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paeanI was reading amanuensis' recommendation page again, and discovered another great writer. Both smut great, and story great.
Cybele's clever but slightly clunkily designed Swish & Flick contains her writings, as well as illustrations by Snaples. They are canon compliant to only about book 2 or 3, clearly written early in JKR's publishing arc. Rather than seeming deliberately AU, they evoke a what-could-have-been feeling. The characters develop into similar persons as in the books as they mature, yet the context is of Cybele's making. They characters are very true to form, and her Snape is fabulous.
The Smut:
I was starting to think that I have developed reader ennui about explicit sex scenes. Very little that I read was really doing it for me. It was still fun, but I hadn't found anything to make me squirm in weeks. Apparently I just wasn't reading the right stuff.
The Road to Hell and its sequel and prequels had me wishing my commuter train would suddenly put on a burst of speed, or I might have to do what so many of the Hogwarts Express fanfic describes, and go find myself a nice private corner and hope no prefect wanders by.
I smartly saved Something to Write On and the even more lust provoking Quill and Ink until I was in a less inappropriate locale. Absolutely smoking hot.
The Story:
Hot sex is very good. A good story, with the drama and the conflict coming from the characters' personalities and overall situation, rather than contrived misunderstandings (a pet peeve), is even better. Put them both together, and I am in reader's heaven. If You Are Prepared is a trilogy of a novella and two novels that had me up half the night reading. For the last several nights.
The story arc here is sweet and funny, like many good tragedies. Many of the scenes are told twice, showing both SS's and HP's viewpoint. I like the intimacy of first person protagonists, and Cybele does both of them justice.
HP is a little softer than I usually envision him, without being more vulnerable, if that makes any sense. He is also delightfully forward when he wants something, moving along the developing relationship despite SS's reservations. He grows up during the two year span of the trilogy, capturing the awkwardness of late adolescence in all its glory.
SS internal monolog's are the star of the show as far as I am concerned. He is as nasty as the books, and yes it's a protective shell, but it's also an unapologetic part of who he is inside the shell as well. Additionally, he is richly complex, and despite himself, incredibly loyal. Cybele thankfully resists the trap of trying to explain why-Snape-is-so-nasty-and-really-he's-just-a-tortured-soul-who-secretly-wishes-he-could-be-a-kinder-gentler-person. His sarcasm is eyebrow raising, and I found myself resisting the urge to laugh. Normally I wouldn't stifle my reactions like that, but the writing is so good I felt like I was in the story, and didn't want him to notice me and say something cutting.
Additionally, Cybele's Dumbledore is brilliant. She brings his manipulative aspect to the forefront. Despite that, I found I liked him better, and felt his burden more clearly than JKR's AD. Draco is also well written, although he doesn't appear until later. Ron and Hermione have bit parts. Sirius and Remus have slightly larger ones. Overall, however, the story is an two character exercise.
Her writing can also be found at:
http://www.scarhead.net/viewuser.php?uid=21
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/189163/
http://cybele-san.livejournal.com/ (where she just published some previously written but never posted fiction).
Cybele's clever but slightly clunkily designed Swish & Flick contains her writings, as well as illustrations by Snaples. They are canon compliant to only about book 2 or 3, clearly written early in JKR's publishing arc. Rather than seeming deliberately AU, they evoke a what-could-have-been feeling. The characters develop into similar persons as in the books as they mature, yet the context is of Cybele's making. They characters are very true to form, and her Snape is fabulous.
The Smut:
I was starting to think that I have developed reader ennui about explicit sex scenes. Very little that I read was really doing it for me. It was still fun, but I hadn't found anything to make me squirm in weeks. Apparently I just wasn't reading the right stuff.
The Road to Hell and its sequel and prequels had me wishing my commuter train would suddenly put on a burst of speed, or I might have to do what so many of the Hogwarts Express fanfic describes, and go find myself a nice private corner and hope no prefect wanders by.
I smartly saved Something to Write On and the even more lust provoking Quill and Ink until I was in a less inappropriate locale. Absolutely smoking hot.
The Story:
Hot sex is very good. A good story, with the drama and the conflict coming from the characters' personalities and overall situation, rather than contrived misunderstandings (a pet peeve), is even better. Put them both together, and I am in reader's heaven. If You Are Prepared is a trilogy of a novella and two novels that had me up half the night reading. For the last several nights.
The story arc here is sweet and funny, like many good tragedies. Many of the scenes are told twice, showing both SS's and HP's viewpoint. I like the intimacy of first person protagonists, and Cybele does both of them justice.
HP is a little softer than I usually envision him, without being more vulnerable, if that makes any sense. He is also delightfully forward when he wants something, moving along the developing relationship despite SS's reservations. He grows up during the two year span of the trilogy, capturing the awkwardness of late adolescence in all its glory.
SS internal monolog's are the star of the show as far as I am concerned. He is as nasty as the books, and yes it's a protective shell, but it's also an unapologetic part of who he is inside the shell as well. Additionally, he is richly complex, and despite himself, incredibly loyal. Cybele thankfully resists the trap of trying to explain why-Snape-is-so-nasty-and-really-he's-just-a-tortured-soul-who-secretly-wishes-he-could-be-a-kinder-gentler-person. His sarcasm is eyebrow raising, and I found myself resisting the urge to laugh. Normally I wouldn't stifle my reactions like that, but the writing is so good I felt like I was in the story, and didn't want him to notice me and say something cutting.
Additionally, Cybele's Dumbledore is brilliant. She brings his manipulative aspect to the forefront. Despite that, I found I liked him better, and felt his burden more clearly than JKR's AD. Draco is also well written, although he doesn't appear until later. Ron and Hermione have bit parts. Sirius and Remus have slightly larger ones. Overall, however, the story is an two character exercise.
Her writing can also be found at:
http://www.scarhead.net/viewuser.php?uid=21
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/189163/
http://cybele-san.livejournal.com/ (where she just published some previously written but never posted fiction).
