Tapestry by Lucy Weaver

This is the first piece of webfiction that really wowed me. Wysteria handles all elements of the story incredibly deftly. I love the everyday but uncluttered pace, the realistic character portrayals and interactions, and the touch of physical description that gives the surroundings life without pointing to any one Asian (perhaps my own assumption) culture. I love all the rare, delicious cultural tidbits that pop up (especially around festivals), and how I have to make my own connections and be content being left somewhat in the dark. After all, Suki has no reason to explain to herself what she already knows. I find this story both gripping and gently flowing. The author seems both talented and polished, and entirely unpretentious about it.

Suki is neither a Mary Sue, nor an anti-hero. She’s classist, sexist, heterosexist, racist, ageist, and probably a bunch of other -ists, and utterly sympathetic. She’s human, and building her life in the ways she has been taught and the ways circumstances provide her. She is very much a product of civilization. Sometimes I question her ability to write down past conversations in such precise detail, but I can suspend my disbelief in that I can believe that someone in her social role would need those kinds of skills to survive in the political climate of her empire.

I just got to book two, and it feels different. But it is different, and as much as I think wistfully of the flavor of the first book, I think the difference in feeling serves the story. So the second book is different than what I first loved, but it is worthy and intriguing and exciting all itself.

As I sat down to write this, I read first the review by METraylor. I'm left with the feeling that everything I could say, they have said first and more eloquently.

Tapestry is a lovely anomaly in the world of webfiction. At turns sweet, dark, and dramatic, the story draws you in and keeps you reading, long part, in this reader's case, your bedtime.

Told in the form of a journal, it tells us of one woman's life, and through her, her family, and through her family, the country in which she lives. The feel of the setting is Asian, medieval in feel, in a war-torn nation; the narrator's husband is intimately involved in the war.

In tone, it reminds me of the best of the gothic romances - the narrator and her husband are of a middling well-to-do family, as far as I can gauge; they have servants and tutors as well as slaves. The narrator runs her household, worries about her husband and children, and tells a delightful and engrossing story all at the same time.

If I were more regular a reader, the irregular updating schedule might bother me. As it is, I come back and catch up every six months, and am un-bothered.

Try Tapestry yourself. But be forewarned - you will find this hard to put down.