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I adore this story.
Destina Fortunato's fiction just gets better and better with every new
story, regardless of fandom, and I'm thrilled she's now writing in the
Stargate universe.
Farther Than Earth
From Heaven is a delightfully melancholy story that deals with love and
loss, and it hits a major kink of mine for bittersweet endings. It's
set
both pre and post Meridian and incorporates Daniel's ascension into its
plotline. The action takes place primarily on Abydos and deals not only
with the blossoming of Daniel and Jack's relationship into love and
sexual desire, but also, inevitably, with Jack's overwhelming sense of
grief and loss when he returns to Abydos alone.
The structure of this
story is wonderful. There are seven sections and each part is preceded
by what seems to be a proverb or saying. These are uncredited and I
don't recognise them, so perhaps they are written by the author to
evoke
a certain tone to suit the action? They certainly function in this way
for me. For example, "Every man finds himself in the world where he
belongs" appears at the beginning of the first section, which deals
with
Daniel's love for the desert world of Abydos and the people he has come
to consider family. "By knowing, one reaches belief. By doing, one
gains
conviction. When you know, dare." is a wonderful quote for the section
that ends with Jack and Daniel's first tentative steps towards
emotional
and physical intimacy, while the final section is preceded by the
melancholy warning: "For every joy there is a price to be paid."
The first and last
sections deal with what is essentially the "now" in the time frame of
the story: set after the episode "Meridian", an anguished Jack returns
to Abydos alone to tell Daniel's people of his fate. These sections are
italicised in the way that flashbacks usually are, and it's the bulk of
the story, set in plain text, that takes place in the past.
In a weird way, because of this reversal of the usual choice of font
styles, it's the opening and closing sections that feel like the
flashbacks — flashbacks into a grief-stricken future. This distortion
of
the reader's time perception is very clever, as it allows the reader to
enjoy the main story of Jack and Daniel's visit to Abydos a year after
Sha're's death — and the way they became lovers for the first time —
without the grief of the reality of Daniel's absence entirely
overshadowing the sweetness of the love story.
The beautiful,
evocative language Destina uses is one of my favourite things about
this
story. It's very original in its descriptive images and metaphors and
significantly avoids the use of fanon and cliched descriptions. When
Daniel talks about Sha're, for example, phrases such as "She lives in
my
blood" are not only original but beautiful and full of emotional
impact.
The author's use of metaphor and simile are equally impressive: "Daniel
wallowed in loss, lived in it like a home, wore the scent of it like
expensive cologne", and "It was an order swaddled in velvet, its edges
concealed by tenderness." Additionally, the motif of the endlessly
shifting sand — "like silk" — echoes thematically through the story as
a
metaphor for the ephemeral, for change, for lack of permanence, and for
the immensity of eternity against which one human life is but a grain
of
sand. This image is picked up again when Jack and Daniel finally make
love for the first time. Daniel's voice is "like hot silk, flowing over
Jack", and reminds the reader of the way the sand flowed over Daniel's
fingers in a sensual touch on their arrival in Abydos. Even Daniel's
fascination with the sand and Jack's instinctive hatred of it reflect
the thematic concerns of the text. Daniel is the one that fate plucks
away from his lover, as an insignificant grain of sand is plucked away
by the wind, while Jack is left to deal with his grief, trudging once
more across the hated sand. It's the first time he has done so alone,
in
what is the "longest walk of his life". Ironically, however, it's the
hated sand, stirred by a light wind "like a subtle mist", that allows
Jack to finally give into his grief.
I love the
characterisation of Jack in this story. The text is written in a tight
Jack third person point of view and the focus is kept wonderfully sharp
and clear. I love the sweet but subtle way that Jack looks after
Daniel:
he comes with him to Abydos to protect him, even when he has no idea of
the reason behind Daniel's visit; he makes sure he eats; and he's there
to comfort and reassure his friend when he needs emotional support. A
kind and caring Jack is one of my kinks and this story satisfies this
kink perfectly. Jack is sweet and loving without ever degenerating into
mawkish romanticism or moving outside of canon characterisation. The
Daniel in this story is inevitably harder to know as his
characterisation is filtered through Jack's perception. However, what
you see is a wonderfully mature and responsible man who can, and does,
stand on his own two feet, and who is a wonderful foil for Jack.
The author never
makes the mistake of assuming that Jack is omniscient. He doesn't
always
instantly understand Daniel's real thoughts and feelings from his
behaviour, but subtle clues within the text give the reader greater
insight to Daniel's motivations. "The air was thick with unspoken
words,
with possibilities magnified every moment." This quotation refers
directly to the growing sexual awareness between the two, but I also
consider it an interesting way to look at how the story builds Jack and
Daniel's relationship. Moment by moment the two grow closer, to the
point where they admit to themselves and to each other what they are
feeling — but nothing is ever overtly stated amongst the growing
accumulation of small actions that leads, inevitably, to the moment
their relationship changes from friendship to a deeper one of romantic
love and sexual desire. It is the delicately portrayed emotional
undercurrents that makes this version of the classic first time
scenario
so very enjoyable.
Even the sex scene is
implied in evocative language rather than explicitly defined, and works
to further the characterisation and plot, rather than just to titillate
the reader with gratuitous detail: "'Nothing,' he said, and then they
were moving against each other, pressed together, lips and tongues and
Daniel had him, had always had him, although he was too blind to know
it
from the very beginning." I enjoyed this straightforward description of
the physical action. The simple language is not unpoetic and the
rhythmic use of punctuation and repetition of words cleverly echoes the
gentle thrusting movements of sex, while still allowing the reader to
gain a greater understanding of Jack's emotional reactions.
One of the things I
really enjoy is a story that uses quotations to set a particular theme
or to underscore its emotional tone, whether it's only a line or two at
the beginning of each section, an entire poem that's placed at either
end of the narrative, or something that's woven seamlessly into the
text
of the story. So one of the things I particularly like about Farther
Than Earth From Heaven is the way the author uses particularly relevant
quotations from two historical sources and fits them so naturally into
the story that they never seem pretentious or out of place. Nobody
would
doubt that Daniel is that rare type of guy who would read that sort of
thing for fun, and I found Jack's snarky reaction not only totally
believable, but rather funny and sweet at the same time. The first
quotation is a beautiful line from an ancient Egyptian love poem* : "My
beloved is like a garden, full of papyrus blossoms". I think this
choice is a very appropriate one for the Stargate universe, not only
because of the connection with the ancient Egyptian gods that are
intimately associated with the Goa'uld, but also because the quote
compares love to a garden full of the the plants from which paper is
made — and that struck me as pretty apt for the bookish Daniel.
There are also two
excerpts from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (an eleventh century Persian
poem), the themes of which include the brevity of human existence, and
the unknowable mysteries of the afterlife. This is very appropriate,
especially if you consider that Farther Than Earth From Heaven is set
around the time of Daniel's mystical ascension, and after an all too
brief period of happiness for the two men as lovers. The first
quotation
is very well known and deals with the human need for love above all
else: "A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of
Bread---and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness"*. The second is
not as well known and deals with loss: "Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup
that clears today of past Regrets and future Fears"**. These two
quotations reflect the emotional intensity generated between Daniel and
Jack, and they work together as a poignant reminder of the pain of past
losses, the joy they might find together, and the irrevocable grief of
further losses still to come.
Finally, I love the
way Farther Than Earth From Heaven ends. The fact that Jack never
reaches the end of his journey within the time frame of the narrative
gives the reader the opportunity to view this story as a snapshot of
Jack and Daniel's time together. It gives a sense of reality to the
text
that can only add to its overall impact, and works to highlight the
love
story. It also, to my mind, gives a forward thrust to the momentum of
the internal action, so that we are aware that the story does not end
here, but is part of the continuing saga of Jack's life. This
effectively dovetails with its thematic concerns — so similar to those
of the Omar Khayyam verses — and I was reminded of another famous
quotation from the Rubaiyat which, for me, encapsulates the essence of
both texts:
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.*** Daniel is gone and
Jack can't bring him back, no matter how much he might want to. His
life
must go on, too, no matter how much he might wish it would stop, or
rewind, or even halt in one happy moment forever. However, although I
enjoyed making these comparisons with the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,
Farther Than Earth From Heaven doesn't need or rely on knowledge of
anything except Stargate SG-1 - it contains, within its text, all a
reader needs to know to enjoy this wonderful first time story.
While writing this
review I tried very hard to think of something I disliked about this
story - but I couldn't think of a single thing. I can't even say
I
want more of the story than is given because Farther Than Earth From
Heaven is so complete just the way it is. This story is simply
wonderful. For readers who enjoy expert storytelling,
spot-on characterisation, fabulous writing, literary quotations,
evocative use of language, and a bittersweet melancholia in their
fiction, this story is something to treasure. It is, simply, one
of the best Stargate stories I have ever read.
NOTES:
* For anyone who's
interested in this sort of thing, all quotes within the story are
consistent with both the 3rd and 4th translations of the Rubaiyat of
Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald. Ftzgerald's version attempts to
capture the mood rather then the literal meaning of the verses, and his
is still the most famous version. The 3rd (1872) and 4th (1879)
translations are exactly the same for these three quoted sections but
may differ in other verses of the poem. I've supplied the number of
each
verse in case anyone is interested: Daniel reads these first two verses
as if they follow on from one another but they are really 9 verses
apart
in the Rubaiyat. For a direct comparison on one page of the differences
in each of the four translations, or just to read this interesting
poem,
go to the following site:
http://www.fitzgeraldsrubaiyat.com/second.html.
This quote is from
Verse 12.
** Verse 21.
*** Verse 71.
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