fics, and Captive Prince

[issenllo]

Occupational Safety, Poe, Finn, Star Wars VII, by shadydave

The Importance of Being Edited, Miles Vorkosigan and fanfic, by shimotsuki

Thanks to nineveh_uk for alerting to the fact that there are Daddy-Long-Legs fanfic:

Dear Walt, Judy/Jervis, Daddy-Long-Legs, by Bookwormsarah

The Diary of Julia Rutledge Pendleton: Excerpts, Daddy-Long-Legs, by shealynn88


***

Read Kings Rising by freece aka C.S. Pacat. I was annoyed that it'd been 2 Feb here for hours and I had to wait on Amazon's timezone for it, but then it downloaded and I was happy. Repeats to self: Laurent is the blond one; Damien, no, Damon, no, Damen is the dark-haired one. Blondie is from Vere, Damen is from Akielos. Yup, gotcha.

I'd read a few chapters of Captive Prince back when it was still on LJ, and liked it... sort of. The story was interesting, though slavefic isn't really my kink, but it was fun to read. Only I kept mixing up the two main characters. Not due to any fault in the characterisations, but due to my facility for confusing d/l/m/r sounds. Dalen, Daren, Ramen, Laumen, Lauden... it was frustrating. With constant reminders to self (see above), though, I worked though that, and got three books' worth of entertainment.

The first thing I have to say is, the feel of the narrative is very... declaratory? There're a lot of sentences that just go "Damen walked...", "Damen gave the order...", "Laurent sat...", "There was a horse...". Not a lot of fluidity and transitions, which gives one the feeling of a sentence being typed over and over on a word processor, being deleted and rewritten repeatedly. Luckily the rest of the sentences are livelier and curl around enough to save the narrative from sounding choppy: there's a feeling of abruptness occasionally, but it works as a personal style.

I was pleasantly surprised in Captive Prince at how the plot drew out the strands of the conspiracy. Because it's from Damen's POV, the ickiness of the happenings at the Veretian court was muted (for better or worse) because there was no orgy (pardon the pun) of description. One gets the sense that the palace is ornate with smiling people who are hiding their true intentions, and also, a lot happens unseen as well. Which, if one attempts to visualise it, makes for a very ornamental, very busy palate. Some explicit sex scenes, some violent scenes, very strong but not overly gratuitous.

Prince's Gambit was exciting. I liked it more for the quicker pacing, the confrontations and the change of setting. I did wish there was more of a sense of place, somehow. Instead there was a lot of scenery description that worked if one needs to visualise the fights and soldiers, but did not add to the feel of it. Still, yay, more plot!

And then we get to Kings Rising, which was a lot of Book 2, but from the POV of Damen as a king rather than as Laurent's slave. I guess by now if you're expecting a lot of twistiness from Laurent and his Regent uncle, the plot isn't going to be a big surprise: just go on predicting the most upsetting turnarounds, and you won't be disappointed. But well, how else was it going to be? At one point I did wonder, if this book was going to go on to book four or five, because it would really be a big bang. But the amount of killing that would involve would probably depopulate the continent. So. Very nice build-up, exciting plotty things and a series of satisfying turnarounds. Oh, and of course the two of them end up together. What's not to like?

Other thoughts:

1) Ranty re Guion: this person has turned coat so many times he'd probably find his head put on backwards one morning. Or something. He's like a caricature of a quisling, and also, he turns without much discernable benefit to self - also without ensuring that there isn't someone who can gainsay him - and is deplorably predictable in his bendyness.

2) Evil Regent should have got more shaming.

3) The sole female in the books with any sort of self-determination actually kicked ass. If overly self-sacrificing.

4) And that bit with Charls the merchant.

5) And Damen, you're a big noble lunk, will you stop being so... 後知後覺! The opposite of being prescient. The extreme opposite of being prescient.

6) Makedon is part caricature of that grizzly chieftain in the grasslands, who thinks he's being gentle when he claps you on the shoulder hard enough to dislocate it and thinks you should down the type of alcohol best used as paint thinner, isn't he? It was kind of astonishing when he showed up.

7) Author's habit of suddenly belting out high-powered, uber-SAT vocabulary like "spicule" [1. A small needlelike structure or part, such as one of the silicate or calcium carbonate processes supporting the soft tissue of certain invertebrates, especially sponges. 2. Astronomy A spike-shaped formation emanating from the ionized gas of the solar photosphere.] This is why I like my Kindle, because it provides dictionary meanings on demand. Ordinarily I would not see the need for this word in these novels. Undoubtedly it's that I'm a philistine; other readers most likely enjoy seeing higher-level words. But still throws me out of the narrative.

Comments

[adevyish]

5) And Damen, you're a big noble lunk, will you stop being so... 後知後覺! The opposite of being prescient. The extreme opposite of being prescient.

I'm laughing so hard but this is so very true.

And yes Evil Regent should have gotten the tied up in a square to be spit on punishment, at least.

[issenllo]

I keep thinking, you're supposed to be a leader, observe more!