MOVE OVER TWILIGHT!

[beccatoria]

Eating your fetus out of your dead wife and having a penis that sparkles in the sun? PSHAW.

I have it on good authority that the Wess'Har Series by Karen Traviss actually features:

- Special immortals who hate the curse of their immortality (but it's hard scifi, honest, because they're only immortal because they're infected by a parasite that means their GENES MUTATE to allow them to survive ANYTHING).
- A romance between the lead male and female character, and, when the male character gets infected with the parasite IT MAKES THE TATTOO ON HIS PENIS GLOW WITH BIOLUMINESCENCE.
- When the lead female character accidentally gets knocked up and decides she can't have the kid because OMG it would be DOOMED to INVINCIBILITY and people cannot be TRUSTED with this parasite, she tries to kill it, and when that fails because it's invincible she cuts it out of herself without anaesthetic and then blows it up with a grenade. Because apparently grenades>a parasite that can fix you up so SPACE doesn't kill you.

REALLY.

Now, fair warning, I've never read these, nor have I read Twilight. And I'm told that the writing in general is better than the writing in Twilight.

BUT

I really think that A MAGICAL GLOWING PENIS AND GRENADING YOUR OWN FETUS TO SAVE IT FROM IMMORTALITY > A HYPOTHETICALLY SPARKLING PENIS AND EATING YOUR OWN FETUS OUT OF ITS MOTHER.

I mean...there's at least debate there, right?

Is it wrong I almost want to read these books now?

Also, "Grenading the fetus," totally needs to be a euphamism for something related to...shark jumpting WTFery. Y/Y?

OH KAREN TRAVISS, NO.

Comments

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I never really got that either. Or like, I haven't read the books so there may be other bad side effects, and I don't know the style in which it's written. That said, from having read some of her other stuff it seems to directly tie into the same way she treats Force Sensitivity and other such magical powers: if you have it and you enjoy it, you're an evil elitist. If you have it forced on you/you hate yourself for it and have emo angst, you're an awesome martyr and allowed to judge EVERYONE ELSE IN THE UNIVERSE.

That weird book about the horses sounds like on to...avoid. o_O

Also I've read all but the last Dune novel, though none of the Kevin J Anderson penned prequels, and I really didn't get that impression from it at all. Like, yes, there's some elements of sex in there; especially in the fifth novel if I recall correctly. But it's treated in a reasonably interesting fashion and with the same level of political and social commentary as his empires and tyrants and religious themes. I think characterising the Bene Gesserit as a bunch of space hookers is a mistake. Arguably these days one could claim they come from the same titillating school of domination as Wonder Woman or, hell, even Buffy, but at the same time, they wield too much power, show too much diversity in personality and are too complex to be so easily categorised. Perhaps the flaw is in people's response to them and their assumptions rather than the order itself, as written. Ironic since one of their chief reasons the Bene Gesserit are trained to seduce men is to perpetuate the very response many readers bring to the novels. ;)

[nomoreanonymous.livejournal.com]

Please dont get me wrong i really liked the Bene Gesserit. I thought their far sighted breeding plans and the way they ruled make them one of the most intresting groups in sci fi. I was mainly on about the last book in the series Chapterhouse Dune, well last book by Frank Herbert. The Honored Matres now they are space hookers. Every thing they do seems to revolve around Orgasmic Amplification and sleeping with mutant cats.

Maybe its just how disapointed i was with the last few books. I loved the original 4 but 5 and 6 just seemed so dull in comparison, plus id wanted to know exactly what the golden path was/would result in and the answer was quite boring to me.

Yes the Horsey book does sound one to avoid, though i am told it is a classic of feminist sci fi literature.