Fan Fiction: A Mem-Noir: Inspired by True Events
Brent Spiner
Macmillan
Fiction, Humor/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Through perseverance and hard work and raw luck, actor Brent Spiner finally landed the role of a lifetime (even if he didn't know it yet) when he was cast as Lieutenant Commander Data, the android officer in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Going in, he figured it might get him a year of paychecks and a foot in the door for other roles; instead, four years later, he's still spending sixteen hours a day in gold makeup and yellow contacts he can barely see through. It's hard work, but good work, and after his early struggles he can hardly complain (well, not too much - the kerosene-based makeup remover really does a number on the skin). Still, nothing could have prepared him for life as an object of fannish admiration: the letters, the conventions, the mysterious packages of blood and severed pig genitalia...
Wait, what?
Apparently, Spiner has picked up a stalker, one who seems to have over-identified with a character in the third season episode "Offspring", the doomed android daughter his character built named Lal. With the help (and occasional hindrance) of his coworkers, the police "obsession" specialist, an FBI agent, and a personal bodyguard, among other odd characters, he struggles to identify the culprit and figure out just what made them latch onto him of all people, mining his own memories and exploring fandom.
REVIEW: I was looking for yet another audiobook to make work marginally tolerable, and this title - a noir-inspired novel that includes real-life people and memories - looked amusing, especially as I watched and enjoyed Star Trek: The Next Generation back in the day. Still, I was aware going into it that it could go wrong fairly easily; not only is comedy much trickier to write (and far more subjective) than fiction or a straight-up memoir, but sometimes, not to put too fine a point on it, actors-turned-authors do better with a scriptwriter. This one turned out to be one of the good ones, helped by Spiner's narration and the cameos from various TNG castmates voicing exaggerated versions of themselves. The story itself manages to not drag or take itself too seriously, as much a retrospective of his life and career and meditation on the peculiar phenomenon of fandom - how, simply by doing his job, he became a part of so many people's lives and the object of emotions and ideas that often have little to do with the actual show or character - as a deliberate wink at noir tales. It's a book that knows how to laugh with, not at, its subjects and its characters (even those based on real people), embracing the absurdity of its concept wholeheartedly. Lines between fact and fiction, truth and unreality, blur throughout, as the plot makes numerous twists and turns on the way to the end. It's a entertaining romp of a story, and one that doesn't outstay its welcome.
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