Gardening at Night, by Torch

[mrshamill.livejournal.com]

Title: Gardening at Night
Author: Torch

Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Q/O

Warnings: None at all.

Author's e-mail, web site and/or LJ id: flambeau@strangeplaces.net, flambeau, http://www.strangeplaces.net/torch/
Link to story: http://www.masterapprentice.org/archive/g/gardening_night.html

Reasons for recommending: This one is a hard one. Yes, Torch is an excellent writer (and her pro stuff is good as well), and this story contains what is, for me, the most beautiful and honestly plot driven sex scene ever. That being said, however, this story, like a lot of Torch's stories, left me wanting more -- not more as in a continuation of the story, but more of something else quite indefinable. It makes me nuts trying to explain that, so I don't think I will, and anyway, it could well be just me.

I commend her for picking one POV and then staying with it; having just tried that myself, I know how hard (and how rewarding) that is. The aliens are fairly well defined within just a few succinct paragraphs, and the situation is clear and strong. I wish I knew why her stories are the equivalent of Chinese food for me, but I can't put my finger on it. At any rate, this is a beautiful story, and well worth the recommendation, regardless of my weird headspace.

Quote from story: "It will heal itself, now." Trying to brush the hair off his neck, Qui-Gon left a streak of dark brown earth instead. "Did you have fun in the trees, padawan?"

Obi-Wan looked down at himself, at his bare torso criss-crossed with scrapes from bark and branches, at his thin once-white drawstring pants, now ripped and covered with grass stains and mud, at his feet--he'd shielded the soles, but one nail was slowly turning purple. "I would prefer not to fight off terrorists in my sleepwear again, master. It feels rather undignified."

Comments

[thalia]

Aww. This might be my favorite TPM story ever; just thinking about it makes me smile.

That being said, however, this story, like a lot of Torch's stories, left me wanting more -- not more as in a continuation of the story, but more of something else quite indefinable.

That's interesting, because I know what you mean, and some of torch's stories do that to me, but not this one. I find Gardening to be beautifully complete and satisfying. Obviously, though, YMMV.

[gloriana.livejournal.com]

Absolutely the most infuriating thing about Torch is that English is not her first language. Don't you just hate her for that?

I do, because her wordchoice is one of the most striking aspects of her writing: the feel she has for the perfect word to build atmosphere and make her descriptions come alive. (It's interesting to see how much her writing has changed, as well, because recently she was doing Harry Potter, but with a much more detached, unemotional tone, leaving it to the audience to fill in the gaps themselves: she's obviously still pushing her envelope. Oh, and Terri, who does she write as professionally? I would definitely read her pro novels.)

I would also offer this story as a counter-example to Rita, who recently talked down to fangirl squeeing in stories. Earth-God Qui - please, give me more! Yummmm. And yet the complement in Obi-Wan is so cleverly set up, with him walking through the treetops, a god of air to balance Qui's god of earth.

The unsatisfactory thing? As it did for Thalia, this story read complete for me the first time through (and a few subsequent times since that). Could it have been, Terri, the lack of a declaration of feelings to go with the declaration of desire? Or the way the reason why the desire between them hadn't been declared before is conveniently shuffled out of the reader's viewpoint?

For me the intensity of the emotion, and the wealth of the description of place (and the way they both fed on each other) was enough to make up for any little elisions of that nature.

[mrshamill.livejournal.com]

I think if anyone were able to figure out why I feel like this, it would be you, Gloriana, as you seem capable of giving words to feelings much better than I. I will say, however, that of all her stories, this one feels the most complete to me, which is why I rec-ed it in the first place. And again, you might be right with the declaration business, because that feels right to me.

And as for pro-writers, as Ms. Lori has just pointed out to me, it was Tilt, not Torch, who was a pro-writer now (under Carol Meacham, and I do have her first book, and it's quite good).

I knew it was a 'T' name.

[capra-maritimus.livejournal.com]

Definitely one of my favourite fics. :D:D:D:D:D:D

Of course now I'll have to find something else to rec when the time comes! LOL