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Sep. 27th, 2013 09:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsWhen I first read "The Provenance Game," I immediately shrieked to the author, "were you trying to write a story tailored specifically to my interests? BECAUSE IF SO YOU HAVE SUCCEEDED."
To which she responded, "I admit this one sprang into my head with a label that said 'THIS STORY'S IDEAL AUDIENCE IS BECCA.'"
Which is accurate. But since I have amazing taste, I feel I can also comfortably and generously share it with all of you.
So "The Provenance Game" is about the protagonist's final exam for her ARCHIVING DEGREE, except in a world where the rules of archiving are LETHAL and materials that are not sorted according to proper archival order can be DEADLY. The protagonist is clear-headed, focused on practicalities, deaf, lesbian, the caretaker of several frustrating but affectionate little siblings, and AMAZING. I love her a lot, but what I love EVEN MORE is the world and the fact that this is the only epic magical battle I am ever likely to encounter dealing with ARCHIVING ORAL HISTORIES.
I have talked people into nominating this for me for Yuletide because I desperately want more stories about deadly archival battles and a world where archivist is an exciting and potentially lethal profession. So you all should read it and offer to write it, basically.
"The Provenance Game" appears in the anthology Fight Like A Girl, a collection of female-focused fantasy stories (not all of which involve actual fighting) funded through Kickstarter, and is the first story in the anthology (as it should be, being first in my HEART.)
As with most anthologies, Fight Like a Girl has a couple stories I loved, a couple stories I found deeply frustrating by virtue of being too short for their premises, and a couple stories that didn't do much for me. The rest of the lineup:
Ursa Major: A reasonably cute if not particularly substantial story about a mother and teenaged daughter overcoming their differences to rescue a teen-heartthrob Magical Chosen One
The Leviathan's Bride: Lovecraftian underwater fantasy. I am not actually sure what all happened in this one except that there were submarines and tentacles.
Push Me to Sea: One of my favorites! A no-nonsense engineer gets recruited by a charismatic lady officer into the ANTI-COLONIALIST REVOLUTION. Feels a bit like the beginning of a novel I would happily read, but I was satisfied with the story also.
Growing Pains: Another favorite! After being killed by her cousin in a magical realist family feud, bored and disembodied Rebecca Cubblestone makes use of the family talent for growing body parts in the backyard of her house in Nebraska. One of those matter-of-fact sort of magical stories that I love the most; I would read so much more about Rebecca and about this family.
Heartbreaker: ~impulsive rogue heroine~ makes cocky and stupid decisions. This felt like it was trying a bit hard to be gritty urban fantasy, and I mostly just wanted to smack heroine upside the head.
Dogs From the Sea: An outcast girl ventures into the sea to rescue a village girl captured by the sea god. Not so much my thing, but well-written, very numinous, very fairy tale.
Highly Improbable: Business school grad working for a cheesy animal adventure TV show decides to use JOURNALIST POWERS to expose the existence of magic. The premise of this one is a lot of fun, except it feels like a lot of drawn-out buildup that cuts off right when something interesting is ACTUALLY going to happen, which is disappointing. I'd probably read the novel, though.
Lightning: Conflicted feelings about this one! A soldier-in-training is pulled out of the army to reluctantly marry a much older general; their marriage develops into a happy one and eventually she goes on a rescue mission when he's captured. I like the theme of adapting to necessity and making your circumstances suit you, and the relatively adult behavior of everyone involved, but I really wish there had been more critical examination of the gender and power dynamics in that marriage.
In a Name: Geeky girl with magic powers solves tech problems for sexy dragon ex-boyfriends who are super attracted to her magic and decent-person-ness. Pure lady-nerd wish-fulfillment; would be more fun with less exposition.
Huntress: Royal family retainer attempts to rescue prince after some kind of betrayal/uprising/something? Too much plot for too little page space.
Survival Is: I thought this story was going to be entirely fight scene but then it turned out it was fight scene + vampire makeout scene.
A Trick of the Shadows: Heroine follows her older brother's footsteps to enter lethal magical scavenger hunt. Fun if you like sibling dynamics and lethal magical scavenger hunts.
A Bulwark Never Failing: Lady buddy-cops investigate a crime in the high levels of their city's religious magic system. Interesting -- it's a very light, snappy story with a much more dark and complex issue at its heart than the tone ever really lets on.
The Rag Doll's Blade: An assassin in an execution-happy kingdom makes a mysterious bargain with a princess. Another one with a lot of cool buildup that cuts off before the interesting part of the story actually happens, argh!
Black Dogs and Calico Cats: Heroine is pursued by evil death black dog and saved by cute ghost cat, for reasons never really explained.
Ndoli Jowei at the Church of Signs Following: Black trans protagonist of West African descent visits her friend's Southern Pentecostal church to observe snake handling rituals for her thesis. More conflicted feelings: there's a lot of interesting and knotty stuff about religion and faith and insider/outsider perspectives, but I am so not qualified to talk about the depictions of West African religions and Pentecostal Christianity.
Constructionism: Orderly, responsible woman makes friends with Manic Pixie Dreamgirl in a lesbian sort of way, except there's some weird magic reality stuff going on and the Manic Pixie Dreamgirlness is probably deliberate and it might have all been a dream? UNCLEAR.
Valkyrie Rising: World-weary Valkyrie makes moral decision to save a nice young waitress. Some Norse gods are also in it.
How to Get Ahead in Elf Fandom: Our heroine decides to break the law and take a picture of an elf, possibly so she can be tumblr famous. Another geek-insider story, but in a way that's very willing to cast an affectionately critical eye, which I like. I also love the idea of hordes of schoolchildren getting fairly bored with elves once elf magic becomes part of mandatory school assemblies.
repli kat: I am wary about anybody writing about modern-day ninja clans.
The Way of Sisters: Magical realist sister story about ravens and coming to terms with loss, in the vein of Charles de Lint.
To which she responded, "I admit this one sprang into my head with a label that said 'THIS STORY'S IDEAL AUDIENCE IS BECCA.'"
Which is accurate. But since I have amazing taste, I feel I can also comfortably and generously share it with all of you.
So "The Provenance Game" is about the protagonist's final exam for her ARCHIVING DEGREE, except in a world where the rules of archiving are LETHAL and materials that are not sorted according to proper archival order can be DEADLY. The protagonist is clear-headed, focused on practicalities, deaf, lesbian, the caretaker of several frustrating but affectionate little siblings, and AMAZING. I love her a lot, but what I love EVEN MORE is the world and the fact that this is the only epic magical battle I am ever likely to encounter dealing with ARCHIVING ORAL HISTORIES.
I have talked people into nominating this for me for Yuletide because I desperately want more stories about deadly archival battles and a world where archivist is an exciting and potentially lethal profession. So you all should read it and offer to write it, basically.
"The Provenance Game" appears in the anthology Fight Like A Girl, a collection of female-focused fantasy stories (not all of which involve actual fighting) funded through Kickstarter, and is the first story in the anthology (as it should be, being first in my HEART.)
As with most anthologies, Fight Like a Girl has a couple stories I loved, a couple stories I found deeply frustrating by virtue of being too short for their premises, and a couple stories that didn't do much for me. The rest of the lineup:
Ursa Major: A reasonably cute if not particularly substantial story about a mother and teenaged daughter overcoming their differences to rescue a teen-heartthrob Magical Chosen One
The Leviathan's Bride: Lovecraftian underwater fantasy. I am not actually sure what all happened in this one except that there were submarines and tentacles.
Push Me to Sea: One of my favorites! A no-nonsense engineer gets recruited by a charismatic lady officer into the ANTI-COLONIALIST REVOLUTION. Feels a bit like the beginning of a novel I would happily read, but I was satisfied with the story also.
Growing Pains: Another favorite! After being killed by her cousin in a magical realist family feud, bored and disembodied Rebecca Cubblestone makes use of the family talent for growing body parts in the backyard of her house in Nebraska. One of those matter-of-fact sort of magical stories that I love the most; I would read so much more about Rebecca and about this family.
Heartbreaker: ~impulsive rogue heroine~ makes cocky and stupid decisions. This felt like it was trying a bit hard to be gritty urban fantasy, and I mostly just wanted to smack heroine upside the head.
Dogs From the Sea: An outcast girl ventures into the sea to rescue a village girl captured by the sea god. Not so much my thing, but well-written, very numinous, very fairy tale.
Highly Improbable: Business school grad working for a cheesy animal adventure TV show decides to use JOURNALIST POWERS to expose the existence of magic. The premise of this one is a lot of fun, except it feels like a lot of drawn-out buildup that cuts off right when something interesting is ACTUALLY going to happen, which is disappointing. I'd probably read the novel, though.
Lightning: Conflicted feelings about this one! A soldier-in-training is pulled out of the army to reluctantly marry a much older general; their marriage develops into a happy one and eventually she goes on a rescue mission when he's captured. I like the theme of adapting to necessity and making your circumstances suit you, and the relatively adult behavior of everyone involved, but I really wish there had been more critical examination of the gender and power dynamics in that marriage.
In a Name: Geeky girl with magic powers solves tech problems for sexy dragon ex-boyfriends who are super attracted to her magic and decent-person-ness. Pure lady-nerd wish-fulfillment; would be more fun with less exposition.
Huntress: Royal family retainer attempts to rescue prince after some kind of betrayal/uprising/something? Too much plot for too little page space.
Survival Is: I thought this story was going to be entirely fight scene but then it turned out it was fight scene + vampire makeout scene.
A Trick of the Shadows: Heroine follows her older brother's footsteps to enter lethal magical scavenger hunt. Fun if you like sibling dynamics and lethal magical scavenger hunts.
A Bulwark Never Failing: Lady buddy-cops investigate a crime in the high levels of their city's religious magic system. Interesting -- it's a very light, snappy story with a much more dark and complex issue at its heart than the tone ever really lets on.
The Rag Doll's Blade: An assassin in an execution-happy kingdom makes a mysterious bargain with a princess. Another one with a lot of cool buildup that cuts off before the interesting part of the story actually happens, argh!
Black Dogs and Calico Cats: Heroine is pursued by evil death black dog and saved by cute ghost cat, for reasons never really explained.
Ndoli Jowei at the Church of Signs Following: Black trans protagonist of West African descent visits her friend's Southern Pentecostal church to observe snake handling rituals for her thesis. More conflicted feelings: there's a lot of interesting and knotty stuff about religion and faith and insider/outsider perspectives, but I am so not qualified to talk about the depictions of West African religions and Pentecostal Christianity.
Constructionism: Orderly, responsible woman makes friends with Manic Pixie Dreamgirl in a lesbian sort of way, except there's some weird magic reality stuff going on and the Manic Pixie Dreamgirlness is probably deliberate and it might have all been a dream? UNCLEAR.
Valkyrie Rising: World-weary Valkyrie makes moral decision to save a nice young waitress. Some Norse gods are also in it.
How to Get Ahead in Elf Fandom: Our heroine decides to break the law and take a picture of an elf, possibly so she can be tumblr famous. Another geek-insider story, but in a way that's very willing to cast an affectionately critical eye, which I like. I also love the idea of hordes of schoolchildren getting fairly bored with elves once elf magic becomes part of mandatory school assemblies.
repli kat: I am wary about anybody writing about modern-day ninja clans.
The Way of Sisters: Magical realist sister story about ravens and coming to terms with loss, in the vein of Charles de Lint.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 03:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 05:22 pm (UTC)This is my problem with 99% of short fiction I try to read. Someone on io9 described it as building up to spring the mousetrap of plot in the last couple paragraphs.
Growing Pains sounds so intriguing!
no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 05:42 pm (UTC)Growing Pains is GREAT. Just a really gorgeous piece of fiction, and it does the climax the right way -- an opening for more story, but not in a way that makes you feel dissatisfied about what's come before.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 05:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 05:56 pm (UTC)...Except the stuff that starts the story in the first few paragraphs, which I like to think I do too. Then I'll read it forever! You'd think a fic with 2,000 words would start the story before word 1,700 what with having less space to work with, but no.
That doesn't help the problem of nobody wanting to buy a short novelette though, which may be my perfect length for reading AND writing. It can be read in a sitting but still feels nice and hefty, and novelettes usually have more full prose styles than short fic's mousetrap tendencies.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 06:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 06:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 06:59 pm (UTC)Short novelettes are GREAT though. I wish there was a better market for them/more convenient way to read them.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 10:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-28 07:56 am (UTC)I'm a Yuuuuuuletide fandom ahahahaha I feel like I have won at fandom forever!
no subject
Date: 2013-09-28 02:02 pm (UTC)THAT'S BECAUSE YOU HAVE >:D >:D >:D