Entropy Effect

June 3rd, 2008
by Liz Henry
entropy-effect

It’s 1981! Do you know where your Star Trek novel is?

I’m on page 30 of Vonda McIntyre’s The Entropy Effect and already we have a stern red-haired judo expert head of security named Mandala Flynn who’s “relaxing the fierce tautness” of Sulu’s body with a pummelling massage. Then they end up in the hot tub, naked. I am *not kidding*. Who knew the Enterprise had a Japanese soaking tub? Then they talk about Tale of Genji tell each other how their favorite books are Frankenstein and Babel-17.

Let the awesomeness continue!

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Filed under Books & Literature, female characters | Comments (4)

4 Responses to “Entropy Effect”

  1. tycho garen on June 3, 2008 12:10 pm

    yeah. there were some of those trek novels written 10 and 20 years ago. Melissa Scott has a couple of Voyager/DS9 novels that I haven’t read, but I think they probably promise to be pretty good.

    There’s also Uhura’s Song, which I think is generally considered to be a really amazing novel Trek or not.

  2. Laura Q on June 3, 2008 12:34 pm

    is mandala flynn a girl or a boy?

    it would be so delish if sulu swung both ways … a nice tribute to geo. takei (who i just heard is planning to get married to his long-time partner now that he can, in california).

  3. Ide Cyan on June 3, 2008 12:35 pm

    Tie-in novels can get quite creative when they’re not hampered by the necessity to maintain a status quo relative to an ongoing series — that’s when the Reset Button syndrome kicks in. Until the revival of the franchise with The Next Generation, the writers had ample opportunity to expand TOS’s universe because the only new canon were sporadic movies, and Doctor Who had a long fertile run of New Adventures and so forth between the old and the new series.

    Basically, those long dry runs between TV series are when fanfic takes over and gets a little bit of credit and official sanction. :-)

    (ETA: And I do believe that Star Trek had a *lot* more women writing tie-ins than Doctor Who ever did. For ages Kate Orman was the only woman getting published in Doctor Who, even though the New Adventures began after Star Trek:The Next Generation! The Left-Handed Hummingbird was published in 1993!)

  4. Liz Henry on June 3, 2008 12:47 pm

    Mandala Flynn is All Woman! Every taut muscley inch!

    Oh I forgot to mention that she and Sulu are having a contest to see which of them can go the longest without cutting their hair. OMGWTFBBQ. So Flynn has hair down to her butt and Sulu’s hair is lovingly described as it swooshes in front of his eyes.

    I really look forward to noticing all sorts of fic tropes… is tropes even the word I want here… Someone help me out. It is that before I read much fanfic and was aware of its gender politics and subversive things it often does, I might not have read Entropy Effect with an eye to see the fic roots of it. Kirk and another Captain (female) named Hunter (Native American?) are getting into Deep Angsty Relationship territory as well as the Sulu/Flynn pairing. I’m on page 50 or something and already want to write Flynn/Hunter fic.

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