gensplosion!

FANDOM: Watership Down
FIC LINK: Bright Moon, Who Goes Farther Still
AUTHOR LINK: hossgal
RATING/WARNING(S): PG | No authorial warnings; death, but not of canon characters
WIP?/WORD COUNT: Complete | 16,400 words
MAIN CHARACTERS: Hyzenthlay

FIC SUMMARY: Who is the teller, and who is the one whose tale is told?
The wind twists, turns into what it had once been;
Who is the foundling, and who is the seeker bold?
The rain flows down the hills and becomes the sea again.

RECCER'S NOTES: Watership Down was written back in the 1960s and has been criticised in fandom & outside for the way it treats females. Hossgal's ambitious story is a much more successful attempt to address the gender problem than Richard Adams's own Tales from Watership Down. Her braided novella gives us the does' perspective on the events of Watership Down, as well as a more female-centric take on rabbit mythology. The two strands weave together perfectly as the tale builds to its climax, which never fails to move me. The story features Efrafan world-building, brilliant original characters, doe psychology & mythological adventures that fit perfectly into the original. (There's a little Hyzenthlay/Blackavar but it's a minor component.) A real treasure.