Yuletide recs, pt. 1
Good lord, it'll be December 2007 before I get through this year's stories. I read my gift, then the other stories in the fandom that I wrote for, then I started at the top of the alphabetical list and even with being very picky about only reading for sources that I adore, I've still only made it through Dorothy Sayers.
But here are a few recs from my meager readings so far (just from the alphabetical part -- I'll get to the others when I get to their sectin of the giant list):
Two for Dorothy Sayers: The Conscience Of The Queen and Death In The Tuileries. The first has Harriet solving a mystery sometime after Busman's Honeymoon, the second is Peter's first mystery set during WWI, and also the occasion of his introduction to Bunter. Both are wonderfully in-character and capture the voice of the books, a *very* tricky accomplishment.
For Dead Like Me: The End And Other Stories. I still don't buy the central pairing and think the story would be better without the sex awkwardly tacked on at the end, but the feel of the story is amazing: the snappy banter, the surreal edge, and the way that cynicism is always fighting against hope and compassion but never quite wins.
For Narnia: Further Up And Further In, set before and after the Last Battle. Beautiful, restrained, emotional without being saccharine, and mystical without being explicitly religious.
But here are a few recs from my meager readings so far (just from the alphabetical part -- I'll get to the others when I get to their sectin of the giant list):
Two for Dorothy Sayers: The Conscience Of The Queen and Death In The Tuileries. The first has Harriet solving a mystery sometime after Busman's Honeymoon, the second is Peter's first mystery set during WWI, and also the occasion of his introduction to Bunter. Both are wonderfully in-character and capture the voice of the books, a *very* tricky accomplishment.
For Dead Like Me: The End And Other Stories. I still don't buy the central pairing and think the story would be better without the sex awkwardly tacked on at the end, but the feel of the story is amazing: the snappy banter, the surreal edge, and the way that cynicism is always fighting against hope and compassion but never quite wins.
For Narnia: Further Up And Further In, set before and after the Last Battle. Beautiful, restrained, emotional without being saccharine, and mystical without being explicitly religious.