Review: Per Ardua by Jessie Blackwood
Those of you who follow me on Twitter (@Lefaym) will know that yesterday I was both delighted and amused to come across Dreamspinner Press's most recent title: Per Ardua by Jessie Blackwood. It's pretty clear from the cover and the description that this story began life as a Jack/Ianto AU, and indeed, I think that it is being marketed in such a way as to appeal to J/I fans -- and in my case, it certainly worked. I was intrigued and bought the ebook.
Those of you who know me will know that I am currently working on my own original stories that also began life as a J/I AU (although I take it in a very different direction to Blackwood), so I have absolutely nothing against this, and the amusement I expressed yesterday was of the fondest sort -- I have absolutely no desire to disparage what Blackwood has done here. I read the novel with an open mind.
In writing this review, I'm focusing in particular on its appeal to Jack/Ianto fans -- if you're not a fan of the ship, then you probably won't find this particularly useful!
Per Ardua is the story of Arthur Edward "Jack" Ratigan, a Welshman who has spent most of his life in America, and Ifan Griffith, the butler for the family's Welsh estate. Jack is an American volunteer in the RAF, and towards the end of the war, his plane is shot down -- he manages to land and save his entire crew, but Jack himself sustains serious nerve damage, which leaves him unable to walk. Ifan takes on the role of Jack's carer, and romance ensues.
The first thing I will say is that I DID find this story emotionally satisfying -- indeed, I think I found it more satisfying than I would have done had I read it as a Jack/Ianto story. With Jack/Ianto, I am very cautious about fics that go down the "love" route, but because I wasn't obliged to see Blackwood's Jack and Ifen as RTD's Jack and Ianto, I was able to sit back and let myself enjoy the developing love story.
Having said that, I do think that there is a lot in here that will definitely appeal to Jack/Ianto shippers. I think that this book will be particularly appealing to J/I fans who like their Jack vulnerable and their Ianto competent -- and, importantly, those who want to see the way those characteristics interact with each other in the context of a relationship. This is where Blackwood's novel really comes into its own and departs from what one might expect from Torchwood -- in Torchwood, we might have seen Jack vulnerable and we might have seen Ianto competent, but there was very little exploration of what those two characteristics meant in terms of the way they negotiated their relationship. Blackwood, freed from those constraints, can explore this dynamic more fully.
On the issue of disability, I think that Blackwood has definitely done her research. One does not need to fear the appearance of magical healing cocks in this story (although there are normal cocks, which are very nice). Jack does recover much of the use of his legs towards the end of the novel (after some very intense rehabilitation), in a way that I think is consistent with the type of nerve damage he sustained, but it's clear that he is going to live the rest of his life with a disability -- and this is NOT presented as a great tragedy. It's just a thing that IS. I think it's also made clear that if Jack hadn't recovered partial use of his legs, that also would not have been a great tragedy.
Nonetheless, although I found many elements of this novel very satisfying, in terms of prose and structure, I felt that it could have used a bit more editing. There was the odd bit of awkward phrasing (plus our old favourites "the older man" and "the younger man"), and the odd expression that didn't seem to fit into a 1940s lexicon -- I found these things a little jarring. The beginning of the novel is also marked by huge swarthes of exposition, which I felt could have been incorporated into the novel a little bit more smoothly, in dribs and drabs throughout the course of the story. I also would have liked a bit more detail on the backstory of Jack and Ifan's relationship -- the transition from Ifan's early dislike of Jack's teasing ways, to friendship between the two men was, I thought, a little rushed, which is a shame because I felt that story had a lot of potential in terms of differentiating Blackwood's Jack and Ifen from Torchwood's Jack and Ianto.
Blackwood makes fairly good use of analepsis (moving her narrative back and forth in time), but again, I felt that this narrative strategy could have been incorporated more effectively -- it is sometimes confusing, and there are times that Blackwood ends up telling us the same information twice, or even three times, which is rather unnecessary. There are also a few pacing issues -- I feel like the first "I love you" from Ifan came too soon in the novel, and would have been more effective delayed until the end.
There were some points where I felt that Blackwood used too many Ianto-markers with Ifen. While I was very pleased to see eye-rolling and snark included, certain details, like his constant checking of his pocket watch and references to his coffee being the best in the country -- they felt unnecessary, and pulled me out of the story a little. I didn't need the explicit reminders that Ifan was inspired by Ianto; I would prefer for that to be more implicit.
So: on the issue of whether or not you should buy this book. I really enjoyed reading it, and as I said above, I found it very emotionally satisfying. If you are someone who does get very bothered by poor pacing and awkward prose, then you might want to give this a miss, but for myself, I was able to overlook these things because I was enjoying the interactions between the characters -- it's very much a YMMV thing. Personally, I do not regret buying the ebook. I'm glad I did it, both because I enjoyed it and because I like the idea of supporting other fan-writers who are beginning to make their way into the realm of original fiction. If you are teetering, wondering whether or not to buy it, I say go ahead and do it -- especially if you're someone who is willing to overlook a few technical flaws in order to get an emotional payoff.
ETA:
Per Ardua by Jessie Blackwood can be purchased from Dreamspinner Press:
As an eBook for US$6.99
OR
As a paperback for US$14.99 (plus postage and handling).
Those of you who know me will know that I am currently working on my own original stories that also began life as a J/I AU (although I take it in a very different direction to Blackwood), so I have absolutely nothing against this, and the amusement I expressed yesterday was of the fondest sort -- I have absolutely no desire to disparage what Blackwood has done here. I read the novel with an open mind.
In writing this review, I'm focusing in particular on its appeal to Jack/Ianto fans -- if you're not a fan of the ship, then you probably won't find this particularly useful!
Per Ardua is the story of Arthur Edward "Jack" Ratigan, a Welshman who has spent most of his life in America, and Ifan Griffith, the butler for the family's Welsh estate. Jack is an American volunteer in the RAF, and towards the end of the war, his plane is shot down -- he manages to land and save his entire crew, but Jack himself sustains serious nerve damage, which leaves him unable to walk. Ifan takes on the role of Jack's carer, and romance ensues.
The first thing I will say is that I DID find this story emotionally satisfying -- indeed, I think I found it more satisfying than I would have done had I read it as a Jack/Ianto story. With Jack/Ianto, I am very cautious about fics that go down the "love" route, but because I wasn't obliged to see Blackwood's Jack and Ifen as RTD's Jack and Ianto, I was able to sit back and let myself enjoy the developing love story.
Having said that, I do think that there is a lot in here that will definitely appeal to Jack/Ianto shippers. I think that this book will be particularly appealing to J/I fans who like their Jack vulnerable and their Ianto competent -- and, importantly, those who want to see the way those characteristics interact with each other in the context of a relationship. This is where Blackwood's novel really comes into its own and departs from what one might expect from Torchwood -- in Torchwood, we might have seen Jack vulnerable and we might have seen Ianto competent, but there was very little exploration of what those two characteristics meant in terms of the way they negotiated their relationship. Blackwood, freed from those constraints, can explore this dynamic more fully.
On the issue of disability, I think that Blackwood has definitely done her research. One does not need to fear the appearance of magical healing cocks in this story (although there are normal cocks, which are very nice). Jack does recover much of the use of his legs towards the end of the novel (after some very intense rehabilitation), in a way that I think is consistent with the type of nerve damage he sustained, but it's clear that he is going to live the rest of his life with a disability -- and this is NOT presented as a great tragedy. It's just a thing that IS. I think it's also made clear that if Jack hadn't recovered partial use of his legs, that also would not have been a great tragedy.
Nonetheless, although I found many elements of this novel very satisfying, in terms of prose and structure, I felt that it could have used a bit more editing. There was the odd bit of awkward phrasing (plus our old favourites "the older man" and "the younger man"), and the odd expression that didn't seem to fit into a 1940s lexicon -- I found these things a little jarring. The beginning of the novel is also marked by huge swarthes of exposition, which I felt could have been incorporated into the novel a little bit more smoothly, in dribs and drabs throughout the course of the story. I also would have liked a bit more detail on the backstory of Jack and Ifan's relationship -- the transition from Ifan's early dislike of Jack's teasing ways, to friendship between the two men was, I thought, a little rushed, which is a shame because I felt that story had a lot of potential in terms of differentiating Blackwood's Jack and Ifen from Torchwood's Jack and Ianto.
Blackwood makes fairly good use of analepsis (moving her narrative back and forth in time), but again, I felt that this narrative strategy could have been incorporated more effectively -- it is sometimes confusing, and there are times that Blackwood ends up telling us the same information twice, or even three times, which is rather unnecessary. There are also a few pacing issues -- I feel like the first "I love you" from Ifan came too soon in the novel, and would have been more effective delayed until the end.
There were some points where I felt that Blackwood used too many Ianto-markers with Ifen. While I was very pleased to see eye-rolling and snark included, certain details, like his constant checking of his pocket watch and references to his coffee being the best in the country -- they felt unnecessary, and pulled me out of the story a little. I didn't need the explicit reminders that Ifan was inspired by Ianto; I would prefer for that to be more implicit.
So: on the issue of whether or not you should buy this book. I really enjoyed reading it, and as I said above, I found it very emotionally satisfying. If you are someone who does get very bothered by poor pacing and awkward prose, then you might want to give this a miss, but for myself, I was able to overlook these things because I was enjoying the interactions between the characters -- it's very much a YMMV thing. Personally, I do not regret buying the ebook. I'm glad I did it, both because I enjoyed it and because I like the idea of supporting other fan-writers who are beginning to make their way into the realm of original fiction. If you are teetering, wondering whether or not to buy it, I say go ahead and do it -- especially if you're someone who is willing to overlook a few technical flaws in order to get an emotional payoff.
ETA:
Per Ardua by Jessie Blackwood can be purchased from Dreamspinner Press:
As an eBook for US$6.99
OR
As a paperback for US$14.99 (plus postage and handling).