Yuletide 2014 recs II -- Dark
Dark disturbing tales, stories about ghosts and all the other things that inhabit the dark...
Classical mythology
Agave in Illyria, by Selden
'And I will hold my tongue which as we know is hardest for a woman, / Jackal and hide, laughing in doorways if you'll let them, behind the rows of little pots / In various shades of red.' The relationship between Agave & Semele, mixing ancient & modern, mad & sly, prose & poetry, and always slippery & disturbing (Adult)
Graveyard Book
The Honor Guard, by Spiderfire
'There is another sort of darkness, a darkness that is velvet soft and thick, a darkness that encases, wraps, surrounds. In such darkness, there is nothing to see, nothing to hear. It is complete, seeping into the hearts of anyone who dares venture into it.' Spiderfire invents an interesting mythological underpinning to the novel's Honour Guard in this atmospheric short
Hinterland
Ar Haner Nos yn Glir y Daeth (Upon the Midnight Clear), by Lost Spook
'The rough waves that eat away at the town and sweep over the edge of the Prom on a bad night have been the end of unwary drinkers before now.' An all-too-brief casefic, very much in tune with canon, that really brings Aber in winter alive
Tam Lin
Clayheart, by Miss M
'His hands shake a little, the bridle clinks and rattles. Blue veins stand out on the backs of his hands, turned bony and claw-like with time.' A chill look at an oh-so-plausible future for Tam. Atmospheric & beautifully written
Watership Down
Mixed Blessings, by Astrokath
'The warrens of rabbits, the cities of man: they both rise and fall, and the soil always swallows them back into the ground again, as a doe spares her unborn kits from the trials and suffering of an unkind world.' A dark futurefic that plays with the notion that El-Ahrairah & the Black Rabbit are different aspects of the same deity. Unusual & memorable
Crossposted from Dreamwidth (with
replies). Reply wherever you prefer
Classical mythology
Agave in Illyria, by Selden
'And I will hold my tongue which as we know is hardest for a woman, / Jackal and hide, laughing in doorways if you'll let them, behind the rows of little pots / In various shades of red.' The relationship between Agave & Semele, mixing ancient & modern, mad & sly, prose & poetry, and always slippery & disturbing (Adult)
Graveyard Book
The Honor Guard, by Spiderfire
'There is another sort of darkness, a darkness that is velvet soft and thick, a darkness that encases, wraps, surrounds. In such darkness, there is nothing to see, nothing to hear. It is complete, seeping into the hearts of anyone who dares venture into it.' Spiderfire invents an interesting mythological underpinning to the novel's Honour Guard in this atmospheric short
Hinterland
Ar Haner Nos yn Glir y Daeth (Upon the Midnight Clear), by Lost Spook
'The rough waves that eat away at the town and sweep over the edge of the Prom on a bad night have been the end of unwary drinkers before now.' An all-too-brief casefic, very much in tune with canon, that really brings Aber in winter alive
Tam Lin
Clayheart, by Miss M
'His hands shake a little, the bridle clinks and rattles. Blue veins stand out on the backs of his hands, turned bony and claw-like with time.' A chill look at an oh-so-plausible future for Tam. Atmospheric & beautifully written
Watership Down
Mixed Blessings, by Astrokath
'The warrens of rabbits, the cities of man: they both rise and fall, and the soil always swallows them back into the ground again, as a doe spares her unborn kits from the trials and suffering of an unkind world.' A dark futurefic that plays with the notion that El-Ahrairah & the Black Rabbit are different aspects of the same deity. Unusual & memorable
Crossposted from Dreamwidth (with
replies). Reply wherever you prefer