The Eagle of the Ninth (Sutcliff)

[cahn]

So first: I am reading the Aeneid! Slowly, but I am totally doing it. I plan to post on three (or so) of the subbooks (there are twelve) per week, which will make me actually read it. So far, I quite like it, although it's definitely, umm, quite different from Les Miserables.

And now for something completely different... I have never read any Sutcliff, unless you count probably having read one of her Arthurian retellings (but if so, it was so long ago I'm actually not sure!) So sineala posted a review of Frontier Wolf that made me decide I had to read it! (Note: review has massive spoilers which I did not read; I just read the first part, which only has spoilers for Bujold's Memory and Diane Duane's Deep Wizardry, both of which I've already read.) But since it was in transit, I went to the library and got Eagle of the Ninth while I was waiting.

Reading this book was a very odd experience. It was as if someone took basically all my most-loved tropes ever (friendship-partnership, family, gruff relative with heart of gold, honor, sacrifice, setting what you love free, have I mentioned friendship? that instant when you connect with someone and know you're going to be friends) and wrapped it in language that both reminded me of all the books I loved as a child and all the books that have moved me since, and set it in Roman Britain, which also, you know, is one of Those Things in my life due to a misspent youth of reading Arthuriana...

That is to say, I adored this book and found myself getting all emotional every chapter or so and I am not sure I could even tell you why. D walked by near the end, when my face was all screwed up with intense emotion, and he said, "Sad book, eh?" and I said, "No... no... not exactly..."

"Really bad book?"

"No! It's really good! If it were really bad, I'd be laughing..."

Comments

[sineala]

Hooray for the Aeneid and Eot9! I am really glad you liked the book so much!

[cahn]

I honestly didn't expect to! :) It was really surprising, the almost violent positive reaction I had to it. I'm so psyched for Frontier Wolf now! (It came! It came! Although it's a couple of books behind on my reading list... I suspect what is going to happen is that I will sneak chapters from time to time until I get hooked and snarf it all down in one night. Which, uh, might have been what happened with Eot9.)

[sineala]

Mostly I wish I had been reading these books as a kid; I think I missed out.

Also for me the CANNOT STOP READING THIS BOOK moment in Frontier Wolf was about halfway through, if you're looking to determine how much time to free up.

[cahn]

Yeah. I really wish I'd picked these up as a kid. If I had been a kid, I can tell these would have been the sort where I would always have had one out from the library and got them all dog-eared... (hi Susan Cooper and L'Engle!)

[luzula]

Oh hey, so glad you're enjoying Eagle of the Ninth! I am slowly making my way through the various Sutcliff books and loving them.

[cahn]

I think I am going to have to do this too! Where have these books been all my life? :) (Well, probably sitting at the library. But still, how did I not know about them?)

[philomytha]

Sutcliff was one of my formative authors - our school library had all her books and I devoured them all - and they're all chock-full of tropes I adore. Mostly about loyalty and sacrifice and honour and friendship :-).

Also the Aeneid, wow, it's been years since I read that. I'll be curious to read your comments and see how much I remember about it.

[cahn]

Heeeee, and I can totally tell that from your (totally wonderful) fic, too :) (Now that you mention it, I love your fic for exactly all those tropes!) I really wish I had gotten to this as a kid and had Sutcliff as a formative author and had this around my whole life...

I'm excited to finally read the Aeneid! I'm reading the Sarah Ruden translation, which I really like -- I started it pretty much right when my kid was born, which, surprise, turned out to be a terrible idea, and I stalled out somewhere in Book 4 or 5. I'm really hoping to get through it this time, though!