The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway
{4.5/5} “What I took mostly from these events was what I tried to tell Seven of Nine later, that a single act of compassion can transform us. Having met Tret Rekheny, however briefly, it was not so easy, in future, for me to think of all Cardassians as cruel, as murderous, as vicious. Some of them, it seemed to me now, were as much victims of their government as the peoples they oppressed.”
The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway by Una McCormack, published in 2020
While at Starfleet Academy, Boothby ensures that Kathryn Janeway takes a break from school work to do some gardening. While on her first posting, the Al-Batani, her father dies — and Captain Owen Paris gives her the time she needs to recover from grief and shock. While on a new mission with a new rank, and understanding that Cardassians like to do things in threes, she makes the intuitive guess that they have a base on the ninth moon of a ninth planet. She deals with a captain who doesn’t like her, and with being stranded 70 000 light years from home.
She encounters Tuvok, Owen Paris, and Tom Paris long before becoming captain of Voyager. As long as you don’t read this right after reading Mosaic, which covers some of the same ground, you’ll enjoy it.
It, of course, contradicts the relaunch novels I’ve been reading. But this one is worth reading too. As in the previous autobiographies, the most value is in seeing how Janeway feels about the events of her life, her decisions, and her mistakes.
I’ve read 7 books by McCormack. I previously reviewed Star Trek: Discovery — The Way to the Stars.