Horatio Hornblower - 3 Recs
Nov. 13th, 2009 03:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
recsforalloccasionsA lot of early Horatio Hornblower fic is no longer online. Stories for which I can no longer find active links have been removed from this recs set.
Hornblower Recs for All Occasions
Part II: I just watched The Duchess & The Devil and -- in between attempts to climb through my TV set to comfort Archie -- all I could think was 'My God, they made it even slashier!' (El Ferrol Fic)
Oh the glory of The Duchess & The Devil. I have a terrible terrible weakness for El Ferrol first time fic. There's just something about it that feeds my need for angst and my need for smut in perfect balance. Clearly I'm not the only one that finds the episode very inspiring. There is a wealth of excellent fic that takes place during and alongside the events of The Duchess & The Devil
Resurrecting by MissKittie - The perfect mix of angst and romance, Resurrecting fits perfectly within the larger narrative of The Duchess & The Devil. Starting in Confession with Horatio and Hunter's discovery of Archie in their cell, and concluding in Absolution after Horatio and Archie's return to El Ferrol, Resurrecting is really the story of Archie Kennedy -- damaged and scarred by all the pain life has given him -- finding a way to the pieces of his life back together and learn to live and to love again. The romance is very believable, the doubts and fears and desires on both sides beautifully articulated, but what I love the most about this fic is the subtle and gradual way that Archie's healing is shown. The broken man at the beginning of Confession and the healing, hopeful man at the end of Absolution are very much and very believably the same man.
Spanish Compendium by CopperCowries (Part of the series The Laurel & the Rose) - CopperCowries 's whole The Laurel & The Rose universe is well done, and one of the best things about it is the way so many of the stories within it stand fabulously on their own. This, the second story in the series, is my favorite. It's also yet another El Ferrol first time story, which might just be part of the reason why. Cimmarionwillow does an excellent job of capturing the unreal, almost dream-like idyll El Ferrol becomes for Horatio and Archie after they're return. It's the perfect time and place to start a physical relationship. They are free of commitments, confined but not deprived, with plenty of privacy to both learn each other's bodies and sort out a lot of their emotional baggage. But every idyll comes to an end, and there's a bittersweet tang to the end of the story, where the question of what will happen once they've left prison and have to keep all of this hidden lingers.
Better for Trying by Always_Winter - Many authors have tried to write about Archie's experience inside the oubliette; Always_Winter doesn't just show them, she inhabits them. In a series of interconnected vignettes, we are there with Archie as isolation and depravation finally break him when nothing else would. A harrowing, heartbreaking, yet beautifully rendered look into the disintegration of Archie's psyche.
Hornblower Recs for All Occasions
Part II: I just watched The Duchess & The Devil and -- in between attempts to climb through my TV set to comfort Archie -- all I could think was 'My God, they made it even slashier!' (El Ferrol Fic)
Oh the glory of The Duchess & The Devil. I have a terrible terrible weakness for El Ferrol first time fic. There's just something about it that feeds my need for angst and my need for smut in perfect balance. Clearly I'm not the only one that finds the episode very inspiring. There is a wealth of excellent fic that takes place during and alongside the events of The Duchess & The Devil
Resurrecting by MissKittie - The perfect mix of angst and romance, Resurrecting fits perfectly within the larger narrative of The Duchess & The Devil. Starting in Confession with Horatio and Hunter's discovery of Archie in their cell, and concluding in Absolution after Horatio and Archie's return to El Ferrol, Resurrecting is really the story of Archie Kennedy -- damaged and scarred by all the pain life has given him -- finding a way to the pieces of his life back together and learn to live and to love again. The romance is very believable, the doubts and fears and desires on both sides beautifully articulated, but what I love the most about this fic is the subtle and gradual way that Archie's healing is shown. The broken man at the beginning of Confession and the healing, hopeful man at the end of Absolution are very much and very believably the same man.
Spanish Compendium by CopperCowries (Part of the series The Laurel & the Rose) - CopperCowries 's whole The Laurel & The Rose universe is well done, and one of the best things about it is the way so many of the stories within it stand fabulously on their own. This, the second story in the series, is my favorite. It's also yet another El Ferrol first time story, which might just be part of the reason why. Cimmarionwillow does an excellent job of capturing the unreal, almost dream-like idyll El Ferrol becomes for Horatio and Archie after they're return. It's the perfect time and place to start a physical relationship. They are free of commitments, confined but not deprived, with plenty of privacy to both learn each other's bodies and sort out a lot of their emotional baggage. But every idyll comes to an end, and there's a bittersweet tang to the end of the story, where the question of what will happen once they've left prison and have to keep all of this hidden lingers.
Better for Trying by Always_Winter - Many authors have tried to write about Archie's experience inside the oubliette; Always_Winter doesn't just show them, she inhabits them. In a series of interconnected vignettes, we are there with Archie as isolation and depravation finally break him when nothing else would. A harrowing, heartbreaking, yet beautifully rendered look into the disintegration of Archie's psyche.