A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

Like many of Maxwell’s books, this is space opera from the id.

Sharia and Kane are psychics whose soul-bond is externalized and visible within the color-changing jewels they both wear. Sharia has silver skin and violet eyes and translucent silver hair. She can kill (and heal) people with her hair. Yes, literally. Kane has translucent black hair and can pick up psychometric impressions from objects. (Via his hands. I know, too bad.)

They Can Never Touch because they both have five fingers and five touching five is the ultimate taboo on their planet. When it turns out that there is an actual reason behind this, even more angst ensues. The plot, such as it is, is that Sharia and Kane’s home planet collectively went insane and the whole population became a ravening mob of crazed psychics when a pair of purple jewels that were the only thing preventing this were deactivated and then stolen. Kane and Sharia, in between touching, not touching, longing to touch, having various space yentas tell them they’ll go insane if they don’t touch, etc, search for the jewels.

And if that wasn’t enough, there are semi-sentient ships, ancient artifacts, space pirates, a translating machine that drives you insane, reincarnation, and an unkillable interdimensional transparent soul-eating cat companion.

There’s too much action occurring on the psychic plane for my taste, but it’s all great fun when people aren’t communing with or zapping each other in lengthy passages of abstract description. Kane and Sharia are sweet and rather more sensible than one would expect under the circumstances, considering all the psychic lunacy and epic angst floating about. I enjoyed this.

Timeshadow Rider

Fandoms I am considering nominating (click on tags to find what I've written about them before):

New to Yuletide:

George R. R. Martin's "Thousand Worlds" space opera stories.

Lois Duncan's psychic kids boarding school YA Down A Dark Hall.

John Woo's film Red Cliff.

Sarah Rees Brennan's Demon's Lexicon.

Vonda N. McIntyre's post-apocalyptic novel about healing, snakes, and biological engineering, Dreamsnake.

Nominated in previous years:

Peter O'Donnell's comic strip and novels about the woman in my icon, Modesty Blaise.

Anne McCaffrey's Pern.

Sherwood Smith's Inda series.

Ann Maxwell's space opera Fire Dancer.

Is anyone thinking of requesting any of these? What are you all thinking of nominating?

On liviapenn's suggestion, I am writing up a couple Yuletide-eligible fandoms which I recommend that people check out before Yuletide.

BATTLE OF RED CLIFF PART 1 & PART 2 ENGLISH SUBTITLES - 2 DVDS. Thrilling battles with extra-cool strategies, a sense of humor, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung being extremely slashy at each other, and the chance to painlessly learn the Cliff Notes version of some important Chinese history and literature. What's not to love?

Dreamsnake, by Vonda N. McIntyre, is post-apocalyptic biological sf in which a doctor named Snake travels with her actual snakes, which have been genetically modified so that their bites can deliver medication. She encounters non-medical problems in the communities she meets as well, which she also tries to help with if she can. Very humane and compassionate, and the biology is pretty cool. If I request this, I'd be asking for the further or earlier adventures of Snake.

Tale Of The Five: The Sword And The Dragon. Diane Duane's perpetually unfinished (though luckily stand-alone) series begins with The Door Into Fire. In an intriguing world where polyamory and all other sorts of sexuality are totally cool with everyone, for generations only women have possessed the magic which enables great works and kills you young. But that's all beginning to change. Extremely sweet, with lots of companionship, adventure, banter, and love. Canonical gay, het, bi, lesbian, poly, and cross-species relationships.


Down a Dark Hall, a YA novel by Lois Duncan. This combines the genres of Gothic with "school for psychic kids," and so of course is a favorite of mine. Four teenage girls with special talents are trapped in a spooky boarding school run by a headmistress with an agenda. There's an obligatory hot young man (the headmistress' son) but really it's all about the relationships between the girls and how they cope with the situation.

Dreamsongs: Volume I and Dreamsongs: Volume II. Early in his career, George R R Martin wrote a bunch of lush, romantic, colorful space opera stories in a milieu called "The Thousand Worlds." They were full of weird planetscapes, vast distances, incomprehensible aliens, and an air of romantic tragedy and sense of wonder. If I ask for this, I'm looking for the setting and atmosphere; they all have different characters because they tend to conclude with the death, despair, or retirement of the protagonist, though there are exceptions.

Fire Dancer, by Ann Maxwell. The sequels are Dancer's Luck and Dancer's Illusion. Romantic space opera with cool aliens, including an adorably vain translating, shapeshifting snake, and a compelling romance. Rheba and Kirtn are the last survivors of their race -- or so they think! -- after their sun went nova. They are two races in a symbiotic relationship. Rheba is a humanoid dancer, which means she has psychic powers -- in her case, the control of "fire" (heat, electricity, etc.) Kirtn is a catlike humanoid, who can help Rheba control her powers. They are madly in love, but for complex reasons which, for once, actually make sense, they both think it's one-sided and are afraid to ask. Cue tons of adventure and smoldering (literally) glances.

Please comment or write your own post reccing small and eligible fandoms.