The big exciting Yuletide reclist 2013
These are all from the main collection; I will do another one for Madness tomorrow/as and when I get time.
Firstly, my two gifts (again):
My Happiness Depends on You | Jolene - Dolly Parton | 7052 words -- this is an amazing story about two childhood friends who grow up and finally figure one another out. It is, for me, a pretty faithful representation of what it is like being fifteen and isolated in a small, unfriendly sort of place; it is also gorgeous and atmospheric, incredibly well-characterised, and basically all about queer women. I am here for all of that, obviously! Read it if you like gorgeously structured small-town nostalgia, dive bars, and happy endings a long time coming.
The epistemology of the closet | History Boys (2006) | 1141 words -- reading this fic first thing this morning felt as though someone had reached into my head, pulled out all the fascinations I have with knowledge and love, seduction and theoretical argument, and where they intersect, and just put them all on the page. It is also an incredibly shattering depiction of what the approach to Oxbridge looks like, from the perspective of someone who didn’t make it. Read it if you like hindsight, the intersection between love and epistemology, and the enormous, perspective-warping chip on Tom Irwin's shoulder.
And now, some others:
How Dragons Came to Wear the Northern Lights | Flight Rising | 2323 words -- this is tagged as a just-so story and it has exactly that feel to it, all throughout. I love it because it is a gorgeous piece of worldbuilding in narrative format; the story itself forms part of the world. And it's beautifully written; reading it, I really felt that I was being told a story, and that is a feeling I love very much. Read it if you like fables and fairy-tales and telling stories around hearths.
kiss him silly, kiss him sillier | Free! | 7465 words -- so I watched swimming anime earlier on in term, quietly, because everyone else was doing it and I was curious. I don't consider myself super-fannish about it but I do consider myself absolutely delighted by this fic; it has a perfect Nagisa voice and a perfect Rei voice, and it is just beautifully written in a way that, for me, surpasses canon. Read it if you like narratives that treat excitable extroverts sensitively and seriously, adorable unresolved-dating-type-tension shenanigans, and faultlessly, hilariously in-character dialogue.
comfort among the stars | Hannibal RPF | 3501 words -- so I am breaking my usual no-RPF rule and reccing this in part because it uses the IN SPACE AU as a fascinating lens through which to view the construction of media. Yes. But I am also reccing it because Hugh Dancy, sexy pilot android sex worker. It is delightfully silly and wonderfully written and very smart. Read it if you like fandom metacommentary! …and also sexy pilot android sex workers having sex with Mads Mikkelsen.
Serious | Legally Blonde | 8795 words -- so first of all, whoever wrote this can write, and I am looking forward to seeking out more of their work post-reveals! Re: this fic specifically, though -- I absolutely love the Elle we get to see here, smart and generous and surprising, and I love that this is a fic almost entirely about women (and queer women, at that). Everyone feels real and fleshed-out (and on that note, oh my god, Enid), nobody's demonised or vilified, and the sex is so lovely and consensual and. Such a lot of this resonated very strongly with my own experiences as a queer woman, and I have learned to value finding that in fic. Read it if you like genuinely excellent female characters, sensitive (but not heavy-handed) discussion of sexuality, and queer princess lawyers figuring one another out.
Soulful Soulmates (dot co dot uk) | The Mighty Boosh (TV) | 17759 words -- I keep thinking I am done with this fandom forever and then stumbling across some delightful fic that reels me back in; this is the most recent such fic. It's just lovely. It has all kinds of little touches of characterisation that pull Vince and Howard firmly into the present -- Vince likes Cookie Clicker! -- while still remaining eerily true to the characters' canon voices. Read it if you like ridiculous falling-in-love shenaniganry, really well-executed.
Abstraction White Rose | Shoujo Kakumei Utena / Revolutionary Girl Utena | 8607 words -- I kind of don't know where to begin with this fic, because it is so good. It is about Utena rediscovering herself after the events of the anime, and viewing all these familiar characters through her eyes, which don't recognise them anymore, is just delightful. On top of that, Utena's voice is absolutely spot-on, and the author did a really good job of getting me invested not only in Anthy/Utena (I am always invested in Anthy/Utena) but in Utena coming back to herself after a little time away. Read it if you like journeys of self-discovery, really clever and well-integrated references to canon, and the occasional strange anime marmoset.
Full of Promise and Potential | Slings and Arrows | 3615 words -- this is such good Slings and Arrows fic. By which I mean, not only is it excellently characterised and excellently written, it does exactly what the show does, viz. imposing just a little theatricality on reality. It is cleverly-constructed, and also hilarious and wrenching by turns; when an absent apostrophe in a note left for a lover can make you feel twisted-up inside then you know an author is doing something right. Read it if you like theatrical convention, mutually-assured emotional destruction, and really bad ideas for productions of Shakespeare.
The Spirit of the Staircase | Super Dangan Ronpa 2 | 3577 words -- whoever this was written for is super lucky. Super High-School Level Lucky, one might say! This fic is so well-structured and so well-told, and its characterisation is consistently great; I love this author's Kamukura, and also this author's Nanami, but their Sonia is also a stand-out, and the fic does an excellent job of making Naegi feel like a real person rather than an identikit video-game protag, too. Read it if you like post-game character development, questions of identity, and Sonia Nevermind, Agent Provocateur; also, be warned that the fic contains spoilers for the whole game.
Three Children of Loki | Vikings (TV) | 1215 words -- I still really like Vikings. So sue me. And not only is this excellent Lagertha fic, it gets to the heart of Ragnar, too; in this fic, even just in his brief dream-sequence appearance, he is the compelling, cryptic seeker-after-knowledge (where knowledge = power, in a very literal way) who got me hooked on the series. It's not long, but it packs a punch, and it is an excellent reminder, for me, of what I love about canon. Read it if you like manifesting gods, things that come in threes, and Lagertha, just generally.
Originally posted at http://acrossthefloors.dreamwidth.org/35962.html -- comment here or there according to your preference.
Firstly, my two gifts (again):
My Happiness Depends on You | Jolene - Dolly Parton | 7052 words -- this is an amazing story about two childhood friends who grow up and finally figure one another out. It is, for me, a pretty faithful representation of what it is like being fifteen and isolated in a small, unfriendly sort of place; it is also gorgeous and atmospheric, incredibly well-characterised, and basically all about queer women. I am here for all of that, obviously! Read it if you like gorgeously structured small-town nostalgia, dive bars, and happy endings a long time coming.
The epistemology of the closet | History Boys (2006) | 1141 words -- reading this fic first thing this morning felt as though someone had reached into my head, pulled out all the fascinations I have with knowledge and love, seduction and theoretical argument, and where they intersect, and just put them all on the page. It is also an incredibly shattering depiction of what the approach to Oxbridge looks like, from the perspective of someone who didn’t make it. Read it if you like hindsight, the intersection between love and epistemology, and the enormous, perspective-warping chip on Tom Irwin's shoulder.
And now, some others:
How Dragons Came to Wear the Northern Lights | Flight Rising | 2323 words -- this is tagged as a just-so story and it has exactly that feel to it, all throughout. I love it because it is a gorgeous piece of worldbuilding in narrative format; the story itself forms part of the world. And it's beautifully written; reading it, I really felt that I was being told a story, and that is a feeling I love very much. Read it if you like fables and fairy-tales and telling stories around hearths.
kiss him silly, kiss him sillier | Free! | 7465 words -- so I watched swimming anime earlier on in term, quietly, because everyone else was doing it and I was curious. I don't consider myself super-fannish about it but I do consider myself absolutely delighted by this fic; it has a perfect Nagisa voice and a perfect Rei voice, and it is just beautifully written in a way that, for me, surpasses canon. Read it if you like narratives that treat excitable extroverts sensitively and seriously, adorable unresolved-dating-type-tension shenanigans, and faultlessly, hilariously in-character dialogue.
comfort among the stars | Hannibal RPF | 3501 words -- so I am breaking my usual no-RPF rule and reccing this in part because it uses the IN SPACE AU as a fascinating lens through which to view the construction of media. Yes. But I am also reccing it because Hugh Dancy, sexy pilot android sex worker. It is delightfully silly and wonderfully written and very smart. Read it if you like fandom metacommentary! …and also sexy pilot android sex workers having sex with Mads Mikkelsen.
Serious | Legally Blonde | 8795 words -- so first of all, whoever wrote this can write, and I am looking forward to seeking out more of their work post-reveals! Re: this fic specifically, though -- I absolutely love the Elle we get to see here, smart and generous and surprising, and I love that this is a fic almost entirely about women (and queer women, at that). Everyone feels real and fleshed-out (and on that note, oh my god, Enid), nobody's demonised or vilified, and the sex is so lovely and consensual and. Such a lot of this resonated very strongly with my own experiences as a queer woman, and I have learned to value finding that in fic. Read it if you like genuinely excellent female characters, sensitive (but not heavy-handed) discussion of sexuality, and queer princess lawyers figuring one another out.
Soulful Soulmates (dot co dot uk) | The Mighty Boosh (TV) | 17759 words -- I keep thinking I am done with this fandom forever and then stumbling across some delightful fic that reels me back in; this is the most recent such fic. It's just lovely. It has all kinds of little touches of characterisation that pull Vince and Howard firmly into the present -- Vince likes Cookie Clicker! -- while still remaining eerily true to the characters' canon voices. Read it if you like ridiculous falling-in-love shenaniganry, really well-executed.
Abstraction White Rose | Shoujo Kakumei Utena / Revolutionary Girl Utena | 8607 words -- I kind of don't know where to begin with this fic, because it is so good. It is about Utena rediscovering herself after the events of the anime, and viewing all these familiar characters through her eyes, which don't recognise them anymore, is just delightful. On top of that, Utena's voice is absolutely spot-on, and the author did a really good job of getting me invested not only in Anthy/Utena (I am always invested in Anthy/Utena) but in Utena coming back to herself after a little time away. Read it if you like journeys of self-discovery, really clever and well-integrated references to canon, and the occasional strange anime marmoset.
Full of Promise and Potential | Slings and Arrows | 3615 words -- this is such good Slings and Arrows fic. By which I mean, not only is it excellently characterised and excellently written, it does exactly what the show does, viz. imposing just a little theatricality on reality. It is cleverly-constructed, and also hilarious and wrenching by turns; when an absent apostrophe in a note left for a lover can make you feel twisted-up inside then you know an author is doing something right. Read it if you like theatrical convention, mutually-assured emotional destruction, and really bad ideas for productions of Shakespeare.
The Spirit of the Staircase | Super Dangan Ronpa 2 | 3577 words -- whoever this was written for is super lucky. Super High-School Level Lucky, one might say! This fic is so well-structured and so well-told, and its characterisation is consistently great; I love this author's Kamukura, and also this author's Nanami, but their Sonia is also a stand-out, and the fic does an excellent job of making Naegi feel like a real person rather than an identikit video-game protag, too. Read it if you like post-game character development, questions of identity, and Sonia Nevermind, Agent Provocateur; also, be warned that the fic contains spoilers for the whole game.
Three Children of Loki | Vikings (TV) | 1215 words -- I still really like Vikings. So sue me. And not only is this excellent Lagertha fic, it gets to the heart of Ragnar, too; in this fic, even just in his brief dream-sequence appearance, he is the compelling, cryptic seeker-after-knowledge (where knowledge = power, in a very literal way) who got me hooked on the series. It's not long, but it packs a punch, and it is an excellent reminder, for me, of what I love about canon. Read it if you like manifesting gods, things that come in threes, and Lagertha, just generally.
Originally posted at http://acrossthefloors.dreamwidth.org/35962.html -- comment here or there according to your preference.