Date: 18 Nov 2009 21:35 Title: West: Your Possible Pasts
I repeat dizzying. Terrific sci-fi, fantasy, philisophical high concept thinking going on here if one could claim to understand it. Great job writing it and making it so a person can follow it. Janeway's 'growth' in power/abilities seems like it could indeed come with a price and I'm not sure if Q and Lady Q and Quesling are colluding are working to different ends. Either way Janeway is going to be used and in the crossfire and may potentially grow from it and may potentially suffer from it all. So many amazing facets to this - from the disgruntled Q with his rather coarse and frank assessmnets of Janeway as dead meat and talking of sheep fucking, to Amanda's saving Janeway's 'life' to the story of Kes and her son, to Janeway discovering more about her salamander children and their nature and the university there's just so much packed into this story. The mind boggles nevermind trying to decipher the motivations of different individuals. Also, big kudos for elevating the turning into lizards at warp 10 episode into something with far more ramification that doesn't just need to be forgotten about. Terrificv stuff. Truly impressive stuff.
[Report This]Date: 18 Nov 2009 20:52 Title: West: Your Possible Pasts
I am in shock and in awe of the scope of this story and even it is somewhat contained by the exploration of Janeway's other lives. But the depth and the emotional journey [and I hate that expression! but it is very fitting here - although sadly lacking in encompassing everything that Janeway is experiencing in the Continuum] you explore and convey here so terrifically despite the fundamental difficulties in trying to relate a higher palin of existence. Nevermind the beings who inhabit it and are erternal perhaps. That takes some skilful writing and you take it to dizzying heights. Seriously, totally impressed by how you can think this up and then convey it so brilliantly to the reader. I don't tend to give stars as part of a review as they tend to be subjective and the rest but truly the concept and the writing itself blow me away. So a full ten stars from me.
Date: 13 Nov 2009 23:50 Title: West: Your Possible Pasts
Wow mindblowing. Truly the whole concept of this. I love the way you keep this all so novel and ground breaking even though you write other stories in the Q universe. Very skilful and so in touch with the character of Janeway.Bravo.
Date: 10 Nov 2009 00:54 Title: West: Strange New Worlds
I have to say, considering what a pile of dreck Before Dishonor was (and how much I despise most of Peter David's work), you have done an extraordinary job in taking that and making it into something I can actually care about!
I wonder, if Janeway is now dead, and is living in the Continuum, if her nature will begin to change--if she'll become more like Amanda in some ways, or end up more like one of the other Q, or neither? Oh, and do we get to see Janeway talk with Amanda at any point? Something tells me she could be very helpful for Janeway, perhaps even help things to make a bit more sense.
On a personal note, Janeway's attitude towards her imprisonment very much surprises me, though--I know that if I were in her situation, while I'd try to make the best of it I would have a hard time with the idea of being held captive in a place that while a fair simulacrum at times, is rather short of Heaven and the beings running it VERY short of true deity. I probably would've sounded a lot like Quinn, in that I would want to be released to fully die. Of course, in my case it would be in the hopes of something better and somewhere I was MEANT to be, not Quinn's wish for it all to simply end.
Author's Response: Thanks for the comments. Some of what you asked about is in "Your Possible Pasts", which I've added recently. If I recall correctly, you're a religious person. I think it's important to remember that Janeway isn't -- she's an open-minded agnostic, but she managed to avoid being suckered by an alien entity impersonating her father who was trying to get her to "go toward the light" largely because she didn't believe in that sort of afterlife. I don't think Janeway thinks the choices here are Heaven or the Continuum, I think she thinks the choices are the Continuum, oblivion, or getting the Q to restore her to life. She doesn't want to escape to truly die, she wants to escape to truly live, and she's somewhat angry at the Q because she knows they have the power to do that for her, but they won't. But thanks for the insight, because Chakotay *is* a person of faith and if he finds out that Janeway is being held in a semi-dead, semi-alive state in the Continuum, he might have exactly the reaction you did -- that he thinks she should be released to go on to the spirit world (his religion's Heaven), not kept between life and death.
Date: 20 Aug 2009 22:09 Title: West: Ghost In The Machine
I really liked this glimpse into the politics and emotional lives of the Q. For all of Voyager's flaws, in my mind, Janeway and Seven never were. They were amazing characters. I also liked the speculation of life after death, and I definitely hope this has a sequel.
[Report This]Date: 20 Aug 2009 19:56 Title: West: Ghost In The Machine
What a trip. I really enjoyed this. I look forward to the zombie fight, too.
Date: 18 Aug 2009 18:30 Title: West: Ghost In The Machine
Wow fascinating stuff. Love how you have set up the scene with janeway and q-ling and the politics of the Q in itself. Loved too how Janeway is as ever determined to get her way back home - quite a mantra for her. The scene with Seven is very bittersweet and emotional - particularly so with Seven displaying so much emtion [well for her].
And of course left wondering how the rest of the Voyager crew take the news - I expect Janeway is right and they will believe her but it would seem like a haunting. Then to put the icing on the cake you throw zombies into the mix. Great stuff. The dialogue and characterisation of janeway and Seven are spot on.
[Report This]Date: 30 Jul 2009 19:44 Title: West: Strange New Worlds
Interesting tale. Did you write about Janeway's death or is that from the novel?
Fascinating the way you juggle all of those Q!
Author's Response: Janeway died in the book, and Lady Q (I usually refer to her as Suzy-Q, actually, but the accepted name for the character in the bookverse is Lady Q) took her somewhere after her death. It was never made clear exactly where, but fans have been speculating that it was the Q Continuum. This series is essentially about Janeway in the Continuum, and what it's like for a dead mortal human to live in the land of gods.