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Endgame

Rating:
Series: Voyager
Author: Diane Carey
Published: July, 2001
Review by: Cmdr. Amanda Sielu Paris

If you've seen the last episode of Voyager, then you no doubt know what this book is about. It's supposed to be the exact novelization of the episode "Endgame". I have never seen the episode and have to wait until my video club sends me all the Voyager episodes, but I can tell you how much I enjoyed the book. It was actually fast reading for me as I finished in a day when I wasn't feeling the best. Who better to take away the uncomfortable feeling of being sick than a great ending to the story of great friends that you met seven years ago in a well-written book from a great television episode?

This book opens with Admiral Kathryn Janeway stuck in the memory of bringing home her crew twenty six years from the Voyager we're use to. Harry Kim is a captain, Miral Paris is an ensign in Starfleet, and the doctor is a successful expert in his field. But the truth remains that the Voyager survivors aren't happy. Chakotay died from a broken heart after all those years of being without his wife Seven Of Nine, Tuvok is beyond help in his mental deterioration, and the Voyager family is falling apart as they go through the motions. Despite the numerous medals and awards the Admiral has won, she's willing to risk it all for her crew's happiness. She sends Ensign Miral Paris, the daughter of Tom and B'Elanna Paris, on a special mission that even eludes her parents.

With help from Captain Harry Kim, Admiral Janeway escapes a dishonorable Klingon from killing her and travels back in time to the Voyager that we know today. Seven of Nine and Chakotay are just starting their romance, Tuvok is just starting to show the signs of his disease, B'Elanna is still pregnant with Miral, and Harry Kim is still the boyish ensign with hopes they'll get home. They pass a nebula with over forty-seven Borg cubes and continue on their way, playing it safe. Admiral Janeway shows up and convinces them that they must go into that nebula to make it home instead of it taking twenty-six years to get home compared to the seven they are facing now if they used the nebula. Despite Captain Janeway's objections about the timeline, she agrees to have Admiral Janeway's new technology installed on Voyager.

Upon entering the nebula, they find that its' actually a transwarp hub for the Borg. Captain Janeway has them reverse course and goes to her crew with the idea that they can shut down the Borg. Admiral Janeway watches her plan of getting her crew home earlier starting to fail all thanks to her younger self. Admiral Janeway goes behind Captain Janeway's back and takes a proposal to the Borg Queen while all of the Voyager crew are risking their lives to put a spear in the Borg's side. Is there a way for them to succeed and get home, or are they doomed to wait like Admiral Janeway was for their return home?

Having never seen the episode and trying to get cheats from everyone I knew that had watched it, I was so excited to find the book in a bookstore. I grabbed it and there was no way I was letting it go. Diane Carey is never really let me down as an author and she out-did herself this time. There was the humor that only die-hard Star Trek fans would get, the advancing of the characters we enjoyed for the last seven years, and a solid story that combined everything the franchise had to offer. My only regret is that the book didn't come with little pictures from the episode!