Many a treat in Yuletide goodie bags

On the fourteenth day of Yuletide, some writers gave to me…

Fics of my heart: Hainish Cycle, Edward and Mrs Simpson, Earthsea, Tillerman Cycle, 19th Century CE RPF, Strange and Norrell

First up, stuff I was really into, either because I am enjoying the fandom right now or it just tickled my head in the right way.

The End and the Way
Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
Original characters

This seems to be the only Hainish Cycle fic this year, which is a shame because Hainish Cycle fic (like the source) is often amazing. I am bound and determined to get Four Ways to Forgiveness fic sometime dammit, but that isn’t the fault of this fic. This solo representative is worthy! It’s life on Winter, as a female pervert: friendship, hard work, slogging through the snow alone, and being the only person in most situations who can feel sexual all the time.

It pretty clearly relies on Coming of Age in Karhide for background as well, or probably more than, Left Hand of Darkness, but Beshem is a less happy narrator than Coming of Age‘s narrator, which in some ways makes it a more satisfying story.

Hanover’s Seed
Edward and Mrs. Simpson (TV)
not!Wallis Simpson, not!David Windsor

You don’t really need to know the TV series specifically: any basic knowledge of the abdication crisis will do. This is a crack version replaying it in the form of a succession crisis in a county gardening club.

Yeah I know, but it worked for me. And how!

Hoag
Earthsea – Ursula K. Le Guin
Jasper, Vetch, Ged

I am not into the boys-at-Roke stage in general, but here’s an exception! Jasper’s anger and sadness and jealousy of Sparrowhawk, before and after Sparrowhawk summons the darkness.

Neither Have I Wings To Fly
Tillerman Cycle – Cynthia Voigt
Millie Tydings, Abigail Tillerman

This is outsider fic: storekeeper and butcher Millie’s view of Abigail Tillerman since they were girls. The Tillermans are such an extraordinary family that Voight herself wrote them from an outsider’s perspective no less than three times, and it’s always worth it.

The Escapists
19th Century CE RPF
Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë

I’m pretty sure that this is the pinch-hit that tempted me. I’m glad I didn’t take it because I wouldn’t have done it nearly this well!

This is the day that Charlotte snoops among Emily’s possessions and finds her poetry, and there’s a bit of everything for the Brontë biography fan. Emily and Anne play at Gondal! Emily is brutally socially awkward! Charlotte pines for her Professor! Branwell is about to bring hell down on them all (bless him)!

I think, sadly, that you probably do need to be reasonably familiar with their lives to get much out of it. But if you are: super-recommended!

The Heirs of English Magic
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell – Susanna Clarke
Arabella Strange, Lady Pole, Stephen Black, Sir Walter Pole, John Segundus, King George III

Written for me. And I really love it!

Other awesome fics: Discworld, Earthsea, Night Watch, Casino Royale, Anne of Green Gables

I’ve also been prowling around a bit and spied some other goodies:

Hen Party
Discworld – Terry Pratchett
Tiffany Aching, Esmerelda “Granny” Weatherwax, Magrat Garlick, Gytha “Nanny” Ogg, Nac Mac Feegle

Tiffany’s hen’s night, with the extended Discworld coven.

Harmless
Discworld – Terry Pratchett
Havelock Vetinari, Cheery Littlebottom, Adora Belle Dearheart, Constable Dorfl

A little bit of Watch crime fighting with obvious influence from Isaac Asimov: not only a nod to the Three Laws but also I think a nod to All the Troubles of the World?

Dark Sands
Earthsea – Ursula K. Le Guin
Original characters

Earthsea mythology! I think the tone is a touch uneven, but the myth itself is great: I didn’t at all predict where it was headed.

Less Substantial Than Fairy Tales
Nochnoy Dozor | Night Watch – Sergei Lukyanenko
Anton Gorodetsky, Olga, Yulia

Olga gets used to active life again, explores modern technology and plays video games with Yulia. Something of a vignette but some interesting ideas and I’m glad to see something happened in this fandom.

trust no one: a lesson not only learned, but earned
Casino Royale (2006)
M, James Bond

Alternative point-of-view fic: M’s view of Casino Royale. Since I like CR and I love M, win. Also, while I do like Bond/M, I also like that this isn’t Bond/M.

The Rest
Casino Royale (2006) and The Sandbaggers

More M, this time backstory. I don’t actually know The Sandbaggers, but it still works for me.

Daughters Like This
Anne of Green Gables – L. M. Montgomery
Una Meredith, Faith Meredith, Diana Blythe, Rilla Blythe, Rosemary West, Anne Shirley, Aunt Martha

I like to have a bit of Una: poor Una, almost no Rilla of Ingleside point of view, doomed to forever mourn Walter so that Rilla can move on (structurally speaking). Thus, six conversations between Una and other women. And a hint of moving on.

Rilla of Toronto
Anne of Green Gables – L. M. Montgomery
Rilla Blythe, Una Meredith, Kenneth Ford

This is a great little piece. The summary does not do it justice. It’s not chat-logs between 21st century!Rilla and 21st century!Una: it’s funny chat-logs between 21st century!Rilla and 21st century!Una.

Yuletide recommendations, part the first: my gift

On the first day of Yuletide, a writer gave to me…

The Heirs of English Magic
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell – Susanna Clarke
Arabella Strange, Lady Pole, Stephen Black, Sir Walter Pole, John Segundus, King George III

My prompt for this was:

Arabella, Lady Pole and Stephen were thrown together in their horrible, weird prison and enchantment. I’d love to have some post-novel fic in which they are in some way thrown together again, and deal with each other as intelligent, free people who are still variously marked by their experience.

So here we have them, as politicians, reformers, ethicists, educators, and, well, in Stephen’s case of course, as a king. An especially nice touch is the parallel concerns of the people and England and the fae: just as the English (largely, you’ll see exceptions in the fic) don’t want to share Arabella and Lady Pole’s fate, nor do Stephen’s subjects want to be at the beck and call of every magician in England.

Yuletide stories I have loved

The whole reason I signed up for Yuletide was reading fic in fandoms I love, and discovering how much of it was written for Yuletide!

A quick pre-Yuletide roundup:

A Piece of the Continent, Hainish Universe: what Genly Ai did after Winter.

This story is astounding. First of all, it sounds like it was written fairly quickly and is somewhere in the realm between a long short story and a novella. Second, it’s really really good. Several commenters say that it could be a Le Guin Hainish Cycle story, and I think in most ways it could be. Other than Genly, the characters are OCs, several vivid and fully fleshed.

I’ve read it enough times that I have noticed technical problems with the world-building, that has to be a good sign right? (Their reproductive strategy as described makes it impossible to maintain replacement rate. Also, the part with Kiyoshi Dan makes her sound like an old friend, and the vagaries of near-light speed travel make it unlikely to run into them again.)

This story has made its way into my heart, like many of Le Guin’s own Hainish stories.

Hymn, The Handmaid’s Tale: Serena Joy’s story.

Warning for canon-appropriate (ie very high) levels of sexism, homophobia, and ableism, including violence and other abuse.

What feels like a realistic psychological/biographical portrait of Serena Joy: So that’s my life as a Wife. It’s definitely a better life from when there were Pornomarts on every corner and abortion clinics in every town. Women were never safe then. Now every woman has her place… But I have my regrets; we all do. Nothing is ever perfect on this earth. I’m a sinner, and subject to temptations of my own.

If you were ever tempted to sympathise with Fred at all, you won’t be now.

The Veins of the Forest, Earthsea: in which young Azver, a warrior’s son on Karego-At, discovers that all forests are one forest.

One of very surprisingly few fics featuring Azver. How is that? The warrior who became a wizard, the tree-root to Ged’s sparrowhawk. Anyway. This is a lovely elegant little story that feels perfect. If Le Guin ever explores Azver’s backstory more I may have trouble deciding which to believe more.

The Shadow on the King’s Roads, Strange and Norrell: Arabella Strange becomes the chaperon of the Misses Enderwhild of The Ladies of Grace Adieu. It’s nicely in keeping with the tone of JS&MN, and for that matter, with the style of magic in that universe.

I don’t know that there can be enough Arabella in the world, especially Arabella coming to terms with magic and fairyland in her own way and at her own time.

Dear Yuletide Writer

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Well, hello! I’m sorry things are a bit bare around here, I’m hoping between my prompts and this letter you get enough info to have fun writing a story for me.

General info

Things I am fine with: gen, friendship, romance of many kinds (het, slash, three-or-more-somes), character death, happy endings, bittersweet endings, sad endings, character-driven, plot-driven, Bechdel test-passing (women in the fic who talk to each other/do things that don’t revolve around a man)

Things I’m not so into: plotless porn, cross-overs

Please no: torture, non-consensual sex, sex with dubious consent

I recently wrote out a whole list of narrative kinks. I hope that’s not too offputting! Don’t take it too seriously, and since a bunch of them are world-building things hopefully you won’t butt into them too much anyway. Also, I don’t think I chose any fandoms with telepaths in them. So don’t worry about telepaths. (ETA: what was I thinking? The Hainish Cycle has telepathy, but Le Guin makes sparing use of it and suggests it is used sparingly. Feel free to go into that if you like.)

Cardiac Arrest (Any)

Gosh, if you have seen this television series I’ll gladly read anything you want to write in it. I’m especially keen for anything set after series 3.

A few specific prompts in case it helps, but feel free to go with your muse:
– Phil and Rajesh both owe Mr Docherty a major debt for saving their careers. Rajesh especially didn’t ask him to do so. Say one or the other of them starts to resent it; what happens then?
– anything where Claire gets inappropriately interested in a patient’s case (as with the boy who needs an organ transplant)

Oh my fandom of one. I wrote a whole post on this recently if you want to see what I like about it.

Hainish Cycle – Ursula K. Le Guin (Any)

I’m really into minor characters and lesser known worlds in this cycle! Anything with that emphasis would be great (truly!) but I’ve done some prompts in case it helps:
– characters from a world/culture with a rigid hierarchy and notion of honour (eg Teyeo or Ramarren) making a life in a world where there isn’t the equivalent
– characters shortly after nearly as fast as light travel, dealing with the loss of their friends, family or other things they loved on their home world
– off-worlders falling in love and becoming part of local relationship structures, eg sedoretu on O or the maz relationships on Aka

Wow, the Hainish Cycle. I love the sheer possibilities for human society, and the shared humanity of all the characters.

I had a couple of specific prompts for this on top of the general ones here they are in case you’re into specific prompts or just want a better idea of things I might like:

– Sutty (the Telling) finds love again on Aka, but needs to reconcile it with the maz’s tradition of monogamy even beyond death
– A sedoretu in the city, on O (Fisherman of the Inland Sea etc). We’ve seen how it works on the farms and serves their needs, how does it work in the urban areas?

Nochnoy Dozor | Night Watch – Sergei Lukyanenko (Any)

I like “grey” things in this fandom, moral ambiguity FTW! I’d probably prefer plot-drive to character-driven in this fandom.

Some possible thoughts, at least to give you a sense:
– anything Arina does!
– the Night Watch and the Day Watch reluctantly cooperating, especially if it’s to foil the Inquisition
– Svetlana distrusting the Night Watch, and turning out to be right to do so
– Zavulon deflating Anton’s or Gesar’s self-importance
– Zavulon being polite and helpful and leaving everyone wondering what that’s going to cost, exactly

A couple of notes: I don’t speak or read Russian, I’ve read these novels in translation. I only know the bookverse, I haven’t seen the movies! And finally, I know several of the characters are evil, but I’d probably prefer if the story stayed only about as dark as the novels.

I love the politics of this series. Everyone’s iron self-belief combined with their constant compromising with each other, and their adherence to the Great Compromise, by which I mean the Treaty.

Again, I had a couple of specific prompts I edited out of my request, but that you could use if you’re stuck:

– what did Arina do for Zavulon (or threaten him with) such that the Day Watch was uninterested in helping the Inquisition pursue her? (Twilight Watch)
– Anton’s or Svetlana’s next contact with Arina after she escapes at the end of Last Watch/Final Watch
– toddler Nadya’s casual use of her unconscious but immense powers
– Svetlana and teenage Nadya respond to Gesar’s attempts to recruit her into the Night Watch

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell – Susanna Clarke (Arabella Strange, Lady Pole, Stephen Black)

Arabella, Lady Pole and Stephen were thrown together in their horrible, weird prison and enchantment. I’d love to have some post-novel fic in which they are in some way thrown together again, and deal with each other as intelligent, free people who are still variously marked by their experience.

I’m find with any pairing or none among these three.

I don’t have a lot to add in this one. My imagination isn’t wild enough for this fandom, often. I’d like to see Stephen Black and Lady Pole now that they have some power over their lives though.