S P O I L E R
*
*
*
*
*
Still no "Missing in Action". Therefore I had time to read the last four
stories in this book:
BRIEF CANDLE
I don`t remember most Voyager episodes very well because I rarely felt
the urge to watch them again. This definitely applies to the Borg ones
in the later seasons because they tend to get on my nerves for various
reasons. More than once I was left frustrated after watching another
Voyager Borg story. I don`t think elaborating here is necessary or
desirable.
I remember "Equinox" very well indeed, mainly because I detest the
second part so much, but the background of Marika Willkarah is mainly
gone from my memory. Fortunately the author provides this background so
that I have at least some idea what the story on TV was about.
With an episode like "Nightingale" in season 7, the portrayal of Kim in
this story is of course accurate and although I barely remember Marika
Willkarah, her struggle to make the best of the short time she had left
to live was touching to read. I could understand why they felt attracted
towards each other because opposites can do that sometimes. I am glad
that Kim changed his mind at the end, not that it was really a surprise.
I also thought from very early on that Marika will sacrifice her life.
It is certainly not a bad story but not one of my favourites in this
book either.
EIGHTEEN MINUTES
"Blink of an Eye" is one of my favourite Voyager episodes and when the
Doctor mentioned his son, I immediately got curious. Therefore I
welcomed it that this story is part of this anthology.
I enjoyed reading this story very much. It shows again how much being a
parent added to the Doctor`s personal growth and maturity. Being a
relatively new mother of a three year old, I could very much sympathize
with his feelings. It also showed that as "real" his past holo family
was to him, the real thing is something different.
I liked it a lot that his son had a family of his own and eventually
learned the truth about his father, who wasn`t his biological one but
was it in all ways that are important.
That this experience also challenged his perception of the Prime
Directive more than once was interesting and I very much agreed with his
attitude. Again, as usual, it is a shame that the TV series never made
use of what the Doctor learned and experienced during this time.
OR THE TIGER
This is definitely one of my favourite stories in the book. We didn`t
get the chance on TV, therefore I am glad that this book is dealing with
exploring what happened to the Equinox survivors and their relationship
with the rest of the Voyager crew.
I loved it how this story explored B`Elanna`s strengths and weaknesses,
how her passion and determination is also paired sometimes with
stubbornness and being blind towards what challenges her preconceptions.
I like it when such character based stories lead to a climax that
surprises me. The irony that B`Elanna nearly committed a similar crime
to what Lessing and the rest of the Equinox crew did left a strong
impact on me. The part the Doctor played added to that.
BOTTOMLESS
I didn`t like her writing style in her previous Star Trek stories and
therefore I approached this story with some dread what she will do to
the characters this time. After finishing it, I realized that I didn`t
have to worry but nevertheless, I don`t like it.
First of all, I don`t like the style of starting a story with some
dramatic scene so that you grab the attention of the reader and then
start moving backwards in time, leaving it to the reader to keep track.
I found the whole story extremely confusing and very quickly lost any
motivation to invest the necessary effort to try to understand what is
actually going on. These suddenly moving sea anomalies that have such a
devastating effect were not explained very well at all and I still don`t
know what Marla actually did and how and why she died.
The whole story is a mess of different time levels, littered with
personal flashbacks, various perspectives of different people. And when
Janeway said that she will never, ever betray her code of ethics as a
Starfleet officer, I thought sarcastically, that is definitely in
character for her, thinking of "Equniox". And as in "Equinox" Chakotay
was again incredibly docile and accommodating to her. I was not only
disappointed that this story showed so little depth and courage here, it
was annoying too.
Unfortunately there are too many stories in this book I didn`t like so
that it is definitely my least favourite anthology so far. I am hoping
the TOS one will be more to my liking.
Baerbel Haddrell
FAQ
Search
Profile
Private Messages
Log in
