Wednesday reading meme

[dhampyresa]

What did you finish reading

Sold Down the River by Barbara Hambly: OMG THIS BOOK I want to hug everyone, except Robert and Simon Fourchet. Ben! Ben, Ben Ben! Ben, I love you, but willow bark is not something you should giving someone in Kiki's situation. Still, you're 9000% of a better doctor than anyone else, because wtf bleeding the dude with a heart condition? Yeah, that makes sense. Ben thinking Hannibal had  forgotten about him broke my heart, but then Hannibal! "Not much for the derring-do", he says, saves children from burning building, he does! Also, great thinking with rendering the guns useless. Also, Shaw to the rescue! Shaw continues to hand Ben weapons. And then! And then! The scene at the end with Ben and Mohamed about Ben's dad! "My son's a free man. He can't learn that from a father who's a slave." Oh, my heart.


What are you reading

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff: Romans! And Britons! And I'm pretty sure the book wants me to be shipping Marcus/Cottia(/Esca?), but she's thirteen, idk if I can do this. Also, wow, reading this alongside the Benjamin January books really highlights the how different the conception of slavery is between 1830s New Orleans and Roman Britain. Also also, Cub is a very imaginative name for a wolfcub, Marcus.

Hannibal's Odyssey: The Environmental Background to the Alpine Invasion of Italia by William Mahaney: Still working through this one. It's not a very practical format, but it's very interesting. (It probably says a lot about me that my reaction to the possibility of finidng frozen Carthaginian soldiers in the Alps was "THAT WOULD BE SO COOL!")


What are you reading next

Die Upon A Kiss by Barbara Hambly. I finished Sold Down the River last night and haven't had time to start this one yet, but I am so excited to start reading it tonight.


I got my first blank kudo email from Ao3 today! I feel oddly accomplished.

Comments

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Sold Down the River IS SO GOOD. I love that Hannibal's opium addiction saves the day! I love Shaw's using Greek myths to set up a signal system! I love everyone getting to escape! I love Ben quoting Dante while literally running through fire! I love Ben basically getting so upset when he thinks Hannibal is dead! (I really want post-Sold Down the River h/c fic, where Ben's like "I thought you were dead!!" and Hannibal's like "No, I thought you were dead!!" and then there is hugging.) I loooove Ben finding out about his father so much. You are right, every one does need hugs in this book.

The Eagle of the Ninth is really fun! I'm not incredibly fannish about it, but it does have a lot of good fic.

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

I thought it suffered from a grievous lack of Rose and Hannibal, especially Rose, but other than that it was great! Ben enters BEN SMASH mode when he thinks Hannibal's dead and the scene where he's digging as fast as he can in the irrational hope to dig Hannibal out, omg. (Yes, this would be good. Rose can be "Shaw told me you were both dead!") The build-up for ben finding wasn't one I expected to get any resolution out of, but it was so good.

It's entertaining so far! Very different from the movie, though.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it definitely could have used more Rose, I agree. BEN SMASH is a hilariously perfect description.

Oh, yes. I saw the movie first, but liked the book too. I should read more of Sutcliff's stuff.

[sineala.livejournal.com]

Yay, Eagle of the Ninth! I just... try not to think so much about how old Cottia is.

Roman slavery was definitely very different from American slavery, but also this book presents one of Sutcliff's, um, less-nuanced treatments and basically goes straight for the "loyal servant" trope. There are certainly other books by her in which she presents slavery as a lot less agreeable (The Lantern Bearers, Outcast) and some where it's just complicated (Dawn Wind).

Also, man, you're making me want to reread all my favorite Barbara Hambly fantasy books...

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

i've started mentally editing Cottia's age. "I'm thirteen nineteen!" There. That's better.

I realise that this very non-nuanced, but it's still very obviously different. One thing that struck me for example, is that no one blinks at Esca (a slave) carrying weapons, while it's illegal for Ben (a free man of colour) to bear arms.

What books would those be?

[sineala.livejournal.com]

The BBC adaptation that has Cottia definitely aged her up as well.

I vaguely remember hearing that Roman slaves also generally couldn't carry weapons, but I can't find a source...

She's written a lot of fantasy, but my favorites are the Windrose Chronicles, about a woman from our world who ends up a fantasy world and has to join forces to defeat an evil sorcerer except she's not sure if the people she has to join forces with were the people who kidnapped her and brought her to the other world.

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

When you talked about Hambly I thought you were wordsofastory! Then I scrolled down my flist, saw her Reading Wednesday post, and was promptly confused. (I don't look at the icons often).

I should really get round to reading Hambly. Hmm.

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

There are worse people to be!

No you shouldn't. You should run while you still can. Run, I say!

[shifty-gardener.livejournal.com]

I tried to read Eagle of the Ninth, but I've read enough Asterix that I couldn't take any of the Roman names seriously. >.>

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. i'm still looking for the puns, even though I know they're not there.