Customer Reviews

The Murdered Sun (Star Trek Voyager, No 6)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It was nice going back to read this story. Copyright 1996, it shows beautifully the Voyager crew as they were at that time. Certainly, we've learned new things about the characters as the seasons progressed, and later novels reflect this, but these first efforts should not be dismissed just because they may not fit what we now know.

Besides, this one was chock full of references to Chakotay's Native American heritage, which was, in fact, integral to the plot - something sorely lacking in the show after about the second season. For this reason (and also because it's still a Kes-inclusive story), it's worth the read.

Okay, so the plot was a teensy bit predictable (two alien races at war, with a big secret between them), but why is that bad? This is a Star Trek tale, ferheavensake, it doesn't have to be the world's greatest novel. It just has to be a lively and entertaining ensemble story that makes me feel good at the end. Spot on for me, my friends!

"The Murdered Sun" is Star Trek Voyager's premier and most prolific author, Christie Golden's first novel in the Star Trek genre and arguably, among the best of the Voyager novels to date. From this very first novel of hers I found her plot framing, characterizations, pacing and overall writing style to be very enjoyable. Few of the authors during this early period in Star Trek Voyager's run captured the characters as well as Christie Golden does with this novel. Given that continued talent and several other titles in the Voyager series, she was later honored with the opportunity to write the inaugural novels in the Voyager relaunch series, "Homecoming" and "The Farther Shore."

The cover art for "The Murdered Sun" is pretty much standard fare for Voyager at the time, if not below standard.

The premise:

Voyager's sensors indicate a possible wormhole nearby and Captain Janeway is more than eager to investigate, hoping against hope to find a quicker way for her wayward starship to get home. Instead of finding the wormhole, Janeway and crew happen upon the Akerians who are a warlike race and are taking siege to Veruna Four. In order to get to the wormhole, Janeway finds that not only must she protect the innocent inhabitants of Veruna Four but she must risk direct confrontation with the Akerians.

What follows from there is, as stated above, one of the best early Star Trek Voyager numbered novels that is well worth taking the time to read. I highly recommend this novel to any and all fans of Star Trek fiction. {ssintrepid}

This book, while having some redeeming qualities, is hard to swallow, particularly in the characterizations. Golden has a real problem with the differences between men and women. All of her male characters are women with slightly different chromosomes. Read the other books first

I'm a real Voyager fan, but I was very disappointed reading this book. I remember looking up from my book every half hour or so, and telling myself to keep on reading, not to give up on Voyager. On the whole I found it "flat". Flat in characterisation and shallow in plotline. There can be much more made of this book when you really start working on it's possibilities on the exploration of planets, cultural changes during millenia, religious depth and goasts, being evil usurpors, slavery, wormholes, loyalty versus madeness. The story touches all these wonderful elements, but never gets to explore them in a better way then is done in a childrens book: easy and shallow....And then there are those major plot-damaging inconsistencies. One of the major points is that the "slave race" never has seen the face of their usurpors. But on the other hand they have their technology copied, because one of the evil ships crashed on the planets surface.... What was nice was the crossreverence to the series, to things happened in the Voyagers past. It really was our crew that way.

But what I really hated was her getting into Janeways head, making her a bit of an neurotic women, with a rather typical set of values and attitudes for instance on bravery and keeping up appearences. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to quote passages (copywrite and such things) so I'd better not, sorry.

On the whole I think this book was an easy ride for the aut! hor. It has all the characteristics of a having-to-pay-the-rent-quickie. And yes: we fans we are known to be loyal buyers of spin-off of our series, so we even "buy" these things (in both senses of the word). I don't want to give up on Voyager books altogether, but I sure hope the others are better.

as soon as you start reading this book, you'll find out that the auther has very limited knowledge about astro-science, as well as basic startrek-science concepts, not to mention the characterization and the plotline. I am a loyal fan of Voyager, however, I found this book difficult to accept for the reason that both the characterization and the concept of science are illogical. My conclusion is, this book is not worth reading, in fact, it will make you more confused about everything in ST Voyager.

The overall book is not bad. Of course this is the last book to be set during ST Voy's season 1. The ideal of warring races clashing aganist each other (and being related) is an interesting plot twist. This is also not the first time Voyager will encoutner reptile-dinosuar like creatures in the DQ. Overall it was a good story- the promise of a wormwhole, with a linkage to a far away planet (but not the Alpha Quadrant) is not that bad.

Generally pretty well-written, there are a few places in which the author's unfamiliarity with the Star Trek universe shows (the ship does NOT need to drop out of warp to fire phasers, nor would technical assistance be necessarily a violation of the Prime Directive once it was established that the alien species had already made contact with other races, and had warp technology, however primitive) and there are a few places in which the characters don't quite ring true (I find it difficult to reconcile the character of Tom Paris as being phobic of reptilians) but overall, the story isn't bad, and the writing is competent. A bit predictable, perhaps, but not a bad read.

I catalogued this book as one of the best written about Voyager, Chakotay and Paris character analysis is extremely interesting. There are also some new thechnical details about gravity shields and black holes that give more substance to the story.

I'm amazed to see some negative reviews of this book. It's by far the best of the Voyager series. I'm not a big Voyager fan, but I would be if the characters on TV were as interesting as they are in this book. Golden shows you how good the TV show might have been. If you like Voyager at all, get this book.

BY FAR THIS IS THE BEST VOYAGER BOOK I HAVE READ TO DATE. AFTER READING THIS YOU REALIZE THE HUMAN SIDE OF PARIS AND SOME OF THE CREW. YOU WILL BE PULLING FOR THEM TO SET ASIDE THE PRIME DIRECTIVE.