Date: 12 Mar 2010 21:56 Title: Outside Forces
Oho. Fascinating. Like Rick I'm thrown into the deep end so I could empathise with the whole not knowing th ebig picture deal. It was great seeing him read the situation, read Shayna, read how Shayna was reading him, and cope with the twist on the Eugenics War in this universe. Terrifically done and it helped to absorb me as reader into the whole chapter.
The differences in the Eugenics War are fascinating and I like how it is an attempt to explain how it might have played out in the Mirror Universe. It is perhaps the diverging point that separates the Mirror Universe from the 'Prime' [yuck tag] Universe. A stark exploration not bothering with superfluous details and yet hitting all the points that need hitting. I very much enjoyed this. I shall have to come back for more. I feel very much like I am hitting and running when it comes to your writing so apologise for the rather incoherrent approach to reading but so far it has produced some gems and fitting perspectives from which to read as an outsider to this stuff.
Date: 07 Apr 2009 15:38 Title: Outside Forces
This is a pretty nifty story so far. Since I wasn't on the Trek BBS, I'm not familiar with the backstory of the main character, but his background seems intriguing and I'm hoping to learn more. The vision of a world under the rule of the supermen is appropriately dark -- am I to assume that one of the divergence points between the MU and our universe is that the supermen won the Eugenics War in the MU? Shayna is screwed in the head in all the ways you'd expect someone who's been a rebel her whole life to be; she kind of reminds me of Kira Nerys, in fact. Looking forward to seeing where you're going with this.
Author's Response: The main character's backstory isn't on the Trek BBS; I might have to post a Coles Notes version to explain some of the more confusing asides where an explaination won't fit here.
In the MU the supermen have won to an extent. For example, Canada is considered to be completely under supermen rule while the US is human controlled, attacked regularly and suffering from some internal political problems that have caused the country to become unstable. It's a lot messier than I'd expect the canon universe to be.
Thanks for the review!
Date: 06 Apr 2009 20:06 Title: Outside Forces
Well, this is a very different beginning. You offer plenty of hints but nothing concrete. Except for the parallel universe part-and I've got a ton of questions about that.
Author's Response: Well, things are become more concrete as the story progresses. It's impossible to sum up everything from the point of view of an outsider right away. As for the questions about parallel universes, I can handle any that you have, since there is a lot of say about it and it'll factor into the plot in a bit way. SLWatson say you can ask questions in this forum thread here:
http://forums.adastrafanfic.com/index.php?topic=32.0
Since you can't get a thread of replies going in the reviews here.
Date: 03 Apr 2009 19:23 Title: Overnight and Underfoot
Rick pwning Shayna there was good stuff; the girl needed it, and badly. As much as some of the very dark and grim storylines can be compelling and thrilling, there's also a lot to be said for ShadowKnight optimism. The notion that one person can make a difference.
I really love how you take a look at the Eugenics Wars; one of the things that pissed me off about the licensed novels was that they retconned it to all be covert-ops and that, in order to make it fit our 'actual' reality. But that kind of loses something... actually, it loses a lot. The whole point of it originally was to point out a major issue and make a statement in canon. Retconning it to please people who can't fathom a war happening in the 90s like that is really bloody irritating.
Even though this is a Mirror Universe version of the Wars, you can glean that the canon universe likely also had some common similarities -- ie, rebel humans fighting to regain their country. And even though you take a street's eye view of it, flying above makes a compelling image too; an occupied Canada, an entrenched and embattled United States, and a whole lot of good human beings being in a bad, bad situation.
The details about Canada are awesome; IE, the exchange between Shayna and Victoria. Your details about Toronto, too, in earlier parts are actually pretty educational to us down here. That's definitely a good thing. The nostalgia for the lost part of Toronto is something anyone can understand, too.
Mostly, what makes this awesome is that though it takes place in a Trek universe, it has such a different feel to it that it defies Trek cliches. It reads far more like episodic literature than more closely canon fic does. Broadens the horizons, as it were.
And yeah. Victoria's a nasty piece of work. ;-)
Author's Response: Yep, Shayna needed a kick in the ass. A BIG one. Hopefully it's become apparent that it's changed the way she's carrying herself, if only in a small way. ::chuckles::
A completely covert version of the Eugenics Wars doesn't make sense to me. Part of the problem is that the show caught up with itself, but I fail to understand why we can't accept it as being a completely different timeline than our own. It's not as if we've rewritten parts of Back to the Future and the Space Odyssey books to fit what's happened in our world. The idea of Khan using covert-ops here is a nod to that retcon, but I'm a bitch - more wars came out of his actions here than did in canon. >:)
I can't see the Mirror Universe version being too different than the normal version in the sense that it's a war, there are rebels and Khan is running around. Problem is that we just don't know that much about what happened during the wars in the pre-retcon normal universe to explain the differences, aside from the US is probably in worse shape here than in canon because.... Oh, I haven't mentioned yet? Oh, that's right, it'll come into play later. ::grins::
The exchange with Shayna and Victoria does come across as extremely Canadian-centric, although that wasn't my direct intent. Victoria doesn't really care for people outside of her old community; she doesn't like the local rebels from the rest of the city and with Shayna being a transplant from the west coast? Gives Victoria all the more excuse to open up on her. This attutide has little bearing on real life and is just Victoria being a bitch and to a certain extend, an extremist. Again, more on that later...
The details about Toronto are a side effect of Rick's nostalgia and my attempts at building a setting. I hope they aren't too overbearing.
Well, it's more a ShadowKnight fic than a Trek fic at the moment. Canon doesn't have much to say about the Eugenics Wars aside from the retcon and even less on the the exact details of the Mirror Universe. ;)