By BWilliams / 12:45, 22 November 2004 / Reviews - Books

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Last year Christie Golden brought back the crew of the starship Voyager for the first in a series of all-new post-series adventures that showed what happened after the events of the series' final episode 'Endgame"�. Even after combating a Borg virus and a holographic revolution on Earth, it seemed that the crew of the Voyager were headed in different directions. With the latest storyline in the VOYAGER re-launch, Golden is firmly committed to taking the crew into new directions. OLD WOUNDS is the first of a two-part storyline entitled SPIRIT WALK that focuses on the re-launch of Voyager itself and its new captain, Chakotay.

Six months after the events of HOMECOMING and THE FARTHER SHORE, Chakotay is ready to get underway as the new commanding officer of Voyager. The only familiar face from the old Voyager crew is Harry Kim, who has now been promoted to lieutenant and is now in Tuvok's old position as security chief. Most everyone else on the ship is new. Chakotay's new first officer, Andrew Ellis, is a 30-year-old stuck-up loner with a penchant for snobbish behavior, despite his extremely dedicated work ethic. Chakotay's younger sister Sekaya has come aboard as Voyager's spiritual advisor, and Dr. Jarem Kaz, a joined Trill, has signed on as Voyager's new chief medical officer, replacing the now obsolete Emergency Medical Hologram.

Fate has been as less kind to Voyager's former crewmen. Admiral Janeway and her advisor, Tuvok, have sought out Tom Paris, vacationing with his wife B'Elanna Torres on the Klingon monastery world of Boreth, to consider a new job as a starship first officer. The EMH faces a continual backlash of hatred and racism because of his holographic origins, a ripple effect from the holographic wars in THE FARTHER SHORE. And on Voyager, Harry Kim struggles to maintain a balance between his career and his strained relationship with his girlfriend Libby Webber.

Golden has an excellent grasp of all of the characters' personalities, fleshing each person out as relatable to our own. Among the new characters, the attractive Sekaya is the most interesting in my opinion because of her role as Voyager's spiritual advisor. Her background, falling in line with Chakotay's, presents her as the most appealing of the new characters, and what male wouldn't want to find himself spending time with Sekaya? Andrew Ellis, the ship's new first officer, comes off as priggish and snobbish, maintaining very few, if any, interpersonal relationships and earning him the well-deserved nickname Priggy in the process. Chakotay takes it upon himself to loosen Ellis up and make him a part of the Voyager crew, even indulging the young first officer in a game of Wimbledon-style tennis. And Jarem Kaz undergoes his own spiritual journey, setting things right with Kaz' previous host Gradak.

But excellent character personalities cannot make up for what is obviously the weaker part of OLD WOUNDS, its core story at hand. Golden's pacing of the main story, the Voyager's mission to Loran II to render aid and assistance to its inhabitants, is extremely slow, with almost nothing in the first two-thirds of the book to keep the pace going. Perhaps that is why I had trouble with OLD WOUNDS, there was no major plot from the outset to keep my interest going for the most part. However, in true fashion, the action does not begin to get underway until the book's final chapter, setting up the events to follow in SPIRIT WALK's concluding chapter, ENEMY OF MY ENEMY, coming in December.

For now, SPIRIT WALK: OLD WOUNDS covers the characters' main problems spot on, as each character has his or her old wounds to come to terms with. It's a good character study with very little in the way of plot and action. Let's hope that ENEMY OF MY ENEMY turns things around for the better.

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