Darth Real Life is still on my heels, but:


Katabasis - R.F. Kuang

Two different and both clever and sensitive explorations of what the aftermath of the novel might have been like for Alice and Peter:

The Next Step

The Raven's Paradox



The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle


In that clear unpeopled space: the Unicorn's long way to her forest. Has the poetry, the beauty and the character growth of the book.


Lord of the Flies - Willliam Golding

I Remember (Don't Worry) : in which Ralph encounters Jack years post novel. Disturbing in the way the book is, yet with some glimpse of hope.


Penny Dreadful

mimics the lampllight's struggle with the dawn: After a night of victory, Vanessa and Hecate, separately, search for their footing. Missing scene from the second season's finale, with both women and Malcolm expertly drawn.



The Radiant Emperor Series - Shelley Parker-Chan


The Calligraphy of Disgrace: in which we get another take on these novels' entertainingly screwed up soulmates relationship, with an AU twist.


Frederician Historical Fiction

Five times Amalie saw Luise, and one time Luisa saw Amalie: in which the "Five Things" format is expertly used to portray the relationship between the Melanie Wilkes of the Hohenzollern court and her sharp-tongued sister-in-law.

Courting the Chamberlain : in which we find out how Frederick the Great's lover got married to the resourceful Caroline Daum.

The Ring of the Nibelung - Wagner

Loyalty only to me: Hagen learns many lessons from his father over the years.


Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh

Again two different takes on a novel's aftermath, the first focused on Magnus, the other on Avi, which also doubles a great take on his development across several timelines.

Some Desperate Hope

Salvation from falling into the sea of misguidances

Watched completely on Apple +: Down Cemetery Road, a new series (I would have written miniseries, except I hear there'll be a second season), based on an earlier novel by Slow Horses author Mick Heron. Starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson, both cast somewhat against type and having fun with it. Emma Thompson plays Zoe, a cynical private detective right out of the hard boiled age, if that one had female cynical hard drinking PI's, Ruth Wilson plays Sarah, starting out as somewhat naive, idealistic and disorganized. (I have seen Ruth Wilson in roles where she isn't a brilliant sociopath before! I swear I did! But Alice and Marisa Coulter are just so memorable!) Zoe starts out the story married, to another P.I. who is more the benevolent goodshoe type and whom she has feelings for but cheats on and generally argues a lot with, while Sarah is with a guy hiding total jerkness between a placid facade, but before the pilot is over, neither of these relationships are existent anymore. Both women - who live in Oxford, not London, which is a change, but the action doesn't stay there - through different ways find themselves uncovering the central dastardly plot which unsurprising given the author the show is based on involves fuck-ups by awful government agencies and the attempt to cover this up which leads to an ever higher body count. The Zoe and the Sarah storylines after a brief meeting in the pilot stay apart for half the season, and I was about to complain, but then the second half reunites them and gives me these actresses playing superbly against each other. If I have one complaint, it's that there wasn't really a pay-off for the existence of Talia the new defense secretary. But presumably in the second season?

Started to watch and stopped watching: Gunpowder on Amazon Prime. Look, show, two podcasts managed to turn me around on James VI and I and got me interested in Stuarts beyond the Restoration era, I'm in the market for this ! I'm also with you pointing out Catholics got a truly rough deal in the late Elizabethan and in the James era. But Kit Harrington brooding as Robert Catesby isn't going to cut it, and who does Mark Gatiss as Robert Cecil think he's playing, Shakespeare's Richard III?

Started watching, may or may not continue: The Name of the Rose, new tv version on Disney +. I mean, if there is an early 1980s novel begging for the miniseries treatment, it's absolutely that one, the OG Murders at a Monastery story. I would have thought a mniseries could offer the chance to include a lot more from the novel than the movie was able to, but foolish me, the show creators instead thought they needed some adiditional subplots. Adson now starts out as not really a novice, though he wants to be, because his father wants him with the imperial army instead. That's right, he now has Daddy Issues. (This is where you can tell there must be some American money involved.) William of Baskerville, aka the cleverest Holmes avatar in another setting before House, is played by John Turturro, who doesn't look anymore like the (reddish blonde) William of the book than Sean Connery did but does a decent job playing him. Somewhat unsurprisingly, like the movie, the series beefs up the part of Bernard(o) Gui. Who in the book shows up only in the second half and leaves again long before the big showdown, but Jean-Jacques Annoud already decided he didn't want an evil inquistor going to waste, but apparantly so did the creators of this one, so while Gui still doesn't arrive in the monastery before half point, we see him being evil and fanatical en route in every freaking episode. Did I mention there are new subplots? About which Adson, who is our narrator (voiced as an old man by Peter Davison, omg, that was a nice surprise), can't know?

( More spoilery observations for the first part of the series )

Incidentally, the excellent podcast History of the Germans (currently in its "Fall and Rise of the House of Habsburg" season where the family with the famous chin and lower lip first seemingly hits rock bottom in three generations before young Maximilian marries Marie of Burgundy) did a great episode last year about the actual political and theological background of the rl events The Name of the Rose touches on, hilariously summarized as "Der Kurverein zu Rhens - starring William of Ockham and the cast of the Name of the Rose". You can listen to it or read the transcript here.

Proper Trailer for the third season of Foundation on Apple:




So looking forward to this! (Not least because of all the other depressing cancellation news.)

Teaser traiiler of season 3 of The Diplomat, featuring the next West Wing alumnus:



The Diplomat: more cynical than The West Wing, but still believing in the basic drive of people to actually work for what they see as their couintry's benefit in addition to themselves. Neither universe would allow for the poisonous cesspit currently governing not just the US.

1. Your main fandom of the year?

Still 18th Century history, Prussian-Austrian-Hannoverian-French edition, with the occasional ancient history interlude.

2. Your favorite film watched this year?

It's a race between Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Dune II; I think the Apes win, not least I because I continue to be amazed how this rebooted franchise keeps producing intelligent, interesting characters and stories. Also, this was a case (and not the only one) this year where ahead of watching I was severely in doubt this was a good idea (i.e. do we need anything after the Caesar trilogy), and then I saw what they created, and yes, absolutely we do. Noah & Mae is shaping up to be one of the most fascinating relationships of the saga.


3. Your favorite book read this year?

Tie between Shelley Parker-Chan's She who became the Sun and Jo Graham's The Borgia Dove, i.e. history with a touch of fantasy in both cases, in the former using the first Ming Emperor as a template to genderqueer in a fascinating way, and in the second having a pregnant Giulia Farnese be a key player in getting Rodrigo Borgia elected Pope.



4. Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?




And all the variations thereof. An absolute earworm, and thematically essential to the storytelling within the series, to the point where you see this early scene very differently once you know certain things. Coming close: medieval and Renaissance "We didn't start the fire" was a hoot, and set me and the rest of salon filking. (And cahn singing; we're just waiting for mildred_of_midgard to collect the visuals in order to present you with 18th century versions.)


5. Your favorite TV show of the year?

It was a really good year for tv. With DW returning (and what a wild ride it was, with some episodes being amazingly brilliant and some really too silly even for DW) and Discovery finishing (*sob* it was a nice last season, but overall I think the s4 arc would have made for more epic final season one, had they known in advance), plus I really liked the kids' shows, i.e. ST: Prodigy, s2, and currently SW: Skeleton Crew. But seriously, there is no question as to which three are racing to the finish line here - Interview with the Vampire, s2 (sooo good), Shogun and Agatha All Along, of course. (And I'm very happy that not only the former but also Kathryn Hahn in the later just got Golden Globe nominated. Is the later one a first for the MCU?) Again with the scepticism ahead of watching: did we need another adaptation, given the very good 1980s one existed already? (YES, as it turns out.) And who asked for a spin-off focused on a main character who only showed up in a previous Disney show as a villain? (We all should have asked, as it turns out.) AAA is more recent, Interview and Shogun has the one drawback that they decided on its success to do more of it (DO NOT WANT, this is a contained and finished story)...but I think the sheer epicness, the fact a show with lots and lots of subtitled politics set in Renaissance Japan can become a hit, and the fact the novel was first told to me by Dad on a long walk when I was a teen and has remained with me ever makes for a mighty pull... but what's this, it's dark horse candidate Interview racing ahead by virtue of being even better than the first season despite having the less compelling part of the book as its textual source to adapt! IwtV, s2 win!

6. Your favorite online community of the year?

Salon aside, I also participated in an online book club I can't give details about for RL reasons and enjoyed it a lot.


7. Your best new fandom discovery of the year?

Lots and lots of podcasts to listen to, many historical in nature, some sci fi fannish. (Including one about The Rings of Power which proves you can be a Tolkien geek ready with the quotes and love the show.)


8. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?

There wasn't anything I loathed on a Secret Invasion (and SI was last year), but there were a few cases of "I had expected more given the premise" (Domina comes to mind), and some where the execution was fine and I could see what the hype was about but a key component was just wrong (Ripley: Andrew Scott was just too old - as I said in my review, not a problem if they'd adapted literally any other Ripley novel but the first, because his age isn't really important in the other books, but in the first one, him and Dickie being young enough that Dickie's father sending a supposed school mate after Dickie is plausible is literally a plot point), or there's room for improvement (Shardlake: a more subtle soundtrack, please, ditch the monologues, wtf is this making the important black character from the first novel who goes on to become a series regular not black and making two one-off character black instead?).



9. Your fandom boyfriend of the year?

ST: Prodigy's take on Wesley Crusher. I have a soft spot for when an unpopular character is given another shot anyway, but in this case not only did the result feel like a delightful DW crossover, but it was an object lesson of how to do something the third season of ST: Picard messed up big time, i.e. how to use an "old" character in a new show in a way that's more than a cameo and a real character exploration BUT also NOT in a way that negates the "new" characters' stories and agenda.

10. Your fandom girlfriend of the year?

Mariko from Shogun in her latest tv incarnation. I mean, I loved her in the book as well, but this year's show version was fantastic.

11. Your biggest squee moment of the year?

Daniel in the season finale of Interview with the Vampire detonates his bomb of a reveleation, to put it as unspoiilery as possible. I mean, it's a devastating scene, but in an absolutely squee-worthy way.

12. The most missed of your old fandoms?

Depending on Darth Real Life, I may start a Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series rewatch next year in this very journal.

13. The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?

The Orville, now that Discovery has ended, and my defensive hackles have been lowered.

14. Your biggest fan anticipations for the New Year?

I hear there will be a miniseries about Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra, featuring Keeley Hawes as Jane. This sounds promising. Will Jane A. fare better than the Bronte sisters in their most recent stage and film biographical outings? I hope so. On a similar historical note, there will be a series about William the Conqueror and Harold of Wessex, called King and Conqueror.

...and I really hope The Return starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes will make it to Germany.


Speaking of Memes, the January Meme still has free days if there are topics you want to to ramble about.

A first few Yuletide recs:


Agatha All Along:

Smart and Powerful: in which Jen encounters Agatha for the first time in the early 20th century. Banter, UST and foiled murderous intentions ensue.


Dune:

Adam's Rib: in which Irulan attempts to interview Paul for her histories between Dune and Dune Messiah. (It works for the Villeneuve movies as well until we get the third one, at least.) Very plausible take on these two and what they do and don't share, having grown up as the first born of great houses with Bene Gesserit training.


The Godfather:

Valediction: Tom Hagen and Connie Corleone after Sonny's death.


Macbeth:

The Future in the Instant: Lady Macbeth makes a choice, which involves talking to her husband at a key point of the narrative.


North and South:

Plum Pudding & Clustered Grapes: Margeret wants to host a Christmas dinner for the workers. No one else thinks this is a good idea...


The Odyssey:

The Hekubiad: In which Hecuba did make it to Ithaka post Troy, and provides us with her own pov on ensuing events.

Roma Sub Rosa Series - Steven Saylor

Sub Rosa: Saylor's take on Lucius Sergius Catilina was for me one of the most captivating elements of the book series, and this short story captures a lot of why, as we get a glimpse on Catilina and Meto shortly before the final battle.

candyheartsex has gone live! I received a gift and a treat:

Around the world in 80 Days: A Matter of Propriety, a lovely take on the OT3 from Abigail's pov.

17th Century RPF/ the novel "The King's Touch" by Jude Morgan: The Prince and the Princess' Touch, another lovely combination of three, these ones being Stuart cousins, to wit, future monarchs William and Mary as well as their rebellious cousin Jemmy (aka James Duke of Monmouth), currently spending his exile with them.

Now excuse me while I read the other stories!

Dear Writer,

this exchange will be a highlight in my Februarly, and I'm very grateful to you for creating something for me in a fandom we share. My prompts are just that, prompts, not absolutes; if you have an idea that doesn't fit with any of them, but features (some of) the characters I asked for, I'll love it with added joyful surprise.

General DNWs:

A/B/O - if you want to write a werewolf AU for any of the canons I nominated, be my guest, but I'm really not into this particular type of story -, infantilisation, golden showers. Character bashing. (If the characters in question canonically loathe someone, you can of course include this, but I think you know the difference between that and having all characters agree about how terrible X is. Rape, unless it's canon and you want to explore how Character Y deals with the aftermath, or something like that.

General likes:

Character exploration, characters helping each other recover from trauma, messed up and/or co-dependent family relationships, witty banter, friendship against the odds, the occasional light moment in a darker story or conversely some serious character stuff thrown into a comedy fic.

Treats: are very welcome.

( Babylon 5 )

( Black Sails )

( For All Mankind )

( Jude Morgan - The King's Touch )

( 16th Century RPF )


( 18th Century RPF )

( Around the World in 80 Days )

A selection of stories which caught my eye last night:


Der Erlkönig (the Goethe poem and the Schubert song): Our Father, which is another creepy, awesome ballad. Poetry fanfiction in both senses! It's fabulous, and should be comprehensible even if you don't know the original poem. (BTW, if you don't, but want to know, here is a rendition in German subtitled in English and made specifically for people learning German. And if you are German, here's the flippant short version my Dad cracked me up with in my long ago school days: Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind/ Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind/ Kommt böser Mann, quatscht Papi an, ob er Bubi haben kann/ Papi verneint, Bubi weint, am nächsten Tag ist große Not/ Papi lebendig, Bubi tot.)


Labyrinth: Strangers till now: in which an older Sarah is stuck with a powerless Jareth for a day due to a plot MacGuffin, and it's funny and full of verbal sparring and subtext, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.


Star Trek: DS9 Crash Landings: in which, en route back from saving Ishka in The Magnificent Ferengi, Quark gets stuck with Brunt of all the people in an archetypical fanfic trope. Extremely well written, and given I have a soft spot for the Ferengi in general and Quark in particular, which isn't a majority opinion in fandom, I am always over the moon when finding Ferengi starring fanfiction of this quality. Quark, Brunt and Ishka are all given terrific dialogue.

Good Omens (TV): Standing right here: which gives us a look as to how the angel Muriel is doing after the end of s2 and lets her befriend Nina in the most adorable way. I'm not wild about Good Omens the way many of my friends are, but I like it, and was charmed by this vignette inspired by the new canon.

Festivids has gone live, and as ever, I'm a fervent admirer of people able to create them. This year's early bunch of favourites:

Andor:

Nameless bodies, unrenemembered rooms : Cassian and Kino centric, intense and dynamic study of the prison arc.

Life during Wartime: Great ensemble vid.

The Expanse:

Solid Wonderful Chrisjen Avasarala/Bobbie Draper vid.


Ghosts (British original):

Til you hold my hand: lovely ensemble vid.

LotR: The Rings of Power

Make them Gold: Elrond/Durin/Disa = OT3!

My Beautiful Laundrette

Friday I'm in Love: That brings back memories, not solely but definitely of the first on screen m/m relationship I ever fell for.

ST: Strange New Worlds

Stronger Together: Love declaration to this crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Twelfth Night

That Strain Again: in which some unknown genius must have tracked down every filmed version of Twelfth Night ever and made a fantastic vid out of them.

The Wheel of Time

Witch: awesome Moiraine character study.

Which is what davetheanalyzer wants to know. Wellllllll, as Fontane (who wrote some historical rpf and poetry, though mainly contemporary stories) would say, das ist ein weites Feld. Some of them were used to it within their life time and appear to have been very sang froid about it. Case in point: Catherine de' Medici, who is on the record of observing after a particularly extravagant pamphlet about her was printed: The only pity is that the author had not previously applied to me for information, as by his own statement “’it was impossible to fathom the depths of her Florentine deceit’ – and he evidently knows nothing of the events he pretends to discuss. Besides, he left so much out!

Whereas, while we're talking French Queens born in another country, Marie Antoinette would probably mind a lot, not least because the sheer number of outrageous stories (complete with pornographic details) making the rounds about her during her life time contributed to her death, in tne long term. But I think she'd also mind some of the later sympathetic depictions, no matter whether the author chooses Fersen as her One True Love, or one of her female friends like Gabrielle de' Polignac, because having your real or imagined private life complete with quotes from your most personal letters used to entertain the public at large is mortifying if you don't have an emotional skin of an elephant and/or are that type of extrovert. I mean, the woman had already to cope with seven years of marriage as a teenager where everyone and their valet knew she and her husband did not manage to have produce children and speculations as to why (was she frigid? Was he impotent?) were making the rounds not just in Versailles but in all of Europe, until her older brother finally gave her husband The Talk and marital sex plus procreation ensued. I think she probably hoped that at least once she was dead, all the rpf would cease.

Paradoxically, I think a great many historical personalities would mind the better researched fiction more than the more off base stuff precisely because of the letters and diaries factor. For us writers, intensely personal quotable lines in letters are a godsend. But imagine this kind of thing showing up in fiction about yourself! I dare say if the Duke of Wellington had known that the four Bronte children had written stories that started out as RPf starring him and his sons (until the characters developed far away from the originals, and they never had much to do with the real Wellesleys anyway, as Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne had only Blackwood's Magazine and the like to inform them, Wellington simply would have been amused. But Charlotte Bronte herself would turn in her grave and/or set someone's house on fire at the thought that her desperate letters to Monsieur Heger, the Belgian teacher she fell in unrequited love with, would be amply quoted in biographies later, never mind showing up in fiction. (What Emily would think about being paired up with William Weightman in a movie, I have no idea, but I imagine a disdainful snort would be involved.)

Then again, I could be wrong about people not minding the more unlikely and less researched stuff; it all depends on the invidual personality and what they get out of the fiction, I guess. There's the famous story of Elizabeth I., after the Essex disaster which included Essex' people paying Shakespeare's company to restage Richard II, at this point already not a new play anymore, because it includes the deposition of a crowned monarch. Supposedly Elizabeth said "Don't you know I am Richard II?" to her godson later, bitterly referring to that particular detail. (Might not have been godson John Harrington she said it to, might have been someone else, I can't look it up right now, but that's how I remember it.) Leaving aside the historical accuracy of Shakespeare's depiction of Richard II, it's interesting that Elizabeth could see herself in it; whether she thought the entire character was intended as a portrait and agreed, or whether she thought other people (Essex included) saw her as Richard II is debateable.

But most of the VIPs at least (as opposed to people who were not famous within their lifetimes) would be absolutely unsurprised that there was RPF about them. Shakespeare wasn't the only writer depicting previous English history, and Elizabeth would have been aware she, in her turn, would be written about, and not just in a metaphorical way as Gloriana. Frederick the Great's younger brother Heinrich/Henry saw a play starring his brother (as a fictional character) on stage in Paris when he visited the city for the second time, which was only a few years after Frederick's death. Oh, and the 18th century had a craze for producing supposed "memoirs" of recently dead famous celebrities which were actually fiction by someone else - one of the most famous ones were "memoirs" supposedly by the Marquise de Maintenon (mistress and morganatic second wife of Louis XIV), and by Prince Eugene of Savoye (actually written by Charles de Ligne and so successful that the English wiki entry on Eugene still quotes from them as if they were genuine, or at least it did a year ago). Then there were actual memoirs mixing in a good deal of invention intentionally on the part of their authors; looking at you, Voltaire and Friedrich von der Trenck. So no, I don't think the majority of 18th century celebrities would have been surprised that RPF got written, both the more stately and the more outrageous versions. They'd have expected no less.

The other days