Day of the Dead, by Neil Gaiman
Opening of Act 3:INT. SHERIDAN'S QUARTERS.
Rebo and Zooty and Sheridan and Delenn are having a pleasant time. They're up to dessert, which is fresh kreebish1. Sheridan's link breeps.
CORWIN (V.0.) Can I talk to you privately, Mr. President?
Sheridan stands up.
SHERIDAN (to his guests) I won't be a moment. Enjoy the kreebish.
1 I discovered when I was on set that Kreebish is pink. I never got to try it, so I don't know what it tastes like.
Another of the Gaiman Humble Bundle books, this is his script for an episode of Babylon 5, a show that I never really watched. Death and the afterlife are recurrent preoccupations of Gaiman's, most obviously in The Graveyard Book and the portrayals of Death and Hell in Sandman, but always present in the background. It takes some chutzpah however to make a Halloween episode of a relatively hard sf show like Babylon 5, and I think it more or less succeeds on those terms, certainly better than when Doctor Who tried the same. Without knowing much about any of the regular characters, you can still appreciate the different emotional reactions that they have when confronted with dead loved ones, each of whom has a story to tell - I think I was most grabbed by the dynamic between Captain Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scroggins) and her reesurrected friend - possibly lover - Zoe (Bridget Flanery), perhaps because it was less rooted in the continuity.
I didn't really get how the comedy of the two magicians fitted in - it seemed a rather awkward celebrity cameo, with an additionally awkward call to political action from Sheridan at the end. Gaiman also supplies some interesting footnotes and commentary on what it feels like to see your words become screen action. I would have found it more interesting if I knew the show better.
This was my top unread book acquired in 2015. Next on that list is The Last Witness, by K.J. Parker.
Rebo and Zooty and Sheridan and Delenn are having a pleasant time. They're up to dessert, which is fresh kreebish1. Sheridan's link breeps.
CORWIN (V.0.) Can I talk to you privately, Mr. President?
Sheridan stands up.
SHERIDAN (to his guests) I won't be a moment. Enjoy the kreebish.
1 I discovered when I was on set that Kreebish is pink. I never got to try it, so I don't know what it tastes like.
Another of the Gaiman Humble Bundle books, this is his script for an episode of Babylon 5, a show that I never really watched. Death and the afterlife are recurrent preoccupations of Gaiman's, most obviously in The Graveyard Book and the portrayals of Death and Hell in Sandman, but always present in the background. It takes some chutzpah however to make a Halloween episode of a relatively hard sf show like Babylon 5, and I think it more or less succeeds on those terms, certainly better than when Doctor Who tried the same. Without knowing much about any of the regular characters, you can still appreciate the different emotional reactions that they have when confronted with dead loved ones, each of whom has a story to tell - I think I was most grabbed by the dynamic between Captain Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scroggins) and her reesurrected friend - possibly lover - Zoe (Bridget Flanery), perhaps because it was less rooted in the continuity.
I didn't really get how the comedy of the two magicians fitted in - it seemed a rather awkward celebrity cameo, with an additionally awkward call to political action from Sheridan at the end. Gaiman also supplies some interesting footnotes and commentary on what it feels like to see your words become screen action. I would have found it more interesting if I knew the show better.
This was my top unread book acquired in 2015. Next on that list is The Last Witness, by K.J. Parker.