Strange New Worlds volume ten

[Reanok]

They had an editor/ Proofreader quit last year unexpectely when they were picking stories for Strange New worlds 10 it was just Dean & Margaret Clark to go through stacks of manuscripts .Margaret had so many projects to work on it's understandable that it was long process to pick the stories in the book they were left in the lurch.

[Emberchyld]

The Smell of Dead Roses: I thought it was a very pretty story and I was so drawn in that I didn't even notice the time passing (And considering that I was reading this on the elliptical at the gym working at my optimal to max heart rate, that was a real accomplishment).

Maybe I was able to enjoy it because I didn't watch much classic Trek and can't remember Perrin from TNG. The writing had a nice flow and it was perfectly descriptive. The author had me at pink and yellow icing roses.

Surprisingly, I also enjoyed the other TOS stories a lot, even though I'm not a TOS fan. I liked the intimate feel of "Empty" and got a kick out of the Q story.

Once I finished the book, I went back to "The Dream"-- and it still was wonderful on a second reading . I'm still slogging thorugh "Universal Chord" again... it just doesn't work for me. I don't particularly know why because it's very well written and original and I love the descriptions of the music. But it just doesn't "jive" with me.

"A Taste of Spam": proof that they seriously needed better editing. Of all of the stories, this was the only one that just plain felt like fan fiction to me. It was a very cute story, but I think it would have shone with some editing.

"A Dish Best Served Cold": Very amusing, but am I the only one totally bored by the Borg at this point? At least this story had a very original approach to the big bad Borg.

[evcake]

No more Borg, ever, say I. Totally bored with them.

[Linda]

Yeah, the Borg are getting old. They are too machine-like, no personality. The only Borg I really liked were the ones struggling to deal with their original humanity or Vulcanity or Klingonness, or whatever. The Borg queen was interesting in her sinisterness.

On seeing our differences in opinion over the SNW10 stories, I think that is something we bring to the stories from our personal life. It is colored by our own experiences and tastes. All of our subjective opinons are valid!

In the cover sheet that Dean gives out with each story, there are categories he can checkmark. One is "the story didn't interest me". So, by that I think he is judging by his own personal experience and taste, though I am sure he is also judging by quality of writing. Then, I will bet he has to judge by series - I mean three or four stories for each of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, and the speculations section where stories cross over into more than one of the series. Not a job I would want, picking through four thousand entries!

[Reanok]

The Borg are used too much i think it would be nice to see other stories without the borg. i did re-read some of the stories again the Smell of dead roses is a good story but really sad. But my favorite story was Hopeful Romantic's The Dream and Universal Chord. And A horse walks into a Bar. I like Vic Fontaine.

[justTripn]

OK, a few more reviews:

The Enterprise story "You are Not in Space," I will have to go against the consensus here and say I found it boring. Having lived in a foreign country and having thought alot about translation, I just have to say I don't buy it. There IS almost no way to translate a language without a Rosetta Stone. That's how I feel.

My favorites: "A Horse Walks into a Bar." I LOVE the Vic character and the author nailed ALL the minor characters, including Leeta and Rom. Great fun.

"Empty." Perfect, through and through. Those Original Series stories seem to be easier to write or something, because they are often dead on. Kirk is giving up command of Enterprise to take an admiral position at Starfleet headquarters. I thought the nostalgic goodbye was also a nice goodbye for the Strange New Worlds series. I thought it could have been an award winner.

And now a review of Echoes, or an explanation for Linda. It was OK for me. I was a little "underwhelmed" by it, it being the Second Prize winner. But I understood it. Watch out spoilers:

SPOILER!!!:

Faraggut was a combination of Kirk, Picard, Janeway, and Soren (bad guy of the movie "Generations"). The key reference was "Generations". Like Soren in "Generations" the crew needed to blow up a Sun to divert the path of the Nexus energy beam, in this case so the beam would run into the Borg homeworld. After the Borg entered the Nexus, they were at peace. Like Kirk, many left the Nexus to go liberate their fellow Borg, who they were still mentally connected with. So the Borg through out the universe gave up conquering other species.

As for the critique, I always have a hard time with memory engrams in the DNA, a la "Similitude." But, letting that slide . . . it was cute and clever. I kind of expected a twist at the end. I thought Jillian would realize that none of the plan had actually worked, that she was still stuck in the Nexus, but apparently, it DID all work. Happy ending.

[Linda]

I am still clueless because I don't know how to unlock that blank spoiler.

[Linda]

I lived in Mexico for a summer, not long enough so that I could completely think in Spanish, but I was getting fairly fluent. While there I was leaning the Mayan language and our teacher was teaching it in Spanish, so that was interesting! And Ojibwe, my family uses a some, but none are native speakers. That is the extend of my language experience other than English. Yet, I did enjoy the 'You Are Not In Space' story and did not see anything wrong with it translation wise. I am not that picky mostly about details in ST stories; I am more focused on general concepts. Perhaps an exception to that is the dead roses story with the unrealistic (I thought) overlap in lifespan of Amanda and Perrin. That story I really did not like, and it is an emotional reaction. It really pissed me off that it got first place. And maybe I have not pinned down the real reason why I dislike that story? Maybe I am repressing the real reason, whatever it is, LOL.

[Linda]

I lived in Mexico for a summer, not long enough so that I could completely think in Spanish, but I was getting fairly fluent. While there I was leaning the Mayan language and our teacher was teaching it in Spanish, so that was interesting! And Ojibwe, my family uses a some, but none are native speakers. That is the extend of my language experience other than English. Yet, I did enjoy the 'You Are Not In Space' story and did not see anything wrong with it translation wise. I am not that picky mostly about details in ST stories; I am more focused on general concepts. Perhaps an exception to that is the dead roses story with the unrealistic (I thought) overlap in lifespan of Amanda and Perrin. That story I really did not like, and it is an emotional reaction. It really pissed me off that it got first place. And maybe I have not pinned down the real reason why I dislike that story? Maybe I am repressing the real reason, whatever it is, LOL.

[Linda]

Sorry about the double post. I often think I do not click hard enough!

[Reanok]

One reason I didn't like the story all that well is Perrin I never cared much for that character all that much I think it was the actress the played the part I didn't care for the way she portrayed Perrin. It's well written and all that but I thought some of the stories were better written.

[HopefulRomantic]

Y'all are making me again. Thank you.

FYI, I have a little info on how the stories for each SNW were chosen each year, and a few details about SNW 10 in particular, because Dean was a bit more forthcoming on his forum, this being the last year of SNW (and people had been hounding him for years for details, LOL).

The entire pile of 4000 or so stories were always read by one person: Dean. Pocket Books shipped 'em all out to Oregon, and he started reading soon after the October 1 deadline. First he would whittle the huge pile down to the "second read pile" of 200 or so stories (190 this year). Then he would read again, taking more time, culling this group down to under a hundred stories (76 this year that he called "good enough to be in the book" in his opinion). From this smaller group, he put together a table of contents for the book from an editor's perspective, balancing by topic, series, and author--only one story by an author is allowed. This year he had a book list of 23 stories, along with an Alternates list of 25, any of which could be switched out for one on his book list in case the other two editors, Margaret and Paula Block, felt the need for a change.

BTW, Dean has always said that he didn't restrict himself to picking a minimum number of stories for any series. Sometimes there would be 4 stories for one series and 2 for another. He said he went for the best stories.

Once Dean was finished, he turned his two final groups of stories over to Margaret in New York (who took over for Elisa Kassin this year as the Pocket Books rep of this triumvirate). After Margaret was done, she sent copies to Paula in Los Angeles to read. Then the three of them discussed what was really going to go in the book, and who would get the 3 top places. Dean mostly stays out of this stage, because he likes all the stories. Paula could bounce a story because of problems with CBS, but that didn't happen this year. Dean said that, at this point, it's a matter of taste. He noted 9 changes in the final book list from the one he handed in to Margaret and Paula this year.

[Linda]

Thanks for the insider info, HR! And hope you don't mind our having personal favorites and their opposites among the stories in SNW10. Of course we all like YOUR story! And we all knew we would, after reading your stories on the TnT site and Triax.

I think we would like your personal comments on the SNW10 stories we are praising and/or ripping apart. But if you feel that it is unprofessional to critique your fellow authors in the anthology, that is understandable. Still, I for one am curious...

[justTripn]

Linda, to see the spoiler box, just run your cursor over it, and the words show up.

And I respect your objections to the Perrin story. Remember I completely ignorant of the canon with regards to Perrin. We'll have to agree to disagree about "You are Not in Space."

BUT, I FOUND A NEW FAVORITE:

The Data story, "The Very Model." It brought tears to my eyes. I have to admit my love for Data rivals that for Trip. Perfect story. So there ARE at least three perfect stories in this book, IMHO:

1) "The Very Model"

2) "A Horse Walks into A Bar"

and

3) "Empty,"

They just weren't the official Prize Winners.

And of course, "The Dream" comes in fourth!

Ann

[krn]

finally read 'The Dream' -- wonderful story HR! I enjoyed your take on how Sim would effect Trip after the surgery. And a little TnT shippiness thrown in for good measure!

So glad you were selected! Congrats again!