Beyond the Roundels

Challenge #6: In your own space, rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create.

I thought I'd follow up yesterday's post with recs for my very obscure fandoms, mostly written for me, because people are kind - but not always! So here we go:

The Shadow of the Tower
(Given the nature of the fandom, most of these can be read as straight historical RPF if you are interested in WotR/early Tudors.)

The Endris Night by ancarett
G, 2140 words. Elizabeth of York/Henry VII.) What is life at the court? Is it all plots and planning or is it something more? Elizabeth brings her own strengths as she prepares to marry the new king.

Not strictly marked with the canon, but written for me and ancarett clearly used the SotT portrayals of the two. This is a lovely, tentative beginning for a royal relationship.


Seven Sevens by allegoriesinmediasres
(Teen, 593 words. Catherine of Aragon, Arthur Tudor, Henry VIII, Margaret Tudor, Mary I, Henry VII, Elizabeth of York.) 1501. Seven sevens will command your life.

Clever ficlet taking one of Catherine of Aragon's scenes in the series as a starting point.


A Falcon at Stoke Field by kaffy_r
(Teen, 926 words. Lambert Simnel.) One name had been left behind, the next was never his to begin with. In the aftermath of Stoke Field, Lambert Simnel chooses a new identity.

Excellent look at Lambert Simnel in the aftermath of Stoke (& a great little episode tag for Ep4).


Into the Light by theseatheseatheopensea
(G, 1698 words. The Prisoner, Silver, Copper.) There is a method to what they do—to what they are. There is something about time—a prodigious mystery, an immensity, an unimaginable infinity, and he finds it again. He has always been here, after all. And he will be here again. And they will always be here, keeping time moving forward, safely, as it should. After the fire, Copper finds some answers.

Crossover with Sapphire & Steel. Eerie and beautiful timey-wimey look at the Prisoner's fate in episode 5, which may or may not be bound up with some "Elements."


Whose Bitter Tears by misura
(G, 906 words. John de la Pole Earl of Lincoln, Henry VII.) Lincoln receives an unexpected visitor in Dublin.

Lincoln says that Henry Tudor is in is very heart in the lead-up to Stoke, and here's a brilliantly in-tone look at one of the forms that feeling might take.


Fanart by liadt - the serious, a lovely drawing of Henry & Elizabeth from one of my stories and the glorious crack with bonus Time Travelling Spies (and anachronistic underpants).


Department S
One Cold Knight by swordznsorcery
(G, 5888 words. Annabelle Hurst, Stewart Sullivan, Jason King, Sir Curtis Seretse, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Liz Shaw.) For Fandom Stocking. The Department S gang team up with UNIT.

Crossover with Doctor Who. UNIT and Department S's work inevitably collides in this wonderful pitch-perfect casefic.


The Highgate Vampire by theseatheseatheopensea
(G, 1000 words. Annabelle Hurst, Jason King, Stewart Sullivan, Silver.) Highgate, North London. December 1969. Fragments from a very straight-forward case. (Or: a case told in 10 drabbles.)

Crossover with Sapphire & Steel. Brilliant drabble fic of a case that's even weirder than usual for Department S, plus important cravat envy.


King or Country by Timeless-A-Peel
(Teen, 6321 words. Jason King, Tara King, Martin King, John Steed.) 1972. Tara King receives an unexpected visit from a distant relative.

Crossover with The Avengers. More properly Jason King (the sequel serial), but still excellent - Jason King is, as it turns out, distantly related to Tara King - and every so often, they can find ways to help each other out.


(There are no works for The Power Game not by me, but I'll stop moaning now. ;-p)

My last Reading Weds was in November last year, and before that in June, and, as I said, I got a bit weird about not wanting to talk about the books I was reading in case I stopped being able to read them, or I wasn't being fair to them anyway because of not taking things in, but if I don't write these entries I forget everything about almost everything I read, and it is nice to chat, and I think I should at least try again.

What I've Finished Reading

Of note (one way or another) since November, I got Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold for Christmas from a friend and enjoyed that very much (as I mentioned to hamsterwoman. I'm not actually sure which of the two Chalion books I enjoyed the most, in the end. Maybe a little more the first, because of all the world building, but it was good to follow Ista's story as well.

I got around to reading The Dragon and the Rose by Roberta Gellis, which I think I must have found in the magic free book shop when it was still here - it is famous in tumblr Henry VII/Elizabeth of York fandom as it is a 1970s historical novel that is only just shy of a Henry/Elizabeth romance novel. It was enjoyably bad; I could not part with it afterwards. I mean, it's not the sort of thing you find every day in a charity shop.

Another from the TBR pile was Black is the Colour of My True Love's Heart, one of Ellis Peters's contemporary murder titles. It wasn't as memorable as a good Cadfael installment (it was a later one, but there was very little to illuminate the main detective and his family), but it was really lovely as ever & a good read, and the guest characters were vivid. I'm not sure why I'd always avoided her modern ones before being ill, but clearly I shall make amends on that score now if I can.

In other murder mysteries, I read the last two Adelia Aguilar books, Relics of the Dead and The Assassin's Prayer (but the series was new to me), which were 12th C historical murder books. The first was set in Glastonbury, Somerset, so I enjoyed that one more than the second. Somerset settings are surprisingly rare, so I treasure them when they come along. They both edged a little more to the thriller than the detective story in places for my taste, but they were lively and I enjoyed them. (Adelia was a little too much Not Like the Other 12th Century People, but at least she had decent reasons for it.) I enjoyed the second slightly less because it wasn't set in Somerset and had a murderer POV (although to be fair it was helpfully marked out in italics so I could skip all of it very easily), but, as I said, I enjoyed both of them and could read them pretty easily, which is the most important thing these days.

Also from the TBR pile, I had picked up Greenmantle by John Buchan, one of his Dick Hannay books, which was also surprisingly lively and readable with a nifty turn of phrase, although it was written in 1916 with a particular voice and seemed to be trying for an offensiveness bingo (it succeeded) that made Golden Age detective writers suddenly look like paragons of restraint in that department, especially in the first third. But overall, it was interesting, and I'm glad to have read at least one his oeuvre. It was not anywhere near as good as the 1936 film of The 39 Steps, though. No handcuffed-together shenanigans here!


What I'm Reading Now

I found another Daisy Dalrymple on the charity bookstand at Tesco! (The bookstand keeps moving about alarmingly, worrying me that Tesco have taken it away, but, no, just moved it again. Happily they've at least realised that maybe outside the loos was not in fact ideal, after a fancy noticeboard displaced it from where it had been for three years.) Anyway, this one is a later one, The Bloody Tower (set in the Tower of London, as you may imagine) and obviously Daisy has immediately fallen over the dead body of a beefeater, much to her Scotland Yard DCI husband Alec's embarrassment. (He is, though, resigned to it by now. It is just Fate that wherever Daisy goes corpses crop up in her wake.)

I haven't got much further, but it's nice to have a familiar friend in my hands again, as it were.

What I'm Reading Next

One never knows, meme! I am, though, having the curious pleasure of actually being able to read almost anything I pull off the TBR pile, though, so maybe something off that. I feel highly wary of this lasting, though. Maybe I'll find something else at Tesco, or re-read something, so you never can tell.

I sid yesterday that I had finished two stories recently, and this is the second - a 500 Prompts fic for allegoriesinmediasres.

blue is the colour (1858 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Shadow of the Tower, 15th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Elizabeth of York Queen of England/Henry VII of England, Margaret Beaufort & Elizabeth of York Queen of England, Margaret Beaufort & Elizabeth of York Queen of England & Henry VII of England
Characters: Elizabeth of York Queen of England, Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII of England
Additional Tags: 500 prompts, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Arranged Marriage, Trust Issues
Summary:

Elizabeth of York in shades of blue across the years.

What with all this uncanny James Maxwell activity, it seemed almost ungrateful not to write a Shadow of the Tower prompt, so I did. (For dimity_blue, who now tells me that she has also dreamt of JM in the last few days; in her case she was bringing me a signed Christmas card and a bauble with his face on through snowy Regency woods. I've said I'm not at all sure I want the bauble, but she says it is my doom. But in the meantime, here's fic:)


Title: Legend’s Ending
Author: thisbluespirit
Rating: Teen
Word Count: ~1300
Characters/Pairings: Henry VII/Elizabeth of York, Jasper Tudor
Notes/Warnings: Canonical character death. (Spoilers: it’s history, they all die). Also (by a slight metaphorical cheat) for hc_bingo square “sensory deprivation.”
Summary: Elizabeth surrenders everything; it’s how she’ll win in the end.

For dimity_blue in the 500 Prompts Meme: 038 – Close your eyes – Henry VII/Elizabeth of York (The Shadow of the Tower).

At AO3 | ( Legend's Ending )

Title: All the Hounds of Hell
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 2736
Characters/Pairings: Henry VII, Ace McShane, Seventh Doctor, Jasper Tudor
Notes/Warnings: Written for hc_bingo square “culture shock” and from a random characters meme that suggested Henry VII and Ace on a date - not that this could count as a date, except possibly by certain Ace-specific definitions. (I default to The Shadow of the Tower versions, because I do, but that’s otherwise irrelevant, really.) Set sometime in Brittany in the early 1470s.
Summary: Henry Tudor is used to people wanting him dead, but they don’t usually send the hounds of hell after him to accomplish it. Luckily, there’s a very odd girl looking out for him…

Also at AO3 and the Teaspoon (when it's verified).

( All the Hounds of Hell )

I started this ages ago & then found it again just now, and have finished it off & here it is! (I think I'd done it because I only semi-did this meme last time, and then everyone else did it properly and I thought I should too. Looking at the results, obviously I was right.)

The characters are:
Frank Marker (Public Eye)
Cora Mills (OUaT)
G'Kar (Babylon 5)
Twelfth Doctor
Ace (DW)
Steel (Sapphire & Steel)
Miss Marple
Liz Shaw (DW)
Henry VII (Shadow of the Tower/Hist. RPF)
Cally (B7)
Silver (S&S)
Belle (OUaT)


( And the resulting questions )

So I decided it would be better to make icons for the BBC's old 1972 serial about Henry VII, Shadow of the Tower than to babble about it. And then I had too much fun, as you can see, with eps 1-5 (& hopefully I'll do the rest in a second post).


Teaser:



( To the usurper, every man is dangerous... to the true king, no one is )

Isn't it funny how, regardless of all of today's technological marvels, I can still be made very happy by the arrival of a simple thing from the 1970s?

( Very old TV tie-in material )

Or: I am all excited!

Somebody has put all of Shadow of the Tower up on YouTube! (I know, copyright etc., but I had to buy a Dutch edition, because there's no UK version, thanks 2Entertain for that. There is a Region 1 version). Also, because unlike some things also up there (the amazing Elizabeth R which everybody should watch unless they really hate old TV and Duchess of Duke Street, which features another 1970s actress being awesome all the way through. Glenda Jackson and Gemma Jones, both so amazing in different ways. ♥) Shadow of the Tower isn't something I could honestly recommend anyone buy. Because I think I liked it because I'm me. Other people probably wouldn't.

But, eeee, okay, if you want to see the only film/tv dramatisation of the life of Henry VII, a much-overlooked period of history, understand why I suddenly had a thing for James Maxwell (well, you may just wonder at my strangeness) and why the last episode went and made me ship Henry VII/Elizabeth of York (damn you 1970s BBC, how could you do that to me?) or, as some people on my flist who aren't me (honestly) would appreciate, you want to see David Collings be yet another deluded Tudor traitor who gets tortured in the Tower (it happened to him in Elizabeth R as well), here it is!

So, before someone takes them away:

1. Crown in Jeopardy & you can find the rest easily from here, or select from the user's uploads.

However, it's done in what really amounts to 13x 50 min one-act plays, so, here are some recs for individual eps:

3&4 (the Schooling of Apes/The Crowning of Apes are the two with David Collings in, but are also generally v good, covering Lambert Simnel and Lincoln's betrayal).
5. The Serpent and the Comforter. This was a really weird episode and I'm not quite sure they pulled it off, but I liked how they experimented and didn't just do a straight-forward BBC historical, so this one has Peter Jeffrey as a non-conformist about to be burned at the stake in a sort of battle with Henry for his soul. It's done as a morality play (everyone is just "The Prisoner", "The Guard" and "The King").
6. The White Hart (this one is Stanley's downfall, and one of the best episodes. Also the one where Margaret Beaufort tells Henry off because he can't go round executing all his in-laws. Ha.)
9. Do The Sheep Sin? (Perkin Warbeck/The Cornish Uprising. Cue shades of grey everywhere.)
11. The Strange Shapes of Reality. Another experimental one (although in this case, this means CSO everywhere; this is Not Good, although if you can see past that it's pretty clever). But if you didn't believe me about the 1972 gay kissing at the BBC, you can watch it here. I tell you the truth, honest.
13. The King Without A Face. (And then the BBC broke my heart and stamped on it. Thanks, BBC. It was a good episode, though. 12 is as well, but I'm getting to the point where I'm listing them all.)

Also, 7 & 8 are the really duff episoes, but 7 A Fly in the Ointment is the one where Peter Bowles is a Tudor spy-cum-assassin. It is a duff episode, though. Not enough Henry and I'm sure there's a whole scene where the guest cast are fighting hysteria. (I can't think of any other explanation for it).

You'll probably think I'm mad. You've all been watching shiny, pretty new TV that moves faster than the speed of mud. It spoils you for proper appreciation of stuff. ;-)

I should do a proper and sensible review of all my old TV watching at some point, instead of just flailing wildly and misleadingly about stuff, because there is a difference between things I liked for reasons and things that are really good and worth putting up with old TV limitations for. However, today I'm just flailing again, sorry. For some reason, I loved this one. Really, really, but I've no idea why.

Although not for everyone (justice_turtle, you would probably not be able to cope with all the 1970s/Tudor Bad Hair and Bad Wigs, sorry ;-p).

I made a proper fanvid for Shadow of the Tower (with thanks to akashasheiress who - accidentally - gave me the song and made it possible).


YouTube link in case embedding fails.
Henry/Elizabeth of York and the endless conspiracies and mistrust and the fragility of this new dynasty. (Some shots of, erm, rather fake death/blood and executions. Also death masks again. But not morbid like the vidlets.)

( Lyrics under the cut )

And I know, one day I'll do a fanvid that isn't really odd and obscure again.