One of My Issues with Most SF Novels

Tuesday, August 23, 2005 9:52 PM

So upon the recommendation of another browncoat, I grabbed a book from the library that Bruce Boxleitner wrote called _Frontier Earth_. Yeah, it's a bit of an SF Western mix. Definitely not like Firefly at all.

The one thing I definitely have issue with are writers who create alien species and then have them either named in really bizarre ways or have them talk without bothering to really translate it (even by inference) for the readers.

There comes a point where no matter how many consonants you run together or however you in'terr'upt the word with apostrophes, it just becomes less believeable to the reader. I need a buy in...and being able to read and pronounce a major character in a book or to understand what he's saying is a major buy in. I can't understand this guy and Boxlietner really doesn't build the suspense the way he could. But I'm gonna finish the book because I'm told it does pick up a bit after the first 100 pages.

Am I the only one who feels this way or have I been spoiled by not having aliens in Firefly?

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