SPOILER ALERT!

Star Trek: Voyager: Full Circle by Kirsten Beyer

Star Trek: Voyager: Full Circle - Kirsten Beyer

Full Circle is the first of the Beyer VOY-re-relaunch book, taking the flaundering series up in time to frame the Borg-invasion, the Destiny-events and their repercussions.

 

First of all, there's Janeway who, after finally admitting that she's in love with Chakotay, apparently dies in the TNG novel "Before Dishonor" - leaving Chakotay deeply depressed and questioning everything. He in turn has to seek mandatory counseling over whether or not he's still fit to command Voyager (which he isn't so sure of himself), meeting Counselor Cambridge... who... well, just think "House". Anyway, their sessions definitely are highlights of this book. As is his interaction with Seven who's deeply damaged by her contact with the Caeliar.

 

A second part of this novel deals with B'Elanna and Miral - especially the latter's standing as some kind of messiah amongst a fanatical Klingon group, leading to Miral's kidnapping. All this prompts B'Elanna to build her own ship and essentially fake her and her daughter's deaths in order to escape to the D-quadrant where she hopes to meet up again with Tom when the VOY-fleet gets deployed there. First of all, I don't like Klingon mythology, never have, never will. And then I don't quite see the reason for B'Elanna' move. Granted, moving beyond that group's range must seem a good idea, but what about those hurt by her faking her death? And the way it looks at the end, that B'Elanna will rejoin Voyager... well, won't the Klingons she hopes to escape take notice of her (and especially Miral's) reappearance?

 

The third part is about forming a fleet of ships around Voyager to investigate in the D-quadrant whether the Borg are really gone and whether there's any trace left of the Caeliar. Both Fleet Captain Eden and Admiral Batiste seem to have ulterior motives for returning/going to the D-quadrant, and I'm looking forward to seeing them revealed in further books.

 

Overall, an engaging restart to the Voyager-series. Chakotay is much more alive than he ever was before... maybe due to not being overshadowed by Janeway?