Book Review: Flight of the Heron
Sep. 2nd, 2021 07:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerThe moment you have all been waiting for! I have finished D. K. Broster’s The Flight of the Heron! Which I cannot discuss without spoilers, so
I was aware that this book ended with half of the pairing dead, but I had somehow got confused about which half, so as you might imagine I was quite confused when Lachlan stabbed Keith. Not unhappy! Just puzzled! But also kind of relieved, because if Keith had lived under the circumstances it seemed extremely likely that the next two books were going to be “Keith angsting about how he betrayed his ONLY FRIEND to his DEATH,” and I like angst as much as the next person but two books of hopeless regret is just… too much hopeless regret.
SPEAKING OF ANGST, THOUGH. MY GOD. So the conceit of this book is that it has been foretold that Keith and Ewen will meet five times, the first of which meetings will be marked by the flight of a heron, and each time will be EXTREMELY DRAMATIC. Not sure if that is part of the foretelling, but nonetheless all the meetings ARE extremely dramatic.
First, at the outbreak of the Jacobite uprising, Ewen takes Keith captive after a heron startles Keith’s horse and Keith is thrown off. He is an extremely gentlemanly and attentive captor! However, his foster brother Lachlan, who loves Ewen to distraction, tries to kill Keith when he realizes that Keith is the Fated Heron Man.
Second, they meet up in Edinburgh when Ewen is on a mission for the Prince. (There’s also a LOT of good loyalty kink in this book about Ewen’s feelings for the Prince and especially his loyalty to his chief, Cameron of Lochiel. He once throws himself in front of a projectile because it MIGHT have hit Lochiel otherwise. He wants to die for this man SO MUCH that he is willing to risk it even if Lochiel might not be in mortal danger.)
Third, Keith comes upon a gravely injured Ewen who is about to be shot! by an impromptu firing squad!!! outside an isolated shieling!!!!!! and saves his life by telling the officer in charge (Major Guthrie) that Ewen is MUCH too important to kill. Later that night he sneaks back to the shieling and tends to Ewen’s wounds and probably saves his life all over again, and for the rest of the book they hark tenderly back to “the night we spent in the shieling.”
...But only after they clear up the misunderstanding between them, because the FOURTH time they meet, Ewen greets Keith with a hiss of “Judas.” After Keith left the shieling, Major Guthrie came to collect Ewen, and intimated that the only reason Keith went to the shieling at ALL was in order to trick Ewen into revealing Lochiel’s hiding place while Ewen was weak from his wounds… An accusation that seems tragically possible, as Keith DID inadvertently lead Ewen into talking about Lochiel!
However, Keith begs for forgiveness, and eventually Ewen realizes that Keith was SO distressed by the misunderstanding that he rushed back to the fort (even though he was carrying dispatches!!!) to clear it up, and then had Hot Words with the commanding officer over Ewen’s mistreatment which ended in Keith himself getting arrested… so of course he has to trust Keith again by the end. (Ewen is particularly relieved because this gives him back the sweet memory of “the night we spent in the shieling.”)
They actually meet again in the same fort, but I guess because it’s in the same place it simply counts as another part of the fourth meeting? Because their FIFTH meeting occurs on the beach, as Ewen is escaping Scotland, the rebellion having gone pear-shaped. Keith almost catches him, realizes it’s Ewen, hesitates in agony over whether to call for his troops, and as he hesitates gets stabbed by Lachlan, who is still under the impression that Keith betrayed Ewen and also just straight-up hates Keith, possibly because Ewen loves Keith more than he loves Lachlan, even though Keith is an Englishman and an enemy and Ewen barely KNOWS Keith, whereas Ewen grew UP with Lachlan and Lachlan would DIE for him.
...I actually did feel a bit bad for Lachlan, particularly when Lachlan realizes too late that Keith is NOT Traitor McTraitorson and begs Ewen’s forgiveness, and Ewen says, “Never! You have killed my friend!”
“Never? Then as well have my life, too!” cries Lachlan, and runs off to get himself arrested/killed by the English patrol, which is presumably exactly what Ewen would do if Lochiel ever said he couldn’t forgive Ewen for something. (Ewen spends a lot of time in agony because he accidentally reveals, or almost reveals, Lochiel’s hiding place while he is talking in his sleep. IF LOCHIEL HEARS AND THINKS EWEN TALKED etc. etc.)
But of course I also understand why Ewen can’t forgive Lachlan, because how could you.
I’m also extremely curious how people write fic for this canon, given that half the pairing dies at the end, and almost every minute of their five fated meetings is accounted for, except maybe some time during the week when Keith is captive in Ewen’s house. Maybe Keith was in fact not quite dead yet on the beach? Maybe the seer’s prediction only counts for meetings in Scotland and they can meet again in France.
I was aware that this book ended with half of the pairing dead, but I had somehow got confused about which half, so as you might imagine I was quite confused when Lachlan stabbed Keith. Not unhappy! Just puzzled! But also kind of relieved, because if Keith had lived under the circumstances it seemed extremely likely that the next two books were going to be “Keith angsting about how he betrayed his ONLY FRIEND to his DEATH,” and I like angst as much as the next person but two books of hopeless regret is just… too much hopeless regret.
SPEAKING OF ANGST, THOUGH. MY GOD. So the conceit of this book is that it has been foretold that Keith and Ewen will meet five times, the first of which meetings will be marked by the flight of a heron, and each time will be EXTREMELY DRAMATIC. Not sure if that is part of the foretelling, but nonetheless all the meetings ARE extremely dramatic.
First, at the outbreak of the Jacobite uprising, Ewen takes Keith captive after a heron startles Keith’s horse and Keith is thrown off. He is an extremely gentlemanly and attentive captor! However, his foster brother Lachlan, who loves Ewen to distraction, tries to kill Keith when he realizes that Keith is the Fated Heron Man.
Second, they meet up in Edinburgh when Ewen is on a mission for the Prince. (There’s also a LOT of good loyalty kink in this book about Ewen’s feelings for the Prince and especially his loyalty to his chief, Cameron of Lochiel. He once throws himself in front of a projectile because it MIGHT have hit Lochiel otherwise. He wants to die for this man SO MUCH that he is willing to risk it even if Lochiel might not be in mortal danger.)
Third, Keith comes upon a gravely injured Ewen who is about to be shot! by an impromptu firing squad!!! outside an isolated shieling!!!!!! and saves his life by telling the officer in charge (Major Guthrie) that Ewen is MUCH too important to kill. Later that night he sneaks back to the shieling and tends to Ewen’s wounds and probably saves his life all over again, and for the rest of the book they hark tenderly back to “the night we spent in the shieling.”
...But only after they clear up the misunderstanding between them, because the FOURTH time they meet, Ewen greets Keith with a hiss of “Judas.” After Keith left the shieling, Major Guthrie came to collect Ewen, and intimated that the only reason Keith went to the shieling at ALL was in order to trick Ewen into revealing Lochiel’s hiding place while Ewen was weak from his wounds… An accusation that seems tragically possible, as Keith DID inadvertently lead Ewen into talking about Lochiel!
However, Keith begs for forgiveness, and eventually Ewen realizes that Keith was SO distressed by the misunderstanding that he rushed back to the fort (even though he was carrying dispatches!!!) to clear it up, and then had Hot Words with the commanding officer over Ewen’s mistreatment which ended in Keith himself getting arrested… so of course he has to trust Keith again by the end. (Ewen is particularly relieved because this gives him back the sweet memory of “the night we spent in the shieling.”)
They actually meet again in the same fort, but I guess because it’s in the same place it simply counts as another part of the fourth meeting? Because their FIFTH meeting occurs on the beach, as Ewen is escaping Scotland, the rebellion having gone pear-shaped. Keith almost catches him, realizes it’s Ewen, hesitates in agony over whether to call for his troops, and as he hesitates gets stabbed by Lachlan, who is still under the impression that Keith betrayed Ewen and also just straight-up hates Keith, possibly because Ewen loves Keith more than he loves Lachlan, even though Keith is an Englishman and an enemy and Ewen barely KNOWS Keith, whereas Ewen grew UP with Lachlan and Lachlan would DIE for him.
...I actually did feel a bit bad for Lachlan, particularly when Lachlan realizes too late that Keith is NOT Traitor McTraitorson and begs Ewen’s forgiveness, and Ewen says, “Never! You have killed my friend!”
“Never? Then as well have my life, too!” cries Lachlan, and runs off to get himself arrested/killed by the English patrol, which is presumably exactly what Ewen would do if Lochiel ever said he couldn’t forgive Ewen for something. (Ewen spends a lot of time in agony because he accidentally reveals, or almost reveals, Lochiel’s hiding place while he is talking in his sleep. IF LOCHIEL HEARS AND THINKS EWEN TALKED etc. etc.)
But of course I also understand why Ewen can’t forgive Lachlan, because how could you.
I’m also extremely curious how people write fic for this canon, given that half the pairing dies at the end, and almost every minute of their five fated meetings is accounted for, except maybe some time during the week when Keith is captive in Ewen’s house. Maybe Keith was in fact not quite dead yet on the beach? Maybe the seer’s prediction only counts for meetings in Scotland and they can meet again in France.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-02 03:00 pm (UTC)Yeah, the book itself does kind of signal that Ewen is going to die (asking Keith if he will name a son after him...), but it's a bait and switch.
I’m also extremely curious how people write fic for this canon, given that half the pairing dies at the end, and almost every minute of their five fated meetings is accounted for, except maybe some time during the week when Keith is captive in Ewen’s house.
Ha ha, well, I am here to tell you that it is possible to write novel-length fic for this fandom. *g*
But anyway, unless you want to write short missing scenes, obviously you need to write canon divergence and fix Keith's death! There's
More recs:
no subject
Date: 2021-09-02 05:22 pm (UTC)...I do like the idea of Ewen taking Keith to the ship and Keith gets to not betray Ewen and ALSO not die, though.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-02 07:44 pm (UTC)I assumed from the start it would be Keith who died, because he was my favorite and I had an early and depressingly formative grounding in all my favorite characters dying or otherwise meeting tragic ends. Alas.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-02 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-02 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-02 04:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-02 06:51 pm (UTC)Yeah, that suggestion of a 'fated' ending involving the death of one character followed by a swerve where something else happens instead seems to be a favourite tactic of Broster's—Sir Isumbras at the Ford does something similar. I love the sense of fate and inevitability-despite-unexpectedness in FotH.
I can just see Old Angus solemnly repeating the prophecy to Ewen and then adding 'each of the meetings will be EXTREMELY DRAMATIC'. :D
I’m also extremely curious how people write fic for this canon, given that half the pairing dies at the end, and almost every minute of their five fated meetings is accounted for
This was also something that puzzled me when I started trying to write fic. But we worked it out in the end! I agree with
no subject
Date: 2021-09-02 07:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-03 04:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-03 12:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-03 08:15 am (UTC)The Lachlan->Ewen->Lochiel thing was one of the things that delighted me most in the book. They are both so passionately OTT devoted! Lochiel is rather kinder to Ewen than Ewen is to Lachlan, too: there's the bit after Ewen throws himself in front of the cannonball that isn't going to hit Lochiel anyway, when he comes round in Lochiel's arms. Broster had a direct line to my id there. And I love how Alison is just like 'yes you love me but I do realise I have to share you with Lochiel and that it's not even a choice which of us you'd put first'. Lachlan presumably did plenty of tender nursing of Ewen in the shieling before Keith shows up, but Ewen seems to take that very much for granted. (Thinking on it, the Lachlan->Ewen relationship is not unlike Hugh->Dundee, it's the same imbalanced and doglike relationship, though Hugh gets a much better deal from the narrative.)
no subject
Date: 2021-09-03 12:38 pm (UTC)I think the Lachlan->Ewen and Hugh->Dundee comparison is apt, although definitely Dundee is kinder to Hugh than Ewen is to Lachlan. My impression is that Dundee likes Hugh (in a vague sort of way), whereas Ewen finds Lachlan kind of annoying even before he starts trying to kill Keith.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-03 06:13 pm (UTC)I think Ewen and Lachlan's relationship is much more complicated because they also grew up together sort of like siblings. But yeah, Lachlan does often deserve better than Ewen gives him.
Lochiel is about 20 years older than Ewen, so that's a much more straightforward loyalty to a man Ewen very much looks up to. Heh, I did write a short fic to explore what that feels like from Lochiel's POV, which was interesting...
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Date: 2021-09-03 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-03 02:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-03 04:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-06 12:08 pm (UTC)I did feel bad for Lachlan too, he was at all times ready to lay down his life for Ewen and in the end - sigh. Sigh.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-06 09:00 pm (UTC)Then again people just seem to be Like That about Ewan. Look at Lachlan, literally throwing his life away because Ewan has rejected him! Admittedly Lachlan has just straight-up murdered Keith in front of Ewan so you can't blame Ewan exactly, but... well, they're just all so extra, really.