April Recs - Some Like It Hot
The heat of battle. The heat of... other things. Smoldering passions and the ones bursting into flame are a big Hornblower universe draw. Here are a few recs relating to warfare and other hot things.
TITLE: The Dear Surprise
AUTHOR: The Dear Knows
MEDIA: Blog
WHY THIS MUST BE READ:
I came across this blog while looking for 'dummies' style information on naval warfare. It's dedicated to the O'Brien books, but the information seems just as good for Hornblower folks. It might be familiar to most of you, but it was new to me.
There are a lot of good topics, poking around, but as a sample, this link here is the start of a five-part series on naval tactics that was just the right detail level for me, not so much that I got totally lost in the terminology, but enough that I could start to think up ideas for how to use the information when writing battle descriptions.
Napoleonic Era Naval Tactics (1/5): Battle Formation and Cutting-Out
TITLE: In Heat
AUTHOR: uHf
MEDIA: Gen Fanfic
PAIRING: None
RATING: PG
WHY THIS MUST BE READ:
This is a lovely little slice of life, rich with descriptions of hot cranky men. It's a bit of a missing scene, taking place right before the gunnery practice on the Renown. Characterizations are spot on from the movies, and the dialog snappy and fun. It's not long, and it makes me smile every time I read it.
Excerpt:
"I’m hot. I’m tired. I’m filthy. And I suspect I smell." Archie brought his feet down from the table and gazed with raised brows at his friend. "Besides being absolutely miserable, I assure you I am quite well. Thank you, Mr. Hornblower."
TITLE: Heat of Battle
AUTHOR: Laura Smith
MEDIA: Slash Fanfic
PAIRING: Kennedy/Edrington
RATING: NC-17!
WHY THIS MUST BE READ:
It's post-battle raunchy sex, it must be a Laura Smith fic. Mostly, this is just incredibly hot, and, well, I have a thing for Kennedy/Edrington (don't tell Horatio!). But there's some great language in here about the difference between naval and army tactics, and as Laura describes it, it's very Man!Archie, which isn't necessarily what you might expect. I love it when the Crumpet is instead a bit of a dick, and I like to read this fic and speculate as to why it's Edrington and not Hornblower there being the object of Kennedy's blood lust....
Excerpt:
It's surprisingly easy, Archie knows, to turn a man, bend him to pressure, to will, to stronger desire and even easier is this, to turn a willing man.
TITLE: Fiyah! Fiyeh! 1 & 2
AUTHOR: LadyYurico1
MEDIA: Video
PAIRING: none
RATING: G
WHY THIS MUST BE SEEN:
This little vid just makes me giggle. Not the best image quality, but lots of shots of men calling 'Fire' in their various accents. LadyYurico has a bazillion Hornblower vids, so watch out, you could get suckered into watching more than you meant to.