Yuletide Recs List (#1 of ?)
It's Yuletide, everybody! Hooray! I think which story I wrote is painfully obvious if you stumble over it, but I don't know if any of you know the canon, so, maybe you won't discover it.
In any case, I received a fabulous story:
Padded Rooms and Stiletto Heels (1006 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Revenge (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Victoria Grayson, Emily Thorne
Summary:
It’s a trade she’s more than willing to make.
It's a brilliant bit of backstory for Victoria, and does exactly what I want a Victoria story to do: deal in an upfront and direct way with the immorality of many of her actions, while keeping her human. At her most interesting moments, Victoria recognizes how wrong she is, but consciously chooses to continue on the same path, because she prefers this route to others. This is a story where she stands in the face of her own wrongdoing, looks it in the eye, and then keeps going.
I haven't finished reading in some of the "larger" fandoms (SCANDAL FIIIIIIIIC), but here are my recs so far:
Subject: Tiffany? (2357 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Candle Cove
Rating: Mature
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Summary:
Hey, Maria. I know you hate talking on the phone. And hi, Pam. I don’t think I have your new number? It’s been years, so you must have changed it. I just got off the phone with Lori. I don’t know what to say. This is awful!
First off, I now hate
st_aurafina for introducing me to Candle Cove, a truly brilliant bit of fiction about a scary children's TV show. What's so great about this fic for it is that it borrows from the format of the original story, by being a series of emails (rather than posts on a bulletin board). As another commenter said, "at one point I was terrified to scroll down." ME TOO, FELLOW READER. Do not read this in a dark room.
A Great and Gruesome Height (19125 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Iowa - Dar Williams (Song), Dar Williams Songs
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Narrator (Iowa)/OFC
Characters: Narrator (Iowa)
Summary:
It's 1998, Josiah Bartlet is the Democratic nominee battling sitting Republican President Lawrence Armstrong for the Oval Office, and back in Iowa, Republican campaign coordinator Megan Richter is about to fall from a great and gruesome height.
Eeeeeee, Iowa fic! An Iowa/West Wing crossover! Doomed cross-party love! It's awesome.
Point of Fact: Dinosaurs Did Not Have a System of Post-Secondary Education (3736 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dinosaur Train
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shiny/Gilbert
Characters: Buddy (Dinosaur Train), Mr. Pteranodon, Mrs. Pteranodon, Mr. Conductor (Dinosaur Train), Don Pteranodon, Mrs. Conductor, Shiny Pteranodon, Tiny Pteranodon, Gilbert (Dinosaur Train)
Summary:
In which teen angst and attendance at Big Pond Community College provide some insight into the world of walking, talking, time-traveling train operating dinosaurs.
intelligent life. (444 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dinosaur Train
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Mr. Conductor
Summary:
It’s a thing of awful marvel, really, a time-traveling train.
There was actually a conversation about Dinosaur Train fanfic at my Christmas dinner table. These are my favorites of this year's crop; the former reads like an episode, with its spot on characterizations of Buddy, Don, Mr. Conductor, and the whole crew, while the latter is a short little treat that exposes some of the rocky foundations of the universe that most of its viewers are too young to dwell on.
The Bar at the End of the Fandom (3911 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: AO3 Tags, Meta - Fandom
Rating: Mature
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary:
PWP walks into a bar...
A meta-fic that will be amusing to anyone who has ever spent time contemplating AO3 tags. Or who hates them.
The Girl Who Came To Baker Street (12201 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Millennium Trilogy - Stieg Larsson, Sherlock (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mikael Blomkvist/Lisbeth Salander, Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Lisbeth Salander, Mikael Blomkvist, Mary Morstan, Original Characters
Summary:
They’re an odd looking group, John thinks, stuck with handing the cabbie some cash while the others pile out and head up the walk. Then again, there’s nothing for it; Lisbeth certainly has her own aesthetic sense, as distinct as Sherlock’s if far less formal. And if she looks odd in the company of three other men, she certainly doesn’t seem to feel odd - -she’s practically plastered to Sherlock’s side.
Not that John has noticed.
Lisbeth Salander and Sherlock Holmes, Investigation BFFs. Mycroft's appearance really makes it for me. (It does the thing I like least with Mary Morstan--ask me more about this if you want--but she's a great character in her own right.)
Three Shades of Steele (11321 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 50 Shades of Grey - E. L. James
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Anastasia Steele, Anastasia's Subconscious, Anastasia's Inner Goddess, Carla Adams, Kate Kavanagh, Christian Grey
Summary:
A jinn transforms Ana Steele's subconscious and inner goddess into living people. Permanently. That's the good news.
I haven't read 50 Shades, but this is an excellent deconstruction of it, with great humor, feminism, magic, and bonus added mythical monsters.
Restoration: The Manual on Utter Destruction of Castles, Disappointing Princes, and other Customary Mishaps (1979 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Paper Bag Princess - Robert Munsch
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Princess Elizabeth, the Dragon
Summary:
A story of Princess Elizabeth's triumphs and tribulations with scale models, a dragon's fashion sense, and putting castles any other place but swamps.
Paper Bag Diplomacy (3000 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Paper Bag Princess - Robert Munsch
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Princess Elizabeth (The Paper Bag Princess), Dragon (The Paper Bag Princess), Prince Ronald (The Paper Bag Princess), Original Characters
Summary:
Princess Elizabeth has vanquished the Dragon and danced off into the sunset. Too bad the story doesn't end there! Now she has a kingdom to run and some very uppity neighbors to manage. Her only weapons: a half-burnt country, a certain way with words, and the kind of moxie that lets her bluff a dragon while armed only with a paper bag...
Pretty much all the stories written for Paper Bag Princess in this round are excellent, but I particularly like these two for how they build a friendship between Elizabeth and the Dragon.
A Very Happy Hitchiker’s Christmas (4248 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Arthur Dent/Ford Prefect
Characters: Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox
Summary:
In which Arthur Dent gets just what he wanted for Christmas, except the tea, and Ford Prefect gets the thing he's been pining for.
A bit of madcap hilarity that is perfectly in tune with canon, except for the bromance=>romance transition it makes (almost accidentally) in the last bit. Doesn't hurt that I've imprinted on the Martin Freeman version of Arthur (he reads the audiobooks, okay???), which adds a level of meta to this.
Echoes (1157 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica (2003), Caprica (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Tamara Adama, Ellen Tigh, Sam Anders, Sharon "Boomer" Valerii
Summary:
Zoe never comes back for Tamara.
TAMARA. One of the comments seems to imply that Tamara becoming the Eights is canon; does anyone know if this is true?
Documentation (1219 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dollhouse
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Topher Brink
Summary:
Excerpts from 'Destroyer and Saviour: A Selection of Primary Sources Concerning Christopher Brink'.
I love fics of this format--snippets from "found documents"--and I will take any excuse to get maudlin about Topher.
Noah's Arkangel (26996 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tanakh
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary:
“I’ll be up at the Arkangel,” Noah finishes. “When you lot have finished your grumbling, come up and get your assignments.”
After he leaves, everyone looks at each other, still caught in the moment of silence. As might have been expected, Ham’s the one to break it. “What’s crawled up his exhaust pipe?”
“I think the prospect of a life-ending flood might just have had a moderately deleterious effect upon him,” Rahela says sarcastically. “I can’t imagine why.”
This one poked my work-related buttons, my God-related buttons, and my crying-because-things-are-awesome buttons.
This entry was originally posted at http://amalnahurriyeh.dreamwidth.org/75982.html. You can comment in either location. There are currently
comments at Dreamwidth.
In any case, I received a fabulous story:
Padded Rooms and Stiletto Heels (1006 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Revenge (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Victoria Grayson, Emily Thorne
Summary:
It’s a trade she’s more than willing to make.
It's a brilliant bit of backstory for Victoria, and does exactly what I want a Victoria story to do: deal in an upfront and direct way with the immorality of many of her actions, while keeping her human. At her most interesting moments, Victoria recognizes how wrong she is, but consciously chooses to continue on the same path, because she prefers this route to others. This is a story where she stands in the face of her own wrongdoing, looks it in the eye, and then keeps going.
I haven't finished reading in some of the "larger" fandoms (SCANDAL FIIIIIIIIC), but here are my recs so far:
Subject: Tiffany? (2357 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Candle Cove
Rating: Mature
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Summary:
Hey, Maria. I know you hate talking on the phone. And hi, Pam. I don’t think I have your new number? It’s been years, so you must have changed it. I just got off the phone with Lori. I don’t know what to say. This is awful!
First off, I now hate
st_aurafina for introducing me to Candle Cove, a truly brilliant bit of fiction about a scary children's TV show. What's so great about this fic for it is that it borrows from the format of the original story, by being a series of emails (rather than posts on a bulletin board). As another commenter said, "at one point I was terrified to scroll down." ME TOO, FELLOW READER. Do not read this in a dark room.
A Great and Gruesome Height (19125 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Iowa - Dar Williams (Song), Dar Williams Songs
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Narrator (Iowa)/OFC
Characters: Narrator (Iowa)
Summary:
It's 1998, Josiah Bartlet is the Democratic nominee battling sitting Republican President Lawrence Armstrong for the Oval Office, and back in Iowa, Republican campaign coordinator Megan Richter is about to fall from a great and gruesome height.
Eeeeeee, Iowa fic! An Iowa/West Wing crossover! Doomed cross-party love! It's awesome.
Point of Fact: Dinosaurs Did Not Have a System of Post-Secondary Education (3736 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dinosaur Train
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shiny/Gilbert
Characters: Buddy (Dinosaur Train), Mr. Pteranodon, Mrs. Pteranodon, Mr. Conductor (Dinosaur Train), Don Pteranodon, Mrs. Conductor, Shiny Pteranodon, Tiny Pteranodon, Gilbert (Dinosaur Train)
Summary:
In which teen angst and attendance at Big Pond Community College provide some insight into the world of walking, talking, time-traveling train operating dinosaurs.
intelligent life. (444 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dinosaur Train
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Mr. Conductor
Summary:
It’s a thing of awful marvel, really, a time-traveling train.
There was actually a conversation about Dinosaur Train fanfic at my Christmas dinner table. These are my favorites of this year's crop; the former reads like an episode, with its spot on characterizations of Buddy, Don, Mr. Conductor, and the whole crew, while the latter is a short little treat that exposes some of the rocky foundations of the universe that most of its viewers are too young to dwell on.
The Bar at the End of the Fandom (3911 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: AO3 Tags, Meta - Fandom
Rating: Mature
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary:
PWP walks into a bar...
A meta-fic that will be amusing to anyone who has ever spent time contemplating AO3 tags. Or who hates them.
The Girl Who Came To Baker Street (12201 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Millennium Trilogy - Stieg Larsson, Sherlock (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mikael Blomkvist/Lisbeth Salander, Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Lisbeth Salander, Mikael Blomkvist, Mary Morstan, Original Characters
Summary:
They’re an odd looking group, John thinks, stuck with handing the cabbie some cash while the others pile out and head up the walk. Then again, there’s nothing for it; Lisbeth certainly has her own aesthetic sense, as distinct as Sherlock’s if far less formal. And if she looks odd in the company of three other men, she certainly doesn’t seem to feel odd - -she’s practically plastered to Sherlock’s side.
Not that John has noticed.
Lisbeth Salander and Sherlock Holmes, Investigation BFFs. Mycroft's appearance really makes it for me. (It does the thing I like least with Mary Morstan--ask me more about this if you want--but she's a great character in her own right.)
Three Shades of Steele (11321 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 50 Shades of Grey - E. L. James
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Anastasia Steele, Anastasia's Subconscious, Anastasia's Inner Goddess, Carla Adams, Kate Kavanagh, Christian Grey
Summary:
A jinn transforms Ana Steele's subconscious and inner goddess into living people. Permanently. That's the good news.
I haven't read 50 Shades, but this is an excellent deconstruction of it, with great humor, feminism, magic, and bonus added mythical monsters.
Restoration: The Manual on Utter Destruction of Castles, Disappointing Princes, and other Customary Mishaps (1979 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Paper Bag Princess - Robert Munsch
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Princess Elizabeth, the Dragon
Summary:
A story of Princess Elizabeth's triumphs and tribulations with scale models, a dragon's fashion sense, and putting castles any other place but swamps.
Paper Bag Diplomacy (3000 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Paper Bag Princess - Robert Munsch
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Princess Elizabeth (The Paper Bag Princess), Dragon (The Paper Bag Princess), Prince Ronald (The Paper Bag Princess), Original Characters
Summary:
Princess Elizabeth has vanquished the Dragon and danced off into the sunset. Too bad the story doesn't end there! Now she has a kingdom to run and some very uppity neighbors to manage. Her only weapons: a half-burnt country, a certain way with words, and the kind of moxie that lets her bluff a dragon while armed only with a paper bag...
Pretty much all the stories written for Paper Bag Princess in this round are excellent, but I particularly like these two for how they build a friendship between Elizabeth and the Dragon.
A Very Happy Hitchiker’s Christmas (4248 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Arthur Dent/Ford Prefect
Characters: Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox
Summary:
In which Arthur Dent gets just what he wanted for Christmas, except the tea, and Ford Prefect gets the thing he's been pining for.
A bit of madcap hilarity that is perfectly in tune with canon, except for the bromance=>romance transition it makes (almost accidentally) in the last bit. Doesn't hurt that I've imprinted on the Martin Freeman version of Arthur (he reads the audiobooks, okay???), which adds a level of meta to this.
Echoes (1157 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica (2003), Caprica (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Tamara Adama, Ellen Tigh, Sam Anders, Sharon "Boomer" Valerii
Summary:
Zoe never comes back for Tamara.
TAMARA. One of the comments seems to imply that Tamara becoming the Eights is canon; does anyone know if this is true?
Documentation (1219 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dollhouse
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Topher Brink
Summary:
Excerpts from 'Destroyer and Saviour: A Selection of Primary Sources Concerning Christopher Brink'.
I love fics of this format--snippets from "found documents"--and I will take any excuse to get maudlin about Topher.
Noah's Arkangel (26996 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tanakh
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary:
“I’ll be up at the Arkangel,” Noah finishes. “When you lot have finished your grumbling, come up and get your assignments.”
After he leaves, everyone looks at each other, still caught in the moment of silence. As might have been expected, Ham’s the one to break it. “What’s crawled up his exhaust pipe?”
“I think the prospect of a life-ending flood might just have had a moderately deleterious effect upon him,” Rahela says sarcastically. “I can’t imagine why.”
This one poked my work-related buttons, my God-related buttons, and my crying-because-things-are-awesome buttons.
This entry was originally posted at http://amalnahurriyeh.dreamwidth.org/75982.html. You can comment in either location. There are currently
comments at Dreamwidth.