Fan Fiction Absurdity and Sleepless Pondering

Rating 3/5

The Vienna. Travelling where no man, woman or AI has gone before and asking the most important question in the universe; is it possible for a human to have ‘relations’ with an alien?

No this is not a smut novel. At least that wasn’t how I recall Jilly Paddock pitching her book, Warbird to me at World Fantasy Con last year. Fan fiction at its most absurd, Warbird is a campy space adventure romance that really challenged my tastes as a reader.

It follows Captain Gresham and Commander Murray, two intergalactic officers selected to fly the AI piloted spaceship, Vienna. During one of their space jumps Gresham and Murrey recover a stranded vessel carrying aboard an alien throuple on the run.  Teaming up with their new arachnoid allies, the Vienna and its crew must try to prevent an interstellar war from escalating between their home worlds and seek the answers needed to clear their names.

Even if you aren’t a dedicated fan like myself, it’s clear Star Trek is the main inspiring element to Warbird. The book’s compact plot certainly offers the campiness I’d expect from the original series. Characters like Quinn Gresham embodies a gangly limbed Captain Kirk while Rachel Murray gives off the vibes of Commander Nyota but with the looks and figure of Barbarella. To put it simply, Paddock offers up the space opera you’d expect; intergalactic battles, high end stakes and first contact. But if you’re expecting more, don’t hold your breath.

Imagine a space ship flown by a crew just wanting the universe to get along and not be judged for their freedom by their superiors’ prudishness. Sounds fun but probably not in the way it should be. It certainly proves Paddock’s willingness to take her writing beyond the boundaries that would have been as she told me ‘Restricting back then’. For a crew trying to save the universe they sure do have the time to explore their bodies and share their findings with human and non-human alike. Feminism is a heavy theme in this book. The women certainly like to make it clear to the men they are just as good as them, which I felt was a fundamental problem. Not the feminism but the repetitive matter of fact statements made by characters now and then. Some dialogue interactions failed to flow naturally within the story and felt stilted in delivering its theme. I also felt the relationships specifically Quinn and Rachel’s to be rushed and hard to decipher. While it could be argued Warbird’s algorithm for compatibility is what shortened this development, I still got the impression there was an indecisiveness. Then again, a part of me wasn’t against their growing curiosity for at least two of their eight-legged insectile allies, Andra and Ildie. Though it did leave me staring for weeks at the ceiling, asking the question ‘How?”

Personally, it was Warbird; the AI housed within the starship Vienna, who played the constant stable factor in this story. His sarcasm and fascination for the sex lives of his crew offered up some amusing moments. Combined with the story’s exaggerative qualities, it made Warbird absurdly enjoyable.

Whether you’re a trekkie or not, looking for some brain numbing writing or a classic space opera Warbird might be the thing to take you into the unknown of fan fiction. It’s by no means perfect but there’s something appealing about it.