The Lymond Chronicles -- Star Trek fanfic in disguise?

[klwilliams]

I finished the Lymond Chronicles last night and loved it. However, I keep thinking that the whole series is really just Star Trek fanfic. Think about it. Lymond is a Mary Sue if I've ever read one:

1. His hair is a different, more beautiful color than everyone else's.
2. His eyes are a different, more beautiful color than everyone else's.
3. He's the smartest.
4. He's the best fighter.
5. He's the best musician.
6. Everyone loves him or hates him, but he's really just misunderstood.
7. He always has the wittiest things to say.

Also, there's more hurt/comfort in these books than in "Spock Enslaved!" And the slash subtext between Lymond and Jerott just drips from the page. The Turks are the Romulans, the Russians are the Klingons, Queen Mary's court are Vulcans (not the nice kind). Lymond has his bridge crew that follow him around everyone. The whole thing just screams Star Trek.

Comments

[berry-k.livejournal.com]

Or maybe Star Trek is really period romantic adventure, except the period is The Future!

[lferion]

Well, there is the minor matter of the pub date on Game of Kings being 1961 (Queen's Play 1964 & Disorderly Knights 1966), but I can certainly see the argument!

Certainly the H/C & UST are all over the page, and the slash isn't just subtext, either. :-)

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

[spoiler alert]

One thing I didn't get was why Lymond slept with the Turkish guy in Disorderly Knights. Was it to somehow protect Jerott? Or just to be one more depraved thing Lymond would do?

[lferion]

It has been too long since I read the books, so I don't actually remember. I need to re-read them.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Giggle.
Lord Peter Wimsey is generally accepted as the model for Lymond. I don't think DD was the Trek-watching kind.

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

Maybe I was just a really naive for an adult woman, but when I read the Lymond books (or some of them, anyway: small rural library) sometimes in the 70s, I didn't notice any slash subtext.

Of course, it's possible that even though my first exposure to Star Trek conventions and fan faction was in the late 70s, I didn't even encounter the term "slash" until a while later.

However, I am reminded of a conversation I had with a 17 year old student in about 1990 who wanted to know if I had ever noticed how "that guy" who wrote LOTR had based his character Gandalf on George Lucas' character Obi-wan Kenobi in the Star Wars movies. [Anyone who wishes to react to this anecdote with a face-palm has my blessing to do so.]

[branna.livejournal.com]

Sorry, things like this make me laugh too hard to face-palm.

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

My work here is done. ;-)

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

Dude, Gandalf was totally ripped off from Dumbledore. Same robes and everything.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Dunnett flat out says that Jerott marries Marthe because he really wants to marry Lymond.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

BINGO!!!

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

It doesn't work with the pub dates, but I love it. In the grand scheme of the collective unconscious, where time is fluid and past and future are the same, you are so right.

Lymond: The original Mary Sue.

Not Gary Stu. Back in those days, if you wanted a wish-fulfillment character who did anything much, it had to be male.

Though I admit I liked Philippa an awful lot.

Now I shall forever see the DD oeuvre with the ST cast.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Yes, Philippa was a wonderful character, and perfect for Lymond.

[iisaw.livejournal.com]

Don't know the Lymond books but...

It seems like every damn book I've picked up in the last month or so has been full of thinly-disguised media characters, (most of them Mary-Sues) and point-for-point recycled plots of movies or TV series. Maybe I should just go read real fanfic, where they don't bother with the disguises.

Like Wicked or The Beekeeper's Apprentice....

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Actually, you might like the Lymond Chronicles. They're very well written historical novels set in the 1550's in Scotland, France, England, and Russia. Lymond, the main character, is a war leader, so there's lots of political intrigue and action. The last couple of books have a romance subplot, but the female character is intelligent and sensible and brave. What I'm talking about in this post doesn't damage the books, and is only apparent once you've finished all of them and look at the whole.

[galeni.livejournal.com]

I thought Lymond got together with a lot the men, not just Jarott. Gabriel, the pasha, the French court. He was a manipulative sort and that was one of his tools. Was I assuming too much?

I read the series when I was in my early 20s. Read, well, mostly. I skimmed the Russia one. And after they killed off (spoiler) while he held (spoiler), I started skipping a bit to get back to Phillipa and Scotland. Liked the last one and the first one the most. I shold probably go back to them one of these days and see what they look like from an older perspective.

Even then I thought his mother was terrific.

[(Anonymous)]

He didn't do anything with Gabriel or Jarott, though Jarott wanted to. With the pasha, I got the feeling he did it to protect Jarott and the others from something, because the pasha and Lymond were arguing and the pasha called for Jarott to be brought to him, then the argument ended and Lymond started visiting the pasha.

You're right about the French court, come to think of it. In the second book I missed the references, but in the last one there were a few more clues. She was never obvious, except for the pasha.

His mother was great, as was Philippa. I really want a "five years after" story.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Oh, and that was me.