'Common and Precious' - Review and Recommendation
For those of you who didn't get the chance to attend Further Confusion last month (or who didn't get the chance to swing by the Sofawolf Press, you might not yet know that they just released a few new pieces of furry writing that I, at least, think are pretty exciting.
Now, I know that, given the themes that I myself usually write along that there are lots of folks who read my work who also read kyellgold's work as well, and you might be happy to hear that his The Prisoner's Release and Other Stories is available for purchase online now. I confess that I've simply been too busy with real life to delve into the world of hot gay furry sex over the last few weeks, and so I can't review that here yet, but I would like to give you my thoughts on another new work that hit the shelves at the con.
Tim Susman's Common and Precious is the first novel set in the world of New Tibet. If you've read any of the short stories from Breaking the Ice or Shadows in Snow, then you're already familiar with New Tibet, but if you're not, the basic idea is that it's a cold, foreboding arctic planet inhabited by anthropomorphic animals, and while technically a science-fiction setting, the stories themselves are very contemporary and relevant to the world.
Getting straight to the point, Common and Precious is a masterpiece. Stories only very rarely move me to tears, but by the time I was on the second-to-last page of this novel, I was already misty-eyed, and I needed to spend a good twenty minutes or so crying, afterwards (I won't say whether it was a happy cry or a sad cry, since I don't want to spoil the ending, of course).
As a basic summary, Common and Precious is the story of Melinda, a young tiger who is the daughter of a wealthy corporate magnate on New Tibet. Melinda lives in the lap of luxury, unaware of and unconcerned with the arduous lives of the common people on the planet, struggling against poverty and the cold--until she is kidnapped by a small band of individuals who seek to hold her ransom in order to extort funding for a poor, dilapidated hospital. The story chronicles a father's search for his abducted daughter, and Melinda's own attempts to achieve her own freedom from her captors--people far less fortunate than her, whom she has been raised to hold beneath contempt.
I used the world 'relevant' up above when talking about the setting of New Tibet, and I have no issue at all in saying that Common and Precious fits this word. This is a story that works with themes of family, love, and the value of life itself. It's beautifully touching in a way that's never sappy, never overwrought, and that conveys a central message that I think everyone alive could really stand to stop and just spend five minutes thinking about. It's heartwarming and it's heartwrenching, and it's lovely and it's terrible, and it ranks up there with the greatest works of literature that I've ever read.
I've put some pretty high praise upon some pieces of furry fiction in the past, but I need to revise myself yet again in saying that that if I had to pick only one piece of furry fiction to hold onto for the rest of my life, Common and Precious would be it. Anyone who would seek to say that a serious story can't be told with two-legged animal-people would, frankly, be wrong, and anyone seeking to dismiss the true, honest emotional impact of the book based on that would be doing it the greatest of disservices.
This is an extremely powerful piece of writing. I really don't think I can recommend it enough.
Now, I know that, given the themes that I myself usually write along that there are lots of folks who read my work who also read kyellgold's work as well, and you might be happy to hear that his The Prisoner's Release and Other Stories is available for purchase online now. I confess that I've simply been too busy with real life to delve into the world of hot gay furry sex over the last few weeks, and so I can't review that here yet, but I would like to give you my thoughts on another new work that hit the shelves at the con.
Tim Susman's Common and Precious is the first novel set in the world of New Tibet. If you've read any of the short stories from Breaking the Ice or Shadows in Snow, then you're already familiar with New Tibet, but if you're not, the basic idea is that it's a cold, foreboding arctic planet inhabited by anthropomorphic animals, and while technically a science-fiction setting, the stories themselves are very contemporary and relevant to the world.
Getting straight to the point, Common and Precious is a masterpiece. Stories only very rarely move me to tears, but by the time I was on the second-to-last page of this novel, I was already misty-eyed, and I needed to spend a good twenty minutes or so crying, afterwards (I won't say whether it was a happy cry or a sad cry, since I don't want to spoil the ending, of course).
As a basic summary, Common and Precious is the story of Melinda, a young tiger who is the daughter of a wealthy corporate magnate on New Tibet. Melinda lives in the lap of luxury, unaware of and unconcerned with the arduous lives of the common people on the planet, struggling against poverty and the cold--until she is kidnapped by a small band of individuals who seek to hold her ransom in order to extort funding for a poor, dilapidated hospital. The story chronicles a father's search for his abducted daughter, and Melinda's own attempts to achieve her own freedom from her captors--people far less fortunate than her, whom she has been raised to hold beneath contempt.
I used the world 'relevant' up above when talking about the setting of New Tibet, and I have no issue at all in saying that Common and Precious fits this word. This is a story that works with themes of family, love, and the value of life itself. It's beautifully touching in a way that's never sappy, never overwrought, and that conveys a central message that I think everyone alive could really stand to stop and just spend five minutes thinking about. It's heartwarming and it's heartwrenching, and it's lovely and it's terrible, and it ranks up there with the greatest works of literature that I've ever read.
I've put some pretty high praise upon some pieces of furry fiction in the past, but I need to revise myself yet again in saying that that if I had to pick only one piece of furry fiction to hold onto for the rest of my life, Common and Precious would be it. Anyone who would seek to say that a serious story can't be told with two-legged animal-people would, frankly, be wrong, and anyone seeking to dismiss the true, honest emotional impact of the book based on that would be doing it the greatest of disservices.
This is an extremely powerful piece of writing. I really don't think I can recommend it enough.