Promote your favorite Sutcliff book(s)!

[isis]

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*

Comments

Knight's Fee

[tryfanstone]

I can do three, right?

Knight's Fee.
Like Geoffrey Trease and writing at the same time, Rosemary Sutcliff here picks up some of the political themes which were very much present in children's novels of the period (Bows Against the Barons, anyone? Hereward the Wake?) - integration, rebellion, resistance - and her own interest in wounded heroes, and of them makes this story. It's set in Norman England, just after the start of the Norman Conquest, and covers a rather longer timespan than most Sutcliff novels, taking half Saxon, half Breton dogboy Randal (Randal the Bastard, Randal the Thief,... ) from whipping boy to a knight with his own manor, the knight's fee of the title which is both reward and cost. Along the way, it encompasses some beautifully drawn other characters - Ancret, the wise woman, Bevis, whom Randal loves and serves, and the minstrel Herluin, who sells Randal to his first leige-lord, Sir Everard. Oh, and William Rufus' death. I'm not going to spoil it, but it's beautiful and tragic the only way Sutcliff can write, and I loved it as a child only second to Eagle of the Ninth.

D’Aguillon looked down at his tangle of pale hair with a kind of half-amused wonder, and said, ‘Randal – do you love me, then?’
‘If you take a half-starved dung-hill whelp and bring it up to be your hunting dog and hearth companion, you’re likely to find in the end that the silly brute loves you!’ Randal wept, almost defiantly.

And:

Lewin said, 'You killed de Courcy?’
‘Oh yes,’ Randal said very gently. ‘I killed de Courcy.’

Shipping? Eh, there is such a plethora of characters and a tangled mix of alliances and friendships and loyalties that almost anything could be written. Randal/Bevis is so near canon as to make little difference, but I ship, hard, post-canon Randal/Herluin.

Re: Knight's Fee

[opalmatrix]

I love this book a lot, although it is very sad. The way the tragedy builds up in slow, measured acts is really masterful.

Post-canon Randal/Herluin ... oh, wow, I bet I could write that. Herluin wouldn't stay, if course, but Randal would always be watching for him to come down the track.

Re: Knight's Fee

[tryfanstone]

It really is beautifully constructed - re-reading now, I'm reminded all over again just how complex this one is, almost bridging the gap between the lovely simplicity of her books for older children and her adult novels.

... I'm not going to push, your sign up is your business, but I caught my breath when you said you could write Randal/Herluin. Thank you so much for the thought alone.

Re: Knight's Fee

[carmarthen]

I am also onboard the post-canon Randal/Herluin ship, but I'm having a little trouble wrapping my brain around how to make it work (obviously, as opalmatrix says, Herluin would be in and out).

Plus there's the Gisella factor: I think it's pretty clear she and Randal will get married eventually....