Blag!

Sometime I wish SF could be a little more realistic. No, not the actual science. It’s either realistic or not, but I can usually get over that. What I mean is that no one ever does anything boring in SF. It would be a nice change of pace. I mean, I have been up to my neck in work for the past two weeks. But there has never been anything like that facing any of the main characters in most SF. Never does there seem to be boring large amounts of work, or boring scenes. The closest you get in Lilith’s Brood is where she is being trained to learn the skills she needs. Even then though, Octavia butler skips past most of those parts. While it helps maintain the intensity of the work and keep it flowing, I think it also divorces us from what Lilith actually went through. Without even one scene in which Lillith is being trained, it is hard to form any empathy about her training, and the need to train the other humans in those same skills. The only author in SF that I can think of who actually pulls boredom off is Vernor Vinge in his novel Deepness in the Sky. There is a scene in that book during a long space flight, and the author manages to convey the boredom by showing a few of the mundane tasks undertaken by the protagonist, while still keeping the book moving along because the tasks were useful. In fact, the scene is a welcome respite from action. Lilith never seems to ever pause in her action, and it makes a few scenes harder to relate to. Especially after she was first awakened, it seemed as if she was always doing something. Though it was described later as a very boring and trying time, while she was experiencing it, the reader only got the slightest intimation of hardship. This made it harder later on to really emphasize with Lilith. And that was a nice break from all the work I have been doing.