Isis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
isis) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sutcliff_swap2012-06-06 03:06 pm
isis) wrote in sutcliff_swap2012-06-06 03:06 pm
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*
The Silver Branch
At the great Roman fortress and shipyard of Rutupiae in Britain, the new junior surgeon finds that the red-headed centurion who has just directed him to the bath house is, in fact a distant cousin. The two of them become friends, and after a political mishap, they are both sent to a remote posting on Hadrian's Wall. When the traitor Allectus takes over the rule of Britain, the two join an underground resistance movement and see things through to the bittersweet moment when Rome comes to take back its own.
Justin, the surgeon, is a shy, self-deprecating young man who believes himself a disappointment to his father. Flavius, the centurion, is friendly and confident, but an orphan who was raised by his elderly great aunt. The two make a pleasing "opposites attract" pair. The well-drawn secondary characters - Evicatos, a hunter who befriends the cousins on the wall; Paulinus, a deceptively mild-mannered member of the resistance; and especially the redoubtable Great-Aunt Honoria - appeal to my love of a team cast, working together.
This book doesn't seem to get as much love as most of the Sutcliff Roman Britain canon. There is not a whole lot of character-building angst, and although my slash goggles are usually keen, I can't find anything but friendship between the cousins. But I love Justin, especially, as a character (I can identify with him), and I'm always happy with a plot involving outnumbered good guys fighting against evil. The details of the British landscape - from the marshes outside of Rutupiae to the farm on the Downs (the same one Marcus, Esca, and Cottia built in Eagle of the Ninth) to the wilds along the wall - are lovely too.
(This is the DW version of my writing account ... I use something else for discussions/modding on the Sutcliff_talk book comm.)
Re: The Silver Branch
I am planning on requesting this canon for the fest, just so you know! I am totally on board with either Justin/Flavius or Justin+Flavius; I just like them as a team. (And I adore exactly the same secondary characters as you!)
I'm so delighted to see someone else expressing love for this one!
Re: The Silver Branch
I meant to go comment on that discussion - truly I did! RL gets in the way of my fandom life all too often.
Re: The Silver Branch
Also, Flavius may be Alexios' father. Or grandfather, although either one does slightly twisty things to some aspects of canon. FAMILY SAGA TIME?
Re: The Silver Branch
Oooh, maybe, butif you want scenes with them together, Alexios either has to be very small or Flavius about to die, according to what I pieced together for "Coming Around Again."
Re: The Silver Branch
(I like Flavius being his father, but then there is the sticky issue of the British grandmother, who I'm still pretty sure is a paternal grandmother.)
Re: The Silver Branch
Allectus crushing the moth, Carausius and Cullen - oh, Cullen, so brave, that incredible depiction of fighting through the mob, that so brief flowering of the empire in the North... There's such a vivid urgency in the description and action in this book: twenty years on, I still can't forget some of the imagery Sutcliff uses here.
Thank you so much for mentioning. :)
Re: The Silver Branch
Actually, I love Cullen. I love weird, odd characters who are somehow broken and managing to function even so. But I know he disturbs some people, so ... .
Re: The Silver Branch