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ci5hqTitle: After the Fire
Author: Cat Shannon
Link to story: Not online
Zine: Other Times and Places II
Short review:
I've started working my way through the Hatstand's AU Science Fiction list, and After the Fire by Cat Shannon is next on my list! It's a post-apocalyptic story...
...where in true eighties style (at least the way I remember it, though the zine was actually published in 1991!) the world has been devastated by nuclear war. CI5, however, has endured - amongst the priviliged few to be able to ride out the storm in deep and safe underground bunkers.
This is very much an angsty hurt/comfort fic, I'd say - Doyle has been unable to cope with what happened to the world, and Bodie in turn is trying to cope with his relative withdrawal. I love this set up actually, and I can absolutely see both lads reacting to things the way they do here. There's no long, heavy-handed explanation of what led up to it all, or of why Doyle has withdrawn - the author presumes we know the characters well enough to understand that much, and I like that. There's a definite atmosphere of doom and shall-we-despair about it all too, tempered with that strange post-apocalyptic hope, and I like that too...
I do find myself a bit torn about the writing - there are a few too many "jade eyes", and I did wonder if the author had Doyle maybe a wee bit too affected by it all, but then she made him quite tough as well, and neither limp nor swoon-ish, nor too-fey-to-live so I was able to wince inwardly at some of the language but still move on.
On the whole... yeah, not a fic I'm sorry I read at all. I bought Other Times and Places II for Ellis Ward's fabulous Legacy of Temptation but After the Fire is a good enough little extra!
It's zine only at the moment, I'm afraid (not even on ProsLib, although there are a couple of other Cat Shannon stories there) - but has anyone else read it?
Author: Cat Shannon
Link to story: Not online
Zine: Other Times and Places II
Short review:
I've started working my way through the Hatstand's AU Science Fiction list, and After the Fire by Cat Shannon is next on my list! It's a post-apocalyptic story...
...where in true eighties style (at least the way I remember it, though the zine was actually published in 1991!) the world has been devastated by nuclear war. CI5, however, has endured - amongst the priviliged few to be able to ride out the storm in deep and safe underground bunkers.
This is very much an angsty hurt/comfort fic, I'd say - Doyle has been unable to cope with what happened to the world, and Bodie in turn is trying to cope with his relative withdrawal. I love this set up actually, and I can absolutely see both lads reacting to things the way they do here. There's no long, heavy-handed explanation of what led up to it all, or of why Doyle has withdrawn - the author presumes we know the characters well enough to understand that much, and I like that. There's a definite atmosphere of doom and shall-we-despair about it all too, tempered with that strange post-apocalyptic hope, and I like that too...
I do find myself a bit torn about the writing - there are a few too many "jade eyes", and I did wonder if the author had Doyle maybe a wee bit too affected by it all, but then she made him quite tough as well, and neither limp nor swoon-ish, nor too-fey-to-live so I was able to wince inwardly at some of the language but still move on.
On the whole... yeah, not a fic I'm sorry I read at all. I bought Other Times and Places II for Ellis Ward's fabulous Legacy of Temptation but After the Fire is a good enough little extra!
It's zine only at the moment, I'm afraid (not even on ProsLib, although there are a couple of other Cat Shannon stories there) - but has anyone else read it?
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Date: 2008-10-15 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-15 10:36 pm (UTC)I've only read her two fics on the ProsLib CD otherwise, but I'd agree that this one is streets ahead - but I'm more open to reading any other of her stories that may be around, knowing she's written After the Fire - and I can be put off fingernail-screechy authors pretty thoroughly... *g*