didja ever see a fire fly?
I have no idea if this Buy Firefly fan campaign is going to work. I'd love to see new stories filmed in that 'verse, and I do believe that Fillion especially is still every bit as much in love with the show as the fans are. The bottom line to this is, Fox sucks. Mehhh.
In honor of the attempt, however, I wish to share with you my favorite Giant Epic Firefly Fics. All of this put together is about six seasons' worth of show, so while it doesn't completely heal the situation, it goes a big damn way towards soothing the sting. All of these are gen and/or canon-pairings (with the exception of Jayne and Inara, who do as their libido and profession dictate). There's plenty of swearing, violence and sex (neither particularly gratutious or porny) and all in all, damn fine storytelling.
First up, an author who calls himself ScrewTheAlliance. His work is here, with the oldest listed at the bottom.
'Kaylee's Lament,' finished, is 28 parts and introduces us to new characters, a ridiculously complex heist, and so much snappy dialogue (especially between Wash & Zoe) that it's like reading a show script. The core idea is very simple, but the execution thereof gets more and more complicated, the way these things do. My favorite bits are River's fondness of spacewalks, a nine-way dinner conversation, and Wash getting to wear an eyepatch.
'The Treasure of Lei Fong Wu,' also complete, is a gargantuan epic that clocks in at ninety chapters - YES, NINETY - and an epic quest to match. His original characters fit in seamlessly with the Firefly 'verse, and this one adds a ton of history to one throwaway reference from the show: the notorious Shan Yu. There are so many fantastic things in here I can't begin to list them all: resort planets, mastodons, Imperial families that have turned to organized crime.
Both of those are post-series and pre-movie, so they keep to the status quo and in some parts explain changed elements, like the redesign of the engine room and the hover-mule from the movie.
His third, 'Unfinished Business,' is itself unfinished, and I don't know if it ever will be complete. Dude updates slower than me, which is saying something, but by god it is worth it. That one is post-movie, and deals with the Independents and the war that wasn't won. There are also monkeys. Space monkeys. Seriously. It's fantastic.
STA has done some professional writing, I think for the Trek extended universe, and it shows - his worldbuilding (literally; he introduces us to a slew of new planets), politics of both Alliance and illegal variety, and back-details are fantastic. It's a bit more Big Damn Space Adventure than the series was, somewhat more like the movie, but they're rollicking good tales and go by much faster than you'd think.
Next up we have another writer I learned about through FFF, calling themselves mal4prez. Their work can be found on fanfiction.net, fireflyfans, and Livejournal. Pick yer poison, or website.
This has a closer feel to the tone of the series, sort of the people history forgets about. It focuses heavily on Mal, Inara, and River. This gihugeamungous epic also separates into a couple of works. They start at the end of the series and go AU from there.
The first one, 'The Fish Job,' is a fairly standard shipping job -- or it starts that way. Then things happen, and life gets a bit complicated for our Big Damn Heroes. Turns out the Academy isn't the only place interested in messing with peoples' brains. Jayne likes fish.
The second, 'Easy Tickets,' starts out with a bit of vacation, and quickly dives into seriousness, with new characters we'll see a lot more of. There's a hijack, a heist, secret agents, rich folks behaving badly, and major complications between Mal and Inara. River in zero gravity is a thing to behold.
The third has been split into three parts so far, but I'll cover it in one go. The fallout from 'Fish Job' and 'Easy Tickets' has serious consequences for everyone (but Mal especially) in the three books of 'Back Stories.' This digs into each character's past, with delicious detail (especially the pre-series adventures of Mal and Zoe) and combines it with a fantastic tale of Feds, spies, the Blue Hands, and other baddies. It is also hilarious, especially River's ongoing adventures with hormones. This one is unfinished.
Last, but certainly not least, we have an author named Peptuck whose works can be found on fanfiction.net. This one is pretty prolific, having done a spate of fics for fandoms I know nothing about, and two Firefly stories. One I haven't read (it's a Jayne/River and I'm not much for that) but the other, which I shall recommend, is another sprawling epic.
Forward takes place after the movie, with a slight Everybody Lives alteration that makes it much more enticing. It looks like one giant fic but is in fact several smaller ones in a series. Kind of like a season of a show, with individual episodes. This story focuses quite a bit on River, with some interesting House Of Leaves text effects for passages from her point of view; it's a bit of an Oh My Eyes And Brain if you're not expecting it, or not fond of experimental typography. To me, it works brilliantly. It digs back into the series antagonists; we get to see more of Niska and Badger, the old Operative and a new one too, and the Hands of Blue are never far away. Then there's business with the Academy, and that is complex stuff indeed. This is both finished and unfinished; the 'episode' has ended and the story's at a good stopping point, but not all plot points are wrapped up tidily yet.
Two or three months from now when you've read all of this, come back and tell me what you think.
In honor of the attempt, however, I wish to share with you my favorite Giant Epic Firefly Fics. All of this put together is about six seasons' worth of show, so while it doesn't completely heal the situation, it goes a big damn way towards soothing the sting. All of these are gen and/or canon-pairings (with the exception of Jayne and Inara, who do as their libido and profession dictate). There's plenty of swearing, violence and sex (neither particularly gratutious or porny) and all in all, damn fine storytelling.
First up, an author who calls himself ScrewTheAlliance. His work is here, with the oldest listed at the bottom.
'Kaylee's Lament,' finished, is 28 parts and introduces us to new characters, a ridiculously complex heist, and so much snappy dialogue (especially between Wash & Zoe) that it's like reading a show script. The core idea is very simple, but the execution thereof gets more and more complicated, the way these things do. My favorite bits are River's fondness of spacewalks, a nine-way dinner conversation, and Wash getting to wear an eyepatch.
'The Treasure of Lei Fong Wu,' also complete, is a gargantuan epic that clocks in at ninety chapters - YES, NINETY - and an epic quest to match. His original characters fit in seamlessly with the Firefly 'verse, and this one adds a ton of history to one throwaway reference from the show: the notorious Shan Yu. There are so many fantastic things in here I can't begin to list them all: resort planets, mastodons, Imperial families that have turned to organized crime.
Both of those are post-series and pre-movie, so they keep to the status quo and in some parts explain changed elements, like the redesign of the engine room and the hover-mule from the movie.
His third, 'Unfinished Business,' is itself unfinished, and I don't know if it ever will be complete. Dude updates slower than me, which is saying something, but by god it is worth it. That one is post-movie, and deals with the Independents and the war that wasn't won. There are also monkeys. Space monkeys. Seriously. It's fantastic.
STA has done some professional writing, I think for the Trek extended universe, and it shows - his worldbuilding (literally; he introduces us to a slew of new planets), politics of both Alliance and illegal variety, and back-details are fantastic. It's a bit more Big Damn Space Adventure than the series was, somewhat more like the movie, but they're rollicking good tales and go by much faster than you'd think.
Next up we have another writer I learned about through FFF, calling themselves mal4prez. Their work can be found on fanfiction.net, fireflyfans, and Livejournal. Pick yer poison, or website.
This has a closer feel to the tone of the series, sort of the people history forgets about. It focuses heavily on Mal, Inara, and River. This gihugeamungous epic also separates into a couple of works. They start at the end of the series and go AU from there.
The first one, 'The Fish Job,' is a fairly standard shipping job -- or it starts that way. Then things happen, and life gets a bit complicated for our Big Damn Heroes. Turns out the Academy isn't the only place interested in messing with peoples' brains. Jayne likes fish.
The second, 'Easy Tickets,' starts out with a bit of vacation, and quickly dives into seriousness, with new characters we'll see a lot more of. There's a hijack, a heist, secret agents, rich folks behaving badly, and major complications between Mal and Inara. River in zero gravity is a thing to behold.
The third has been split into three parts so far, but I'll cover it in one go. The fallout from 'Fish Job' and 'Easy Tickets' has serious consequences for everyone (but Mal especially) in the three books of 'Back Stories.' This digs into each character's past, with delicious detail (especially the pre-series adventures of Mal and Zoe) and combines it with a fantastic tale of Feds, spies, the Blue Hands, and other baddies. It is also hilarious, especially River's ongoing adventures with hormones. This one is unfinished.
Last, but certainly not least, we have an author named Peptuck whose works can be found on fanfiction.net. This one is pretty prolific, having done a spate of fics for fandoms I know nothing about, and two Firefly stories. One I haven't read (it's a Jayne/River and I'm not much for that) but the other, which I shall recommend, is another sprawling epic.
Forward takes place after the movie, with a slight Everybody Lives alteration that makes it much more enticing. It looks like one giant fic but is in fact several smaller ones in a series. Kind of like a season of a show, with individual episodes. This story focuses quite a bit on River, with some interesting House Of Leaves text effects for passages from her point of view; it's a bit of an Oh My Eyes And Brain if you're not expecting it, or not fond of experimental typography. To me, it works brilliantly. It digs back into the series antagonists; we get to see more of Niska and Badger, the old Operative and a new one too, and the Hands of Blue are never far away. Then there's business with the Academy, and that is complex stuff indeed. This is both finished and unfinished; the 'episode' has ended and the story's at a good stopping point, but not all plot points are wrapped up tidily yet.
Two or three months from now when you've read all of this, come back and tell me what you think.