#josepha sherman

[oldschoolfrp]

"Eira's fortress was a thing of wonder. All of ice that great structure seemed: walls and bridges and upward-soaring towers." The bard Derwen encounters an ice castle in a fey realm, in Josepha Sherman's story "Eira" illustrated by Atanielle Annyn Noël (Dragon 93, January 1985)

[nevinslibrary]

Make It So Friday

Phew. Well, that was an ending. I mean, I don’t really believe the ending. And, there are two more books in the series. But, whew, what an ending.

This book has a few different plot lines running through it, and, I assume that they’ll get closer to each other as we get farther into the trilogy of books. But, here is where they start. There’s the present time issue that takes place about a year after the Dominion War has ended. Spock, Savvik (his wife in this book), and some others, including Chekov, have a new problem in town. One that has just obliterated a Romulan colony. They call themselves the Watraii, and only Chekov has ever had even a brief encounter with them. We don’t know who they are either. Then, there’s the past story, one where (I think) Spock is wearing a ‘coronet’ that is also a sort of journal/diary and is learning about a Vulcan’s life from around the time of Surak, when there was a great split and the Exiles left Vulcan in giant generation ships.

So, who are the Watraii, are the Exiles the Romulans, and, will the ending of this book be permanent or not (as is my guess). Ooh, can’t wait for the second book!!

You may like this book If you Liked: Captain to Captain by Greg Cox, The Romulan War by Michael A. Martin, or The Body Electric by David Mack

Exodus by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz

[movie--posters]

[maddie-grove]

Little Book Review: Child of Faerie, Child of Earth

Author: Josepha Sherman.

Publication Date: 1992.

Genre: Fantasy YA.

Premise: Graciosa, the emotionally neglected daughter of a lord in twelfth-century France, finds a friend in Percinet, the half-human son of a Faerie queen. She needs a friend, too, because her cold father is under the thrall of the evil Duchess Eglatine, who is wildly jealous of Graciosa’s beauty and just might have to kill her about it. 

Thoughts: “Graciosa and Percinet” was one of my favorite fairy tales in Andrew Lang’s The Red Fairy Book, which I devoured when I was eleven or so. Written by Madame d’Aulnoy in 1697, it’s not one of the better-known fairy tales, but it’ll probably feel familiar to anyone who’s read enough fairy tales or Greco-Roman myths. It’s essentially a mash-up of “Snow White” (a beautiful young girl is dispossessed/mistreated by a jealous stepmother) and “Cupid and Psyche” (a girl is separated from her true love and forced to perform a bunch of seemingly impossible tasks by a woman who hates her). What’s always charmed me about it, though, is the delicacy of the romance and the emotionally realistic obstacles that keep the protagonists from getting together until the end. Percinet loves Graciosa from the beginning, and is always trying to help her out; Graciosa loves Percinet back, but she’s afraid of acting on it because she’s afraid he’ll tired of her eventually, plus she’s reluctant to leave her father despite his lack of affection for her. Those are some real problems!

Josepha Sherman unfortunately doesn’t add much in her retelling. It only differs from the original in a handful of details, which creates a kind of literary uncanny valley effect (like when I had a dream about Glee back in 2011, and it was the same as normal Glee except they tried to introduce a new character who liked science, didn’t believe in God, and was boring). Worse, few of the details add much. To wit:

Graciosa has a pretty bad home life even before her father remarries, as she’s expected to run his estate with little help but constantly gets criticized for being incompetent. This is one of the few interesting changes; it made me sympathize with her immediately, and it ties in well with her reluctance to let go of an always-distant father.

Duchess Eglantine has captured a Faerie and uses them to do evil magic. This was enjoyably creepy, but underutilized.

Graciosa is wary of Percinet primarily because she’s afraid she’ll go to hell or get executed for heresy if she gets involved with Faeries or magic. Given that the historical setting is never strongly developed and nothing comes of Graciosa’s fears, this element felt half-baked. I’m not sure whether it checks out historically, either.

Graciosa and Percinet split up mid-story not just because she has trust issues and wants to be there for her father, but because she catches Percinet kissing a Faerie girl. He doesn’t really get it because Faerie mores are different, plus he and Graciosa aren’t together-together. Unlike some readers, I don’t think this ruins Percinet’s character, but it does turn their nuanced separation into something a lot more crude and petty.

Overall, I’d just suggest reading the original. Almost everything good in this novel is in the original, too.

Hot Goodreads Take: The language is foul (the characters sometimes say “damn”) and Percinet’s mom isn’t enough of a MILF in the illustrations. 

[fuckyeahromulans]

On Obsidian, the younger Ruanek had become entranced, courtesy of the then-hostage Dr. Leonard McCoy, by the subject of Terran horses, “those swift, exotic war-beasts.” The Romulan’s fascination had continued over the years; Spock had once, bemused by this oddity, even managed to send Ruanek an image of a racing horse, and received almost wistful thanks.

-Vulcan’s Heart by Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz

[honou-izzu]

Picard’s first impression on seeing Sarek, and Spock for the first time...

[oldschoolfrp]

Snow palace (Atanielle Annyn Noël, for Josepha Sherman's story "Eira," Dragon 93, January 1985)

[oldschoolfrp]

Two swan maidens escort Derwin into Eira's frozen fey realm (Atanielle Annyn Noël, for Josepha Sherman's story "Eira," Dragon 93, January 1985)