Now *that's* more like it. After the battering given to it by A Time to Die, my faith in Star Trek novels is restored. Thank you, Christie Golden! The first book in the Star Trek: Voyager line of books set after the television series is Homecoming, and it is quite good. It does everything that the show should have done. The show ended with Voyager coming home, being greeted by a bunch of starships. What they should have done is to get home and then deal with the aftermath a little bit. Homecoming takes care of that in a really effective way.

After Voyager's return, it's decided that they should take their time making their way to Earth so that the crew can get a bit more adjusted to the fact that they are no longer stuck millions of light years away from home in the Delta Quadrant. There are the expected meetings: Admiral Paris sees his son, Tom, for the first time, along with his new wife and daughter, Tuvok is cured of the disease that struck him in the final episode by a mind meld with his son. Once back on Earth, the welcome is a bit more muted than the crew had expected. Each debriefing is less than an hour, rather than the expected lengthy ones. There are reunions with family and with lost lovers (or ex-lovers), and things actually seem to be going pretty good. But Harry Kim's girlfriend, Libby, has a secret she can't share with him. She's investigating a conspiracy within Starfleet to turn over Borg technology to the Orions, and Voyager's return makes that even more important. Plus, a something strange is happening in various places on Earth. Some humans are sprouting Borg implants. Is Voyager to blame for this? Not to mention the fight for holographic rights by an insane zealot who wants to enlist Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram!

Homecoming is the first of a two-part book (I seem to be reading a lot of those lately), and it sets up a lot of intriguing situations. Voyager had so much to do with the Borg, whether it is Seven of Nine or Icheb (one of the Borg children who they also brought home with them), that it's not surprising the first story after the series would involve them. However, Golden avoids a lot the usual ways of portraying the Borg, and it may all be a smokescreen anyway. The story also has the "Photonic Rights" angle that began in the series and carries it to a new level. Finally, Golden takes the episode "Barge of the Dead" and takes B'Elanna Torres (chief engineer of Voyager) on a spirit quest to find the mother who she thought was dead. All of these stories, I'm assuming, will tie into each other in some way, though it's not apparent as to how. Golden builds the mystery quite effectively.

The pace of the book is quite slow at first, as we get the reunions and getting used to life back on Earth out of the way, but this is a good thing because Golden does such a great job on the characterization. We see a lot of the meetings that we wanted to see in the show, such as Janeway and her ex-lover and his wife, or Harry with Libby. Most effective is Seven of Nine, who ends the (very silly) romance with Chakotay that came out of nowhere in the last season of the show because she doesn't know how she'll fit in on Earth. She goes to stay with her aunt, but is met by a crowd. She had always been apprehensive about returning to Earth because of the fear reaction she expected by the people of Earth, but instead they treat her like a celebrity. She has no idea how to deal with this, and ends up almost turning the many supporters who just want to see her into an angry mob. It's a very effective scene, illustrated most by the young lieutenant who is assigned to pilot her. He begins by almost being in awe of her, but by the time he fights his way through the crowd he's irritated with her for her manner.

Throughout these sequences, we get little hints of the story coming up. Brief snippets of Libby and her boss in Starfleet Intelligence, of people sprouting Borg implants, and the like. There are also periodic scenes tracing the sexual abuse of an unidentified woman from age three to age fifteen, which seem very out of place in a Star Trek book (I guess that's why Golden was also the author of the Dark Matters series of Voyager books!). However, they seem to be leading to something that will revealed in the next book. Golden keeps the identity of this woman a very close secret, and I didn't guess who it was until the very beginning of that next book. All of these just increase the tension in the story, even among all the happy reunions. There's also the mystery of why the crew debriefings are so short, but that isn't handled quite as well. I'm still not sure exactly why that was, though maybe it will also be revealed. The crew senses something is wrong, but can't quite put their fingers on it.

Along with the atmosphere, Golden does a wonderful job with characterization of virtually everybody. Golden walks the fine line between character interaction and telling an interesting plot. She doesn't allow scenes to drag on too much and the dialogue is actually interesting, making even scenes where a couple of people are talking seem vibrant. Each character is almost perfectly done, the only minor problem being Seven is just a bit too quick to smile on occasion. She even uses Captain Picard to good effect, but doesn't allow him to dominate the book.

This is the way a Star Trek novel should be. I can't wait to read the conclusion.