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rec: Scheherazade by ZephyrHawk
Dec. 5th, 2012 10:00 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
idelthoughts.livejournal.comStory: Scheherazade
Author: ZephyrHawk
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 90,207
Author's Summary: Heroes. Monsters. Villains. Witches. True Love. Not just your basic, average, everyday, ordinary, run-of-the-mill, ho-hum fairy tale.
Characters/Pairings: Tenth Doctor, Donna Noble, Rose Tyler, other characters
Warnings: Explicit violence
Recced because: The best crossovers weave bits of lore together to create a cohesive story, and in the very best, you can't see the seams between the different worlds. This fic gets pretty close to that ideal. The structural formula of Doctor Who is all about exploring new worlds through fresh eyes, and so lends itself readily to crossovers. ZephyrHawk brings us into the world of the comic book series Fables. I haven't read the comics myself, but it was easy enough to follow the story. I probably would have found it a richer experience knowing the Fables history, but there are easily enough clues to fill in any blanks.
The basic framework is a reworking of Scheherazade, the woman who told the sultan a story every night for a thousand and one nights in order to belay the execution that awaited her on the following dawn. It's a structure also used in the Fables prequel, 1001 Nights of Snowfall. In this fic, Rose is the storyteller, telling the tales of her adventures with the Doctor to entertain the sultan. All of the scenes with Rose are through the sultan's eyes, and filtered through the understanding and lore of the Arabian Nights mythos, which is a singular challenge and achievement unto itself. ZephyrHawk painstakingly builds the relationship between Rose and the sultan as she changes in his eyes from a "wild animal" brought to his court as a conquest and a captive, to a spellbinding storyteller that he falls in love with and who holds him in thrall. I find the language and perspective in these scenes beautifully crafted.
On the flip side, interspersed with Rose's tales and the sultan, the Doctor and Donna are exploring the world of the Fables and preparing for a rising battle that is one part magical clash and one part paradox with encroaching reapers. Just having Donna alone is a selling point for me - done well, Donna is my very favourite companion. I find the plot gets a little messy and that the subplot gets a little short shrift (though it could be I'm missing some info that a Fables fan would fill in automatically), but the story doesn't really suffer as a result, and in the end...well, let's just say that the fairytale stories get a proper fairytale ending. A pat ending, but appropriate and sweet all the same.
It's a lengthy read at 90,000+ words, and I now enjoy dipping into it for certain scenes and chapters when I come back to it. If you're up for a longer read, I do recommend it, along with all of ZephyrHawk's stories. She has a lovely grasp of language, and there are passages that are pure poetry.
( Excerpt )
Author: ZephyrHawk
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 90,207
Author's Summary: Heroes. Monsters. Villains. Witches. True Love. Not just your basic, average, everyday, ordinary, run-of-the-mill, ho-hum fairy tale.
Characters/Pairings: Tenth Doctor, Donna Noble, Rose Tyler, other characters
Warnings: Explicit violence
Recced because: The best crossovers weave bits of lore together to create a cohesive story, and in the very best, you can't see the seams between the different worlds. This fic gets pretty close to that ideal. The structural formula of Doctor Who is all about exploring new worlds through fresh eyes, and so lends itself readily to crossovers. ZephyrHawk brings us into the world of the comic book series Fables. I haven't read the comics myself, but it was easy enough to follow the story. I probably would have found it a richer experience knowing the Fables history, but there are easily enough clues to fill in any blanks.
The basic framework is a reworking of Scheherazade, the woman who told the sultan a story every night for a thousand and one nights in order to belay the execution that awaited her on the following dawn. It's a structure also used in the Fables prequel, 1001 Nights of Snowfall. In this fic, Rose is the storyteller, telling the tales of her adventures with the Doctor to entertain the sultan. All of the scenes with Rose are through the sultan's eyes, and filtered through the understanding and lore of the Arabian Nights mythos, which is a singular challenge and achievement unto itself. ZephyrHawk painstakingly builds the relationship between Rose and the sultan as she changes in his eyes from a "wild animal" brought to his court as a conquest and a captive, to a spellbinding storyteller that he falls in love with and who holds him in thrall. I find the language and perspective in these scenes beautifully crafted.
On the flip side, interspersed with Rose's tales and the sultan, the Doctor and Donna are exploring the world of the Fables and preparing for a rising battle that is one part magical clash and one part paradox with encroaching reapers. Just having Donna alone is a selling point for me - done well, Donna is my very favourite companion. I find the plot gets a little messy and that the subplot gets a little short shrift (though it could be I'm missing some info that a Fables fan would fill in automatically), but the story doesn't really suffer as a result, and in the end...well, let's just say that the fairytale stories get a proper fairytale ending. A pat ending, but appropriate and sweet all the same.
It's a lengthy read at 90,000+ words, and I now enjoy dipping into it for certain scenes and chapters when I come back to it. If you're up for a longer read, I do recommend it, along with all of ZephyrHawk's stories. She has a lovely grasp of language, and there are passages that are pure poetry.
( Excerpt )
