Ecolea

Changing of the Guard

(1) Changing of the Guard (Stargate/Highlander)

Reviewed by Kathryn A on 22nd January 2001
Tags: Novella
(265K)

This was great! Unputdownable. (I stayed up til 1:30am reading it) I knew from the opening paragraph that the author had a good grasp of Jack, I could hear his dry voice:

The planet was your typical desert dream world, Colonel Jack O'Neill thought. Sun, sand and more sun. Oh, and hey, how about a little more sand? He yawned in the heat waiting patiently while Daniel and Carter did their scientific thing on the only remotely interesting structure in the vicinity. A sort of step pyramid, or ziggurat about half a mile from the Stargate. It was the only thing left on P4X37 that wasn't covered with sand. Long range reconnaissance showed a handful of other monolithic structures, but no people. Over the millennia the planet's orbit had shifted fractionally, making what had once been a marginally habitable planet into a giant sand dune. Whatever civilization had been here, was now long gone. A condition Jack hoped to find himself in fairly quickly.

The author has a way with dialogue too:
    "You two okay?" Jack called down the narrow rectangular opening in the floor, where a pair of blond heads could dimly be seen among the tangled limbs.
    "We're fine," Carter called up.
    "Yeah, fine," Daniel wheezed. "I broke Sam's fall." There was short scream, followed by groan of agony.
    "Uh, sir," Carter reported. "I think he broke more than my fall."

The story concentrates mostly on Jack and Methos as the main characters, and they're done well. Methos is himself, not a super-Methos, but with all his edgy, witty, survival-oriented, self-depreciating, lying, curious, loyal, cunning self intact. I'm not entirely sure that Methos would be so unconcerned (in one part) with the destruction of historical artefacts, but the point he made (that people are more important than pots) was a good one (and the unspoken subtext that having lived history, he isn't so much in awe of it), and it was also set up as a contrast with Daniel. It was fun how Adam Pierson was introduced to the Stargate folks as a shy, studious, academic type like Daniel (and in some ways he is) -- little do they know the surprises they have in store! This is just what I like about good crossovers -- to see Our Heroes from another perspective. The other characters get good shows, Teal'c, Daniel, Sam, General Hammond, Duncan, though we don't see all that much of some of them.

This story is also lovely and long. One gets to savour it. Things aren't spelled out but told with subtlety. Yes, this one has yet another theory about the origin and nature of immortals, or at least, the origin of Methos (I'm not so sure about the immortals... I think the author was a bit too subtle there...) which I didn't find too implausible.

Sequel! Sequel! Sequel!

(2) The Ninth Chevron (Stargate/Highlander)

Reviewed by Kathryn A on 21st September 2002 (1)
Tags: Novel
(528K)

After my rave review of the first story in this series, this one was rather a disappointment. I like long stories, but this one kind of dragged. The summary says: "An important discovery in the Egyptian desert leads SG-1 on a dangerous mission to save the Earth. Caught between the man he was and the man he is, can all of Methos' skills and knowledge help the team survive, or will that be his undoing?" The reason it kind of drags is that they spend a lot of time getting from point A to point B through potentially hostile territory, and I felt a bit as if I was being given a lecture on the socio-political situation, with a digression or two for the author to stand on a soap-box.

Like the previous one, this one concentrates on Jack and Methos, but a trend I'd hardly noticed in the first one was visibly more pronounced here: Daniel gets too much of the naive innocent, hopelessly geeky and a bit insensitive and judgemental, while Jack is the Only One Who Understands Methos, because Methos is really a Warrior At Heart. This loses one of the things which I liked so much about the first one, and that was seeing Methos being a scholar. Not to mention that, while I like Jack, this kind of UberJack doesn't sit well.

There were a few interesting surmises about Methos's character, though I'm not entirely sure I agree with them. And there were good moments and good lines through this.

(3) Be All That You Can Be (Stargate/Highlander)

Reviewed by Kathryn A on 21st September 2002 (2)
Tags: Novel
(333K)

Well, I still don't go for the UberJack and Methos thing, but there were a lot of good bits in this third story in the series. The summary says: "When super advanced alien weapons technology falls into the hands the Goa'uld, SG-1 and the Tok'ra need all the help they can get. Can an Immortal strike force really make a difference, or will Basic Training bring them to their knees?"

The point about Basic Training was that, even if you have Immortals who are terribly experienced at being warriors and even those who have been part of armies, apart from the Horsemen, no group of Immortals has ever worked together. How do you forge such individualists into a team? And that was an interesting point. There were also some very good points made about the Tok'ra near the end.

There were some fun double-take reactions (which I can't say more about for fear of spoilers). Another thread of this story was about Methos and Cassandra, and that was pretty good; I think the treatment of Cassandra was a nice balance, but I'm a bit tired of the way some fanfic (including this one) whitewashes what Methos did as a Horseman by spouting moral relativism, that different times means that they had different standards or that people back then didn't know any better, ergo, what Methos did wasn't really that bad. But there were some good insights about Methos too, and their perceptions of each other, then and now.

Alas, I feel that the, er, extra thing that had happened to Jack was just a bit too cute -- and of course it made him even more of an UberJack...

(4) The Road To Hammelcar (Stargate/Highlander)

Reviewed by Kathryn A on 21st September 2002 (3)
Tags: Novel
(297K)

This one goes in even more for the Methos-and-Jack-forever routine, since we hardly even see the rest of the team, and both Jack and Methos get draped in heavy angst and mutual support (not to mention that little speech about friendship historically being the only really worthwhile relationship someone would have). The summary says: "A simple reconnaissance mission turns deadly when the specter of Methos' past arises. Will he survive this dangerous confrontation, or will O'Neill's sanity become a casualty?" Alas, that portion of the suffering completely lost me, because I simply couldn't believe it would have happened, not in a universe which obeys the laws of biochemistry. I could be wrong, of course, not being intimately acquainted with the properties of dead bodies, but as it stands, I just couldn't believe it.

There were some amusing things to do with the President, and mistaken identities. We learn more interesting things about Methos's past.

(5) Terms of Engagement (Stargate/Highlander)

Reviewed by Kathryn A on 21st September 2002 (4)
Tags: Novella
(281K)

Well, this one again has that plucky team of Methos and Jack in the thick of it, with everyone else mainly on the sidelines. The summary says: "Methos and O'Neill attend an intergalactic conference. When trouble happens, as usual, they're in the middle of it. Is nothing ever as it seems?" The plot of this one was really quite engaging, getting into the politics of the Alliance, sneaky Gou'ald tricks, immortals on other worlds, and even tosses in a bit about the origins of the Game.

But if you thought Jack was Uber before, that's nothing to how Uber he is by the end of this story...

Future Winnings

(1) Future Winnings (X-Files/Star Trek: Voyager)

Reviewed by Kathryn A on 24th January 2001 (3)
Tags: Novelette
(95K)

Yes again, this author demonstrates that she knows how to write good crossovers. She takes the premise, that Mulder ended up cryogenically frozen on an alien ship, and woken up by the crew of the Voyager, and she runs with it. How does the Voyager crew react to this 20th-century wanderer? How does Mulder react to being in the 24th century? The Voyager crew are their usual friendly, naive welcoming selves, and Mulder, of course, is wary. And then Janeway decides she'd better make use of this unexpected resource... and not for his FBI training... Though that ends up coming unexpectedly handy anyway. Now, maybe this story comes across a little as a Mulder-Sue except that he does actually have the skills in question, which enable him to (spoilers deleted). Because we also see from Mulder's point of view, how vulnerable and lost and alone he feels at times, so I liked it. And I loved the way he put his finger on the Voyager crew's, er, babe-in-the-woods attitudes.

(2) Cafe Americano (X-Files/Star Trek: Voyager)

Reviewed by Kathryn A on 24th January 2001 (4)
Tags: Novelette
(95K)

The story continues, with good insights into Mulder as he has to face some of his fears, as he sees insights into Tom Paris and Seven-of-Nine. I particularly liked his reactions to the Voyager crew's unconscious attitudes to her; they tell her to be more human, but they don't treat her like one. And then we get to the meat of the story, a crisis with aliens and.. more aliens. There's parts of it I don't like - take heed of the R (M) rating. But we get some good Mulder-angst out of it, and that's good.

(3) Snookered (X-Files/Star Trek: Voyager)

Reviewed by Kathryn A on 24th January 2001 (5)
Tags: Novelette
(99K)

This opens with calm, Mulder and Paris, Mulder and Seven, and then the shore leave they take turns into a crime investigation, where, of course, Mulder is in his element... and Janeway doesn't understand. I like how this series doesn't let the Voyager crew get away with their self-satisfied Starfleet smugness; not that it's attacking them at all, no no, it's just that seeing things through Mulder's eyes shows up their already-known attitudes in a sharper light. And seeing Our Heroes through others eyes is something I adore about good crossovers.

(4) Oil on Wood (X-Files/Star Trek: Voyager)

Reviewed by Kathryn A on 24th January 2001 (6)
Tags: Novelette
(95K)

Mulder thought he'd left it all behind... only to find that it was still Out There. Mulder gets caught up in obsession once more, but this time he's on his own. But others won't let it stay that way.

Hmmm, I kinda get the impression this author isn't too fond of Janeway. On the other hand, it seems plausible enough. Certainly her reaction to the directive is typical -- typical Starfleet. I also like how every now and then, in this series, we have it hitting Mulder that he misses Scully -- and then he pulls himself together and gets on.

(5) The Way of the Cross (X-Files/Star Trek: Voyager)

Reviewed by Kathryn A on 24th January 2001 (7)
Tags: Novella
(127K)

The Voyager travels back in time... just so Mulder can be clever again. Or that's what it felt like. Not that I don't enjoy watching Mulder be clever. Particularly enjoyed the subtle things that can trip one up in Elizabethan times... (the reason for the abduction was... priceless). I'm just wondering if this isn't getting a bit too Mulder-Sue-ish; he seems to be the only one with a brain, here. But I like watching him come to terms with things.

One thing I'm finding a bit difficult about this series is that it's referring to particular Voyager episodes as if the reader has seen them all, and knows what is being referred to, and I haven't; so the narrative goes ker-thunk every now and then.

But I'm still going to read the next one, whenever it happens.

Lamb And The Light

(1) Let There Be Light (Highlander/X-Files)

Reviewed by Kathryn A on 24th January 2001 (1)
Tags: Novella
(130K)

This author again demonstrates that she can do crossovers well. This time it's X-Files and Highlander, again with Methos as a major character. For those who like the interaction of Mulder and Scully, you won't get that here; Mulder is the only other major character, everyone else is supporting or minor. Yes, this is a Mulder-becomes-immortal story (one can figure that from the opening paragraphs) but with a twist: Mulder doesn't know he's Immortal, and nobody tells him. I like the way Mulder is, sceptical and sharp, and the way Methos is, cynical but not walking away.

When Cassandra turns up... I am a bit tired of psycho-Cassandra stories, but what Mulder told her to do was priceless. (I shall say no more)

(Also at http://www.gossamer.org/)

(2) Lie Down With The Lamb (Highlander/X-Files)

Reviewed by Kathryn A on 24th January 2001 (2)
Tags: Novelette
(92K)

The continuing adventures of Fox Mulder, Immortal. This was good, but not as good as the previous one. One moment it's a light lets-all-be-buddies story, the next it's a grim let's-find-this-serial-killer story; I found the tone to be uneven. This author definitely goes in for buddy stories; in Changing of the Guard it was Methos and Jack; here it's Methos and Mulder.

(Also at http://www.gossamer.org/)