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Because I'm a sick puppy, I googled "big gay alien," and 9 of 10 nonduplicative entries were about Clark Kent. The 10th was about Jar-Jar Binks. Make of that what you will.
Warning: lots of books ahead. What I've been reading (aside from copyright casebooks):
The AFLAC Duck v. Tim Hagan for governor: the district court just issued its opinion, saying that Mr. Hagan could continue to use his "TaftQuack" commercials, which accuse the current governor of "ducking" the issues and feature a Taft-headed duck saying "TaftQuack," which apparently sounds a lot like "AFLAC" and the quack of the AFLAC duck. Right result, but the court is seriously, seriously confused about the difference between copyright and trademark law. In that it doesn't get that there is one. In that, I suppose, it's like many ordinary folks, but a federal judge should know better.
Churchill: A Study in Greatness, by Geoffrey Best. I bought this biography because "A Peace to End All Peace" left me wanting to know more about this Lion of England, but I didn't want a really huge book. My mistake. While this short biography is informative enough in a general way, for reasons of length and/or copyright it doesn't include nearly enough of the words of the great man himself. Best maintains, I'm sure correctly, that Churchill was a great writer and speaker. But he rarely ever shows that. He even paraphrases, rather than quotes, Churchill's famous statement that "If Hitler invaded hell, I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons." Churchill is a fascinating character, but you might do better with a slightly longer, more quote-y book.
Borders of Infinity, Lois McMaster Bujold. Well, all you guys who wrote in about "A Civil Campaign" were right. Bujold knows how to write good space opera with a bit of wince in it. Her heroes do what's right, but sometimes that's not the reason they're doing it. "Borders" is really three previously-published short stories, connected by a framing narrative that doesn't really explain the reason the first story should be lumped in with the second and third. But that's okay, because each novella is interesting and fun.
I do have to say that Miles Vorkosigan (a dwarf) seems to see so much action with big and tall women that I'm reminded of "Humbug," in which a dwarf tells Mulder that he'd be surprised how many women find his stature attractive. Mulder's great response, of course, is that he might be surprised by how many men do, too. I'd like to see Miles's reaction to *that*.
Skimmed: Smallville tie-in "Strange Visitors." While I was bored by the VotB (Villain of the Book), the writing was pretty clean and enjoyable, and we got some Magnificent Bastard as a bonus.
Started to read but gave up in disgust: David Weber, Honor-something-or-other. Honestly, what is it with this guy? I started another book that his publisher put up for free, as a way of introducing readers to their back catalogue and, Baen hopes, getting them to buy new ones in the various series represented. Anyhow, the preachy narrative style bored me, and it was no different in the bookstore. I don't require dialogue within the first five pages, really I don't. I like Faulkner. But Faulkner didn't tell me up front who were the good guys and who were the bad guys -- I emphasize "tell," because there was precious little showing. I jumped about 2/3 in to see if anything changed, and there was more dialogue, but it was still all White Hat/Black Hat. Snidely Whiplash and Dudley Do-Right had more complexity of character. Also, apparently there's some sort of cat mentally bonded to the heroine, Honor Harrington. He's created a Mary Sue without even having real characters amongst whom to plop her down!
Anyhow, the Baen Free Library might be fun for anyone with some time to kill. As a matter of fact, it includes one of Bujold's novellas, "The Mountains of Morning," contained in "Borders of Infinity." There's also a Niven/Pournelle offering, some Mercedes Lackey stuff, and others of that ilk. James Schmidt's "Telzey of Amberdon," one of the early versions of what we now know as Lara Croft, was one of my childhood favorites.
Telzey's a Mary Sue too, but that's okay because I met her when I loved and identified with that kind of character. In fact, I think my first real break with Mary Sue came with Diane Carey's Star Trek books, where even I could tell that this nitwit girl/ensign/whatever-will-you-please-just-go-away! was interfering with the story I wanted to read, which was about Kirk and Spock. And McCoy, Scott, Uhura and the rest. But mainly Kirk and Spock.
Diane Duane's first book with Ael T'something, the Romulan commander ("My Enemy, My Ally"), and the one with the glass spider both skirted the Mary Sue borders (at one point, someone even says that Scott would marry the glass spider if only it were, um, physically possible), but she had such great stories to tell that I didn't mind. Her recent extensions of the Romulan books were, however, dreadful. I hope it's just the ennui of a writer dragged back into a universe she was finished with, but her most recent non-tie-ins have been bad, too. It's also quite possible that, given that I formed my emotional bond with her before puberty, the books were always bad, but I recently reread the Romulan attack on the Enterprise scene in "My Enemy, My Ally" and still thought it was nicely done. You can get "The Wounded Sky" for a penny plus postage and "My Enemy, My Ally" for $0.85 on Amazon, though you should really go through Bookfinder and see if you can't get it for less postage, because Amazon really squeezes there.
What will always be *the* Star Trek book for me (as in "*the* woman") is Barbara Hambly's "Ishmael." Itself a crossover with another Paramount series starring Mark Lenard, it's got amnesiac Spock in late 1800s Seattle, a crew desperate to find him back in the present day, Vulcan scholars, Klingon scholars, the physics of pool and the mathematics of blackjack, Uhura and Sulu drunk and telling silly stories, and so much more. Well, follow the link and you can see my and others' reviews. Also available dirt cheap!
Speaking of *the* woman, and I promise to stop rambling soon, did anyone else think that USA's "Case of Evil" was flawed at its foundation by the idea that Holmes could fall in love early in his career?
Warning: lots of books ahead. What I've been reading (aside from copyright casebooks):
The AFLAC Duck v. Tim Hagan for governor: the district court just issued its opinion, saying that Mr. Hagan could continue to use his "TaftQuack" commercials, which accuse the current governor of "ducking" the issues and feature a Taft-headed duck saying "TaftQuack," which apparently sounds a lot like "AFLAC" and the quack of the AFLAC duck. Right result, but the court is seriously, seriously confused about the difference between copyright and trademark law. In that it doesn't get that there is one. In that, I suppose, it's like many ordinary folks, but a federal judge should know better.
Churchill: A Study in Greatness, by Geoffrey Best. I bought this biography because "A Peace to End All Peace" left me wanting to know more about this Lion of England, but I didn't want a really huge book. My mistake. While this short biography is informative enough in a general way, for reasons of length and/or copyright it doesn't include nearly enough of the words of the great man himself. Best maintains, I'm sure correctly, that Churchill was a great writer and speaker. But he rarely ever shows that. He even paraphrases, rather than quotes, Churchill's famous statement that "If Hitler invaded hell, I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons." Churchill is a fascinating character, but you might do better with a slightly longer, more quote-y book.
Borders of Infinity, Lois McMaster Bujold. Well, all you guys who wrote in about "A Civil Campaign" were right. Bujold knows how to write good space opera with a bit of wince in it. Her heroes do what's right, but sometimes that's not the reason they're doing it. "Borders" is really three previously-published short stories, connected by a framing narrative that doesn't really explain the reason the first story should be lumped in with the second and third. But that's okay, because each novella is interesting and fun.
I do have to say that Miles Vorkosigan (a dwarf) seems to see so much action with big and tall women that I'm reminded of "Humbug," in which a dwarf tells Mulder that he'd be surprised how many women find his stature attractive. Mulder's great response, of course, is that he might be surprised by how many men do, too. I'd like to see Miles's reaction to *that*.
Skimmed: Smallville tie-in "Strange Visitors." While I was bored by the VotB (Villain of the Book), the writing was pretty clean and enjoyable, and we got some Magnificent Bastard as a bonus.
Started to read but gave up in disgust: David Weber, Honor-something-or-other. Honestly, what is it with this guy? I started another book that his publisher put up for free, as a way of introducing readers to their back catalogue and, Baen hopes, getting them to buy new ones in the various series represented. Anyhow, the preachy narrative style bored me, and it was no different in the bookstore. I don't require dialogue within the first five pages, really I don't. I like Faulkner. But Faulkner didn't tell me up front who were the good guys and who were the bad guys -- I emphasize "tell," because there was precious little showing. I jumped about 2/3 in to see if anything changed, and there was more dialogue, but it was still all White Hat/Black Hat. Snidely Whiplash and Dudley Do-Right had more complexity of character. Also, apparently there's some sort of cat mentally bonded to the heroine, Honor Harrington. He's created a Mary Sue without even having real characters amongst whom to plop her down!
Anyhow, the Baen Free Library might be fun for anyone with some time to kill. As a matter of fact, it includes one of Bujold's novellas, "The Mountains of Morning," contained in "Borders of Infinity." There's also a Niven/Pournelle offering, some Mercedes Lackey stuff, and others of that ilk. James Schmidt's "Telzey of Amberdon," one of the early versions of what we now know as Lara Croft, was one of my childhood favorites.
Telzey's a Mary Sue too, but that's okay because I met her when I loved and identified with that kind of character. In fact, I think my first real break with Mary Sue came with Diane Carey's Star Trek books, where even I could tell that this nitwit girl/ensign/whatever-will-you-please-just-go-away! was interfering with the story I wanted to read, which was about Kirk and Spock. And McCoy, Scott, Uhura and the rest. But mainly Kirk and Spock.
Diane Duane's first book with Ael T'something, the Romulan commander ("My Enemy, My Ally"), and the one with the glass spider both skirted the Mary Sue borders (at one point, someone even says that Scott would marry the glass spider if only it were, um, physically possible), but she had such great stories to tell that I didn't mind. Her recent extensions of the Romulan books were, however, dreadful. I hope it's just the ennui of a writer dragged back into a universe she was finished with, but her most recent non-tie-ins have been bad, too. It's also quite possible that, given that I formed my emotional bond with her before puberty, the books were always bad, but I recently reread the Romulan attack on the Enterprise scene in "My Enemy, My Ally" and still thought it was nicely done. You can get "The Wounded Sky" for a penny plus postage and "My Enemy, My Ally" for $0.85 on Amazon, though you should really go through Bookfinder and see if you can't get it for less postage, because Amazon really squeezes there.
What will always be *the* Star Trek book for me (as in "*the* woman") is Barbara Hambly's "Ishmael." Itself a crossover with another Paramount series starring Mark Lenard, it's got amnesiac Spock in late 1800s Seattle, a crew desperate to find him back in the present day, Vulcan scholars, Klingon scholars, the physics of pool and the mathematics of blackjack, Uhura and Sulu drunk and telling silly stories, and so much more. Well, follow the link and you can see my and others' reviews. Also available dirt cheap!
Speaking of *the* woman, and I promise to stop rambling soon, did anyone else think that USA's "Case of Evil" was flawed at its foundation by the idea that Holmes could fall in love early in his career?
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Of course, for real published K/S, "Killing Time" by Della Van Hise is your book. I didn't get into it myself, but the story of its publication and immediate yanking from bookstores is here (http://www.well.com/user/sjroby/lostbooks.html). There's a story in Star Trek: The New Voyages 1 or 2 that's incredibly slashy (to the extent that a drug-addled Spock says that he and Kirk should go down to the Planet of Danger because they could be together there, always, and the crew reacts with embarrasment but no surprise).
After the Duane and Hambly books, though, I'd have to say that "How Much for Just the Planet?" is on my favorites list, and then we have to jump to Peter David and TNG. I didn't much note his TOS book, but I love his take on the TNG characters, especially Q.
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Wrt Diane Carey and her Mary Sue--completely agree with you. The page you referenced indicates that there might have been even more Piper novels--I'm so, so glad that didn't happen, because I could not stomach that character. I also remember thinking she was getting too much airtime, and I thought that Kirk admired her a little too much. So I guess I was jealous of the Mary Sue--too, too funny (read: sad).
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You wanna marry me, and we can sit around and talk about Trek books?
I mean, I forget sometimes that other people have the same obsessions I do, other than the really visible ones, and then I'm reading this and going, "Ishmael! Yes! And The Wounded Sky! And My Enemy, My Ally! And How Much For Just the Planet!"
I have both the first edition and the later, revised edition of Killing Time, largely because the one time I went to Portland, I bought $75 worth of books at Powell's, and they had the first edition. I blogged about it when I got a chance to compare the two versions.
http://bifictionalbedlam.slashcity.net/nestra/2001_07_01_nestra_archive.html
What I absolutely adore about Duane's Trek books is the thought she puts into the building a crew. I mean, the rec department alone gives me shivers. Harb Tanner and Moira. And The Wounded Sky has the distinction of being one of the few books to ever make me cry. Sounds kind of silly, but the end just kills me, when everyone's sifting through their memories, and the absolute interconnectedness of the crew...yeah. Good stuff.
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I love Harb! The way he doesn't say "good" when the first grenade explodes, and he always says "good." And his "classics" of 2-D video, taking their cue from Spock's famous "Devo" line. I love the guy who programs the tri-D chessboard to explode when he's losing, I love how Bones knows just how to motivate him to open a stuck door, and most of all I love Ensign Naraht, the Horta (or rock, as Ael thinks of him).
I don't know about marriage, because my husband might object, but I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Did you read the old Bantams? They had some serious talent, as well as some serious cheese. "Spock Must Die!"
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And speaking of Mary Sues, as you were doing before, how about J.M. Dillard's _Demons_, which I liked as a young idiot, and reread recently. I nearly sprained my eyebrows. Flaming red hair, violet eyes, McCoy falls in love with her, she's a stronger telepath than Spock, she saves various lives, yadda yadda. And then I reread one of Marshak and Culbreath's early Pocket Books, called _Triangle_, in which strange feral alien woman falls in love with both Kirk and Spock, and they with her.
Do you like any of Barbara Hambly's other stuff?
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Still, Spock: Messiah! (which I still have; I kept all my Bantams in the great purge of '02 on the theory that they'd be harder to reacquire than the Pockets if, for example, I someday produce a fannish child) has nothing on Spock: Pirate! Yes, I know it was called Black Fire, but really. Spock's a pirate! I don't recall a Mary Sue in that one, but it was definitely this writer's fantasy. And it's not as if I don't see the appeal, but I can (sometimes) tell the difference between a fantasy that is much more compelling to me, because of my private quirks, than to everyone else and a story that might resonate more broadly.
Deeper into Mary Sue territory, I got rid of that one where Evan something-or-other comes on the Enterprise and helps them solve some galactic crisis by outprogramming Spock, outwitting Kirk, etc., etc. And developing a deep bond with the catlike aliens of the week, too. I don't remember the physical description (not pulchritudinous, but attractive to the main characters, as I recall) but the man's name and the swooping in to solve problems our boys couldn't places her firmly in Mary Sue land. And then there's Uhura's Song, which in some ways is taking over the character to make her a perfect authorial stand-in -- she bonds with warm wriggly creatures and everything.
I will admit to "The Trellisane Confrontation" as a guilty pleasure, with Chapel briefly part of a higher consciousness, and I also really like the Scott portion of "The Kobayashi Maru." While I wasn't particularly convinced by the Sulu part, and anyone could have told you what Kirk did with his test, I thought Scott's part was utterly charming.
I like Barbara Hambly's other stuff, though less so recently. I really liked The Ladies of Mandrigyn, and she headed back into that territory with the recent Sisters of the Raven. I guess I just found the increasing trials of Jenny Wayfarer (if that's her last name) too depressing. Which raises serious pot-kettle problems, I know, and it's certainly better than David Eddings with his careful insistence on pairing everyone off happily ever after at the end of five books. But Susan Matthews, for example, writes a fairly depressing story while posing some moral questions, and Jenny was just fighting and losing against pure evil. Carol Berg does demon possession much, much better, I think -- her recent trilogy was very interesting, and kept me off-balance with some of the reversals of perspective.
Gosh, I sure do read a lot of books. Where do I get the time for TV?
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Largely on melymbrosia's advice, I've avoided the sequels to Dragonsbane. My personal Hambly favorite is the Windrose series, due to my shameless adoration of Antryg. And Joanna too.
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Have you tried THE SILENT TOWER, THE SILICON MAGE, and DOG WIZARD (the Windrose Chronicles)? Yet another of her trilogies, but the hopelessness is only there for plot purposes! That is, things are just as angstful but then they resolve much better than in the Jenny books. Also, I am in love with Antryg Windrose. Ahem.
Another fun one of Hambly's is BRIDE OF THE RAT GOD, set in Hollywood in the days of silent film and featuring a movie star and her quiet, widowed sister-in-law. And some Pekinese. And Chinese demons.
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I mean, I know she uses "things get worse," but she goes beyond that into levels of intricacy few can match.
The only complaint I have about Bujold's writing is that sometimes her characters speak too much like each other...but I like them all so much it's hard to care!
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I had to re-purchase ISHMAEL, which is my favorite. Spock-angst! Rah!
I also got into Jean Lorrah's Trek books, classic and TNG, though mentally setting them aside into a sort of alternate universe as I read. I didn't always agree with her Spock-history, but enjoyed her take for the space of the books. And for me, there was the added bonus of a few Blake's 7 in-jokes.
Any recs for new Trek books?