Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine What are you looking for in your scifi?

Lets face it, we all have things we look for in our reading. Some like eye catching covers, some like the lead on the rear or inside cover. Some go for the author.

I like a good idea with an interesting premise. If you've got something I haven't seen before, but it tells me it might be fun to find out, I'll go for it. I am choosey, I don't read anything or everything or just whatever you put in front of me.

But, honestly, a really good set of boobs helps.

No, that isn't a jerk thing. Lets face it, the protagonist has to be attractive to me as a reader. I like attractive women. Now, that said, my definition of attractive is wide ranging from Myrna Loy to Dr. Stephanie on Big Bang Theory to the Detective on Person of Interest to the hot chick from The Blue Iguana. But, Robert Asprin's Phule series, while having a kaboom lady, it wasn't the lady that hooked me. Like I said, a great looking (at least in my imagination) lady is a hook for me, typical red-blooded american male that I am. But, boobs alone ain't gonna cut it.

So, along with a good looking, attractive female lead, there needs to be something about your story that makes me go "Hmm, I like this. I'll give it a try."

If all it has to offer is a retread of Tokien with warrior, mage, hot chick, and plug in the color character, I'll pass. You better bring it.

That's why I like Legion, it changes and updates. Don't give me the same old retread.

But, that's just me. How bout you?

I could probably take a few posts to approach this from different angles. A lot of it is combined.

I’ve a soft spot for sci-fi/ horror. You get the best of two genres. The scope and wonder of the sci-fi combined with varying degrees of up close/ gore/ existential horror.

From softer ones like the implications of HAL turning on his crew and Bowman’s discovery, through to Ripley saving the important crew member, Jonesy, by having to take on the Xenomorph that has wiped out her crew.

And both those examples come from various sources. I wasn’t a massive sci-fi reader, but some of Clarke’s would have been read along the way. Dan O’Bannon lifted from every sci-fi/ horror B movie he loved, like IT! The Terror from beyond Space and Planet of the Vampires, that I’d see later on.

Over on this side of the pond, we grew up on a Doctor Who that was also mining old 50’s B Movies like the Crawling Hand, and combining it with Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass. Both Kneale and Wyndham were endless sources for some great adventures. Again, series based on books that would then lead onto other authors. But at the heart of each was a combination of that sci-fi scope/premise, varying levels of horror, and a combination with a contemporary commentary to keep them fresh.