What I Read on Monday (5/26 - Memorial Day) TS, HL, B/A, SV
If you've been reading along at home and trying to figure out the difference between a "very recommended" and a "highly recommended" and, you know, rankings and stuff ... there mostly aren't any. The modifying word to "recommended" is just an indicator as to how enthusiastic I was feeling at the moment I wrote the review -- and also me trying to not be too bothersomely repetitive. If there isn't a modifying word, then it's a calmer, less enthusiastic rec. And obviously "rec'd with caveats" means that I think there's serious flaws in the story, I've discussed them in the review section, but I think the story is worth plowing through them.
Other comments -- are pretty much whatever they are. But these are Just My Opinion, highly subjective and obviously Your Mileage May Vary. And I'm more likely to rec something because I had fun (even if it was weepy fun) reading it than because it's obviously the literary inheritor of John Steinbeck (whose writing I generally don't like anyway) ... but I am also influenced by literary merit. And I've done zine editing and tutored writing and was even an English major in college, so I'm not totally ignorant...
The Sentinel: Jim/Blair
Summer Lovin
by Krisser
Post-TSbBS. Blair is so pretty and gay-looking that the FBI recruits him as bait in a white slavery case. Then the "whole gang" join in and head to Southern California to take part in the surveillance. Because Blair is a virgin, the head of the white slavery ring (which is being run out of a gay resort) plans to break him in, so Jim goes running undercover to deflower Blair and thus make the head of the white slavery ring less interested in him. There's lots of lascivious lip licking by the villains. Um, yeah. It's all like that, only more so. At one point, by my count, there were over 2 dozen men crammed into a beach cabana. Have a quote: "Have you ever done male sex before?" Jim had to know. Have another one -- and keep in mind that the speaker is Joel Taggert, and Joel has a gun crammed into the back of the FBI agent he's threatening speaking to: "Whatever harm befalls Blair because of the delay you caused, I'll make sure it comes back on you tenfold. If he is raped by one, for you it will be ten." *facepalm*
The Sentinel: Jim/Blair
Murder By Ritual
by Krisser
AU. Jim and Blair meet under different circumstances. I found myself wondering if the author was influenced by Susan Foster's gen AU, the GDP universe, because of the emphasis on grounding and bonding. The problems I had with the author's work in the previous listing were still present but not as strong, as though the length of the piece diluted them. There were still some cringe-worthy elements, but the author jumped into her story with both feet and pursued it with enthusiasm, and I can't help but admire those writerly traits.
Highlander: Duncan/Methos
Map to the Heart
by Krisser
Yesh! Okay, first? There were some really nice ideas in here. But then there was the depressing presence of yenta!Joe, who stops just short of thinking about Duncan and Methos as "those crazy kids". *ehem* The end gimmick is cute. The sex ... is not my cuppa (note I avoid even *mentioning* the sex scenes in the two Sentinel stories listed above). This is not an author I would seek out every new story of with reckless enthusiasm. Still, I've read worse - a lot worse. And her work seems to improve when longer -- with more room, she seems to stretch out a bit and also avoid the overly cutesy gimmicks.
Buffy-verse: Spike/Xander
Repossession, part 63 *WIP*
by LazuliKat
It's very popular these days to mention Repossession in a snide and superior fashion. "This" S/X story or "that" one is "better than Repossession, thank God!" is an attitude I've run across a bit too often. Well, poo on them! **blows raspberry** I *heart* Repossession, every melodramatic, excessive, self-indulgent chapter of it. It's big-time h/c, yeah, and the melodrama and the excess and all -- it's wallow!fic of the best kind and ... yeah, okay, Spike is a bit noble and Xander is wildly successful and the OCs are kinda MarySue-ish (regardless of gender), but the thing is, LazuliKat *sells* it, she makes it work and it's fucking brilliant and also just plain *fun*. Sometimes three-hankies-and-a-box-of-chocolates fun, but still fun. Yeah, I can buy it's not to everybody's taste, but it's totally unnecessary to put down one writer's work in order to compliment another writer's work. Pisses me off. Let them what's bitching weave a 60+ part AU with this degree of internal consistency and attention to detail and then, just maybe, then they can bitch. And why, you may ask, since I'm not the writer, am I so worked up about others' comments? Because those comments have generally been phrased to imply that "if you like Repossession, you're a tasteless idiot" and I *don't* resemble -- or appreciate -- that implication. And, in case I didn't make it clear with the above paragraph, the whole glorious mess is ***most excellently recommended***
Buffy-verse: Spike/Xander
Accumulated Interest
by LazuliKat
Humor. Dialog only. Epilog to the Dracula episode. Hilarious. Hot. Sexy. Thralldom. Or not. *highly recommended*
Smallville: CLex
Time and Chance, chapter 18
by Dayspring
MPREG. AU. Most recent chapter. You can find all the chapters at the link. Love this story. Lex, pregnant and cranky and scared. Clark, young and naive and noble. Jonathan and Martha, trying to do what's best for their baby boy -- and their baby boy's lover. Lionel, an oppressive presence lurking in the background. A wonderful OC nurse who has no trace of MarySue to her whatsoever. Appearances by Chloe and Lana and Pete. Truth-telling and new lies. Mysteries and secrets. Lots of fear and lots of love. ***most highly recommended***
Buffy-verse: Spike/Xander
Subtleties, chapter 24 *WIP*
by Anna S. (eliade)
Previous chapters are indexed here. Many thanks to green_luv for mentioning in her journal that this chapter had been posted or I might not have found it for months... *bouncebouncebounce* She wrote another chapter, she wrote another chapter!!! People need to have birthdays more often if this is the result! Note if you haven't encountered this wonderful AU S/X love story that it's not so much chapters of a single story with cliffhanger endings as it is connected but standalone chapters of the characters lives. A little philosophy, a little psychology, a lot of love and plenty of good sex. ***highly recommended***
The Sentinel: gen (Jim/Blair)
Dark Sentinel: Opposites Attract
Dark Sentinel: Claimed and Marked
by Susan Foster
*sigh* Shouldn't have mentioned her stuff above. Knew I'd be tempted over to her page.... Seriously AU universe, with many chapters and several AUs of its own, in which Sentinels and Guides are both well known world-wide. There's Sentinel training academies and other such stuff -- including a network of laws that dehumanize and indenture (even enslave) the Guides to the service of their Sentinels. This unjust system is filled with abuses of power, with the dehumanized Guides forced to submit to wearing collars and submitting to various humiliating behaviors and losing all of their rights. Enter surly!Jim, dying from lack of a Guide, and excessively-abused!Blair (who starts off the story after having been raped and beaten numerous times while in "Guide retraining") brought in to bond with him, a last chance for both of them. In this world, the abusive treatment of Guides is so much a part of the social norm that Jim doesn't question it before Blair shows up in his life. And Blair is ... well, one of his primary traits has always been how irrepressible and energetic he is. Though clearly traumatized, he bounces back time and again. And Jim starts to help him work to change the system. Though it's not that clear-cut -- this Jim can be a real asshat a lot of the time and Blair is a bit too small and delicate (though with the heart of a lion). The whole "bonding renewal" thing is extremely eroticized, but the emphasis is always "they're just friends -- really really *close* friends, but friends" but never lovers. Though the subtext is so thick you could cut it with a knife. And it's always painful watching either one of them trying to date women who will always be second-best to the primary relationship in their lives. But it's not about sex, dammit! *coughcough* Whatever you say, Susan. The series is highly melodramatic, filled with action and angst and pathos (occasionally bordering on bathos). One of the strong recurring themes is the fight against social injustice. Another is how many slimeballs are out there lining up to rape and abuse het!Blair. And the writing could use some proofreading as well as a good beta. It's also like potato chips -- you can't stop with just one. If you're at all susceptible to this kind of story, the series-es suck you in and keep you reading. I usually only manage to break free when my need to have Jim and Blair sucking face overwhelms my need for ready-made angst... *recommended with caveats*
Other comments -- are pretty much whatever they are. But these are Just My Opinion, highly subjective and obviously Your Mileage May Vary. And I'm more likely to rec something because I had fun (even if it was weepy fun) reading it than because it's obviously the literary inheritor of John Steinbeck (whose writing I generally don't like anyway) ... but I am also influenced by literary merit. And I've done zine editing and tutored writing and was even an English major in college, so I'm not totally ignorant...
The Sentinel: Jim/Blair
Summer Lovin
by Krisser
Post-TSbBS. Blair is so pretty and gay-looking that the FBI recruits him as bait in a white slavery case. Then the "whole gang" join in and head to Southern California to take part in the surveillance. Because Blair is a virgin, the head of the white slavery ring (which is being run out of a gay resort) plans to break him in, so Jim goes running undercover to deflower Blair and thus make the head of the white slavery ring less interested in him. There's lots of lascivious lip licking by the villains. Um, yeah. It's all like that, only more so. At one point, by my count, there were over 2 dozen men crammed into a beach cabana. Have a quote: "Have you ever done male sex before?" Jim had to know. Have another one -- and keep in mind that the speaker is Joel Taggert, and Joel has a gun crammed into the back of the FBI agent he's threatening speaking to: "Whatever harm befalls Blair because of the delay you caused, I'll make sure it comes back on you tenfold. If he is raped by one, for you it will be ten." *facepalm*
The Sentinel: Jim/Blair
Murder By Ritual
by Krisser
AU. Jim and Blair meet under different circumstances. I found myself wondering if the author was influenced by Susan Foster's gen AU, the GDP universe, because of the emphasis on grounding and bonding. The problems I had with the author's work in the previous listing were still present but not as strong, as though the length of the piece diluted them. There were still some cringe-worthy elements, but the author jumped into her story with both feet and pursued it with enthusiasm, and I can't help but admire those writerly traits.
Highlander: Duncan/Methos
Map to the Heart
by Krisser
Yesh! Okay, first? There were some really nice ideas in here. But then there was the depressing presence of yenta!Joe, who stops just short of thinking about Duncan and Methos as "those crazy kids". *ehem* The end gimmick is cute. The sex ... is not my cuppa (note I avoid even *mentioning* the sex scenes in the two Sentinel stories listed above). This is not an author I would seek out every new story of with reckless enthusiasm. Still, I've read worse - a lot worse. And her work seems to improve when longer -- with more room, she seems to stretch out a bit and also avoid the overly cutesy gimmicks.
Buffy-verse: Spike/Xander
Repossession, part 63 *WIP*
by LazuliKat
It's very popular these days to mention Repossession in a snide and superior fashion. "This" S/X story or "that" one is "better than Repossession, thank God!" is an attitude I've run across a bit too often. Well, poo on them! **blows raspberry** I *heart* Repossession, every melodramatic, excessive, self-indulgent chapter of it. It's big-time h/c, yeah, and the melodrama and the excess and all -- it's wallow!fic of the best kind and ... yeah, okay, Spike is a bit noble and Xander is wildly successful and the OCs are kinda MarySue-ish (regardless of gender), but the thing is, LazuliKat *sells* it, she makes it work and it's fucking brilliant and also just plain *fun*. Sometimes three-hankies-and-a-box-of-chocolates fun, but still fun. Yeah, I can buy it's not to everybody's taste, but it's totally unnecessary to put down one writer's work in order to compliment another writer's work. Pisses me off. Let them what's bitching weave a 60+ part AU with this degree of internal consistency and attention to detail and then, just maybe, then they can bitch. And why, you may ask, since I'm not the writer, am I so worked up about others' comments? Because those comments have generally been phrased to imply that "if you like Repossession, you're a tasteless idiot" and I *don't* resemble -- or appreciate -- that implication. And, in case I didn't make it clear with the above paragraph, the whole glorious mess is ***most excellently recommended***
Buffy-verse: Spike/Xander
Accumulated Interest
by LazuliKat
Humor. Dialog only. Epilog to the Dracula episode. Hilarious. Hot. Sexy. Thralldom. Or not. *highly recommended*
Smallville: CLex
Time and Chance, chapter 18
by Dayspring
MPREG. AU. Most recent chapter. You can find all the chapters at the link. Love this story. Lex, pregnant and cranky and scared. Clark, young and naive and noble. Jonathan and Martha, trying to do what's best for their baby boy -- and their baby boy's lover. Lionel, an oppressive presence lurking in the background. A wonderful OC nurse who has no trace of MarySue to her whatsoever. Appearances by Chloe and Lana and Pete. Truth-telling and new lies. Mysteries and secrets. Lots of fear and lots of love. ***most highly recommended***
Buffy-verse: Spike/Xander
Subtleties, chapter 24 *WIP*
by Anna S. (eliade)
Previous chapters are indexed here. Many thanks to green_luv for mentioning in her journal that this chapter had been posted or I might not have found it for months... *bouncebouncebounce* She wrote another chapter, she wrote another chapter!!! People need to have birthdays more often if this is the result! Note if you haven't encountered this wonderful AU S/X love story that it's not so much chapters of a single story with cliffhanger endings as it is connected but standalone chapters of the characters lives. A little philosophy, a little psychology, a lot of love and plenty of good sex. ***highly recommended***
The Sentinel: gen (Jim/Blair)
Dark Sentinel: Opposites Attract
Dark Sentinel: Claimed and Marked
by Susan Foster
*sigh* Shouldn't have mentioned her stuff above. Knew I'd be tempted over to her page.... Seriously AU universe, with many chapters and several AUs of its own, in which Sentinels and Guides are both well known world-wide. There's Sentinel training academies and other such stuff -- including a network of laws that dehumanize and indenture (even enslave) the Guides to the service of their Sentinels. This unjust system is filled with abuses of power, with the dehumanized Guides forced to submit to wearing collars and submitting to various humiliating behaviors and losing all of their rights. Enter surly!Jim, dying from lack of a Guide, and excessively-abused!Blair (who starts off the story after having been raped and beaten numerous times while in "Guide retraining") brought in to bond with him, a last chance for both of them. In this world, the abusive treatment of Guides is so much a part of the social norm that Jim doesn't question it before Blair shows up in his life. And Blair is ... well, one of his primary traits has always been how irrepressible and energetic he is. Though clearly traumatized, he bounces back time and again. And Jim starts to help him work to change the system. Though it's not that clear-cut -- this Jim can be a real asshat a lot of the time and Blair is a bit too small and delicate (though with the heart of a lion). The whole "bonding renewal" thing is extremely eroticized, but the emphasis is always "they're just friends -- really really *close* friends, but friends" but never lovers. Though the subtext is so thick you could cut it with a knife. And it's always painful watching either one of them trying to date women who will always be second-best to the primary relationship in their lives. But it's not about sex, dammit! *coughcough* Whatever you say, Susan. The series is highly melodramatic, filled with action and angst and pathos (occasionally bordering on bathos). One of the strong recurring themes is the fight against social injustice. Another is how many slimeballs are out there lining up to rape and abuse het!Blair. And the writing could use some proofreading as well as a good beta. It's also like potato chips -- you can't stop with just one. If you're at all susceptible to this kind of story, the series-es suck you in and keep you reading. I usually only manage to break free when my need to have Jim and Blair sucking face overwhelms my need for ready-made angst... *recommended with caveats*