Fic Rec: Far Shore by Angelfish

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

Title: Far Shore
Author: Angelfish
Zine: Never Far Apart
Permission to archive the rec/review at Palely Loitering: Yes
Notes: Following on from bits and pieces that cropped up on byslantedlight’s post about what we were all reading, and from a back and forth with noblesentiments, I thought I’d take the plunge! (Folk should note that it's only available in the zine.)
Short review: It’s post-CI5, as it were. Doyle’s invalided out and in the Hebrides, carving out a difficult, solitary existence for himself. He and Bodie have been on the outs for two years, since a disaster in Northern Ireland that saw Bodie basically abandon Doyle and get married. One day, a car draws up, Bodie gets out.. and the rest of the story is the pair of them working out their respective demons amongst the heather and storms of north west Scotland.



I know this fic has caused mixed reactions, so I think I should state my take on it at the outset. I have a blind spot when it comes to Angelfish. I adore her, she’s my favourite writer in the fandom. And my blind spot is what I like to think of affectionately as the Maclean/Fish Syndrome. The pair of them do things to the lads that shouldn’t work in the cold light of day, but through the skill of their writing I’m drawn into their world, their Bodie and Doyle. Hook, line and bloody sinker. Yes, Ray Doyle – and Bodie, actually - weep a fair bit in this, but their demons break my heart in Far Shore, so I’m there. Yes, Ray goes a-scrabbling in the stones and Bodie leaves AGAIN, but my howl of frustration is recompensed by a Bodie who sits with Doyle on the floor and finally realises he has done enough, so I’m there. And yes, Bodie’s abandonment of Doyle remains inaccessible, but he’s such an awkward, tender diamond when it comes to caring for him second time around that, yup, I’m still there.

My favourite part of the story is the beginning of that second time around, actually, when they’re tentatively finding their way with each other again.

Gradually it bore itself in on both of them that they were living happily. It took some accepting. Neither had managed anything remotely like it before…
….They discussed the phenomenon and discovered that each had independently reached the conclusion that he would die on the streets too young to make any permanent attachment worthwhile…. Neither would have believed that each other was the heart of it – it had taken this long enforced experiment, subtracting the high-octane lifestyle, to show them what was left.

And besides all this, I get the Hebrides again. I spent every summer as a child camping there, so to have them again through the eyes of my favourite writer is the icing on a rather windswept cake for me. The weather did its Hebridean thing and soaked them between bursts of brilliant sunshine. Quite! And I love Bodie’s silent appreciation of the headlands and views Doyle shows him, “an uncomplaining serenity, most unlike his normal city self.”

Anyway, feel free to use these ramblings as a springboard. I deliberately haven’t been too detailed, so jump in. What did you love about it? Any misgivings? Why? I will simply end this, my own ‘Appreciation of Far Shore 101’, with her description of Bodie waiting for Doyle to come out of surgery. It catches at my heart everytime and I love it.

He had started to fall and had fallen like Lucifer until somehow Ray had stopped his descent. Somehow forgiven him. Loved him. Warmth like sunlight in winter branches went through Bodie’s limbs as he considered this, deliberately, consciously, for the first time, and the hard plastic chair and the smell of antiseptic faded out. That Doyle had come to love him during the years of their partnership he had eventually allowed himself to know. It had gone without saying, which was just as well. Bodie was not emotionally equipped for declaration, much as he had liked and come to rely on his partner’s affection.

Daily bread, or sunlight. Men like him seldom gave conscious thanks for either. Which was stupid, really, since both could be so easily discontinued. Since everything could.

Comments

[empty-mirrors.livejournal.com]

I found it very much like the parson's egg - good in parts. Some of the writing was exquisite, as Angelfish's writing often is. On that front I cannot fault her. She has some beautifully evocative scenes and emotional moments that truly touch the soul.

But there's also some real clangers.

Unlike you, I didn't get a good sense of place. Not because of the weather and the scenery - which were well painted - but because the people just felt very very wrong. There was no depth to them, no consistency in characterisation during the story (to whit, where the hell did the pass the doc made at Doyle come from?) and no real attempt to make them anything more than stereotypical local colour.

Added to this, and also on the subject of characterisation, was the lads. Oh god. Where are my down and dirty, hard living, hard drinking, womanising, tough guys? These two would make your average encounter group look macho. This was fainting flower Doyle (a pet hate) at his worst, and to add insult to injury Bodie was at it as well. No, I'm sorry, but these were not my lads. These two were not CI5 agents, or even ex-CI5 agents, however battered and bruised they might have been by life.

But, you know, I might have forgiven all this - and have been known to - if the plot had been good. It wasn't. It sucked. The thing about the curse and the standing stones at the end? Where the hell did that come from? I realise that there's such a thing as over flagging a twist, but some kind of warning would have been nice. As it was, there was nothing. Not even really a hint of the supernatural right up to the end when it was all explained by the local colour.

In some ways would have been nice to have had the supernatural themes explored more fully as it would have given the lads something to do that didn't involve breast beating and angsting like teenagers.

So, yeah, all in all I was very disappointed. I've been fond of the author's previous work, but she's gonna have to change her tune if she wants me back a reader.

And on that happy note, I'll rest my case.

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

I take your point on the pass with the doctor, that made me flinch too. ( I remember a similar reaction to the one Murphy makes at Doyle in ATY). As for the supernatural stuff, I'm glad it wasn't explored too much as a tangent, it's just not my thing in a fic ( exception being Ellis Ward's Legacy of Temptation, which is an AU anyway). There *are* some hints of the house and its past, but maybe not enough to prevent us from puzzling a little as to how - and why- Doyle unerringly uncovers those stones.

Normally a Doyle and a Bodie that emote like this are my pet hates too, but for some reason, I go along with her depiction of it here. Is it because of the demons themselves? Bodie's especially - the brutal murder of his child - means I allow his character more turmoil than I normally would, I think. I've not read any other fic that depicts such a thing.