I'm reading - five years late - Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It's a dystopian kinda novel, so of course it sets its stall out by overemphasising certain words that clearly Mean More Than Usual: donor, guardian, carer etc. The dystopian schtick is, of course, that it will gradually become apparent just how different these meanings are. At a guess though, a carer will turn out to be an exploiter, guardians will be warders, donors will be anything but volunteers. It's a War Is Peace kinda thing yeah.
Generic verisimilitude this is called, and it's so annoying. If you write a fantasy novel then of course all the characters have to be called Zrotzker, and Kapok, and Zorbat. I can generally tolerate about four completely stupid names before I want to hurl the book away. But of course there's a subspecies of scififantasyknowalloids who like nothing more than drawing up sweaty little genealogies. Zorbat begat Aphoz, who slew Gortor, son of Zammar, near the frubag tree, with a candlestick.
Just what is so supposedly implausible about a Borg named Pete?
Just wanted to add that I finished the book, and it really does suck quite badly. The quotient of Very Meaningful Terms does not rise to too annoying a level but the So-Whatness of the whole thing really goes near the top of the scale.
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