A review of Death of Neutron Star by Eric Kotani.
Review by Ragpants

Summary: Voyager rescues two fugitives in a stolen shuttle and ends up in the middle of a power play over the exploding core remnant of a binary neutron star system that threatens to wipe out dozens of inhabited solar systems.

Review: Overall, I'd rate Death of a Neutron Star as average for the current crop of Trek novels. (Though compared to some the older Trek novels by the likes of Diane Carey and Michael Jan Friedman, this one rates as a"comic book", not a novel). The plot is totally predictable: Voyager meets bad guys, bad guys plot a bad thing, Voyager uncovers the plot, makes allies by the sheer "niceness" of their personalities, and prevents the bad guys from committing their evil deed. End of story.

The only thing that saves Death of a Neutron star from instant forgettability is that there are flashes of genuinely nice character-observation. (Note that I *did not* say character development. There is no character development in this novel except for the expected personal realization of the part of the spunky, stubborn female fugitive that the crew of Voyager is "good guys" and are willing to help the oppressed and downtrodden...) Chakotay and Janeway have a nice scene together after Tuvok logically argues that he is the appropriate shuttle pilot to send out on mission that is near certain to doom him to die. (He doesn't die, of course, and the suspense of his risk is only minor.)

My favorite was the author's choice to make the men of Voyager the technological/scientific weenies who have to ask all the "dumb" questions so a the fugitive scientist can expound (both for the reader's benefit and the characters' benefit) on the astrophysical phenomenon of neutron stars and radiative processes within the star. In one such scene, Tom looks "befuddled" and Torres leans over and pats him reassuringly on the hand. In another, Janeway observes her First officer and pilot are both out their depth and notes that while all cadets at the Academy are required to take basic astrophysics, they [Academy instructors/Starfleet in general] really didn't expect "pilots to know much" about the topic.

Death of a Neutron Star is a not unpleasant quick read. Not terribly complicated. Not terribly interesting. Definitely bland. Though I do have to give Mr. Kotani credit for doing a good job of making rotational kinetics and the processes of stellar collapse accessible for most readers.

Major gripe: the bad guys are predictably non-humanoids: large, scaly, war-like lizardy people. And there is no exploration of their reasons for being involved in the war. Thus the unabated "species-ism" of Trek continues: Humanoids=good; non-humanoids=bad.

Is Death of Neutron Star worth the $5.99 that Pocket now charges for Trek books?

A:) Compared to other SF paperbacks now available for the same price: definitely no. (Trek books are using rather lots of space between lines and larger fonts than most paperbacks on the market--to make these rather thin novels look longer--in my mind, a bit of false advertising.)

B:) Considering that the current Pocket release list showsonly one other Voyager novel scheduled for release in the next 6-8 month: a cautious maybe, if you're in desperate need of your Voyager fix.