Willful Child by Steven Erikson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A quick caveat before I review:

There is a lot of hardcore, almost gratuitously cruel humor going on in this Star Trek parody/enshrinement. I can almost guarantee either revilement or a blind reverence to the treatment herewithin.

That being said, I'm gonna squee a little.

I'm not always in the mood for an Orville-esq Star-Trek lambasting with rated R nastiness on the level with John Dies at the End, treated for the likes of the Federation, but this one tickled all my funny bones. Where Galaxy Quest did NOT go far enough for me, Steven Erikson lets me have all the wondrously insane magnifications that could only be dreamed up by an existing uberfan of the original series. And I mean, the entire series from the 60's all the way through the 80's, 90's, and oughts. Erikson made me chuckle, laugh out loud, and sometimes even made me drop my jaw by some really wicked SFnal devices that are hella worthy for any traditional treatment.

The Dimple Ray comes to mind. :)

But beyond that, we're treated to nod, lambast, reverence, even while our fearless captain breaks all the rules of engagement, decency, sociopathy, and reasonableness. This is the grimdark equivalent of every dark comedy and it is set in the future.

Crank it up. Play it loud. Louder. LOUDER.

Hey, Tammy? Could you put away that chicken, please?

BTW, I LOVE Tammy. Psychopathic Godlike AIs get me going. She's a nice change from Majel Barrett-Roddenberry. :)

Well worth the risk. Erikson's a smart cookie. :) I may like his SF better than his Fantasy.

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