it is finally left to Neelix to solve this personnel issue.

Similar to other Trek books, this was a quick, escapist read. If that's what you're looking for, then by all means, read on! Just know that, for whatever reason, the editors didn't give this one the attention it deserved.

Much more better than book 4.#'s "Violations". I thought the writing of an alien without a face (except for a mouth) and Tuvok mind melding with him was a masterpiece. What I look for in these ST Voy books is something different and spontaneous that is not on the show, and sometimes it delivers and sometimes it doesn't. I think the idea of aliens fighting over advance technology in the DQ is something that certainly the show hasn't dealt with much. This is one of the last books set during Season 1, including the following "Murder of the Sun".

This book is a brilliant book. It's brilliant for adults and teenagers (if you like that sort of thing. There isn't really anything else to say. Accurate from all other Star Trek account i.e. right names, equipment as some Star Trek books contradict Star Trek series. I'm just so gobsmacked that I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone who likes this sort of thing

Excelent book, the mind melding of vulcans is discussed in a very interesting and descriptive way, the alliens physiology is also a new flavor. I would recommend it to any trekky.

I found this first solo novel of John G. Betancourt's to be a quick and interesting read. Although there might have been some grammatical errors in the novel, they were minor and inconsequential. One of the first things you'll notice in this story is the authors writing style, which is very good, lending heavily to a well paced novel. I did find his characterizations to be a bit off, but that is to be expected given the time in which this novel was written and published, with approximately only a years worth of episodes to work off of.

In good keeping with Voyager novels of the time, the cover art is a slight cut above the other titles being published at that time.

The premise:

Voyager stumbles upon a distress signal from a shuttle and follows it to a nearly deserted system known as Arbuk. Once there they discover what is essentially a doomsday machine that is considerably more powerful than a starship. They also soon discover a rather interesting alien who is a Sperian. Captain Janeway and the crew of Voyager soon find themselves under attack by an alien fleet bent on taking possession of the weapon and they must find a way to keep it out of their hands...

What follows from there is, as stated above, a quick and interesting early Star Trek Voyager novel that is well worth the time to read. I recommend this title to any and all fans of Star Trek fiction. {ssintrepid}

This book was not one of my favorites it took me longer to read it than any other one. I guess it just really didnt catch my attention.

This book is probably one of the best Star Trek Voyager books. I think that the story was well told and it has everything ayou want in a voyager book!

This book was VERY good and I would recommend it to ANY startrek fan. It was fantastic.