5. What's a scene you read this year that sticks with you?
there's a scene in post-captain where jack and stephen are about to duel, having been at odds for the last 200 pages of the novel, but it gets interrupted by a huge and bloody firefight that leaves jack standing on the deck dripping in blood, and stephen gently goes "come, brother, come below" and i cannot even think about it without wanting to rend my garments t b h!!!!!!!!
21. How have you kept track of the books you read this year?
answered here but let me share a few more of my stupid one-liners from my spreadsheet:
and as a bonus please enjoy this run of books from 2023 <3
25. If you had to give a TEDTalk on a book you read this year, for better or worse, which would it be?
recency bias, since i just finished a few days ago, but: i NEED to get up on a podium and talk about the ten thousand doors of january, if only because i cannot figure out why it doesn't work. every part of it should sing to me but it's just disconnected enough to frustrate and enthrall me. i don't even care that much about this book; i understand why the plot didn't work for me, but i cannot figure out why on a technical level it fails!
top 5 Temeraire moments? either the dragon or the series (or both!).
god hell yes. i read the series so fast and in parts, so it all sort of blends together, so i'll do 10:
10. the fact that vici exists and she is in this universe's version of julius caesar. enrichment for the jc freaks (me) and mark antony whores (also me) in the crowd
9. iskierka and temeraire's first interaction that ends with her being like "you are so fucking BOSSY" and tem picks her up in his mouth because they need to start fleeing................all-time
8. spotting the temeraire (ship) with temeraire (dragon). augh. my heart.
7. the scene where laurence finds a shambling, mad old man and then realizes it's king george iii right after being given his nasty no-good orders and laurence hits us with that "o god, i wish i had not done it" AGONY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6. temeraire unionizing the breeding ground dragons, naturally. like my boy it truly did not take that long an unsupervised period for you to start a revolt, huh. jane making tem a commodore and lord wellington having to acknowledge his title is lowkey the epitome of the series to me.
5. there's a very sweet scene early on where laurence finds emily crying and takes her back to his room for a cup of chocolate. using this point to cheat and say and i also love waaaaay later in the series, when jane is a duchess and laurence sets emily up with a chaperone, where emily reveals just how much she's come to understand the way laurence has tried to raise her, and come to respect it because she respects him. his relationship with the rolands is by far my favorite after his with temeraire.
4. the dinner party where temeraire is present with both lord nelson and wilberforce—and they're using temeraire as a sounding board to make both their opinions known. i think the historical cameos could have been obnoxious, but they work really well and tell us a little more about the politics in this alt-history world.
3. there's a very good scene in book 9 where laurence finally gets back to england and is speaking to jane, and realizes just how badly he's been broken since he was shipped off to australia. the image of them chatting and reconnecting with excidium snoozing in the background is so dear 2 me. it made all my qualms with the books worth it
2. lady allendale meeting baby temeraire and both of them fussing over laurence, after pretty much everyone in england has turned a cold shoulder to him and tem......................😭😭😭😭😭😭
1. "i would rather have you than any ship in the Navy" PUT ME IN THE GROUND AND LEAVE ME TO DIE THERE!!!!!!!
my friend, I need to tell you that I've been in an endless cycle where which I keep telling myself I'm going to read your potc+Temeraire fics and then putting it off because I don't know Temeraire. and then I say to myself you don't have to know Temeraire to read it, just read it. and then I say ok I will read it but what if I read Temeraire first just to be safe. and the cycle continues
well, on my week off last week I decided to read Spinning Silver which promptly consumed my entire brain and I want to just chew on it for a while. and I was like ok at some point I will also need to read everything else Naomi Novik has ever written because goddamn that was SO good.
so I looked her up and, well. The Temeraire DilemmaTM has been decided for me! I greatly look forward to reading your fics in one to 14 business months once I have read the entire series!!! aaaaaaahhh!!!!!
oh my god i LOVE this for you. spinning silver is a modern classic To Me tbh and i find myself thinking about in idle moments like all the time 😭 irina my beloved wanda my beloved miryem my beloved
imo temeraire kinda jumps the shark after book 5, BUT! it's such a journey and considering its length, it's very readable. i was blitzing through books in a day each. also it's really interesting seeing how her ideas from this giant weird alt-history international series bleed over into her other books. i'm so jealous i wish i was experiencing it for the first time too </3
KEEP ME POSTED PLEASE!! i'm fighting the urge to reread it 24/7!
would you ever consider a fun fic snippet (or, you know, a full-on fic, like if it happens it happens you know) in which phryne and jack are in a POTC au, and/or one in which elizabeth and james are solving murders in 1920s australia? i lay these ideas at your feet to do with what you wish!
OH I HAVE CONSIDERED BOTH, BELIEVE YOU ME. the latter is one of those things that make me want to read a million nonfiction books just so i can write 2000 words of accurate historical fiction. i just think elizabeth would have so much fun looking at dead bodies wearing the prettiest clothes in centuries. and james would love both automobile chases and traffic law.
as for the former, this one somehow splits my brain even more—the fishers' sudden surge to peerage would be so unheard of in the 18th century...which makes it way funnier actually. henry fisher being made governor just to get him out of england would be hysterical. and phryne would figure out barbossa's deal in 3 seconds flat and be off the pearl swimming to port royal on her own, so maybe...maybe it's dot getting kidnapped, and hugh running off after her, and phryne and jack running after them??
there's an extra level of fun in that neither she nor jack would be inclined to believe ghost stories?? so they're trying to be rational about it in a fundamentally irrational world? this fucks.
i put this in my drafts a week ago to write a thing abt it and it got a little out of hand, so uh. here you are:
--
To Phryne’s relief and utter unsurprise, Marine Lieutenant Robinson and dear Sergeant Collins are in the town square—or, rather, what remains of it after the raid. By the dust on their gaiters they have been here some time already.
“Miss Fisher,” Jack greets, with a bow from the shoulders.
Phryne sets her parasol back behind her head and smiles. It is just them and the dead here, still beneath the sheets laid on the cobblestone; she does not bother with a curtsy. “What news, Lieutenant?”
“Dottie’s not here,” Hugh says, hoarse, gesturing to the bodies. “I mean—you know she’s not here. She’s not dead. Not dead here, anyway.”
“And hopefully not dead anywhere,” Phryne says gently. “We shall not rest until every ship we can get is out looking for her, Hugh.”
Hugh nods, and swallows, and turns back to his task: clearing charred bits of the storefront that had exploded under the pirates’ fire. Jack is crouched, carefully lifting one corner of a sheet to examine the body below.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Jack,” Phryne notes.
He glances up at her, weary from the long night and early morning. He is rather pale against his uniform, the red dye fading in the sun though it is.
“Perhaps I have,” Jack says dryly.
He stands and offers her his arm, steering her to a quieter corner of wreckage; Phryne angles the parasol so they might have more privacy.
“Did you notice anything unusual in the fighting last night?” he asks. “Assuming you were, of course, in the fighting last night.”
Phryne had been, of course she had. And she regrets it every moment of this morning that passes; if she had stayed home, she might have prevented Dot’s kidnapping. She does not need to voice such regrets to Jack, who watches her with his usual quiet understanding, and asks her to reveal only what he has asked.
“Now that you mention it,” she says, tapping his arm where she still holds it, “there was no blood. I switched to breeches specifically to avoid getting blood on my petticoats, but there was no blood, Jack. Not on my sword, not on my clothes.”
To his credit, Jack only glances at the hems of her skirts for a moment. “I nearly took a man’s arm off last night—cleft to the bone—and as you said, there was no blood. And there are no pirates among the dead so far, not a one.”
“What are you saying, Jack?”
He huffs, something exasperated between a sigh and a laugh. “I hardly know,” he admits. “I was hoping the present company might have more of an opinion.”
“Why, me? An opinion?”
“Forgive me if it is too bold to ask; I thought I might solicit your daring, as well.”
Phryne laughs, and is glad to laugh. “Well, there is only one conclusion to draw,” she says. She squeezes his arm. “Could they be cursed?”
“If God has any pity on us here down below, no,” Jack says immediately. He tilts his head down at her. “You don’t think the curse of the Black Pearl can be taken with any veracity, do you, Miss Fisher? You cannot be so desperate.”
“No. They are men, acting as men; of that I am certain.” But she glances over her shoulder at poor Collins, rubbing the back of his neck as he stares at the faceless forms of the bodies. “But something is very wrong here, Jack. Why would they take the companion of the governor’s daughter, and not the daughter herself? I worry.”
He follows her gaze. “We all do,” he says.
Phryne sighs. “Well! I shall not keep you from your work,” she says, releasing him, “and I know you are, of course, bound to the commands of your captain. But should a vessel, of an independent charter, choose to depart this harbor with the next favorable tide—coinciding, perhaps, with the conclusion of your duties—could your services be relied upon?”
“In my official capacity as a Royal Marine,” Jack says carefully, “I can make no promises.”
“And as a private citizen?”
“I can make no promises,” he repeats, but his eyes glitter, like sun off the water.
Phryne smiles. “See you at high tide?”
He inclines his head, and turns on his heel to return to his sergeant.
