reading...
Jan. 16th, 2014 09:08 pmBased on ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sineala's recommendation, I will definitely will be reading Hild at some point. But, before that, Knight's Fee, the rest of Roman Britain, and probably the fourth Matthew Swift book (The Minority Council) as well.
Right now I'm working my way through Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series. I'd never have considered it were it not for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
novembersmith's Yuletide fic "Back on the Horse," in which the first-time scene between Seregil and Alec is fantastically hot and intensely loving.
I'm about halfway through Luck in the Shadows, the first book. The writing itself is a mixed bag; Flewelling can write very good descriptions and dialogue, but then she'll switch POV abruptly in the same scene, or she'll do a little too much telling rather than showing. Her geography has a faux-Tolkien tweeness to it, at least in the North, and it's jarring when set next to the real-world roughness of the narrative — graphic violence, profanity, openness about sex.
( here be some spoilers )
What I like most is the characterization, followed by the plot. Seregil is a fascinating, often hilarious, character, and I hope the eventual revelations about his past live up to all the hints dropped about it. While Alec seems the prototypical Innocent Young Fair-Haired Boy, Flewelling subverts the trope from nearly the beginning: He's skillful, observant, and smart as a whip. As his friendship with Seregil deepens, you also see loyalty and grim determination surface in him. I'm right at the point where Seregil is acknowledging to himself that he finds Alec attractive, so the UST, which has been muted so far, is probably about to kick into high gear.
The supporting characters are also distinctively rendered. The Bad Guys are really, really bad, though. Going by the nomenclature and physical descriptions, it looks like Flewelling is coding them as Assyrian or maybe Phoenician, but the other peoples of the continent are much fairer-colored. It has … uncomfortable implications, to say the least. I rather hope that at least some of the characters from that nation turn out to be sympathetic ones.
sineala's recommendation, I will definitely will be reading Hild at some point. But, before that, Knight's Fee, the rest of Roman Britain, and probably the fourth Matthew Swift book (The Minority Council) as well.Right now I'm working my way through Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series. I'd never have considered it were it not for
novembersmith's Yuletide fic "Back on the Horse," in which the first-time scene between Seregil and Alec is fantastically hot and intensely loving.I'm about halfway through Luck in the Shadows, the first book. The writing itself is a mixed bag; Flewelling can write very good descriptions and dialogue, but then she'll switch POV abruptly in the same scene, or she'll do a little too much telling rather than showing. Her geography has a faux-Tolkien tweeness to it, at least in the North, and it's jarring when set next to the real-world roughness of the narrative — graphic violence, profanity, openness about sex.
( here be some spoilers )
What I like most is the characterization, followed by the plot. Seregil is a fascinating, often hilarious, character, and I hope the eventual revelations about his past live up to all the hints dropped about it. While Alec seems the prototypical Innocent Young Fair-Haired Boy, Flewelling subverts the trope from nearly the beginning: He's skillful, observant, and smart as a whip. As his friendship with Seregil deepens, you also see loyalty and grim determination surface in him. I'm right at the point where Seregil is acknowledging to himself that he finds Alec attractive, so the UST, which has been muted so far, is probably about to kick into high gear.
The supporting characters are also distinctively rendered. The Bad Guys are really, really bad, though. Going by the nomenclature and physical descriptions, it looks like Flewelling is coding them as Assyrian or maybe Phoenician, but the other peoples of the continent are much fairer-colored. It has … uncomfortable implications, to say the least. I rather hope that at least some of the characters from that nation turn out to be sympathetic ones.
