For Valentine's Day, the Candy Hearts Exchange went live, and I received two gifts, both SW: The Clone Wars stories: give us something to celebrate and yet peace, both stories in which conversations Anakin has with Ahsoka (and Obi-Wan) make fundamental changes.

I also finished reading A Thousand Ships, a, hm, less than a novel than an interconnected tapestry of stories based on Trojan War related myths by Natalie Haynes. Each of the myths is told from a female perspective, and in a non-liniear fashion; for example, the Penthesilea story (near the end of the war) happens before the Iphigenia story (at the start of the war). Like The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker, this one's take on Briseis and Chryseis (and for that matter any of the female prisoners taken slaves by the Greeks) pointedly avoids presenting their relationships as romances. I think this is the retelling whose take on Cassandra was most visceral for me, because the author had Cassandra experience her visions of the future as memories. (I.e. like Doctor Manhattan in Watchman, she experiences past, present and future simultanously and all the time. Unlike him, she remains human. Talk about a curse.) I'm reasonably well versed in Greek mythology, but there were some myths I hadn't been familiar with, and afterwards had to google, such as the story of Hecuba's revenge on Polymestor, which I see is from both a Euripides play and Ovid. Though Haynes made one telling change; in her book, as in practically every modern retelling I've seen save for an intriguing Yuletide story from years past, Agamemnon is an unredeemable villain, and thus the Greek hero who sides with Hecuba in her version isn't Agamemnon but Odysseus.

Another decision any author tackling the Trojan War myths has to make is whether or not to use the Gods. Haynes does include them, and provides some intriguing twists, most of all by using the non-linear storytelling to reveal bit by bit the underlying true reason for the Trojan War. There are some surprising yet effective decisions, like ( a spoiliery one regarding Thetis the mother of Achilles. ) Unfortunately, one of the very few intallments that don't work for me are the Penelope passages, perhaps because all the other female povs come across as telling their own stories, whereas Penelope tells that of Odysseus (except for the first time she speaks). I mean, I do see the basic problem - evidently Heynes wanted to include the Odyssey stories and she wanted to include Penelope as a pov, and so she has Penelope tell those stories via letters to her absent husbands where she repeats what she heard from the bards about his adventures with her own sarcastic commentary. But that still makes them not Penolope's stories, and I wonder whether a better solution would have been to divide the Oddyssey tales between Penolope, Circe, Kalypso and Nausicaa.

Lastly, as opposed to some other modern retellings where the brutality of the male characters' actions is preserved, but not of the female characters, here this doesn't happen, which means the various revenge acts by women fall on the guilty and innocent alike (true for both Hecuba's and Clytemnestra's revenges, for example), and thus several the female characters are victims and perpetrators alike. It's a compelling book, but definitely not one for escapist purposes.

More rec posts to come, of course, as I feel I've only just started to scratch the surface of all the fictional goodness.


American Gods

Do zla boga: Czernobog and the Zoryas arrive in America. (Incidentally, the Slavic gods are doing rather well in this year's Yuletide.) Captures both the otherness and the, in lack of a better term, person-hood of the gods and throws a fascinating light on the relationship between the Zoryas and Czernobog.

The Graveyard Book

Over the Stones : which is beautiful and haunting in just the right way.

And they're there for you: this, on the other hand, makes you go "aw" as we get a scene from Bod's childhood with Miss Lupescu and Silas. I was expecting Silas fic to appear in this year's Yuletide, and there is plenty, but what I'm really delighted about is that Miss Lupescu is not forgotten but appears in several stories as well, such as this one. I ♥ her.


Greek and Roman Mythology

Five ways Medea lost herself (to/with Jason): in which the relationship between Medea and Jason runs is course, and Medea becomes.



History

Ne Vile Velis: a look at Warwick the self-styled Kingmaker and his cousin Ned, Edward IV; great both if you're a Yorkist and if you're just generally interested in the history of the era.

The Order

Miracle Worker: absolutely fantastic ensemble fic centered on Kate Kildare. All the characterisations, their interactions are just superb, and in lieu of a cancelled comic, this is the best thing to a sequel I've seen.

The Sandman

Ink Space: Lucien, Dream and the library. Poetic, and one of several stories this year starring Daniel, not Morpheus. Wonderful to read.

A Lesson in Manners: in which Thessaly encounters Dream again post-canon and is her awesome self.


Sarah Connor Chronicles

First and Last Rites: post-s2 finale story centered on Sarah, co-starring Ellison and Savannah. Beautiful.

Eudaimonia: I found the relationship between James Ellison and John Henry fascinating, and this story sort of sums up why, complete with all the issues of the past and future between them.