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crack_van2004-05-02 12:35 pm
grumpoldusenaut.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2004-05-02 12:35 pm
The Wit and Wisdom of the Dead by Neil Faulkner (G)
Fandom: BLAKE'S 7
Pairing: None
Author on LJ: No
Author Website: http://homepages.tesco.net/~N.Faulkner/blakes7/index.htm
Why this must be read:
This is a brilliant reinterpretation of the events of the Star One story arc, plus answers to various questions left dangling by canon. It's one of those stories that takes canon and puts a different interpretation on the events, completely changing the meaning of what you see in screen.
You need to know that during the course of the second season, Federation officer Travis has become more and more obsessed with his pursuit of Blake, with a little assistance from military psychotherapists. Eventually he's court-martialled for political reasons, but escapes, and apparently continues to work for Supreme Commander Servalan. This eventually puts a once honourable but now extremely embittered man in a position to commit an extreme act of betrayal, not just against the Federation, but against the entire human species. He has possession of the sole recording of the location of Star One, the massive computer complex that has master control over all computer-run technology in the Federation.
One small problem - the recording is the brainprint of Lurgan, one of the people involved with the creation of the Star One complex. He has to persuade the brainprint to tell him exactly where he's going. The brainprint is not just data but a real and less-than-cooperative personality, he doesn't have the tools to read it by brute force rather than asking it, and how do you threaten a dead man?
So Travis brings the brainprint up to date on recent history, or at least carefully selected highlights. Along the way we learn a lot about the Star One story arc that canon never went into. For all that Neil's not known for his interest in character neepery, this is a stunning characterisation of Travis, and he brings the canonically off-screen character of Lurgan to life.
The story has a hard sf tone, with some discussion of the cyber-engineering that's relevant to the story, although I don't think it goes too far in that direction for those who don't like techie talk. There's also an exploration of politics and the structure of the Federation woven smoothly into the story. This story takes a good hard look at the political dimension often ignored in fanfic (and canon, for that matter). As someone who likes both character neepery and heavy political discussion, I'm enchanted with this story.
One word of warning - by its very nature, this story is a major spoiler for the story arc that dominates the end of season two.
The story was first published in Star Three (still available at the time of writing), and is now available online in the Hermit library.
The Wit and Wisdom of the Dead (first page of 8)
The Wit and Wisdom of the Dead (whole story on one page)
Pairing: None
Author on LJ: No
Author Website: http://homepages.tesco.net/~N.Faulkner/blakes7/index.htm
Why this must be read:
This is a brilliant reinterpretation of the events of the Star One story arc, plus answers to various questions left dangling by canon. It's one of those stories that takes canon and puts a different interpretation on the events, completely changing the meaning of what you see in screen.
You need to know that during the course of the second season, Federation officer Travis has become more and more obsessed with his pursuit of Blake, with a little assistance from military psychotherapists. Eventually he's court-martialled for political reasons, but escapes, and apparently continues to work for Supreme Commander Servalan. This eventually puts a once honourable but now extremely embittered man in a position to commit an extreme act of betrayal, not just against the Federation, but against the entire human species. He has possession of the sole recording of the location of Star One, the massive computer complex that has master control over all computer-run technology in the Federation.
One small problem - the recording is the brainprint of Lurgan, one of the people involved with the creation of the Star One complex. He has to persuade the brainprint to tell him exactly where he's going. The brainprint is not just data but a real and less-than-cooperative personality, he doesn't have the tools to read it by brute force rather than asking it, and how do you threaten a dead man?
So Travis brings the brainprint up to date on recent history, or at least carefully selected highlights. Along the way we learn a lot about the Star One story arc that canon never went into. For all that Neil's not known for his interest in character neepery, this is a stunning characterisation of Travis, and he brings the canonically off-screen character of Lurgan to life.
The story has a hard sf tone, with some discussion of the cyber-engineering that's relevant to the story, although I don't think it goes too far in that direction for those who don't like techie talk. There's also an exploration of politics and the structure of the Federation woven smoothly into the story. This story takes a good hard look at the political dimension often ignored in fanfic (and canon, for that matter). As someone who likes both character neepery and heavy political discussion, I'm enchanted with this story.
One word of warning - by its very nature, this story is a major spoiler for the story arc that dominates the end of season two.
The story was first published in Star Three (still available at the time of writing), and is now available online in the Hermit library.
The Wit and Wisdom of the Dead (first page of 8)
The Wit and Wisdom of the Dead (whole story on one page)