Yuletide Recs: Part 3
I still have SO MANY stories I haven't read yet, including most of the longer stories, so expect post-reveal rec posts. This Yuletide has had a lot of exceptionally good stories and I am looking forward to many more days of reading. But first, my last pre-reveal set of recs:
Don't Need To Know Canon
There were a number of good stories based on these iconic NASA's Mars Wants YOU posters, all of them essentially original science fiction. One of my favorites so far was Your Shadow at Evening, Rising to Meet You. Beautiful sense-of-wonder sf, starting lightly and building to a perfect conclusion.
The Green Cats of Desolation City. Inspired by a real-life project to figure out how to warn future generations - like, millennia in the future - about nuclear waste when society might have totally moved on and not speak any current language: creepy sculptures? folk songs? GLOWING GREEN CATS? Atmospheric post-apocalyptic sf with a parable-ish feel, very nicely written.
Flintlock Through the Heart, and You're to Blame. Okay, you do need to know canon, but it can be acquired in five minutes via the author's links at the top. It's a "Barrett's Privateer's"/"Hark! A Vagrant" crossover; you actually don't need to read the couple of online comic strips it's based on to get it (but you should) but you do need to listen to "Barrett's Privateers" (which you should anyway.) Pirate nemeses in love; a completely delightful short story, sweet and funny and ridiculous in the very best way.
Canon knowledge good but not essential
a song of their own. Dragonriders of Pern, but all original characters. I think you just need to know that dragons and riders are telepathically bonded for life so they can fight corrosive Thread that falls from the sky. Unusual take on canon - the life story of a dragon and her rider, from the dragon's POV, focusing on the intimacy and interdependency of their bond. Really nicely done, feels like a short novel. It's a life story, so bittersweet (but not at all grim).
However, I should probably warn for something that I didn't find grim/depressing in context (especially since it's a small part of an entire life), but it's usually a no-go for me, so rot13.com for spoilers: Va pnaba, qentbaf naq evqref bsgra pbzzvg fhvpvqr gbtrgure jura gurl srry gung gurl'ir ernpurq gur raq bs gurve yvirf naq jnag gb fxvc gur fybj cnvashy fyvqr qbja. Gur znva punenpgref qb guvf va byq ntr jura gur evqre vf qrirybcvat qrzragvn gb na rkgrag gung vg'f raqnatrevat gurve obaq. Va pbagrkg, vg'f zber ovggrefjrrg guna ubeevslvat - gurl yvirq n tbbq ybat yvsr, naq jrag bhg nf gurl pubfr.
A Tale For A Cold Summer Night. Bujold's Curse of Chalion. (All the Chalion stories are good this Yuletide, I'll rec more later. This one just seemed to be getting less attention than it deserved.) The origin story of the Bastard, one of the five Gods of the world. Beautifully written, with the polished but rhythmic voice of real oral folklore, and some cool extrapolations on what "out of season" might mean.
Need to Know Canon
Chenelo's Treasures. The Goblin Emperor. Absolutely beautiful story in which Maia re-connects with his mother through a box of unexpected mementos of her life, and with the people he loves now through those. The worldbuilding details are marvelous, and it's full of the warmth and kindness and carefulness with other people's feelings that I loved so much in the book.
A Rabbit-Hole of Edwardian Pornography. Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London.
Peter stumbles across some pre-war pornography in the Folly's reading room. He's not entirely sure how he gets from that to Nightingale pontificating about the quality of erotic writing in different languages, conversations about close and not always platonic bonds between wizards and their apprentices, and discovering a whole lot of things Peter hadn't been into before.
And he's been trying so hard not to think about how much he wants to sleep with his boss.
Exactly what it says on the tin, but also above and beyond that, at once a thoughtful exploration of modern and historical attitudes to sexuality, actually funny sex jokes, hot sex scenes, and a poignant look at Nightingale as an exile in time. I don't ship them but I liked this a lot anyway.
The Gates of Cibola. Stephen King's The Stand. Flagg and Lloyd on their post-prison road trip to Vegas; an understatedly unsettling missing scene that fits neatly into canon.
Blood in the Water. Robin McKinley's Chalice. Gorgeous and eerie. I always wondered about the Blood Chalice, who is just mentioned in the book. This short, sharp story is a great glimpse of who she might have been, and why.
Crossposted to http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1280012.html. Comment here or there.
Don't Need To Know Canon
There were a number of good stories based on these iconic NASA's Mars Wants YOU posters, all of them essentially original science fiction. One of my favorites so far was Your Shadow at Evening, Rising to Meet You. Beautiful sense-of-wonder sf, starting lightly and building to a perfect conclusion.
The Green Cats of Desolation City. Inspired by a real-life project to figure out how to warn future generations - like, millennia in the future - about nuclear waste when society might have totally moved on and not speak any current language: creepy sculptures? folk songs? GLOWING GREEN CATS? Atmospheric post-apocalyptic sf with a parable-ish feel, very nicely written.
Flintlock Through the Heart, and You're to Blame. Okay, you do need to know canon, but it can be acquired in five minutes via the author's links at the top. It's a "Barrett's Privateer's"/"Hark! A Vagrant" crossover; you actually don't need to read the couple of online comic strips it's based on to get it (but you should) but you do need to listen to "Barrett's Privateers" (which you should anyway.) Pirate nemeses in love; a completely delightful short story, sweet and funny and ridiculous in the very best way.
Canon knowledge good but not essential
a song of their own. Dragonriders of Pern, but all original characters. I think you just need to know that dragons and riders are telepathically bonded for life so they can fight corrosive Thread that falls from the sky. Unusual take on canon - the life story of a dragon and her rider, from the dragon's POV, focusing on the intimacy and interdependency of their bond. Really nicely done, feels like a short novel. It's a life story, so bittersweet (but not at all grim).
However, I should probably warn for something that I didn't find grim/depressing in context (especially since it's a small part of an entire life), but it's usually a no-go for me, so rot13.com for spoilers: Va pnaba, qentbaf naq evqref bsgra pbzzvg fhvpvqr gbtrgure jura gurl srry gung gurl'ir ernpurq gur raq bs gurve yvirf naq jnag gb fxvc gur fybj cnvashy fyvqr qbja. Gur znva punenpgref qb guvf va byq ntr jura gur evqre vf qrirybcvat qrzragvn gb na rkgrag gung vg'f raqnatrevat gurve obaq. Va pbagrkg, vg'f zber ovggrefjrrg guna ubeevslvat - gurl yvirq n tbbq ybat yvsr, naq jrag bhg nf gurl pubfr.
A Tale For A Cold Summer Night. Bujold's Curse of Chalion. (All the Chalion stories are good this Yuletide, I'll rec more later. This one just seemed to be getting less attention than it deserved.) The origin story of the Bastard, one of the five Gods of the world. Beautifully written, with the polished but rhythmic voice of real oral folklore, and some cool extrapolations on what "out of season" might mean.
Need to Know Canon
Chenelo's Treasures. The Goblin Emperor. Absolutely beautiful story in which Maia re-connects with his mother through a box of unexpected mementos of her life, and with the people he loves now through those. The worldbuilding details are marvelous, and it's full of the warmth and kindness and carefulness with other people's feelings that I loved so much in the book.
A Rabbit-Hole of Edwardian Pornography. Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London.
Peter stumbles across some pre-war pornography in the Folly's reading room. He's not entirely sure how he gets from that to Nightingale pontificating about the quality of erotic writing in different languages, conversations about close and not always platonic bonds between wizards and their apprentices, and discovering a whole lot of things Peter hadn't been into before.
And he's been trying so hard not to think about how much he wants to sleep with his boss.
Exactly what it says on the tin, but also above and beyond that, at once a thoughtful exploration of modern and historical attitudes to sexuality, actually funny sex jokes, hot sex scenes, and a poignant look at Nightingale as an exile in time. I don't ship them but I liked this a lot anyway.
The Gates of Cibola. Stephen King's The Stand. Flagg and Lloyd on their post-prison road trip to Vegas; an understatedly unsettling missing scene that fits neatly into canon.
Blood in the Water. Robin McKinley's Chalice. Gorgeous and eerie. I always wondered about the Blood Chalice, who is just mentioned in the book. This short, sharp story is a great glimpse of who she might have been, and why.
Crossposted to http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1280012.html. Comment here or there.