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Yuletide 2017 has opened its doors, and I got two lovely gifts:
Five Views of Mt Fuji is a fic on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter in which I finally get an answer to my old question. This is LOVELY, and despite the title is not a 5 things fic but a 5+1 things fic, giving six possible answers as to what really happened to the elixir of life, each told in its own, exactly appropriate style, ending with a tie-in with the Japanese space program. The verbatim "transcript" of a folktale is probably my favorite, but they are each excellent in their own right.
It is tagged "Don't Need To Know Canon" because all you really need to know is given in the intro notes, so you have no excuse not to read and be enchanted yourself.
Major Lumsden's Wife is a post-canon fic for Kipling's "The Ballad of East and West," which covers an episode in the later marriage of the Colonel’s son (here readily identified with the historical son of the original commander of the Guides, based on the historical kernel for the tale), Kamal, and Kamal's son (identified with more dexterity with Dilawur Khan, from the same kernel). More specifically, to quote the summary, "Kamal steals the Major's wife with predictable consequences." It is a very Kiplingesque plot, and I love it.
It's best if you've read the original, but it's short so that's no great barrier; it probably helps if you've read Plain Tales from the Hills as well, but that's not required.
I am bouncy with glee. *bounce* *bounce* *bounce* See?
(Other recs to be covered in other posts, as I've barely scratched the surface of the archive.)
---L.
Subject quote from "The Great Grey Plain," Henry Lawson.
Five Views of Mt Fuji is a fic on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter in which I finally get an answer to my old question. This is LOVELY, and despite the title is not a 5 things fic but a 5+1 things fic, giving six possible answers as to what really happened to the elixir of life, each told in its own, exactly appropriate style, ending with a tie-in with the Japanese space program. The verbatim "transcript" of a folktale is probably my favorite, but they are each excellent in their own right.
It is tagged "Don't Need To Know Canon" because all you really need to know is given in the intro notes, so you have no excuse not to read and be enchanted yourself.
Major Lumsden's Wife is a post-canon fic for Kipling's "The Ballad of East and West," which covers an episode in the later marriage of the Colonel’s son (here readily identified with the historical son of the original commander of the Guides, based on the historical kernel for the tale), Kamal, and Kamal's son (identified with more dexterity with Dilawur Khan, from the same kernel). More specifically, to quote the summary, "Kamal steals the Major's wife with predictable consequences." It is a very Kiplingesque plot, and I love it.
It's best if you've read the original, but it's short so that's no great barrier; it probably helps if you've read Plain Tales from the Hills as well, but that's not required.
I am bouncy with glee. *bounce* *bounce* *bounce* See?
(Other recs to be covered in other posts, as I've barely scratched the surface of the archive.)
---L.
Subject quote from "The Great Grey Plain," Henry Lawson.