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

[glitteryv]

I remember reading Fence when the volumes appeared on my library in digital form. My impression of it is similar to your, if only a smidgen less enthusiastic. To me, it felt like it took 4 vols to establish a lot and then...there's nothing more. Which frustrated me a little. Also the Nicholas/Seiji Rivals to Friends to (most possibly) lovers is developing at a glacial pace. I mean, I like slow burn, but this series really pushed my limits on that, hahah.

Although I do have access to the novels, I'm on the same skeptical boat as you. SRB's writing isn't quite to my taste and I prefer the comic format over prose. So, for now, I am not picking them up. The two novels of hers I've read are In Other Lands (okay, but not memorable enough for me) and the first one in the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina books (Season of the Witch, I think it's called? I was bored.)

Funny (to me, at least) aside: I'm abt 3 weeks away from being able to read CS Pacat's next novel (a YA fantasy one, I think) and I'm already like "hmmmmm" because, as the years have gone by, my opinion of the Captive Prince series has weakened a lot (I was v. disappointed by the third novel.) OTOH, it's a library book, so I can always return it w/o feeling guilty at having spent money on it. Idk.

[sophia_sol]

Yeah I definitely felt at the end of the fourth volume that I'd reached the end of the introduction to a larger story, rather than the story itself! I was actually briefly convinced that I must have read only the first four issues, not the first four volumes, because it felt so much like this was just the beginning.

I'm also skeptical of Pacat's new series that's coming out soon, it doesn't really look like the kind of thing that would be up my alley. And I too have gotten less interested in Captive Prince as the years have passed. But we'll see! Let me know what you think of the new book when you read it?