And a book review

[petronia]

I read Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon... last week, actually, I just haven't scrounged up a blurb on the fact. Or maybe I liked it too much and subconsciously gave myself time to cool my head. XD I was at the bookstore and picked it up off a table because I recognized the author's name from having been mentioned on the flist somewhere. Skimmed the first couple of pages, tripped and fell in, Fushigi Yuugi-style. It happens rarely these days but when it does happen it's a stroke of luck to be able to take two steps backward and have the back of one's knees hit the edge of an empty chair. At some nebulous later point they closed the bookstore on me, so I was forced to buy it in order to keep reading.

The book exists sort of as an intersection of microgenres (i.e. "why didn't I think of that?" --I told my sister, "It's basically Napoleonic Wars with dragons," and she gave me a Look like I'd said "It's basically chocolate cheesecake, but it helps you lose weight,") and is just... a lot of fun, I guess. An adventure story with likeable characters, intriguing world-building and well-thought-out mechanics, no catch. It's not as note-perfect as Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell but neither is it diving for the same depth. I sound like I'm faint-praising but I'm really not, I haven't read a novel this fun in ages. I wish I were twelve again, though, it would've blown my world apart back then. XD

I'm pretty sure Naomi Novik writes fanfiction. Having said this, by universal logic it could only go one of two ways:

1) She doesn't write fanfiction.
2) Someone will take me aside kindly and explain who she is online, and I will be embarrassed that I didn't know already.

In any case, I suspect this for textual reasons, because she knows how to play the restraint card. It's my theory that writers with certain inclinations who don't write fanfiction (nor feel the urge to do so) are the ones who go to extremes, because they assume the reader can't get there unless the author takes them there, and in any case origfic is their only outlet (at some point they might work it out of their system and turn to writing books about food pr0n instead, à la Poppy Z. Brite XD). Whereas your fanfiction writer of years' standing no longer needs to pile it on a foot thick, and furthermore might assume an ideal reader willing to come three-quarters of the way to meet your subtext - and if s/he isn't, no loss to either reader or author.

...Or maybe I just think this because she does my sleep kink. XD It is kind of sad. I know there are people who'd rather read h/c than a sex scene but when you'd rather read about characters sleeping than a sex scene...

I have to remember to pick up the second book. (In which, amusingly, I think she employs pinyin romanization instead of whatever Jesuitic monstrosity they used back then?) Now I'm reading The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, for which I was in the bookstore in the first place. Belatedly I've realised that everyone I know must have read it before me, and if marej hadn't made me I'd still be out of the loop. XD; I'm 150 pages in but my sister has just blown off studying for her final exams to finish it and she informs me it is The Best Book Ever (tm), so I have great hopes for the rest.

Comments

[one-if-by-land.livejournal.com]

unless I am wildly mistaken, she is astolat (previous penname of Lady of Shalott), she's currently in SGA (I think) and maybe Smallville, and she used to be pretty big in Harry Potter. At least, that's where I met her first, with her H/D fics. She was, like, one of the definitive NC-17 writers back in the day, and I can say with little embarrassment that her early fanwork really did blow my mind. *g*

[petronia.livejournal.com]

.................OKAY I GUESS IT'S DOOR NUMBER TWO THEN. Geez. XD

[naanima.livejournal.com]

*HANHS HEAD IN SHAME AND FOLLOWS YOU THROUGH DOOR NUMBER 2*

[one-if-by-land.livejournal.com]

BUT I REALLY ONLY KNOW her as Naomi Novik because she is bookshop's hero, and there's only so much capslock that I can ignore before I'm suckered into reading. XD

[sesame-seed.livejournal.com]

points to you for figuring out the fanfic writing aspect without knowing beforehand, though. *g*

(you never did read her master&commander fic, did you? style and setting is all pretty similar.)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Probably not, but if she's written m&c fic then I can't wait til tomorrow morning to explode my sister's head. >D

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

Yep. She's open about the dual identify on her fannish LJ (but prefers that it not be too easy for people who only know her books to stumble across the fact). I had actually met her at a slash con 5 years ago and recognized her name when I started seeing the book reviews.

I am ashamed to say that she's actually the reason why I finally picked up the HP books (but I promptly recognized that there was very little relationship between her smoking hot all-dialogue pr0n and the very enjoyable children's lit I was reading).

[one-if-by-land.livejournal.com]

I knowww. Back when I was a wee impressionable little thing, I signed onto Harry/Draco solely because of her "Weather of the Heart" & etc fiction. There was one particularly fantastic piece of angst that she wrote that made me bawl my eyes out for days.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

HAHA IS THERE ANY H/D FAN WHO HAS NOT READ WEATHER OF THE HEART IF SO I HAVE CERTAINLY NEVER MADE THEIR ACQUAINTANCE

Come to think of it she was probably the first HP ficcer I ever read, back when there were like... three HP ficcers? I was kind of scarred.

[one-if-by-land.livejournal.com]

IF THERE IS, THEY WOULD NEVER ADMIT IT!

Now that I think back really hard, I don't even remember how I stumbled onto her writing, as I assure you porn was not a common conversation I would iniate with other people! AND I WASN'T EVEN INTO SLASH BACK THEN. I was all about the Syaoran/Sakura oh yeah

[marici.livejournal.com]

*raises left hand while clicking through to find said fic with right*
Yeah, yeah, eternal shame, whatever. I ordered the whole series the day the first one came out in the US on the strength of her SGA fanfic.

Came through Meg-nee's journal

[lukita.livejournal.com]

Hi, I like H/D and never heard of her before or her fic, but I also bailed on the fandom when the fans got real crazy.

[aerie.livejournal.com]

DID YOU READ 'PASSING THROUGH' AND 'THE ELEVENTH DOORKEEPER'. Passing Through was so spare and bleak and threw you into the middle of something with very little and exactly enough explanation and I believed in her characterisation subtleties so utterly it's what made me ship H/D (before it was cool lulz). Six years later it's still my favourite Harry Potter fanfic pretty much ever? Man. Nostalgia. (Eleventh Doorkeeper I mostly loved conceptually.)

Practically as soon as I heard she was writing original fantasy I was waiting in line to buy it. ♥

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Wait wait wait, Lady of Shalott now writes novels!? I recall her in passing from Sentinel waaay back in the day... (between her and Rob Thurman it must be fanfic-authors-going-pro year or something...)

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

What, Rob Thurman is another one?

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Not well-known - only wrote for RGB (Ghostbusters), half of that only in zines, and she pulled all of it offline when she first sold her novel. But she got her start writing (freakin' incredibly good) fic. And parts of Nightlife read awfully...familiar...for those familiar with one of her best stories.

[perseid.livejournal.com]

^^ I stalk the author mainly for her Stargate Atlantis fanfiction on her webpage (http://www.intimations.org/fanfic/) and her LJ (astolat.livejournal.com) for fanfic recs. She does ask that her two identities be kept separate from each other though, so while it's not exactly a secret, I think she'd prefer that it's not advertised so much. So I hope this isn't too spoilerific in some way

[marici.livejournal.com]

Her words on the matter:
"Usual disclaimer: I ask that y'all not post linking this lj or the astolat/shalott pseuds to my RL name or the book -- if you want to use lj username, please use [info]naominovik, the pro lj. I don't mind people who actively seek out my fanfic knowing, I just don't want people randomly stumbling onto it with a google search, and prefer to keep this lj just for fun and fandom."

...she's probably kidding herself on being ungoogleable, but on the plus side, anyone who cares enough to google her probably just wants more fic anyway.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Oh, well then it's fine, my LJ is set to ungoogleable anyway. XD

[naanima.livejournal.com]

She write fanfiction.

.... but for the life of me I can't remember who it is at the present time. I'm going to go home tonight and probably bang my head against the table because it should be obvious. I'm sure someone else will manage to tell you later on.

no longer needs to pile it on a foot thick, and furthermore might assume an ideal reader willing to come three-quarters of the way to meet your subtext.

... *blinks* I think you have managed to say what I have been trying to process in my brain for years on (why I prefer reading fanfiction beyond the whole 'stories on my fave cahracterse')... in less than one sentence. You know, I really do wish eating of the brain does give one the ability of the, um, brain, because I'd really like to eat yours (and several other people on my f-list) brain.

I'm just going to go do my assignment now.

[aerie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, not only does she write fanfiction but she writes NC-17 slash fanfiction, and also some of the only Harry/Draco stories I can still profess to love even five or six years later. XD (Also, Coldfire. Woman knows the way to my heart, that is for certain.)

[corneredangel.livejournal.com]

I read Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon...

I think the number-one reason I've stayed away from this book is the same reason I couldn't deal with more than about fifty pages of the Cryptonomicon: *way* too much screaming at the author for historical inaccuracies and shoddy research.

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

:0 If it weren't too late I would be running for Barnes & Noble right now.

[lazulisong.livejournal.com]

homg I picked it up yesterday and i would pay you a QUARTER to slash the dragon and the guy.

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

BUT DUDE THEY ARE ALREADY SLASHED. My work here is done.

[lazulisong.livejournal.com]

dfsa;lkfd;laf petting the whiskers I DIED SO HARD.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_debbiechan_/]

You people who speak of fanfic "back in the day!" I'm such a virgin to fanfic--only three or 4 years reading and that in few fandoms (not counting the odd STNG story someone would fwd me for a laugh. Now, as for you're guessing this writer was a ff writer--!! BONZAI!

In any case, I suspect this for textual reasons, because she knows how to play the restraint card. It's my theory that writers with certain inclinations who don't write fanfiction (nor feel the urge to do so) are the ones who go to extremes, because they assume the reader can't get there unless the author takes them there, and in any case origfic is their only outlet

See, I thought it was the other way around...My experience being immersed in the "rock, stone, leaf" sort of New England pretentiousness (where MFA graduates write novels about being MFA graduates) led me to believe that fanfic was so much more raucous, fun, and would be spoiled by a honest editor. Or maybe I was reading too much badfic.

...Your fanfiction writer of years' standing no longer needs to pile it on a foot thick, and furthermore might assume an ideal reader willing to come three-quarters of the way to meet your subtext - and if s/he isn't, no loss to either reader or author.

Ah, you see, this is my ideal WRITER. I don't want to be courted as an ideal reader; I want to have to work for my meaning (which is why I love manga) while the artist sings for his. I like poetic stuff, stuff where the quiet moment is more important than story and stuff where the prose doesn't bore my intelligence by being linear and too descriptive. There are fanfic writers like this out there? Woo. My favorites so far have been the ones who can take a set of characters I love and run with them into the freaky, sublime, and outrageous. Every now and then I'll read a drabble that makes my heart stop, and I'll go "who IS this person"... so wonderful that you guessed that this writer was a fanfic writer... and I simply have to go get this book now... I really have to.
I agree that writes who only write original fiction have no other outlet for all that fury and fire that accompany the necessary exorcisms of youth. Fanfic is about writing about OTHER characters, not your own damn self in some disguised way.

[ayabai.livejournal.com]

oh i so understand your sleep kink. and that is why we get along. XDDDDD

[incandescens]

Ahaaaaaaaaaaa. Thank you!

[mitethe.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. Her identity's a fandom-wide secret. *grin* The books are such a fun read (not something to be said lightly) and she juggles the different genres so skilfully the reader is hardly aware of the effort involved. The accessibility of Naomi Novik/Shalott's writing was something I noticed back when I was following her Sentinel and Highlander stuff (and later, she wrote the only readable SG-1 slash when it was but a wee fandom); paraphrasing what a reccer once said: she writes the kind of stories that remind one why cliches became cliches. It's a pleasure seeing her strengths as a fanfic writer applied to original fiction.

(There are bits in Temeraire that I could've sworn were a subtle nod in fandom's direction. There's that scene where Laurence is traumatised by Temeraire's burgeoning adolescence, and I had to put the book down while I laughed myself sick. XD)

[bell]

A few paragraphs into this post I went to Amazon and put the book on my wishlist (where I keep track of everything I want to someday read). That's some good pimping, y0. XD

[marej.livejournal.com]

I've realised that everyone I know must have read it before me

you knoooow, the reason i decided that i must nag you to death and more suggest you read it, was because a few books you mentioned loving as a kid. i don't remember all of them, but def. Ernest Thompson Seton. and it's not that TSOTW is similar to seton's books, really but there is this feeling of grand adventure, sprawling through time, generations, the city which Carlos Ruiz Zafón caught and which reminded me of great adventure books i loved as a kid. so um. I really hope you like the rest of the book. i blabbed a bit in chrissie's lj about it (http://sesame-seed.livejournal.com/169701.html?thread=2053093#t2053093), but i'll wait with pestering you for reactions till you're actually, you know, done with it.

also, eeeee Temeraire!

[lazulisong.livejournal.com]

I went and bought it last night (ha, who says fen don't support their own?) and I um find it vaguely reassuring that she wrote H/D and all that because /wow/ Laurence and Temeraire are really kind of slashy together. And maybe she won't kill me for shipping them?

Damn, now I want Temeraire to find a pearl or whatever to turn him into a sloe-eyed Chinese guy in silken robes and for them to do it, I dunno, in the Roman baths? XD

I am totally buying the other two LIKE RIGHT NOW.