Why I love DW II (and hate it):
I know, I know; the last bit is harsh. Maybe a bit too harsh. I'll get to my problems with DW II in a bit. But first, the fulsome praise.
The greatest strength of DW II is, of course, the main character, Doug Blackblood. He is, unlike so many of the Mary Sues and S.I.s, he's a fully realized character, for good or ill--mostly good, sometimes ill but always compelling. He's funny and smart and doesn't take himself too seriously and, above all else, he deals with his problems without getting so damn angsty about it. Doug's a fun guy.
The writing, too, is great. Madigan is actually coming off as a sympathetic character. And the plot is going in directions I would not have guessed at. It's surprising, innovative, respectful of the source material but not derivative (or at least not so derivative that you'd notice without squinting and being bitter and even then you'd have to make up most of it). The characters from the series are the characters from the series and the original characters fit in the world well. Character, plot, dialogue--all great. But it all goes back to Doug.
So why would i hate DW II?
Again, it's Doug.
Here's the "ill" part of Doug--he's surprisingly self-righteous. For someone who claims that no-one who's good can ever be comfortable with their "good-ness," he's amazingly high-handed, preachy, and arrogant in his supposed moral high ground. His attitude is just wrong-headed.
All this goes to the whole "Boomers as slaves" analogy. And I say analogy because I think it is so. Should I be this turned-off from a work that I otherwise enjoy just because Mr. Schroeck has a different interpretation of Boomers than I do?
Yes. Maybe I'm being unfair, but there it is. I was thrown way for a loop when Doug accused the Knight Sabers of being slave-wranglers or whatever it was.
Mostly, it was just because during the course of the canon, the Knight Sabers were never seen to destroy ANY boomer that wasn't a) out killing people, "rampaging" if you will and b) part of a scheme by some group, most of the time GENOM or Largo.
And this also has to do with the fact that I don't see Boomers as being enslaved (except of course for those poor 33-S boomers in space) mostly because they are not sentient (except for a few exceptions, and those jerky military boomers. Man, are they jerks. And I'd argue as to their "sentience" there, too). And I realize that this is a lot of exceptions, but 33-S's and experiments like Cynthia are exceptions to the rule, boomers built with sentience.
This wouldn't be so bad if Doug wasn't so darn high-handed about it. Based on my take on Doug from the previous chapters, I kept on expecting him to sit down and have a spirited philosophical debate with Sylia Stingray on Boomer intelligence and the morality of it all.
I guess it just seems to me that this "conflict" was done simply to have Doug and the Knight Sabers fight. And I realize that Doug is from a super-hero inspired world, where conflict resolution and moral decisions are made in a giant fight. It just seems distasteful, and it lessens the Knight Sabers but it mostly just makes Doug into a badly preachy character, somewhat cliched and just not smart. It lessened Doug more than it did the KS and just seems so cliche. So . . . Mary Sue.
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Doug's wrong. Maybe he's going to get his well-deserved comeupance soon. Maybe this was all done to show how Doug isn't perfect.
Or maybe it wasn't.
Could Mr. Shroeck have a different interpretation of Boomers and as such has his character do what is the right and noble thing and I should just accept it? Maybe. That doesn't mean that I have to like it.
But that doesn't mean that I'll stop reading, either, nor stop loving the things I love about DW II. And hating the things I hate about it, too.
So until Doug stumbles into the Telletubbies world, make mine DW.
I know, I know; the last bit is harsh. Maybe a bit too harsh. I'll get to my problems with DW II in a bit. But first, the fulsome praise.
The greatest strength of DW II is, of course, the main character, Doug Blackblood. He is, unlike so many of the Mary Sues and S.I.s, he's a fully realized character, for good or ill--mostly good, sometimes ill but always compelling. He's funny and smart and doesn't take himself too seriously and, above all else, he deals with his problems without getting so damn angsty about it. Doug's a fun guy.
The writing, too, is great. Madigan is actually coming off as a sympathetic character. And the plot is going in directions I would not have guessed at. It's surprising, innovative, respectful of the source material but not derivative (or at least not so derivative that you'd notice without squinting and being bitter and even then you'd have to make up most of it). The characters from the series are the characters from the series and the original characters fit in the world well. Character, plot, dialogue--all great. But it all goes back to Doug.
So why would i hate DW II?
Again, it's Doug.
Here's the "ill" part of Doug--he's surprisingly self-righteous. For someone who claims that no-one who's good can ever be comfortable with their "good-ness," he's amazingly high-handed, preachy, and arrogant in his supposed moral high ground. His attitude is just wrong-headed.
All this goes to the whole "Boomers as slaves" analogy. And I say analogy because I think it is so. Should I be this turned-off from a work that I otherwise enjoy just because Mr. Schroeck has a different interpretation of Boomers than I do?
Yes. Maybe I'm being unfair, but there it is. I was thrown way for a loop when Doug accused the Knight Sabers of being slave-wranglers or whatever it was.
Mostly, it was just because during the course of the canon, the Knight Sabers were never seen to destroy ANY boomer that wasn't a) out killing people, "rampaging" if you will and b) part of a scheme by some group, most of the time GENOM or Largo.
And this also has to do with the fact that I don't see Boomers as being enslaved (except of course for those poor 33-S boomers in space) mostly because they are not sentient (except for a few exceptions, and those jerky military boomers. Man, are they jerks. And I'd argue as to their "sentience" there, too). And I realize that this is a lot of exceptions, but 33-S's and experiments like Cynthia are exceptions to the rule, boomers built with sentience.
This wouldn't be so bad if Doug wasn't so darn high-handed about it. Based on my take on Doug from the previous chapters, I kept on expecting him to sit down and have a spirited philosophical debate with Sylia Stingray on Boomer intelligence and the morality of it all.
I guess it just seems to me that this "conflict" was done simply to have Doug and the Knight Sabers fight. And I realize that Doug is from a super-hero inspired world, where conflict resolution and moral decisions are made in a giant fight. It just seems distasteful, and it lessens the Knight Sabers but it mostly just makes Doug into a badly preachy character, somewhat cliched and just not smart. It lessened Doug more than it did the KS and just seems so cliche. So . . . Mary Sue.
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Doug's wrong. Maybe he's going to get his well-deserved comeupance soon. Maybe this was all done to show how Doug isn't perfect.
Or maybe it wasn't.
Could Mr. Shroeck have a different interpretation of Boomers and as such has his character do what is the right and noble thing and I should just accept it? Maybe. That doesn't mean that I have to like it.
But that doesn't mean that I'll stop reading, either, nor stop loving the things I love about DW II. And hating the things I hate about it, too.
So until Doug stumbles into the Telletubbies world, make mine DW.