All the King's Men by Marna (NC-17)

[fairestcat]

Hello, I'm Cat and I'll be serving up your Horatio Hornblower recs for the month of August. I'm relatively new to this fandom, but have become deeply addicted in a very short time and hope to do my best to pass that addiction on this month.

Fandom: HORATIO HORNBLOWER
Pairing: Archie/Edrington
Author on LJ: commodorified
Author Website: The Scriptorium
Why this must be read:

This story is, in one word, stunning. It's a beautifully written, character-driven story with what is easily the longest, hottest sex scene I've ever read. But this story isn't just about the sex, the mind-blowing to-die-for sex is just part of the whole. What this story is really about is Archie and Archie figuring out who he is and what he needs and learning to define himself as himself and not through his relationships with others. Archie/Horatio shippers should not be alarmed, this story is in no way anti-Horatio, in fact although the emphasis is on Archie and Edrington, Horatio gets both a part in the story and a share of the character development that's at its heart.

All the King's Men starts off literally minutes after the last scene of The Wrong War/Frogs & Lobsters and takes an old standby of Hornblower fandom--the shared shore leave--and gives it a fresh face and a neat twist. The characterizations are perfect, the story is a delight and--no matter how many times I read it--the smut continually leaves me devoid of both breath and speech.

All the King's Men

Comments

[norabombay.livejournal.com]

Sounds good. I'll have to go check it out.

[damned-colonial.livejournal.com]

Ahem, thinko: "Archie and Archie figuring out..."