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It’s me!

I don’t know why I didn’t realize this week was Thanksgiving week, but it only just occurred to me yesterday that this would be the perfect week to do something special!

Like a long post (we all know it’ll be a rant) about the Wraith relationships in ‘Consort’ and in Atlantis (so far)!

I’m not doing it today though (don’t hurt me!) because I’ll be posting it on actual Thanksgiving day.

Considering I’m only slightly letting y’all down today, hopefully the next news will be exciting.

In a later Legacy book an alternate reality is mentioned very briefly where SG-1 members meet Wraith. If I’m not mistaken, they actually meet Queen Snow.

It took a little digging (thank you so much for the fans who posted years ago so I could find it now!) but I found the story in

‘Stargate SG-1: Ouroboros’.

I own the book now.

Mebbe I’ll add some of it into the Thanksgiving post? 😁

See everyone on Thursday! (Or later, I don’t expect anyone to actually read it on Thanksgiving, but it should to y’all!)

Laterz!

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Apologies (Part 2)

I could have copied and pasted last weeks’ post to be honest.

I am really sorry!

I’ll try to get something ready tomorrow. I don’t work either job and, hopefully, my errands won’t keep me out past noon.

Have a blessed week and I’ll see everyone next time!

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Apologies

Yeah…it ain’t happening this week y’all. Sorry, but when others start commenting on the circles under your eyes you know it’s time to buckle down and get some sleep.

I may be changing my schedule at my second job soon, it depends on a few factors, but that may be sooner rather than later.

I’ll see everyone next week with a review post!

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StALeR – Special Edition: Consort (Part 2)

I’m back with more Atlantis!

More or less, I suppose, since the story is very much before our Atlantis peeps arrive, but we shall over look that small detail.

Speaking of Snow!

We’ve only ever gotten small snippets about her from Guide and though we adore these snippets, having a look at the real deal is fabulous!

Snow isn’t a pushover and we can clearly see why Guide loved her and has a thing for a certain type of woman.

It’s not just the ‘Queen’ thing, it has to be a little more than that for him. Evidence is shown by his admiration of both Carter and Teyla. I don’t think he ever actually met Weir though… I’ll have to watch the episodes again to figure that out.

Such a hardship.

Back to Snow.

I like her. A good bit.

She’s a young Queen here who’s attracted a good number of young Wraith to her for new opportunities (according to Guide) and the chance to be something more than they were on their previous Hive’s.

Understandable of course.

What I like about her the most is that she isn’t one to sit back and let others do all the work. When we first see her it’s when Seeker (Guide’s cousin and friend) goes to tell her of Guide’s ‘plan’ to stop the Asurans. When he tells her the basics she’s intrigued, but not stupid enough to believe it’s that easy.

As we get to see things from Seeker’s perspective during this scene, he thinks about how if things were different they would have been friends as well as Clevermen together. Their questioning minds happiest to find the answers to problems plaguing their people and to find new things.

I like that she’s different from the other Queens. That she valued the Clevermen as she did and worked with them. What’s funny about this scene is that Seeker is being careful in how he tells her Guide’s plans, mostly because he doesn’t actually have a plan yet, and she (knowing her zenana) calls him out on it.

We’ll have to talk about the relationships next week because it’s so very good.

For now, we skip ahead to when Guide, Seeker, Spark and a few pilots are getting ready to leave for the Asuran home world. Instead of the expected Wraith Glisten, Queen Snow walks in.

I’m sure you can understand how upset this makes them. If anything happens to their Queen they have nothing.

But as Snow says, if the Hive lost them, the Hive would have no chance.

Apparently, a fun thing to find out, Snow is just as good with computers and programming as any other. Far from being a problem or weighing them down, she is in fact a great asset.

There’s a moment here that I’ll bring up next week between Guide and Snow, but for now we must skip ahead again to when they arrive at the planet.

The plan is for them to be dropped via culling beam in the city and make their way to the core. It works, quite well, and they get to the core and the program is uploaded but they’re discovered and get into a fight with Asurans.

They have to literally jump out of a window to safety. breaking several bones along the way, they nevertheless survive and wait to be picked up by the remaining dart. Unfortunately, as the pilot lands and tells them, the Asurans have raised their shields. The Wraith are trapped inside.

Snow insists that the least they can do is waste the Asurans time until the new code takes effect. Essentially, sacrificing themselves so the rest of their race can survive.

Guide, however, has a different idea. With Spark’s knowledge about the shield emitters, he once again scoops them up and makes a run to destroy one of the emitters to get free.

The gambit pays off and he’s able to get them all back to their Hive.

Queen Snow finally, after several years of not making the decision for good reason, finally chooses Masters of the Sciences Biological and Physical, (Seeker and Spark respectively), Hivemaster (her brother Seldom-Seen) and Consort (we all knew it would be Guide).

The entire time they’re on the Asuran homeworld she is right there with them. Fighting, helping to upload the code, watching their backs. She isn’t back on the Hiveship waiting for them to do all the work. She’s helping make sure they come back safe.

I like her because I don’t think many of the Queen’s we saw during the TV series wold have done the same. In the Legacy series we get to see younger Queen’s who are more likely to act like Snow did. Caring about their Hive’s and everyone on them enough to look for solutions outside of what’s always been done.

Death isn’t like that though, don’t think I’m advocating for her in this, she doesn’t care enough for the Wraith as a whole. It’s obvious in how she spoils feeding grounds, destroys supply planets, and breaks agreements between other Wraith Queen’s.

With that i shall leave this week. Next week I definitely want to talk more about the relationships between Snow and her zenana and the interplay between them as well.

It’ll be fun and I’ll see ya’ll then!

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Stargate Roleplaying Game update!

IT’S HERE!!!!

My book is finally here!

Look at it!!

So beautiful!

My picture may be bad, but the book is amazing!!

If you will excuse me now, I will be holed up reading this fine display of workmanship!

(Atlantis review postponed until next week so I can enjoy this!)

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StALeR – Special Edition: Consort

So I said this week would be the next book or a Guide and Snow post.

Guide and Snow won out.

In the anthology ‘Far Horizons’ is a short story about when Snow chose Guide as her Consort. I’ll do a couple posts about it because it is GOOD!

The story itself is fantastic because it’s also the story of when Guide and his Hive reprogrammed the Asurans, stopping them from slaughtering the Wraith.

Guide is still young here, but he and Seeker (a cousin and friend) have made places for themselves as part of Queen Snow’s zenana.

Queen Snow is somewhat different from other Queen’s in that she sees the value in Clevermen and what they can bring to the Wraith as a whole. The impression is that Clevermen are needed and also valued, but Blades are more important because they keep everyone safe.

Of course, we know that Guide himself is quite practiced as a cleverman. Wether it’s because of his age or because he’s smart enough not to make the same mistake twice (we are distinctly not mentioning his making deals with the Lanteans multiple times and expecting them not to screw him over).

I’m pretty sure, though it’s not eluded to in any way here, that Snow is the reason he got into the Clevermen track of life. If only enough to get himself in trouble.

This time though, his clever mind is the reason the Asurans were defeated.

Talking to Seeker, Guide asks why another of the zenana (a Cleverman and also vying to be Snow’s Consort of course) hasn’t figured out how to stop the Asurans.

The conversation hits a point where Guide asks why they can’t be reprogrammed.

They can.

The real problem is that the new code would have to be uploaded directly to the main core.

Which is on the home planet and, obviously, well guarded.

Guide, already being the lovable psycho we know now, decides that that’s what they’ll do.

Infiltrate the Asurans homeworld and upload a new code before heading home.

As we also know now, he succeeds on most occasions with astounding results.

This is no different.

They succeed and life goes on until the Lanteans come around and undo the work.

At which point they need Guide to help them and they take him prisoner and so on until Rodney’s sister is infected with nanites.

This is a very brief summary of what happens. I’m going to be diving in a little more because it’s a really great look into Wraith life and especially Guide’s early start with his beloved Snow.

Also, Snow is awesome!

See everyone next week!

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StALeR 50 – Legacy: Secrets (Part 15)

Hello everyone!

I didn’t realize last week that this would be the 50th post since starting the Legacy series reviews. I was mostly concerned about the ‘Part 15’ part I wanted to get to before starting the next book.

Am I doing something special this week?

Nah.

Mostly because I only realized this was the 50th review just now when I sat down to do this post. Hopefully I’ll remember the 100th review post and plan something special, but we shall see.

For this week however!

The first Wraith are worth taking another look at for this last review. When they woke as Wraith, whatever had been done to them had pretty much wiped their memories. Or at least a good portion of them. It’s the reason they took on new names that were based on their minds’ feel, because they couldn’t immediately remember their own names and then it became their thing. Separate from the Alterans and simply being ‘subjects’.

When Osprey gave Kairos his new name it was because of his mind. She knew his name still but chose to call him what he had become.

I wonder if his mind felt like ashes because that’s how he felt about the entire thing. The Alterans and their experiments. His part in them. All the dead he couldn’t save that shouldn’t have been lost to begin with.

There were one hundred men and one hundred women used in the tests. Ninety-one women died, and one man did leaving the Wraith to start with nine Queens and ninety-nine men who became Blades and Clevermen.

I wonder if they split in to equal bands?

We know that’s what they called themselves for the first long while. Until they created the Hiveships they used stolen Alteran technology ( and possibly other advanced society ships though I wonder how far the Alterans actually let anyone else get). We only really know about Osprey and some of the men who followed her because she’s where Teyla gets her Wraithiness from.

I kind of feel like it wouldn’t be an even split though. After all they had gone through I feel like some gravitated towards certain people they felt closer to or that they were more comfortable with and probably some moved around from band to band sharing information and such until they found their place.

What is interesting (and I wonder if it’s a typo) is that Teyla thinks about the timing of the Wraith and says it was eleven thousand years ago that they first became. Which would mean that the Old One is only one thousand years older then Guide is.

Which is still pretty old, but not so much for Wraith.

I can’t wait to get to the novella with Guide and Snow! It’s so cute and wonderful! Maybe, now that we’ve met his daughter, I should take a short break from Legacy proper and do a review of that story?

It would kind of fit in with the whole timing of Wraith history and all…

I have to end this post now because it’s getting long and getting late. I know it was kind of rambley, but I kept seeing things I’d missed the first few times I’d read it.

These books are WAY TOO GOOD!!

I’ll see peeps next week with either a Guide and Snow story or the next book in Legacy.

Till then!

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StALeR 49 – Legacy: Secrets (Part 14)

Wraith gestation periods are apparently quite long.

Ya’ll didn’t think I’d go there did ya?

Reading through one of my absolute favorite scenes in this book (my favorite being when Guide meets his daughter again) it occurred to me that Alabaster was pregnant for a long time compared to humans.

Really shouldn’t have taken me so long since they literally say how long she was on the planet before giving birth to Darling, but you always seem to find something new in a book when you go back through. Which is why I don’t get too many points taken off for this one.

Anyways, Alabaster carried Darling for two years before giving birth. Considering that Guide thought about when she was little and asleep in the Hiveships womb (pretty sure that was the word used) I have so many questions about Wraith children!

They can obviously carry to term (which was one of my questions), so are the newborns put into a womb-like place on a Hive to help them grow and learn about the Wraith until a certain age and it wasn’t an option for Darling so she simply raised him?

Or is the word ‘womb’ in relation to a Hiveship simply a sleeping place for the young?

It would be cool to find out, and there are other stories still I haven’t read or listened to so the answer may be there. Or be in one of the books I’ve read already and just didn’t see it the first time through.

In any case, I’ll keep it on the backburner while I’m going through the next books and see if I can get more info.

Another thing this week, while we’re talking about Wraith and their children, is Guide and Alabaster’s reactions to meeting again after twenty-one years.

Pretty dang hard for a human and not so different for the Wraith. Alabaster kept expecting her father to come to the rescue and Guide, apparently, had several times where he expected her to be on the other end of a message.

Needing Bonewhite to watch his back in case he got himself into trouble is a very telling thing. Guide thinks about how he’s feeling in the moment, but twice since Woolsey contacted him, Guide has considered Bonewhite to be the best person to keep things going if this time is like the rest and a false call.

I can’t remember if the reason he was caught by the Genii in the first place was because he was following another lead on his daughter.

At least this time turned out far better for him then that time.

I like that we keep seeing these little snippets of Wraith life. You wouldn’t think that Bonewhite and Guide are close, (being Commander and Second is one thing but advancement is also a thing) but these two little scenes tell a different story. We all know Guide is older by a good bit than most of the Wraith we’ve met but it’s nice to see that the Wraith form different kinds of friendships like humans do.

Having said that, it can’t be easy being friends with someone like Guide who always seems to be in some kind of trouble or other. Either needing rescuing or just a little more time to see his plans to fruition.

I shall leave this post here for the week and let ya’ll know that it was meant to be the last but then I realized I could do one more and get to a solid 15 for this book, so why not?

Next week will be the last review for ‘Secrets’ and then onto the next!

Have a great week everyone!

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Book sales!

Slight delay on that next Atlantis review.

Why?

Cause I bought 11 books and a movie for just $10!

Okay, we all know the delay is because it’s late and I work in the morning, but still!

I found the last book in a YA series I’ve been trying to get for a couple of years now, a Sherrilyn McQueen book in fabulous condition that I was missing, 5 books in a series I’ve never read before but looks really good, and a mass market sized hardback of book 3 in the Dragonriders of Pern series.

I don’t know if I’ll collect the Anne McCaffrey series but the book was in such good condition and so early in the series that I’m hoping to at least find book 1 and 2 in the same format.

Anyways, it’s time for bed for me. I’ll see y’all later!

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StALeR 48 – Legacy: Secrets (Part 13)

Let’s talk Rodney McKay a little bit shall we?

We love Rodney to pieces but he has problems. The fact that he’s part Wraith now isn’t necessarily the problem, so much that he doesn’t realize it’s a problem.

Rodney is incredibly self aware. We all know this and have even enjoyed when moments happened where he is honest with people about his faults (social in any case).

The whole Wraith thing though is still messing him up and in ways he doesn’t realize.

Take for example the end of the book here. The weapon that was made to kill all the Wraith is hidden by Sheppard, but Rodney (having overheard Sheppard’s thoughts about where he’d put it for safe keeping) believes that it’s too obvious.

So he takes it.

Now, he ‘hides’ it himself so it’s not such a bad thing, but in his thought process he is definitely imagining how delighted Alabaster would be with him if she found out he’d had the foresight to hide the weapon better.

He imagines what the the touch of her mind would feel like and that’s not good.

Rodney is still more Wraith than he’s willing to admit. Too afraid his friends will turn on him to see the problems.

This particular incident causes some issues later, but that’s another post for the next book.

I think next week I’ll talk about O’Neill and Guide cause boy was that hilarious!

For me anyways.

See ya!