Genre: Star Trek
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2003
Reviewer Rating:
Book Review by Heather Hunt
Have you read this book?
Christie Golden has turned herself into the preferred author of Star Trek: Voyager novels. This is a good thing because she has an intimate knowledge of the cast and story lines, and she ably utilizes particular episodic twists and character revelations from the show’s seven-year run to further her new adventures for the crew.
The Farther Shore, Golden’s 10th Voyager novel, is the sequel to Homecoming, which chronicles Voyager’s return to Earth, her crew’s reception after 7 years in the Delta Quadrant, and the scrapes into which they immediately become embroiled. It is an action-packed adventure involving holograms on the loose, kidnapping Starfleet personnel and enslaving humans.
Oh yes, there’s also a Borg virus threatening all living things on Earth with being absorbed into the Borg Collective. The B story is a gut-wrenching emotional reunion between B’Elanna and her mother, Miral. And to top it all off, Next Generation’s Picard and Data make cameo appearances. There’s definitely enough in this book to keep Star Trek overs content until the next one.
I read The Farther Shore without benefit of reading Homecoming, and I would not recommend this method. While I never got lost in the plot, the frequent references to the back story made me wish I had read the first book. It certainly would have made the sequel a richer, more meaningful read.
My biggest criticism is of Pocket Books, not Golden or her excellent novel. Yes, ST fans can never get enough books fast enough, but that doesn’t excuse the shoddy proofreading in this published text. Typos, missed words, homonyms, transpositions, you name it, all these errors appear in this book, for which Pocket charges us $6.99 + tax. If they’re going to demand that many shekels for a 275-page book, then I demand a clean text.
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