Six of Crows Duology
Fandom | |
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Name: | Six of Crows Duology |
Abbreviation(s): | SoC, 6oC |
Creator: | Leigh Bardugo |
Date(s): | September 29, 2015 September 20, 2016 |
Medium: | Novel |
Country of Origin: | USA |
External Links: | Six of Crows at Wikipedia Crooked Kingdom at Wikipedia Leigh Bardugo's Site |
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This article or section needs expansion. |
The Six of Crows Duology consists of two books, Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, which center around a six-person gang hired to infiltrate a prison and retrieve a valuable political prisoner from a rival country. It is a Speculative Fiction/Fantasy novel, as well as a young adult novel, and is set in the Grishaverse. It is chronologically descendent from the Grisha Trilogy, and takes place in the same universe. The characters make an appearance in the King of Scars Duology. They were also given a sub-plot in the first season of the Netflix show Shadow & Bone, which is set pre-Six of Crows book.
"Six of Crows Duology" contains classic elements of the Steampunk genre, and is a straightforward Heist fiction. The series is notable for its intense worldbuilding, magic system and magic users, explicit queer representation, descriptions of characters dealing with trauma, and plot twists.
The author, Leigh Bardugo, defines Shadow and Bone genre as Tsarpunk - a fantasy with inspiration from early 19th century Russia.[1][2]
Grishaverse Glossary needed.
Canon Overview
Locations
The canon spans many fantasy countries. Most notable are Ketterdam, a fantastic Netherlands and the original setting of Six of Crows; Ravka, a fantasized Russia; Fjerda, derivative of northern countries of Sweden, Norway, and Finland; and Shu Han, an amalgam of a couple continental Asian cultures, but heavily inspired by China.
Characters
The original six members of the heist:[3]
Other notable characters are:
Relationships
There are three ships that have been canonized in the text. Much of the obvious tension centers around Matthias Helvar and Nina Zenik. While Inej Ghafa and Kaz Brekker have their romantic subplot, Jesper Fahey and Wylan van Eck have a more overt romantic plot, both of which are further explored in Crooked Kingdom.
These canon ships focus most of the fandom's attention.
Fandom Overview
Possibly because of Leigh Bardugo's own activity on her Tumblr, the Six of Crows fandom thrives on the site.[13] There are many communities that post daily, host fanevents, and are extremely active. Fanart and fanedits are incredibly popular, and there seems to be a more active artist community than author community.
Six of Crows has been featured on Fandometrics multiple times,[note 1] and was on the 2018 [14], 2017[15], and 2016[16] Top Books lists. In 2018 both books in the duology made it to the top of the list - the only series to be listed by individual book rather than as a series, making Leigh Bardugo the only author listed twice.
Fanart and fanedits are incredibly popular, and for a while it there seems to have been more active artist community than author community.
This is notable because besides the interior maps and art that Kevin Wada[17][18][19][20] has produced, both released in 2015 and 2016 at San Diego Comic Con, there is no canon art or visuals associated with SoC, but many fans see Wada's work as the official representation of the characters.
The canon pairings are popular, and there is a strong support of non-canon queer pairings throughout the fandom. There have been no noted ship wars, despite the main character being paired with a few different characters throughout fics and fandom. However, many people read Kaz Brekker as Asexual and have written meta about the nature of his sexuality through that lens.
The release of the Shadow & Bone Netflix show led to a revival in the fandom, introducing most of the characters to new fans who might not have read the books.
Popular Canon Pairings
- Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa: the most popular pairing (Ao3 Works)
- Jesper Fahey/Wylan Van Eck: (Ao3 Works)
- Matthias Helvar/Nina Zenik: (Ao3 Works)
Popular Non-Canon Pairings
- Inej Ghafa/Nina Zenik (Ao3 Works)
- Kaz Brekker/Jesper Fahey (Ao3 Works)
- Inej Ghafa/Kaz Brekker/Jesper Fahey (Ao3 Works)
Common Tropes
Short Fic
A notable piece of fandom for SoC, pre-2021 revival, is that the fics tended to be short - in the Archive of Our Own tag[21], for example, in 2018, there were only three fics longer than 100k. Many fics on tumblr were also short. The then-most popular fic in the tag,[22] An Ace up the Sleeve, was only one chapter, and only about 3,000 words.
Example Fanworks
Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fanfiction
- An Ace Up the Sleeve[22] by LivesInTheStars January, 2016 (Jesper/Wylan)
- Dealing with Our Demons by ravenyenn19: an epic WIP which started posting in 2020, with 475k+, 114+ chapters, 270k hits and 5700+ comments as of 08/2021 (Kaz/Inej)
- Little Faith by vuas, Matthias/Nina, 2021
- Stories About Crows by marycontraire, Kaz/Inej, Jesper/Wylan, a series containing 19 connected stories and 76k words, posted over the summer of 2021.
Podfics
- scared rituals (podfic) by Ashling & flowersforgraves (Kaz/Inej, 8 minutes, 2021)
- (Podfic) Paint a thank-you on my palm by greedy_dancer (Kaz/Inej, 21 minutes, 2021)
- Help a Friend Out (PODFIC) by Opalsong (Kaz/Jesper, 5 minutes, 2021)
Fanart
While not a fanwork, per se, noted queer comics artist Kevin Wada was commissioned in July 2015 and 2016 by Leigh Bardugo to draw the main six characters of Six of Crows.[18][20] Posters of the illustrations were later sold at the San Diego Comic Con. These portraits are considered by a majority of the fandom to be the 'canon' interpretations of the characters.
Zines
- Unconditional, multimedia zine with other book fandoms
Archives and Communities
- Dregs of the Barrel - a fanrun meta, shortfic, and fanart aggregate on Tumblr
- Savage Kaz - a fanrun meta and fanart aggregate on Tumblr
- sixofcrowsnet - Six of Crows Network on Tumblr
- sixofcrows-daily Six of Crows Daily on Tumblr
- six-of-crows - Six of Crows Fan on Tumblr
- The (Unofficial) Kuwei Yul-Bo Fanblog - a fanrun meta and fanart aggregate on Tumblr for content focused on or including Kuwei Yul-Bo
- Ao3 - Six of Crows on the Archive of Our Own.
Notes & References
Notes
- ^ The Fandometrics blog has changed its URL, migrating all its content, so some links may seem strange, recommended that you change
thefandometrics.tumblr.com
tofandom.tumblr.com
in the web address.
References
- ^ TheBookAddictedGirl (2013-06-20). "Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo - why should you read it?". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20. Retrieved 2021-08-28.
- ^ A YouTube video, now privative explained the inspirations about the origins of this universe: "Leigh Bardugo - Author of Shadow and Bone, Book 1 of The Grisha Trilogy". 2012-02-28. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20.
- ^ Six of Crows Wiki
- ^ Kaz Brekker at Six of Crows Wiki
- ^ Inej Ghafa at Six of Crows Wiki
- ^ Jesper Fahey at Six of Crows Wiki
- ^ Nina Zenik at Six of Crows Wiki
- ^ Matthias Helvar at Six of Crows Wiki
- ^ Wylan van Eck at Six of Crows Wiki
- ^ Kuwei Yul-Bo at Six of Crows Wiki
- ^ Jan van Eck at Six of Crows Wiki
- ^ Pekka Rollins at Six of Crows Wiki
- ^ Leigh Bardugo's Tumblr was deleted in 2021: "LEIGH BARDUGO - Tumblr". 2012-10-14. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20.
- ^ "fandom on tumblr — 2018's Top Books The oldest book on this list is..." 2018-11-30. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20.
- ^ "fandom on tumblr — 2017′s Top Books You asked, we delivered. Feast..." 2017-11-29. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20.
- ^ Year in Review 2016 by Fandometrics. Category Books: "fandom on tumblr — 2016's Top Books How many lists can Dan and Phil..." 2016-12-03. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20.
- ^ "All of the character art from @kevinwada's new Six..." 2016-07-14. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20.
{{cite web}}
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at position 30 (help) - ^ a b "kevin wada illustration: lbardugo: All of the character art..." 2016-07-14. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20.
- ^ "We'll be giving away this limited edition Six of..." 2015-07-07. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20.
- ^ a b "kevin wada illustration: lbardugo: We'll be giving away this limited edition Six of Crows poster by kevinwada at my SDCC signings this weekend!.…". 2015-07-07. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20.s
- ^ AO3 search filter [Word Count], dated January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2018: "Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo - Works Archive of Our Own". 2022-04-20. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20.
- ^ a b "An Ace Up the Sleeve - LivesInTheStars - Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo…". 2016-01-14. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20.