ci5hq | Fic Rec: Far Shore by Angelfish

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Fic Rec: Far Shore by Angelfish

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.

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so where does one find this piece and other things of hers? there are only about three stories at the circuit archive.

I thought this was an absolutely amazing story, and it really got under my skin.
The writing was so beautiful and powerful, I was blown away by it.
The portrayal of each of the lads' pain (both physical and emotional) was so vivid, I felt every moment of it with them, and it utterly broke my heart.
I pretty much cried the whole way through it, and for several days after!

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.

I want to like The Far Shore, I really really do, but something stops me every time I have a go at it… Actually several somethings, and while I can quite happily skim over the odd glitch in a piece of writing, when they seem to be as dense as they are here then I really struggle.

I do agree that a lot of the writing is beautiful, and a lot of the images are too. I really liked The back door still stood open, admitting a churchlike solemnity of light." description for example - a beautiful visual - but quite often what's going on through all the description seems to jar so much that I end up not being able to accept either.

The lads that she's written are so damaged that I can't see how they made it into CI5 in the first place, let alone survived everything ep-wise. Granted the author has thrown hideous trauma after hideous trauma at them, but the way she has them coping with that trauma - through tears and fainting spells and nosebleeds - just doesn't make any sense to me. If they didn't have ways of dealing with mental trauma - killing people on a daily basis, seeing the victims of crimes, knowing that they're helpless in so many cases, that they're responsible for such torment in other cases, all of which are canon - other than the physical relief of tears or blacking out or whatever, then they just wouldn't have survived as long as they have… (I struggled with this in All These Years as well actually - her touch seems to have become heavy somehow since her first two fics).

The soap-opera-ness of the plot got to me as well, I'm afraid. Just when it seemed that one trauma (or half a dozen) were resolving themselves, they were suddenly called out to rescue a boat at sea, or to sell Doyle's art (because he is, of course, an incredibly talented artist), or deal with Doyle's impotency, or an old merc mate of Bodie's is taking him away… It read very much to me as well this bit's finished, what can I throw at them next to make the story long enough?, so that in its entirety the fic felt… jerky somehow…

Other bits and pieces:

Modernisms. As bad as Americanisms, for me - "hardarse", "give it up to me", "psychotic episodes", "I'm not dealing with it", "just go with it", - none of these fit eighties slang, to me. (Willing to be told I'm wrong!) On the opposite side, I'd be surprised if supply teachers were hired with no qualifications in a 1980s Scottish state school (and see here (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/06/13113114/31477)) even if it is strange vocational classes he's teaching. Oh and with all the cuts that schools were facing back then, if they didn't need him enough in the first place (told him to take all the time he needed for his surgery) then they're not likely to have splashed out to employ him as a supply teacher - that's just not how it works. You either desperately needed to get supply teachers in, or you didn't. If a school was paying a supply teacher then it was likely paying them on top of the teacher they were replacing - otherwise they'd have hired on short-term contract.

The character McPherson - took me a moment to suss him out, and doing so pulled me right out of the story, which isn't a good thing on the first page! He was a Scottish name, in Scotland, who said "wee" and "bairns", but I eventually realised I was supposed to recognise him as Irish, because of "the reflex his accent stirred in Ray's gut". And there was me thinking at first that it was a bit daft of Doyle to have moved up to Scotland if Cowley's accent upset him that much… *g*

So much has been said here already but I just wanted to add that I found this story - like many descriptions of Doyle’s face - beautifully flawed. I loved and devoured large chunks of it to the extent that every time I put it down I actually looked forward to returning to it (which is rare these days), it was always on my mind and I wanted to know what was happening in their lives and what the next stage was in their relationship blah blah blah. I loved the beautiful writing, the atmosphere, the setting (and I really could see them there), their (desired) isolation within that setting, and I think some of the more problematic details mentioned above didn’t really bother me as long as they didn’t detract from the story, i.e. to repeat someone else’s description, as long as they ‘didn’t jar' for me. But, a couple of things *did* jar and I think that’s a shame because they could so easily have been corrected or tidied up: e.g. Bodie’s ‘drowning scene’ - I had to read a couple of times to work out what was actually happening; the now famous ‘GP’ scene and the idea that a happily married GP would suddenly contemplate having sex with a patient (and the fact that he was a happily married family man had been stressed by the writer, so it seemed more odd) – I don’t think the writer needed that scene and she gave herself more work by including it, and, more importantly, it made me scratch my head about Doyle at that stage, made me question my perception of him and so interrupted the flow of reading (not to mention the fact that Bodie disappeared a bit too easily, given the strength of their feelings at that time).

I think maybe the problem is that I’m judging this particular writer by her own near-perfect standards and what might be overlooked or glossed over in a more mediocre or below-average story writer/story stands out more in her work, because – in my opinion - her norm is so damn good. And it seems a shame to achieve the hardest part i.e. the beautiful writing, while missing out other things like the (slight) inconsistencies mentioned above which could so easily have been ironed out. But anyway, despite it not being perfect(!) I loved a lot of it, still think it’s head and shoulders above most other stories and I definitely intend reading it again. Amen.

Major spoilers, I'm sure...

I'm away from home, so I can't quote specific lines, since I don't have my zine but my very favorite line was when Doyle let Bodie return the second time and Bodie questions Doyle about what had happened, whether it was a suicide attempt or an accident. Bodie says (not a quote!) not over me! To which, Doyle replies, if not over you, over us, then what is worth it? Completely paraphrased, but that line almost made me cry. It was so touching and desperate. That alone might be a good thing (it is for me) or a bad thing for others!

Okay, I loved the story as a whole. I'm willing to overlook the parts I hated (that damned doctor scene) and the very idea that Bodie left again. But I understand why Bodie left again, but he does return. Even Bodie asks Doyle why he took him back a third time! But then, I have to had my lads together by the end, so I was happy.

I think the writing was beautiful. Sometimes I did have to reread because of the amoust of imagery included. Actually, I read the end first (I hate being dragged into a death or sepearation story!), then hurridly read the story. The second time I read it slowly, enjoying it yet again.

Yes, I have problems with some of the scenes, but as a writer, I know how I feel about including things that maybe I love myself without realising that it might toss a reader right out. None of us can do it perfectly. Where's the fun in that? But overall, I loved the story.

I understand about the characters being so damaged. It was hard to read, but for a romance reader and writer, I didn't mind at all. I liked their struggle back to health and love, but then, I'm a sucker for that kind of story as long as the pain and anguish isn't too over the top. For me, this wasn't over the top. I have rec'd this story and the entire zine. It's one of the few zines I've bought in any fandom that I've been able to read through the entire thing and liked every story. Some crossed over into downright love.

I've mixed feelings about this story. I loved the setting and didn't mind the stock background characters because, as someone else mentioned, I basically read these fics for the central relationship. So...I excuse or ignore in a fic what I would rate harshly in a novel or short story. It's a different art form entirely.

The suddenly amorous doctor took me, like everyone else, aback -- in fairness I thought he was an otherwise well-drawn character.

The supernatural element needed to have been foreshadowed, no ifs ands or buts. Subtly. Because without the foreshadowing it came out of left field, and instead of resonating, resulted in a huh? moment.

The writing, as usual, is beautiful, but the lyrical gymnastics occasionally get in the way -- it's a sort of flexing of writing muscles performed (and this will sound unkind) for the mirror. Or other writers. Less is more in effective writing -- of course that's strictly my own opinion. Some people just prefer more and more.

From my perspective she's still having problems with structure and dramatic arc, but she's getting better, and where she's good, she's very good and (for me) makes up for any weaknesses. And she ended cleanly this time.

All that said, I really liked this -- it genuinely moved me, which is strange because it's chock-full of all kinds of things that drive me nuts: weeping, fainting Doyle for starters. Her vision of the lads is so...off-kilter at times that it almost feels AU to me. Yet...I buy it. I bought it in All These Years as well. Or maybe it's because, although these characters are not the Doyle and Bodie I know, they are vivid and appealing enough in their own right to draw me along.

I have to admit she certainly gives adequate reasons for fainting, weeping and nosebleeds -- not to mention suicide and nervous breakdowns.

I was disconcerted by the amount of anguish and damage she heaped on them -- and the thing with the kid sickened me. Not a comfortable or pleasant read, which is not a bad thing necessarily.

The idea that Bodie would abandon Doyle was painful in the extreme, but I thought both times she created believable circumstances for it. The betrayals angered me, but felt believable.

Maybe I was in the mood for soap opera? I don't know. This caught me.

Hello – sorry late to the discussion! I was not keen at all on Far Shore, which was surprising and in a way disappointing, as I love Chances and All These Years, so was hoping for the same emotional connection.

But with this, my mind kept drifting away. I almost put it down twice without finishing, but then couldn’t help but pick up again to see if got any better. It just felt like she hadn't really thought through what the story was about and instead chucked a dozen plot devices at it to see what sparked, if any.

And some points just didn't sit easy with me - such as how, if they only had a phone installed a couple of days ago, how did Rosie know to call Bodie there and tell him of the funeral? And surely he wouldn't be so disconnected (or maybe callous is the word I want) as to leave her the week their child is killed to sort out the funeral etc and just to tell him about it, even if she blamed him, wouldn't he have stayed that week at least? And Bodie with Keller and Murphy and liking it rough whatever, just felt squooshed into the storyline for no apparent reason, and Doyle to suddenly want it like that also felt squooshed, and if he was in awful pain for so long, well it was over and done with quite quick, and the whole doctor insert... Do see you what I mean - all squooshed!

There were some gorgeous lines, she does play with words in a very nice, totally beautiful way, but... unless I like or believe the storyline, I won't enjoy it. I guess in a way I was expecting great things, maybe I would be more forgiving if this was an author I hadn’t heard of before, or if her last two stories were not so tight, in a way.

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Major Spoiler alert

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Spoilers ahead...