(no subject)
Apr. 10th, 2013 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsThe Dragon Waiting is one of those everything-and-the-kitchen-sink alternate histories -- the Byzantine Empire is evil and taking over France and Italy! and also there are WIZARDS! and also there are VAMPIRES! and also Owen Glendower was ACTUALLY FOR-REAL MAGIC! and also John M. Ford would like to argue pointedly with Shakespeare's interpretation of Richard III, thank you very much!
(No actual dragons, though. Or dinosaur lawyers, which is a shame; I cannot think of an alternate history that would not be improved by dinosaur lawyers.)
It's also a book that for me did not actually come together in a structural way I could understand until about 3/4 of the way through. The book reads a bit like this:
HYWEL PEREDUR: I am a child with unexpected wizard powers! And now we're going to learn about how I suffered terrible tragedy and lost everything I loved.
DIMITRIOS DUCAS: I am a child growing up happily as a Roman in occupied Gaul! And now we're going to learn about how I suffered terrible tragedy and lost everything I loved.
CYNTHIA RICCI: I am a young doctor in the court of Lorenzo de Medici! And now we're going to learn about how I suffered terrible tragedy and lost everything I loved.
GREGORY VON BAYERN: I am a scholarly guilt-ridden vampire, but John Ford is tired of writing backstories, so let's just assume that I suffered terrible tragedy and lost everything I loved and get on to AN INORDINATELY COMPLEX LOCKED-ROOM MURDER MYSTERY.
AN INORDINATELY COMPLEX LOCKED-ROOM MURDER MYSTERY: *occurs*
EVERYONE: *becomes extremely emotionally attached to each other*
HYWEL: Conveniently, you are all part of my master complex plot against the evil empire which I am not going to explicate! Now we're going to go on a vaguely related inordinately complex political mission involving Margaret of Anjou.
A VAGUELY RELATED INORDINATELY COMPLEX POLITICAL MISSION INVOLVING MARGARET OF ANJOU: *occurs*
HYWEL: My master complex plot which I am not going to explicate now involves us all splitting up to have character development. At least, some of this is part of my plot. Maybe. Eh, who knows.
EVERYONE: *splits up for character development*
SOME RANDOMLY CHOSEN SCENES: *advance character development, but not all the character development, just whatever character development John M. Ford feels like writing about that day*
EDWARD IV: *dies*
RICHARD III FIX-IT FANFIC: *commences*
BECCA: Oh oh wait, okay, now I see what you are doing, and why you needed to set up these characters and why you needed magic and vampires and why you wanted to write those particular scenes! Some of those particular scenes, anyway. OKAY. I'M STARTING TO GET IT.
Like, it really does sort of feel like John M. Ford wrote the last third of the book last, and then worked out what he needed in order to get there, and then wrote about half of what he felt like he needed, and threw in another few scenes that he didn't need but he just wanted to write about, and trusted the reader to figure out the rest.
And by the end I think this probably works! It helps that John M. Ford is very clever, and the alternate history interestingly constructed; if you are the sort of person who likes puzzle-box plots that engage your brain, your brain will very certainly be engaged. And occasionally he throws in terrible in-jokes like the time that a stage manager in the Medici court proposes the great work Stella Martiis, and if you are the kind of person who enjoys these kind of terrible in-jokes you're having enough fun ferreting them out that you don't really mind.
But on the other hand I feel like nobody can be blamed for not wanting to wait 3/4 of the way into the book to understand why we are following these particular people and why vampires and Welsh wizards are thematically important to this Richard III fanfic anyway.
Also, for those who have read the book, man, okay, I am with most of the rest of the book, but I am really uncomfortable about Hywel dragging Cynthia off and basically forcing her to go through magical shock therapy AND THEN SHE'S FINE. Like, I get that she had been through a lot and needed therapy, but you can't force someone into therapy! That's not okay! Emotional healing has to involve agency on the part of the person who is doing the healing! Apparently I have a lot of feelings about this!
(No actual dragons, though. Or dinosaur lawyers, which is a shame; I cannot think of an alternate history that would not be improved by dinosaur lawyers.)
It's also a book that for me did not actually come together in a structural way I could understand until about 3/4 of the way through. The book reads a bit like this:
HYWEL PEREDUR: I am a child with unexpected wizard powers! And now we're going to learn about how I suffered terrible tragedy and lost everything I loved.
DIMITRIOS DUCAS: I am a child growing up happily as a Roman in occupied Gaul! And now we're going to learn about how I suffered terrible tragedy and lost everything I loved.
CYNTHIA RICCI: I am a young doctor in the court of Lorenzo de Medici! And now we're going to learn about how I suffered terrible tragedy and lost everything I loved.
GREGORY VON BAYERN: I am a scholarly guilt-ridden vampire, but John Ford is tired of writing backstories, so let's just assume that I suffered terrible tragedy and lost everything I loved and get on to AN INORDINATELY COMPLEX LOCKED-ROOM MURDER MYSTERY.
AN INORDINATELY COMPLEX LOCKED-ROOM MURDER MYSTERY: *occurs*
EVERYONE: *becomes extremely emotionally attached to each other*
HYWEL: Conveniently, you are all part of my master complex plot against the evil empire which I am not going to explicate! Now we're going to go on a vaguely related inordinately complex political mission involving Margaret of Anjou.
A VAGUELY RELATED INORDINATELY COMPLEX POLITICAL MISSION INVOLVING MARGARET OF ANJOU: *occurs*
HYWEL: My master complex plot which I am not going to explicate now involves us all splitting up to have character development. At least, some of this is part of my plot. Maybe. Eh, who knows.
EVERYONE: *splits up for character development*
SOME RANDOMLY CHOSEN SCENES: *advance character development, but not all the character development, just whatever character development John M. Ford feels like writing about that day*
EDWARD IV: *dies*
RICHARD III FIX-IT FANFIC: *commences*
BECCA: Oh oh wait, okay, now I see what you are doing, and why you needed to set up these characters and why you needed magic and vampires and why you wanted to write those particular scenes! Some of those particular scenes, anyway. OKAY. I'M STARTING TO GET IT.
Like, it really does sort of feel like John M. Ford wrote the last third of the book last, and then worked out what he needed in order to get there, and then wrote about half of what he felt like he needed, and threw in another few scenes that he didn't need but he just wanted to write about, and trusted the reader to figure out the rest.
And by the end I think this probably works! It helps that John M. Ford is very clever, and the alternate history interestingly constructed; if you are the sort of person who likes puzzle-box plots that engage your brain, your brain will very certainly be engaged. And occasionally he throws in terrible in-jokes like the time that a stage manager in the Medici court proposes the great work Stella Martiis, and if you are the kind of person who enjoys these kind of terrible in-jokes you're having enough fun ferreting them out that you don't really mind.
But on the other hand I feel like nobody can be blamed for not wanting to wait 3/4 of the way into the book to understand why we are following these particular people and why vampires and Welsh wizards are thematically important to this Richard III fanfic anyway.
Also, for those who have read the book, man, okay, I am with most of the rest of the book, but I am really uncomfortable about Hywel dragging Cynthia off and basically forcing her to go through magical shock therapy AND THEN SHE'S FINE. Like, I get that she had been through a lot and needed therapy, but you can't force someone into therapy! That's not okay! Emotional healing has to involve agency on the part of the person who is doing the healing! Apparently I have a lot of feelings about this!
no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 04:24 pm (UTC)(I have never been able to figure out the logistics of the locked-room mystery. I have tried, repeatedly.)
(I do not remember the Cynthia bit you object to well enough to comment.)
Here, have some more Ford for when you have brain, two long poems, both of which I love a whole lot:
Troy, the Movie -- http://www.strangehorizons.com/2002/20020429/troy.shtml -- because Ford loved his pastiche.
Winter Solstice, Camelot Station -- https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9711&L=CELTIC-L&P=R18841 -- also trains.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 05:00 pm (UTC)(Ha! I keep getting lost in all the illusion-swaps. I feel like someone should chart it out. Possibly with color-coding.)
Yes excellent thank you, bookmarking both!
no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 07:55 pm (UTC)Harry of Five Points (because who doesn't like Guys & Dolls/Henry V mashups?)
And, of course, Against Entropy (because it's brilliant--and here, in its original context, was the -first response- to its cue).
no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 07:57 pm (UTC)(I have nothing against those, mind, but they are not the ones I love.)
no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 08:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 05:03 pm (UTC)And, hmm, I think the thing with Cynthia never really occurred to me. Thanks for pointing that out.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 05:18 pm (UTC)Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure it wouldn't have bothered me as much if she hadn't been The Girl, honestly. And, like, don't get me wrong, I think Cynthia is awesome and I love a lot of the stuff that she does. But the way that everyone manipulated her to get her to where she needed to be For Her Own Good -- that set me on edge.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 06:56 pm (UTC)I don't remember the thing with Cynthia.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 07:33 pm (UTC)Ha, nobody remembers the thing with Cynthia! So I guess I was the only one bothered by it. But it's when she's got severe PTSD after the inn incident (inncident?), and she decides she doesn't want to go into Wales with Hywel, and then Gregory basically goes in and scare-manipulates her into going after all, and then Gregory and his witch friend Mary literally grab and corner her and force her to confront all of her accumulated trauma, with bonus magic of some sort.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 08:00 pm (UTC)I thought of Richard as just one of the characters in the ensemble rather than the reason for the entire thing.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 08:13 pm (UTC)I kept kind of waiting to find out how English succession played into the greater plot to DESTROY THE EMPIRE, and then I decided there wasn't really going to be a greater plot to DESTROY THE EMPIRE and so Richard III had to be it.