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defcons_treklitOr the Tiger – Da Capo al fine + overall opinion
“Or the Tiger” by Geoffrey Thorne
A rather predictable story with a rather questionable final point. It was obvious pretty early on that B’Elanna would end up in a position in which she is facing a similar dilemma as the Equinox crew and would end up with a similar conclusion. And it was equally predictable that Lessing would be the one to stop her. You can argue for or against both points of view ,but in my opinion Lessing’s decision to use the Equinox’s crew DNA to create the new Moyani was ethically not so clean either. It’s a bit like transplanting someone’s organs without either their (pre-death) consensus or the approval from close relatives. Technically (writing style, characterization) the story is O.K., not especially good, but not especially bad either.
”Defcon’s TrekLit” Rating :
Story : *** of *****
Characterization / character development : *** of *****
Originality : *** of *****
Writing style : *** of *****
Overall : 63 %
“Bottomless” by Ilsa J. Bick
You can say about Ilsa J. Bick’s writing style what you want, but you have to admit that it has one positive feature : It’s recognizable. I think, even if I had only had the stories and the name of contributing authors I would have immediately said that this one is hers. Every of her stories I’ve read yet had a more or less dominant psychological undertone and Bottomless is no exception in that regard. The strength of this overall mediocre story undoubtedly and unsurprisingly is the character work, while the story itself is rather generic and unoriginal.
”Defcon’s TrekLit” Rating :
Story : *** of *****
Characterization / character development : **** of *****
Originality : ** of *****
Writing style : *** of *****
Overall : 62 %
“Da Capo al Fine, Parts I & II” by Heather Jarman
I have to admit that especially the first part of the story confused me a lot and it doesn’t help me much either that I obviously have missed or forgotten the episode where Janeway’s “counterpart” in this story was introduced. While it is an acceptable story once you have come out of the confusion a bit, I found the framing story of the DS9 anniversary anthology Prophecy and Change to be better and more fitting.
”Defcon’s TrekLit” Rating :
Story : *** of *****
Characterization / character development : *** of *****
Originality : *** of *****
Writing style : *** of *****
Overall : 62 %
Overall:
A mostly solid anthology.
It features two very good stories, “Brief Candle” and especially “Eighteen Minutes”, two good stories, “Winds of Change” and “Letting Go”, a whole bunch of more or less average stories and sadly on very big stinker, “Isabo’s Shirt”. Based on this anthology it’s a travesty of justice that Beyer, who (if her story here is any indication) is pretty free of talent for writing, already has a novel published and Osborne, who has shown her talent repeatedly, not.
For my taste the anthology is a bit one-dimensional concerning the kind of stories, all of them are more or less character centered. One or two comedic or action packed stories would have been nice to lighten up the book a little.
One thing I noticed is that obviously many people have a different perception of Seven than I have. While I still see her as the more efficient former drone, who slowly is getting more and more human, the authors obviously characterize her more like she behaved in Unimatrix Zero.
”Defcon’s TrekLit” Rating :
Cover : *** of *****
Overall : 62 %
“Or the Tiger” by Geoffrey Thorne
A rather predictable story with a rather questionable final point. It was obvious pretty early on that B’Elanna would end up in a position in which she is facing a similar dilemma as the Equinox crew and would end up with a similar conclusion. And it was equally predictable that Lessing would be the one to stop her. You can argue for or against both points of view ,but in my opinion Lessing’s decision to use the Equinox’s crew DNA to create the new Moyani was ethically not so clean either. It’s a bit like transplanting someone’s organs without either their (pre-death) consensus or the approval from close relatives. Technically (writing style, characterization) the story is O.K., not especially good, but not especially bad either.
”Defcon’s TrekLit” Rating :
Story : *** of *****
Characterization / character development : *** of *****
Originality : *** of *****
Writing style : *** of *****
Overall : 63 %
“Bottomless” by Ilsa J. Bick
You can say about Ilsa J. Bick’s writing style what you want, but you have to admit that it has one positive feature : It’s recognizable. I think, even if I had only had the stories and the name of contributing authors I would have immediately said that this one is hers. Every of her stories I’ve read yet had a more or less dominant psychological undertone and Bottomless is no exception in that regard. The strength of this overall mediocre story undoubtedly and unsurprisingly is the character work, while the story itself is rather generic and unoriginal.
”Defcon’s TrekLit” Rating :
Story : *** of *****
Characterization / character development : **** of *****
Originality : ** of *****
Writing style : *** of *****
Overall : 62 %
“Da Capo al Fine, Parts I & II” by Heather Jarman
I have to admit that especially the first part of the story confused me a lot and it doesn’t help me much either that I obviously have missed or forgotten the episode where Janeway’s “counterpart” in this story was introduced. While it is an acceptable story once you have come out of the confusion a bit, I found the framing story of the DS9 anniversary anthology Prophecy and Change to be better and more fitting.
”Defcon’s TrekLit” Rating :
Story : *** of *****
Characterization / character development : *** of *****
Originality : *** of *****
Writing style : *** of *****
Overall : 62 %
Overall:
A mostly solid anthology.
It features two very good stories, “Brief Candle” and especially “Eighteen Minutes”, two good stories, “Winds of Change” and “Letting Go”, a whole bunch of more or less average stories and sadly on very big stinker, “Isabo’s Shirt”. Based on this anthology it’s a travesty of justice that Beyer, who (if her story here is any indication) is pretty free of talent for writing, already has a novel published and Osborne, who has shown her talent repeatedly, not.
For my taste the anthology is a bit one-dimensional concerning the kind of stories, all of them are more or less character centered. One or two comedic or action packed stories would have been nice to lighten up the book a little.
One thing I noticed is that obviously many people have a different perception of Seven than I have. While I still see her as the more efficient former drone, who slowly is getting more and more human, the authors obviously characterize her more like she behaved in Unimatrix Zero.
”Defcon’s TrekLit” Rating :
Cover : *** of *****
Overall : 62 %
