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
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Then, about 2-1/2 years ago, I got my laptop and started reading Highlander gen and het on the web. Oddly enough, since my own writing has always had slashy characters in it, I resisted slash fic. Until I'd read every single gen and het story featuring Methos that was in the 7th Dimension HL Archive. Took me about six months. So I've been reading slash for about 2 years (and on LiveJournal, thus *commenting* on slash, for about 1 year).
Anyway, that's why and when I started reading slash fanfic for the first time. (Well, except for that Luke-as-sex-slave/Han zine back in '79....) Started with Highlander. Then added X-Files. Then Due South and The Sentinel, kinda simultaneously. From that point on, it became a gigantic snowball rolling downhill.
There are some good S/A and X/A out there. I don't have any top-of-my-head recs for them, though, because I'm a OTP kinda girl and S/X is my OTP. Though I do read Xander slashed with other people. But I almost never enjoy fic featuring Spike slashed with anybody but Xander ... it's a strange thing.
Angel, I like with Lindsey or Lorne -- serious stuff with Lorne, not "sillyfic" played for laughs. I've read some fine Angel/Wesley stuff, but ... it's just not what I personally *yearn* for.
I'll always pick a long plotty, characterization-heavy story over a PWP if given a choice and I have the time to read the longer piece. And I usually have the time. (I'm "lucky" that way -- and kinda spoiled.)
Repossession ... I think that generally I like what Lazuli does with the other canon characters. I'm thinking she has "issues" with some of them, but she resists outright bashing, instead chosing to give Xander legitimate issues/conflicts with them wherein they don't come off as total asses. (Not counting Riley...) Or maybe I'm reading my own interpretation into it.
I'd like to see more Dawn and Willow and Buffy. I'd like to see more Angel -- and I'm curious about what happened to everybody else at AI. (Wesley, baby, where are you?)
And ... I love Riley, but I can cope with him as an over-the-top villain. He certainly wasn't entirely rational about Spike by the time he left Sunnydale (and even in canon, when he came back to town, he was less than rational about Spike). But I wish he wasn't dead -- when there's such a vile villain, I want a confrontation & payoff onscreen. (Here my issues with the ending of LotR show up; I'm still bitter that there was never a climactic face-off between Sauron and the heros there.)
I'd be interested in hearing your alternate viewpoint, though. What are you seeing (that maybe I'm missing) that bugs you?
And thanks for the thanks. Though it's really mostly my pleasure to do this journal!
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I’m very sorry it took me so long to reply to your post. Work and other RL stuff kept getting in the way, so maybe you have long forgotten about me.:-)) Also, I think I should warn you about my tendency to get rather long-winded when writing about something that makes me think.
Re: Then, about 2-1/2 years ago, I got my laptop and started reading Highlander gen and het on the web. Oddly enough, since my own writing has always had slashy characters in it, I resisted slash fic. Until I'd read every single gen and het story featuring Methos that was in the 7th Dimension HL Archive. Took me about six months. So I've been reading slash for about 2 years (and on LiveJournal, thus *commenting* on slash, for about 1 year).
Anyway, that's why and when I started reading slash fanfic for the first time. (Well, except for that Luke-as-sex-slave/Han zine back in '79....) Started with Highlander. Then added X-Files. Then Due South and The Sentinel, kinda simultaneously. From that point on, it became a gigantic snowball rolling downhill.
The first time I heard about fanfiction was when I became completely obsessed with a TV show (before BtVS) and found a web site that had, among other things, links to fanfiction sites and stories. Before that, I didn’t even know that ‚ordinary fans‘ would write there own stories based on characters they know from shows or movies. Even then, I never thought of reading it because I didn’t think it would have the quality professional writers achieve. Then I discovered Buffy and - after watching the famous Spike eps Crush and Fool For Love - zero’s site and board at jamesmarsters.com. However, it was only when lots of posters there kept raving about a fic titled 100 yrs of Solitude that I thought I should give it a try.
I guess the reason why that fic worked for me was that it was set in the future and AU and only remotely based on the show’s premise. After that I became obsessed with S/B. Not interested in slash, though. On the one hand, because I just didn’t see the characters that way (and wasn’t looking for the subtext, either ;-)), on the other hand because every time I tried it turned out to be some violent vampire PWP, and not even well written at that. Then, someone on a list I belonged to at the time recommended Chocolatey Goodness for its quality, the emotions, the beauty of the writing - and I was done.:-)) By now, I’ve read hundreds of S/X stories and downloaded even more.
A couple of things still haven’t changed for me, though: usually, I avoid fics that are meant to fill ‚gaps‘ or to rewrite scenes, or stories that are based on vampire lore that is more Anne Rice than BtVS. Like the whole biting and feeding which on the show is clearly a bad thing whereas in fics it tends to be something erotic. It makes me wince every time I read about Xander or Buffy asking Spike to bite him or her as a sign of love. And my favourite settings are still AU and future fics because it allows the characters to change in ways or deal with each other we would never have seen on the show. And because my take on the show and characters often differs from the writers'.
Re: There are some good S/A and X/A out there. I don't have any top-of-my-head recs for them, though, because I'm a OTP kinda girl and S/X is my OTP. Though I do read Xander slashed with other people. But I almost never enjoy fic featuring Spike slashed with anybody but Xander ... it's a strange thing.
I love Estepheia’s S/A fics and like Kay’s X/A fics a lot (Not Just Another Human or Healer). Kay’s writing may not be of the highest quality but she always comes up with original plots to make X/A believable, given the dislike or even hatred Xander always felt towards Angel.
As for Spike: He is definitely the most interesting and intriguing character, and if well written he can be paired with almost everyone else. Did you ever read All Purpose Spike by Indri?
more in pt.2
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Re: I'll always pick a long plotty, characterization-heavy story over a PWP if given a choice and I have the time to read the longer piece.
Me too, although due to my pickiness concerning pairings I have actually trouble finding new quality fics, short or long. Sometimes, well-written PWP can be very entertaining but those are rare. Also, I’ve found that after reading so and so many PWPs (or sex scenes in general) it becomes quite boring. And I’m so tired of graphic, even clinical descriptions, even more so when writers clearly have no idea what they are writing about, and don’t care very much about getting it right either. Only writers like Anna S. or wiseacress are able to make it interesting and fun to read again.
Re: Repossession ... I think that generally I like what Lazuli does with the other canon characters. I'm thinking she has "issues" with some of them, but she resists outright bashing, instead chosing to give Xander legitimate issues/conflicts with them wherein they don't come off as total asses. (Not counting Riley...) Or maybe I'm reading my own interpretation into it.
Well, I do think Lazuli has created a believable background and an interesting AU for the whole story and all the conflicts but IMO very often less would have been more. I wish she would have left all the Sunnydale stuff out because it’s all too much. I don’t mind characterisations that seem a little off but I do mind the characters being used to handle things the way the writer would do if she had the chance (I guess that’s what’s called a ‚Mary Sue‘:-)). The killing of Xander’s family and him not really being affected by it almost made me stop reading the series altogether. Also, I’m not into the whole possessing/biting/claiming/mating thing (which is so not what love really means, or should mean).
But of course, I will keep reading Repossession, and I also enjoy Who Wants to Live Forever a lot (it’s like Repo and Hunger in one fic, isn’t it?).:-)
Re: And ... I love Riley, but I can cope with him as an over-the-top villain. He certainly wasn't entirely rational about Spike by the time he left Sunnydale (and even in canon, when he came back to town, he was less than rational about Spike).
See, this is something I see differently. Before Riley left the first time, he attacked Spike because he wanted to protect Buffy and because he felt sad and desparate and betrayed. But in the end, these two not only shared Spike’s whiskey but also a moment of male bonding over unrequited love. And the second time, things were even more complicated because now it was Riley who ‚caught‘ Buffy sleeping with a vampire because she wanted to feel needed and loved-the very reasons that had made him seeking out those vampiresses(?). Again, his reaction towards Spike is understandable. I don’t care about Riley very much but I don’t get why so many people hate him with a passion. Most of the time, the way he deals with Spike is more or less what Xander would have done either, and yet you have gazillions of S/X but only a handful of S/R fics.
So, even though I tried very hard not to get carried away too much I wrote more than you perhaps ever wanted to know.:-)
Talking about fics is so much fun, I wish I had more time to do it.*sigh*
I read you are other post where you talked your health problems. You made a couple of very interesting points about the way fanfiction can affect us.
I hope you are feeling well right now.
All my best,
drcoulter
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