Death of a Neutron Star

I couldn't put this book down -- lots of suspense, possible doom if Voyager couldn't use science to solve the problem of a warlike race using the explosion of a neutron star to destroy its enemies. This book was fun from a scientific standpoint, but also, all the familiar folks were there, and their relationships rang true for me (i.e. Janeway and Seven, Janeway and Torres, Janeway and Paris, etc.) I have read several Star Trek books, and this was one of my favorites!

This is by far the best Voyager book. My favorite Star Trek book is Double Helix #2 Vectors, Death of a Neutron Star came close to beating it. I did get a little annoyed with Janeway thinking and talking about coffee so much, but I got used to it. If you want a good Voyager book then read Death of a Neutron Star.

OK, maybe that's a little extreme, but... This book is nothing but poor stereotypes and cliques. The Quavok (bad guys) are particularly annoying, I mean everything in their language starts with Q and that seems very childish. The Q race was understandable because they have a comedy- centered attitude. Janeway is constantly either thinking or talking about coffee. Again, annoying! In fact, the first ten or so chapters ALL contain references to coffee! This book makes Janeway out to be obsessed with coffee. The aliens are stereotypical, the bad guys ugly reptiles, not like in "Seven of Nine" or "The Dragon's Honor" where the reptilian aliens are graceful, but deadly or so, and the good guys are the unusually beautiful humans so common in the TOS trek series. Speaking of Seven, in this book she lacks the depth and complexity her character requires, and comes of sounding like the original Enterprise's monotonous know-it-all computer. And another recycled Voyager plot, the "Oh no, a terrible spatial anomaly threatens Voyager again!" like we don't get enough of this from the TV show. The writing style is boring and childish. If you want a good Voyager story, read "The Black Shore" or "Ragnorok".

I was surprised how intriguing this book was. At first you might think it is boring because of all the scientific data, but the author certainly did enough research to bring to life the awesome threat of a powerful force of nature. This novel is like the Voyager show in the sense that you get a feeling the characters really care about each other, and not only the crew but the guests. I really enjoyed the relationship between Dr. Maalot and Tyla and it drove the story nicely. I couldn't put it down! got throught it in less than 3 days. They even threw in the doctor with his patented, "State the nature of your medical emergency." Somebody replicate Janeway more alien coffee!!

This was a relly good book, except for two things: One, Janeway drank too much coffee, two, all the names in the Qavok species started with "Q" (Qubo, Qborne, Qados etc.). Other than that, it was a really good book. The two personalities that stood out were Tyla's and Seven's. Everyone on Voyager had a clear personality.