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chimichannika's review against another edition
medium-paced
2.75
This was the second of Cox’s trek novels I’ve read (the first being The Rings of Time, which I quite enjoyed) and while I did enjoy parts of it quite a bit, there were several detractors for me as well.
To start with some of the positives: while Cox’s writing can be a bit sparse at times, skipping over scenes or events that I would’ve wanted to read happen instead of reading an explanation that it had happened off-page, his writing is still on the whole an easily readable style that lets the plot take front and center. I loved whenHarry befriended the one neffaler and made him the flute, that part was so sweet and cute!! and I also enjoyed the moment between Neelix and Tuvok that was very reminiscent of Merry and Pippin. I also really enjoyed the one moment that, due to linguistic drift, seems to heavily imply P/T/K ot3 as well. The suspense and thriller-esque nature of the book was quite well done and as other reviews have mentioned, Cox’s descriptions were detailed and frequent— good setting the scene! The scenes with the Doctor being impervious to the Ryol’s controlling psychic abilities and calmly + sassily taking them down was a delight, along with the “I’m a doctor, not a…” phrase reference.
However, the cons… oh, the cons. I was initially elated to have another Indigenous crewman on Voyager, but this character ends up being the one from the ship (literally the only one!!) who dies in the story, full stop, and a pretty terrible death at that, too, and the only purpose it seems to serve is to make Chakotay and other characters—all except one, men, too— be narrated as upset about it. To have a white male author essentially fridge the one Indigenous woman (and one of his only ‘fleet OCs) was… racist, in bad taste, and even for the 1990s— yucky, and I expected better from him. This plot point isn’t going behind spoiler warnings, because it’s a racist and problematic trope and it needs to be transparent to potential readers that it’s a part of this book.
He also seemed to cling onto that overplayed trope of Tom uncontrollably falling for the ~ sexy mysterious alien woman ~ who, of course, turns out to be evil and using her sexuality to seduce him to her control. sigh. this trope was overplayed onscreen and it’s tiring seeing it pop up in the novels too— again, in bad taste even for the ‘90s. This trope is unoriginal and tired and it needs to stop being used.
There were a few random comments throughout the book that came off as sexist and others that were vaguely uncomfortable as well— such as describing aliens as “exotic” and sexualizing the women nearing the point of objectification— and the fact thatthe book later reveals that, surprise, they were intentionally *appearing* sexy to further their evil agenda isn’t redeeming that either.
That said— it took me a good long while to identify thevampire/werewolf combo type that was being used for these aliens, the neffaler were an immediately engaging and compelling concept, the scenes of Kes and Tuvok working together on their respective psychic abilities while acknowledging their differences was really good, and seeing B’elanna kicking ass was fantastic, as was seeing Janeway being both brains and brawn in a pinch, which I love about her. Those parts of the book were quite enjoyable, but the detractors keep me from rating it any higher than I did because, ultimately, those things are so far from what the entire idea of an idealized future of Star Trek is about— IDIC and equity— and made it much harder to appreciate the parts of the book that are good.
On the whole, a fun read at times and a problematic one as well. Lots of mixed feelings for this one.
To start with some of the positives: while Cox’s writing can be a bit sparse at times, skipping over scenes or events that I would’ve wanted to read happen instead of reading an explanation that it had happened off-page, his writing is still on the whole an easily readable style that lets the plot take front and center. I loved when
However, the cons… oh, the cons. I was initially elated to have another Indigenous crewman on Voyager, but this character ends up being the one from the ship (literally the only one!!) who dies in the story, full stop, and a pretty terrible death at that, too, and the only purpose it seems to serve is to make Chakotay and other characters—all except one, men, too— be narrated as upset about it. To have a white male author essentially fridge the one Indigenous woman (and one of his only ‘fleet OCs) was… racist, in bad taste, and even for the 1990s— yucky, and I expected better from him. This plot point isn’t going behind spoiler warnings, because it’s a racist and problematic trope and it needs to be transparent to potential readers that it’s a part of this book.
He also seemed to cling onto that overplayed trope of Tom uncontrollably falling for the ~ sexy mysterious alien woman ~ who, of course, turns out to be evil and using her sexuality to seduce him to her control. sigh. this trope was overplayed onscreen and it’s tiring seeing it pop up in the novels too— again, in bad taste even for the ‘90s. This trope is unoriginal and tired and it needs to stop being used.
There were a few random comments throughout the book that came off as sexist and others that were vaguely uncomfortable as well— such as describing aliens as “exotic” and sexualizing the women nearing the point of objectification— and the fact that
That said— it took me a good long while to identify the
On the whole, a fun read at times and a problematic one as well. Lots of mixed feelings for this one.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Genocide
Minor: Medical content
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