ccrdave@ucdavis.UUCP (Lord Kahless @ Imperial Propoganda) (12/24/85)
Review of "Pawns And Symbols"
Lord Kahless
Imperial Propoganda
We have all seen Star Trek novels which introduce one female
character, who then proceeds to be romanced by a personality from
Star Trek. Examples of this genre are "Vulcan!," in which Spock
becomes a Peeping Tom, and "The Wounded Sky," where Scotty falls for
a Jelly Fish. While I had hoped for more from Majliss Larson's
"Pawns and Symbols," I didn't get it. Here, our female gets to have
sex with Commander Kang.
The plot seems to be taken out of a 19'th century or Harlequin
romantic novel. Kang rescues Jean Czerny, a Federation Ag specialist
assigned to Sherman's Planet. She was supposed to give the Empire a
new version of quadrotriticale, to help alleviate a famine in the
Empire, but she conveniently has some sort of amnesia that prevents
her from remembering that she is supposed to turn over the grain.
Instead, she is whisked off to a magical Klingon Empire in which
everyone speaks perfect English. In short, we have lots of action,
but no plot.
And that seems to be the main problem with the novel. Lots of
action, but much of it is totally unrelated to the plot. I could
describe several examples, but the best would have to be the famous
episode in which we learn that Klingons can't see the color red. The
entire episode has absolutely nothing to do with the central story,
but is merely a cheap and unsatisfying filler, like the whipped lard
and sugar filling of a Hostess Twinkie.
These fillers seem to indicate a story which is quickly written,
without enough regard to the basic principles writing. I wonder what
grade a Freshman fiction class instructor would give this story, but
I doubt it would be good. The story is full of boring technical
details and sensory details, but details like the color of every
single character's clothing seem trivial amd confuse rather than
enhance, pulling us back from feeling the story. Often, the same
sentences are repeated over and over again, as if the author was
working on a word procesor and kept using the repeat key to fill out
the story. For an example of this, look at the second to the last
sentence of the fourth paragraph on page 52, and the second to the
last sentence on page 55. I found that Majliss Larson the author
also intruded into her own story. She constantly footnotes
Klingonese words, apparently lacking the skill to let us know what
the words mean without telling us blatantly.
Unfortunately, what might have been an interesting exploration
of one possible Klingon Empire turned into the expected and the
typical. If you're looking for an Imperial read, try "Final
Reflection" instead.bulko@ut-sally.UUCP (Bill Bulko) (12/26/85)
[ The postman hits! --More--] [ You have new mail. ] From Lord Kahless' review of "Pawns and Symbols": > . . .Often, the same > sentences are repeated over and over again, as if the author was > working on a word procesor and kept using the repeat key to fill out > the story. For an example of this, look at the second to the last > sentence of the fourth paragraph on page 52, and the second to the > last sentence on page 55. I think you need to modify that a bit: s/on page 55/of the first paragraph on page 55/ Otherwise, of course, the comparison doesn't make sense. In any case, this is a point well taken. I'm surprised you noticed the similarity of these two lines -- when I was reading the book, I THOUGHT I was reading the same lines over and over, but I thought that was because I kept dozing off. :-) _______________________________________________________________________________ "In the knowledge lies the power." -- Edward A. Feigenbaum "Knowledge is good." -- Emil Faber Bill Bulko Department of Computer Sciences The University of Texas {ihnp4,harvard,gatech,ctvax,seismo}!sally!bulko _______________________________________________________________________________