Don't I Honestly Have Anything Better To Do With My Time?

Those of you on the other creative bits filter on my regular journal know this already, but just in case...

I think the long-threatened Kaldor City fanfic has finally emerged from the primeval ooze that is my noggin.

I'm going to start outlining it on the train. I've got half of it pretty well sorted, but the other half is proving bitchy. Business as usual, in other words.

Mind you, given that I want to keep it short (I'm contemplating writing it as a fanscript, so assume a 'running time' of 45 - 55 minutes) that first half might be all I need... It'd be a bit simple, though.

A certain someone is to blame for setting this off. He knows who he is. ;)

Kaldor City

As provoked by various factors, I've been listening to the Kaldor City audios, again.

Today, it was Checkmate and Storm Mine. I think they're shaping up as my favorites of the run, warts and all. I say warts because, yes, viewed in a certain light, both stories can be seen as not a little smug and terribly twee. Then again, that's true of the entire series, bless its metaphorical cotton socks.

A particular strength, I think, is that it's essentially a two-part story, rather than two single stories. The individual episodes can stand on their own, but are best when listened to in close succession. One of my complaints about the Kaldor City series is the relative brevity of the episodes - I've mentioned before that I've been spoiled by Big Finish and their comparatively lavish running-time. The previous stories often cross the line from fast-paced to rushed - painfully so in Hidden Persuaders. The change in pace with Checkmate/Storm Mine is one I appreciate.

Yeah, listeners could sneer at the chessboard metaphor/narrative device of Checkmate. I'm quite certain I have, elsewhere in the LJ, but, what the hell... It's a fine line between reasonably clever and too clever by half - and god knows, Carnell falls into the latter category, so I guess one should accept that a story in which he's caught up in the action - despite his preference otherwise - is also going to stray into too clever by half. Or maybe I'm just jealous. ;)

I'm being forced to give Storm Mine more credit than I have in the past. It's a story you really have to pay attention to because almost every line can be interpreted in a multiple number of ways. Yes, it still makes me want to throw my hands up in the air and shriek "Will someone just tell me what's going on?" but I suppose that's rather the point of it - or one of them, at least. This time, I made a point of listening to it with the premise ( Spoilers! )

If I listen to the story again, any time soon, I'll tackle it with a different POV in my head, such as ( Another spoiler )

and see how I interpret the wrangling, then. As I said, it demands a bit of attention. It's quite fun, though, in its way.

More thoughts as they occur to me. Actually, I've quite the rant about Blayes brewing, but it needs a few days to ripen, methinks.