James Review -- Star Trek: Voyager: Architects of Infinity

This week I decided to review Star Trek: Voyager: Architects of Infinity by Kirsten Beyer. 

The story begins with a team from Voyager, including Seven of Nine, discovering a new element while investigating a mysterious world deep in what was Borg territory. The world is mostly toxic but contain several habitable zones maintained by forcefields. Captain Chakotay is convinced that after recent events the crews of the Full Circle fleet need some rest badly so he convinces Admiral Kathryn Janeway to assign the entire fleet to the world as a combination of a peaceful scientific mission and shore leave.

At first both causes seem to be served well, but Voyager’s science officer, Lieutenant Devi Patel, has felt increasingly supplemented by Seven of Nine since Seven rejoined Voyager’s crew. She has located a region she is convinced is key to discovering the world’s secrets. Her team discovers a hidden complex underwater but soon discover the world is a lab complex built to study something known as the Edrehmaia. 

Unfortunately, the complex reveals that the presence of the Full Circle fleet has somehow compromised the systems maintaining the world, leaving only hours until the systems, including the forcefields which keep the world’s toxic natural conditions out, collapse. And Pavi accidentally orders the outpost they are in to seal itself, leading to a race to find a way to warn their comrades and reach safety.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Nancy Conlon has fallen into a coma. After having to transfer her unborn child to an incubator it is discovered that the baby’s stem cells can no longer be used to treat her mother’s condition. One of the doctors embarks on a desperate new plan. But this plan requires a donation from another crew member. And when the treatments to prepare the donor interact with emergency anti-radiation treatments the donor requires after an accident, an all new problem is unleashed…

I give this book 7 out of 10. I found the overall story and characters interesting and it was nice to have a purely exploration and investigation-focused Star Trek story again. But there were some sections I felt need better explanation and the author has a massive problem with prologues and epilogues in my opinion. This book’s prologue felt more like an end to the previous story then a beginning of a new one. Honestly, I don’t see any connection between it and the events of the rest of the book. And the epilogue seems more like the opening of a new book then an ending to this story.