reviews

[fanbeatsman]

Things I have read/watched/become unduly obsessed with recently:

1) Naomi Novik's Temeraire book series (or, The Great Platonic Love of One Man and His Dragon):

Comments

[alienchrist]

Man, the Ouran fandom is bleak. I have some ideas for fic, but I feel like it would really be raging against the 'completely OOC / PG13 drabbles / what?'-ness of everything I see posted in the fan communities. And I hate to catch an attitude problem, but I don't really want to write for a fandom where I'm not sure I'll be appreciated.

I ship Kaoru/Hikaru, heaven help me. Yes, this from the guy who hates Gavincest. Um...

I don't think I'm gonna bother seeing The Spirit.

EDIT: Watch Hikaru no Go! All 75 episodes!

[fanbeatsman]

Yeah, I'm subscribed to the fandom newsletter, and I can see where you're coming from :/ Actually capturing or imitating the spirit of a series as quirky and metatastic and self-referential as Ouran is harder than people think, it seems. Like you, trying to take it in a new direction, or offer a new perspective on it, is the way I'd like to fic it or see people fic it, but you're right that it would be going against the grain - and tbh I sympathise with not wanting to put time and effort into something that might end up going ignored, whatever people say about writing for yourself first and foremost

[alienchrist]

I can see how you could do a lot of interesting stuff with Kaoru/Hikaru, you know (their storyline probably had the most depth of all of them, I think) - but dear lord I do not envy you trying to find fic :s I'd imagine most of it's awful, but then again I might just be being horribly unfair.

No, it's basically as bad as you could imagine and worse. There was someone writing some decent things on the kink meme last year, but the whole thing's died out. PW really sets you up for disappointment in other fandoms.

I don't think the overall age group of the fandom is conducive to anything but the dreaded squee, honestly. There were some memorable things on the kink meme, but everything was dreadfully short. And with the fascinating dynamic all the characters have (I love Kyouya/Tamaki too, I actually didn't until toward the end, otherwise I was sitting there saying, "I don't really see -- oh." And Tamaki's such a goof, yeah, I imagine he lets his heart get swept up pretty easily. The cast is just so great in general

[fanbeatsman]

Yelling at the fandom is always a good reason to write fic, imo and I'm not just saying that because I'd like to see your ideas for Ouran fic ¬_¬. Sometimes, it just needs doing :D Actually, now I think about it, yelling at (or at least talking sternly to) either fandoms or source texts is possibly the main thing that drives me to write fic.

Kyouya/Tamaki would normally be bulletproof-ship-kink stuff for me - the complementary personalities, the "normally cold character makes exception for one person without having a complete personality 180" thing that Kyouya's got going on, the fact that they mean a lot to each other but never articulate it - I just can't seem to bring myself to separate them from their awesome dynamics with all the other characters, in the end :D

I'm feeling a little out of the loop with Hetalia too, haha. I've not had much of a look at it, tbh, so I don't know whether all the fuss is justified or not XD I'm not all that great at being multifannish anyway, though; it takes a lot of mental energy for me to be

[valentinite]

The Temeraire books are great fun, and I found them via fandom too, because people were talking about fanfic author turned pro somewhere just before we were going on a trip and wanted some books.

I think of them like space opera, where there are just some things in the worldbuilding you have to shrug over, because the point is the grand feeling of the thing and they don't do the same kind of tight worldbuilding that some scifi/fantasy genres do. (Well, I guess to be fair space opera was always Age of Sail in space, but I don't generally read Age of Sail.) It's the characters that make space opera succeed or fail, and I agree that Novik's succeed.

Did you ever read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell? It's also Napoleonic Wars, but with magic.

ETA: in the fandom->pro section, while I haven't read her novels, one other data point: ladyjaida, who might have the distinction of being the first person in the Yuletide archive as both an author of fanfic and an author of fandom under the same(ish) name. (I was pretty sure she'd written for it

[fanbeatsman]

I think the space opera comparison works, yeah - you just sort of have to take a deep breath and jump into them, and then you can appreciate what does work.

I really should get hold of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell; it does sound like the kind of thing I'd like. Magic is an insta-draw for me, idk why - I don't think it's the standard "wanting something more special than this boring world" explanation, I think the thing I enjoy most is actually (and this makes me sound like such a loser, haha) seeing the different fantasy disciplines and epistemological systems that writers imagine would have developed around the existence of magic :3

I have heard of ladyjaida, but I didn't know that about her; that's pretty awesome. I wonder if she'll give up writing fic completely now she's published - a lot of the HP fic authors-turned-pro seem to have done, and I can understand why, but I do think it would be a shame. shoebox_project is one of my favourite ever HP fics. I haven't checked out Havemercy, though, because I've heard very mixed things...I'll probably pick

[valentinite]

Yeah, Jaida's writing as a fan was kind of uneven -- Shoebox was a huge watershed in fandom because of the multimedia aspect, but looking back (or, well, you can't look back right now because it got hacked, but) the writing itself was good-not-great. And wow, I sort of have the desire to go hunt down some of my old HP bookmarks and reread fic, which I really haven't wanted to do since HBP came out.

But I expect it's at least better than most of the first-author-fantasy that gets churned out, and it's evidently full of canon slash. (Or whatever one wants to call it, since "canon slash" is sort of an oxymoron.)

[fanbeatsman]

It can't be much worse than Cassandra Cla(i)re's Mortal Instruments books, at least, the first two of which I read in a fit of morbid curiosity, and...yeah. Unlovable in many, many ways. I was actually going to review those too, but I realised that I've just got a whole load of incoherent bile stored up about them and it would be more a rant than a review.

Idk, maybe the transition from BNF to original novel writer is harder than people think. They are very different types of writing in a few fundamental ways. I'm just thinking of another one of my favourite HP fic writers, Maya/mistful/sarahtales, who's got a first fantasy novel coming out soon, and the exerpts she's posted have actually been kind of underwhelming.

Canon slash is a funny term. Sometimes it makes me want to bang my head against the wall saying that's not what slash is damnit, but then sometimes I wonder if you could ever define it meaningfully - if "slash fiction" is developed enough as a genre, if it has recognisable tropes and syntaxes (which it may not do, idk), enough

[shahni]

ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS WHILE I'M RUNNING OUT THE DOOR--

CRISIS CORE MAI LOVE sdkhskgflsjfklsdjf ♥

I'LL CHAT WITH YOU LATER BBDOLL ;;

[fanbeatsman]

:D I'm studying it for my thesis learnings! Which means I'm generating massive amounts of tl;dr and excitable overthinking about it so talk to me about it at your own risk, haha :3 It is a source of much much geek-happy for me.

How are things with you, love? Are you safe back at home yet? Hope all is well, or at least better ♥

[fanbeatsman]

Kyouya = ♥! Seriously, I might as well have been the fangirl stereotype they wrote Kyouya for. Give me a laconic, vaguely amoral smart-arse with unexpected and well-hidden emotional depths and my loyal viewing/readership is guaranteed :D

Like I said to Liam, I think one of the reasons I'm not feeling really fannish about it, when I normally would be, is that it's difficult for me to see what fic could do with it and add to it. I've started a lot of fics and given up on them because they just fell flat for me - neither similar enough to the source to satisfy my desire for more of it nor different enough to be doing anything interesting :/ So tbh, I'm not sure you're missing that much great Kyouya fic ¬_¬

How is your situation at home now? Have things got any better, or are your parents still being frustrating? I've been reading your entries with nothing but sympathy; hope you're starting to have a better time of it :s

[cosmiko_ling]

:D Fic rec-ing for Kyouya/Tamaki: http://peroxide-fic.livejournal.com/154628.html and other ("lightly") Kyouya/Tamaki fics by this writer? Actually, I never really got into reading Ouran fics or into the fandom, even though I loved the series when I watched it. I only read these because she's a writer I watch from another series I like. About that fic I linked, the writer says she's out of practice with Ouran and doesn't remember the details - I have to confess it's been a while since I watched Ouran and I've forgottten much too XP but I enjoyed the idiocy of her Tamaki and coolness of her Kyouya (and have the impression of generally enjoying her other fics too

[fanbeatsman]

Thank you so much, for both the recs! They are always very much welcomed and appreciated :) I love it when people rec things, not just because it leads me to awesome stuff, but because I love reading people write about things that they hold dear.

I've not had a chance to look at the fic yet, but it's not an author whose fics I've tried, so I'm glad for a new place to look. And One Piece sounds right up my street - to be honest, you had me at pirates, but what you say about the setting and the characters really appeals. And I like the sound of the female characters, too - the representation of women is so often so awful that I've kind of taught myself to not let it stop me watching something (not sure that's really a good thing :/), but it really does make me happy when shows or books or w/e have awesome women in. So I will add it to my list!

[cosmiko_ling]

:D No probs, always happy to spread the love for things I like.