While being a Star Trek fan for many years, I was never that big of a fan of Voyager. While I liked the characters somewhat, many of the stories just fell flat. Then the re-launch came, with stories that would take place after the ship made it home, and those turned out to be abysmal. Would I ever try a Voyager book again? Thankfully, it's still possible to write a book (or series of books) taking place during the series, and make them good. String Theory: Cohesion is one of those books. Part one of three, Jeffrey Lang has captured everything I liked about the television series while ignoring (or sometimes even explaining) what I didn't like about it. While a bit too "hard science" for my taste, Lang never loses himself in technobabble, something I really appreciate.

Taking place between the fourth and fifth seasons, the Voyager crew has just been disappointed by the fake promise of the U.S.S. Dauntless, a ship that was supposedly from the Federation in order to get them home sooner, but was instead a ruse. Now, continuing their journey, they stumble on a species that shouldn't exist in an area of space that also shouldn't exist. They almost crash into a Monorhan ship, a refugee from a world that is getting closer and closer to oblivion. Voyager technology and expertise may delay or prevent extinction, so Captain Janeway sends Chief Engineer B'elanna Torres and ex-Borg Seven of Nine to the planet to help. But a strange energy wave catapults Voyager into a place beyond the fabric of space time, where radiation extreme oddities in both mental and physical behaviour. Meanwhile, Seven and Torres continue sniping at each other as they try to figure out what happened to Voyager, and what they can do to help before Monorhan authorities can capture them.

I'll get the minor problems out of the way first, as they won't take up much time. First, the editing job is a little rushed. Before (and shortly after) the disaster that takes place at the beginning of the book, each chapter is headed with "disaster minus 6 hours" and the like. However, these don't always match up with the pacing of the book. Janeway makes a comment about it being less than five hours since Harry Kim had mentioned the strange sensor readings, but that doesn't match the chapter heading when that actually happened. A minor annoyance, really, and something that is easily ignored.

Secondly, while Neelix is certainly in character, and I can see every thought that Lang gave to him coming from the television character himself, I found that it made him even more annoying than he was on the show. So kudos to Lang for capturing him so perfectly, but I feel even more like he should be shoved out an airlock now. I just found his thinking about his own importance to the crew, as Morale Officer more than as a chef, getting on my nerves. I guess that's a compliment to the author, though it did make me wish Lang hadn't used him.

Everything else in Cohesion is great, though. Lang has done what every media tie-in needs to do: captured the characters perfectly while putting his own stamp on them. I found Torres' hostility toward Seven completely believable, and Seven's annoyance with Torres' extreme emotionalism was perfect as well. The two of them don't get along well at all, and it's only their professionalism and concern for the fate of Voyager that holds them together. It was especially illuminating when they could see inside each other's mind, and we Seven sees first hand how B'elanna really feels. I especially liked Torres' resistance to stopping their voyage home to help out every downtrodden species they come across. Everybody else on Voyager is captured perfectly too, with the book having that fourth/fifth season feel to it.

Especially effective was a little narrative touch of Lang's. Chakotay and Kathryn Janeway have an interesting relationship, kind of an almost romantic but definitely friends one. Whenever Lang tells a scene from Chakotay's point of view and Janeway does something, he says "Kathryn sat on the chair" rather than "Janeway sat on the chair," which is the way Lang says it from anybody else's point of view. This was a really nice way of capturing that relationship without completely calling attention to it. Not only that, of course, but Chakotay's actions and thoughts throughout the novel ring true to this as well. He seems to be walking that line between friend (and prospective lover?) and first officer, gently chiding her when he thinks she needs to go rest.

Some people have criticized the "super-Janeway" that's in the book, who is able to pretty much do anything. I don't think I agree with that. While she does have her hands in a lot of the little problems going on in the book, this is no different than her portrayal in the series, and actually a bit toned down from that. She dips into some of the engineering problems (which has already been established as one of her specialties), but for the most part she lets her assistant engineers do their jobs without interference. One thing I definitely liked about her (and the rest of the crew's) portrayal is that, when a major accident happens, wiping out a large group of people, they grieve but they don't wallow in that grief, unlike A Time to Sow. They get on with things. They don't blame themselves, which I was expecting.

String Theory: Cohesion is an excellent book, both for the Voyager fan who thinks the re-launch is horrible, as well as for those who are a little nostalgic for the series itself. Even a non-fan may get some enjoyment out of it. An excellent start to the series.

Other Voyager books

The Voyager Re-launch
Homecoming
The Farther Shore
Spirit Walk: Old Wounds
Spirit Walk: Enemy of my Enemy

Other Voyager books:
String Theory I: Cohesion
String Theory II: Fusion
String Theory III: Evolution
Distant Shores

Recommended: Yes