May Reading and Fic Recs
Jun. 4th, 2023 04:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sultrybutdamagedMay was a bit of a slow month, reading wise. I finished 5 books and 1 short story. There were a bunch of reasons I didn’t do as much reading, but the main one was a fanfic binge. I’ve been rewatching all the Marvel Netflix series in anticipation of Daredevil: Born Again, and that meant remembering how much I love these characters and rereading a lot of my favorite fics from that fandom.
So I thought, since my book list will be pretty short this month, I’d also stick a few fic recommendations at the end.
(I also started a whole post on my rewatch of the Defenders and then, um, forgot about it. Literally no memory until I went to type up this post and got the “do you want to finish the one you already started” message. ADHD life. I’ll probably finish that up in a few days and post it, if I don’t forget again.)
Can You See Me? By Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott: This is a middle grade book that I read for my Autism Reads book club. It’s a bit more educational than some of the other books we’ve read, which isn’t my preference. But this one did have a neat meta aspect: the main character, an eleven-year old girl, is keeping a diary where she talks about her experiences with autism because she’s frustrated that people assume they understand how her mind works and don’t just ask her (relatable.) Her dream is to eventually share this diary with the world. And meanwhile the book is actually written by an eleven-year old girl (in collaboration with an adult author) who is living out that dream.
The Alcazar by Amy Ewing: This is the sequel to The Cerulean, which I read last month. It was a good but not great wrap up to the first book. The plot was strong and the characters were mostly interesting - though I found myself much more invested in the secondary characters than the protagonist - but the world building, especially the magic system, kind of fell apart, a lot of questions were never answered, and I still think giving a coming out story, complete with impassioned speech about the importance of diversity, to a cishet character is an odd choice.
Armed & Magical and The Trouble with Demons by Lisa Shearin: Two more books in the Raine Benares urban/low fantasy series, about a sort of elven PI who accidentally acquires a whole lot of magic and the problems that come with it. I’m struggling a bit with how predictable these books are, especially when it comes to the love triangle and the character arc of the heroine. But they are very fast-paced, big on heists and infiltrations, and have a great supporting cast who really make them work. My favorites are the flamboyant, magic-fearing pirate and the college-age lounge singer who wishes his dark mage father’s magic problems would stop interfering with his dates.
The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West (not Baggins): This is my classics read for the month. Vita Sackville-West was Virginia Woolf’s lover and the inspiration for Orlando, which I read in February, and I wanted to compare something written by her to something written about her. I’m not sure I would have liked this one as much if I didn’t have that comparison, but it was interesting for that reason. Orlando takes a romantic view of Vita, but also one that doesn’t always portray the character based on her as very intelligent. The Edwardians is more cynical, almost mean, but very sharp. It’s about England at the start of the twentieth century and focuses on a young man very similar to Orlando, who wants to keep his family’s estate and all its traditions, but is disillusioned by the society they rest upon. He tries to find meaning in his relationships, all of which disappoint him because he can’t find anyone who shares his (dubious) values. Meanwhile his sister Viola, a socialist, is having a much more interesting story play out in the background, though unfortunately you don’t hear much about it until the end.
Ravens by Robert Jordan: The Wheel of Time discord server I’m in is doing a very informal reread, and so far in a month I only got through the prologue to the first book, plus this short story. It’s a little prequel that focuses on the main cast as children. It’s worth it for the characterization - all the characters feel like real children, but you can already see who they will become when they grow up. Unfortunately the foreshadowing is really overdone, and there’s a lot of information mentioned here that the characters should not know this early on. I liked the story, but I ended up glad that it wasn’t included in the version of The Eye of the World I read the first time through.
Counterweight
Author:Tam_Cranver
Fandom: The Defenders universe, mostly Daredevil with a few cameos from other shows
Characters/Pairing(s): Some Karen Page/Claire Temple, but mostly genfic
This is a two-part series that imagines the main cast from Daredevil in a Leverage-type storyline. I think you could probably enjoy it if you’ve never seen Daredevil or Leverage. The first story focuses on Ben Urich as an aging newspaper reporter who is manipulated into joining a criminal conspiracy to pay for his wife’s medical care. The second picks up with Karen as the main character, trying to force a sort of found-family-slash-criminal-gang out of a group of weirdos. The characters are all really strong, the plot is extremely well paced, and it works as a fusion of both fandoms while standing on its own as a coherent story.
Yes, it’s a whole 90k of heists, obviously I loved it.
making friends and influencing people
Author: Walutahanga
Fandom: The Defenders
Characters/Pairing(s): All the Defenders characters, plus some Tony Stark. Background canon pairings, but the main focus is Jessica Jones/platonic relationships with everyone.
This takes place at the end of the The Defenders, so major spoilers for the mini-series. Tony Stark shows up at a certain character’s funeral to scope out the local superhero talent and Jessica is not having any of it. This is a short fic, under 3k, but it perfectly characterizes Jessica, and everyone else through her POV. I never knew I needed a Jess-Tony snark-off but I really did.
Can’t We Trust Again
Author: ceterisparibus
Fandom: Daredevil
Characters/Pairing(s): Matt Murdock/Karen Page
One thing that’s surprised me on this rewatch is how much I’m shipping Matt/Karen, even though I didn’t care for them the first time through. This fic really emphasizes the ways they fit together, and is also very fair to both of them when it comes to the things they might not agree on. It is especially good at finding the space between “Matt’s powers are invasive and people have the right to be uncomfortable with him being a human lie detector” and “Matt’s powers are a part of him, he didn’t ask for them, and people don’t get to be mad at him for having them.”
Foggy Nelson, Professional Superhero Poker
Author: pathera
Fandom: Mostly Daredevil but touches on lots of the MCU
Characters/Pairing(s): Foggy-centric, Foggy & Matt friendship, background Matt’s long history of terrible relationships
Foggy keeps finding injured/unconscious superheroes around Hell’s Kitchen. And he pokes them, like with sticks and stuff. That’s it. This is a deeply silly concept that works brilliantly. Black Widow was my favorite.
So I thought, since my book list will be pretty short this month, I’d also stick a few fic recommendations at the end.
(I also started a whole post on my rewatch of the Defenders and then, um, forgot about it. Literally no memory until I went to type up this post and got the “do you want to finish the one you already started” message. ADHD life. I’ll probably finish that up in a few days and post it, if I don’t forget again.)
Can You See Me? By Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott: This is a middle grade book that I read for my Autism Reads book club. It’s a bit more educational than some of the other books we’ve read, which isn’t my preference. But this one did have a neat meta aspect: the main character, an eleven-year old girl, is keeping a diary where she talks about her experiences with autism because she’s frustrated that people assume they understand how her mind works and don’t just ask her (relatable.) Her dream is to eventually share this diary with the world. And meanwhile the book is actually written by an eleven-year old girl (in collaboration with an adult author) who is living out that dream.
The Alcazar by Amy Ewing: This is the sequel to The Cerulean, which I read last month. It was a good but not great wrap up to the first book. The plot was strong and the characters were mostly interesting - though I found myself much more invested in the secondary characters than the protagonist - but the world building, especially the magic system, kind of fell apart, a lot of questions were never answered, and I still think giving a coming out story, complete with impassioned speech about the importance of diversity, to a cishet character is an odd choice.
Armed & Magical and The Trouble with Demons by Lisa Shearin: Two more books in the Raine Benares urban/low fantasy series, about a sort of elven PI who accidentally acquires a whole lot of magic and the problems that come with it. I’m struggling a bit with how predictable these books are, especially when it comes to the love triangle and the character arc of the heroine. But they are very fast-paced, big on heists and infiltrations, and have a great supporting cast who really make them work. My favorites are the flamboyant, magic-fearing pirate and the college-age lounge singer who wishes his dark mage father’s magic problems would stop interfering with his dates.
The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West (not Baggins): This is my classics read for the month. Vita Sackville-West was Virginia Woolf’s lover and the inspiration for Orlando, which I read in February, and I wanted to compare something written by her to something written about her. I’m not sure I would have liked this one as much if I didn’t have that comparison, but it was interesting for that reason. Orlando takes a romantic view of Vita, but also one that doesn’t always portray the character based on her as very intelligent. The Edwardians is more cynical, almost mean, but very sharp. It’s about England at the start of the twentieth century and focuses on a young man very similar to Orlando, who wants to keep his family’s estate and all its traditions, but is disillusioned by the society they rest upon. He tries to find meaning in his relationships, all of which disappoint him because he can’t find anyone who shares his (dubious) values. Meanwhile his sister Viola, a socialist, is having a much more interesting story play out in the background, though unfortunately you don’t hear much about it until the end.
Ravens by Robert Jordan: The Wheel of Time discord server I’m in is doing a very informal reread, and so far in a month I only got through the prologue to the first book, plus this short story. It’s a little prequel that focuses on the main cast as children. It’s worth it for the characterization - all the characters feel like real children, but you can already see who they will become when they grow up. Unfortunately the foreshadowing is really overdone, and there’s a lot of information mentioned here that the characters should not know this early on. I liked the story, but I ended up glad that it wasn’t included in the version of The Eye of the World I read the first time through.
Counterweight
Author:Tam_Cranver
Fandom: The Defenders universe, mostly Daredevil with a few cameos from other shows
Characters/Pairing(s): Some Karen Page/Claire Temple, but mostly genfic
This is a two-part series that imagines the main cast from Daredevil in a Leverage-type storyline. I think you could probably enjoy it if you’ve never seen Daredevil or Leverage. The first story focuses on Ben Urich as an aging newspaper reporter who is manipulated into joining a criminal conspiracy to pay for his wife’s medical care. The second picks up with Karen as the main character, trying to force a sort of found-family-slash-criminal-gang out of a group of weirdos. The characters are all really strong, the plot is extremely well paced, and it works as a fusion of both fandoms while standing on its own as a coherent story.
Yes, it’s a whole 90k of heists, obviously I loved it.
making friends and influencing people
Author: Walutahanga
Fandom: The Defenders
Characters/Pairing(s): All the Defenders characters, plus some Tony Stark. Background canon pairings, but the main focus is Jessica Jones/platonic relationships with everyone.
This takes place at the end of the The Defenders, so major spoilers for the mini-series. Tony Stark shows up at a certain character’s funeral to scope out the local superhero talent and Jessica is not having any of it. This is a short fic, under 3k, but it perfectly characterizes Jessica, and everyone else through her POV. I never knew I needed a Jess-Tony snark-off but I really did.
Can’t We Trust Again
Author: ceterisparibus
Fandom: Daredevil
Characters/Pairing(s): Matt Murdock/Karen Page
One thing that’s surprised me on this rewatch is how much I’m shipping Matt/Karen, even though I didn’t care for them the first time through. This fic really emphasizes the ways they fit together, and is also very fair to both of them when it comes to the things they might not agree on. It is especially good at finding the space between “Matt’s powers are invasive and people have the right to be uncomfortable with him being a human lie detector” and “Matt’s powers are a part of him, he didn’t ask for them, and people don’t get to be mad at him for having them.”
Foggy Nelson, Professional Superhero Poker
Author: pathera
Fandom: Mostly Daredevil but touches on lots of the MCU
Characters/Pairing(s): Foggy-centric, Foggy & Matt friendship, background Matt’s long history of terrible relationships
Foggy keeps finding injured/unconscious superheroes around Hell’s Kitchen. And he pokes them, like with sticks and stuff. That’s it. This is a deeply silly concept that works brilliantly. Black Widow was my favorite.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-06 01:54 pm (UTC)Still so amused by this. xD
I'm not familiar with any of the fandoms involved, but the last fic sounds wacky af in a really good way!
no subject
Date: 2023-06-15 01:15 pm (UTC)