Star Trek Voyager: Homecoming by Christie Golden

Over the past month or so, I ended up marathoning all seven seasons of Star Trek Voyager (that's 172 episodes, if you're wondering). And when I got to the end my prevailing thought was, "But what happens next?!". A bit of googling lead me to Star Trek Voyager: Homecoming by Christie Golden, a media tie-in novel that directly follows on from that series finale. So I bought it, and I inhaled it. And the only reason I'm not currently inhaling the sequel — for it is part of a duology, not a standalone — is because I'm writing this review. This review (and the blurb below) contains spoilers for the Star Trek Voyager series, including the finale.

After seven long years in the Delta Quadrant, the crew of the Starship Voyager now confront the strangest world of all: home. For Admiral Kathryn Janeway and her stalwart officers, Voyager's miraculous return brings new honors and responsibilities, reunions with long-lost loved ones, and for some, such as the Doctor and Seven of Nine, the challenge of forging new lives in a Federation that seems to hold little place for them. But even as Janeway and the others go their separate ways, pursuing new adventures and opportunities, a mysterious cybernetic plague strikes Earth, transforming innocent men, women, and children into an entirely new generation of Borg. Now the entire planet faces assimilation, and Voyager may be to blame!

The story picks up right where the series left off and follows many of the ensemble cast as they are welcomed back to Earth/the Federation. Things, of course, do not quite go as planned. As well as the expected difficulties of reintegrating back into normal society, some unexpected obstacles/disasters crop up.

My main small complaint is that with so many characters, we don't get to spend very much time with each of them. We get the important parts of the picture, but it was a little frustrating that there were so many to cycle through. On the other hand, a new (sort of) character is introduced with good effect: Harry Kim's girlfriend, who we met briefly in an alternate-timeline episode. Turns out, when Harry disappeared for seven years she, among other things, became a spy. She ends up being the character that has the most pieces of the puzzle, letting the reader in on some useful information.

The most pertinent thing to repeat is that this is not a stand-alone novel. The ending is more what you'd expect from the first episode in a two-episode arc of a TV show and offers no resolutions whatsoever. There is only cliffhanger doom.

I enjoyed Homecoming and I will definitely be reading the sequel. I recommend it to fans of Star Trek Voyager who want to know what happens next to the character of that show. Or who are having difficulty letting go of it, like I am.

4 / 5 stars

First published: 2003, Pocket Books
Series: book 1 of 2 in a self-contained duology, but one of many Voyager novels. Chronologically, takes place immediately after the series ends.
Format read: ePub
Source: Purchased on Google Play