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lizbeeEspecially if it's a fandom that you've already broken up with once, and it was amicable enough but you know this is just going to end badly, but you can't resist its shameless flirtation.
"Fanstalgia", maybe.
I've already conceived a new word today: "squeesomnia". When you have so much squee about something, it follows you into your sleep, and you keep waking up from bizarre dreams that are half-fic, half fragments of lost canon, and all crack. Can't complain, though -- the last two days have been the first in a while where I haven't woken up with jaw pain from middle of the night tension.
SUFFICE TO SAY, I have finished the two latest Mary Russell books. AND THEY WERE GREAT. Well, actually they were kind of a mess in some ways, especially Garment of Shadows, but they were just the kind of mess I like, rather like Russell herself.
So, okay, Garment of Shadows opens with Holmes and Ali fretting because Russell and Mahmoud met up in the desert, wandered off, and have apparently vanished off the face of the earth. I was hoping for an adulterous elopement (see: Russell, Mary, secondary OTPs), but naturally was disappointed, and had to settle for a romp with political interludes. (Persons tracking Laurie R King's T S Laurence obsession will be pleased.)
I'm disappointed to report that the amnesia plotline was more or less in accordance with actual medical knowledge instead of soap opera facts, but since we do get glimpses of the Holmes-Russell domestic routine, I guess I shouldn't complain. I mean, when I say "glimpses" I mean tiny wee moments, but because this is me, I magnified them and then had to close my iPad and wriggle with glee before going on.
Anyway, my new FAVOURITE THING EVER, possibly even MORE FAVOURITE-Y than shipping Russell with people who aren't Holmes, is the growing Russell v Mycroft thread. It started in God of the Hive, where one of the actual good bits was Russell learning of Mycroft's more appalling and less legal actions in defence of the Empire. The Pirate King has her fleeing the country rather than spend a fortnight under the same roof as him; Garment of Shadows has her destroying yet another of his carefully-wrought schemes.
See, by the end, Russell thinks Mahmoud and Ali have betrayed Britain. BUT NO -- well, okay, yes, quite a lot, actually, but Mycroft's orders were for them to kill the French something-colonialist-or-other of Morocco, who is not only a relatively non-evil colonialist, but a cousin to the Holmes brothers. (And also a real person). I kind of missed the reason why, but I presume it was something something something colonialism something something stemming French power. And the Hazr brothers have a much better solution, and bang go Mycroft's plans.
Since I have long thought Mycroft was on the sketchy side, I'm WHOLLY IN FAVOUR of this subplot developing over the next books. I'm inclined to think it should all end with Russell poisoning his tea and dancing out of there Gangnam style, but, ah, fratricide-in-law may not be a good look for a plucky heroine such as Russell. EVEN THOUGH I fear there is long-term foreshadowing in his willingness to do away with a relative.
"Hey," said my brain at stupid o'clock this morning, "when Holmes was in a scrape that involved lots of powerful people trying to kill him, he faked his death for a few years..."
"Hey," said the other part of my brain some time later, "remember how our motto is that no good ever comes from faking one's death?"
And my brain continued unhearing, "...so Russell can sort of vanish for a few years, and Holmes can play the grieving widower, and then there can be reunion fic! Also a baby."
"It must be 4 am. All my babyfic ideas start at 4 am."
"Remember how we were really into Kill Bill because it was kind of the Russell/Holmes dynamic only they were remorseless assassins?"
"...dammit."
"Remember that time you had encyclopedaic knowledge of Melbourne in the 1920s? And you didn't even live there then!"
"Yes, and then I replaced it with encyclopedaic knowledge of the heritage of Rassilon."
"Oh, look, is that the alarm? Well, I'm off! But think about it! Think about it aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall day at work!"
"Damn."
And NOW I'm out of Russell novels, and frankly, watching the Phryne Fisher TV series is starting to look like a valid life choice, even though those books are terrible and the TV series has apparently taken my two favourite characters, turned them into boring cliches and then ditched them. (SPOILERS: THEY WERE ASIAN.) But MELBOURNE and THE TWENTIES. And Phryne is surely less unbearable when she's not in the hands of an omniscient creator, and Essie Davis is super charismatic, and if she really gets on my nerves, I can pretend she's a regeneration of River Song. (Come to think of it, that would explain a lot, including the anachronisms.)
I'm trying very hard to resist the urge to write fic again, though. I'm trying to get it out of my system by working extra-hard on the Lin Beifong, Private Detective AU, but somehow in the last few days, her narration has come down with a bad case of adjectives. And Britishisms.
Maybe I'll make a Tumblr. That's what the kids these days do when they have an uncontrollable need for a fannish outlet, right?
"Fanstalgia", maybe.
I've already conceived a new word today: "squeesomnia". When you have so much squee about something, it follows you into your sleep, and you keep waking up from bizarre dreams that are half-fic, half fragments of lost canon, and all crack. Can't complain, though -- the last two days have been the first in a while where I haven't woken up with jaw pain from middle of the night tension.
SUFFICE TO SAY, I have finished the two latest Mary Russell books. AND THEY WERE GREAT. Well, actually they were kind of a mess in some ways, especially Garment of Shadows, but they were just the kind of mess I like, rather like Russell herself.
So, okay, Garment of Shadows opens with Holmes and Ali fretting because Russell and Mahmoud met up in the desert, wandered off, and have apparently vanished off the face of the earth. I was hoping for an adulterous elopement (see: Russell, Mary, secondary OTPs), but naturally was disappointed, and had to settle for a romp with political interludes. (Persons tracking Laurie R King's T S Laurence obsession will be pleased.)
I'm disappointed to report that the amnesia plotline was more or less in accordance with actual medical knowledge instead of soap opera facts, but since we do get glimpses of the Holmes-Russell domestic routine, I guess I shouldn't complain. I mean, when I say "glimpses" I mean tiny wee moments, but because this is me, I magnified them and then had to close my iPad and wriggle with glee before going on.
Anyway, my new FAVOURITE THING EVER, possibly even MORE FAVOURITE-Y than shipping Russell with people who aren't Holmes, is the growing Russell v Mycroft thread. It started in God of the Hive, where one of the actual good bits was Russell learning of Mycroft's more appalling and less legal actions in defence of the Empire. The Pirate King has her fleeing the country rather than spend a fortnight under the same roof as him; Garment of Shadows has her destroying yet another of his carefully-wrought schemes.
See, by the end, Russell thinks Mahmoud and Ali have betrayed Britain. BUT NO -- well, okay, yes, quite a lot, actually, but Mycroft's orders were for them to kill the French something-colonialist-or-other of Morocco, who is not only a relatively non-evil colonialist, but a cousin to the Holmes brothers. (And also a real person). I kind of missed the reason why, but I presume it was something something something colonialism something something stemming French power. And the Hazr brothers have a much better solution, and bang go Mycroft's plans.
Since I have long thought Mycroft was on the sketchy side, I'm WHOLLY IN FAVOUR of this subplot developing over the next books. I'm inclined to think it should all end with Russell poisoning his tea and dancing out of there Gangnam style, but, ah, fratricide-in-law may not be a good look for a plucky heroine such as Russell. EVEN THOUGH I fear there is long-term foreshadowing in his willingness to do away with a relative.
"Hey," said my brain at stupid o'clock this morning, "when Holmes was in a scrape that involved lots of powerful people trying to kill him, he faked his death for a few years..."
"Hey," said the other part of my brain some time later, "remember how our motto is that no good ever comes from faking one's death?"
And my brain continued unhearing, "...so Russell can sort of vanish for a few years, and Holmes can play the grieving widower, and then there can be reunion fic! Also a baby."
"It must be 4 am. All my babyfic ideas start at 4 am."
"Remember how we were really into Kill Bill because it was kind of the Russell/Holmes dynamic only they were remorseless assassins?"
"...dammit."
"Remember that time you had encyclopedaic knowledge of Melbourne in the 1920s? And you didn't even live there then!"
"Yes, and then I replaced it with encyclopedaic knowledge of the heritage of Rassilon."
"Oh, look, is that the alarm? Well, I'm off! But think about it! Think about it aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall day at work!"
"Damn."
And NOW I'm out of Russell novels, and frankly, watching the Phryne Fisher TV series is starting to look like a valid life choice, even though those books are terrible and the TV series has apparently taken my two favourite characters, turned them into boring cliches and then ditched them. (SPOILERS: THEY WERE ASIAN.) But MELBOURNE and THE TWENTIES. And Phryne is surely less unbearable when she's not in the hands of an omniscient creator, and Essie Davis is super charismatic, and if she really gets on my nerves, I can pretend she's a regeneration of River Song. (Come to think of it, that would explain a lot, including the anachronisms.)
I'm trying very hard to resist the urge to write fic again, though. I'm trying to get it out of my system by working extra-hard on the Lin Beifong, Private Detective AU, but somehow in the last few days, her narration has come down with a bad case of adjectives. And Britishisms.
Maybe I'll make a Tumblr. That's what the kids these days do when they have an uncontrollable need for a fannish outlet, right?
no subject
Date: 2012-09-18 10:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-18 10:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-18 11:38 am (UTC)SO EXCITED GAH
no subject
Date: 2012-09-18 12:31 pm (UTC)BTW, somebody recommended you Y.S. Lee's books in an earlier thread; I second that. I also enjoyed Leah Scheier's SECRET LETTERS, which is possible-illegitimate-daughter-of-Holmes solving mysteries in HIGHLY IMPROPER ways (and I like that she's done enough research to know just exactly how difficult this would be for a young woman "of good reputation", and finds plausible ways around it instead of just handwaving the whole thing as "Oh, well, she's got 'spirit'").
no subject
Date: 2012-09-18 10:35 pm (UTC)I've almost finished reading the first Y S Lee book! And I like it okay, except I really hate the hero and want to set him on fire every time he opens his mouth. And for a novel about piracy, there is a sad lack of buckles being swashed or vice versa. On the other hand, a few years ago I was lamenting the lack of YA crime fiction, so this is a balm for my soul.
Glad to know that Secret Letters is good, though! That's the one by a former RUSS-L member, right?
...inds plausible ways around it instead of just handwaving the whole thing as "Oh, well, she's got 'spirit'"
And that right there is my problem with Phryne Fisher, which I only really articulated last night!
no subject
Date: 2012-09-18 10:44 pm (UTC)And James has Much To Learn, yes.
And speaking of YA crime fiction, try Judy Blundell? WHAT I SAW AND HOW I LIED is 1940's mystery/suspense.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-18 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-19 09:38 am (UTC)The feeling of moral disquiet, of war on the horizon, crept in about half way through Garment of Shadows, and the ending - rather than being a neat denouement - only compounded that feeling. Mary must be coping with the societal and political changes, the shifts in loyalty, more easily than Holmes; I can only imagine what those last chapters would be like if they were from his point of view. At some point soon in the series, I imagine LRK will have to start bringing in the Great Depression, and then the Third Reich. This book almost feels like a prelude to that darkness.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-19 10:12 am (UTC)And even such an incorruptible man, as Mycroft allegedly is, is quite terrifying when you consider the power that he wields!
At some point soon in the series, I imagine LRK will have to start bringing in the Great Depression, and then the Third Reich. This book almost feels like a prelude to that darkness.
Yes, the book closes at the end of 1924, and I almost feel like LRK would do well to skip a couple of years and give Russell some breathing space (and time to resurrect her academic career). But we're approaching the last few years of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Fascism.
I had the impression, at the end, that Holmes was almost relieved that Russell was confronting Mahmoud instead of him. And I rather like the idea of putting him in a position where he has to choose between his brother and his wife.