Captain Vorpatril’s Plotbunnies
Miles flew down, quite suddenly one day, and practically kidnapped the poor woman out of her semi-retirement. (Ch. 10)
Yevgeniya D’Aubade considered the conjunction of deep brown oxide and invasive cowbane dispassionately. It was serendipity that her garden abutted an area of sulphides and oxides whose dull but determined colours she found pleasing, and chance that a cowbane spore could blow so far west and take root just where its lustrous ochre should so compliment the oxide. But it was also beautiful, a conjunction only South Continent could produce, and both the speckled texture of the oxide and the wartiness of cowbane would lend themselves well—very well, in fact—to micromosaic figuration. She used her wristcom to record the image, but in doing so was obliged to notice the blinking message light. Resignedly she keyed the accept.
“What is it, Mila?”
“Inbound aircar, Yeva. Big and shiny, with stingships.”
Gregor said, “All right, now you can look,” and Laisa opened her eyes and instantly began to laugh.
Mark couldn’t take his eyes off Miles’s blank face–colorless, expressionless. He remembered another blank face just like it, and couldn’t stop remembering; it was bad enough in those first minutes to call up his old early thought-redirecting instructions from his very first therapist. Pay attention to your present surroundings. Identify the trigger.
Not so much a trigger as a bomb-blast. His father was dead. Fifteen years later, time had done what Galen could not.
And one more, much (much) longer:
I won’t quote this one. I’ll just give you the teaser, which you may consider very promising, as I did:
LMB famously has a rule-of-thumb in writing, especially where poor old Miles is concerned — when in doubt, have the worst possible thing happen. But suppose that were turned around, and instead the best thing happened? or best things, unstoppably, in Milesian droves, and for pretty much everyone?
Honestly, could anything be better to start off 2022 than a story where best things happen in Milesian droves to pretty much everyone?
I will add that the writing is okay, but not as excellent as in the By and Rish fanfiction.
If you haven’t got that one, by the way, it is here: A Bit Too Much Good Work.
If you hit “entire work” and “download,” you can download a mobi file and send it to your Kindle (or a different format and send it to any device you like). You may have already known that, but I didn’t, and thanks to Craig, who pointed me to these stories and also told me to look for the download button.
Please Feel Free to Share:
I once described Bracketyjack’s fanfic as “workmanlike.” Where he really shines is criticism. He wrote a critique of David Weber’s Honor Harrington series that is really excellent. (It’s an exegesis in how not to let your series get away from you.)
“The Exasperating Case of David Weber
or
The Slow Death of the Honorverse”
by John Leonard (available from kindle store.)
The only fanfic I remember reading is Steven Brust’s Firefly novel. Given his writing chops, that sets the bar really high for me when it comes to fanfic reading. Besides, so many books, so little time! Though I suppose some writers started honing their skills by writing fanfic.
I really enjoyed Cpt. Vorpatril’s Plotbunnies—a fun way of embroidering scenes barely hinted by the novels, and a good echo of LMB’s style. Saving the rest for a day that needs a bit of a pick me up. Thank you for sharing!
This was a rabbit hole I did not need to go down… and yet, I did. So thank you? I read the very brief piece about Mark and Miles that occurs right at the end of Cryoburn, and I was moved and impressed. By all means, continue to recommend and bits that are high quality, like that was.
I really liked Captain Vorpatril’s plotbunnies.
They fit the tone and original story well, and add nice glimpses into glossed-over sidestories.
The fourth is a whole book in itself, clearly written after Winterfair Gifts but before Diplomatic Immunity, and it clashes with the official story in Diplomatic immunity and Captain Vorpatril’s alliance. The writing does not capture LMB’s tone or the flavor of the original stories, and I found several of the (minor) characters gratingly off from the perception I had from them.
There were a few earlier points where I thought “We’re nearing the end, one more chapter to finish off and we’re done” – but then the book went on and on into ever more ill-fitting escapades and character adaptations. I wasn’t taking notes but I think the first time was around chapter 11 or 12; if they’d finished it up there it would have been okay – not an impossible amount of off-canon events to reconcile, as all the new ideas could have been percolating in the deeply classified background while the more personal adventures of the later books were going on.
The second time was at chapter 15, but then it went on into chapter 18, even adding some unneccesarily mysterious cats behaving in an uncatlike disciplined way participating in important ceremonies.
That latter third really broke my belief in the story. I’m not sorry I read it, though too much of the small type made me dizzy, but it won’t mentally intergrate into the real stories (as the plotbunnies snippets easily will), and as I am incapable of keeping two different-but-the-same worlds together-but-apart in my head I’ll have to jettison it.
…I was just tapping my watch going “where’s the next Penric novella? I need something…” And then I saw this. XD I also completely forgot how much I enjoyed the Black Dog series and came back here, delighted to find I have a lot of catching up to do.
The fanfic novel I linked here is enjoyable, but not that well written and definitely off-canon. On the other hand, I certainly enjoyed it.
“A Bit Too Much Good Work” is really excellent.