The Garden

Star Trek: Voyager #11

by Melissa Scott

Desperately in need of vital nutritional supplies, the crew of the USS Voyager must risk dealing with an enigmatic race known as the Kirse, legendary for the bountiful crops of their world – and for their secretive ways. Despite Neelix's warnings, Captain Janeway leads an away team to the Kirse homeworld.

But when the hostile Andirrim attack the Kirse, Janeway finds herself caught in a deadly situation. Forced to fight alongside the Kirse, Janeway and her crew can only hope that their strange, new allies are not more dangerous than their common foe.

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Star Trek Voyager, Fiction, Ebooks, Media Tie In

278 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1997

About the author

Scott studied history at Harvard College and Brandeis University, and earned her PhD. in comparative history. She published her first novel in 1984, and has since written some two dozen science fiction and fantasy works, including three co-authored with her partner, Lisa A. Barnett.

Scott's work is known for the elaborate and well-constructed settings. While many of her protagonists are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered, this is perfectly integrated into the rest of the story and is rarely a major focus of the story. Shadow Man, alone among Scott's works, focuses explicitly on issues of sexuality and gender.

She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction in 1986, and has won several Lambda Literary Awards.

In addition to writing, Scott also teaches writing, offering classes via her website and publishing a writing guide.

Scott lived with her partner, author Lisa A. Barnett, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for 27 years, until the latter's death of breast cancer on May 2, 2006.

Reviews

[Grace Filetti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the Star Trek Voyager tv series so reading these books are fun for me. I love to "hear" these characters come alive on the page as if I'm watching one of the tv episodes. This book if it was in the timeline of the tv series would be early on as the Voyager crew still seems to be finding its way in the delta quadrant and with each other. This book takes place before Seven of Nine joins the crew and before Kes leaves. The Voyager crew is getting sick due to lack of food that has the necessary nutrients the human crew needs. Based on some secondary information that Nelix gives them they travel many days out of they're way to a planet that may have the food they need. The planet has seems like a garden of eden but there might be more than meets the eye.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Voyager needs food desperately, the crew are all going down with scurvy. Only one planet has the food they need but it is known to be hard to trade with. A clever idea for a story. Its set really early on in the show, where being a marquis could still be a problem. A good read.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could rate this book a 2.5. I have read better Star Trek books and this one did annoy me how much it dragged itself out and took forever to get anywhere. However, the things I liked made an impact. I liked the dilemma - the ship is starving and they have no choice but to get food from this planet. I liked the characters - Melissa Scott seemed to really grasp the Voyager crew and I didn't have a moment where something felt off - Janeway even has to contemplate her coffee addiction. Though it never showed up too much in the show I liked how there was still a rift between the Maquis and the Starfleet people in here and Chakotay, Paris and Janeway often see crew members as us vs. them kind of scenario as they work to fit together. I thought that was always a weaker part of the show that was not emphasized enough. I just found the story was very thin for what was there and took a long time to unfold.

[Stella Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this one had a solid initial premise- the alien food is too alien for us and now we don’t have the vitamins we need- but it made a pretty hard pivot to the frankly pretty uninteresting Kirse planet. The mystery of the planet was enough to keep me wanting to finish, but I don’t think it was built up hardly enough. Harry Kim had a strange moment with the gardeners, sure, but Tom Paris just spent most of his POV gushing over their shuttle design. And then, everything is finally revealed so close to the end of the story that there’s hardly any payoff. We just learn what’s happening, grab the fruits, and go, when what I was waiting for was a dramatic third act betrayal or a secret society or something that the crew actually had to respond to.

Something I did quite like about it, though, was how it grasped the early season 1 character dynamics, possibly even better than the show itself ever truly portrayed. Janeway is constantly thinking of the politics of the Maquis onboard, and how she should be interacting with Chakotay, and Tom Paris is constantly struggling to figure out his place in the hierarchy.

Overall, I liked the book! I liked the characterization, and I liked many of the sci-fi elements. I just wish the central plot had been a little better.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very strange book. The initial hook into the story is intriguing, and the overall plot is excellent and perfectly suited to early Voyager, featuring a superb guest character. But what bothered me was how flat everything felt...and I think it's down to the main characters feeling bland. They aren't in any way embarrassing (in the manner of many early DS9 and VOY novels), but there is an edge missing to their characterizations. I'll chalk it up to still being an early series novel, but aside from a few nice moments between Janeway and Chakotay, I wasn't connecting with the crew...I wasn't feeling their excitement, their fear, or their adrenaline. Had it been written today, I think this would be a vastly different novel.

[Amy Tudor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this one. It was interesting to see the crew deal with problems not developed in the show, like malnutrition. I liked the inner monologues given to the characters in certain moments which showed where they were at this time of the journey and their voices were very accurate - Particularly Tom. All of the crew had their part to play too which was great.
The pacing was a little slow, and would've liked to have seen more development of friendships between the crew and the Kirse - which would've helped with a moment towards the end hit harder. A little more action earlier on would've helped the pacing a lot more, but I did enjoy the exploration of the planet.

[Andy Stjohn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Star Trek: Voyager #11: the Garden by Melissa Scott

This book had promise but turned out to be a big nothing burger. It was an interesting premise and despite the fact it should be impossible to get scurvy in the 24th century, even in Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. They came up with an interesting way of them getting it. The Kirse were an interesting species and their world they lived on was really cool. But the big reveal wasn’t until the last 20 pages and it negated the mystery that was built up around them. But this book wasn’t as bad as people say it is on Goodreads. The writing was competent enough and Scott was really good at world building in this book.

5/10

[Heidi Hachenberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of my favorites

On of the shorter reads. The story was good but it felt as though the writer moved too fast towards the climax and had no where to go well before the ending so was stretched with repetitious discriptions of the hum, vibration, The Sleep, "the Awakening has begun, was here," The story and idea and ending was very interesting. Learning more about the people would have been fun. When the Awakening was finally able to happen it was as very well done. Description was creative and I could see it visually happening.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoying reading the Voyager series

As a fan of all things Star Trek I typically stay on top of reading all the new books as they are released but lately it seems as though there haven’t been too many so I have been enjoying going back to some of the ones from the 90s and early 2000s. I really enjoyed this story. I feel like I’m on the Voyager with the crew. This book is very well written and feels like your in an episode.

[Frank Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avast ye scurvy dogs. This is a great story, that does a fine job of presenting a well worn concept with new life. Voyager's crew need food again, the search for which is interesting and the price of which is ethically questionable.

The last little surprise is nice, but I think it could have been used to a greater extent in the story.

[Jennie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was initially interested in the concept of this one, as resource scarcity is something I think the show didn't focus on enough. Unfortunately this book was really light on conflict. Which would have been fine if there had been more interpersonal drama, but there wasn't. I just kind of kept waiting for something to happen and nothing ever really did.

[Barbara Maddox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes place in the early days of Voyager's journey, when the Starfleet and Marquis crew were still learning to get along. Neelix and Kess are finding their place and Neelix is defending his cooking. The story was interesting and the ending was surprising.

[Taaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Die ersten 10 und letzten 3 Prozent sind interessant, alles andere ist entweder repetitiv oder Kampfszene (die mir halt nichts gibt).

Schade, dass aus so einem schönen Anfang weder ein Cozy Gärtnern in Space wird, noch wenigstens eine soziologische Studie fremder Spezies.

[I B Broome · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written novel based in Voyager`s early years. Where Paris was still trying to find his place on board. Slightly disappointed as given the title Kes could have had a larger role.

[Sean Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novel concept and not a badly-written one, unlike some of the others in the numbered voyager annals

[Paul Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good fun Star Trek Voyager book.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Kirse were interesting, at least. Maybe one of the better episodic Voyager books.

[mandara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wirklich spannend ist der Roman nicht und wirklich viel passiert der Crew der Voyager nicht.
Nicht empfehlenswert, auch nicht für Hardcore-Fans.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, the eleventh in the series of novels featuring the U. S. Voyager, is rather average in depth of the plot and the level of tension that is generated. Due to issues with some of the food they have been eating, the crew of the Voyager is unable to intake enough vitamins to survive, specifically C.
The situation is growing critical and Voyager is in an area with few quality planets, so they are forced to seek assistance from the Kirse. They are a species that is chronically short of metal, so Captain Janeway decides to trade some of their metal spare parts for fresh food rich in vitamins. The Kirse are known as avid traders, so it seems that a deal is possible. From the perspective of the Voyager crew, they have little choice, it seems unlikely they would survive until they could find another planet that could satisfy their needs. While the Kirse planet is ringed with defensive systems, they are informed that it is to repel the hostile Andirrim, to force them into a trading posture.
The Kirse social structure seems enigmatic to the Voyager crew, yet there is nothing significant blocking the execution of the trade. However, an Andirrim task force arrives, supposedly to trade, but in fact to raid. After some unsuccessful negotiation with Captain Janeway, the Andirrim attack the Kirse planet and Voyager, leading to some basic defensive actions. Of course Voyager wins, yet there is no real challenge in achieving the victory.
The action is generally predictable and the constant undercurrent of doubts and uncertainties due to past service with the Maquis reaches the point of being boring. Mention it once, early and in depth and be done with it.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book takes place during the first season of TV series.

Once again Voyager needs to look for food but this time there is a bit of a twist. There is a nutritional deficiency and the situation must be dealt with NOW. They find the Kirse who have a planet that is literally a garden but of course things are not what they seem. They never are.

Tom once again gets involved with a beautiful alien female Kirse but at least this time its limited to friendship but still, this trope was just way to overused.

There were several nitpicks. Harry and Tom were part of an away team. The author had Harry reporting back to Janeway when it should have been TOM as the ranking officer doing the communicating with the Captain.

The book is fairly well written although some of the descriptions of the planet and its inhabitants went into too much detail. The POV shifts from Janeway, Harry, Tom and Torres. There is a very riveting action scene and a rather odd resolution. I found it to be a good story personally but I understand if other readers might find it boring.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only word that sprung to mind as I reflected on this book was average.
It is possible that the author was restricted somewhat due to the theme of the story. The main characters would not be killed off, no one would join the crew, and at the end they would continue on their journey home.

The premise didn't excite me. The ship was running out of food. A realistic idea for a stranded ship but not very interesting!

The thing that sticks out for me was the underused Revek! An ex marquis, stranded in the delta quadrant. He could have been such a main player in this tale! Instead he was sent to the periphery and we had an average encounter with some weird space pirates.

In my opinion

[Jimyanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a great book by any stretch of the imagination, it was certainly closer to a three-star than to a five-star, but I really felt that it was just a little bit too good not to jump it up to four stars. The characterizations were handled pretty well, the plot was an interesting if fairly standard early-first-season Voyager plot (or at least, the problem driving the plot was typical early-first season; the ramifications were somewhat more original) and the pacing and action were better than average. Worth reading if you're a fan of the series; maybe not if you aren't.

[Joy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Voyager has recently stocked up on food, but the human population are all getting scurvy. The mystery is quickly solved, but if they don't find nutritious food soon, they won't have enough crew left to run the ship. This means Captain Janeway must make a deal with the Kirse, no matter how questionable the Kirse ethics are.

The crew are interesting and likeable, and the Kirse are interesting, however I felt Melissa Scott was too limited by the boundaries required by Star Trek writing. I wonder what she would have done with it, now that Star Trek's foundations have been deconstructed.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow paced book, not for everyone, but I loved it. No real action scenes until about 3/4 of the way through. That left plenty of time to talk about food storage, debate who to send on the away team, and describe functions that a tricorder can perform. That's stuff I wanna know about. Bonus: better written than most Trek Lit. The author did not use the phrase "his fingers danced over the console", not even once. I'm definitely going to re-read this one.

[André · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not so interesting, can't remember much of it... but it was okay, I think... did I read this book at all? No idea...

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was middling for the most part, but I liked the twist at the end. I loved the Kirse as a species, very interesting concept, even it wasn't completely realized.

[Dustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly enjoyable with an interesting end.