This week Pocket Books releases its second Star Trek Voyager of the year, following on Kirsten Beyer’s excellent "Full Circle" released in March. And so the Library Computer journeys again to the Delta Quadrant with a review of Beyer’s new “Star Trek Voyager: Unworthy” to see if she can do it again.
Star Trek: Voyager – Unworthy
Pocket Books Mass-market Paperback
Written by Kirsten Beyer
[SPOILERS for this and other recent books]
Back in March we took a look at “Full Circle”, the first Voyager novel set in the post-"Destiny" timeline. In that book, Kirsten Beyer brought fans through several years of major developments to set the stage for a return to the Delta Quadrant, this time with a fleet of Federation vessels, on a mission with so many facets that it would make a gemologist smile. The setup from “Full Circle” pays off in spades as Voyager and her companions engage their slipstream drives in “Unworthy”.
Beyer’s book is, perhaps, best summarized from a character perspective as a series of bittersweet ‘homecomings’. Voyager’s return to what was once her place of seemingly-eternal exile serves as an outstanding analogy for the evolving stories of Seven, Chakotay, and Batiste. As their futures play out, so too does the future of the Indign, a race discovered in the Delta Quadrant in proximity to the Borg’s old stomping grounds. Of course, they aren’t aware that the Borg are no more, which presents some interesting quandaries for the Prime Directive minded Captain Afsarah.
Admittedly, after the detailed and engrossing writing of “Full Circle”, “Unworthy” jumps out of the gate a bit off, needing a few chapters to get back on pace. Several early moments of the story, particularly those revolving around Seven seem to be handled too quickly and tidily, especially given the depth that Beyer brought to her last tale on a page-by-page basis. By the time the narrative transitions permanently to the Voyager side of things, however, the problem is solved, and the bulk of the story grows and develops with the same strength and skill that March’s release brought to bear. The problem reasserts itself in the wake of the conclusion of the tale, almost giving the feel that the bulk of the novel was written independently of the first and last chapters. The differences aren’t completely jarring, but an extra fifty pages or so on either side the book’s meat would have been helpful.
“Unworthy” is not a status quo story. Things are changing… constantly. One needs to keep an open eye to little details throughout the book; they come back to enhance the reading experience later on – unusually and delightfully so. The conclusion was also unexpected, and while I personally haven’t come to decide how I feel about it, I suspect many Voyager fans will be very pleasantly excited.
While it isn’t quite the powerhouse that “Full Circle” was, “Unworthy” is definitely worthy of a spot in your reading queue this fall as the journey of the starship Voyager begins anew.
I, for one, can’t wait for the next installment.
The official release date for "Unworthy" is September 29th, but is available at some stores already and was is now in stock at Amazon.
"Voyager: Unworthy"
(shipping now)
UP NEXT: Romulan War
In October Pocket Books releases the trade paperback for "Romulan War: Beneath The Raptor’s Wing" by Michael A. Martin. Look for an early review for that and read an excerpt here.
"Romulan War: Beneath The Raptor’s Wing"
available for pre-order at Amazon
I’m looking forward to Romulan War. Always glad to meet Captain Archer and the brave crew of Enterprise again.
I know I´m off topic, but I miss the Excelsior bridge (ST: VI / Voyager / ST: Borg) in the Poll (there is only “other” possibillity…
The Enterprise book has a nice cover.
Loved Full Circle and very much looking forward to Unworthy.
Yes, that sums up Voyager pretty well.
What’s the page count?
#5 – Assuming no changes from my review copy and the final printed version, 370 pages.
Thanks for a great review Father!
I enjoyed Full Circle and have been anxiously awaiting the followup.
I’m pleased to hear there is a surprise at the end. Is the story open ended or is this chapter of Voyager complete by the end of the book?
7 – There are elements of both. The core story of this book is generally closed, but there are enough threads woven through the story (some from Full Circle, some originating herein) that will continue through that it definitely closes out with the ‘more to come’ card being held sky high.
Yes, Voyager was definitely unworthy. LOL
I really enjoyed “Full Circle” (and I hadn’t expected to, as I personally find Voyager to be the weakest ST show), and look very forward to reading this one. Nice review that was light on spoilers.
I don’t like the cover of “The Romulan War” but look extremely forward to reading it, having been impressed by the last couple of books.
Sounds like a great book, can’t wait to read it
Wonder what the surprise at the end is…
I actually thought the title to the page was
some authentic opinion about the show —
Personally, I liked the “idea” of Voyager,
just not the application (same with Enterprise),
although both shows had their fair share
of really excellent episodes, certainly
worthy to be called TREK. The books are
a good extensions of those stories, the
conclusions of them, at it were.
What are the odds that one of the fan film companies would make a movie of Star Trek Enterprise: Romulan Wars. I’d put the odds around the same as the Broncos wining their first three football games after they lost their coach and franchise Quarterback. But one miricale has happened so far, can a second one happen.
But I’d place the odds of a fan film being up there with the Bronco’s going to the 2010 Super Bowl. But there is many fans that would love it. Maybe if all the fans would donate the price of one movie ticket into a slush fund miricles could happen.
The next thing is to get many of the real NX-01 crew to fill the parts.
But then again I could be hoping T’Pol would be in my Christmas stocking hanging over the fire place, thats if open fires are still legal by then.
I am psyched for this book. I got ‘Full Circle’ and I didn’t know what to think when I bought it, was I ever surprised. It was one of the best Star Trek novels I have read right behind ST:TNG ‘Immortal Coil’. I’ve read it 3 times and I look forward to reading it again. The only thing that I regret is not ready the ‘Destiny’ series before ‘Full Circle’ and it would fill in some gaps. I can’t wait till the 29th!!!!!
Neal, I was not going to type this because Nat Geo just started a show on the end of the ice age, so I raced out to watch it. As the shows title played I realized it’s on a DVR and I can let the tech let me view it when I want. This happened just as the narrator was talking about how humanity’s evolution of tech toys made our survival so much easier.
What I wanted to say was does not book note and bibliography’s help point to additional knowledge to help readers understand what the story you are reading came from. But in most cases of schooling this is not an education factor. Much like how little if any real history is a topic today. And lack of this knowledge makes it easier to brain wash the public
on things that the bureaucracy was never meant to be doing.
#6 370?
Sounds kinda short!
Thank You!
Nice cover art
Is there going to be a book after unworthy? The first two have been better than most of the other books that bear the Star Trek name.
I hope all the hard core `Trekkies` hated voyager , both tv and book. Because i am not anyway near hard core and Voyager is the only star trek that i loved. Keep me and the weirdos as far apart as possible, cant wait for the books.
i thought unworthy was great, it answered a lot of questions i had about some of the characters. I still really hope kirsten beyer will right another book and that there is the possibility, even if its a remote one, then i beg her to pleassssse bring back Admiral Kathryn Janeway. the books just aren’t the same wiithout her and none of the other ships have had their leader killed. her body was never found they said so its possible she isn’t dead after all. Please kirsten if you are reading this bring her back.
p.s. I am now and always have been a dedicated Voyager follower and the re-launch books have done the crew justice.