B5 Rewatch: 1x12, 15, 16, 21 (oops)

Hmmm. The website I'm watching these on apparently has put three of the episodes slightly out of order. I think I'll be back on track once I watch ( potential spoiler )

( Tentacles. )

Book Rec

Since I taught my sci-fi class this past semester, I've been wanting to get back into print sci-fi. More specifically, I really wanted to find a book or book series which emulated the epic scope, focus on political/diplomatic concerns, incredibly well-developed aliens/alien cultures, superb characterization, and strong female characters of Babylon 5, or, to a lesser extent and minus the aliens, BSG. (If you know of any, PLEASE PLEASE REC THEM TO ME I AM DYING OVER HERE.) Basically, I wanted space opera with the world-building of, say, the Honor Harrington series, but with a more sociological/political and less militaristic focus. I could do with something in the line of the Vorkosigan series* or The Sparrow, too.

Anyway. When I ventured to the local used book emporium for travel reading, I picked up Grasp the Stars, by Jennifer Wingert (2004), and it was just what I wanted! Of the five main characters, three are women (all of them awesome), and about two-thirds of the supporting characters are either female or members of an alien species which has seven genders and generally gets "it" as a pronoun. All of the good guys are funny and crafty and brave (I'm pretty sure Rachel takes a page out of Susan Ivanova's book), and the bad guys have real and understandable motivations. There are plenty of ambiguous characters, too; few are all they seem. The narrative takes place over the course of about a week, and in that week we get two political conspiracies, a series of diplomatic incidents nearly leading to interstellar war, and a bunch of characters testing their limits and finding them more flexible than they thought. The aliens are really, really alien, biologically, sociologically, and psychologically. (I thought this was the strongest point of the book, actually; the Rofa in particular are as fully-realized as any human culture. There is a little Planet of Hats troping going on, but the cultures were so interesting that I didn't notice it until after I'd finished the book.) Even the humans have changed quite a bit in the last four hundred years; after a truly destructive war, violence is not quite a thing of the past, but is considered much more shocking and reprehensible than it is now. Given that a common trope of some sci-fi is peaceful aliens running into impetuous humans, I thought Wingert's reversal of it with berserker aliens and passive humans was interesting. Plus, she had to justify our new outlook with backstory, unlike if she had just had some peace-loving aliens who had always been that way for no particular reason.

The only thing I didn't like about it was ( potential spoiler )

* Speaking of which: NEW MILES BOOK LATER THIS YEAR!!!

B5 Rewatch: I forget the numbers

Uuuuuggghhh, it's hot. It's 8:30 and it's still 90F. We usually have another month before it gets like this.

Nothing to do but huddle in front of the air conditioner and watch more B5, I suppose.

( Legacies, both parts of Voice in the Wilderness )

Dood, I only have two eps to go before I've finished S1!

Music Recs Round Extra, Extra

To make up for my laxness in reccing over the past few months--and because I just downloaded a bunch of files for free from the Nashville Public Library--here's a short set.

The Jayhawks
Save It for a Rainy Day - The tune and instrumentation are peppy and jangly and happy-making. Despite the title and subject matter of the verses, it exudes sunlight.

Shawn Colvin
You know her from "Sunny Came Home," one of the more deserving songs to win a passel of Grammys and get played to death on the radio.* But did you know she made several albums before and after that one? The earliest ones were often more in the style of Suzanne Vega, while the later ones continue the folk/pop sound she developed for A Few Small Repairs. Attend.

Bound to You - Lately I've been interested in songs about devotion and commitment, whether romantic or platonic (I think it has to do with something I'm trying to write). This one, and indeed the whole album it comes from (2001's Whole New You) is very much about that. Interestingly, I think I actually heard it first when someone used it in a Sam/Jack (SG-1) vid.

A Matter of Minutes - From that same album. Somewhat slower and more contemplative, but fairly similar subject matter.

Climb On (A Back That's Strong) - From one of her earlier albums (1992's Fat City), although it sounds like it could come from the same one as the first two, rather than nine years earlier, and the lyrics address the same theme of loyalty and devotion. I find myself singing along with it a lot.

Brandi Carlile
Think of her (or at least the songs I'm reccing) as a stripped-down version of the Indigo Girls, or a more-country/less-gospel Patty Griffin. I'm not that familiar with KT Tunstall, but I think there's a comparison to be made there as well.

Closer to You - The peppiest of the three I'm reccing. Fun, and I love the guitar line between the verses.

Fall Apart Again - See the entries above about songs featuring commitment and loyalty. Plus there's still something about the chiming guitar I really enjoy.

That Year - The music is gorgeous, as is Carlile's voice when she reaches for the sky. I thought that was all there was to it, and then I read the lyrics and might have started to cry a bit.


* Completely irrelevant tangent: That song was all over the short period in which I listened to mainstream radio (approximately 1997-2000, when I was in middle and high school). We had a station in Nashville that was technically "alternative," but in reality appeared to play pretty much anything as long as it could be plausibly categorized as "rock" and wasn't by the frigging Backstreet Boys. I mostly remember it playing the Smashing Pumpkins, Sarah McLachlan, Sister Hazel, and the Cure, but I'm pretty sure that song made an appearance on this station as well. They also had a local bands program on Wednesday nights featuring some pretty good stuff. Naturally, in 2000 or so, it changed formats to country (because what Nashville really needed was another country station, you know?). My set in high school and I were all devastated, because this kind of thing is the end of the world when you're sixteen. [/completely irrelevant tangent]