Sasuke and Black Jewels

[edenfalling]

Last night, between marathon sessions of reading the Black Jewels trilogy (which... still bugs me with weird plot and characterization issues, despite its overall coolness), I tried to exorcise the vicious plotbunny askerian dumped on me, via a Sasuke POV continuation of 'Tension, Before.'

Sasuke is tricky to write.

And the drama of the Black Jewels seems to have crept in at some point, because he's not quite acting right, though I think Sakura and Naruto are reasonable.

Must figure out an ending of sorts, and then go fix Sasuke's silent analysis/commentary this evening.

...

Will now stop spamming LJ and get back to work.

Comments

[edenfalling]

Um. Okay, there's this world that has three... layers, for lack of a better word. These layers, or Realms, are arranged as sort of giant circles around this whacking great mountain, and there are ways to travel between them. Terreille is normalish, aside from the magic and the occasional people with wings. Kaeleer is wilder and more shadowy. And Hell is dark and for the dead.

Magical power comes from darkness (not evil, though, just darkness) and is controlled by Jewels that determine your magical strength. The darker the jewel, the stronger your power.

Things have been going rather badly wrong for several thousand years now, but a girl, Jaenelle, is born to be Witch, dreams made flesh, and things are about to change.

Interestingly, the story is told entirely by people around Jaenelle, those who support her and those who are trying to bring the three Realms under their own control. And there are some interesting experiments done with gender roles and social structures, particularly in Terreille, where the entire fabric of society has become twisted.

Really bad things happen to a lot of the characters. (Rape of children, mutilation, large-scale massacres, etc.) And even the "good guys" do some horrific stuff.

It's an interesting series. The author is Anne Bishop, and the three books are "Daughter of the Blood," "Heir to the Shadows," and "Queen of the Darkness."

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

It soudns interesting.a ndnow iremember your' the oen who wanted to read those books and ahd to waittil the next day *thud*.
sorry .baffled by ll sorts of lj-related april jokes today.
jsut tlel me if the gory stuf you mention i sacutally tocuehd up on in heay detail.
i've en recced another series by a guy but iwas warne for hi mfalig ni nan d out of good writing and havign amogn ot her things a more than 30 page session of detaield torture. yahewwww.

[edenfalling]

...I have suddenly realized that my definition of explicit violence and torture may have nothing to do with the general population's definition of the same. Probably because I find that sort of thing at least as fascinating as disturbing. Well, to read about, anyway.

I would tentatively say it's not really graphic in the physical sense. That is, you don't get paragraphs of loving description of each event. But they don't exactly get glossed over either.

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

wel i 'mnot 'the general population' pr se. i 'mguesign i m'a bit udnerneatthhe meven in appretiaion/toelranco enthat stuf butht might be becaus of trauamtizign esxperiences invovlign fics iwthotu warnings (recal m yginn yexperience?) anda general dislie kof disharmony. I'vesena ibto omuch' this world isnt' dark enough, make it mroe furiosu ,faster, harder, torture, paiaain! aangst..blood. siruus isn't jsut kileld, no his throat is lit i ntwo! lucius istn' a death eter, no, a gangraping draco0mutilating death-eater.) kidn of stuff. sorry. this has been heavy on my mind lately. siftingthrough two-years worht of to-read links amdem abit oversensitive. aapaprnlety ws lto oless fussy boutstuff then i am now.
i do remember now you're the oen who prepared for novelw-ritign by reading boks aobut martia larts and torture? so I'l lse whether it's fien with em or not. i'm not gign to avoid any and all kind of vioelcne thoguh. it's necessary and useful in soem books. i just wil givye otuehexemple of abok called..(tries to remember the title...oh forget it). that started off iwth someoen walkign int oa room and adescription of the smel fo deca yahging aroud na corpse that hang there ,bound and all. trial ofthe blood mage. that was it. ithoght' f ine. thank you. you'll try to sort outthe woen who did this and their motives . idont' hin ki want oknow."
so it's necesary with mruder msyteries (which soudsn lie kan itneresting genre) wher i'l perhaps readi nhoep of not starting off witha... delict place? liek that-one. buti nthe fntasy series and other obks i haeh er i'm reosnalby peepare ther'l lb away of countign bodies somehow. I'm jsut abit over theedge witht soemtimes. idont' need it paitne so vividly tht ican lmsot fel the cutso nm yown body so to speak. lol.

[edenfalling]

Not martial arts -- it was a book on biological and chemical warfare in the ancient world. Things like poisoning arrows or wells, dumping burning crude oil on attackers during seiges, throwing scorpions at your enemies, Greek Fire... all sorts of dirty tricks people tend to overlook when they complain about how modern warfare isn't 'clean' and 'fair' the way things used to be. War has never been clean and fair.

Since my novel involves a multiple-front war, which is undeclared for most of the book, I thought it would be a good idea to know about underhanded tactics. Also, dirty tricks are often a cost-effective strategy when you don't have a lot of soldiers and are facing a more numerous enemy.

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

ah thank you. very good.
hmph, still not the field I'd enjoy writing myself lol.