Yuletide recs!
14th Century CE England RPF
Jesu dulcis memoria
Master Ladislaus of Prague had found great success in England, since he came to London with Princess Anna who had become Queen Anne, God rest her soul.
Excellently done sideways look at Anne of Bohemia and Richard II, affectionately and so neatly written.
Bacchae - Euripides
Agave in Illyria
Poor Semele, in the garden,
Caught a god within her eye
And great Zeus, that boundless circle
Sighed and opened up his thigh.
And Agave, on the mountain
Heard a god say open wide
Fragmentary, vicious and clear-sighted elucidation, brilliantly done.
Cable and Deadpool
What Happens on Providence
Wade has a very, very serious complaint to make about the management around these parts. Trouble is, Nate might just have a solution.
Absolutely brilliant dialogue! I was sniggering all the way through this!
Cloudburst at Shingle Street - Thomas Dolby (Song)
At Shingle Street
It is July, 1940. German invasion of the British Isles seems imminent, and rumours of attacks and attempts and secret weapons abound.
For Hugh Wakefield, WW1 veteran searching for a point in life, and Werner Schultheiss, nineteen-year-old, unwilling German Army recruit, this may be the summer where everything changes, and everyone bursts free.
Hands up, this is my favourite story of Yuletide 2014. I think it's stunning, and I had a lump in my throat when I finished reading. Superbly reseached, and emotionally compelling.
Flight of the Heron - D. K. Broster
On Steadiness and Integrity
An AU in which Keith Windham does not escape capture in Edinburgh.
I loved this depiction of my own city in that brief period when Charles Stuart reigned in Scotland - beautifully done. But the questions of honour and integrity here are very neatly tackled, and everyone is beautifully characterised.
House of Niccolò - Dorothy Dunnett
Waves of Regret, Waves of Joy
Gelis prepares for their meeting with care. She is not like Katelina, who wore her unplucked brows as a sign of pride (of her slovenly nature, Gelis had told her during their last quarrel, and now could never repent). Her face, her hair in its careful symmetry, the shape of her body beneath her clothes - these are weapons, to be used for attack or defence as the situation requires. Her first meeting with Nicholas van der Poele in six years requires all of her arsenal.
Brilliant, knife-sharp analysis of Gelis' motives - absolutely stunning work.
Hyakujitsu no Bara | Maiden Rose
Inugami Monogatari
...in my place I am sending you a volume of fairy-stories from the East, translated and retold in our own tongue for the delight and edification of children of the West like yourselves...
With all of my love,
Uncle Hartmann
A fairy story AU of Maiden Rose, formal and beautiful and cruel.
James I: The Key Will Keep the Lock - Munro
Everything has come to ruin
There's a spot of blood on his hand. There's blood and mud and god knows what else covering him but there, on the back of his hand, there's a spot of Henry's black blood and his hands won't stop shaking.
There's such a desperate edge to this story. I found it compelling, even with the history behind the play itself. James I of Scotland and Henry V of England, dangerously intimate.
The Pacific
The things that was which I 'ave seen
Gene and Sid went to war and came back to home to Mobile-just not together.
Brilliant, painful evocation of friendship and family and community, and the men who went to war and came home.
Pride
Everything. People, I cried over Pride. I started crying about half the way in and couldn't stop. I even recognised the damn earrings, you know? So due warning, I am emotionally attached to this film.
and so this is...
When the world falls apart, some things stay in place.
Christmas, over time. I loved the vividness of both charcters and dialogue.
Disenchanted Angry Young Man
When he finds it, the vanilla sponge that his mother made every year on his birthday for eighteen years, Joe doesn't flinch. He gets out the eggs and the sugar. He doesn't cry.
Reconciliation, grief - a history in small things.
Step into Christmas (the admission's free)
Steph discovers she likes Christmas. Holiday fluff featuring chestnut stuffing, Sian's recipes, mermaids, orthographically correct inappropriate language, Welsh whisky and cameos by Mark, Joe and Mike.
This feels so real! Witty and generous and sweet.
Tigana - Guy Gavriel Kay
Fair Beginning
Alessan and Baerd in Quileia.
The story of the summer king and the thirteenth tree - if anything was ever a missing part of canon, this is it.
Unusual Dragon Hoards - iguanamouth
What Is Mine Is Not Yours
Necco is a small, struggling dragon, who can barely keep his hoard together, in a big town full of much more powerful, temperamental dragons. Some days, it's all he can do to stay alive.
I...don't even know what this canon is? But I really, really loved the descriptions of hoards and hoard-collecting - the knife hoard is brilliantly described, and the minute variations and negotiations of collecting pastries...
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen - Alan Garner
Afterward
Afterwards, Gowther goes to Fundindelve to have a few words with Cadellin.
I love this story. Even if you didn't know canon - and it's perfectly done if you do - this brief confrontation between farmer and wizard is brilliantly written: the consequences of magic.
Well of Loneliness - Radclyffe Hall
The Law of the Wind (that came stirring the sap)
Raftery watched Stephen go, and shifted in his stall. He did not understand English, it was true, but he was not an unknowing horse. Any creature raised in Ireland knew wizards, with the patchwork they'd made of his land so it was all seams. And he knew his rider, and loved her.
Horses are great gossips, and the word quickly spread - there was finally a wizard in the Malvern Hills, and she was Raftery's rider.
I cannot understand why there is not more Well of Loneliness fiction! But this is truly intriguing - an affirmative stealth crossover that really works for both Stephen and Miss Puddleton. And Raftery!
Y Gwyll | Hinterland
Ar Haner Nos yn Glir y Daeth (Upon the Midnight Clear)
A seemingly open and shut case results in Mathias and Mared hanging about the castle ruins late one night - and they find they're not alone...
It's so seldom you see anything about Wales in fandom! But this is both a murder mystery and a ghost story, perfect for the season.
...really ought to do ordinary recs too. I have two free days - but please don't hold your breath!
14th Century CE England RPF, Bacchae - Euripides, Cable and Deadpool, Cloudburst at Shingle Street - Thomas Dolby (Song), Flight of the Heron - D. K. Broster, House of Niccolò - Dorothy Dunnett, Hyakujitsu no Bara | Maiden Rose, James I: The Key Will Keep the Lock - Munro, The Pacific, Pride (2014), Tigana - Guy Gavriel Kay, Unusual Dragon Hoards - iguanamouth, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen - Alan Garner, Well of Loneliness - Radclyffe Hall, Y Gwyll | Hinterland
Jesu dulcis memoria
Master Ladislaus of Prague had found great success in England, since he came to London with Princess Anna who had become Queen Anne, God rest her soul.
Excellently done sideways look at Anne of Bohemia and Richard II, affectionately and so neatly written.
Bacchae - Euripides
Agave in Illyria
Poor Semele, in the garden,
Caught a god within her eye
And great Zeus, that boundless circle
Sighed and opened up his thigh.
And Agave, on the mountain
Heard a god say open wide
Fragmentary, vicious and clear-sighted elucidation, brilliantly done.
Cable and Deadpool
What Happens on Providence
Wade has a very, very serious complaint to make about the management around these parts. Trouble is, Nate might just have a solution.
Absolutely brilliant dialogue! I was sniggering all the way through this!
Cloudburst at Shingle Street - Thomas Dolby (Song)
At Shingle Street
It is July, 1940. German invasion of the British Isles seems imminent, and rumours of attacks and attempts and secret weapons abound.
For Hugh Wakefield, WW1 veteran searching for a point in life, and Werner Schultheiss, nineteen-year-old, unwilling German Army recruit, this may be the summer where everything changes, and everyone bursts free.
Hands up, this is my favourite story of Yuletide 2014. I think it's stunning, and I had a lump in my throat when I finished reading. Superbly reseached, and emotionally compelling.
Flight of the Heron - D. K. Broster
On Steadiness and Integrity
An AU in which Keith Windham does not escape capture in Edinburgh.
I loved this depiction of my own city in that brief period when Charles Stuart reigned in Scotland - beautifully done. But the questions of honour and integrity here are very neatly tackled, and everyone is beautifully characterised.
House of Niccolò - Dorothy Dunnett
Waves of Regret, Waves of Joy
Gelis prepares for their meeting with care. She is not like Katelina, who wore her unplucked brows as a sign of pride (of her slovenly nature, Gelis had told her during their last quarrel, and now could never repent). Her face, her hair in its careful symmetry, the shape of her body beneath her clothes - these are weapons, to be used for attack or defence as the situation requires. Her first meeting with Nicholas van der Poele in six years requires all of her arsenal.
Brilliant, knife-sharp analysis of Gelis' motives - absolutely stunning work.
Hyakujitsu no Bara | Maiden Rose
Inugami Monogatari
...in my place I am sending you a volume of fairy-stories from the East, translated and retold in our own tongue for the delight and edification of children of the West like yourselves...
With all of my love,
Uncle Hartmann
A fairy story AU of Maiden Rose, formal and beautiful and cruel.
James I: The Key Will Keep the Lock - Munro
Everything has come to ruin
There's a spot of blood on his hand. There's blood and mud and god knows what else covering him but there, on the back of his hand, there's a spot of Henry's black blood and his hands won't stop shaking.
There's such a desperate edge to this story. I found it compelling, even with the history behind the play itself. James I of Scotland and Henry V of England, dangerously intimate.
The Pacific
The things that was which I 'ave seen
Gene and Sid went to war and came back to home to Mobile-just not together.
Brilliant, painful evocation of friendship and family and community, and the men who went to war and came home.
Pride
Everything. People, I cried over Pride. I started crying about half the way in and couldn't stop. I even recognised the damn earrings, you know? So due warning, I am emotionally attached to this film.
and so this is...
When the world falls apart, some things stay in place.
Christmas, over time. I loved the vividness of both charcters and dialogue.
Disenchanted Angry Young Man
When he finds it, the vanilla sponge that his mother made every year on his birthday for eighteen years, Joe doesn't flinch. He gets out the eggs and the sugar. He doesn't cry.
Reconciliation, grief - a history in small things.
Step into Christmas (the admission's free)
Steph discovers she likes Christmas. Holiday fluff featuring chestnut stuffing, Sian's recipes, mermaids, orthographically correct inappropriate language, Welsh whisky and cameos by Mark, Joe and Mike.
This feels so real! Witty and generous and sweet.
Tigana - Guy Gavriel Kay
Fair Beginning
Alessan and Baerd in Quileia.
The story of the summer king and the thirteenth tree - if anything was ever a missing part of canon, this is it.
Unusual Dragon Hoards - iguanamouth
What Is Mine Is Not Yours
Necco is a small, struggling dragon, who can barely keep his hoard together, in a big town full of much more powerful, temperamental dragons. Some days, it's all he can do to stay alive.
I...don't even know what this canon is? But I really, really loved the descriptions of hoards and hoard-collecting - the knife hoard is brilliantly described, and the minute variations and negotiations of collecting pastries...
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen - Alan Garner
Afterward
Afterwards, Gowther goes to Fundindelve to have a few words with Cadellin.
I love this story. Even if you didn't know canon - and it's perfectly done if you do - this brief confrontation between farmer and wizard is brilliantly written: the consequences of magic.
Well of Loneliness - Radclyffe Hall
The Law of the Wind (that came stirring the sap)
Raftery watched Stephen go, and shifted in his stall. He did not understand English, it was true, but he was not an unknowing horse. Any creature raised in Ireland knew wizards, with the patchwork they'd made of his land so it was all seams. And he knew his rider, and loved her.
Horses are great gossips, and the word quickly spread - there was finally a wizard in the Malvern Hills, and she was Raftery's rider.
I cannot understand why there is not more Well of Loneliness fiction! But this is truly intriguing - an affirmative stealth crossover that really works for both Stephen and Miss Puddleton. And Raftery!
Y Gwyll | Hinterland
Ar Haner Nos yn Glir y Daeth (Upon the Midnight Clear)
A seemingly open and shut case results in Mathias and Mared hanging about the castle ruins late one night - and they find they're not alone...
It's so seldom you see anything about Wales in fandom! But this is both a murder mystery and a ghost story, perfect for the season.
...really ought to do ordinary recs too. I have two free days - but please don't hold your breath!
14th Century CE England RPF, Bacchae - Euripides, Cable and Deadpool, Cloudburst at Shingle Street - Thomas Dolby (Song), Flight of the Heron - D. K. Broster, House of Niccolò - Dorothy Dunnett, Hyakujitsu no Bara | Maiden Rose, James I: The Key Will Keep the Lock - Munro, The Pacific, Pride (2014), Tigana - Guy Gavriel Kay, Unusual Dragon Hoards - iguanamouth, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen - Alan Garner, Well of Loneliness - Radclyffe Hall, Y Gwyll | Hinterland