Purple Dreams, by Ide Cyan

[siubhan.livejournal.com]

Title: Purple Dreams
Author: Ide Cyan
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: S/M
Warnings: violent sex
Author's email: speb@dmeb.net
Link to story: Purple Dreams

Reasons for recommending: Portrait of Maul as a brutal codependent. Chilling and effective. It'll creep you out and break your heart all at the same time.

Quote from the story:
Training to acquire the skills of a Sith Lord had exacted long and painful years from his youth. It had consumed his mind and formed it into a tool and a weapon, much as his body had, but twisted it rather than exalted it. For all his intelligence, Maul had few dreams of his own. Tradition had chosen his dreams for him, and the sole perpetrator of the dark lore upon Maul's very essence was -- had always been -- Sidious. Independent thought arises from a detachment from safety, from an upset of desire, a tremor running in the foundations. Maul was a pure construct of fear. His fear of his master, his fear of abandonment, his fear of the worlds, of the universe from which every Sith has always been alienated, for the past thousand years.

This week's pro publishing pimping will be for China Miéville. His first book, King Rat, is an interesting mix of London youth and sewer mythology, but he really shines in his second and third books: Perdido Street Station and The Scar. Both are set in the same fantastical world, a world that's gritty and harsh and incredibly unfair, where people are "remade" when they commit crimes, and by "remade," I mean physically (and cruelly). Both books are massive tomes, but don't let that scare you. They're both worth your investment of time. (And he does have a fourth book out, but it just came out in hardback so I haven't read it yet.)

Comments

[splix.livejournal.com]

Can I ask you a question? Why are you pimping professional fiction on a fanfic rec community?

[siubhan.livejournal.com]

As you might have noticed, I've been putting it at the end of my actual fanfic recs, so it's something of a P.S. to the fic recs themselves. I didn't think it would bother anyone if I tacked it at the end. If it's bugging anyone else, I'll start putting them behind lj cuts.

But as for why, there's a couple of reasons. One, because in my fanfic days, I was so wrapped up in reading fan writing that I missed out on a whole host of incredible professionally published work, and I'm still struggling to catch up. I want to make sure other fanfic readers don't fall into the same trap. Two, because I'm currently working to become a published writer, and I'm trying to spread out the karma.

[splix.livejournal.com]

I'd wondered why. It doesn't seem relevant to the actual purpose of the community, but I'm not the mod. Perhaps darththalia should be consulted.

[siubhan.livejournal.com]

Feel free. If she says it's inappropriate, I'll stop.