whitewriter (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
whitewriter) wrote2021-06-13 03:26 pm
whitewriter) wrote2021-06-13 03:26 pm
Entry tags:
My review of "Pillar of Salt" by Nascent
I don't think I've read this ff before, but I pulled it off The crackvan and then again off Nascent's page at Gossamer
It's a riveting movel at 237 K (approx 4-5 hours to read). The storyline is very much like an x-files casefile/monster of the week - except one that has way more than 45 minutes to be fleshed out nicely.
Nascent suggests the story might be determined as MSR or as M/S friendship depending on how you want to view the story and I can see elements of both as you read along. Much like the series where you can easily find elements of romance even in S1 if you look hard enough, Nascent puts work into the strong presence of UST that was around the time this FF is placed to sit (after FTF and before S6).
The science behind the story itself was fine. You can see the work Nascent put into ensuring that Dr Scully sounded exactly like Dr Scully.
Just because I don't want to spoil you if you hadn't read it -
Nascent takes the reader on a journey that culminates in a riveting (but completely unrealistic) ICU experience where in true X-files style, Scully has to believe (or at least, suspend her disbelief) in order to solve the case. The cure is a dangerous one, and she takes on the challenge as she realises it is her only option.
I didn’t find it too difficult to suspend reality as I read through the ICU bits with events such as - no one from nursing staff realising that Scully *on her own* herself moves an ICU bed with M on it to *another room* and then lays down on a 3rd bed in the *same room* -- when did ICU's become so spacious? Furthermore that A) someone has now drugged Agent Scully and B) is running an ALS on her. Overall, the story was so good it was not difficult to push through.
There was also that Agent Scully, after being shocked 4 times, just gets up and walks away (and no one notices) and Mulder - after a prolonged period of unconscious state in ICU (it appears, not intubated) also walks out of there easily. M and S tidily find another reason to explain their “weekend at work” which initially began on a personal journey rather than an official one. -- and that the whole thing ends by Monday when they need to be back in Washington for something or other.
This fic made me think of how many episodes have I rewatched only to laugh in horror at whatever weird portrayal of ICU I have seen (and to only remember thinking it was all legit as a teen). Sometimes, knowledge can be a curse.
I’d talk more about the storyline but it was a very enjoyable experience to trust Wendelah’s rec on crackvan and just go along for the ride.
I don’t think I’d put it on my list of ‘top 10 fanfics’ but definitely in the category of - what to read when you miss X-files casefile episodes from that in-between time of S5-6, where M and S have enough experience of each other to be friends - almost more but not quite yet -and nothing is clouded with William/Mulder’s abduction and all that riff raff.
Other updates:
Still behind on work posts.
I've gotten a copy of Scavenger by Syntax6 that I'm planning to start tonight - after I give my eyeballs a rest.
It's a riveting movel at 237 K (approx 4-5 hours to read). The storyline is very much like an x-files casefile/monster of the week - except one that has way more than 45 minutes to be fleshed out nicely.
Nascent suggests the story might be determined as MSR or as M/S friendship depending on how you want to view the story and I can see elements of both as you read along. Much like the series where you can easily find elements of romance even in S1 if you look hard enough, Nascent puts work into the strong presence of UST that was around the time this FF is placed to sit (after FTF and before S6).
The science behind the story itself was fine. You can see the work Nascent put into ensuring that Dr Scully sounded exactly like Dr Scully.
Just because I don't want to spoil you if you hadn't read it -
Nascent takes the reader on a journey that culminates in a riveting (but completely unrealistic) ICU experience where in true X-files style, Scully has to believe (or at least, suspend her disbelief) in order to solve the case. The cure is a dangerous one, and she takes on the challenge as she realises it is her only option.
I didn’t find it too difficult to suspend reality as I read through the ICU bits with events such as - no one from nursing staff realising that Scully *on her own* herself moves an ICU bed with M on it to *another room* and then lays down on a 3rd bed in the *same room* -- when did ICU's become so spacious? Furthermore that A) someone has now drugged Agent Scully and B) is running an ALS on her. Overall, the story was so good it was not difficult to push through.
There was also that Agent Scully, after being shocked 4 times, just gets up and walks away (and no one notices) and Mulder - after a prolonged period of unconscious state in ICU (it appears, not intubated) also walks out of there easily. M and S tidily find another reason to explain their “weekend at work” which initially began on a personal journey rather than an official one. -- and that the whole thing ends by Monday when they need to be back in Washington for something or other.
This fic made me think of how many episodes have I rewatched only to laugh in horror at whatever weird portrayal of ICU I have seen (and to only remember thinking it was all legit as a teen). Sometimes, knowledge can be a curse.
I’d talk more about the storyline but it was a very enjoyable experience to trust Wendelah’s rec on crackvan and just go along for the ride.
I don’t think I’d put it on my list of ‘top 10 fanfics’ but definitely in the category of - what to read when you miss X-files casefile episodes from that in-between time of S5-6, where M and S have enough experience of each other to be friends - almost more but not quite yet -and nothing is clouded with William/Mulder’s abduction and all that riff raff.
Other updates:
Still behind on work posts.
I've gotten a copy of Scavenger by Syntax6 that I'm planning to start tonight - after I give my eyeballs a rest.