(I've not got my notes on hand, so this will less detailed than usual.)This book follows the usual 'Voyager finds a rumor that they might get a way home' plot, with Janeway willing to chance destruction of the ship for a quicker way home. That's reasonably consistent with the show, I guess, but since we know there's no real danger to the ship, I don't think it works as well to show how serious Janeway is about getting back home.The idea of a huge battle involving everything that a civilization has to put into it and lasting for a very long time isn't too new, although Ragnarok perhaps goes a bit further toward showing how far they've gotten, stripping every last ounce of metal out of whole planets to build ships for the war.I liked the look at the alien race that spoke in imperatives--it's always fun to see how authors will try to make a really different sort of alien. The ones in the previous book (The Escape) were more or less like extra-bureaucratic humans, so it's nice to see something a little more alien this time.Overall, this was a reasonably fun read, though maybe not quite as good as its predecessor.
Neelix is the smart one, Chakotay and Kim are out of character and apparently the writer has a thing against Tom Paris although in all fairness this is written early in the history of the series when Paris is still a smart mouth irritant. Janeway was annoying in this story. I found myself rolling my eyes at her decisions. The writing itself is not 'bad'. There is too much explanation of the characters and the setting which the reader should be already familiar with but once again its in the early stages of the series. If you are familiar with all things Voyager you will be bored.
What do You think about Ragnarok (1995)?
The alien species were interesting, but a little one-note. The Voyager crew is not exactly normal. The author does a fine job of crafting them interestingly--but there were certain affectations that seemed out of place. There were also a few times when the cohesiveness fell apart (an alien species which only speaks in imperatives and never in questions...except that one time they ask a question) and other small problems which take you out of the story a bit. Overall it was a good read.**Potential Spoiler**The ending was sort of anti-climactic, but I liked that Voyager was not able to converse these people out of their multi-century war.
—Chris Johnson
