Hellflower

Fanfiction
Title:	Hellflower
Author(s):	Hellflower
Date(s):	1983
Length:
Genre(s):	gen
Fandom(s):	Star Wars
Relationship(s):
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Hellflower is a Star Wars story by Carol Hines-Stroede.

It was printed in Skywalker #6.

The author filed the serial numbers off this story, and published in in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. In 1991, it became the first part of a trilogy.

Fan Comments

...after the reader adjusts to the 'Clockwork Orange-ese', is thoroughly enjoyable.

"Hellflower" by Eluki bes Shahar follows in the order of things. I must commend Eluki on her attempt to do something very difficult in her writing of this tale. "Hellflower" is written in the vernacular as Eluki imagines it would be spoken in a multi-galactic underground. Such a style is conducive to the "sense of wonder" we're all so used to hearing about. It's not an easy technique to master: the mark of success, of course, is that the eader can understand the action taking place even as she interprets the language. What irritated me about "Hellflower" was that 1 was not given all the information pertinent to -- understanding the main character's actions. Niki Khimra is, I believe, a transplanted Earth person... But nobody tells me this during the course of the story. I get a few very vague passing remarks making offhand references such as "emigrate to Bolivia" (p. 82) but nothing to flesh out my suspicions. The only information I am given outside of the story is where "Hellflower" fits into Eluki's overall chronological table as published in other fanzines. It is my personal belief that a writer should not make assumptions that a fan has read all her other maaterial.... This is not a problem only in Eluki's work. Time and again, as I find stories about a continuing character in a particular fan's writing completely losing my interest as the writer and editor make the assumption that I am familiar with all that has gone before in stories published in fanzines which I may or may not have read. This is fallacious reasoning and poor characterization. Will editors please beat their writers/contributors to a bloody pulp accordingly to make it clear?

Eluki's "Hellflower": Eluki, are you sure you didn't write The Moon is a Harsh Mistress? Or did you read it just before writing this piece? Whatever—I found the style very reminiscent of Heinlein, although with touches all Eluki's own. It was entertaining and delightful. Niki is a very interesting character, a Solo-type rogue but not without doubts and faults that keep her believable. I think that, with a little rewriting, mostly to amend the references to Star Wars (very minor references) this story would have a fair chance of selling pro. There are some people who obviously are ready to try the professional writing field, and I believe that Eluki is one of them.

I have mixed feelings about "Hellflower." On the one hand, I liked the Azaeli both as a character and as a "type," and I enjoyed reading an action-adventure SW story. (The action and adventure were somewhat unbelievable — two people outwitting all sorts of security devices and other people, even if they were mostly bureaucrats, is extremely unbelievable, but then most adventure stories, if looked at coldly and rationally, have the same problem, so we'll let that go.) On the other hand, I didn't particularly care for the main character, and I have an irrational prejudice against most first-person stories, especially those of the cynical-adventurer type. This last, of course, is not necessarily the fault of the author; it just interfered somewhat with my enjoyment of the story. I do have one comment: on the whole the story was well written, nicely structured, and had a definitely other-worldly, alien "feel" to it—but it wasn't SW. In fact, except for a

couple of passing references to Han Solo, it could stand on its own as a science fictional action-adventure story of the sort that might find publication in Isaac Asimov's on occasion, were the direct references to SW deleted, and I almost wonder why Eluki didn't eliminate those references and try for a paid market.

"Hellflower" isn't up to Eluki's "Casablanca" but it's still good to meet 'Niki again. I do like the line "all sentient life and most of the bureaucrats" (I work for the federal government!). As for hellflowers being crazy, they're not half as nuts as 'Niki is, getting mixed up with this one. why did she bother?

..."Hellflower" was good SF. I call it SF because, knowing absolutely nothing about the main characters or the series beyond a touch of the Azaeli, it had nothing whatever to do with the Star Wars universe. It makes some of the Earthly references that Niki makes very confusing (might I suggest a brief intro next time?). I enjoyed the story, nonetheless, except for one detail. I'm starting to get the feeling that if it weren't for air ducts, vents, and passages, none of our heroes would be alive. This was the second story in the zine wherein the hero or heroine executed a getaway due mainly to crawling through an airduct. Give us a break! I'm willing to accept the fact that the Empire hasn't figured out a more efficient form of moving air through high-security buildings, and they haven't figured out that they should put some kind of alarm system or obstruction gate into the systems. But you shouldn't have put both stories in the same issue of the zine. I kept imagining that Niki would bump into Han or Luke, coming from the other direction.

When I first started reading "Hellflower," I thought, "Oh yuk," but the farther I got into it the more engrossing it became. Eluki is obviously a student of Heinlein...and has learned her lessons well. She's the only fan writer I've ever seen who could master his techniques. The throwaways, the sudden dog-legs in action, the quick pace are all there and superbly done. ((For a professional novel that out-Heinleins Heinlein, let me recommend David Gerrold's newest book, A MATTER FOR MEN. It may look dauntingly large, but it moves very quickly. (This is an example of Shamelessly taking advantage of Editorial Privilege to put in a good word for a book and author I like.)

"Hellflower" by Eluki bes Shahar was interesting. I haven't read any of her other stories, the ones mentioned in the footnotes, but I do like 'Niki and found that although I don't usually enjoy stories without the major SW characters in them that I had no difficulty with this one. Well written with a flare for dialect and speech that should someday make Shahar a pro SF writer of quality. The characterizations lived and I had no trouble seeing them in my mind's eye, nor any point in the story were I felt that a character couldn't have done what she said had been done. Well written and probably far above my ability to critique it. I know only that I wish more writers had this flare.

In Eluki's "Hellflower," she goes way overboard on the outside references. Some of us haven't read every sf book since Verne. I couldn't even figure out some of those words by context. Those that I caught were from Heinlein, Niven, "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea"...and those I already knew from "Casablanca." I'm just saying that some of us have different backgrounds, and some more limited than others, and it shouldn't be assumed that we are all hard-core sf people.