Pathways

By: Jeri Taylor

Narrated by: Robert Picardo

In her acclaimed novel Mosaic, Jeri Taylor explored the previously unrevealed past of Captain Kathryn Janeway. Now, Pathways traces the winding roads that have led Janeway's fellow officers and closest friends to what may be the greatest crisis of their long journey home.

A deadly encounter with hostile aliens has left Captain Janeway's crew separated from the Starship Voyager™ and slowly starving to death in a disease-ridden alien prison camp. To keep up their determinations as they plot their escape, the crew shares with each other the unlikely paths that brought them all to the USS Voyager and the Delta Quadrant.

They began as individuals, following very different pathways, but together, under the leadership of one remarkable woman, they have become one of the finest teams in the known universe—the crew of the USS Voyager.© and (P)1998 Paramount Pictures, All Rights Reserved; AUDIOWORKS Is an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc.

Character backgrounds are great!

I love getting backstory for characters even if they are not "canonical". However Jeri Taylor contradicts the story of the show from time to time and she simply cannot get the idea of a Janeway/Chakotay romance out of her mind. Every book she has written throws them together and the "canonical" storyline doesn't. Give it up Jeri!

Interesting story

I liked this book because it gave background information on a couple of characters that the tv show never went into. It helped explain why the characters acted the way they did on the show. Read this book if you want to understand the characters more.

Awesome

Robert Picardo's time spent as part of the cast of Voyager serves him well as narrator to this must-listen short book that provides all the back stories for the main cast. Every story really adds to the character and when watching the show NOW, I found s whole new dynamic to the characters.

The story of Kes and Neelix is particularly good and it actually changed my feelings towards the two, prior being that I didn't care too much for either of them.

This story should have been a good two parter in the actual series. Too bad it wasn't as I feel it's actually a necessary listen for any fan of ST: VOY.

Definitely worth a purchase. I've tried other ST books and I didn't quite enjoy them. This one however I've already listened twice, both times in one sitting.

DON'T MISS OUT.

Interesting back stories given by the key characters.

Robert reads so well, you stop listening just for his voice, and listen for the story.

An immersive prequel to the TV series.

It’s a “new adventure” for the Voyager crew in the way that Shades of Gray is a new adventure for Picard’s. But don’t dismay! Rather than a cobbled-together pastiche of familiar emotional moments due to a writers’ strike, “Pathways” gives some of Voyager’s senior officers their turns to share their backstories in leisurely detail, from their earliest considerations of Starfleet through the moment their stories intersect with Janeway’s.

Each of these stories is alluded to in the series, but revealed as proper chronological sequences in Pathways. The final scenes of these weave directly into moments fans of the series will recall as memories from their time spent watching – probably my favourite aspect of Jeri Taylor’s narrative. The audio version is apparently abridged, but feels like a fully substantial journey totalling just over five hours. As such, the granularly complex feeling of a full-length novel doesn’t seem to have been the goal here, but the relatively simple plot which wraps the backstories has its own arc and revelation, adorning the book instead with the feel of an extended Voyager episode.

Tuvok, Kim, Paris, Neelix and others each occupy a generous chapter to share their disparate narratives. Notably absent from the storytelling handful are Janeway herself, and the chipper but self-centred holographic doctor.

The presence of the latter, of course, is still strongly felt thanks to Robert Picardo’s role as the meta-present narrator, adeptly capturing and propagating the distinct tones and attitudes of his castmates. His articulate, heartfelt and dramatic cadence lends itself to the crew’s various aspirations, altercations and pangs, as does the original musical score provided by a trio of composers, spanning an appropriately vast spectrum of styles. The entire team’s talents comprise a product which is enjoyable, satisfying, and is arguably a supplement – or even appropriate as a prequel for nascent viewers – to Star Trek: Voyager.