Story 209: "Sokol" by Khyber

[wendelah1]

Happy Canada Day and Happy Fourth of July.

Sokol was suggested in March of 2011 by estella_c, which tells you that we're a little backlogged. It's a good summer read: a novella length, fast-paced thriller, a myth-arc story that gives us an alternative ending to the series. I consider it essential reading for this fandom. In the MSR category, I'd put it up

Comments

[estella_c]

Okay, first of all, Olive Oyle. I knew that.

My comments will be coming in bursts, probably unconnected. I have a compact, studio-sized attention span.

Such an overwhelming tale, and so expertly controlled. I like what infinitlight said about not quite getting everything at the conclusion. I've often felt that the books I really like--and this is a Book--are those created by people I know are much smarter than I am. (A rl example of this would be Tim Powers.) Reading easy-to-understand genre gets dull. This is great science fiction. Khyber could have gone pro, and he knows it, but the money...

The scenes in which Mulder/Scully appear to be dead are an example. I still don't get them, but I suspect they are a function of the fragmenting of reality, the multiplying of outcomes. Some will remember that lovely, color-coded scene in "Where I End and You Begin," which within the storyline just doesn't happen. Alternate realities surround us, waiting to comfort or pounce.

I'm sorry Wendelah is unhappy with the quest opt-out, but that is in keeping with her admiration of the work and her kink for tragedy. I personally think we can ask no more of Mulder and Scully after vanquishing indescribable, unspeakable, Lovecraftian (yes!) monsters. Possibly the consortium and aliens will wise up and leave Earth alone already. Earth is a lot of trouble!

Like obviousanswer, I so love what Khyber did with Jeffrey Spender, who never rose above weakling status on the show. Here he is a smart, professional guy with a moral center, intent on undoing his mistakes. There is that wonderful moment when CSM (aka "the Smoker") informs someone that he has two sons. And then he goes on, coldly and bloodily, to protect the most difficult one. It is a striking irony that this villain does the essential thing, and moreover has fathered one honorable man and one global hero.

Also, rather refreshingly, Khyber has turned Krycek into a total psycho. This is a foretaste of what the Lovecraft aliens will wreak on human beings. So it's not entirely his fault, Krycek-lovers. Nonetheless, it's nice for Wendy, who hates him. (g)

[szgrey]

Khyber has turned Krycek into a total psycho

THAT'S the other thing I wanted to say. I really, really liked the way Krycek's deterioration was handled. I liked, first, that we got notes before his character entered the story directly. Then, I liked how he was written. He rang truer to me than most of the fic Kryceks I've seen, though I haven't really seen many. (If anyone has good Krycek fics to recommend, I would be all over that.) Krycek at the beginning of the story isn't psychotic (he may be a sociopath, I guess, but that's a whole nother thing). His loyalties and motivations are uncertain, just like in the show, and he's got a coldness and a black-edged humor that I found delightful, and the increasing stress he's under, his lack of sleep, and the hideous things he witnesses serve to mask the degree to which he's really losing it over the course of the story. By the end he *is* psychotic, but I knew that the moment Mulder did and no sooner. Of course, at that point it snapped perfectly into place, all the ways in which I saw it happening all along without recognizing what I was seeing.

The scene in the restaurant might be my favorite in the story. It was tight and intense and at first I was reading up and down the page with a ridiculous grin feeling like I had to double back in case I missed something, it happened so fast, and then at the end of just under three pages I was breathing like I was back in high school track, and liking Spender more than I ever thought I would, and THEN assassins in Mulder's apartment. Shit just got well beyond real.

[estella_c]

szgrey, I have no idea whether this would be to your taste, as it's Scully/Krycek. But I believe that it's the only believable Scully/Krycek in existence, and it is moreover wonderfully written: Half a World Away by Jane St. Clair. You'll find it in the discussion list along, well, with the discussion. Let me know if you get to it and don't hesitate to post your opinion. We made a kind of agreement that people could time-travel to previous postings, though I'm not sure whether they are really doing it.

[szgrey]

Any ship or none, and any genre- I'm easy, as long as it's well-written and has believable characterization :)
And I've been going through the discussion list in a haphazard fashion, reading the discussions on stories I know, and reading the ones I don't know and then the discussions. It's wonderful for me as a baby phile to have a whole long list of varied, quality fic, especially as it seems a lot of the old rec sites and archives no longer exist. I haven't been commenting, but perhaps I will start.

[estella_c]

Oh, we all certainly hope you do! A baby phile. Who would have thought, twenty years after the fact. It's sort of like a pregnancy in your sixties. (Not that I'd know.)

[szgrey]

I was surprised by how many other babies I found on tumblr, although most of them seem to be not much over half my age. I'm one of those who managed to miss it entirely, in my case by growing up in a nearly TV-free household and maintaining the habit until the advent of Hulu. I just started the series this year.

[infinitlight]

I always liked Wheels of Iscariot for Scully/Krycek, although it's been a long time since I last read it.

[estella_c]

Never got into that, for some forgotten reason. Maybe should try again.

[wendelah1]

He's a piece of work even in canon; by the end of this fic, he's pure evil.

I love the scene where Scully gets to shoot and kill him. Die, Alex, die.