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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An outstanding story with Janeway on her own as a deck swab, December 22, 2000
As our story opens Voyager is in an Iscoynian spacedock when the Menace arrive and destroy everything. Trapped aboard a badly damaged shuttle during the brief battle, Captain Janeway can only watch in horror as her ship is apparently destroyed. Suffering from severe burns she escapes the carnage in a space pod that flees the sector, eventually being rescued by the Warranter Zingara and its Commanding Shipmate Quen. Her saviors are not sure what to make of her, since no sane woman would want to be on a space vessel and especially since this alien with the very long name that they shorten to "Kay" insists that the Menace are coming to conquer their home world. Things look equally strange from Janeway's perspective: these people have technology completely different from anything she has ever seen before and run their ships in a disorganized, inefficient manner that baffles her. In short, they run their ships as a democracy while obeying the dictates of a dictatorial "temporary" government on the planet. But the most important thing is that her new shipmates neither trust or belief this strange alien woman. Fortunately she has her hatred of the Menace to keep her going until she is proven right about everything she has told her new shipmates. It only took a couple of chapters to recognize that "The Fire Ship" was the best of the first four books in the Captain's Table series. Half way through it became clear this is one of the best Star Trek novels I have ever read. Unlike a few of the other novels in the series that keep disengaging from their narrative to work in the reactions of the audience in that special bar that transcends space and time (and the gecko), Diane Carey goes in the other direction, with only a couple of comments indicating Janeway recognizes she has a physical audience outside of the framing device at the beginning and end of the novel (apparently there were comments and interruptions, but Carey conveniently omitted them all). The two things that define this series are that the stories are told First Person and that they reflect upon being a captain of a starship. In this latter regard "The Fire Ship" is the best of the bunch, reducing Janeway to this new culture's version of a deck swab (imagine cleaning a house made of bathroom tiles with a toothbrush for days on end). Janeway is very aware of how much her life has changed and Carey does an excellent job of charting the adjustments "Kay" makes to be accepted, as well as her planning for the imminent arrival of the Menace. However, there is one slight additional twist to the tale, because Janeway does not know everything she needs to know about the people she has dismissed with that perjorative label. This is a story about Kathryn Janeway, exploring her not only as a captain but as a person in a way few stories have done, whether on the television series or in a novel. If you burn her hair and clothing off, wrap her in foil, drop her on a ship, injured, alien, and raving, would she still be able to cope? After all, there is a good chance she will be spending the rest of her life on this new ship above a strange new world, which means she needs to be accepted even if she is not believed. However, doing so requires taking the Pledge, a new oath to her new captain and her new shipmates that would replace the vow she took when she joined Starfleet. The problem is that Kathryn Janeway does not take or break vows lightly. If she takes the Pledge, there would be no going back to her old life if she were to find Voyager had survived the attack. "The Fire Ship" takes both its characters and its story quite seriously. I am working my way through this set of six novels in order and so far this is far and away the best of the lot. Even if you do not read the entire series or do not especially care for Voyager, I have to think you will really enjoy this book if you are a Star Trek fan. Final note: Do not hold your breath waiting for the meaning of the title to become clear, because that comes near the end and its not worthy of being the title of this good of a story.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Funny how some things work out in life, isn't it?, November 29, 2001
What I mean is, I read the beginning of Rudyard Kipling's book Captains_Courageous, the story upon which this installment of the Captains' Table series is based, when I was in 3rd or 4th grade, and I hated it. But I like this book. Go figure, huh? While this book is not, in my opinion, the best of the Captains' Table series, it is quite a good story in its own right. Captain Janeway's attempts to fit herself into an alien culture and crew with a quasi-Victorian view of women are interesting, and her growth into compassion for a woman of the mysterious "Menace" race is touchingly realistic, as she struggles to overcome the hatred for them which is almost all that has kept her going since the destruction of the USS Voyager, which she has witnessed. Plus, there's a special twist to the ending, but I won't tell you what it is, except to say this: the story does not end exactly the way one might expect it to. Buy it, especially if you like "coming-of-age"-type stories.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wow., February 17, 2003
I am very loathe to give any Star Trek book more than three stars. Star Trek books are almost by definition entertainment light, and mere entertainment should not, generally, receive more than three stars. But then along came Diane Carey and Fire Ship, and try as I might I cannot bring myself to give it only three stars.Like Sulu, Picard, and Sisko before her (Kirk had been there before), Janeway stumbles into the incredibly dopey "Captain's Table", a bar exclusively for captains of ships from all times and places. Like her predecessors, Janeway must tell a story. But there the comparisons with previous Captain's Table debacles ends. Carey boldly ignores the Captain's Table conventions and lets Janeway tell her story without the constant interruptions that plagued the previous books. And what a story it is. Janeway finds herself alone with an alien crew, forced to adapt to no longer being in charge and literally swabbing decks. Carey has found her stride as an author (see the atrocious TNG novel Ghost Ship for an earlier effort), weaving a narrative that is compelling, interesting, and evocative. There are, inevitably, some bits that do not entirely "work," but this was the first Trek novel in a long, long time that I a) didn't want to put down and b) looked forward to picking up again. It is also the first Trek book in recent memory that I actually *want* to read again. An observation about the negative reviews. I have never been a big Voyager fan. I am familiar with the characters, of course, but, except for the Doctor, am not attached to any of them. So, the lack of other Voyager crew did not bother me in the slightest. Similarly, I am by no means a Janeway afficionado. Is "Fire Ship"'s Janeway a realistic portrayal of the original? I have no idea; it was to my inexpert eye. However, "Fire Ship" is so enjoyable that the Star Trek aspects of it are really beside the point. Read "Fire Ship" and enjoy it for the wonderful tale it is.
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by Dave Galanter
