--- Bryon Daly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > "Marvin Long, Jr." wrote: <snipped most of good discussion re: ST-TOS & TNG>
> > Hm. While I agree that the best SF tends to have > good characters, when I > > *think* of great SF I tend to think of the big > picture. I loved Dune, for > > instance, but I have no particular attachment to > Paul Atreides as such. I > > love Asimov's Foundation series, but in the > original trilogy Seldon is > > little more than a glyph; and I'd be hard-pressed > to remember the name of > > the rest of the characters (aside from The Mule). > But it's the idea, the > > universe they inhabit, that infatuates me. I > loved _Earth_ and I enjoyed > > _Kiln People_ but at the moment I can't remember > the names of any of the > > characters, even the protagonists. But the big > pictures linger. Forge of > > God? Blood Music? Great books, but I can't > remember a name from either. > > I agree. For me, the character names fade rapidly, > while the universe and the > general story stick with me much better. In that > thread a while back about 10 best > SF heroes, I was hard pressed to come up with any > names, even though I've read a ton of SF. While for me, if I don't care about at least one character (which means s/he has to be well-written, 3-dimensional and preferably shows some growth/change during the course of the book/series), I won't like it well enough to re-read, or to remember more than the barest outline of plot. _Heart of the Comet_ was interesting, but didn't engage me; same for _Murasaki_ (?I think that was the title - Brin co-authored it). OTOH, I adore the characters of _Uplift W_ and _Startide R_, and have read both 5-7 times. Debbi who much prefers Picard to Kirk (although I too really liked the TOS 'troika' of K, S & B) __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
