~~ fic pimpage/review.
Sep. 5th, 2003 03:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaer. so i really haven't gone out on a limb and pimped a fic for awhile. while i enjoy certain fics, either they're already wildly popular or they're just not "good enough" and yet obscure enough and yet meaty enough and yet interesting... blahblah.
this isn't perfect or anything, but it's post-war adult!h/d and this is coming from a person who severely dislikes post-war and adult. a lot. a lot, lot. i have this prejudice against people who decide "oh look! they're older! we don't have to have them have those qualities we disapproved of in them anymore! whee!". but `unfinished business' by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cupiscent doesn't give me that vibe. in fact, it's got to be the first present-plausible adult!h/d longfic i've read (having -still- not read `tissue of silver' or `transfigurations'), if you allow that draco is actually capable and intelligent and is able to have independent visionary desires or whatever. and that's okay, this fic sells it.
but the thing i love is-- as usual-- the draco. it's a great draco, for the rather admirable shades-of-grey person he's somehow become. he still seems like draco to me. i mean, maybe it's just the demeanor, but there's -chemistry- there, and you can't underestimate chemistry. also, it's hot even when harry and draco just -look- at each other, and man, i love that. that's what it's all about, man. also, the bits with hermione and ron and ginny (grown up but recognizable, like the rest) don't drag, and kind of add something. and let me just say that i've -never- liked -any- post-hogwarts character (that wasn't harry or draco) outside of `belong'. but that's just in a class of its own.
i feel weird, pimping it like this, but i felt like it and i didn't want to just say "read this" or whatever. i haven't felt this pleased sincedeche's `the more things change' and calico & julad's `lustre'. it's got energy, something to say, and a pov, and i -want- to imagine things this way even though normally i don't even want to think past seventh year. i'm so tired of reading badfic (though obviously it's my fault for doing so). the fic's got issues (what doesn't), in that i feel draco's too together and both of their vulnerability is so... subtle (i like 'em more desperate, but i'm a melodrama nut sometimes. so actually take that as a good thing) and they just seem too in control, but hey, small quibbles. usually adult!h&d get -much- more mangled and grown-up and such. this draco just... decided to play harder. which i can buy, maybe.
it's a solid fic, not flashy, just really well-crafted and it achieves its ends, i feel. as usual with draco-centric longfics of this nature, harry gets somewhat of a short shrift. but he's there and he's not without balls, which is good. draco doesn't really -know- him, also, so there's the pov to contend with. did i mention they're hot? ahahaha. i'll remember this fic for harry's eyes turning liquid for a split second and draco's breath catching. good stuff, man.
this isn't perfect or anything, but it's post-war adult!h/d and this is coming from a person who severely dislikes post-war and adult. a lot. a lot, lot. i have this prejudice against people who decide "oh look! they're older! we don't have to have them have those qualities we disapproved of in them anymore! whee!". but `unfinished business' by
cupiscent doesn't give me that vibe. in fact, it's got to be the first present-plausible adult!h/d longfic i've read (having -still- not read `tissue of silver' or `transfigurations'), if you allow that draco is actually capable and intelligent and is able to have independent visionary desires or whatever. and that's okay, this fic sells it.but the thing i love is-- as usual-- the draco. it's a great draco, for the rather admirable shades-of-grey person he's somehow become. he still seems like draco to me. i mean, maybe it's just the demeanor, but there's -chemistry- there, and you can't underestimate chemistry. also, it's hot even when harry and draco just -look- at each other, and man, i love that. that's what it's all about, man. also, the bits with hermione and ron and ginny (grown up but recognizable, like the rest) don't drag, and kind of add something. and let me just say that i've -never- liked -any- post-hogwarts character (that wasn't harry or draco) outside of `belong'. but that's just in a class of its own.
i feel weird, pimping it like this, but i felt like it and i didn't want to just say "read this" or whatever. i haven't felt this pleased since
deche's `the more things change' and calico & julad's `lustre'. it's got energy, something to say, and a pov, and i -want- to imagine things this way even though normally i don't even want to think past seventh year. i'm so tired of reading badfic (though obviously it's my fault for doing so). the fic's got issues (what doesn't), in that i feel draco's too together and both of their vulnerability is so... subtle (i like 'em more desperate, but i'm a melodrama nut sometimes. so actually take that as a good thing) and they just seem too in control, but hey, small quibbles. usually adult!h&d get -much- more mangled and grown-up and such. this draco just... decided to play harder. which i can buy, maybe.it's a solid fic, not flashy, just really well-crafted and it achieves its ends, i feel. as usual with draco-centric longfics of this nature, harry gets somewhat of a short shrift. but he's there and he's not without balls, which is good. draco doesn't really -know- him, also, so there's the pov to contend with. did i mention they're hot? ahahaha. i'll remember this fic for harry's eyes turning liquid for a split second and draco's breath catching. good stuff, man.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-09-05 02:53 pm (UTC)wow, i wouldn't imagine it's a fic that'd get that sort of reaction. ahahah. is there a particular reason why? i mean, there was no weepy!draco or abused!harry or anything, heheh. i mean, if this is fiery-passionate-hate, how do you feel about the -really- frightening stuff, like `perfect imperfection' (why do i always bring up that fic?? it's unfair, i know).
hehehe. it -is- sorta... cute.
but i'm a sucker for julad's style, man.
i mean, it must mean something that her one highlander fic is probably the one i think of right after the kronos/methos/what's-her-name one :D :D i admit to being totally biased into thinking her writing is just... cute :D
but um, `unfinished business' is nothing like `lustre', though julad beta'd it, which already means it has to be somewhat good. heee. although maybe not ><;;
*giggles*
no subject
Date: 2003-09-05 03:02 pm (UTC)Elegant, velvety, languorous, classical, suave Draco is just as bad (worse, perhaps, and certainly more annoying) than weepy Draco.
And no, Harry certainly wasn't a cliché. He was a RANDOM OC NAMED HARRY POTTER WHO HAD 'HAD A MAD CRUSH ON DRACO FOR AGES DESPITE IT BEING FIFTH YEAR.'
Not to mention HARRY DOES NOT HAVE EMPATHY WITH SNAKES. HARRY IS NOT A SNAKE-LORE EXPERT. THE WHOLE PLOT TURNED ON A MISTAKE.
(I've never heard of 'perfect imperfection' or 'unfinished business', incidentally.)
no subject
Date: 2003-09-05 03:27 pm (UTC)*cracks up*
i totally wasn't talking about `lustre', which i'd just recced off-handedly at the time, saying "omg, julad wrote an hp longfic!!". heheeh `unfinished business' has just been written, and like... er. like i said, its draco is somewhat suave but not offensively so... well, not -really- suave just a bit polished. maybe. it's not grating, and i'm very sensitive to that characterization, usually (as bad as weepy!draco, who just makes me laugh these days, actually).
ahahahaha. i totally forgot that one bit about harry.... actually i totally ignored lustre's harry, which is such a horrid thing to say, but it's true, because he virtually didn't exist... which, come to think of it, isn't such a good thing, is it ><;;
i wonder if i should organize my recs by style/characterization merit/humor instead of by name and genre. hmm. because i definitely enjoyed `lustre' purely on a stylistic level, although her highlander fic excelled on all levels (humor, style, -and- characterization) so i shouldn't let her off the hook or anything. sort of why i forgive a lot of well-written-but-badly-characterized fics-- i would never have said that `lustre' was well-characterized, but you could still tell who it's written by. which is to say, it's easy on the eyes.
omg, totally forgot about the harry thing. heeeeee. that is rather funny, actually. ahahaha that did trip me up, but like... it was such a throw-away line that it felt like a burp in the fabric of the fic... it would've almost been better off pre-slash except it couldn't be because draco needed to "get happy". yah okay when i think of it -that- way ><;; man. ahahahah. i can't believe i ignored that. i mean, i -noticed- but i was like... hmmm... no, that doesn't make sense... wonder why she said that. ahahah.
i don't think it's a `characterization choice' so much as a plot-device, harry's little bits. hmmm. its draco was cute, though, i thought. *laughs* he was velvety? i thought he was sort of pretentious and yet dorky anyway, in a harmless sort of way. man, the more i think about its characterization the more i'm like ":-T"
oh, and `perfect imperfection' is like, the quintessential weepy!harry fic by vinagrette, once featured on armchair. i hate it with a mighty passion :D
no subject
Date: 2003-09-05 03:04 pm (UTC)