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Title: The Gift of an Enemy
Author: Sylvia
Published: Everett: Teeny Gozer Production, 1998
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 139 of 278
Total Page Count: 129,810
Text Number: 379
Read Because: fan of The X-Files, available here
Review: Departing canon at 4.9 "Terma," Mulder returns to his apartment to find Krycek there—a goodwill gift from aliens willing to possess Krycek and read and reveal his secrets. With no other choice, Mulder takes Krycek with him to an investigate a new case where a rash of disappearances may be tied to a group of witches. The Gift of an Enemy has the right components, but they never come together as a successful whole. It's psychologically motivated, ascribing both protagonists a slew of reasonable mental health issues but giving them symptoms that stray too far from canon; the romance is similarly motivated and unconvincing, a product of long-repressed desires and conflicted, soul-searching inner monologues—well-intended, but overdrawn and overblown. Mulder's point of view is the failing point: his characterization hits just left of the mark, and while the time spent in his head should be fascinating it instead strips all tension from the text. I wanted to and almost enjoyed this; there's a decent casefile developing and the writing is well-edited if not tight, but The Gift of an Enemy has lost my interest and I won't finish it, nor do I recommend it.
Only moderately embarrassed to treat failed fanfic as a novel but then it was published as a fanzine, so ... so.
Author: Sylvia
Published: Everett: Teeny Gozer Production, 1998
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 139 of 278
Total Page Count: 129,810
Text Number: 379
Read Because: fan of The X-Files, available here
Review: Departing canon at 4.9 "Terma," Mulder returns to his apartment to find Krycek there—a goodwill gift from aliens willing to possess Krycek and read and reveal his secrets. With no other choice, Mulder takes Krycek with him to an investigate a new case where a rash of disappearances may be tied to a group of witches. The Gift of an Enemy has the right components, but they never come together as a successful whole. It's psychologically motivated, ascribing both protagonists a slew of reasonable mental health issues but giving them symptoms that stray too far from canon; the romance is similarly motivated and unconvincing, a product of long-repressed desires and conflicted, soul-searching inner monologues—well-intended, but overdrawn and overblown. Mulder's point of view is the failing point: his characterization hits just left of the mark, and while the time spent in his head should be fascinating it instead strips all tension from the text. I wanted to and almost enjoyed this; there's a decent casefile developing and the writing is well-edited if not tight, but The Gift of an Enemy has lost my interest and I won't finish it, nor do I recommend it.
Only moderately embarrassed to treat failed fanfic as a novel but then it was published as a fanzine, so ... so.
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