kryptaria replied to your post: F, O, W! intoteacups F: What’s your favorite book?…
Ok, I have to ask. The very, very ending of Coldfire. What did you think of it? I actually remember feeling profoundly betrayed to the point where I struggle to reread the series.OH MY GOD KRYPTARIA YOU KNOW COLDFIRE?!
I am so excited! I AM NOT ALONE.
But yeah, the ending. ’Betrayed’ is about right. I may have finished the book at 3:45 am on a school night during high school, and then thrown it across the room.
I have never been happy with that ending. It has never felt right to me, not like a true ending. It feels like she wrote herself into a corner and couldn’t figure out the real ending, so she settled for that half-assed version. It was especially frustrating because I could see it coming about halfway through Crown of Shadows, and I kept telling myself, “No, she’ll pull this out. She’s got an idea I’m not thinking of.”
But nope.
But good goddamn, the rest of that series was so much everything I’ve ever wanted that I’ve never been able to mind too much. I do still turn it over in my head sometimes, though, searching for the ending that would’ve worked.
I’ve read some of her other books, though, and I have to admit that while Friedman is great at really getting into the psychological threads of her stories and doing some really cool things there, I don’t think that plotting is her strong suit. Her stories always seem a little…um…loose? Like if you could actually see the weave of them, she’d have a lot of tangles and wobbly bits and dropped strands.
I LOVE YOU! MARRY ME!
Coldfire was a revelation to me. It just dug its claws into my imagination and refused to let go. There were times when I couldn’t breathe, I was so caught up in it. I was so enthralled by Gerald and his relationship with Damien, to the point where it felt like Ciani was constantly in the way of the fic progressing. And this was long, long before I thought of slash. Their relationship was just so profound, and then at the end… ugh.
And yes, I, too, threw the book across the room. I distinctly remember sitting in my first apartment here in Phoenix and being utterly infuriated. It was a hardcover, too. Dented the drywall.
In Conquest Born. I’m really iffy on the sequels, but In Conquest Born – the whole Braxin culture – is almost as good. (The Wilding, eh.) The Azeans were a bit transparent, but the Braxin… just wow.
And who couldn’t love Frederick in The Madness Season? I desperately want a Frederick plushie, because SO CUTE.
This is me flailing and fangirling and loving you forever.
YES EXACTLY ALL OF THIS. In Conquest Born was so interesting for the intensity of the tension between the two main characters. I seldom see the attraction of hate-sex or revenge!ships, but boy, did she ever capture it. And the Braxins were fascinating. They still haunt me. In fact, elements of that often come to mind when I’m thinking about omegaverse.
Uuuuuuuuuuugh The Madness Season. I think it was her strongest work. I LOVE IT SO. Such a creative take on vampires, and Frederick, you little jewel. <3
But Jesus Christ, Damien and Gerald. I…may have stolen Gerald’s name and eyes for a character, one time (though he in no other way resembled Gerald). And there may be a fair sight more than a little bit of those two in the Sherlock/John dynamic, as well. ^_^
*makes room in the clubhouse* Come in, come in! I have tea on!
For those of you who just sat up and went, “Wait, whoa, what’re they talking about?”: the author’s name is C. S. Friedman, and the books of the Coldfire Trilogy are Black Sun Rising, When True Night Falls, and Crown of Shadows. Brace yourself for the ending. Even better, when you finish, come back here and we’ll hug you and reassure that it was stupid and it doesn’t count and ANYWAY WHO CARES BECAUSE WHAT ABOUT THAT SCENE WHERE DAMIEN DARES GERALD’S SWORD TO EAT HIS SOUL.