A Smattering Of Biggleses
Sep. 23rd, 2024 06:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rosanicusHello, I call as I crawl from my cave (the cave is called 'being a primary school teacher')! I have read three Biggles/Gimlet books in the past fortnight and I have a few thoughts, which I will share below.
Biggles in the Orient
An absolutely cracking adventure yarn! I confess I have occasionally struggled with the WW2 books - Baltic is still only about 15% finished on my ereader, and while I love Spitfire Parade for introducing Bertie it's not exactly the strongest of the short story anthologies. This circumvented my apparent struggles here by having the whole plot set somewhere I know very little about, especially during WW2, and with a mystery with just enough red herrings to be satisfying to solve.
Biggles is under so much stress in this book and I can only hope that immediately post-book 666 Squadron get the leave they're owed and smother Biggles in a cuddle pile of some sort. Honestly it's been long enough since I read now that the details have faded somewhat but the scene where he discovers Moorven's crash has definitely stayed with me. He cares so deeply and so immediately about people and it's always a blessing and a curse!!
Gimlet Goes Again
It's been absolutely ages since I read King of the Commandos so it took me a while to rediscover the characters but I had a good enough time with this. The thing about Gimlet is he is absolutely never the POV character (as far as I remember, anyway) so he has this really odd, elusive quality to his character. I lovedtweague 's Gimlet&Bertie schoolfic so much for this exact reason - Gimlet is just genuinely inscrutable, and I find it a pretty compelling way to write a character. Unfortunately we also have Cub who is sort of Ginger but bloodthirsty, and Copper and Trapper who are respectively Cockney and Canadian and possibly gay but not much else. I liked that more of the Kittens appeared in this book but they didn't get much play since they were rescued so late. I don't know if I would recommend this series in general but the Biggles & Co cameo in this book definitely makes it a light recommendation to the fandom.
Biggles Foreign Legionnaire
Took me literal months to get past the first two chapters of this, then I read the last 160 pages in one sitting last night. It's a pretty fun read and has a number of excellent moments but I have to admit the experience as a whole left me a little cold. I wished there was more Marcel for one - especially since there's a bit of Marcel whump occurring offscreen! - and also that there was a little more Biggles POV than there ended up being. The entire sequence in Kurdistan was of course wonderful but again it felt slightly sterile, possibly because it starts so late and then has to be resolved within about thirty pages.
I enjoyed Ginger's point of view on Von Stalhein quite a bit, to be fair - especially the part where he notes that Von Stalhein seems to think, just for a moment, that Biggles has shot at him and looks genuinely a bit upset - but AGAIN I just feel like it wasn't enough. I know I have my shipping blinders on for this but I just always want more flirting, okay, and there was barely any! On the plus side I finally have context for a number of fics I read back when I first joined the fandom a year and a half ago (holy shit), so those will be due a reread soon.
Next on the docket is Murder by Air, becauseblack_bentley reminded me Steeley exists and I need to get back on the Steeley polycule wago. For my health. Incidentally, I now have a 'Teacher Reads' display bit in my classroom and am slowly getting over the embarrassment of being honest about it (three Johns in a row...).
Biggles in the Orient
An absolutely cracking adventure yarn! I confess I have occasionally struggled with the WW2 books - Baltic is still only about 15% finished on my ereader, and while I love Spitfire Parade for introducing Bertie it's not exactly the strongest of the short story anthologies. This circumvented my apparent struggles here by having the whole plot set somewhere I know very little about, especially during WW2, and with a mystery with just enough red herrings to be satisfying to solve.
Biggles is under so much stress in this book and I can only hope that immediately post-book 666 Squadron get the leave they're owed and smother Biggles in a cuddle pile of some sort. Honestly it's been long enough since I read now that the details have faded somewhat but the scene where he discovers Moorven's crash has definitely stayed with me. He cares so deeply and so immediately about people and it's always a blessing and a curse!!
Gimlet Goes Again
It's been absolutely ages since I read King of the Commandos so it took me a while to rediscover the characters but I had a good enough time with this. The thing about Gimlet is he is absolutely never the POV character (as far as I remember, anyway) so he has this really odd, elusive quality to his character. I loved
tweague 's Gimlet&Bertie schoolfic so much for this exact reason - Gimlet is just genuinely inscrutable, and I find it a pretty compelling way to write a character. Unfortunately we also have Cub who is sort of Ginger but bloodthirsty, and Copper and Trapper who are respectively Cockney and Canadian and possibly gay but not much else. I liked that more of the Kittens appeared in this book but they didn't get much play since they were rescued so late. I don't know if I would recommend this series in general but the Biggles & Co cameo in this book definitely makes it a light recommendation to the fandom.Biggles Foreign Legionnaire
Took me literal months to get past the first two chapters of this, then I read the last 160 pages in one sitting last night. It's a pretty fun read and has a number of excellent moments but I have to admit the experience as a whole left me a little cold. I wished there was more Marcel for one - especially since there's a bit of Marcel whump occurring offscreen! - and also that there was a little more Biggles POV than there ended up being. The entire sequence in Kurdistan was of course wonderful but again it felt slightly sterile, possibly because it starts so late and then has to be resolved within about thirty pages.
I enjoyed Ginger's point of view on Von Stalhein quite a bit, to be fair - especially the part where he notes that Von Stalhein seems to think, just for a moment, that Biggles has shot at him and looks genuinely a bit upset - but AGAIN I just feel like it wasn't enough. I know I have my shipping blinders on for this but I just always want more flirting, okay, and there was barely any! On the plus side I finally have context for a number of fics I read back when I first joined the fandom a year and a half ago (holy shit), so those will be due a reread soon.
Next on the docket is Murder by Air, because
black_bentley reminded me Steeley exists and I need to get back on the Steeley polycule wago. For my health. Incidentally, I now have a 'Teacher Reads' display bit in my classroom and am slowly getting over the embarrassment of being honest about it (three Johns in a row...).
no subject
Date: 2024-09-23 09:43 pm (UTC)Orient is a cracking adventure, and yes, Biggles needs so many hugs by the end of it! Sweeps the Desert is another good WW2 adventure with non-stop action and more whump for Biggles...
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Date: 2024-09-23 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-24 05:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-23 10:18 pm (UTC)Steeley is a gift which keeps on giving.
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Date: 2024-09-23 11:11 pm (UTC)Spitfire Parade - I love Bertie’s two chapters and that’s it. I mean, it’s not bad, it’s just kind of hollow. Maybe because the other chapters are mostly parcelled off to people I don’t really know or care about or even particularly like that much. Which is unlike the WW1 short story books where it’s all tightly focussed on Biggles. (I understand that it’s because WE Johns just repurposed a WW1 Biggles book for the new characters of 666, but I still don’t love the result.)
Foreign Legionnaire was honestly so boring for the first 80% (bar a couple of cute moments). I did feel like the siege made up for it though! If only WE Johns could have written the book so it was 20% set up and 80% siege ;)
I’ve not read any of the Gimlet books, but I am also obsessed with
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Date: 2024-09-24 09:29 am (UTC)Seconding the rec for 'Goes Home' if you do intend to read any, as it does have some very good whump (whump so good it makes the cover art!!) - though Gimlet notably doesn't appear in the first few chapters, which might not make it an ideal one to start with. 'Mops Up' is the one with the (sadly metaphorical) werewolves, and I think also had some good whump?? Also an amazing cover illustration, which confusingly is a spoiler for the end of the book. Also guest appearances by Biggles and Ginger. Also (AFAIR) a certain amount of faffing about on Gimlet's estate (he has to go home for the annual prize-giving in the village hall, which is just the *most* Wodehouse set up), which I think I enjoyed.
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Date: 2024-09-24 07:37 am (UTC)More Marcel is always needed, as is more Steeley :DDD
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Date: 2024-09-24 09:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-24 10:09 am (UTC)Two of them are by me, two of them are for me, and the other two might as well have been for me because I love them!