No Limits: From "Loose Ends" to "Alice, on the Edge of Nig..

I already posted my comments for "A Little Getaway" and after finishing
"Stone and Anvil" I continued reading this book. Now I have also read
the first five stories and my reaction is very mixed.

S P O I L E R

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Loose Ends

I enjoyed that story very much. It was an interesting idea to look at
the consequences of "The Pegasus" and combine it with another adventure
similar to "Double or Nothing" including some interesting spy gadgets,
politics, action but also some good character moments and accurate,
interesting references to what happened in earlier NF. I found it to be
an entertaining story, also because Calhoun is working with a Romulan
who is one of the good guys and who actually saves his life. Now I keep
hoping that I will one day be able to read a full novel about an
adventure story of agent Calhoun.

All That Glisters...

When I heard that this is a story about Shelby and the Borg, I was
excited. Unfortunately this story is not what I expected at all. In
essence it shows us how Shelby discovered the Borg "footprint". It is
certainly not a bad story but the topic is hardly exciting. I have my
doubts that it would be possible to write a really gripping story with
these ingredients. At least we learned a bit more about Shelby and her
background. Hm, of course now that I know "Stone and Anvil", I had to
wonder about her position in this story as an engineer. Did Shelby lose
her confidence that much when she repeated her fourth year at the
Academy that she abandoned the command path and in this story we see
that she changed her mind and wanted to return to it?

Waiting for G`Doh, or, How I Learned to Stop Moving and Hate People

The title itself already amused me and I thought, ok, I don`t like
Kebron much but maybe this will be fun. It was! Nearly the whole time I
was laughing when I read the story and had a great time. The situation
in which Kebron was put was already hilarious enough but what he went
through afterwards - I kept wondering what else will happen to make his
assignment even more difficult. I also found it interesting and amusing
to see how Kebron developed his fondness of fish. The end was a surprise
to me, at least his ordeal did some good after all. Wonderful story, it
is certainly my favourite of the first five.

Lefler`s Logs

When I reached this story I was tempted to skip it and continue reading
somewhere else in the book, but I kept to my original intention to read
the non-PAD stories in the order they are in the book. My problem is, I
have never been a fan of Lefler`s logs and I don`t like it how Robin
Lefler has been developed in NF so far. I just didn`t expect anything
from this story I will particularly enjoy.

I think it was ok, certainly not bad, but it was indeed not one of my
favourites. It seems to show the background of "Alice, on the Edge of
Night" and a more detailed look at what we learned about Robin and her
parents` history, especially in "Fire on High". What we saw was more
details about a very unhappy and lonely childhood but also Robin`s
touching determination to make her mother happy and to be loved when she
was a child. Nevertheless, my opinion of Robin Lefler hasn`t changed: It
is time for her to grow up now, at least a little!

Alice, on the Edge of Night

It has been a very long time since I read a story that annoyed and
disgusted me more. Is it well written? Definitely, yes. But I very much
dislike the messages behind it as well as the overly dark tone of this
story. It looked to me as if the author was looking for ways to make
these people as screwed up as possible, just to be more sensationalist
and get under the skin of the readers.

I very much felt with Morgan Lefler written by Peter David. I can
understand very well that a virtually immortal woman like her can get
tired of life and found her dilemma if she should use the weapon she
found in "Fire on High" or live for her daughter very touching. But Ilsa
J. Bick perverted this and turned Morgan Lefler into a woman I can`t
find likeable. I can understand and sympathize that she wanted to kill
herself but I don`t sympathize with her decision to murder her daughter
at the same time! Yes, you can find explanations or more accurately,
excuses, why people do something like that in the story. But I find them
unacceptable and would have appreciated it to at the very least read
this in the story as well.

But, no, the author doesn`t even stop here: Morgan Lefler`s psychologist
is even worse. Unable and unwilling to accept that his wife sees another
man, he wants to kill her and her lover and then himself. Again, we find
explanations or better, excuses for why people do something like that.
But I find them even less acceptable than when the story focused on
Morgan and her daughter. A man like Pointer can`t convince me that he is
in love with wife. To be in love means to care for the wellbeing of the
other person. What this man was is being obsessed, someone who thinks he
owns her and if he loses her, then nobody else should ever have her. I
didn`t have any sympathy whatsoever for this guy and why the woman
decided to stay with him after all is completely beyond me. She even
wanted to kill herself for some strange reason but at the end they seem
to forgive each other.

I always hate it when after people committed crimes, reporters are
looking for excuses, reporting about the bad childhood the person had,
what bad influences society had in his life but at the end, it is often
forgotten that unless that person is mentally ill, he is fully
responsible for his actions and his decisions. He made these choices,
nobody made them for him and he has to bear the consequences for it.
Morgan Lefler knew very well what she was doing, as was Pointer. If this
story was intended to get my sympathies for them, it failed. I only had
sympathy for the people who nearly became victims.

From what I have read so far, "Well of Souls" seems to be written in a
similar style and I am really not in the mood to read a full novel of
this kind. Maybe I will read it eventually but I will mainly buy it
because I want to have the full set of "The Lost Era".

I read that some people like her style. I don`t. Therefore I hope she
won`t write any more NF.


Baerbel Haddrell

I had the opposite reaction to Alice on the Edge of Night, as noted
above in my previous post.
I REALLY enjoyed that story.


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