skygiants | (no subject)

I was saving Aster Glenn Gray's Briarley and I'm so glad I did; it was a perfect comfort read for a multi-city work trip and is also, coincidentally, my new favorite version of Beauty and the Beast.

This particular variant on the story is set during WWII, and begins when a nice country parson stops at a Mysterious Villa on his way home to grab a rose for his on-leave WAAF daughter.

...and then, when an enormous beast (in this case a dragon) appears to demand that he send his daughter to the castle in exchange for his liberty, flat refuses, because what? no?? what kind of father???

The dragon accedes, with bad grace; however, upon meeting the household's invisible servants and learning about the imminent B&tB Curse Deadline, our hero decides that it is his responsibility to stay and at least see what he might be able to do to help the household with this unfortunate situation. For example: rational curse interpretation! Who said love and be loved had to refer to a young woman? Has the dragon considered getting a puppy?

(He has not, but he will!)

The book's charm lies not just in its hero (who is indeed vastly endearing, just a tremendous sweetheart) but also in the sense of place and time: the first sign that Something Is Very Weird in the household is the giant groaning table that's never heard of rationing; the parson keeps wistfully thinking about how many refugees or wounded soldiers the cursed household could take in; when the parson's daughter valiantly DOES come to trade herself for her father everyone is like "YOU CANNOT, YOU ARE A WAAF, THAT WOULD BE DESERTION." And, of course, the parson's own experience with trauma and recovery comes out of his time serving in WWI.

It's a really lovely little book and I recommend it highly, I may end up rereading it on my plane home!

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thewickedlady

ooooh, this is right up my alley. THANKS FOR THE REC, BECCA

skygiants

YOU'RE EXTREMELY WELCOME. :D

rmc28

Yay. I loved this book too.

(My other current B&tB favs are ~~Ursula Vernon~~T Kingfisher's Bryony and Roses and C E Murphy's Roses in Amber - have you read either of them?)

kore

Oh wow, Bryony and Roses sounds great.

I have not read either! I keep meaning to read more Ursula Vernon stuff, as of yet it's just been the Snow Queen one and the Seventh Bride.

I'm also still waiting for the version of B&tB where the solution is that the enchanted beast has to fall in love with one of the people who's already there and then they overthrow class differentiations in the castle hierarchy. SOMEDAY.

I just pre-ordered "In the Vanishers’ Palace" by Aliette de Bodard which promises f/f B&tB with a dragon. I have a slightly hit-and-miss record with de Bodard - I love her Xuya universe, I really haven't got on with the fallen angels in Paris series - but that premise is enough to get me to take a risk.

(Still not a class overthrow though, sorry.)

Isn't it great?? I love how a lot of it is stealthily about ethics and what it means to love someone, and how vivid everyone was, and how there are those deceptive cadence-like moments of "is the curse broken NOW?" and not yet, not yet. It was utterly charming.

Yes! I deeply love how the discussion of curse T&C consistently turns into a discussion of fundamental ethics principles, and how thematically consistent it is that arbitrary external rules don't have to be the rules that you make for yourself.

Yes! and it happened in such a natural way, too. And I loved how frustrated and realistic the discussions got.

(AND THE END, WHEN THE BEAST GOES OFF INTO ((SPOILER)), OMG)

sovay

It's a really lovely little book and I recommend it highly, I may end up rereading it on my plane home!

I am hoping it comes to exist in a print edition, because I really, really want to read it!

I also hope you soon have the opportunity to read it!

scribe

Ooh, this sounds great, putting it on my to-read list immediately!

I found it 100% delightful, I hope you also enjoy it! :D

rymenhild

Yesssssssss *purchases at once*

The parson is so charming!

But climbing down this hideous pile was quite out of the question, with his leg the way it was – and in any case, a smooth Palladian monstrosity like this would have few footholds. “Next time,” the parson commented, and his teeth were beginning to chatter, “next time I shall arrange to be kidnapped by a dragon with the good taste to have a gothic mansion.”

Point. Definite point.

Also, sooooo many nerdy British educational system medievalist jokes. Edward the Confessor! Hee!

I did not have a chance to respond to these liveblog comments yesterday but THANK YOU FOR THEM, THEY DELIGHT ME. I'm so glad you're enjoying it, it seemed like it would be one hundred percent your catnip!