CI5hq Mini Review Challenge - Hyperion to a Satyr

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

I've recently been reading outside Pros a little, but I do tend to come back to the Lads for a late night read before bed. This week it's been Sebastian's Hyperion to a Satyr, a wonderful story. I've been rereading only a page or so a night, so plenty of time to ponder things like:

- why this particular title? It's a reference to Hamlet and this line...
"So excellent a king, that was to this
Hyperion to a satyr,"
...but other than that, and possibly the idea of combining the two - but how I don't know - I've got nothing.

- POV switching, I see you - Sebastian flicks between them - more later in the story than earlier, although there are moments in the first part - "He was pleased that Doyle was going to be reasonable; for a moment there he'd thought he might be tricky" (which could be omniscient, rather than Bodie POV actually). With most writers I prefer a consistent POV, if they aren't technically proficient enough to manage the switching, but there are a few, particularly Sebastian, M Fae, Helen Raven, who can do it well. I absolutely don't find it intrusive here and (IMO) seems necessary to give us glimpses of what's going on in Bodie's head so we can relax and indulge ourselves in the final, gorgeous happy ending.

Oh and it's a very lush, sweet and sexy ending as well :)

CI5HQ mini review challenge: The Greatest Treason

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

I've been reading quite a lot recently, since I think I am up for the crack_van next (help! I'm last on the list! We need more drivers! Go and sign up here). So I have quite a bit of choice for "recently read". This story's one I found some months ago, and I keep coming back to it.

It's the one story in the zine D-Notice which is not online somewhere. (Chalk and Cheese is on AO3, the other three on the Circuit Archive.) I bought D-Notice second-hand a while ago, despite having read four of the five stories. (At least it meant I knew I'd like most of it.) The Greatest Treason was the big unknown. I'm now really glad I got the zine, or I would never have come across this story, and I like it very much.

It is a blackmail story, but this time this is not some undercover "draw the blackmailer out by pretending to be gay" plot. Bodie really is being blackmailed. He heads straight to Cowley, and Cowley, faced with the photographic evidence that two of his agents are lovers, is appalled and unforgiving. Flashbacks and memories are interpolated with the developing plot and that's how we learn what's been going on. I know some people don't like this technique, but I enjoy it when it's well-done, and I did here. I didn't feel I had to work hard to unravel it, or anything.

I like the characterisation of all three. This is a Cowley I can believe in, and the reaction I'd expect - especially his proposed solutions towards the end. The scene where Bodie discovers quite how it has affected Cowley really caught me, although the scenes involving Doyle are much more fun to read! I like Doyle's belligerence, and his feelings about Cowley. And there's the interaction between Bodie and Doyle after Bodie finds out something he hadn't known about his partner. (I am desperately trying not to spoil the plot here, can you tell?) There's some smashing dialogue, and some lovely terse descriptions.

The whole zine is good, but this was a stand-out story for me.