A small handful of Yuletide recs

[vaznetti]

This is only a taste of what I've been reading over the past couple of days, and there are so many excellent stories out there that I could come up with vast numbers to recommend.

Another story in the the fandom I received (the Riddle-Master trilogy), Coin for the Man Who Has Nothing gives us Deth in the first days of the series, as time, almost without warning, begins to grow short. I love Deth, and this story is very right for him.

There were a few Deadwood stories this year, and I think my favorite is not yet past mending, set soon after the end of Season 3, and thus containing spoilers for that season -- it's mostly Alma, with the others you'd expect, and the dialogue is nearly perfect.

Pride Goeth (Blade Runner) is the story of Roy Batty as he becomes the man (and really, there's no other suitable word) we see in the movie. From one kind of soldier to another.

I've seen Hyakinthos recommended quite a bit, and deservedly so. It's a fragment of a lost Greek tragedy, Artemis, Apollo and the chorus, and although I could actually care less about the story itself (the love lives of the Greek gods are strangely boring to me) the artistry of the fragment itself is perfect. So I suppose what I love about this is the form, rather than the content. Those who've read a lot of lyric will be especially amused, I think.

I have three stories from Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series to recommend. Like a lot of readers, I found the memory-loss at the end of Silver on the Tree distressing*; all of these stories address this problem, one way or another.

The Land of Lost Content brings Will, Bran and Barney back to a Cornwall where the war between Light and Dark is not entirely finished. It has plot and character and makes me very happy indeed.

Memories of Things You've Never Known gives us a Bran who is just beginning to remember, and who is finding that memory may be no better than forgetfulness. The plot is implied rather than explained, which I like.

Eirias was, it seems, written to precisely the same prompt, but is a completely different story -- longer, with more plot and a different kind of atmosphere. It's possible that the sense of place -- Oxford in winter -- is what really strikes me, but also, that this is very much the Bran I think he was, if that makes any sense at all.

*I think this means that I was in some ways a bad reader of those books, but that's neither here nor there.

* * *

This is just a start, really; I hope there will be more to come.

Comments

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

There were a few Deadwood stories this year, and I think my favorite is not yet past mending, set soon after the end of Season 3, and thus containing spoilers for that season -- it's mostly Alma, with the others you'd expect, and the dialogue is nearly perfect.

Oh, I LOVED THIS! And I almost always categorically refuse to read "Deadwood" fic, but if THAT author writes more, I'm so there!!

[aceofkittens.livejournal.com]

I think this means that I was in some ways a bad reader of those books, but that's neither here nor there.


Then I guess we both were.

I'll have to check out the fics. :)

[rez-lo.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed "not yet past mending" as well, and "Eirias," though the latter made me a little uneasy, too, as it was probably meant to. Looking forward to reading the rest of these recced here at leisure.

I don't know whether you've seen sarkastic's post (http://sarkastic.livejournal.com/293675.html) on her top ten television series of 2006, but she's very eloquent on the subject of Deadwood.

[azarsuerte.livejournal.com]

I think this means that I was in some ways a bad reader of those books, but that's neither here nor there.

If it does, then I'm one too! I hated that part. I always hate when the mortal heroes have to go back to their own world or forget or whatever. That's why I reread the end of The Last Battle religiously even though I don't like most of the rest of that particular book, and why as much as I love it, it's stil incomplete without Susan. *g*

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Well, I hated the memory-loss part of Silver on the Tree especially. Because I'm okay with endings that require hard choices and aren't entirely happy (at least if they are organic with the plot, I hate it when writers force an unhappy ending just to make the book seem more Serious and Weighty), but the memory loss was unnecessary. And worse, it took away all character growth; everything they learned and every way they grew in the process of the story was negated.

Big Damn Hate.