SGA BigBang Review

[oddegg]

Those of you who are into the Stargate Atlatis fandom are probably aware that the SGA BigBang 2008 is now live. 
Those of you who aren't are really missing out.

There have been a huge amount of amazing quality fics written by many talented people and this year the mods are trying something new and giving people a chance to write reviews. I offered to write one for Enthrall by Springwoof and Leah, a sequel to what I think is one of the best SGA fics I've read; Aegis, written by them for the 2007 BigBang and was incredibly pleased when they agreed.

The short review is: ITS AMAZING & WONDERFUL & BRILLIANT!!        
The longer (and more articulate) review is below.

Enthrall – a review

This review begins with a caveat, and that is that this will not be a critical review. It  will not be critique or a post-mortem or (god forbid) one of those soul-destroying analyses of text you had to do for English class.
It will, in fact, be more of a love letter – both for this fic in particular and for the verse that Springwoof and Leah have created in general, because I find it impossible to be either neutral or stand-offish in my appraisal – and praise – of their work.

I love the reality that these two authors have woven. It is world building at its best, with no slips or gaps of credibility to trip you up or jolt you out of the fantasy.
I have loved it since I read Aegis (which should be read before Enthrall) and I found characters that merged their series qualities seamlessly with original back-stories and powers and a story that perfectly changed canon timeline and plot into something rich and strange.

I loved this sequel, of course; loved it passionately, but we have to have a warning here. Because while Aegis ended on an upbeat note, with Enthrall the writers take us by the hand and lead us somewhere darker. Darker and pain-filled.

All the characters that Leah and Springwoof write, both canon and original, are fully fleshed and fully believable, and you become invested in them almost without noticing. But the SGA world is full of dangers not only to the body but to the mind and the heart as well, and the risk of being so involved is that you feel their pain too. We are off balance at the start, with the aftermath of Duranda bubbling under the surface, and we suffer Rodney’s fear and panic when he’s captured, we feel the cracks when he breaks. And the outsiders view doesn’t give us distance but merely adds an extra ache when we see that he’s still so much himself, even when he’s lost.

And while Rodney is lost and adrift, we also get to see the impact his absence has on the rest of Atlantis and on John in particular. This was one of my favourite aspects of Enthrall – with John’s reaction we are reminded that although he was getting better at the end of Aegis, he is still very much damaged and we see wounds that had begun to scar over torn open again with Rodney’s disappearance and what happens after it. There isn’t a quick fix here either; the work of Atlantis has to go on, presenting ever more opportunities for hurt, and one of the best parts is John’s transformation after being bitten by Elia. The wonderfully realised OC of Conroy is involved throughout this fic and here his presence and reactions, and John’s actions towards him, add up horribly into another layer of pressure on Sheppard. The consequences ring through the story to the end – and they ring true.

That is something that can be said about the whole fic – that it rings true – and the wonderful and complete sub-‘verse world that Rodney is placed in is an amazing example, but it can especially be said about the many and varied OC that Leah and Springwoof have created.
Some, like Conroy, have come through from Aegis and some, like Rodney’s captures, are new here, but you believe in all of them down to the bone. There are no stainless hero’s here; everyone is flawed and human, but there are no cut out villains either. Even the character of Athema, who I was happily killing off in a painful manner in my mind for daring to hurt Rodney, inspires a kind of twisted pity. And there are no also-rans with the canon characters – all of them written in a way that leaves you wanting to hear more from them.

I won’t spoil the ending for you by describing it, except to say that it’s beautiful. It’s peace and calm after the storm, and sunshine after the darkness.
It’s right. It’s hope, and beauty, but most of all it’s right.

Read this story. Read them all. Then re-read them.
You will be, oh – so glad you did, and your life will be that much poorer if you don’t.

 

Comments

[leahwoof.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for that wonderful review, Oddegg. You have honoured us both with what you've written, and I can only say that I'm incredibly happy that you enjoyed both stories that much.

Leah