grumping...

Why do some authors not provide summaries? Or even just an excerpt they like, or a quoted line, or something? I'm collating the SGA thematic list I talked about earlier from my bookmarks, and how am I supposed to come up with a summary for some epic that I read months ago that I then tagged for having interesting aliens, when not even the author provided one?

I mean, with short stories I can at least sum up the point myself, perhaps not in the most flattering way, but frankly if an author cared about facilitating decent blurbs when others link to their stories, they would have written one in the first place. But that just doesn't work so well with epics, especially when the things I remember don't make a good summary, and rereading whole novels and novellas is a bit more of a hurdle than glancing over a 2,000 word story again. *grumble*

SGA thematic list: alien cultures and new non-human aliens

This SGA thematic list concerning aliens is divided into two parts:

1. stories featuring (human) alien Pegasus cultures prominently somehow (including the cultures of Sateda and Athos, the Genii and other canonical peoples), preferably if the culture is explored, but if one of the culture's aspects works as a plot device in an unusual way that's okay too, as long as the aliens are visible as having a culture in their own right. This excludes the "aliens made them do it" genre (for which specialized thematic lists already exist anyway) unless the focus is very much the culture and its reasons to require visitors to engage in sexual relations, rather than a "there was a random, irrational fertility ritual *hand-wave*, so John and Rodney have sex" kind. This also excludes any story in which Pegasus aliens only make a token appearance.


2. stories with new non-human aliens, i.e. not stories featuring canonical non-humans like the Asgard, Ancients, or the Wraith, which I feel is a different theme.

These are not recs, but a thematic list. I'll link gen stories as well as all kinds of pairings, but at least initially it's biased towards pairings I read, e.g. I don't read John/Elizabeth so I'll need others to point out stories from those corners of fandom fitting the list criteria to me. I decided to list the stories with the authors' summaries (if available) rather than listing what kinds of aliens appear in order to avoid spoiling the stories.

If you want a story added, your own or others, please comment with the title, author, pairings (if any), summary, a public link (i.e. no f-locked or community member locked LJ entries and the like), whether it's a WIP, and under which topic it'll fit, so that I can list the story.

ETA (August 16, 2007): The thematic list is now located on a separate website for easier maintenance.

1. stories featuring alien cultures

2. stories with non-human aliens