Ancient Recs: Full Fathom Five
Dec. 9th, 2009 11:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anteros_lmcTitle: Full Fathom Five
Author: Anais
Characters: Horatio Hornblower / Archie Kennedy, Henry Clayton
Rating: I've seen this rated PG but I doubt it.
Setting: The Duel / The Even Chance
I've come across this on a couple of rec lists and I adore it. Full Fathom Five is set in and around Justinian after Horatio comes on board and sometime before Simpson returns. Horatio and Archie are very much boys here and behave as such. Horatio in particular is much more light hearted and affable than is usually the case. Archie by contrast is considerably more ambiguous but not at all unsympathetic. He clearly believes himself to be complicit in Simpson's crimes and has developed disturbing survival strategies. Here is a very damaged young man, but not so damaged as to be beyond repair.
This is one of those rare fics that manages to swing from funny to disturbing and back again without ever descending into bathos. The passages where Horatio teaches Archie to swim are particularly touching, in marked contrast to Archie's shocking response when Clayton startles him in the ally.
The author has wonderful timing and turn of phrase. I particularly like her description of standing watch as "the coldest, most monotonous occupation in all of the freezing boredoms devised by His Majesty's Navy." Her description of Horatio on his first shore leave "looking like he'd been starched and ironed" also made me laugh and Archie has some genuinely funny lines throughout.
My only slight quibble with this fic is that, like Mr Kennedy, I find it hard to believe that someone as purportedly intelligent as Horatio, and a doctor's son to boot, could be so woefully naive. Mind you, given that this provide Archie with the opportunity to relieve him of said naivety, I'm really not going to complain. And oh my but the revelations are glorious!
This is the only piece I've come across by this author and a rec I read somewhere suggested that she had no interest in either finishing it or writing more. It's a crying shame because this is one of the best I've read.
Author: Anais
Characters: Horatio Hornblower / Archie Kennedy, Henry Clayton
Rating: I've seen this rated PG but I doubt it.
Setting: The Duel / The Even Chance
I've come across this on a couple of rec lists and I adore it. Full Fathom Five is set in and around Justinian after Horatio comes on board and sometime before Simpson returns. Horatio and Archie are very much boys here and behave as such. Horatio in particular is much more light hearted and affable than is usually the case. Archie by contrast is considerably more ambiguous but not at all unsympathetic. He clearly believes himself to be complicit in Simpson's crimes and has developed disturbing survival strategies. Here is a very damaged young man, but not so damaged as to be beyond repair.
This is one of those rare fics that manages to swing from funny to disturbing and back again without ever descending into bathos. The passages where Horatio teaches Archie to swim are particularly touching, in marked contrast to Archie's shocking response when Clayton startles him in the ally.
The author has wonderful timing and turn of phrase. I particularly like her description of standing watch as "the coldest, most monotonous occupation in all of the freezing boredoms devised by His Majesty's Navy." Her description of Horatio on his first shore leave "looking like he'd been starched and ironed" also made me laugh and Archie has some genuinely funny lines throughout.
My only slight quibble with this fic is that, like Mr Kennedy, I find it hard to believe that someone as purportedly intelligent as Horatio, and a doctor's son to boot, could be so woefully naive. Mind you, given that this provide Archie with the opportunity to relieve him of said naivety, I'm really not going to complain. And oh my but the revelations are glorious!
This is the only piece I've come across by this author and a rec I read somewhere suggested that she had no interest in either finishing it or writing more. It's a crying shame because this is one of the best I've read.
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Date: 2016-05-23 01:55 pm (UTC)