briarwood | A little Sentinel moment...

I'm not sure what I did to deserve it, but this showed up in my "recommendations" on Amazon.

There's no "official" synopsis of the book, but one of the reviews is nicely detailed.

Does this sound like a TS AU fic or what?

The book is set in a world, aparently a far future human colony, where the population can only be protected against frequent natural disasters by the special talents of two groups of people - "Sources" and "Shields".

Sources can "channel" natural forces and dispel coming disasters: Shields protect the Sources and stop them dying or going insane while they do so. In principle any source can work with any shield, but in practice most sources form a natural bond with one particular shield. The bond is involuntary, neither partner having any choice about who they form a pair with, and once formed it lasts for the rest of the life of both partners - it is so strong that the death of either partner causes the demise of the other.

Most pairs form a friendly and professional relationship, some ignore the advice of their training college by becoming lovers, and others find themselves tied for life to someone they can't stand.

Lord Shintaro Karish, brother of the Duke of Westsea, is a Source. He is heroic, brave, virile, talented, charming, disgustingly handsome, and apart from being something of a rake, far too good to be true. Every young shield, expecially (sic) the female ones, hopes to bond with him, except for Dunleavy Mallorough (Lee), a practical merchant's daughter who wants to work with someone calm, steady, and reliable. So guess who she gets stuck with.

[Snipped]...The relationship between source and shield is supposed to be much more equal than this cover art makes out, and Lee is certainly not the kind or doormat who would put up with any such nonsense. However it does give a very good idea of the initial reaction of the practical merchant's daughter on being yoked for life to someone she percieves as a brilliant but pampered and arrogant aristocrat. During their adventures they also meet people who really do think that shields are practically the slaves of their sources.

The interesting thing about a lot of Sentinel AUs is the fanon is so far from the actual canon that you really only need to "file off the serial numbers" to transform it into original fic. That review makes it sound (to me) like this is exactly what someone's done.

So, is she a fanfic writer? Or is this just a weird coincidence? What d'ya think?

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Could well have been. I'd guess yeah, it's such a fanficcy type premise. Especially the warning against becoming lovers in some senses.

I remember reading that shards of honour by Bujold was originally fanfic and I know a fanfic piece on Bujold was pulled down to be converted to original. So, it does happen.

I know several fanfic writers who have turned to original fic, and I've read several novellas in small press publications that are definitely Sentinel-inspired fics. You get to recognise the elements after a while.

Hell, I thought of doing it myself, with Predator, but Dexter sort of beat me to it :-)

Oh man. If it IS a coincidence, it's a damn good one. ;-) Are you going to get it - even out of curiosity's sake?

Spend money on cheesy romance when I can read fanfic? Not likely. If it weren't het I might...

LMAO.... good point. ;-)

Oh. Someone on my flist was talking about Blood Noir the other day and how much they were enjoying it, which sort of set me off.... And she hasn't commented back yet either. Hm. But yes. I was amused and thought of you. :D

Yeah. The thing about Blood Noir is that all the problematic stuff (well, most of it) is concentrated near the end. It's all plotty and nice (if unbelievable) to begin with. So if she's only partway through she might not have gotten there yet.

Oooh, sneaky. Apparently "holding it together" for an entire book was too much to ask? ;-)

Did you ever read the Merry Gentry books? I had the first one and it was meh, but couldn't get into them after that.

I'm quite fond of the Merry books. They have a lot of the same issues as Anita but the sex was integral to the story right from the beginning, so it's a lot less irritating. Many of the issues that piss me off in Anita are less problematic in Merry because you're dealing with entirely non-human characters in a society with totally different rules.

I quite like the characters. I don't like Merry herself - she's Mary Sue, just like Anita - but the supporting cast is cool. For a while it looked as if LKH was going down the same all-porn-no-plot road as with Anita, but A Lick of Frost made up for that in a big way: not only was there actual plot, but it was plot that moved the overall story forward!

Don't get me wrong: those books are not good and she needs a tough editor in the worst way. But I quite like them.

Seems the whole needing a tough editor is getting to be an epidemic. ;-)

I'm not sure if I could find the one or two I had from before the move, which means I need to start from scratch. And hey, maybe if she's ruined Anita for me completely, I can enjoy these this time around. ;-)

It wouldn't be the first time someone changed the names of an AU and tried to get it published.

I've not seen it done successfully yet though...maybe this is a first. ;p

Well, I know

geonncannon's novel World On Fire started as a Stargate SG-1 AU. That's due out next year.

I guess that's the only one I know for sure started as fanfic.

That DOES sound like TS fanfic. Too bad it's het. *g*

Too bad it's het. *g*

My thoughts exactly. If it'd been same-sex I might even have bought a copy.

Yeah, I was reading away and thinking, "I've got to order this!" and then the "she" came into it. Shows what a slash mindset I have. *g*

A little Sentinel moment...

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