Fence, vol. 1-4, by CS Pacat, art by Johanna the Mad

[sophia_sol]

I like to browse the recent books section of the libby app, to see what recent ebooks my library has acquired, and sometimes it really pays off! I hadn't even heard of this comic series before, but I saw it and was immediately intrigued, and when my holds came in on the four volumes collecting the whole series, I read them INSTANTLY and was totally drawn in.

The premise: a sports anime, but make it explicitly queer. High-school aged boys on a boarding school fencing team! Nicholas is the lead character, a scholarship student whose good instincts in fencing are held back by inferior technique. He has placed himself as a rival to Seiji, a dedicated and consistent fencer with years of training who doesn't know how to be anything but serious, and Nicholas is determined to beat him -- and also be friends with him.

I love both of them, but I also love all the other characters. They're all individuals, with their strengths and weaknesses (both on the fencing piste and off), and their own relationships with the other characters. And I was going to mention here which of the other characters I was most interested in but uh it may be basically all of them? I was riveted through the whole of the story.

The four extant volumes take us through team tryouts and to the end of the team's first practice match, and now that I've finished them I'm desperate to read more. Unfortunately that's all there is!

It looks like there are also some novels by Sarah Rees Brennan continuing the story, but I've found Rees Brennan's writing pretty hit-or-miss for me, so I'm feeling a bit skeptical about giving these a try. I want to read more of this story as written by CS Pacat! SIGH. Has anyone else read the Rees Brennan Fence novels, and can tell me more about how they are?

Comments

[feast_of_regrets]

I was also delighted to find my library had it. The first two volumes of the Captive Prince series were so much fun. (I was thoroughly disappointed with the third, but I wonder if being picked up by a publisher didn't impact the whole arc quite a bit.) It will be nice to read her again.

[sophia_sol]

yeah I really enjoyed the first two volumes of Captive Prince too, but I never actually got my hands on the last volume to see how it ended; I'm sorry to hear it wasn't everything one might want :( I was so excited to see something else by Pacat though, and I hope you enjoy Fence too!

[lirazel]

I thought the first Captive Prince book was bad, the second one was GREAT, and the third one was fine. Afaik, I am the only one who has this opinion.

[sophia_sol]

Interesting! Tbh it's been so long since I've read the first two books that I literally do not remember a thing about what's contained in which, lol

[lirazel]

The only reason I remember is that I'm pretty sure my goodreads ratings broke down as:

book 1: 2 stars
book 2: 4.5 stars
book 3: 3 stars

[sophia_sol]

I am hindered by the fact that apparently I read them for the first time in the era before I started keeping track of all the books I read, with reviews and ratings, so I have no data to look back on! I did reread the first book in 2013, but I wrote a very unspecific review at that time that does not help much.

I might have been doing this book review thing for over 10 years at this point, but I STILL kick myself that I didn't start doing it even earlier!

[lirazel]

Gosh, yes, I wish I had a list of every book I've ever read! I think I might have some of the lists we had to keep in middle school of what we read somewhere, but between then and like 2013 is a huge gap.

[sophia_sol]

oh, the DREAM. I just checked my library card history to see how far back it goes, and it extends back to 2007 (an extra two years!) HOWEVER about 90% of the entries are just "Record is no longer available" because the book in question has been weeded from the collection in the time since then, so I still can't know what I was reading back then.

[lirazel]

It's such a shame! I know I've read literally thousands of books, but...so many I've forgotten!

[glitteryv]

I'm of a similar mind. Tho I liked Book 1, LURVED Book 2, and was v. disappointed with Book 3. Caveat that I read Book 1 back when it was on LJ first and that, realistically, it was close to impossible for Book 3 to land the ending in an amazing way. Mostly because the expectations for it were so high.

Per Goodreads, I gave Book 1 4 stars, Book 2 5 stars, and Book 3 3.2 stars. So I didn't exactly hated Book 3, but it was not as good as it could've been. Idk.

[lirazel]

I found the first one too iddy, especially for someone like me who cares not a thing about porn and the erotic charge of the whole slave thing. Like, I get why other people adored it, I just didn't care. But the second one was so good! Like a really genuinely good book, and I'm glad that I for whatever reason decided to give it a chance.

Agreed that it would have been hard for Book 3 to measure up to Book 2. I personally wasn't disappointed because I didn't find it bad, I was just like, "Yeah, okay, that's fine," and felt nothing further than that.

[glitteryv]

I am one of those iddy ppl (or, at least, I really was taken with that whole mess and erotic charge of the slaves, etc back then.) The second book was amazing. I reread it a couple of years ago and it still held up.

Book 3...*sigh* I found it to be less stellar because, in some ways, Pacat wrote herself into a corner. That said, my dissatisfaction with that novel was more of an emotional one. The in-universe logic held up for the most part, but there was nothing else for me as a longtime reader of the series. So I too went thru the feeling of "okay, that's fine" where I'd hoped for a "wow, WHAT AN ENDING!"

[lirazel]

Oh, I am not judging the people who love the iddyness of it all! I have my own id preferences, they're just not related to sex so they're rarer to find.

but there was nothing else for me as a longtime reader of the series. So I too went thru the feeling of "okay, that's fine" where I'd hoped for a "wow, WHAT AN ENDING!"

Yeah, that's understandable.