Fandom has spoiled me ... again!

I'm currently reading Coyote by Allen Steele, and while I'm enjoying it (I'm a total sucker for "survival on an alien planet" stories, which is probably why SGA hit me so hard), I also keep thinking that I've seen most of this done better in SGA fanfic; I keep thinking things like "You guys landed on an unexplored alien planet without taking any guns? Really?" and "Terror birds and grass? That's the most alien ecosystem you could come up with?" and "Do you people not realize that you can't just run back to Earth every time you run out of blah-blah-blah? So STOP USING IT!" (Not to mention my world-building issues with a crazed right-wing future U.S. that names two space shuttles George Wallace and Jesse Helms with a total straight face and yet apparently has no problem at all with black and Hispanic characters in positions of authority. RIGHT.)

I think the contrast hit me just now because, taking a break from the book to check my email and check my f'list while failing to write the story I'm supposedly working on this weekend, I ran across this cute little J/R story and the side detail about hybridized Earth wheat that turns funny colors made me realize how incredibly little of that sort of thing is actually in this book, which is supposedly about exploring and colonizing an alien world. Yet SGA fanfic, Season One era especially, is full of those nifty little details about having to deal with funny-looking, funny-tasting food and severe shortages of all kinds of everyday household items. Granted, a lot of it is sort of tongue-in-cheek or cutesy, but still ... alien world! The book is certainly not devoid of attention to the ecosystem, but so far they've encountered maybe three different species of wildlife and about the same number of plants, and it's bugging me.

Fandom has spoiled me ... again!

I'm currently reading Coyote by Allen Steele, and while I'm enjoying it (I'm a total sucker for "survival on an alien planet" stories, which is probably why SGA hit me so hard), I also keep thinking that I've seen most of this done better in SGA fanfic; I keep thinking things like "You guys landed on an unexplored alien planet without taking any guns? Really?" and "Terror birds and grass? That's the most alien ecosystem you could come up with?" and "Do you people not realize that you can't just run back to Earth every time you run out of blah-blah-blah? So STOP USING IT!" (Not to mention my world-building issues with a crazed right-wing future U.S. that names two space shuttles George Wallace and Jesse Helms with a total straight face and yet apparently has no problem at all with black and Hispanic characters in positions of authority. RIGHT.)

I think the contrast hit me just now because, taking a break from the book to check my email and check my f'list while failing to write the story I'm supposedly working on this weekend, I ran across this cute little J/R story and the side detail about hybridized Earth wheat that turns funny colors made me realize how incredibly little of that sort of thing is actually in this book, which is supposedly about exploring and colonizing an alien world. Yet SGA fanfic, Season One era especially, is full of those nifty little details about having to deal with funny-looking, funny-tasting food and severe shortages of all kinds of everyday household items. Granted, a lot of it is sort of tongue-in-cheek or cutesy, but still ... alien world! The book is certainly not devoid of attention to the ecosystem, but so far they've encountered maybe three different species of wildlife and about the same number of plants, and it's bugging me.