Rec-readational

Story: Two Houses
Author: sakon76
Fandom: Little Mermaid (Disney)
Genre: Divergence, angst
Pairing/Character: Eric/Ariel
Summary: A fish tale about the one that got away.

Squeeing: The Little Mermaid is one of my childhood fandoms, and I love it with my whole heart. I wouldn't change a thing about the movie - but this is the tale my adult self wants. This gives Ariel and Eric more dimension than the "fall in all consuming love." Beautiful and poignant, the fic leaves me feeling that strange mix of happy melancholy that good writing can provide.

Excerpt: But she wasn't a child anymore. Or not as much of one. Magic and contracts and spells had their prices, and she'd seen what being selfish had nearly cost her, cost her father... cost her people and the entire ocean.

Story: Re: Inter Office Gossip
Author: Handful of Silence
Fandom: Sherlock
Genre: Humor, romance, epistolary
Pairing/Character: Sherlock/Watson
Summary: Lestrade and Donovan make a bet regarding Sherlock and John. It doesn't take long for the majority of the Yard to get involved.

Squeeing: I found this off a rec from someone else a couple of weeks ago, but I can't remember who. ^^;; Anyway, this is such a fabulous fic I'm passing the rec on.

It's hard to find epistolary fic done right, but this one hits the nails it. The voices for the characters in their emails back and forth are perfect - I can "hear" Donovan's dislike of Sherlock, how Lestrade is holding the center, and everyone else. This is just very well executed and made me laugh.

Excerpt: From: S Donovan
To: G Lestrade
Subject: Freak's New Pet

Well, what do you think?

From: G Lestrade
To: S Donovan
Subject: Re: Freak's New Pet

What did I say about calling Sherlock names?

Story: Feelings Are Boring
Author: lazulisong
Fandom: Star Trek
Genre: Action/adventure, romance
Pairing/Character: Kirk/Spock
Summary: This is not exactly what Jim thought the 'exploring strange new worlds and exotic civilizations' was about. Also, Vulcans are kind of crazy. Jim and Spock go through a alien ritual, which, yes, changes everything -- he's hoping for the better. Spock just wants to get through this with his sanity, if not his dignity, mostly intact.

Squeeing: I love the Star Trek BigBang. There's always gems in it. This is one of my favorites so far - Lazulisong is another of those writers who I will read anything by, because her narration has such life and personality in it. There's a drollness in everything she writes that keeps me smiling throughout the fic even as I'm engaged in the story.

One other note of squee: I'm not a terribly visual person and could take or leave the art associated with BB fics in 98 percent of the cases, but the artist in this case nails the tone of the fic and it's pretty in a manga-kind of way. Just the cherry on top of an already very excellent cake.

Excerpt: Starfleet knows this because the Klingon empire once tried to annex Lyra V. The Lyrans sent part of the invading army back, tanned into leather and painted with a scene detailing the invaders' fate, and then sent some charming little leathery bags and their compliments to the Federation, requesting membership. As Pike says, they could waste time being shocked and appalled, or they could get themselves a badass new ally; Starfleet’s going for the new ally.

Story: To Be One of the Guys
Author: ladydreamer
Fandom: Glee
Genre: Character Study
Pairing/Character: Beiste, Kurt/Blaine
Summary: To find your place and protect yourself, well... These are hard tasks, and sometimes you have to choose just the one.

Squeeing: I'm with the majority of fandom when I say I love Shannon Beiste. I'm also with the majority of fans who thinks her reactions to Kurt's tryouts for West Side Story was out of character. I find the parallels between their situations obvious - Kurt as effeminate, Beiste as masculine - and I would have liked to believe Beiste would have gotten where Kurt is coming from better than any other staff member.

This fic provides a plausible backstory for what things fall out the way they do - it gets into Beiste's head well using second POV, and I can hear all of her pain. Kurt's strength is resounding in the end, and once again what hasn't killed him has made him stronger.

This fic isn't the explanation for that fiasco I want to believe, but it's a good one nonetheless. Reading the story reminds me of rotating a prism and show a different light on reality.

Excerpt: Some guys make fun of you too, but it’s easier with the guys, overall. None of them want to fix you. They sure don’t want to fuck you, and that makes it safe. Safe for you from their trying to make you normal, like that could ever happen, through shame or through condescending “help” on how to “be a girl.” And safe for them from having a woman around who might object to the Guy Talk, the camaraderie built around what women lack. Because you know what all those other women lack, what’s embarrassing about them. What you don’t want to be and at the same time intensely want to be because it would make things just

a bit

easier.

Story: Gotten
Author: anxioussquirrel
Fandom: Glee
Genre: Romance, Drama, Smut
Pairing/Character: Kurt/Blaine
Summary: Kurt and Blaine never got together. They remained best friends through high school and college, then parted ways. Now they meet again in difficult circumstances. A story about friendship, lost dreams and broken hearts, with a happy Klaine ending.

Squeeing: A divergence that contains good storytelling, interesting characterization, hot smut and a fluffy ending. What's not to like? There were two things that stuck out about this fic: one, how Kurt and Blaine's relationship is based on their friendship first and always; and two, the portrayal of Kurt's past abusive relationship is nuanced and believable.

Excerpt: It was August after our junior year when Kurt met Marcus. The damn charmer went up to him one day in our favorite café and started a conversation. Once they were on the subject of fashion, he had Kurt where he wanted him. Marcus told him who he was, showed him a couple of things he was working on that he just happened to have on him, dropped in a compliment or two and my boy was hooked. I’ve always thought it was suspicious that he coincidently found Kurt just as he had a chance to bloom with a serious competition. It was too convenient.

Story: Clarkus Maximus
Author: Deadly Chakram
Fandom: Xena/Lois & Clark
Genre: Crossover
Pairing/Character: Lois/Clark, Gabrielle, Xena
Summary: Tempus is at it again! This time, he’s abducted Lois and Clark and left them in ancient Greece. With H.G. Wells nowhere in sight, they must turn to Xena: Warrior Princess for help. But what happens when Clark is captured by gladiator traders?

Squeeing: I wonder if there's ever going to be a movement within fandom for "retro fic." This fic has a relatively recent archive date, but feels like it was written in the nineties. I don't know how to explain it, but the tropes all belong to that time period in fandom. Cue my nostalgia phase. This rec isn't just for the story, but rather for the way it reads like a throwback to fandom days of yore.

Excerpt: “You’re not from around here,” she said as she looked over their strange clothing.

“No, we’re not,” Clark agreed. “We’re just…lost. Very, very lost.”

Story: Where You Belong
Author: NaomiRaven
Fandom: Glee
Genre: Romance, Divergence
Pairing/Character: Kurt/Blaine
Summary: Prom an event Kurt has been planning for since as long as he can remember, second in importance only to his wedding. It's going to be perfect. He's got the perfect outfit and the perfect man and absolutely nothing could ruin his big night... right?

Squeeing: There is something about this fic I keep coming back to - it diverges from the second season, and is set in the mythical land where Kurt never leaves Dalton and Klaine hasn't started yet. I'm trying to put my finger on it, but the best explanation is that this feels like a teen movie - the misunderstandings, the characters, their reactions. Something about this fic is incredibly sweet, and Kurt and Blaine feel like teenagers in this. While I love Klaine as a pairing, it's hard to find fic where they act their ages - not children, but not adults, either.

Excerpt: Kurt had never received flowers before. He didn't quite know what the proper way to react was, but currently he felt like doing something extremely out of character and screaming like a ten year old girl who'd gotten exactly what she wanted for Christmas. But then Kurt rationalized that if he did that he would probably have about ten boys trying to break down his door thinking he was being murdered, and that would certainly ruin this moment. So with wide eyes Kurt instead stepped forward and shakily plucked the small white card out from the mass of flowers and opened it – not daring to allow himself to hope who they could be from.

Story: Alone in the Light
Author: j_green_teeth
Fandom: Star Trek
Genre: Mystery
Pairing/Character: Kirk/Spock, implied Scotty/Uhura, OC/OC, ensemble, Many OCs
Summary: When Ensign Bestine commits suicide during a long haul between starbases, Jim thinks it's a bad omen. When they find a crewman with his head bashed it seems he's right.

Squeeing: A solid whodunit that manages to capture the essence of NuTrek. I love this author's Kirk voice, the interaction with Spock, and the little details that make this feel like it's really on the Enterprise. It's 40K, and it kept me up late reading because once the ball gets rolling, it's impossible to look away. There's some really nicely done noncannon cast members, and enough geek winks to make a solid sci-fi fan laugh at the in-joke.

Excerpt: When they had set off a year ago Jim had known intellectually that a starship Captain was responsible for the lives and deaths of everyone under their command. Now he understood what that meant. Tonight it meant reviewing the scanty mission report they had put together on the disastrous away mission to Kumba 6-4. 'Dead men tell no tales,' he thought morosely before starting in.

Story: Making and Unmaking, Wandering No More
Author: tvashti
Fandom: Twelve Houses (Sharon Shinn)
Genre: Drama, Post series
Pairing/Character: Cast (Canon pairings)
Summary: Five years after war tore apart the land of Gillengaria a new chapter is ready to be written for more than just the young ser and serra preparing to be installed as marlady and marlord of their Houses.

Squeeing: I am desperate for good fanfic based off Sharon Shinn's work that captures the worlds she builds. This fic is a very satisfying "five years later" that works through the entire cast of the Twelve Houses series as it comes to a scene which is set up in the books. It's not flawless, but it does make me think the author gets the worlds I loved reading about, and it's a balanced approach to the storytelling.

Excerpt: By the time she launched the pillow at him, he was reaching for the last of his gear and going out the door. Still she was smiling for all his teasing. It was true that the young Queen owned her husband’s truest and deepest loyalty, but no other person in this world or the next had carved into it even the tiniest niche for themselves. Not even Senneth.

Tayse had carved it for her.

Story: Gameverse
Author: miggy
Fandom: Glee/Survivor/The Amazing Race fusion
Genre: Action/adventure, interactive (but static now), humor
Pairing/Character: Entire Cast
Summary: Glee does Survivor. It goes so well that there's an Amazing Race sequel.

Squeeing: I'm reccing this since it's something that wouldn't typically get recced - it'sthe results of a series of polls (I would guess over fifty) that cast the characters as Survivor characters, which the author then wrote out. It's very much like reading a "Choose Your Own Adventure" novel that has the course laid out (which is fun.) The writer is one of the best in Glee fandom at capturing the peccadilloes of the characters and somehow selling it - it's an outlandish scenario, but Glee has an edge of that in the original canon. After the first couple of posts, the author goes into more descriptions of the scenarios/results that make for very entertaining reading.

Excerpt: Next, Brittany covers her eyes with her hands and attempts to follow Sue's orders. Sue tells her to turn left. She stands still. Sue tells her to turn right. She stands still. Finally, Sue asks Brittany what she's doing. Brittany replies that she felt like she was playing hide-and-go-seek and she wasn't supposed to move until she finished counting down from a hundred.