Escape Artists
Escape Pod => Science Fiction Discussion => Topic started by: Heradel on February 21, 2008, 04:30:40 PM
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My Own Kind of Freedom
By Steven Brust
http://dreamcafe.com/firefly.html
Was apparently written on spec (http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/back-from-the-dead/index.html?hp) back when Firefly was airing. Never got published for obvious reasons, so the author's released it as an e-book. So, for the fairly obvious reference — the Signal cannot be stopped, but it can and has been held up or a number of years.
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That's cool. I'd read about it on Scalzi's blog, but I hadn't realized it was written back when the show was still running. I need to remember to download the thing at home so I can actually read it. I wonder if it would ever get published as a TV show tie-in, like the ST or SW novels. (I know Firefly didn't last anywhere near as long, but the fan community it's built is pretty unbelievable.)
I'm not as big of a Steve Brust fan as some other people are, but I can imagine him absolutely nailing this.
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I'm about 20 pages in and it's OK. He doesn't seem to really have a feel for the characters.
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I read it. It really does read like fanfiction. His grasp of Mal, Zoe, and Wash is pretty good, and his River is funny, but the story was a little confusing to me toward the end. I think he tried to do too much with it and please everybody; a good fanfic writer (not an oxymoron) knows when to let certain characters sit in the background for a little while.
I've read worse. I've read better (including a surprisingly-strong Jayne/River story, once upon a time). But it was enjoyable enough to keep me interested.