Books 2014 - A bit of fanfic...

[byslantedlight]

Just to keep things honest, I must admit that I seem to have slipped out of Readers Imbibing Peril mode, and I've been reading Pros over the last week. Maybe I just needed something to cuddle down with whilst I was getting used to my new place! I've read some of the Big Bang stories, and then I cuddled up with some novel(ish)-length lads.

(Ooh! The sun's just set! 4.38pm, and the sun's just set! That doesn't seem right, no matter how much I like curling up in the dark with a good read... of course I get used to it, and then can't imagine going back the other way when the time comes... *g*)

November by Sebastian
I like this one, and it's coming up for the right month too! It's a first time story, set in the difficult cold months when Doyle is recovering from Discovered in a Graveyard. About 22,000 words.

The Yellow Brick Road by Kate MacLean
Another classic Pros story, 61,000+ words, from Doyle's point of view, and starting right at the beginning - well with Private Madness Public Danger anyway, which was the first Pros episode aired, all those years ago. We follow the lads along as Doyle tries to get to know Bodie, through years of ups and downs, until... well, I'm not going to tell you if you don't know, am I? *g* Well worth getting hold of though, if you've not already read it - MacLean is an excellent Pros writer, one of my favourites.

Who Caught and Sang the Sun by Slantedlight
Okay, which is a bit weird, I read one of my own stories. But I thought I'd better remind myself of their universe if I was going to try and carry on one of the sequels to this story, or think about the third one for NaNoWriMo (though actually I'm thinking about something else now...) Anyway - I didn't find it entirely bad, so that was okay. Phew. *g* 63,000+ words. And I do rather like the older lads that I imagine myself (well of course, or I wouldn't imagine them!) so it was quite nice to be in their world for a bit.

Actually, whilst I'm here (silly question, but...) has anyone else been reading Prosfic lately? What've you been reading...? *g*

Comments

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recs! I read Who Caught And Sang just before the BB kicked off, and I really enjoyed reading your older lads again.

And now I'm happily reading the BB stories every minute I get. Yay! It's like falling in love with the lads all over again *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

It is like falling in love with the lads all over again, isn't it! Good fanfic makes me very happy indeed... *g* (And so glad you enjoyed reading WCaStS too - that also makes me very happy indeed!)

PS - I'm liking your new pirate-head! I see these around every now and then, and they make lj just that bit more cheerful, so that I'm very tempted to try one out... *g*

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

For the last couple of years my kindle seems to have given new life to my Pros reading and I read Pros all the time. Before this year's Big Bang started I was reading a lot of your stories (as I mentioned before) and Who Caught and Sang the Sun was one of them. (Halfway through yet another read of Love in the Guise.) Have just finished Merentha's BB story and really enjoyed it and must comment but as so often I'm going to be comment 13 so I'm holding back and waiting for another hapless victim to make me 14....

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

.....and I don't know why this comment sounds like I'm writing a telegram but my only defence is that I'm not a writer! Stop.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

*g* That's alright, you didn't sound like a telegram to me - unless perhaps a very expensive one! *g*

You know it's very cool to hear that people are re-reading your stories, so thanks for letting me know! I hope someone else jumps in quickly for Merentha too, so that you can be 14 instead - comments are fab...

[potztausend.livejournal.com]

I am sure I read all three of them (all are authors I like to read), but it must be two or three years ago.

At present I don't read much Pros, I Spy or Sherlock (fandoms with very intense written stories), but I am reading "Lewis". On average it is softer, warmer, rarely dark. I probably need that now although I don't know why ;-)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Sometimes we need things that are comforting and safe rather than things that stir us up and make us think, I reckon. Pros is mostly my comforting-safe reading, and it's just what I've needed this last week! Oddly enough, I've never seen Lewis, but I hear good things about it. It's something else on my list!

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I haven't been reading much Pros, except for those stories recently posted. Haven't been reading too much fanfic at all, to tell the truth. I've had all sorts of things taking up my time, but, hopefully, I'll get back to it soon. I did read the Bruce/Dick mini-zine, King a& Lionheart. The stories were all very short, but there were a couple of real gems.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I've had quite a long break from fanfic actually, and it's quite nice coming back to it after that. It's always there...

I've got to admit that I'm not entirely sure who Bruce and Dick are... is that very very bad...?

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Not bad at all, probably. It's a pretty small fandom. Bruce and Dick are Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, sometimes known as Batman and Robin/Nighwing/Um, I'm not sure what they've done to him now, lol

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hee - now if you'd said Batman/Robin, then I would have been right with you... *g* (Though really, Robin is being called Nightwing now? Is this from the films or something, cos "Robin" wasn't Macho enough for Hollywood, or am I being unfairly cynical there...?*g*

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Robin, well Dick Grayson, became Nightwing several years ago. There's been at least four more Robins since then (the latest being Batman's son, Damien.) I wait to buy the comics in paperback form, where they combine several issues, so I'm not rarely up to date with what's happening. I have seen a bit, and apparently Dick Grayson, is identity blown, is now some kind of secret agent. How long that's supposed to last is anyone's guess. Going by how often DC reboots their universe, it could be tomorrow... or yesterday. *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ohmygawd - I mean please, Nightwing... I suppose I shouldn't really comment, since I don't know the universe, but I'm quite tired of seeing things that look like they've been macho-d up...

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Ouch, that hurts. At least, I think it does. I'm not really sure what you mean by something being macho-d up. The new name? It was taken from a character from Superman. Or is it Dick growing up? Since they've tried to gear comics more toward adults, it was bound to happen. Actually, it happened quite a few years ago.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Lol - yes, I meant his name had been made more macho. Robin vs Nighthawk?! Obviously I don't know the particular reasons behind the name change, but my first impression is that the character is supposed to appeal more to your average white-male-action-movie-liking reader/viewer - cos otherwise what's wrong with "Robin"? But as I say, I don't know enough to comment knowledgeably about it - although that means that I end up with first impressions!

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

I remember reading Yellow Brick Road, and wanting to just knock the lads' heads together out of frustration, and to wake them up. How could they both be so obtuse?! Loved the story though.
November was fab, Sebastian was one of the first Pros authors I found and I still do adore her stuff. And Who Caught and Sang the Sun was the very first fic I managed to load onto my kindle, in pdf format and the formatting went skew-whiff, but I battled on because it was so engrossing. Love the older lads!
I've not read any Pros for a little while, although I have a heap of stuff bookmarked. Still reading my way through Melissa Scott's work, and like you also awaiting DatDC (although my copy has a *bit* further to go!). My fic reading is limited to about half an hour at night, and then it's mainly Sherlock.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hee - I thought YBR was pretty believable actually. People are so obtuse - well, I know I can be, and not always wanting to believe what I'm thinking intuitively about something, and I've definitely wondered why other people don't seem to get what seems really obvious to me, too... And people do suddenly seem to treat others like shit, completely out of nowhere (witness S at WH - I still have no real idea where that came from, compared what she seemed like when I first met her and when we communicated in between). But hey-ho - I suppose if our brains were all wired the same way we'd be bees or something... *g*

Yeay for WCaStS being readable at last - and you remind me that I must keep posting my fic to A03, which is handy for e-readers, which are handy for fic...

Hope you're liking Melissa Scott's work still too - I can't remember which ones you have, but... more than just the Astreiant books, I think? Hurry up DatDC all around, too! (Though really I want to re-read DbS now, and that's somewhere in my storage... can I be patient enough to wait until I can find it, I wonder....?!)

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

Loving Melissa Scott's work. My one complaint - if you could call it that - is that her world-building is so extensive, and she adheres to "show don't tell" so strongly that I'm often halfway through a book before I've picked up on the importance of things mentioned earlier in the book. Definitely will read better second time around, I think.

I just finished Shadow Man tonight, and I want more! I want to know how the main issue raised was finally resolved, because the book ends before that point is reached, just giving you hope that it will be, one day. In fact the ending makes me wonder if she planned on writing a sequel to it.
... and I may be just the tiniest bit in love with Warreven. *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Sorry - more late replying...

I suppose I do find a bit of the over-show-don't-tell, but I much prefer that to the opposite, and I've never been completely lost by it in the Astreiant books. That said, I have just read A Death in the Dionysus Club (and am re-reading) and it seems stronger there - I keep wondering if I've missed the bit where we find out a bit more about the Little Albert, for instance...

I must look up Shadow Man, I do glance at it now and then in bookshops... *g*

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

Still patiently waiting for A Death in the Dionysus Club to arrive...

I quite agree, I'd much rather be shown than told, and I've not been totally lost in her books but sometimes I can't help but think that a wee bit of exposition might be A Good Thing *g*.

Like in Point of Dreams - I'm still not entirely sure why the plays are so important to the citizenry but doubtless I'll pick it up on the re-read.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

That's one reason I waited rather than ordering from Amazon.com, even with a week or so's delay in between, waiting for it to be posted, Scott's books tend to come more quickly over here. I can recommend Wordery, who were fast and efficient. Hmmn, they say 7-10 days to Aus/NZ (3-5 to the UK itself, so that doesn't seem bad?) Free worldwide delivery, too! Apparently it was set up by one of the IT guys who left Bookdepository, and Bertram's, which is a major book wholesaler over here... Might be worth glancing at sometime. *g*

My impression is that the plays is Astreiant are just their version of football - the big entertainment that people get quite invested in. And things like the corms are a bit like loom bands and hula hoops for grownups... *vbg*

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

I've bought from The Book Depository before but haven't heard of Wordery - just looked now and have bookmarked for future browsing. Thanks for that!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

And thank you for the Goodreads kick - I've signed up again, so we'll see if I can organise it better this time! And Vote for Fair's Point, of course... *g*

November

[(Anonymous)]

Have just started to read "November" and I'm absolutely loving it. Have also been regularly prowling the aisles at Archive too, only skipped a couple of stories that I either felt were too far removed from whom boys are, or didn't grab me within the first five minutes of reading. Different strokes for different folks and all that. "Who caught and Sang the Sun" will always remain one of my all time favourites and I was pleasantly surprised at just how much I enjoyed reading about our older lads. They hadn't 'lost' any of their chemistry at all = yay!! I'm so glad they stayed together and took over the reins from Cowley too. ...Kiashi

RE: November

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

More late replying - sorry! I've clearly been far too awol over the weekend!

So glad you like WCaStS, and its older lads. I guess I just like to think of them going on eternally - and that they're still out there somewhere! *g*