HELLO INTERNET FRIENDS

[xahra99]

 So, turns out I've not been posting recently. Reason is, I've been working on an epic novel-length fic. (and starting my own business, and moving about twelve thousand miles, again, but that's another story) This is pretty much the first long fic I've finished entirely before posting (I'm usually much more of an instalment writer) and it's been

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[dramatorama]

I don't know if it counts, but Robin Hobb's Fitz/Fool series, at 8 books, is probably my favourite ridiculously long series of fiction. I think it's because she takes the time to shake out and re-examine the way her characters were thinking, feeling and acting in earlier books - she does it so subtly and cleverly, it makes it honestly like reading a life, with hindsight and regret and all the rest.

I'm not quite so fond of the Bingtown books but I'd have a hard time saying why - maybe it's because I have a harder time relating to Epic Tales Of Dragons than the bloody human politics and intrigue of the Fitz books.

I think of these as epics because while they're not your typical high fantasy, it's because a) it's mostly in first person, and b) the protagonist is never preoccupied with Being A Hero except in the most self-sabotaging ways - he just does what he's told and doesn't leave out the bits that embarrass him (except when he does, and comes back to it later and admits it). I could be wrong here. Maybe it's not an epic because of the huge timeline jumps.

Maybe it's actually an epic tale of the Fool - my favourite character in fantasy for so many reasons. I like to contrast it with, for example, Wheel of Time, and how ridiculous and awkward and convoluted (and sexist and formulaic!) it is.

In the interest of transparency,
I have to admit I still reread WoT every couple of years for Nynaeve and her braid (and Lan, too, maybe). I prefer Sanderson's wrap-up books to the later Jordan books, though - The Eye of the World is nearly perfect, but books 5-8 are mind-numbing and there's a lot of weird shit about sister-wives.

I should probably re-read the Dark Tower. I was very much into it but got lost around the time of Wizard and Glass's release - I think maybe I was a little young for it, the same thing happened with Otherland around the same time - and I think there are probably a ton of sly cultural allusions and so on that I'd have missed the first time and could appreciate now.

I didn't like what he did with Susannah, that's the other thing. There's a bit (and I'm reaching back through the mists of time here to try and remember) where she binds a demon with sex. This made me uncomfortable in all sorts of ways I can't even begin to articulate. Lots of King's stuff has a woman involved in sex as a ritual or a bargain - IT comes to mind, Gerald's Game, and the writer's mother in ?Hearts in Atlantis? I'm not a skilled enough analyst to try and work out if it's actually a bad thing, or even WHY I get the ew from it.

This balanced out against the reasons I want to re-read the series: the bit when Roland is suddenly in 80s New York and Pepsi nearly kills him with delight (did I imagine this?); the way he writes you right into the world the characters are in, be it Earth or Mid-World; the ways it ties in with his other books, especially the ones with Peter Straub. (Not hugely keen on The Talisman except that I love "Jack names the Planets", which is the greatest fanwork ever, imo, but I keep coming back to Black House even if it's only tangentially connected to Dark Tower.) There was a bit in The Talisman that I loved, where Jack starts his journey at the fair with Speedy - so succint and perfect, honestly the thing King excels at, setting you down in a place and saying This Is Where You Are in full Technicolor in a page or two.

Anyway, hi. I hope this massive comment isn't too weird, I got a bit... involved halfway. I found your lj while in the midst of writing a wanky, sentimental My Fandom Life post in the middle of the night and looking up old bookmarks on FFN etc - I remember reading your FF8 fics repeatedly in years past & now expect to spend the next few evenings re-reading and rolling around in delicious nostalgia. Fab.

[xahra99]

Wow! What an epic comment!
I love Hobb, but have to admit I actually prefer the Bingtown books. I like the setting and the female characters, although I spend a great part of the early books wanting to slap Malta. And sometimes Althea. The new Fitz/Fool book is pretty cool,although I did read a review describing the book as a 'four hundred page description of retirement'. Stories set after the happy ever afters are much more interesting than the mcGuffin quests.
King is never going to be one of my favorite authors, but there's something about bookends. 'The man in black fled into the desert, and the gunslinger followed' is such a perfect way to finish and begin a story.
It made me laugh to think of my FF8 fics being reread. Those remind me so much of university, back when I hadn't even played the game and thought twenty pages a fortnight was a completely reasonable amount of fic to be writing.Good times.