What I Read Today: S/X (Reading Stats Post)
So ... once upon a time, last year, I tracked the fanfic I was reading. Produced some interesting statistics on trends and the like. So, I thought I'd do it again. Especially since this journal has been laying around doing exactly nothing for quite a while. Maybe this will break my rec drought.
So, here's the fanfic I read today ... and it was a Spike/Xander kinda day for fanfic, too.
Subtleties (part 21) by eliade (aka AnnaS)
*guh* This is ... unbelievably brilliant. Hot and sexy and angsty and romantic and emotionally true. An inversion of the action/adventure story type -- instead of the Big Adventure being the major point of the story, with tiny little details of life pruned away to character grace notes, "Subtleties" is the reverse, the tiny little details of life expanded to their true importance and the Big Adventure pruned away to serve as tiny little time-marking grace notes. FutureFic (to borrow a term from Smallville fandom), no spoilers for Season 7, though -- think of it as an AU future, okay? WIP being updated very regularly (just about daily). The link goes to the installment index page that eliade has set up and kept updated as she adds installments. Even if you don't like Spike/Xander, I recommend you read this story -- it's a marvel of unusual storytelling technique and interesting writing choices -- without being in the dreaded second person present tense.
Stray Cat Is Crying by moonlettuce (rec'd per eliade)
*owe* Hurts so good! Part of one of the many challenges going around, I think - I can't keep them all straight in my brain. This is brilliant and painful and have something happy to read afterwards. Reread an installment of "Subtleties", perhaps....
Trading Places by Marguerite ... found at the Buffy Fiction Archive
This is an amusing little story IF you skip the sex scenes. Because -- dueling tongues! prostrate!! butter-as-lube!!! But the concept is interesting -- Spike and Xander "trade places", with Spike becoming human and Xander becoming a vamp. There's some nice stuff with Spike teaching Xander how to control the demon inside. There's some fairly cliched and predictable stuff as well. I'm not saying you should race over and read this ASAP, but if you've got a couple hours to kill (it's a fairly long story) and nothing better to do, and a tolerance for enthusiasm over technical writing skill, you could do worse. Plus, I just love the following speech:
"Soul-shmole!" Spike slurred, then with a sudden burst of alcohol-induced insight he began a Giles-type rant. "If you ask me, the entire soul concept was just an attempt to justify Angel helping Buffy. In reality, most vampires are just extensions of who they were as humans only with blood lust complicating everything. If we are able to control our blood lust, then we can rise above being just blood suckers that exist only to continue existing. Some humans are able to entirely give in to blood lust or power lust and ignore their supposed souls. It's really all a matter of character. Angel had no character... the gypsies just cursed him with guilt of some type that gives him negative reinforcement the same way that my chip does, only more subtle. If a soul really made the difference it wouldn't have taken 100 years for him to start making something of himself. If you ask me... which you did...what actually really mattered is that he fell in love with Buffy and starting being 'good' cause it made him feel better than being "bad" did. Or it was just a way to get in her pants..."
So, here's the fanfic I read today ... and it was a Spike/Xander kinda day for fanfic, too.
Subtleties (part 21) by eliade (aka AnnaS)
*guh* This is ... unbelievably brilliant. Hot and sexy and angsty and romantic and emotionally true. An inversion of the action/adventure story type -- instead of the Big Adventure being the major point of the story, with tiny little details of life pruned away to character grace notes, "Subtleties" is the reverse, the tiny little details of life expanded to their true importance and the Big Adventure pruned away to serve as tiny little time-marking grace notes. FutureFic (to borrow a term from Smallville fandom), no spoilers for Season 7, though -- think of it as an AU future, okay? WIP being updated very regularly (just about daily). The link goes to the installment index page that eliade has set up and kept updated as she adds installments. Even if you don't like Spike/Xander, I recommend you read this story -- it's a marvel of unusual storytelling technique and interesting writing choices -- without being in the dreaded second person present tense.
Stray Cat Is Crying by moonlettuce (rec'd per eliade)
*owe* Hurts so good! Part of one of the many challenges going around, I think - I can't keep them all straight in my brain. This is brilliant and painful and have something happy to read afterwards. Reread an installment of "Subtleties", perhaps....
Trading Places by Marguerite ... found at the Buffy Fiction Archive
This is an amusing little story IF you skip the sex scenes. Because -- dueling tongues! prostrate!! butter-as-lube!!! But the concept is interesting -- Spike and Xander "trade places", with Spike becoming human and Xander becoming a vamp. There's some nice stuff with Spike teaching Xander how to control the demon inside. There's some fairly cliched and predictable stuff as well. I'm not saying you should race over and read this ASAP, but if you've got a couple hours to kill (it's a fairly long story) and nothing better to do, and a tolerance for enthusiasm over technical writing skill, you could do worse. Plus, I just love the following speech:
"Soul-shmole!" Spike slurred, then with a sudden burst of alcohol-induced insight he began a Giles-type rant. "If you ask me, the entire soul concept was just an attempt to justify Angel helping Buffy. In reality, most vampires are just extensions of who they were as humans only with blood lust complicating everything. If we are able to control our blood lust, then we can rise above being just blood suckers that exist only to continue existing. Some humans are able to entirely give in to blood lust or power lust and ignore their supposed souls. It's really all a matter of character. Angel had no character... the gypsies just cursed him with guilt of some type that gives him negative reinforcement the same way that my chip does, only more subtle. If a soul really made the difference it wouldn't have taken 100 years for him to start making something of himself. If you ask me... which you did...what actually really mattered is that he fell in love with Buffy and starting being 'good' cause it made him feel better than being "bad" did. Or it was just a way to get in her pants..."