Book Reviews: Outcast and Flame-Colored Taffeta

[osprey_archer]

Just finished Rosemary Sutcliff’s Outcast. On the one hand I don’t feel the gleeful capering urge to run out and write fic about it, as for Eagle of the Ninth or Frontier Wolf or Blood Feud (there will be Jestyn & Anders & Alexia fic! There will, there will!). But on the other hand I never wanted to brain poor Beric with his own oar, and I’ve definitely wanted to inflict that on certain other Sutcliff heroes (BJARNI).

One point of interest: Beric’s BFF (or at least one of his BFFs), alone among the Sutcliff canon, is a girl: Lucilla, the daughter of the house in Rome where Beric is briefly a slave. She tries to convince her father to give Beric to her as a wedding present, but her evil brother Glaucus preempts it, and Beric is set forth for yet more suffering. Because merely being exiled from his tribe and being sold into slavery was clearly insufficient whumpage for the poor guy.

***

I also read Sutcliff’s Flame-Colored Taffeta a few months ago, and didn’t post about it because, for it as for Outcast, I felt rather lukewarm. Except about the heroine’s name: Damaris. Isn’t that the best name ever? I am saving it for a rainy day.

Young Damaris lives on a smugglers’ cove. In the woods one day she finds an injured smuggler who calls himself Tom Wildgoose. Or is he a smuggler? Could he be...a spy?

Someone noted that in another Sutcliff novel, Tom Wildgoose would be the hero: the book would follow his adventures, and Damaris would have a small part as the plucky young girl who secretly nurses him before he continues on his spying ways. I like Damaris a lot...but at the same time, I think I would have liked that other book better.

The thing that really struck me about this book was how...un-Sutcliffian it seemed, in a sense. In most of her novels, there are mizzle rains, and hound metaphors, and characters saying “it is in my heart”, and lots and lots of loyalty. Whereas Flame-Colored Taffeta has a much less marked voice: it reminded me rather of Elizabeth George Speare’s The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Elizabeth Marie Pope’s The Perilous Gard, and Flame-Colored Taffeta rather suffered by the comparison.

Comments

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

there will be Jestyn & Anders & Alexia fic! There will, there will!

YAY!

Also, heh, that's pretty much how I feel about Outcast, although the EOT9 crossover possibilities are fun.

alone among the Sutcliff canon, is a girl

You haven't read The Shield Ring yet, have you? Frytha and whatshisface are kind of BFFs (and co-protagonists!).

I though Glaucus was rather OTT. :-/

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Glaucus was totally OTT. I'm sure there were people who delighted in tormenting their slaves, but...IDK, Glaucus is not a successful rendition of the type.

There will be ALL the Blood Feud fic. It will be beautiful. Maybe I can figure out a way to marry it to the "day at the beach" square in trope_bingo.

I haven't read The Shield Ring yet. The used bookstore up at home has a copy, but it is so ugly and has such tiny print that I just can't stand to pay money for it.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

I thought Glaucus was basically how some people in fandom write Placidus. :-P

I HIGHLY APPROVE OF BLOOD FEUD DAY AT THE BEACH.

Do you read ebooks or just paper?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I do read ebooks, but mostly I focus on the free ones. I'm gearing up to start Uncle Tom's Cabin right now.

ATM I don't have a lot of time for reading so it's kind of an academic question.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Alas, it is not only not free, but no longer being sold. :-(

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I think FCT suffers from being an actual children's book, as opposed to a sophisticated YA novel. What struck me most was that there is no moment where the hero(ine) has to make a really hard choice among bad things, or has something really bad happen to her; this kind of moment is at the heart of most of Sutcliff's other books.

(And of course this would be part of Tom Wildgoose's story!)

Damaris is a lovely name. I actually have a friend named Damaris! Yay!

Although, FCT has cats. I have to say, after all the dogs and hound metaphors, I liked the cats.

Outcast is kind of all whump all the time. I'm not actually sure why I liked it; maybe because the guys I'm interested in are both alive at the end. (Well, if you don't count Jason.) And I second the rec for The Shield Ring.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

You have a friend named Damaris? Lucky! Just going by the name, I must assume that she is awesome.

Yes, the stakes for Damaris never seem as high as they do in most Sutcliff books. Of course it would be bad if Tom Wildgoose were caught, but the worst thing that would happen to Damaris is that she would be in trouble.

However, FCT does have cats - and a fox! - which is a nice break from the non-stop hound metaphors.

I was sad when Jason died. I wanted him to live and paint flying geese on murals. :(

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Damaris *is* an excellent name, and perhaps you'll like this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBEtfWMWgC4) that bears that title (though it's tricky recommending songs to people, especially based on something as slim as a name--but this song has the overwrought passion that it sounds as if the novel lacked).

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

It is very dramatic!