Am I the only one who hates Shar?
- Thread starter GMDreia
- Start date
I haven't read most of the DS9 Relaunch since 2003 (apart from Worlds of in 04 & early 05)... but I would say I recall not only hating Shar but his whole goddamn race.
I coudln't STAND the whole 4 species confusing bollocks, ridiculous unpronounceable words that Trek authors are so fond of. It reminded of the annoying He/She thing in New Frontier that made me stop reading that.
By the time I got to Worlds of, I read about 20 pages of the Andor story before simply giving up.
With the overlong gaps in between the books, by the time Warpath had come out I'd long since ceased to care about the relaunch anymore and couldn't be bothered with it. I remember really enjoying it to begin with, but by that time IMO it had long since lost its head up its own arse
I coudln't STAND the whole 4 species confusing bollocks, ridiculous unpronounceable words that Trek authors are so fond of. It reminded of the annoying He/She thing in New Frontier that made me stop reading that.
By the time I got to Worlds of, I read about 20 pages of the Andor story before simply giving up.
With the overlong gaps in between the books, by the time Warpath had come out I'd long since ceased to care about the relaunch anymore and couldn't be bothered with it. I remember really enjoying it to begin with, but by that time IMO it had long since lost its head up its own arse
You could have paced yourself. The four "Mission: Gamma" books came out in good time, relative to each other, and were equal in word count to about eight regular-sized novels. These were followed by three consecutive volumes of WoDS, each volume containing two meaty stories.
I spent almost a year completing my reading of "Mission: Gamma" and felt no need to rush it. While waiting for new instalments, why not reread earlier ones, esp. the ones you enjoyed most?
I'm not surprised you only got 20 pages into "Paradigm" if you already hated the previous parts of the DS9 Relaunch Andorian arc. But it wasn't written for you.
Some of us hung on every word. And read them all twice. 
Only twice? 
I liked Shar but hated whatshername who killed herself. What a whiney little twit she was. She was almost as annoying as Eric Stiles from Red Sector was.
"I haven't read most of the DS9 Relaunch since 2003 (apart from Worlds of in 04 & early 05)... but I would say I recall not only hating Shar but his whole goddamn race.
I coudln't STAND the whole 4 species confusing bollocks, ridiculous unpronounceable words that Trek authors are so fond of. It reminded of the annoying He/She thing in New Frontier that made me stop reading that.
By the time I got to Worlds of, I read about 20 pages of the Andor story before simply giving up.
With the overlong gaps in between the books, by the time Warpath had come out I'd long since ceased to care about the relaunch anymore and couldn't be bothered with it. I remember really enjoying it to begin with, but by that time IMO it had long since lost its head up its own arse."
oh yay transgender hate tm.
I coudln't STAND the whole 4 species confusing bollocks, ridiculous unpronounceable words that Trek authors are so fond of. It reminded of the annoying He/She thing in New Frontier that made me stop reading that.
By the time I got to Worlds of, I read about 20 pages of the Andor story before simply giving up.
With the overlong gaps in between the books, by the time Warpath had come out I'd long since ceased to care about the relaunch anymore and couldn't be bothered with it. I remember really enjoying it to begin with, but by that time IMO it had long since lost its head up its own arse."
oh yay transgender hate tm.
For the most part I have hated Shar, Thriss and the whole Andorian storyline. None of it has worked for me. The four species, the unpronounceable names and general whiny nature of the storyline.
At this point however, I would be happy to have a new DS9 book even if Shar was a large part of it. It has been way too long between books.
At this point however, I would be happy to have a new DS9 book even if Shar was a large part of it. It has been way too long between books.
Holytomato said:
oh yay transgender hate tm.
How is that transgender hate?
I don't recall Ethros saying he hated transgendered persons (of any species), but that he didn't like the complicated idea of the Andorian's having more than two genders, and that the Andor story in WOST: DS9, as well as the Hermats, were confusing and was a factor in not finishing all the way through.
As a person who considers themselves transgendered (or one day, at any rate) I didn't pick up on any bigotry or hatred.
^ Thank you Vixen, and 
Holytomato
Frankly I find it offensive you assume I'm some right-wing gay basher just because I found it hard to pronounce some words
I'm about as liberal as you can get, I just didn't like the Andor stuff as I kept getting lost as to what the frak they were talking about with the zhen, shen, chan, thaan etc bollocks, and stupid names Trek authors love with an average of 5 apostrophes per word.
I enjoyed the ENT book The Good That Men Do but I felt like throwing it out the window when I see names like "Ehrehin I'Ramnau Tr'Avrak" and "Onalishenar ch'Sorichas" and "Lihvishri sh'Ralaavazh." It's got nothing to do with "transgender hate" as you say, I couldn't give a frak about that
Think before you assume
HolytomatoFrankly I find it offensive you assume I'm some right-wing gay basher just because I found it hard to pronounce some words
I'm about as liberal as you can get, I just didn't like the Andor stuff as I kept getting lost as to what the frak they were talking about with the zhen, shen, chan, thaan etc bollocks, and stupid names Trek authors love with an average of 5 apostrophes per word.
I enjoyed the ENT book The Good That Men Do but I felt like throwing it out the window when I see names like "Ehrehin I'Ramnau Tr'Avrak" and "Onalishenar ch'Sorichas" and "Lihvishri sh'Ralaavazh." It's got nothing to do with "transgender hate" as you say, I couldn't give a frak about that
Think before you assume
While I didn't like Thriss and while Shar irked me with his behaviors, the concept of having to have four in a "marriage" wasn't such a horrid concept. It DID make them seem alien. If not, why then, they would just be blue-colored antennaed "humans".
As for the language, again, no problem. I've struggled through bits of Klingon, actually learned a dozen Romulan words, courtesy of Diane Diane's books, and again, the different stuff makes the alien characters seem/feel more alien.
Although I always think about two things when it comes to aliens. 1) Would any of them wear clothes as we do? (And had to do so on the shows since they're human actors.) 2) Could their languages be so different as to be incomprehensible to us. More like the clicks and such of the Magog from Andromeda. THEIR language actually sounded alien. Most of the Star Trek ones just sound like languages from different parts of Earth.
As for the language, again, no problem. I've struggled through bits of Klingon, actually learned a dozen Romulan words, courtesy of Diane Diane's books, and again, the different stuff makes the alien characters seem/feel more alien.
Although I always think about two things when it comes to aliens. 1) Would any of them wear clothes as we do? (And had to do so on the shows since they're human actors.) 2) Could their languages be so different as to be incomprehensible to us. More like the clicks and such of the Magog from Andromeda. THEIR language actually sounded alien. Most of the Star Trek ones just sound like languages from different parts of Earth.
^Universal Translator
I agree. That was my "smartass, off-the-cuff" answer.
Hey, I'm an Andorian fan/fanatic, but I still tend to gloss over long alien names in SF novels, and don't even try to pronounce them as I read. It's not as if I'm reading aloud to an audience.
And, in nearly every case, a DS9 Relaunch-style Andorian name is quickly shortened in the text itself - to Shar, or Shran, or Erib, or Therin. So what's the problem?
It's no different to Wesley Crusher being introduced in his first ever scene in a mythical piece of fiction as "Acting Ensign Wesley Eugene Crusher", and then simply "Wes" in each subsequent appearance. Similarly, we have a mouthful like "Admiral James Tiberius Kirk", who's more often called "Jim" or "Kirk".
As a teacher in a multicultural elementary school, I stumble over 20 or so often-long, often-unpronouncible, multicultural names every morning when I call the roll. Now for that task I do have to perform aloud! - and if ST novels only ever had short, easily-pronounced, less-exotic alien names it wouldn't feel very alien at all.
Huh?
Diane Duane gave her Rihannsu Romulans much longer, exotic, apostrophed names than canon suggested, but that really has nothing to do with the Andorian names and prefixes designed for the DS9 Relaunch books.
The idea that ST's canonical Andorians have much longer names and gender prefixes (offscreen) dates back to Erib (a Starfleet Medical School colleague of Doctor Bashir in the episode "Explorers") and his brief mention in the Relaunch. ie. Erib's full name is given as Shelerib th'Zarath in "DS9: Avatar, Book 1" (2001) by SD Perry.
Although, before that, there was Theras shoorShras of Andor (the son of canonical Ambassador Shras), who was held hostage and murdered in the Pocket novel, "Dwellers in the Crucible" (1985) by Margaret Wander Bonanno.
And Cadet Pava Ek'Noor Aqabaa in the "Starfleet Academy" comics by Marvel/Paramount Comics (1996-98) had a different prefix again, although Pocket Books' "Titan: The Red King" gave her an extra sh' prefix in 2005 for conformity. Pava's mother was Undieela Noor in the comics.
^ The quote from Ethros that JD was addressing talked about the Rihannsu names given to some of the Romulands in The Good That Men Do, not just Andorians. Which, I must admit, I found confusing as well. I didn't realize that many of the Romulan characters like the warp engineer were, in fact, Romulans until later into the book. That could have been better integrated.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
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