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icarusJust finished re-reading the Pern series (dragons, oh dragons) by Anne McCaffrey, as prep/procrastination for my SGA/Pern crossover.
Wow. McCaffrey created a fascinating world with lurid sexual overtones and canon slash opportunities. A mind-to-mind permanent bond with a flying, fighting dragon! A quasi-military dragon defense force falling into disrepute!
She's also in dire need of a beta reader. She takes long treks into exposition land, forgets to describe what characters look like, leaves out the setting, and occasionally doesn't make sense. I'd give her toisis. Isis would take time to do line edits and guide her ("Yes, you say here they 'arrive at the Weyr.' The roof? A rocky ledge? Where are we?").
This would be forgivable (dragon mating flights! That send everyone into a sexual frenzy!) but McCaffrey spends her third book of the series (her best-written) tearing down the world she created. Instead of exploring the sexually fraught implications of the dragonrider's life, she writes about . Instead of developing her world, she has them rediscover electricity and the spaceships that brought them there. It wouldn't be so bad, except they immediately understand every object they find. "Oh, those three stationary stars in the sky, why, that doesn't disprove our new theories of star movement. Why no! We get instantly that they must be an orbiting space station." *eyeroll*
Yes, this is why I want to write an SGA/Pern fic that explores the life of a dragonrider -- before McC ran through her world with the wrecking ball of implausibility. Granted, an exploration of male dragonriders embracing in sexual frenzy as their dragons mate is probably something she couldn't get published ...
... but hey. that's what fandom's for.
Wow. McCaffrey created a fascinating world with lurid sexual overtones and canon slash opportunities. A mind-to-mind permanent bond with a flying, fighting dragon! A quasi-military dragon defense force falling into disrepute!
She's also in dire need of a beta reader. She takes long treks into exposition land, forgets to describe what characters look like, leaves out the setting, and occasionally doesn't make sense. I'd give her to
isis. Isis would take time to do line edits and guide her ("Yes, you say here they 'arrive at the Weyr.' The roof? A rocky ledge? Where are we?"). This would be forgivable (dragon mating flights! That send everyone into a sexual frenzy!) but McCaffrey spends her third book of the series (her best-written) tearing down the world she created. Instead of exploring the sexually fraught implications of the dragonrider's life, she writes about . Instead of developing her world, she has them rediscover electricity and the spaceships that brought them there. It wouldn't be so bad, except they immediately understand every object they find. "Oh, those three stationary stars in the sky, why, that doesn't disprove our new theories of star movement. Why no! We get instantly that they must be an orbiting space station." *eyeroll*
Yes, this is why I want to write an SGA/Pern fic that explores the life of a dragonrider -- before McC ran through her world with the wrecking ball of implausibility. Granted, an exploration of male dragonriders embracing in sexual frenzy as their dragons mate is probably something she couldn't get published ...
... but hey. that's what fandom's for.
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Date: 2010-06-29 01:13 am (UTC)