sutcliff_swap | Promote your favorite Sutcliff book(s)!

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Promote your favorite Sutcliff book(s)!

We're going to post the Sutcliff Swap rules and schedule, and open for sign-ups, Real Soon Now! But while you're waiting, why not squee about your favorite Sutcliff book in the comments here? This is your chance to remind others of that book they'd almost forgotten they'd loved, and inspire them to request or offer fanfiction or fanart for it. And if a book you haven't read sounds good to you, you can read it this summer and enjoy the fanworks created for it - and maybe you'll want to request it for Yuletide or Yuletart, or for next year's Sutcliff Swap. (Because this is going to be so much fun we will want to do it again!)

We're doing this on Dreamwidth only, so that we can use comment subject lines to identify the books we're talking about. If you don't have a Dreamwidth login, you can use OpenID or comment anonymously. ETA: anonymous commenting is now enabled! OpenID works too, which will email you comment replies. Please join in and promote your favorite Sutcliff books (this post has a list of all the books), and start thinking about what you might want to request and offer for the Sutcliff Swap!

Also, if you are intrigued by the descriptions of books you haven't read yet, you should be sure to join, not just watch, the community (at either site) so you can see locked posts. *cough*

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Mark of the Horse Lord is my other favorite Sutcliff. It is essentially The Prince and the Pauper, but with serious consequences, and about the decisions that make a man who he is, which are often forced by circumstances, with a bad choice and a worse choice. It is also (like all of Sutcliff's books) about loyalty and honour and responsibility, particularly the responsibility of a king to his people.

This last is most interesting because Phaedrus, a former slave-gladiator of Corstopitum who has won his wooden foil, has become king of the Dalriadain not by birth but because he resembles the true prince, Midir, who was deposed and thought killed by the usurper queen, Liadhan. The story is about how he is found by the men who oppose Liadhan, taught what he needs to know, and then put forward as the lost Midir - and how he does his best to lead the people who have become 'his' people.

As always with Sutcliff, Roman-era Britain comes completely to life, with a level of detail that is both evocative and yet not at all dense. This book has more of the numinous than many of her others, more of a feeling of the supernatural world that underlies the world of men, but it is a very real-feeling animistic supernatural, believable in context. This is also one of her rare books in which women have more of a role, and I loved reading of the warrior women of the Dalriadain. I liked the princess Murna a lot.

There is also tremendous subtext supporting a relationship between Conory, one of the Dalriadain warriors, and the prince Midir. When Phaedrus is learning about the people of the tribe he'll have to pretend to remember:

There were other things [Phaedrus] knew about Conory, a great many other things, including some that Midir had never told him. But he did not recite them now. They had had to be learned, but though the Arena years had hardened him to most things, he still disliked trampling more often than need be in another man’s private territory.

Later someone says of Conory and Midir that "they were closer to each other than most brothers," and Conory is described through Phaedrus' eyes as a "wasp-waisted creature with hair bleached to the silken paleness of ripe barley, who wore a wild cat for a collar, and went prinked out like a dancing girl with crystal drops in his ears and his slender wrists chiming with bracelets of beads strung on gold wires!"

This is not a particularly cheery book, though, and there is a very high body count, because, you know, war.

There's a BAMF usurper queen? Political intrigue and secret identity? And the supernatural? Quite exciting.

Is Liadhan/Phaedrus shippable? :)

Well, hmm. Phaedrus/Liadhan would be...interesting. Logistically difficult, though. But Liadhan's daughter Murna actually marries Phaedrus, and it's a fascinating and very layered relationship. In fact it is probably my favorite canon M/F relationship in Sutcliff, now that I think of it.

Liadhan/Phaedrus/Murna? How very Greek tragedy. :)

To continue the previous conversation, if I understand correctly, in FW there's A ♥ B, B dies, A gets hurt/comfort ♥ from friend!C? (Only with less symbols and more Romans.)

Haha, yes. Although the circumstances surrounding B's death are utterly tragic (if you are reading this in your email, AVERT YOUR EYES unless you want some SPOILER! Although certainly your assessment constitutes a spoiler as well); skip A is forced by circumstance to kill B's brother, which ultimately leads to a battle to the death between A and B.

Also, A/C is more fanon than canon. (Well, A/B is fanon, too, as B is married, but it could certainly be unrequited, and there's more subtext for it in my view; certainly they are very close friends.)

What, he kills his love/crush/affinity? That is very Greek tragedy. (Oh, well, I hear he's a little bit Greek?)

I don't mind spoilers. I often look in the end of the book before I even start reading. It's the journey from point A to point B that counts for me. :)

But A and C live happily ever after, right? At least, moderately happily? As much as it's possible given the weather conditions?

Oh! No WONDER she made him part-Greek! *penny drops*

Yes, A and C run off to Belgica together and have many happy sexy adventures.

They go to Gallia Belgica for adventures? Really? All right, now I want that one, for all the fannish sequels. :)

Phaedrus is also a Greek name. Liadhan/Phaedrus/Murna FTW! She desires power, she desires him. His body craves one woman, his political advantage suggests another. She is an obedient daughter, she is an ambitious politician. OT3 all around. Are AUs allowed in this swap? :D

Yes, all the fannish sequels. I am not sure why this one gets them and The Silver Branch doesn't, since Justin and Flavius also run off together.

Phaedrus has some Greek in him but I would not call his story a tragedy in the classical sense. Again, I'll spoiler-tag just in case someone who does not want to be spoiled is reading this thread: skip this is a Sacrificial King story, but getting there is immensely satisfying.

You are sure coming up with the AUs considering you haven't actually read the book yet! :-) (And yes, branching-canon AUs are allowed. But not 'the characters are in SPACE' type AUs.)

Sutcliff is big on this sunset-sailing thing, I gather. :) But timewise FW and TSB do not cross, right? They could have journeyed together then...

I get the supernatural-spiritual-hero's journey-top of the hill-passing aspect of MHL now.

Oh, but what about Mars? They are Romans on Barsoom! :P

Well, Justin and Flavius run off to the north. And actually Flavius (TSB) is Alexios' (FW) ancestor - possibly his father? I think there are a few stories which explore this (and

carmarthen has theories on this).

I think we are actually leaving Barsoom for the Eagle fandom, Fandom Of AUs. (Although even though I deride them, I'm sort of writing an Eagle Space AU....)

Yes, I remember the multiple theories, they're quite neat!

I think there's some Small Fandom Critical Mass. When you have a certain quantity of fic, AUs happen en masse, until that moment, it's canon and near-canon. :)

But if there are ghosts, it doesn't count as an unacceptable AU, does it? Valid question, I am very partial to ghosts.

I think ghosts are a perfectly acceptable AU. Speaking as a mod. And as someone who is contemplating writing a ghost story. La la la.

Ghosts and space! \o/

Armed with this knowledge of the rules & books, I shall begin tracking down some Sutcliff. Thank you very much!

Speaking as a me, I think adding supernatural elements to canon settings should be fine if they're within the conceptualization of the canon-era people? So ghosts, for sure.

(IDK, Isis, how do we feel about gods/werewolves/etc.? I don't really have a problem with bringing in mythological/supernatural things, personally...)

Seeing as, IF I sugn up, my ONLY desire for any fandom would be "a God!OC happens to get involved, now what?", this question is of vital interest to me. :) Speaking as a potential participant.

I agree with

carmarthen on this - mythological and/or supernatural elements are fine.

I think

opalmatrix originated the theories! I'm just the one trying to write a story about Alexios' mother, because apparently I like having a million WIPs stuck between 3000-4000 words.

It is something like Marcus and Cradoc in EOT9, only if Marcus and Cradoc had been really close friends with instant kinship and Marcus had a Really Obvious Crush (at the very least), rather than the hidden wariness Cradoc shows from the beginning because he already knows things about going to go south.

A & C have the potential to live happily ever after, certainly, and we know A must live long enough to produce descendants to pass the dolphin ring onto for later books.

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Promote your favorite Sutcliff book(s)!

Mark of the Horse Lord

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Really Frontier Wolf (was: Mark of the Horse Lord)

Really Frontier Wolf (but still a bit Mark of the Horse Lord)

A little Frontier Wolf (and yet more Mark of the Horse Lord)

A little Frontier Wolf & The Silver Branch & Mark of the Horse Lord

Re: A little Frontier Wolf & The Silver Branch & Mark of the Horse Lord

More Frontier Wolf & The Silver Branch & Eot9 all of a sudden

AUs and the rules

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Re: More Frontier Wolf & The Silver Branch & Eot9 all of a sudden

Re: A little Frontier Wolf & The Silver Branch & Mark of the Horse Lord

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