Becalmed

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Fanfiction
Title: Becalmed
Author(s): Jane Fairfax
Date(s): 1998
Length: ~ 100 KB
Genre(s): slash
Fandom(s): Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Relationship(s):
External Links: online here

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Becalmed is a Napoleon Solo/Illya Kuryakin story by Jane Fairfax.

It has a sequel called Body Language.

This story was published in Classified Affairs #5 and is online.

It was the winner of a 1998 STIFfie.

Reactions and Reviews

It is almost impossible to stop reading when in the middle of a story by Jane Fairfax, and when finished, one usually wishes for a sequel - often because the author ends her stories on an unhappy note. Thankfully, that is not the case in both stories listed above. Jane's style is subtle, yet pictoral, and she brings across her characters' emotions in a very believable way. Told from Illya's POV, in "Becalmed" Solo is the confident seducer while Kuryakin fluctuates wildly between different moods, afraid of changing the status quo and yet unable to resist his friend. In "Body Language", Napoleon and Illya struggle with the implications of Solo's imminent move up to Section 1.[1]

This is a first time story; an emblematic and examplary first time story, with Napoleon and Illya isolated in a closed space (a boat, the open sea, no wind in the sails, the stars for witnesses). To sum up the situation, we have a shy and over repressed Illya, a shrewd but caring Napoleon, a romantic background. With this fairly trite and conventional ingredients, the clever author manages to concoct a powerful elixir, capable to command the reader's feelings and to curb any cynical reservation.

And we are only too willing to submit ourselves to the spell of romance; isn't it a pleasure to watch Illya slowly approached and tamed by a Napoleon in full seductive mode? Besides, everything sounds perfectly right, every move (always seen through Illya's eyes) is likely and understandable; the moods, in Illya's mind, are changing like the clouds in the sky, but are noted with subtlety and accuracy.

This relatively short text closes up with an interrogative: "The End?" Alas, I don't know any sequel.[2]

References