Yuletide Recs, Part I
This Yuletide there was some debate over whether rec lists should be linked at the yuletide com, or at a new com called yuletide-recs; perhaps due to the confusion, most people seem to be posting recs on their own LJs/DWs and not linking anywhere. You can post links at either com! Please post links! I enjoy reading rec lists (and then reading stories), and this year the only way I've found most rec lists is by laboriously trawling through the "friends of" yuletide com.
My gift story was Vocation, from Vonda McIntyre's novel Dreamsnake, about a post-apocalyptic doctor who uses genetically engineered snakes to heal people. Not only was the story moving and filled with intriguing worldbuilding, but it was about the costs and rewards of being a healer. It was amazingly apropos to get right after I began as a trainee trauma therapist, and doubly so because I am pretty sure my writer doesn't know me personally. Note: contains detailed descriptions of dissecting a human cadaver - the heroine is in post-apocalyptic medical school.
Steal My Breath. Like clockwork, every year Yuletide produces at least one excellent story based on that most unlikely of canons, Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. This short story (under 1K words, in Madness) has all the wordplay and references and recursiveness and sorrow of the original
The Red-Hot Brawling Sun. Gorgeous, clever, poetic fantasy based on the legend of Stagger Lee.
Zack Don't Surf. From Max Brooks' novel World War Z, an oral history of the zombie apocalypse. The story doesn't require canon knowledge; absolutely in the style of the book, it's an interview with a woman who works a surf patrol hunting zombies. The author's note mentions that it's based on their own home town, and you can tell: the details and setting feel absolutely real, lending the more poignant zombie apocalypse tropes a certain gravitas which goes surprisingly well with a story about surfer zombie slayers.
Damask Roses. Code Name Verity, Julie/Maddie, post-novel and hugely spoilery for the novel. Love and compromises and friendship, things that are ambiguous and things that are not. Sensual and touching. It made me cry.
Khamsin. Ursula Le Guin's The Tombs of Atuan The teenage priestess Arha seeks solace with young fellow priestess Penthe. (I always did ship them.) Sensual and beautifully written.
To end on a subtle, elegant, classy note, The Not Entirely Accurate Chronicle of John Polidori, Genius Physician and Brilliant Writer, and His Rather Less Distinguished Companions. That infamous Geneva trip, retold a la "Secret Diaries," with extremely accurate character tags including "Lord Byron's Dog" and "Lord Byron's Penis." I laughed. A lot.
I wrote three stories this Yuletide, which under the circumstances was some sort of Yuletide miracle. Feel free to guess in comments if you think you spotted one.
Crossposted to http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1128238.html. Comment here or there.
My gift story was Vocation, from Vonda McIntyre's novel Dreamsnake, about a post-apocalyptic doctor who uses genetically engineered snakes to heal people. Not only was the story moving and filled with intriguing worldbuilding, but it was about the costs and rewards of being a healer. It was amazingly apropos to get right after I began as a trainee trauma therapist, and doubly so because I am pretty sure my writer doesn't know me personally. Note: contains detailed descriptions of dissecting a human cadaver - the heroine is in post-apocalyptic medical school.
Steal My Breath. Like clockwork, every year Yuletide produces at least one excellent story based on that most unlikely of canons, Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. This short story (under 1K words, in Madness) has all the wordplay and references and recursiveness and sorrow of the original
The Red-Hot Brawling Sun. Gorgeous, clever, poetic fantasy based on the legend of Stagger Lee.
Zack Don't Surf. From Max Brooks' novel World War Z, an oral history of the zombie apocalypse. The story doesn't require canon knowledge; absolutely in the style of the book, it's an interview with a woman who works a surf patrol hunting zombies. The author's note mentions that it's based on their own home town, and you can tell: the details and setting feel absolutely real, lending the more poignant zombie apocalypse tropes a certain gravitas which goes surprisingly well with a story about surfer zombie slayers.
Damask Roses. Code Name Verity, Julie/Maddie, post-novel and hugely spoilery for the novel. Love and compromises and friendship, things that are ambiguous and things that are not. Sensual and touching. It made me cry.
Khamsin. Ursula Le Guin's The Tombs of Atuan The teenage priestess Arha seeks solace with young fellow priestess Penthe. (I always did ship them.) Sensual and beautifully written.
To end on a subtle, elegant, classy note, The Not Entirely Accurate Chronicle of John Polidori, Genius Physician and Brilliant Writer, and His Rather Less Distinguished Companions. That infamous Geneva trip, retold a la "Secret Diaries," with extremely accurate character tags including "Lord Byron's Dog" and "Lord Byron's Penis." I laughed. A lot.
I wrote three stories this Yuletide, which under the circumstances was some sort of Yuletide miracle. Feel free to guess in comments if you think you spotted one.
Crossposted to http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1128238.html. Comment here or there.