Gonna Roll The Bones
Every page is a new beginning.
It's a rebirth of creativity. A chance to recapture ideas and concepts that have been crucified on a cross of lost hours, flip dialogue, and badly considered whims. With each new document, a chance is taken to create something that will endure. A writer rolling the dice of his craft to see whether the seven come up this time.
Most times, we get stuck with boxcars and snake eyes. But, it's those rare gems culled from the darkness that make us order another drink, pony back up to the table, and shoot for the naturals again. Metaphorically of course. After all, our subjective world wouldn't be any fun without metaphor.
This column is all about firsts this week. The big entrances and envelope breakers that we have seen recently.
'The Authority' has become popular fodder for fanfiction writers, due both to the archetypal accessibility of the characters and the brilliant madness of ideas infused into it by Warren Ellis. T'Kuro Grym has made her entrance with a stunning conversation between the Midnighter and Jack Hawksmoor. The Waning Dark is a fascinating character study on two often contrary personality types. Despite a tend towards the melodramatic in the fic, it is an extremely adept delve into the traumas suffered by the heros of the Authority. The Midnighter is especially well handled, with the complex nature of his transformation. While the obvious Dickens influence does make the descriptions more than a bit overdone, the tone of the fic is extremely well controlled. The exact nature of Hawksmoor' connection with the city is explored with great sensitivity, underlining the symbiotic nature of his link.
There is an uncommonly natural blending of action and emotion in The Waning Dark, a trait rarely possessed by beginning writers. The tone of te city in throes of war, as a beast both too wounded to live and too big to die is a reoccurring theme in The Waning Dark, as is the tremendous efforts required to heal it. As an introduction, it's a powerful delve into the mindset of the men bent on changing the world with or without it's help.
And who says that dinosaurs will never again walk the world of fanfiction. With resounding thunder, Tapestry has returned to her roots in the form of Dawn and Glenn. These two characters, made famous by the voluminous Dawn Arc, suffer the chaos of Subreality in her new SC fic, Closer. It's a major departure for the diminutive writer, and very closely reflects her own maturing as she tackles the twin demons of love and lust. Written with heart wrenching empathy, the story mostly focuses on Glenn, and his struggle to cope with the various ages and personalities that Dawn has acquired in the pages of the Dawn Arc. The solipistic element is beautifully contrasted with the poignant and 'real' handling of young love; a case for the more complex things get, the more that the real issues remain the same.
Fans of the Dawn Arc will enjoy the new plateau for Glenn and Dawn, but the ideas are immediately accessible to anyone, even those unfamiliar with the story. The only problem, if you can call it that, is an obvious hesitation in the flow, when angling towards the emotional end. Even that hitch is far from enough to mar the impact of the climax. It is a story of boy meets girl, even wrapped up in the multi_leveled, gelatinous, technicolour world of Subreality.
I'd like welcome you to the new IMHO. Now on a weekly schedule, updated every Friday. Comments, compliments or links for your site to IMHO can be directed to this address. It's a whole new world of reviews, folks. Enjoy the ride.