Beth Winter

As an end to a hellish half-week, I'm at the office at noon on a Saturday. No time like the present...

To reiterate, meme rules:

The Hypothetical AU Meme: Take any one of the fandoms you know I write in (or think I should), and give me a type of AU (space opera AU, pirate AU, superhero AU, Ancient Rome, etc). I will then explain what story from your chosen fandom I would write for your chosen type of AU.

( Arabwel: Once Upon a Time in Mexico as done by Tolkien )

( Trobadora: Coldfire superhero AU )

( RKold: CCD in a Gundam/Space Soap Opera type AU )

( Sukeban: Pirates of the Caribbean in the Middle Earth )

That's enough for today, since I'm through with the reports as well :) Other four to be done later.

From the requests I took a few days ago:

For trobadora: Ocean waves

( Strange Aeons )

For alice_montrose: Gerald's sword

( Up to Par )

For mariem_1: the coronet of Merentha

( Legacy )

For fuumasfrog: bathtub

( Heat )

Frst of all, I spent 3 hours at the hairdresser's yesterday, getting new highlights done. Way more mocha, with a hint of titian, and here's hoping the darker colour holds this time. Before, I had the hair in the icon - cinnamon/copper depending on lighting.

( Now it looks like this )

Recommendation the first: A few weeks ago, guede_mazaka posted a random snippet of an extremely dark Harry torturing Lucius, the first thing I've seen her write for HP ever. I (and others) pleaded and begged until she wrote a little bit more. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Black Road - Epic, amazing, terribly dark and yet making so much sense in the way that perfect tragedy does. Harry is dead, but he's back, with a contract with Lucifer and an agenda that terrifies even the most seasoned Death Eaters. Lucius features prominently, so does Draco, Snape, Sirius, a heartbreaking Remus, and a host of other characters damaged by the war, but still so much themselves. If you only read one Harry Potter fic this year, let it be this one.

Recommendation the second: alighiera finally posted that Coldfire thing! *squees* Probably won't make much sense unless you've read the books, though.

Recommendation the third: fyrie did it again. More Tanz/Buffy fic, this time without brain-breaking vampire domination (don't worry, the next part makes up for it), but with an utterly adorable semi-original character whom I've had the honour of naming. (I also picked VK's last name in that one. Canon has him as Alfred, but Johannes fits him much better, don't you think?)

One of the few rules I have is that I don’t do Star Wars Extended Universe. Basically, it’s movie or bust for me – I might gleam a gem or two of inspiration from an interview with Lucas or from the novelisations, but if it wasn’t in the movies, it’s not canon. I also consider 99% of the EU to be mass-rpoduced drivel.

Shadows of the Empire, which fyrie made me read, is part of that 1%.

I’m not saying the book is perfect. But it’s highly enjoyable. All characterisations ring true, all interactions seem real, intra-movie introspection is plausible. And then there’s Vader.

Shadows takes place between TESB and ROTJ, so Vader is. And he’s written perfectly – impressive, impulsive, and just bratty (in a mature way) enough to make me believe this is both the villain I adored in the Original Trilogy and the rebel Jedi I grew surprisingly fond of in the prequels. Mind you, the book came out in 1996 – several years before we even got a look at Yippee Kid in TPM, never mind Hayden.

It’s not a dazzling intellectual endeavour – hello, Star Wars – but it’s certainly enjoyable. I would have preferred for Xizor to get his arse kicked worse, though: this was one fictional character that I was plotting how to assassinate fifty pages into the book. (I decided sabotaging his physical-training machine would have been the most elegant way.)

In other news, I’m still working on the Coldfire FST. I was listening to HIM’s version of Wicked Game yesterday and I realised it’s the perfect Gerald/Damien song:

The world was on fire, no one could save me but you
It's strange what desire will make foolish people do
I'd never dreamed that I'd need somebody like you

Yes, this FST is going to be highly on crack.

First of all, happy International Women's Day!

Second, wtf's up with all the lists of OMGexpertise on little_details? Paging the mods, someone needs to put that comm on moderated for a day or two.

Third, yesterday. Okay, I fell asleep at 9.30 PM and slept until morning :P So instead, there are two drabbles today.

For alighiera, part of the fake-title challenge (though she didn't give me an actual title): Coldfire, shipboard, Gerald and Damien killing time.

( Novatlantis, Dead of Night, 350 words )

EDIT: Second version, canon-correct this time:
( Novatlantis, Dead of Night, 350 words )


For alice_montrose, part of the Vampire Celebration: Tanz der Vampire, Herbert, Alfred and stockings.

( The Dressing-room Dilemma, 150 words )

On the distant world of Erna, four people--Priest, Adept, Sorcerer, and Apprentice--are drawn together to battle the forces of evil, led by the demonic fae, a soul-destroying force that preys on the human mind.

That’s the plot summary for Black Sun Rising, the first book of the Coldfire Trilogy (the other two are When True Night Falls and Crown of Shadows). Sounds like a bad RPG scenario, doesn’t it? And instead it’s one of the best fantasy books I’ve ever read.

C.S. Friedman is a highly skilled writer, with a tight visual style that carries you straight into a character’s head until you’re inside looking out. She has also built a fascinating world: Erna is not “once upon a time”, but a planet in the far reaches of our own Galaxy, on which a colony ship lands when the choice is between it and sailing on into starless space. On this planet, energy fields (the fae) can manipulate and be manipulated by the human mind, and in both cases the results are often disastrous.

Just this world, in which a warrior-priest can slice demonlings to shreds in one breath and perform an operation to correct a congenital heart defect in the next, a world where faith can really work miracles, would be interesting enough. But that’s not the reason why I gulped down three 600+page books in as many days.

Damien Vryce (warrior priest, healer, professional pain in the ass) and Gerald Tarrant (vampire, sorcerer, prophet, winner of the title of most stubbornly proud man on Erna for the past nine hundred years running) are two of the most fascinating characters I’ve had the pleasure to encounter. Gerald, evil and corrupt, is all that Damien hates; Damien, devoted and conflicted by the dichotomy between his faith and his magic, is all that Gerald doesn’t want to remember. Fireworks? Try WMDs.

Other characters are painted almost equally vividly, and the author has a talent for making the reader see all sides of the story. The surface plot of each book is a quest, but it’s the inner journey and character transformation that’s the real story. A character-driven fantasy book is rare enough; one this well-written is a gem.

And it doesn’t exactly hurt that Gerald and Damien are made for each other. If any slashers need enticement, highlight this (minor spoilers, nothing that’ll diminish your enjoyment of the book): midway through the first book, Damien allows Gerald to drink his blood in order to form a bond that’ll allow Gerald to feed on his fear by weaving nightmares for him. The one adjective Damien always uses when describing Gerald is "seductive". Gerald will literally or verbally bite off the head of anyone who opposes him – except Damien. Damien is also the one person who can touch Gerald, or whom Gerald willingly touches. Whenever Gerald’s upset about something, he storms out (slamming doors if any are available) and then waits for Damien to come reason with him. And that’s not even mentioning what happens in the third book.

Word of warning though: the first book starts with a prologue that drives home just how nasty Gerald is – and that’s very nasty indeed. If you can’t forgive a character for killing his own children for his own means, Coldfire might not be for you. Or maybe just read the main book until the earthquake and then come back to read the prologue once you know you can root for Damien either way ;)

I'm not saying the books are perfect, because the pacing suffers sometimes and I have issues with the ending, but Coldfire is fascinating, rich, compelling, with a thousand possibilities – my current pet theory hinges on the way human subconsciousness influences the fae and vice versa, also known as "he’s not that evil, he’s just written that way". If you like fantasy in the slightest, do read it. If only so that I can have more victims for the Coldfire fics I’m writing.

I don't think I'm up to a coherent review of C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy. Not yet, not now. But - if you haven't read it, do it. Please. You won't regret it.

I think I've found my Ultimate OTP, too. Though Andrys+Narilka are running a close second, simply because he's cute and she's kickass.

( Musings on writing possible Coldfire fic, with spoilers for all three books, and random notes on Gerald and Damien in general )