A plateful of cookies

...and now ship Vili, Vé, Odin and Frigg all together in one happy brothers & wife family.

Although considering the context I'm basing this on is in Loki's rap battle against the other gods, who is not the most reliable of narrators, the canon's pretty shaky.

But Norse mythology and prose is the best ever. If only for the fabulous verses like these:

( Contains such great lines as 'My mighty hammer, Mjöllnir, shall stop thy prating.' )

And then I'm also reading about Homosexuality in Viking Scandinavia, realising that the description of Hel being "half black and half flesh-coloured," could just mean she's dark skinned as the Vikings were trading with the Middle East, and that there were ravens? (ornithology is not a strong point of mine) flapping around in the Avenger's movie when Thor chewed out Loki.
I like Hel as a goddess. She's the most 'normal' out of Loki's kids by Angrboda and gets the cushy job of presiding over all those who died of old age or outside of battle, rather than being chained up or made to encircle the world. Then there's the fact that Queens of the underworld are always cool and willing to let people live again if you can melt their hearts. (See Persephone)

( Mini link dumpery relating to Norse myth and the Marvel adaptation and the Avengers movie )

I kind of love that it's so easy for me to slip back into Norse mythology geek mode. Now I'm going to go see what fabulous crossovers I can manage to find...

Or what I thought of the last three episodes in the first part of Doctor Who’s season six. Yes I am a week late and I have perfectly good reasons for being so.

The Rebel Flesh and The Almost People were a bit… less interesting. Exciting sure, especially seing Matt Smith act with himself, but for the most part Issac Asimov’s Clone of My Own filk was running through my head. And yes, I was wondering why the obvious solution wasn’t being explored. (Hint: It’s referenced in that song. Yes, I am a little hedonistic.)
( However, it was nice seeing what circumstances prompted a theory about the Doctor's death at the start of the series )

( A Good Man Goes to War however, was much more satisfying. )

As to reason why I'm late? Well, there's that Red Nose Day special which distracted me for a bit and there's a Inda/The Fox post being written and a VERY long chronicle about an adventure I had browsing Wikipedia one night. I may or may not also be trying to finish some fic off. Anyone want to beta for me?

Well, it isn't pictures of ladies scandoulously dressed in floor length night gowns, but it is pretty much Victorian (and Edwardian) slash in America.
Actually it's more EPIC BROMANCE. With, you know, men draping themselves over other men.

A lot of text to accompany the photos but it's interesting historical stuffs.

I would kind of love to see a steampunk photoshoot based on the attitudes of the era. Just, you know, for the applied subtext of our era.

So… I’ve finished it. And I would do my usual thing, commenting on interesting bits and then giving a more general squee, BUT I’VE PRETTY MUCH MARKED EVERY OTHER PAGE.
Seriously, this book provoked so much squee from me. The brothers were brothers and were cute and actually got along and resolved all that tension between them. It’s a little sad that I’m so deliriously happy at them having a healthy relationship, but it’s so squishy and good. Even though the downside is that I’m shipping them together again, they’re HAPPY.

And yes, I thought I had gotten over shipping Felix/Mildmay because I could handle siblings being cute together but then they started SMILING at each other and joking. I just want that to continue but with things like hugs as well. Of course, the no-touchy rule is there, but they’re just so cute and I’m not sure if I’m only wanting fluffy cute sibling stuff from the pairing or something like a de facto pairing and I so blame FMA in part for being so confused over Mildmay and Felix because the only way I can get fluffy Ed/Al!brothers stuff is by turning to Elricest because apparently siblings don’t hug each other unless they’re having sex.
YES, I am confused and in conflict over this, just like I am over another handful of ‘ships where there is no-touchy but they work so well together~ *cries in frustration*

Shipping frustrations aside, there was other cuteness as well, such as Mildmay learning how to read (link is to Sarah Monette’s 2009 International pixel-stained technopeasant day entry) and Corbie’s crush on Felix, which is all kinds of cute but kind of brain-hurty when it’s revealed she has sex with Mildmay because she couldn’t have Felix. I am also very amused at the glimpses of the bizarre ménage a trois (in the strictest sense of the term) that occupied Felix’s rooms. We had Gideon taking care of Mildmay when he’s sick and in general those two being nicer to each other than either of them were with Felix, despite their relationships with him.
And here is where I should just get on with the comments…

( There are a lot of them. No, seriously, there's a lot of them. )

So, overall, very cute and fluffy and I love this book so much more than the other three, except they’re all good and I love those ones too, so it’s kind of a moot point.
And why yes, I am finally posting this after having finished Corambis over two months ago.

So. This book. Somewhat infamous, mostly because if you read truepenny talking about it at all you will come across her referring to some of the events that happen as ‘semi-consensual homosexual gangbangs’.
And although only applicable once, maybe twice, that description is quite apt.

However, for the other two hundred and ninety pages, it isn’t.

Anyway, I should begin this (somewhat) properly.
It’s very bildungsroman, a very Nordic genre for a very Nordic inspired story. (Okay, the term is German, but close enough.) Isolfr (Njall at the beginning) grows and matures along the course of the story and it pretty much reads like many a shonen manga that way. Except then you have the whole ‘semi-consensual homosexual gangbangs’ part and the fact he ends up with two guys. So it’s kind of shonen mixed up with a lot of BL.

Which leads to my next point. Kind of.
( Isolfr is some weird combination of Kurogane, Fai and Watanuki. Brawny, pale and fun to read about. )

( I should really mention Viradechtis at this point )

( And a bit about Gunnar... )

( Some particularly memorable moments.. )


My verdict on this is that it’s a great read is you like any of the following: shonen manga, yaoi/BL, threesomes, shameless female characters and Viking fantasy.
You won’t be distracted by secondary characters too much, if at all. I didn’t feel guilty about liking Viradechtis more than Isolfr, because she IS the second main character, even if she isn’t human. And well, if you really do find yourself distracted by Tin and the other svartalfar, there’s four? three? other books forthcoming, the first of which is seems to be about them, if the title is anything to go by.

So, definitely recommended.

My usual comment on everything that tickled my fancy deal. You may know the drill. (And besides, it saves me from bombarding you with tweets/couple of line entries when I’m reading it.)

Same process as before, I bookmarked loads of places as I read through it and will comment on each place I marked. Might not make much sense unless you’ve read the book or have it in front of you.

( I have a lot of things to talk about )

 

( A bit more of an indepth comment or two. )