Old ways made new

[dolorosa_12]

It's been a weekend of contrasts: Saturday was busy and full of people, with a trip into Cambridge to run several errands and go to the Mill Road Winter Fair, which was back after two years' hiatus due to the pandemic. This is one of my favourite regional events — it takes place on a long street in Cambridge which is home to most of the city's international grocery stores, a bunch of restaurants and cafes from South, Southeast and East Asia, Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as various Italian delis and independent cafes. The street gets pedestrianised, there are parades and live music, and all the cafes, shops and restaurants sell food from stalls outside their front doors. Even if a shop isn't one that sells food, they tend to set up stalls selling things like mulled wine, sweets or baked goods, or even more elaborate street food for the day. We were spoilt for choice when it came to lunch, cobbling a meal together from several different food trucks, and drinking mulled wine as we wandered up and down the road.

Sunday was a much more typical affair for our household, with all the usual activities: swimming when the pool opened at 8am (with a cold walk home enlivened by various cats sitting in windows and a flock of swallows swooping back and forth across the morning sky, making a sound like gently-breaking waves in a quiet bay), stewed fruit and crepes cooked to the soundtrack of a Massive Attack album, writing Yuletide fic while the biathlon played in the background. I've just come back downstairs after doing my normal Sunday evening yoga, a stretchy slow flow to calm my typical end of the weekend anxiety.

fandomtrees has a few days to go before it closes for sign ups. My tree is here, and I'd definitely recommend this fest as a low-pressure opportunity to create some fanworks, and hopefully get some nice ones of your own.

Robert Macfarlane's love of The Dark Is Rising is something I've always found very pleasing: I knew and enjoyed his nature writing before I knew we shared a love of Susan Cooper's children's books, and always felt he looked at the landscape with a similar eye to that of Cooper. So when I heard he was involved with a radio drama adaptation of the second book in the series, to be released around the same time of year as the story takes place, I was delighted. He's talked a bit more about his relationship with the books in a newspaper article for The Guardian.

I've just read one book since my last log — Servant Mage (Kate Elliott), the first in a novella duology. I'm not sure whether it can be described as 'epic fantasy' due to its brevity, but it certainly has that scale in terms of its sense of the sweep of history, violent shifts in politics, simmering revolutionary movements, and the interaction between the supernatural and people's everyday lives. All Elliott's strengths as a writer are on display here: comprehensive and well thought through worldbuilding, an emphasis on power relations and the terror and destruction wrought by those with social standing on those who lack power (and the foolish lies the powerful enforce in order to maintain their position), and a sense of people and societies grappling with vast, rapid political upheaval and social change. Elliott always has an interest in writing about what happens after the revolution succeeds, or the prophesied chosen one claims his kingdom, or the 'bad' monarch is replaced by the 'good' — she's never been satisfied with the standard fantasy trilogy closure, only with genuine justice. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

This is definitely a night to light a fire in the woodburning stove and burrow under one of the throw rugs — proper The Dark Is Rising weather, although hopefully not with the corresponding supernatural onslaught!

Comments

[yarnofariadne]

The winter fair sounds so lovely! I love cobbling together meals from various little food stalls.

I've really got to get to reading The Dark is Rising.

[dolorosa_12]

The winter fair was a lot of fun! I'm so glad it happened again this year.

This is the perfect time of year to read The Dark Is Rising!

[raven]

Aww, the Mill Road Fair! I used to go every year, I'd forgotten about it until just now. I worked just along the way and my colleagues and I would go along and invariably end up at CB1.

[dolorosa_12]

It's so lovely, isn't it?

I feel bad telling you that CB1 is no more — I'm not sure if anything has replaced it, but the building was empty the last time I went past.

[raven]

Oh no! Is that just CB1 or CB2 as well? My partner and I were just reminiscing about all our years in Cambridge, starting with flat-hunting and spying on my prospective workplace from CB2!

[dolorosa_12]

Both of them, unfortunately. I'm so sorry to be the bearer of bad news!

[chestnut_pod]

That winter fair sounds super! I love street fairs and markets like that; they feel so convivial.

[dolorosa_12]

It was wonderful — I love things like that as well, and it was great that this one was back after two years' absence.

[trepkos]

Swallows? Wow, they should be well on their way to Africa by now!

[dolorosa_12]

I was shocked as well!

[trepkos]

We did see a single one around Christmas a year or two ago, but no more than that.

[merit]

Sounds like a lovely Saturday.

I do like how tordotcom has allowed writers to write stories in a novella length - though Servant Mage felt a post script of sequel to an epic fantasy series at times.

[dolorosa_12]

It was a great way to spend Saturday.

I just wish the Tor.com novellas weren't so expensive! They're generally good, but I can only justify the price when it's an author I already know and love. And agree re: Servant Mage — Elliott really is better at a longer length. Doorstopper trilogies suit her better.

[lirazel]

That fair sounds wonderful!

I need to dig into some Kate Elliott; I tried a couple of hers in the past and didn't click with them, but I really want to give her another shot.

I'm glad you had a good weekend!

[dolorosa_12]

The fair was great fun!

Kate Elliott is probably my favourite writer of epic fantasy, but I seem to be in somewhat of a minority about this. Which series of hers have you tried? My favourite is the Crossroads trilogy.

[lirazel]

Is there one called Crown of Stars? I can't remember if I tried that one or if I just checked it out from the library a couple of times and never actually opened it. And I know I opened Cold Magic, but I can't remember why I didn't read more--it could easily have been more about where my life was at the time than about the book itself.

Where would you suggest I start with her?

[dolorosa_12]

Crown of Stars is indeed one of hers — an epic fantasy series inspired by early medieval European history. Cold Magic is a fantasy trilogy set in an alternative version of Europe in which the Ice Age never ended, there are sentient dinosaurs, Britain is connected to continental Europe by land, and is (due to various migrations) ruled by an African-Celtic magic-using dynasty. I've heard some people found the central romance offputting (it's an arranged marriage, it's deliberately echoing Pride and Prejudice in terms of how the characters react to each other), so that may have been what made you stop.

I'm not keen to push authors/works of media on people if they've given them a try and disliked them for some reason (there's nothing more annoying than someone being pushily persistent about their favourite book/movie/etc if the other person has made it clear that it didn't work for them), so I'm somewhat hesitant to make any further recommendations! But possibly it might be better to start with Court of Fives. This is a YA trilogy, inspired by Little Women, set in a fantasy version of Ptolemaic Egypt, and it's ultimately about a revolution against colonisation, with the revolution led by women. The thing with Elliott is her books take a while to get going — I always find the first two thirds are detailed worldbuilding and character work, and then suddenly everything happens with great intensity in the final third — so starting with a shorter YA book is less of an investment in terms of time and effort, if you're trying to figure out what works for you.

But, as I say, my very very favourite is the Crossroads trilogy. Other people always rave about the fact that it has giant flying eagles with riders who are kind of bonded to them, but my favourite thing about the book is that it basically interrogates the old fantasy trope of 'dispossessed chosen ruler claims a throne and solves an entire kingdom's problems' in an incredibly clever way, and its heroine is heroic because she learnt bargaining and diplomacy from being a market stallholder in the equivalent of a medieval Silk Road town, and applies those skills on a grander scale. However, I don't think it's the right thing to start with if you're giving Elliott a try because it's very very long!

[lirazel]

I've heard some people found the central romance offputting (it's an arranged marriage, it's deliberately echoing Pride and Prejudice in terms of how the characters react to each other), so that may have been what made you stop.

Honestly, that sounds great to me, and I don't think I made it more than a chapter in. I really think I just got distracted by other things, since I don't remember any negative feelings about the book whatsoever. I usually do have some sort of vague memory of disliking things when I stop for other reasons.

But possibly it might be better to start with Court of Fives. This is a YA trilogy, inspired by Little Women, set in a fantasy version of Ptolemaic Egypt, and it's ultimately about a revolution against colonisation, with the revolution led by women.

Um, that sounds amazing, and I definitely want to try it now! If it works for me, I'll give Crossroads a try too. Thank you!

[adore]

The winter fair sounds wonderful!

Elliott always has an interest in writing about what happens after the revolution succeeds, or the prophesied chosen one claims his kingdom, or the 'bad' monarch is replaced by the 'good' — she's never been satisfied with the standard fantasy trilogy closure, only with genuine justice.

Oh, this is so thoughtful and just really cool.

[dolorosa_12]

The fair was great fun!

Elliott is such a brilliant writer — probably my favourite writer of epic fantasy.

[naye]

Awww, the winter fair! I'm glad it's back, and that you enjoyed it.

I'm so looking forward to the BBC production of The Dark Is Rising coming out in a couple of weeks.

[dolorosa_12]

It was back, and it was fantastic. The last time I attended, doctorskuld was still living here (although you'd already gone to Sweden) and we met up with him briefly — I think it was the last time we saw either of you before you moved.

The radio drama is going to be so good!

[svgurl]

The Winter Fair sounds awesome! It's great that it was able to make a return.

Sounds like an all around good weekend. :D

[dolorosa_12]

The fair — and the weekend in general — were great fun!