When the sensors of the U.S.S. Voyager detect abundant plant life on an unexplored planet, Captain Janeway leads an Away Team in search of fresh food supplies. They find lavish gardens inhabited by an enigmatic alien race that holds the gardens sacred. The fragrent blossoms are beautiful, enticing -- and far more dangerous than they appear. One by one, the Away Team begins to fall into deep comas from which they cannot be revived.

Unwilling to spread the affliction to Voyager, the Away Team is trapped on the planet until a cure can be found, but their investigation is perceived as desecration by the devout worshippers of the gardens. Pursued by a fanactical mob, slowly succumbing to the insidious effect of the blossoms, Janeway faces either a violent death -- or an endless sleep.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 9 reviews)

Falters just after the first few pages

First off, I am a big fan of most things voyager. In fact, there are few things of ST: Voyager I don't like. This book falls into that latter category. The plot starts out promising, but ends up dragging out several aspects of the plot, including the 'one voice', which isn't really described in the book. Also, the author must love earthquakes, as it seems the planet the crew finds themselves on loves to try to shake itself to death, but the crew doesn't seem to care. Character development is almost null, and the entire crew seems a little, hmm, 'off' when it comes to making decisions. Janeway makes decisions that are not the kind she would make, Tuvok starts to show a little emotion, and Tom Paris is not nearly the wise crack he should be. In fact, Tom Paris seems very mellow in this book. Oh well, not all books can be superb.
July 31, 2008

I skipped the middle chapters

I don't read much fiction but recently I've been nostalgic about the Voyager TV series and decided to try out a few of the novels.

This book starts out well enough, with an Away Team exploring some ruins on an unknown planet. One of the crew members falls into a weird sleep/trance and cannot be awakened. I think this is where the author made his mistake -- he has this mysterious affliction strike a "disposable extra," a member of the crew I've never heard of before, rather than someone the reader could actually care about.

By the time you're a third of the way into the book, it's obvious that the aliens have some sort of life cycle in which they sleep within large tall structures for centuries, and then some sort of "awakening" happens. The only question is, are those structures rocket ships, or butterfly-like chrysalids, or what?

Somehow the way the characters interact and the forced-seeming nature of the conflicts and "adventures" in the middle of the novel did not hold my interest. I skipped ahead to the final third of the novel.

Not a riveting novel, and not a satisfying re-creation of the Voyager experience, in my opinion.

March 26, 2008

STV #12 Chrysalis - Rather unimpressive!

"Chrysalis" is author, David Niall Wilson's one and only venture into the Star Trek universe. The premise of this story is a fairly good one albeit another diatribe of "we're lost in the Delta Quadrant and we need supplies," which was well over done in the episodes and done way too many times in the Star Trek fiction line. I found the author's writing to be extremely descriptive however, the pacing and the overall execution of the premise leaves the story somewhat flat and unentertaining.

The cover art for this novel is fairly bland which is something that the Voyager series of books was normally not afflicted with but in this case it is.

The Premise:

In this particular "search" for supplies; the crew of Voyager detects a planet in which they may be able to replenish their supplies however, not long after arriving they find lavish gardens and the drama kicks in when a particular flower in the garden starts causing crew members to fall into comas. Captain Janeway, unwilling to have this afflict the crew on board Voyager must find a way to help her away team while at the same time dealing with the enigmatic inhabitants of the planet...

What follows from there is, as stated above, a story that in its premise is a fairly good one but in the execution of that premise it falls flat despite the exceptional narrative in setting up the "atmosphere" of the novel.

I would recommend this particular Star Trek Voyager novel to fans of the series or Star Trek in general that like to read all that's in print but I would certainly not recommend it to a first time Star Trek reader as it would ultimately leave such a reader questioning the overall quality of Star Trek fiction as a whole. {ssintrepid}
May 03, 2004

Just couldn't finish it.

It's extrememly rare that I don't finish a book, especially a Voyager novel. But I just couldn't do it.

While this book had beautiful imagery and solid story developments, it had no heart. There was little to no characterization. The whole thing seemed hollow to me.
March 12, 2002

This book is perfect for any Star Trek fan!!!

This book is about the Star ship Voyager badly in need of supplies. Their sensors trace an abundance of plant life on an uninhabited planet. Captain Janeway leads an away team to the planet to replenish their supplies when they meet the non-detected inhabitors of the planet, the Urrythans. Urrytha has a mysterious, but beautiful flower. The flowers have very fragrant blossoms, but what the Voyager team doesn't know is that these plants are more dangerous than they appear. These flowers are causing the Voyager team to fall into comas, one by one. Captain Janeway runs into problems after Ensign Kayla fell into to this so called LONG SLEEP. The Urrythans are amazed that the Ambiana (the flower) had such quick effect on Ensign Kayla. The Urrythans stated that it is impossible for Kayla to escape this LONG SLEEP. But as usual, Captain Janeway had her mind set, she will find a cure. She will get her away team of the planet safely. Will Captain Janeway find the cure? Will the encounter with the Urrythans be peaceful? If you want to know more you REALLY have to read this book. I recommend it to any TREKKIE!!
May 24, 1999

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

The Garden (Star Trek Voyager, No 11)
by Melissa Scott

The Black Shore (Star Trek Voyager, No 13)
by Greg Cox

Marooned (Star Trek Voyager, No 14)
by Christie Golden

Death of a Neutron Star (Star Trek Voyager, No 17)
by Eric Kotani

Cybersong (Star Trek Voyager, No 8)
by S.N. Lewitt