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Post by anna on Feb 18, 2006 10:43:26 GMT -5
It may be too OT to use this board to pimp fic for another show. If so, let me know. I saw Sammac's Numbers fic mentioned in a review of one of Moms5th's stories. I checked it out. Sammac has two long fics - Skewed (complete) and Relative Motion (WIP) - in which Charlie has lost his sight. He continues to teach and consult for the FBI. Somewhere in one of the chapter intros, I believe that I read that the author actually is an orientation and mobility instructor, so there are a lot of interesting technical details thrown in, as well as the writing itself being very good. If you are a Numbers fan at all, or even if you are not, you might want to give it a try. Start with Skewed. www.fanfiction.net/u/618466/ |
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Post by shmeep on Mar 7, 2006 15:33:02 GMT -5
Thanks for posting this link. I'm slowly making my way through "Skewed" and am enjoying it very much so far. I'm up to chapter 3. Very interesting. I have only seen Numb3rs a few times, but I like it and she seems to have the characters down very well and has made a compelling case and storyline. It could have been very very bad in the wrong hands, but this writer has made it all believable.
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Post by anna on Mar 7, 2006 18:26:03 GMT -5
I'm glad you like it. The fic-writing bar is set awfully high around here ;D so I would not recommend just anything. I thought that this was worth a look, both in subject matter and in quality.
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Post by mlm828 on Mar 7, 2006 18:48:52 GMT -5
I've read sammac's stories, too, and enjoyed them very much. I had never watched Numbers, but you don't have to be a viewer of the show to enjoy them. They are well-written, with interesting characters and plots, and good attention to detail. Thanks for the recommendation, anna!
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Post by Eyphur on Mar 7, 2006 21:29:09 GMT -5
I sat down and read Skewed all in one day a few weeks ago. I had never seen the show but have since watched a couple episodes and read a lot of fanfic.
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Post by Chocky on Mar 18, 2006 3:08:03 GMT -5
I have only watched the show once and I wasn't a big fan but the fanfic is really good - a good story and well written. i would highly recommend it if anyone needs something to read.
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Post by shmeep on Mar 20, 2006 10:53:56 GMT -5
I finished the first one last week and was very impressed. The author teaches blind people to work with canes, so she knows what she's talking about and does a convincing job making us believe Charlie has gone blind and has learned all that stuff. She writes with authority and is able to weave in a case and all the mathy stuff so that's impressive.
The second story...hmm. I'm not sold yet and I'm five chapters in. Did she have to go and make everyone blind? I know she says there is a reason, and I'm sure it makes sense once she gets to that, but I'm just not buying that suddenly Don has an eye injury that makes him blind--at least temporarily--but that he goes right on working as if nothing had happened. Oh, and then there's that blind college student working with Charlie. Fine. It could happen. But for him to have a sudden decline in his residual vision just as he's meeting with Charlie seems too contrived. And I don't know much about it yet, but the case also involves blind people? I think that may be a bit of overkill and I'm suspending my disbelief with great difficulty.
The writing is good and the author knows what she's talking about, but I can't yet recommend the second one as I could the first. Maybe I'll change my mind after I read a bit more.
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Post by anna on Mar 20, 2006 11:14:28 GMT -5
Shmeep, you're right. I agree that the situation in Relative Motion is overly contrived. You left out the part where newly-blind Don also has no problem understanding sign language by touch! But I liked Skewed so much and the writing is so good that I'm willing to go along for the ride.
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Post by shmeep on Mar 20, 2006 11:24:38 GMT -5
Shmeep, you're right. I agree that the situation in Relative Motion is overly contrived. You left out the part where newly-blind Don also has no problem understanding sign language by touch! But I liked Skewed so much and the writing is so good that I'm willing to go along for the ride. I guess I have yet to read the sign language part. Hmm...now this writer is edging into my area of expertise so she'd better have her facts straight! I know the writer is trying to make it believable that Don is completely fine because of having watched all that Charlie learned over the last couple of years, but I just don't buy that a guy who was just injured enough to make his eyes not function is up for playing basketball (the blind way--with bells) right away and gets in a lot of O and M training so he can get around using a cane--two days later. I can't imagine a doctor allowing him to be up and around so soon and I can't imagine the FBI allowing him anywhere near another case in that condition. Heck, an interpreter I worked with broke her arm and the school wouldn't let her work at all until the cast was off and she was all better. It wasn't even her dominant arm and there are lots of things she could have done on the job--she might have been able to interpret for art and PE classes until she recovered! But the school district said they couldn't allow her to work like that "for insurance reasons," whatever that means. So, if a high school won't allow an interpreter to work with a cast, what are the odds of the FBI allowing a guy who was just temporarily blinded on Friday to work a case on Monday, even if it is as a consultant and not as a regular agent? But I am curious about the story and will read the entire thing. Her first one was good enough for me to give this one more of a chance. |
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Post by Chocky on Mar 21, 2006 5:01:56 GMT -5
I agree, she is a very good writer but it seems a wee bit far fetched so far. I haven't read the sign language bit yet either.
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Post by shmeep on Mar 21, 2006 14:34:31 GMT -5
Ah, I got to the Sign Language bit. Hmm...I'm not sure what to think. The author obviously knows what she's talking about when it comes to signing and she seems to be familiar with the shapes of signs, Deaf culture, and the act of interpreting English concepts into ASL (Directer=CONTROL+PERSON, etc.) All very interesting. Her sign choice of FINAL for permanent was interesting, although I would have signed CONTINUE, since it's far more commonly used for that concept in the Deaf Community, but FINAL also works.
The part I didn't quite buy? If Don (and later Charlie) just knew her for a while and never had formal training, I don't believe they would retain that knowledge after so many years (well, Charlie might have, being an android and everything) or that they would have ever been that good at all. A very experienced signer would have possibly been able to start picking it up by touch, but not so quickly and not without a few missteps along the way. Beginners rely heavily on facial expression and they tend to hope the Deaf person is mouthing a lot. Don, having dated a Deaf woman in college and picked up sign from her, would have been completely lost. It would have been far more realistic had the Deaf woman been oral and if she spoke throughout the interview and if Don awkwardly signed back. I would have believed that.
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Post by mlm828 on Mar 21, 2006 17:51:34 GMT -5
Shmeep, thanks for your comments about the signing -- I wondered about that too. I agree that some aspects of the second story require a suspension of disbelief, but I have enjoyed the way the author has written about the two brothers' relationship and the way Don's perhaps unrealistic proficiency at blindness skills ties into the sibling rivalry.
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