The Escape

Star Trek: Voyager #2

by Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Pocket Books is proud to present the first original novel starring the crew of the Starship USS Voyager. Stranded far across the galaxy, theirs is a voyage of a lifetime that will take them far into uncharted space… where no one has gone before.

The USS Voyager is in desperate trouble, her systems damaged, her warp engines failing. Without immediate repairs the starship and her crew will be trapped forever between the stars. Captain Kathryn Janeway must guide her ship to an ancient, deserted planet that could hold the key to their survival—a planet that is holding more than one deadly secret…

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Star Trek Voyager, Fiction, Media Tie In, Aliens, Space Opera

244 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1995

About the author

Pen Names
Edward Taft
Dee W. Schofield
Sandy Schofield
Kathryn Wesley

Dean Wesley Smith is the bestselling author of over ninety novels under many names and well over 100 published short stories. He has over eight million copies of his books in print and has books published in nine different countries. He has written many original novels in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, and romance as well as books for television, movies, games, and comics. He is also known for writing quality work very quickly and has written a large number of novels as a ghost writer or under house names.

With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. The following is a list of novels under the Dean Wesley Smith name, plus a number of pen names that are open knowledge. Many ghost and pen name books are not on this list because he is under contractual obligations not to disclose that he wrote them. Many of Dean’s original novels are also under hidden pen names for marketing reasons.

Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.

Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books.

Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name.

Reviews

[Christine (KizzieReads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was more of a 3.5 stars. This one was a bit confusing at first, but it came around. Voyager is in bad need of repairs and Neelix says he knows of a planet that holds abandoned parts, but it is haunted. They send a crew down to Alcawell and are transported in time. There is time travel as well as dimensional travel in this book. I loved seeing the characters interact together, and I was anxiously awaiting the resolution of the problems in the story.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Voyager, more than any other Star Trek series, dealt with crazy anomalies and confusing time paradoxes on a fairly regular basis. In that respect, The Escape does a very good job in predicting the tone of Voyager and crafting a tale that feels right at home in that series. This, combined with fantastic world-building and the nearly spot-on representations of the Voyager crew, make The Escape one of my favorite "in-series" Voyager novels, quite a feat by the authors given how early in Voyager's run it was written.

Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2018/05/V...

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

He was trapped in a future he didn't recognize.

I felt that I needed some extra Voyager in my life, so I reread this one remembering it to be a really good novel from the early ones. Although it does have some minor issues with being the first novel after the novelization of Caretaker and therefore the authors most likely didn't have some of the distinctiveness of the characters to work with. The most outstanding one being that the holographic doctor doesn't have a name.

The story is a very intriguing one that drew me in right away. It's one of those books that you have a hard time putting away, you just want to read one more chapter.

"Captain," Paris said. "That ship and the three aboard no longer exist in this place and time."
"They no longer exist?" Janeway asked. "Are they dead?"
"I don't know, Captain," Tuvok said, "although that is doubtful. The ship vanished. They vanished with it."

I love the culture and the aliens that we get to know on this planet. They're interesting and the way they're living in time is unique. It does get the away team, that thought they were on a deserted planet full of abandon ships, in a lot of trouble as they accidentally end up about 300,000 years in the past. But I love these kinds of stories that involves time traveling, and here we have a people that takes it to a whole new level. Instead of traveling in space like "planet hoppers" they travel in time, they're colorful and very bureaucratic. They're that kind of species that you wish you could have seen in an episode. Actually, this whole book would have been a great episode.

I also really enjoyed the strength we see in Janeway, and how deeply she cares for her crew, while trying to get the away team back to the right time. Back to Voyager. She's tenacious and doesn't take any crap. One of the many things I love about this woman.

In a way, it's kind of obvious that the characterization is built on original back story on the characters and on the Caretaker episode. There's some positive and a bit funny aspects to this as well. Like Tom and the plain tomato soup, heh.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all this review will be biased because I am a Star Trek Voyager fan. After finishing the full voyager series on Netflix in December I was looking for more stories about Captain Janeway and the crew. I received The Escape for Christmas, since I already knew the story-line covering the caretaker and the Delta Quadrant I decided to dive into book #2. I really liked this book because it was a light easy read allowing me to imagine in my minds eye the events as I read them. The book really does play out like a long episode. I look forward to reading the next novel in this series.

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. Even though some of the characters were a little off, due to this being written early in the series, the story was captivating and the time travel emelements were very imteresting.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the very first "Voyager" novel, this is remarkably readable. The characters aren't exactly vibrant -- it's clear the authors are relying on the series bible and the pilot episode alone at this point. In spite of that, the characters (barring the holo-Doctor) are recognizable, and both Janeway and Chakotay and exceptionally well characterized. The story itself gets a big head-achy, in the way of many time travel stories, but it's also rather clever...and strangely reminiscent of some of what I've seen in the trailers to the upcoming "Loki" TV series. All in all, a fairly solid first outing for "Voyager" in original prose.

[Soph]

This is from so early on in the show's run and you can tell the authors weren't that familiar with the characters yet. They read like caricatures of basic descriptions of the characters rather than what they actually read as.
Cool plot concept, though too many time travel concepts make my head hurt.

[Frank Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic! I really liked this one. The story is very interesting and moves along at a good pace. Apart from The Doctor's name and tagline, l thought all of the characters were portrayed very accurately.

[Dustin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, so this was a really good book. You can tell it was written before Voyager first aired as the Doctor is called "Doc Zimmerman" and the characters are all off by a bit. There's a lot of clunkiness. Neelix feels like an escort NPC in your average RPG. Always having to stop and take naps. I think that adds to the charm though. The story is fantastic, its about a species that developed time travel instead of space travel. Their entire civilization divided up the planet's history into segments called Periods, that are 500,000 years long. Everyone moved into Periods of their choosing and are allowed to visit other Periods, but not time travel within their own to prevent paradoxes.

It seems like with a bit of refinement this would make a really good TV episode.

[Sean Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zimmerman? Again? I know it was in the bible, but we were 12 episodes in by May. Also, there's something niggling at me about the paradoxical nature of the time travel even with the length of the increments, and why did the transport craft travel intraperiod anyway? It's described as functional, not broken. Finally Tuvok's diction is really, really bad for a Vulcan.


Niggles aside, I enjoyed the story, but given the speed I read at it wasn't much longer than watching an actual episode for me.

[Jacque Hodges (Carter) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't particularly care for this. They kept calling the Doctor "Dr Zimmerman" and he has no name. I'm moving on to Voyager Book 3 Ragnarok because I am left unsatisfied and still need a Star Trek fix.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked the time travel stuff in there. Reminded me a little of the good old BTTF movies. :-)

[Jarrod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Fun Little Timey Wimey romp.

It was obviously written while the show was in production, but don't let that detail stop you.

[Kass Whitaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE PREMISE
In the Year of our Lord 2023, I am sick of time travel stories, which is a problem if I'm going to start reading Voyager... At least with The Escape the time travel shenanigans are given an absurd bureaucratic twist, which helps this story stand out from others in this sub-genre.

In need of raw materials, Voyager heads to lifeless Alcawell, a "haunted planet" with 100,000+ of the exact same ship, gridded out and spanning the width of Texas. Upon inspection of one of these ships, Torres, Kim, and Neelix are whisked off to 300,000 years into the past. They find themselves lost and under arrest by a race of beings who use time travel like how modern Earthlings use air travel. WILD premise. Paradoxes are avoided by enforcing strict laws that divide all of time into 500,000-year Periods and as long as you never travel within the same Period, you won't be immediately arrested and executed.

THE GOOD
The government in control of this temporal airport reminds me of Marvel's TVA, both in function and absurdity. And despite this being a time travel story with universe-sized stakes, the fate of the multiverse never felt at risk of collapse. The stakes are with Torres, Kim, and Neelix getting back to the correct-year Voyager. Add in the astronomical size of the time gaps (400,000,000+ years) between crew and starship, and reuniting seems totally impossible.

THE BAD
Due to the nature of this being a time travel story, the final climax of the story happens off-screen. More annoying was the author's habit of emphasizing a sentence by repeating it, "Janeway had to find a way. She had to."

Neelix and Kim act as comic reliefs, but are often just interrupting important conversations with unhelpful oneliners. Also, nowhere in the book is there an explanation of how long a year is to Aclawell. Are we following Federation standard time or is the universal translator also doing math conversions? I found these issues a little annoying, but they didn't take away from my enjoying this book.

[Solitairerose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have started a Voyager rewatch and decided to try some of the early novels as well. It is clear that this was written from the series Bible and has a few things from there that didn't get into the series (such as the EMH's name). There are also slight characterization issues that have to be expected when a book is written before the actors have a chance to settle into the roles to make them theirs. So, the book is mostly about a science fiction puzzle, and handles that well, giving us a civilization that travels through time the way Voyager travels through space.

If you are a fan of time travel stories, this one is right up your alley, and the members of the society that the book highlights are interesting and do a good job of carrying the story. I was hooked by the puzzle and how the crew figured a way to solve it. The author has written a lot of media tie-in books and knows what that audience wants. IN many ways, he captured the nature of Voyager's first season, which focused on the crew being in a foreign situation and havign to figure out how to work within it.

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 4 out of 5]

With full disclosure, I have to be honest. Voyager and Enterprise were not much favored in my home, so when it comes to reading the novels, I may have reviewed over 60 of the Star Trek books, but this is my first in the ST: VGR series and this one is #2 published by Pocket Books called "The Escape," written by Dean Wesley Smith. Clearly, I liked it way more than I thought I would.

Here, B'Elanna, Harry, and Neelix, beam down to a seemingly abandoned space port to scavenge parts and materials to effect repairs on a crippled Voyager, when they secretly get transported off-world. Capt. Janeway and her crew must now figure out where the landing party has been relocated, navigating the complexities of Delta Quadrant politics, and the obstructive nature of institutional red tape.

Overall, the writing is strong. I was already well-acquainted with the characters. (I binge-watched the show when it was on Netflix.) The character dynamics are already established by the time the books were published, so there was no "feel out" awkwardness period. I enjoyed the novel and would definitely read more Voyager, although DS9 continues to be my favorite. Also, this is my 11th ST novel for the year and I had made a goal of reading 12 at the beginning of the year. I might actually read 13.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was actually a reread. I read it almost immediately after it first came out. I remember really enjoying it.

Older me was surprised. Yeah, it had a lot of Trek time travel cliches but at the same time for a Voyager time travel story, it doesn't such. There isn't QUITE a reset button. It is implied their are conseqeunces... even if Star Trek books didn't allow sequels back then so we'll never know about them even if there are... apart from The Doctor adopting a name (oddly enough Zimmerman) everyone seems mostly in character. Of course that might just be because Voyager was so inconsistently written that could do pretty much anything and be in character.

But the alien society and their time travel system were really interesting. I almost wish it wasn't wasted on a Trek book because there are enough ideas there that they could make up a whole series of book.

[Luke Sims-Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun read! With this being the first novel it was probably written before the show aired just like the TNG novel Ghost Ship, but maybe they learned their lessons with Ghost Ship, because the Escape feels like an episode of Voyager.

Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch, get a great feel for the characters and even though the Doctor is called Doc Zimmerman, this books feels like season one Voyager. Actually it takes place some time after or around Time and Again, but no annoying kids.

This story has some mind bending brain hurting time travelling, but it works. The society alien society is interesting and the novel never overstays its welcome. This is/was a good start to the Voyager original novels line. Check it out.

[Amy Tudor · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting sci-fi premise which had a lot of potential. I felt there were a few missed opportunities to play up the "ghost" story elements and a lot of the time travel drama was conveniently missed out. The time travel elements were well explained to fill in plot holes and prevent paradoxes but the story didn't hold my interest enough and made it hard to get through the explanations. The high drama point lacked excitement too as the way to resolve it seemed fairly predictable (Although the plan afterwards does make you realise it isn't as easy as you think).

All in all enjoyable enough - may have benefitted from being a little longer to get into some of the excitement of trying to outwit a species who are experts in time travel.

[Vorik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die erste Romanhälfte ist richtig gut gelungen, darauf folgt ein kurzer Mittelteil, den ich mir etwas lebhafter gewünschte hätte. Anschließend nimmt die Handlung wieder an Fahrt auf, überrascht sogar mit einem seltenen Ereignis in der Star-Trek-Romanreihe und findet zuletzt ein nettes, unspektakuläres Ende. Das kleine Büchlein des Autorenduo überzeugt vor allem durch die gut getroffenen Figuren und eine nette Rahmenhandlungsidee. Wer eine kurze und leichte Leselektüre mit Voyager-Nostalgie auf dem Stand der ersten Staffel sucht, macht mit diesem Werk nichts falsch.

[Benjamin Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

The characters didn't feel quite right. Their personalities just seemed a little off from what we've come to expect. The writing was just not that strong overall - the details were not that descriptive, the structure was clunky.

While the plot was a little messy and dragged on at times, Voyager and time travel seem to go hand in hand and it did feel like it would have made for a very interesting episode.

Despite its flaws, I still had fun reading it.

[Joe Sullivan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to stop reading. Another book that hasn't aged well due to it being written too early in the series run. Characters aren't themselves in far too many places, Neelix appears to love sleep, Tuvok seems almost emotional in places, the doctor has a... name?!?
That is just too distracting from the story, which could have been written in a much less confusing manner.
All of that made the book too much of a chore to try and get through. So I stopped reading.

[Sven · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of charm! It's really hard for me to get into time travel stories and this book had Way Too Much Neelix at times but by the end I found myself genuinely enjoying the time I'd spent with it.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this, and each chapter made me want to read the next as soon as possible. Even with the errors that mark this book as being written before the TV series was aired, this is a must-read for any fan of the series.

[Mikayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I lost this book for 2 days and was afraid I would never understand what happened. I found it, finished it, and I'm still not completely sure what happened.
The characters were pretty spot on, but the all the time stuff gave me a headache.
They also gave the Doctor a name, so that was a flaw.

[Andrew Beet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good novel having an alien race that punishes you because of time travel one niggle the holographic doctor is called zimmerman so maybe this novel was set in the middle of the first season but he wasn't given a name other than that it was OK novel

[Nathaniel Boan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting concept for a culture. Sometimes a little cheesy, and as you get to the end it became a little predictable but still shocked me at the end.

[Susan Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love time travel stories!

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Voyager book about heavily-bureaucratic autocratic time travellers...weee!! There were moments of humour but for the most part was a boring read. When all Neelix wants to do is nap...so do I.

[rivka · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars