Serious rec: Blood and Brimstone
Nov. 4th, 2009 02:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blamebramptonLast week I gave a quick drive-by rec for Blood and Brimstone at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
hd_career_fair . I said I would write a longer one over the weekend, as I had not read the story since it was an unfinished draft. Now, those of you who know me probably thought: 'Well, she is a dreadful slacker, and she was off gallivanting with the Goths and the baby shower folk, of course she was going to be tardy ...'
But in fact, I did open up the story on the weekend. And then I had the most appalling dilemma. Because on the one hand, I wanted to do nothing but sit and read it until I was done, and then sit and read it again. But on the other hand, it is only 42,000 words long and once they're read, they're read and that whole first-read passion is spent. So I stopped myself, and walked away. And then I came back, and went away, and came back ... until I was too greedy and guzzled the last section in a rush.
It is so good. It is so good that I want to shake the writer and make him or her stop working and just write. (I do know the author, but for those of you guessing, that won't help much as I think I know somewhere around half the authors for this fest).
As I mentioned last time, it is set in Ginn Hale's Wicked Gentlemen world, but this is not required reading. I've not read WG at all, and yet had no problems understanding what was happening *. Harry Potter is a lowly ranked Inquisitor who is sent to discuss distasteful rumours with the wealthy Malfoy family. It should be another banal commission in a career of drudgery and mild oppression, but instead, it is the step that shifts his life from ordered if tedious, to revolutionary and endangered.
Set in a world where Prodigals, the fallen angels created in the image of God, are both free to walk the earth and kept in their 'place' by a vengeful and Inquisitory church, Blood and Brimstone can be read as an analogy for the Spanish Inquisition, or the appalling treatment of underclasses in today's wealthy nations, or the viciousness of a Ministry that sends Dolores Umbridge into a school of children. As I say, WG is not required reading (though I am sure it adds yet more richness), but neither is Harry Potter -- this story is strong enough to stand as a unit by itself. However, for those who love the Potterverse, the characters retain integrity and are used in fascinating ways to illuminate canonical issues through their new settings.
It's awfully late and my brain did melt around lunchtime today, so this is not the coherent and erudite review this story deserves. It is, however, a heartfelt recommendation that if you are doing anything less urgent than giving birth, you make time in your schedule this week to read it. I do not think that it is possible you will feel your time misspent.
* I am now in the frustrating position of not knowing if I want to read WG, because I feel it will add layers to my appreciation of B&B, or not read it because I cannot imagine loving it as much. I'll probably read it on the basis that nice authors deserve royalties ;-)
hd_career_fair . I said I would write a longer one over the weekend, as I had not read the story since it was an unfinished draft. Now, those of you who know me probably thought: 'Well, she is a dreadful slacker, and she was off gallivanting with the Goths and the baby shower folk, of course she was going to be tardy ...'But in fact, I did open up the story on the weekend. And then I had the most appalling dilemma. Because on the one hand, I wanted to do nothing but sit and read it until I was done, and then sit and read it again. But on the other hand, it is only 42,000 words long and once they're read, they're read and that whole first-read passion is spent. So I stopped myself, and walked away. And then I came back, and went away, and came back ... until I was too greedy and guzzled the last section in a rush.
It is so good. It is so good that I want to shake the writer and make him or her stop working and just write. (I do know the author, but for those of you guessing, that won't help much as I think I know somewhere around half the authors for this fest).
As I mentioned last time, it is set in Ginn Hale's Wicked Gentlemen world, but this is not required reading. I've not read WG at all, and yet had no problems understanding what was happening *. Harry Potter is a lowly ranked Inquisitor who is sent to discuss distasteful rumours with the wealthy Malfoy family. It should be another banal commission in a career of drudgery and mild oppression, but instead, it is the step that shifts his life from ordered if tedious, to revolutionary and endangered.
Set in a world where Prodigals, the fallen angels created in the image of God, are both free to walk the earth and kept in their 'place' by a vengeful and Inquisitory church, Blood and Brimstone can be read as an analogy for the Spanish Inquisition, or the appalling treatment of underclasses in today's wealthy nations, or the viciousness of a Ministry that sends Dolores Umbridge into a school of children. As I say, WG is not required reading (though I am sure it adds yet more richness), but neither is Harry Potter -- this story is strong enough to stand as a unit by itself. However, for those who love the Potterverse, the characters retain integrity and are used in fascinating ways to illuminate canonical issues through their new settings.
It's awfully late and my brain did melt around lunchtime today, so this is not the coherent and erudite review this story deserves. It is, however, a heartfelt recommendation that if you are doing anything less urgent than giving birth, you make time in your schedule this week to read it. I do not think that it is possible you will feel your time misspent.
* I am now in the frustrating position of not knowing if I want to read WG, because I feel it will add layers to my appreciation of B&B, or not read it because I cannot imagine loving it as much. I'll probably read it on the basis that nice authors deserve royalties ;-)
