My Yuletide stories
My original Yuletide assignment was The Taste of Honey for Neil Gaiman’s brilliant and beautiful comic book series Sandman. It’s rated G.
You do not need to know the series to read the story, nor does it spoil anything; but if you’re not familiar with the series, read the paragraph below before reading the story.
Sandman is considered a classic for very good reasons. It’s about Dream, also known as Morpheus, or Sandman, or Lord Shaper, or by many other names. He is the lord and embodiment of dreams, both the literal kind and creative inspiration, and of stories and storytelling. Like his siblings, he appears differently to different people: a dreaming cat sees him as (majestic) cat. And it is the story of his sister Death, who takes her job very seriously and life very lightly, by which I mean, very seriously indeed. And the stories of his other siblings: Destiny, Desire and Despair (who are twins), Destruction (who abandoned his post), and Delirium, who once was Delight. And many others, Gods and mortals, angels and demons, werewolves and witches and pumpkinheads; and everyone who dreams.
My pinch hit was Blood and Ink, for Lloyd Alexander's Westmark trilogy.
WARNING: Do not read this story unless you’ve read all three of the Westmark books. It will not make any sense otherwise, and will spoil the books. Also warning for war-related violence.
Do read the books; they are remarkable. They are in print and quite short, and also fast-paced; you could read all three over a weekend.
They begin as cheerful, witty Ruritanian adventure, with lost princesses and con artists and tyrants-and revolutionaries seeking a republic. And then, without any jarring shift in tone, they unobtrusively slide into a very understated meditation on the price of revolution, the horrors of war, and how far a person can go into madness and still come back. And all this without ever losing an essential sense of wit, compassion, and grace.
Alexander is most famous for his Welsh mythology-based Prydain chronicles, which I also love, but I think the Westmark trilogy is his best work. The first book, Westmark, seems slight when you first read it, but I urge you to persevere; it’s a lot less slight in retrospect, and the second book, The Kestrel, is both my favorite of Alexander’s novels and one of the best war novels I’ve ever read. The third book, The Beggar Queen, brings the series to a satisfying close.
My final Yuletide story (others are described in separate posts below) was a very last-minute "stocking stuffer," The Rose of Naamah, for Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series.
WARNING: Contains graphic sex and extreme masochism. (No more extreme than in the books, though.)
The story doesn’t spoil anything in the books. In a world where prostitution can be something of a holy calling, Phedre is touched by the Gods: she is an anguisette, a kind of super-masochist. She and Alcuin are both wards of Delaunay, and are in their late teens when the story takes place; Melisande is a sadist whom Phedre has a massive crush on. That’s all you need to know to read the story.
You do not need to know the series to read the story, nor does it spoil anything; but if you’re not familiar with the series, read the paragraph below before reading the story.
Sandman is considered a classic for very good reasons. It’s about Dream, also known as Morpheus, or Sandman, or Lord Shaper, or by many other names. He is the lord and embodiment of dreams, both the literal kind and creative inspiration, and of stories and storytelling. Like his siblings, he appears differently to different people: a dreaming cat sees him as (majestic) cat. And it is the story of his sister Death, who takes her job very seriously and life very lightly, by which I mean, very seriously indeed. And the stories of his other siblings: Destiny, Desire and Despair (who are twins), Destruction (who abandoned his post), and Delirium, who once was Delight. And many others, Gods and mortals, angels and demons, werewolves and witches and pumpkinheads; and everyone who dreams.
My pinch hit was Blood and Ink, for Lloyd Alexander's Westmark trilogy.
WARNING: Do not read this story unless you’ve read all three of the Westmark books. It will not make any sense otherwise, and will spoil the books. Also warning for war-related violence.
Do read the books; they are remarkable. They are in print and quite short, and also fast-paced; you could read all three over a weekend.
They begin as cheerful, witty Ruritanian adventure, with lost princesses and con artists and tyrants-and revolutionaries seeking a republic. And then, without any jarring shift in tone, they unobtrusively slide into a very understated meditation on the price of revolution, the horrors of war, and how far a person can go into madness and still come back. And all this without ever losing an essential sense of wit, compassion, and grace.
Alexander is most famous for his Welsh mythology-based Prydain chronicles, which I also love, but I think the Westmark trilogy is his best work. The first book, Westmark, seems slight when you first read it, but I urge you to persevere; it’s a lot less slight in retrospect, and the second book, The Kestrel, is both my favorite of Alexander’s novels and one of the best war novels I’ve ever read. The third book, The Beggar Queen, brings the series to a satisfying close.
My final Yuletide story (others are described in separate posts below) was a very last-minute "stocking stuffer," The Rose of Naamah, for Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series.
WARNING: Contains graphic sex and extreme masochism. (No more extreme than in the books, though.)
The story doesn’t spoil anything in the books. In a world where prostitution can be something of a holy calling, Phedre is touched by the Gods: she is an anguisette, a kind of super-masochist. She and Alcuin are both wards of Delaunay, and are in their late teens when the story takes place; Melisande is a sadist whom Phedre has a massive crush on. That’s all you need to know to read the story.