#how did I ever miss janeway tearing up when talking about seven?

[arachniasbride]

Star Trek Voyager: Infinite Regress S05E07

[icecream-junkie]

Book discussion: Homecoming & The Farther Shore

I’ve recently re-read the Star Trek Voyager novels Homecoming and The Farther Shore by Christie Golden for @voyager-book-club. I had read both originally in 2004 and didn’t remember much of the story other than that it had a lot of J/C scenes.

I’ve been shipping J/C pretty much ever since watching Caretaker when it originally aired on TV in 1996. It was my first ship ever and as such it has always had a special place in my heart. Therefore, it’s probably not much of a surprise that I enjoyed reading Homecoming.

However, I have to say that I generally liked the book mainly, because of all the amazing scenes we get for various characters I’ve come to love watching the show for 7 years. In comparison, the overall story arc was rather disappointing. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve enjoyed Homecoming more than The Farther Shore. The books are technically one story split into two books. The first part gives you all the character interaction and the second one delivers most of the action.

I love Homecoming, because I'm so attached to these characters and I wanted to see what happened to them, but when I read The Farther Shore I was basically just impatiently waiting for them to get through all the action so we could get back to the parts I enjoyed in the previous book and focus on the characters again.

This also explains why I highlighted 12 scenes in Homecoming, but only 6 in The Farther Shore (and that’s with some very liberal tagging towards the end) for further discussion in the book club when re-reading. I just didn’t care very much for the overall story arcs.

(Spoilers for the books below the cut. Continue reading at your own risk.)

It might have been different, if the author hadn’t tried to tell 3 stories at the same time. There’s a Borg plague, a holographic strike and a side story for B’Elanna in which she tries to come to terms with her Klingon heritage.

I love B’Elanna’s story and there are a few lovely scenes between her and Tom because of that storyline. Tom is very supportive and has her back, which I love, and the moment when B’Elanna’s mother dies at the end of The Farther Shore had me tear up.

However, the other two storylines feel a bit rushed, because Golden isn’t delving into them much. Personally, I think it would have been better to concentrate on one of these storylines and go into more detail than trying to tell 2 at the same time.

Anyway, things I loved about the books:

The doctor downloading everything he can find on human and Klingon infants to be able to babysit Miral Paris.

C/7 breaking up on page 44 of Homecoming. Golden really didn’t waste any time there. Now, usually I’m all for ship and let ship, but C/7 was just so badly done on the show that I’m glad to see it end. From day one Chakotay and Janeway had great chemistry, something that Seven and Chakotay were missing. I wouldn’t have minded C/7 as much as I did, if TPTB had written scenes for them that lead up to this relationship, which clearly showed that they developed feelings for each other somewhere along the way. But that’s not what they did. Instead, it all happened very suddenly from one episode to the next and as such wasn’t very believable.

Tom being a supportive husband and a great father. He’s willing to take care of their 3 week old daughter while B’Elanna goes off to search for her mother as part of some Klingon ritual that might very well kill her and in the end he agrees to move to a Klingon planet for her just like that. If that isn’t love then what is? I also like this as a story arc for Tom and not just for the P/T ship, because he’s always been the flirty flyboy on the show and it’s great to see him so committed.

Tom reconnecting with his father. I particularly liked the following scene:

(Source: Golden, C. (2003). Star Trek Voyager Homecoming. New York: Pocket Books. p. 104 & 105.)

All the J/C scenes that show the friendship between them and that there might still be hope for them to become more than friends now that Voyager is back in the Alpha Quadrant.

Kathryn reconnecting with her ex-fiancé Mark and his wife Carla. Mark and Kathryn were friends since childhood and I love that they still get along even though he is now married to another woman. It’s also nice to see Carla being confident enough not to mind that they are still friends and trying to become friends with Janeway as well. I really enjoyed all the girl talk scenes with the two of them. We never got to see Janeway bond with anyone like that on the show for obvious reasons, so it’s nice to see this side of her in the books.

Irene Hansen. She’s so lovely and everyone should have an aunt like her.

Dr Kaz. He’s precious and needs to be protected at all costs.

Janeway (and Voyager’s former bridge crew) being badass and awesome.

Last but least, in light of some people bitching about how awful a captain Discovery’s Gabriel Lorca is, because he’s not the typical hero archetype we usually get to see as Starfleet captains, I also liked to see an Admiral (Montgomery) crossing lines for the ‘greater good’. This clearly shows that there are, and always have been, Starfleet officers that were willing to go further than others, if the circumstances demanded it. Montgomery is considered a hero of the Dominion War, but he’s not the sparkling hero people obviously want a Starfleet captain to be.

 What I didn’t like (aside from what I’ve already discussed above):

Libby! She’s an awful Mary Sue and I really don’t care for her scenes at all. That fact that Harry is back with her at the end of The Farther Shore annoys me. He could do much better.

The idea of creating a Borg Queen. I mean, seriously?

Montgomery obviously being a red herring. It was a little too obvious for my liking.

The death of B’Elanna’s mother Miral. It’s a very emotional scene, and as such it really touched me when I read it, but I would have liked for the two of them to get a chance to reconnect.