BONUS REC Jumping O'er Times - by hyarrowen (PG-15)
FAREWELL BONUS REC
Title: Jumping O'er Times by hyarrowen
Fandom: Henry V/Walking with Monsters (Dinosaurs, Beasts)
Pairing: Henry/Montjoy (French herald)
Categories: AU, fantasy, time travel, romance
Length: Epic - 55,000 words
Warning: This fic takes place between Agincourt and the signing of the treaty, and does not contradict canon with respect to the latter. In short, the boys follow the path of duty at the end.
Rating: PG-15
Author on LJ: hyarrowen
Website: N/A
Summary: Caught up in an astrologer-sorcerer’s spell, Henry and his retinue - and one Frenchman - are thrown into the distant past. They must learn to trust each other, and to work together, if they are ever to return.
Review: This being my very last contribution to this comm, I am going to break the rules to rec a story by a personal friend - because I happen to think that it deserves a wider audience.
The UK and Australian versions of the BBC Walking with ... programmes were narrated by Kenneth Branagh, which is what prompted hyarrowen, a dedicated Henry/Montjoy author, to ask what would happen if Henry V, a significant portion of his retinue and a certain French herald were all plunged together into distant prehistory and faced with the challenge of surviving and finding a way back to their own time. This makes for an unconventional premise, but one which is handled here with intelligence and skill.
In certain respects Jumping O'er Times reads like a detective mystery, with Montjoy reluctantly taking the lead in unravelling the puzzle of how they came to be transported into what they recognise as the past and piecing together clues that will enable them to return. Members of the group are challenged in different ways, developing and enlarging on skills they didn't know they possessed, facing truths about themselves they are reluctant to acknowledge, and confronting preconceptions head-on - even Henry, who discovers the true nature of kingship and is finally able to convince himself that the title is his by right.
There are too many delightful aspects to this story to begin to list them, but among my favourites are a lovely 'day out at the beach' where Henry gives his men a brief holiday - and takes one himself - and a subplot involving a pair of tiger cubs which are the unwitting agency for bringing Henry and Montjoy to the brink of what eventually becomes a loving romantic relationship.
Frankly, fan fiction does not get much better than this; the quality of the research and the writing matched with the freshness of the imagination involved is rarely equalled even in pro fiction, and having seen at first-hand the amount of work and care that went into crafting this narrative I would like to take this opportunity of recommending it to everyone who enjoys good slash fiction for its own sake, regardless of setting. The fact that it also includes the time honoured theme of love-versus-duty, resolving it in a way which other writers have been known to shirk, is merely a bonus for this confessedly partisan reader.
On the whole, if you are looking for fiction which is both heart-warming and strikingly unusual, and will stay in your memory long after you have finished reading it, Jumping O'er Times could well be the story for you!
Link: Jumping O'er Times
- - - - -
And that's me finished, dear epic_reccers. I've only been here for a year, but I've enjoyed your company very much ... and now I must push on to pastures new. Until we meet again ...
Title: Jumping O'er Times by hyarrowen
Fandom: Henry V/Walking with Monsters (Dinosaurs, Beasts)
Pairing: Henry/Montjoy (French herald)
Categories: AU, fantasy, time travel, romance
Length: Epic - 55,000 words
Warning: This fic takes place between Agincourt and the signing of the treaty, and does not contradict canon with respect to the latter. In short, the boys follow the path of duty at the end.
Rating: PG-15
Author on LJ: hyarrowen
Website: N/A
Summary: Caught up in an astrologer-sorcerer’s spell, Henry and his retinue - and one Frenchman - are thrown into the distant past. They must learn to trust each other, and to work together, if they are ever to return.
Review: This being my very last contribution to this comm, I am going to break the rules to rec a story by a personal friend - because I happen to think that it deserves a wider audience.
The UK and Australian versions of the BBC Walking with ... programmes were narrated by Kenneth Branagh, which is what prompted hyarrowen, a dedicated Henry/Montjoy author, to ask what would happen if Henry V, a significant portion of his retinue and a certain French herald were all plunged together into distant prehistory and faced with the challenge of surviving and finding a way back to their own time. This makes for an unconventional premise, but one which is handled here with intelligence and skill.
In certain respects Jumping O'er Times reads like a detective mystery, with Montjoy reluctantly taking the lead in unravelling the puzzle of how they came to be transported into what they recognise as the past and piecing together clues that will enable them to return. Members of the group are challenged in different ways, developing and enlarging on skills they didn't know they possessed, facing truths about themselves they are reluctant to acknowledge, and confronting preconceptions head-on - even Henry, who discovers the true nature of kingship and is finally able to convince himself that the title is his by right.
There are too many delightful aspects to this story to begin to list them, but among my favourites are a lovely 'day out at the beach' where Henry gives his men a brief holiday - and takes one himself - and a subplot involving a pair of tiger cubs which are the unwitting agency for bringing Henry and Montjoy to the brink of what eventually becomes a loving romantic relationship.
Frankly, fan fiction does not get much better than this; the quality of the research and the writing matched with the freshness of the imagination involved is rarely equalled even in pro fiction, and having seen at first-hand the amount of work and care that went into crafting this narrative I would like to take this opportunity of recommending it to everyone who enjoys good slash fiction for its own sake, regardless of setting. The fact that it also includes the time honoured theme of love-versus-duty, resolving it in a way which other writers have been known to shirk, is merely a bonus for this confessedly partisan reader.
On the whole, if you are looking for fiction which is both heart-warming and strikingly unusual, and will stay in your memory long after you have finished reading it, Jumping O'er Times could well be the story for you!
Link: Jumping O'er Times
- - - - -
And that's me finished, dear epic_reccers. I've only been here for a year, but I've enjoyed your company very much ... and now I must push on to pastures new. Until we meet again ...