Delusions of Grandeur

I am now officially up to date with the Tarot Sequence! :D

The Eidolon, by K.D. Edwards

Apparently this was a whole subplot that had to be excised from The Hourglass Throne for length reasons, and KDE used the opportunity to expand it into a whole-ass novella. In some ways, this really shows - it doesn't stand on its own or anything like, and it did have a certain Lower Decks Episode feel - but overall it feels more cohesive than the mishmash I was expecting.

( Terrible Teens shenanigans, more Portenteousness, and the requisite Big Bad scenery-chewing... )

Continuity-wise, I held off posting this review because I wanted to pair it with my review of "The Separation," the last of the free stories on KDE's website, but it's all of four pages long, and the plot is thus: a tutor tries to separate toddler!Rune and toddler!Brand, and gets whacked on the ankle by Brand, glowed angrily at by Rune, and yelled at by Lord Sun for his troubles. It's cute, but there's not exactly a lot to unpack. XD


But hey, since I did hold off, I've had time to dive into the fandom a bit, and I have fic recs! Only a couple so far, but as predicted, this is a fandom that lends itself *very* well to fanstuff.

You and Me, You and Me, You and Me, by Z_Aggro: one snapshot of Rune&Brand per year, from birth to age 20. Some are cloying (the cookie heist thing), some are heartbreaking (Rune after his own assault vs. Rune after Brand's whipping), and some are actually pretty goddamn adorable (their superhero game!!!). We also got some good insights into Brand's character - apparently he's a sci-fi nerd/Trekkie, or at least he was before the fall of the Sun Court! His favorite color is yellow for totally not-Rune-related reasons! Mayan taught him to play the guitar as post-Sun Court therapy! Anyway, this was sweet and incisive, with spot-on characterization and some great moments.

The Past Rewinds, by TheWriterWhoNeverWrites: Addam takes a hit meant for Rune, and temporarily loses the last ~15 years of his memory; implied to take place about 2/3 through The Hourglass Throne. I really want to see this idea explored more, because what we got is excellent. The surface stuff is mainly funny, fluffy, casefic/slice-of-life stuff (Addam immediately hits on Brand the mysterious hot Companion who apparently saved him, for example, and comes to some...interesting conclusions about what's up with his hand), but the undercurrents are all actually kinda heartbreaking. It's clear that Lady Jade, who launched the spell in the first place, meant to incapacitate Rune by sending him back to the time immediately after his assault, which would have been Very Bad, and Addam is heartbreakingly happy to see Quinn, who he last saw as a tiny baby, already deeply beloved but with very low chances of survival, as a happy, healthy (minus some nosebleeds and the occasional training-induced bruise), and thriving teenager. Again, great characterization, and leaning in an OT3 direction that I'm entirely happy with. :D

Still working on the Big Family News post, but in the meantime, I've plowed through two more installments of the Tarot Sequence.


The Sunken Mall, by K.D. Edwards.

(Contains spoilers, and series-standard TW for child abuse.)

Alas, I enjoyed the first novella much less than the first novel. A lot of the good stuff was still there - the snappy dialogue, the good pacing, the strong relationships - but this one landed on the wrong side of self-indulgent, and ended up feeling a bit saccharine. It was very clearly meant to be a quick, easy, cutesy little bit of holiday fluff, and it accomplished that, but... I know it could be so much more, y'know?

( A lot of the stuff I didn't like boils down to it being written (apparently) quickly and without a lot of oversight, but the good stuff from TLS remains... )


The Hanged Man, by K.D. Edwards

(Spoilers throughout, and series-standard TWs for child abuse and sexual assault.)

I actually finished this novel in two days, but DW ate my review of it, aaaauuuuuurrrrgggghhhh! I was absolutely fucking livid when I opened up my draft yesterday morning, after having spent most of the previous day writing; I had meant to just tighten some things up and then post it… only to find that it had disappeared entirely. And this was, like, the one time that I didn’t back up my draft to a google doc, extra aurgh! So now I’m mad at the tech fail as well as at myself for not properly following the librarians’ creed of LOCKSS (Lots Of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe, aka back up your data in multiple formats). I’ve contacted DW support, on the off chance that they have older auto-saved drafts backed up on a sever somewhere, but for now, I’m using this as an opportunity to see The Lost Review as a first draft, and improve upon it in this one. I still reserve the right to be colossally pissy about it, though.

( Still a few more wobbles than The Last Sun, but the found family and action sequences are still everything I'd hoped they would be... )