Comments | xf_book_club: Story 210: "Sans Merci" by Brighid

wendelah1 in xf_book_club

Story 210: "Sans Merci" by Brighid

Aug 02, 2012 22:11

As I'm not a big fan of the fantasy genre, I was leery of trying this story by Brighid. But I'm glad I did, and I think you will be, too. It's season four, a genfic X-file, with no specific spoilers. She also lists two keywords: Mulder & Faery. Her summary: Mulder falls down the rabbit hole. Well, that's one way to put it. The author rated it PG-13 ( Read more... )

season 4, pg-13, xfile, gen

Comments 4

(The comment has been removed)

wendelah1 August 3 2012, 07:00:59 UTC

I thought you might be. ♥

mosinging1986 August 3 2012, 14:54:13 UTC

Wow, what a strange and imaginative story! From the description I didn't think it could work. But somehow, it did. I couldn't stop reading until I got to the end.

I loved this bit:

"If the Unseelie are the only ones strong enough left, so be it. It is time we took back what is ours by right."

"And who says it's yours?" Hero asked then; his voice was soft and reasonable, and it chilled me to the core. "Who gave you that right?"

...

"Who gave you that right?" Mulder repeated, softly, but the rage behind the words was unmistakable, and Ruadan caught the steel beneath the velvet; his gaze sharpened as it took in the displaced federal agent standing before him.It highlights my favorite quality about Mulder, and that's that he cannot abide injustice done to anyone; the idea that something is just not right. I share that same passion in a lot of ways. And it's a hard thing, because this world is so full of things that just aren't right. Aside from the usual crimes and tragedies of the world, there are the smaller injustices - false ( ... )

estella_c August 12 2012, 14:30:45 UTC

I like this story. I don't love it, for reasons I'll get to, but I especially like the fact that Brighid takes on the faerie tropes that have become so ragingly popular--even more since this was written--and tried to draw them into the realm of X ( ... )

amyhit August 13 2012, 02:08:32 UTC

Brighid, I know it’s unlikely, but if you’re still around, I’m sorry for being so mean. Just focus on the good stuff everyone else is saying, yeah?

I’m really not sure what to say about this fic. Um. Honestly? I rolled my eyes so violently, so many times while reading this that I’m surprised they didn’t get stuck that way. There’s really no way for me to soften my opinion on this one. I found it silly, annoying, badly written, and boring in equal measures.

Um. Okay.

Admittedly, I’m a hard sell on hardcore, genre-style fantasy stories in the XF fandom (although I distinctly remember enjoying The Magician, for all that it was kind of silly). I’m also going to be a hard sell on stories without Scully (though there are some I’ve really enjoyed - Vehicle and Tenor, for example).

But the thing about this fic was that it didn’t even do genre-style fantasy well. In fact, it epitomized everything I’ve ever considered silly and unappealing about fantasy. The prose was purple, the emotions and concepts were OTT, and the fantasy elements were ( ... )