Am I A Furry Now?
Nov. 16th, 2011 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
handful_ofdustI'm still working like a dog on what's now Chapter Eleven, because Chapter Ten got out of hand. Still, I took time out to literally dream about Mordecai Heller and Viktor Vasko from Lackadaisy consummating their weird bro/foe yay relationship--not as cats, but otherwise it felt fairly accurate. And it came with dialogue, too.
Viktor: "Vhy?"
Mordecai: "It was this or let you shoot me. Not in the knee, though; I want to be very clear about that."
Viktor: "...no, since I think about it, I prefer."
Mordecai: "Yes, I thought you might. It's far more humiliating, after all."
Viktor: "But now you insult me! You have no idea how proper apology vork."
Mordecai: "I just don't like to be touched, as you well know. Much. Usually. All right, then, go on, if you have to."
Anyhow: Today also brought a new review from Sweden, courtesy of Sanna's Book-blog. In translation:
Late last year I wrote as follows about Gemma Files debut novel A Book of Tongues:
"A Book of Tongues (Part of The Hexslinger Series) is one of the most interesting books I've read in years. I complained that The Gaslight Dogs was too western for my taste, but A Book of Tongues is a crazy cool horror / fantasy / western hybrid that really works. More than works: It's fucking great."
The sequel, A Rope of Thorns, came out this year. And I could take all the swear words and superlatives I can and still not able to convey how fucking fucking good this is. I get frustrated at my own inability, of how words are not enough.
All of the first book did well, did this better. Environmental descriptions are fabulous, it feels like to be there. The dialogue is superb. It is dirty, brutal and uncompromising. Never ever do I get that stale taste in your mouth that fantasy everything that usually give me, the tiredness that comes from being in the same world and read the same story a hundred and fifty eleven times before. Gemma Files do not write as anyone I know.
One thing I am bothered me in A Book of Tongues was the lack of significant female characters, but with cool Yancey Colder corrects Gemma Files to it by a wide margin. I will not say anything about the action because it assumes that you have read the first book, but if you miss this, then you have missed something big.
The best book so far this year? Maybe not, but definitely top two!
So, yeah: 1920s not-cat gangsta sex, then this. I'm well pleased.;)
Amended to add: Not-cat versions are down in the right-hand corner, here (http://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=367). Given we're talking about a massive, dour one-eyed warrior and a dapper little OCD sociopath, it's basically a perfect 'ship for me. As ever.
Viktor: "Vhy?"
Mordecai: "It was this or let you shoot me. Not in the knee, though; I want to be very clear about that."
Viktor: "...no, since I think about it, I prefer."
Mordecai: "Yes, I thought you might. It's far more humiliating, after all."
Viktor: "But now you insult me! You have no idea how proper apology vork."
Mordecai: "I just don't like to be touched, as you well know. Much. Usually. All right, then, go on, if you have to."
Anyhow: Today also brought a new review from Sweden, courtesy of Sanna's Book-blog. In translation:
Late last year I wrote as follows about Gemma Files debut novel A Book of Tongues:
"A Book of Tongues (Part of The Hexslinger Series) is one of the most interesting books I've read in years. I complained that The Gaslight Dogs was too western for my taste, but A Book of Tongues is a crazy cool horror / fantasy / western hybrid that really works. More than works: It's fucking great."
The sequel, A Rope of Thorns, came out this year. And I could take all the swear words and superlatives I can and still not able to convey how fucking fucking good this is. I get frustrated at my own inability, of how words are not enough.
All of the first book did well, did this better. Environmental descriptions are fabulous, it feels like to be there. The dialogue is superb. It is dirty, brutal and uncompromising. Never ever do I get that stale taste in your mouth that fantasy everything that usually give me, the tiredness that comes from being in the same world and read the same story a hundred and fifty eleven times before. Gemma Files do not write as anyone I know.
One thing I am bothered me in A Book of Tongues was the lack of significant female characters, but with cool Yancey Colder corrects Gemma Files to it by a wide margin. I will not say anything about the action because it assumes that you have read the first book, but if you miss this, then you have missed something big.
The best book so far this year? Maybe not, but definitely top two!
So, yeah: 1920s not-cat gangsta sex, then this. I'm well pleased.;)
Amended to add: Not-cat versions are down in the right-hand corner, here (http://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=367). Given we're talking about a massive, dour one-eyed warrior and a dapper little OCD sociopath, it's basically a perfect 'ship for me. As ever.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-11-16 09:03 pm (UTC). . . If you should ever write proper fic for this pair, please let me know where you post it.
Also, I will be very disappointed if there is not at least one Jewish hitman in The Heart's Filthy Lesson.
The best book so far this year? Maybe not, but definitely top two!
That's cool!
no subject
Date: 2011-11-16 10:23 pm (UTC)Yeah, there's just something so great about that relationship. It's like two points on the same curve, two types of equally deadly stoics I like equally well: The massive and reticent vs. the haughty, sleek and slightly over-talkative, but not about anything "useful". I also like to think about just how much rumpling would go on, and how far Mordecai could allow that to progress before he started to bite or kick without even necessarily wanting to. But then again, part of the attraction probably lies in knowing he can go far more nuts on Viktor than he can with anybody else, because (unless proactively kneecapped) Viktor will always be able to overpower him, hand-to-hand.
...yeah, I can probably put a Jewish hit-man in The Heart's. It wouldn't be too much of a hardship.;)
no subject
Date: 2011-11-17 01:09 am (UTC)They're archetypal. I'm very impressed.
knowing he can go far more nuts on Viktor than he can with anybody else, because (unless proactively kneecapped) Viktor will always be able to overpower him, hand-to-hand.
Heh. Like that line from the fic you sent me: "Mordecai isn't entirely sure he could kill Viktor, and there aren't many people he affords that distinction. In fact, there aren't any others at all." It rang true.
...yeah, I can probably put a Jewish hit-man in The Heart's. It wouldn't be too much of a hardship.
With glasses and rumpling.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-17 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-17 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-17 04:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-17 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-17 04:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-17 11:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-18 03:44 pm (UTC)I think Mordecai would have blown a fuse even if it were canonically true. Especially at the idea of other people reading about it.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-18 04:02 pm (UTC)"I don't care to know what other people 'know'!"
"You are strangest little man in St. Louis, you know that?"
"Shut up."
"Make me."
"No, you make me!"
"You tink I von't?!"
"I hope you will! No...wait a minute. I said wait, damn you!"
"Or vhat?"
"...let's find out."
no subject
Date: 2011-11-19 08:34 pm (UTC)"...let's find out."
And this is where the waking up with the tie and the hangover comes in . . .
no subject
Date: 2011-11-19 10:13 pm (UTC)