Strange New Worlds volume ten

[Linda]

I just got the book and enjoyed Hopeful Romantic’s story! It was very good. I read it, of all places, while in line to buy the last Harry Potter book at Barns and Noble at midnight of the change over from July 20-21. My daughter and grandkids could not wait to get their hands on the two copies of the Potter book I had reserved for them. They kept pushing me “Grandma, the line is moving. Get your nose out of that other book and pay attention so nobody skips ahead of us in line!”

Warning: the following sentence contains a spoiler for HR’s story.

But I was off in the ST universe in that Harry Potter line. HR’s story seemed to have a theme like in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” - an angel trying to give Trip a reason to retain his hold on life. I guessed that the ‘angel’ was Sim before that was revealed. The dream part was very satisfying, Sim and Lizzie being happy together in the afterlife. Then it was sad that Trip did not remember the dream. Very nicely done, HR!

It would be nice if HR could get a novel contract from Pocket Books, since they are still publishing ST novels. But Pocket Books has cut down to about half of the number they used to put out each year. Still, it would be nice to see some of the SNW authors break into the novel venue.

Other than HR’s story, I have only read the three winning stories so far. I have a mixed reaction to the stories that rated first, second, and third place. Perhaps I am a poor judge of literature, but I would not have chosen two out of those three of these stories as the winners. Now I respect Dean Wesley Smith’s work as editor of the anthology. And he has been very kind to me, putting five of my own stories in his second read pile (180) out of the four thousand submitted. Then, encouraging me personally in messages on his writer’s board. But despite my debt to him, I must complain that I do not understand why he chose two of these winning stories. Maybe someone else could explain to me why these stories are worthy of the placing they received? Here is my reaction to them:


1st place story: The Smell of Dead Roses by Gerri Leen

Perhaps I do not like this story very much because I do not like the character ‘Perrin’, who is Sarek’s second wife. I found her obnoxious in the TNG episode ‘Sarek’. Also, in one published anthology, in a story by a well known author, this author did not seem to like her much either, thereby cementing my opinion.

The story is a series of scenes that spans Perrin’s life from childhood up to the time of Sarek’s death. Although the author gave Perrin a difficult childhood, I could not sympathize with the character. I especially disliked it when Perrin, as an adult, slams her apartment door in her mother’s face when the mother comes to Perrin for help. There was no resolution to the situation with her mother. Perrin just moves on to marry Sarek and move to Vulcan. The story ends with Perrin realizing that she is on her own again now that she is loosing her husband and mentor. Kind of a depressing ending, in a way, but I think it was trying to show that Perrin is a strong character. It did not work for me. I still don’t care about the character.

I did like Saavik in this story in her attempt to console Perrin. But I thought the story gave Spock short shrift. I think it was a missed opportunity to explore the Perrin/Spock relationship more deeply, especially since Perrin was portrayed as being grateful to Amanda for being kind to her in a chance meeting when Perrin was a child.

We see in this story, Perrin as a child meeting Amanda shortly before her death. I think it is a stretch to have them meet as one hundred years had passed since we last saw Amanda in one of the TOS movies, and the TNG episode with Perrin where Sarek was 201 years old. Perrin in the episode seemed to be in early middle age. Even if Humans lived 120 years at this time, Perrin could not have been born before Amanda died. Just my humble opinion. What do other people think of this story?


2nd place story: Echos by Randy Tatano

There were references that I did not understand in this story, even though I have seen every episode in every Star Trek series at least once. So I did not ‘get’ this story and was frustrated with it and bored. I don’t see why it placed in the top three. This has happened to me with a few other SNW stories. It makes me feel stupid. But then, I focus in on some aspects in the episodes and let others I am not interested in just roll by me. I suppose that if I re-watch every episode with a critical eye like Rigil and KTR do, instead of purely for enjoyment, I might pick up the references. So if any one wants to lay the meaning of this story out so I can say “Oh NOW I get it!” I would be grateful.


3rd place story: Universal Chord by Carolyn Winifred

The writing at the beginning of the story seems choppy. Short choppy sentences. This may have been an attempt to project the alien viewpoint. Not the greatest hook, but sticking with it, the story became a delightful view of a music concert through T’Pol’s perception as a Vulcan newly assigned to a Terran post. The description of the music was amazing – you could almost hear it. The interaction of the musicians with T’Pol after the concert was well done. And using words like “defaced” for “autograph” were well chosen to show an alien attempt to understand what was going on in Human culture.

I thought this story deserved its third place award.

I am still reading the stories and I know I will find some that I am absolutely enchanted with. There will be others that I say “meh” too. I always find these SNW anthologies to be a ‘mixed bag’. They are meant to be a balanced selection across the various series and ST movies. I enjoy that. It is a real shame that this is the last anthology, leaving fan fic writers to carry on alone with new tales from the ST universe.

[justTripn]

I'm going to get this book and take it on vacation to the beach! Right on schedule. I always end up reading Strange New Worlds at the Beach or the pool.

: D

Congratulations again, Hopeful Romantic!

[Linda]

Please, jusTrip'n, read SNW 10 soon! I value your opinion greatly.

I just finished the story "You Are Not in Space" by Edgar Governo and enjoyed it very much. It is one of the three ENT stories, the other two being HR's and that third place story which I liked. This one features Hoshi and a translation problem. The author seems to know a bit about linguistic theory, or has researched it for the story. I like this glimpse into the world of language translation! The end of the story was very ST upbeat, and I learned something from it. This is the type of story I read ST for.

[justTripn]

Will do!

[Linda]

I have just read "Time Line" by Jerry M. Wolfe which is in the Speculations section of SNW10. This section has the cross-over between series stories. And like the other story in this section - "Echos", which won second place, I did not get the 'punch line' at the end of the story. Having seen all the series and movies (in fact, owning copies of all of them), I THOUGHT I was up on all the details of the ST universe. Well, I am not. I will have to use my Star Trek Encyclopedia and Chronology to try to make sense of these stories. My bad, no one elses. These are probably very good stories. But for anyone not up on the details, my frustration could serve as a warning.

"Time Line" is a Gary Seven story, so Distracted, who has used this character in her fics, might be interested in this one. And it has Khan Noonien Singh and a Dr. Charles Grayson. I connect the name Grayson with Amanda Grayson, Sarek's wife, but neither Amanda nor Sarek are in this story. I won't mention the name in the 'punch line'. Don't want to spoil the story for anyone, as it seems its impact depends on the last line. Sigh, I feel so stupid, LOL. Even though I pride myself in not rejecting any particular ST series, finding something I like in all of them, I tend to remember only those details which strike me as interesting. Eidetic memory is not in my genetic makeup!

[blacknblue]

I find to my dismay that of late the commercial editors and I seem to have significantly differing opinions as to what constitutes good stories. Not always of course, I am sure HR's story is up to her usual standards. But as a rule I haven't seen much lately that I would be willing to shell out for. I will glance over SNW next time I am at the bookstore though, based on your recommendation.

[evcake]

My reserve is in! Can't wait!

[Emberchyld]

Please, jusTrip'n, read SNW 10 soon! I value your opinion greatly.

I just finished the story "You Are Not in Space" by Edgar Governo and enjoyed it very much. It is one of the three ENT stories, the other two being HR's and that third place story which I liked. This one features Hoshi and a translation problem. The author seems to know a bit about linguistic theory, or has researched it for the story. I like this glimpse into the world of language translation! The end of the story was very ST upbeat, and I learned something from it. This is the type of story I read ST for.

I agree. I liked this one a lot.

This book is definitely a see-saw for me. There are some really good ones, like "You are Not..." and hopeful romantic's story; a few eh ones; and, to be perfectly honest, there are even a few stories that just plain scream: "I can barely write and somehow still was chosen for this anthology."

I do tend towards preferring the personal stories, so the Naomi Wildman story, the Data story, and "Brigadoon" also ranked amoung my favorites. While beautifully written, "Universal Chord" didn't really "strike a chord" with me. I haven't read any of the TOS stories yet and am still working through a few in Voyager and TNG, but I'll have to say that, in general, I'm enjoying this book.

[Linda]

Well, I got to another SNW10 story after reading Distracted's latest. Jumped right into"Reborn" by Jeremy Yoder, another Speculations section offering. With trepedation, I tried another of those cross-series stories thinking I would be making myself feel stupid again. But Eureka! I actually understood all the references as I was shunted through time and space hitting characters from four of the ST series. It was a wild ride and very cleverly done. I can see why this story made the anthology. While this sub-genre of fast paced universe spanning adventure is interesting, I prefer the quieter, slower, angsty relationships type of story - with an occassional fight scene or starship crash thrown in. Must be my age.

[Reanok]

I liked the story about Q and the Doomday weapon and about how Q2 saw potential for the human race. I liked better than teh Perrin story after reading it a second time I thought it was really depressing I never liked Perrin's character very much. The Data story that's post Nemesis I liked the Gary seven Story and my favorites are Hopeful Romantic's and The Universal Chord. Some of the others stories I like better than others in previous SNW volumes I've read in the past.

[Linda]

I haven't read the Data story yet. I seem to be reading through the book backwards, LOL. Just finished the delightful story "Adjustments" by Laura Ware. What a neat idea working with Naomi's problem adjusting to planetside living after spending her life in space. The author really got into a child's mind.

"The Day the Borg Came" by M. C. DeMarco would have been my choice for first prize, of the stories I have read so far. Very descriptive phrasing. It gives us viewpoints of individuals who were assimilated and at the same time, their view from being part of the collective. I like her idea of what finally brought about the demise of the Borg. I had not taken my thoughts about that so far as I watched the episode involved.

"Brigadoon" by Rigel Ailur was like that DS9 episode where that planet appeared for a few days, then disappeared. Was it the same planet as in the DS9 episode? I thought so at first, but later thought not. Does anybody know? Anyway, I thought the story was ok, nothing great, but worth a reading.

[Reanok]

I liked the naomi story and the other speculations stories are really good. The Hoshi Enterprise story I liked it was nice to see her finally solve her translation problem. There alot of interesting stories in this book.The day the Borg came is a good story.

[Linda]

The Doomsday Gambit by Rick Dickson was extremely good. It hooks you right in with an attack on a planet. It is a Q story and very well written. Normally, I can take or leave Q but the characterization was on target. Now Q does not appear in TOS canon, but this story nicely leads into TNG right at the end.

A Taste of Spam by L. E. Doggett was clever and humorous, but I didn't think the writing was very good. It could have used a beta reader.

The Fate of Captain Ransom by Rob Vagle was ok. It also could have used some editing but had some good description.

[Reanok]

The Taste of Spam I really liked the Voyager crews reaction to getting those message son their screen the popup adds and the embarassed crew members was funny. I liked how they got revenge on the spammers .The Captain Ransom story wasn't bad it continues where the Equinox story left off he finally takes resposibility for his actions.

[justTripn]

I read Hopeful Romantic's story. Very clever! and Trip (well both of them) is/are very in character. I love his lines.

I won't give anything away either, but it's a scene addition to a very key story in our T'nT cannon, and no one has ever thought of giving it this particular twist.

You can tell this one was written by someone who knows "our universe" inside out. I liked it way better than the Trip story that got in last year. Once again, very clever and very on target.

I felt like I saw one typo. Can that be possible? (An editor's perspective.) Another editor's perspective question I had: just how heavy handed was the editing? The published story was kind of "no frills," which is fine, but not the usual HR style. Hopeful Romantic are you lurking???!!!) *Waving smilie. Thumbs up smilie*

Anyway, I am both very happy for you and very jelous. GREAT JOB!!!!