9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
WOW., March 16, 2000
Yes, I love Janeway. But that tends to make me more critical than blindly accepting when it comes to VOY novels, because I don't hesitate to pick them apart and I hate it when I find inconsistencies in her character. Well, this novel was absolutely magnificent. It includes so many important events in her life, from the time she is four years old till she is standing before a Starfleet review board after her first mission as a captain (and meets Tuvok). (One thing: didn't Tom's accident happen *after* the Academy, not while he was a cadet? Oh well, never mind.) The "present" storyline is definitely inferior to the "past," and I almost wish the "present" could have been completely deleted. True, the book would read like a patchwork quilt--but any loyal Trekker would be more than willing to overlook that. (To be honest, it sorta reads like patchwork anyway, but I really don't mind a bit.) If you've ever wondered how Janeway became the woman she is "now", read this book. Anybody who complains that "Janeway just gets these obsessions with saving *everybody*" and "Why would she feel guilty?"--you have obviously not read Mosaic. When I finished this novel, I was left with a singular feeling of "Wow." Nobody can read this and hate Kathryn Janeway.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
STV Mosaic - The "tapestry" of Captain Janeway's life!, December 14, 2003
This books author, Jeri Taylor, started as a writer on Star Trek The Next Generation in the middle of its run and soon became one of the shows most prominent writers. Near the end of that series, she, along with Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, became the creators, lead writers and executive producers of Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek's newest series.
While Voyager was received and perceived quite differently by many Star Trek fans, in my opinion, the series was a very good one despite it not living fully to its potential. The character of Captain Kathryn Janeway is a strong and multi faceted one played to perfection by Kate Mulgrew. The person most directly responsible for Captain Janeway's back story and overall development is Jeri Taylor, the author of this extraordinary novel.
"Mosaic" is more than just a novel in the series, it provides what Jeri Taylor described as Janeway's back story and it essentially adds up as the "tapestry" of her life and all of the decisions that brought her to where she was at the time this novel was published.
For several years, "Mosaic" and Jeri Taylor's sole other Star Trek Voyager novel, "Pathways" were considered to be the only Star Trek novels to be canon by a majority of the fandom. It has only been recently that that opinion has changed, for whatever reasons I'm not sure.
Jeri Taylor's writing style is perfect for this novel; the premise, plot setup and execution, characterizations and overall pacing of this novel makes for an excellent read in the Star Trek Voyager series. The cover art for "Mosaic" is perfect for the title!
The premise:
"Mosaic" tells the tale of Captain Kathryn Janeway's back story through the current events in her life in which she finds herself in a quagmire where she could lose an away team and one of her best friends or lose the entire ship. Faced with such a dire dilemma, Captain Janeway looks through the events of her life to find the solution to her current problem...
What follows from there, as stated above, is one of the most outstanding novels in all of the Star Trek series and most certainly one of the very few, if any, novels that "could" be considered canon in the Star Trek universe considering if you've read this book and watched the entire series you will see that Jeri Taylor did squeeze some of this into the shows.
I highly recommend this novel to any and all fans of Star Trek Voyager and Star Trek in general for you will most certainly find that you'll have an even better appreciation for the character of Captain Kathryn Janeway after you've read it. {ssintrepid}
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I. Loved. It., September 4, 1998
Just gotta gush! Jeri Taylor is my absolute favorite, and I know her writing style will be missed on the new season of Voyager. I hope she continues to pen the novels, because her stories are magnificent. We are given a clear view of Janeway in this book. The story may make a few leaps, but the path is still direct from child to captain - to television, in fact, because some of the "facts" in the book have been related on screen. I shall re-read often.
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