Ficlet: Saltwater Echoes (Mirage - Louise Cooper)

[thisbluespirit]

Hello, hello, here's another ficlet for what I happened to be reading/watching/otherwise consuming (that I've been doing sometimes to kickstart me writing again). This one is for a very obscure 1980s standalone fantasy novel, the main other of Louise Cooper's books that I've retained a fondness for - it always felt like there was a lot left to be played with in the setting of Haven, and all its had eroded away from it, but I don't think it's connected to any of her other books or anything.

Anyway, a coda for 100fandoms prompt #25 salt:

Saltwater Echoes (631 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Mirage - Louise Cooper
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: DiMag/Simorh (Mirage)
Characters: DiMag (Mirage), Simorh (Mirage), Gamora (Mirage)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Coda, Loss, Grief/Mourning, Community: 100fandoms, Ficlet
Summary: Salt is for healing as well as for bitterness.

(I don't imagine it'd make much sense without having read the book, and I'm the only person I've ever met who's read it, so, lol, but nevertheless I always thought there SHOULD be fic, so I can feel accomplished, I suppose!)

Comments

[lirazel]

Ooooh, do you have the time/energy to sell me a little bit on the original book?

[thisbluespirit]

It's a bit of random standalone sff book from 1987, but I do really like the setting in it, and it's not (afaik) part of her other series. I don't think there's too much really off in it (but 1987 fantasy, you know how it goes; I re-read it recently but I don't count on myself to remember ANYTHING some days).

It's just all the sense that Haven has so much lost history (language, gods) as well as other losses and it seems like an intriguing setting that she could easily have returned to and explored more. The actual book is mostly from the pov of the reincarnated ancient hero who's been brought back to save it but can't remember who he is, isn't who they think he is, and doesn't know if they're worth saving, and once that's done it's over, but Haven being all eroded by the sea has stuck in my mind all these years. I don't honestly know if that's a rec or not! I liked Louise Cooper a lot at the time, because she was different to the endless boy and his sword fantasy trilogies, but there's more variety all round now.

It's isn't very long, by fantasy novel standards, anyway, but I also would highly doubt that there's an ebook! She died a few years ago (comparatively young) and her books are mainly OOP and pre-ebook era. They're easy enough to come by secondhand online in the UK, and even on occasion out in the wild, but idk if that's true elsewhere.

[theseatheseatheopensea]

This also intrigued me, so I went looking, and I think I've found it?

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, that's the one! No official ebook, then, I should have said, clearly! XD (These pirates get everywhere... I see there's the first three Indigo books and some of the rest of the saga, too.)

[theseatheseatheopensea]

XD Which ones would you recommend?

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, I think you might enjoy Indigo! They take a while to get going (the first book is fine, but it is in many ways all prologue!) and the second book is a little more horror-y than I like, but the rest are all v interesting in different ways.

They are set in what seems to be a sort of geomagnetically reversed version of our world, and are a Pandora's box retelling at base - Princess Anghara releases a bunch of demons from their prison and is doomed to walk the world unaging until she has defeated each demon, so each book has a different setting facing a different demon, and I like all the different settings, but most importantly, she picks up a companion on this quest, who is a telepathic outcast wolf called Grimya. (And, not to be spoilery, but basically, endgame relationship is Indigo & Grimya BFFs forever, and Grimya is the best, and also nothing is exactly as it seems about the premise. idk know what you will make of the rest, but I am pretty sure you will like Grimya! <3)

(I'm reccing Indigo, yes. Why rec one book, when you can rec 8? But some of her later books were kind of weird sometimes, and I've never been so into the Time Master ones as other people were, although I do like them as well, and they're her most famous ones.)

Indigo Saga:

1. Nemesis
2. Inferno
3. Infanta
4. Nocturne
5. Troika
6. Avatar
7. Revenant
8. Aisling

[theseatheseatheopensea]

Ohh, thank you!! *adds to list*

[lirazel]

Oooh, that sense of loss history really sounds intriguing! I've added it to my to-read list, so maybe I'll stumble across a copy in a shop one day. Thanks!

[thisbluespirit]

I mean, it's a background thing, but it does give it a particular atmosphere, I think all the more for not being fixed or recovered or anything by the end.

theseatheseatheopensea seems to have discovered some, ahem, less official ebooks of some of hers, including Mirage, if you see their comment, too! <3

[theseatheseatheopensea]

And here it is, available to borrow at Archive.org.

[lirazel]

:D