Book Review: The Silver Branch
Apr. 9th, 2013 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerIn the process of writing my Sutcliff Swap letter, I realized that I somehow failed to write reviews or either The Silver Branch or Knight’s Fee. Or, for that matter, Frontier Wolf. What was I thinking?
Clearly this must be corrected! So today: The Silver Branch, which I enjoyed but find in some ways the least ficcable of Sutcliff books, notwithstanding that I wrote my first Sutcliff fic about it: My Lords’ Hound, which offers an explanation for Cullen, a character who rather begs for explanation.
Cullen is the oddest of the characters in The Silver Branch - possibly one of the oddest characters in all of Sutcliff - and perhaps the one who has stuck with me most. He is perhaps alone among Sutcliff’s characters in that he actually likes being a slave: he doesn’t just make the best of it, like Esca, but likes it so much that he actually turns Justin and Flavius down when they offer him freedom.
Also, he wears a tail. I think possibly Cullen is what happens when you fall into a hound metaphor and can’t get out.
Seriously, though, it would explain a lot if Cullen believed in some sense that he was a dog. I am still kind of gunning for someone to write a weredog!Cullen story.
Aside from “let’s explain Cullen!”, though, the book doesn’t really have any loose ends that need ficcing. It’s a fun book, but it doesn’t grab me the way some of the other Sutcliffs do - I think because the plot is very much a psychologically straightforward adventure story, Justin and Flavius Resist the Evil Assassin Albino Emperor. They sometimes find themselves in dire straits, but they don’t suffer the crippling self-doubt that Alexios feels in Frontier Wolf or the emotionally fraught complications of Blood Feud.
To me, that sort of thing is the most interesting part, so although I liked The Silver Branch it didn’t do much for me aside from Cullen.
Our heroes are Justin, an awkward and stammering healer who I adore, and Flavius, his confident red-headed distant cousin. (I adore him also, but not quite as much as Justin.) They make awesome BFFs but are nonetheless the least slashy Sutcliff heroes ever, which is all the more surprising given that neither of them even gets a love interest at the end.
Although actually, that may be why neither one of them gets a love interest. There’s no need for plausible deniability.
(I’m pretty sure that plausible deniability is poor Gisela’s only function in Knight’s Fee, and perhaps even Anoud’s in Blood and Sand, though Anoud at least is far more appealing than Gisela.)
Even leaving the slashiness or lack thereof aside, Justin and Flavius’s relationship is just not that interesting. They’re of the same social station, they’re cousins, they’re BFFs, it’s very uncomplicated. Lovely for them, but not very exciting.
And in conclusion: Flavius’s Aunt Honoria. She is awesome!
Clearly this must be corrected! So today: The Silver Branch, which I enjoyed but find in some ways the least ficcable of Sutcliff books, notwithstanding that I wrote my first Sutcliff fic about it: My Lords’ Hound, which offers an explanation for Cullen, a character who rather begs for explanation.
Cullen is the oddest of the characters in The Silver Branch - possibly one of the oddest characters in all of Sutcliff - and perhaps the one who has stuck with me most. He is perhaps alone among Sutcliff’s characters in that he actually likes being a slave: he doesn’t just make the best of it, like Esca, but likes it so much that he actually turns Justin and Flavius down when they offer him freedom.
Also, he wears a tail. I think possibly Cullen is what happens when you fall into a hound metaphor and can’t get out.
Seriously, though, it would explain a lot if Cullen believed in some sense that he was a dog. I am still kind of gunning for someone to write a weredog!Cullen story.
Aside from “let’s explain Cullen!”, though, the book doesn’t really have any loose ends that need ficcing. It’s a fun book, but it doesn’t grab me the way some of the other Sutcliffs do - I think because the plot is very much a psychologically straightforward adventure story, Justin and Flavius Resist the Evil Assassin Albino Emperor. They sometimes find themselves in dire straits, but they don’t suffer the crippling self-doubt that Alexios feels in Frontier Wolf or the emotionally fraught complications of Blood Feud.
To me, that sort of thing is the most interesting part, so although I liked The Silver Branch it didn’t do much for me aside from Cullen.
Our heroes are Justin, an awkward and stammering healer who I adore, and Flavius, his confident red-headed distant cousin. (I adore him also, but not quite as much as Justin.) They make awesome BFFs but are nonetheless the least slashy Sutcliff heroes ever, which is all the more surprising given that neither of them even gets a love interest at the end.
Although actually, that may be why neither one of them gets a love interest. There’s no need for plausible deniability.
(I’m pretty sure that plausible deniability is poor Gisela’s only function in Knight’s Fee, and perhaps even Anoud’s in Blood and Sand, though Anoud at least is far more appealing than Gisela.)
Even leaving the slashiness or lack thereof aside, Justin and Flavius’s relationship is just not that interesting. They’re of the same social station, they’re cousins, they’re BFFs, it’s very uncomplicated. Lovely for them, but not very exciting.
And in conclusion: Flavius’s Aunt Honoria. She is awesome!
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no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 03:48 am (UTC)Isn't Anoud a real historical figure? Presumably Sutcliff wasn't about to write out canon wives, although tbh I don't know that she was very worried about plausible deniability.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 07:33 am (UTC)I wasn't going to offer TSB for pretty much the reasons you mention but you have reminded me that Aunt Honoria is awesome and has loads of potential!
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Date: 2013-04-10 12:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 05:24 pm (UTC)Bwahaha!
no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 07:08 pm (UTC)I think you've hit on why I'm so neutral about TSB, even though it has many tropes I enjoy.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 07:28 pm (UTC)- Or middle age, for that matter - some exploration of how she ended living as a sort of dowager in Uncle Aquila's old house in Calleva
- Flavius's earlier encounter(s) with Aunt Honoria (somehow I think Flavius may also have had a somewhat wild youth, and yet Honoria is the person he turns to in time of trouble, is this a repeating pattern?)
...
no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 07:57 pm (UTC)And also somehow makes the fact that Tussun orders ten men (ten! ten!) to kill Thomas her fault, rather than, say, Tussun's. Okay, even if she was scheming, he's STILL the one who gave the order, so it is still really HIS FAULT.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 07:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 07:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-11 03:14 am (UTC)(I think the thing that bugs me the most about Nayli is that before she actually does anything bad, the narrative is already judging her for...the crime of being sexually interested in a guy who's not into her. GOD FORBID. She should be psychic and know not to even try, I guess! But it's hard to say, because everything bugs me the most about Nayli, while Tussun the asshole gets a free pass. God knows what Thomas sees in him.)