Yuletide recs, Column A
Madness isn't open yet, but I've read down the first of three columns o' fandoms, and this is stuff that really leapt out at me.
Fiddler in the Mountain, Beauty and the Beast
Fiddler Linn has known her fate since she was a child: to enter the Mountain King's domain and never come back. Now, her days of freedom spent, she returns to her home village to face that fate.
A wonderful modern retelling of the standard fairy tale, complete with a heroine who knows damn well that she's in one and isn't sure she can live up to the responsibility.
The Lengthy Dimly Lit Coffee Break of the Psyche, Calvin and Hobbes
Calvin looks for a job. Hobbes and Susie look after Calvin.
I kinda know where Calvin is, in this one. And it's a perfect coda to the comics.
Spaceman Spiff Goes to Chirrutzz, Calvin and Hobbes
In which Spiff is not slashed with Harkness, Mal, Kirk, or Zapp Brannigan. Nor with anyone else. Because Spiff is really too young for those games. (Yet.) Instead, he's on a mission to a dangerous, distant planet. Which is dangerous. And distant. And mission-y.
This reads like one of the Spaceman Spiff segments in the comics. And I have to agree with Calvin's question toward the end, in a way.
Ash the Stablehand, Cinderella
The story of a stablehand and his cruel family.
This is gorgeously written, is a genderswap retelling of the story, and has my kind of princess (i.e. the proactive kind, who knows what she wants and how best to go about getting it).
Proper Management, Discworld
After the Hogswatch that almost wasn't, there's a lot of cleaning up to do...
This feels like it could be part of Hogfather, in its way. Poor Ponder is trying to do what he knows needs to be done, but there's Ridcully to contend with... and Ridcully is actually sharper than Ponder gives him credit for.
A Place Called Home, Discworld
One of Drumknott's filing systems may be in need of some revision.
Drumknott tries to keep home and work separate. It doesn't work as well as he'd like, but that's all right.
Pointillism, Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The place is like a museum. It's very beautiful and very cold, and you're not allowed to touch anything. Can you appreciate what it must have been like for Cameron to be in that joint as a baby?
Sort of Ferris/Sloan/Cameron, but mostly Cameron's childhood, how he met Ferris and how the two of them met Sloan, and how he reached the point of saying he needed to take a stand and defend it. Absolutely lovely, and the time jumps are handled quite well.
And now, off to Column B!
Fiddler in the Mountain, Beauty and the Beast
Fiddler Linn has known her fate since she was a child: to enter the Mountain King's domain and never come back. Now, her days of freedom spent, she returns to her home village to face that fate.
A wonderful modern retelling of the standard fairy tale, complete with a heroine who knows damn well that she's in one and isn't sure she can live up to the responsibility.
The Lengthy Dimly Lit Coffee Break of the Psyche, Calvin and Hobbes
Calvin looks for a job. Hobbes and Susie look after Calvin.
I kinda know where Calvin is, in this one. And it's a perfect coda to the comics.
Spaceman Spiff Goes to Chirrutzz, Calvin and Hobbes
In which Spiff is not slashed with Harkness, Mal, Kirk, or Zapp Brannigan. Nor with anyone else. Because Spiff is really too young for those games. (Yet.) Instead, he's on a mission to a dangerous, distant planet. Which is dangerous. And distant. And mission-y.
This reads like one of the Spaceman Spiff segments in the comics. And I have to agree with Calvin's question toward the end, in a way.
Ash the Stablehand, Cinderella
The story of a stablehand and his cruel family.
This is gorgeously written, is a genderswap retelling of the story, and has my kind of princess (i.e. the proactive kind, who knows what she wants and how best to go about getting it).
Proper Management, Discworld
After the Hogswatch that almost wasn't, there's a lot of cleaning up to do...
This feels like it could be part of Hogfather, in its way. Poor Ponder is trying to do what he knows needs to be done, but there's Ridcully to contend with... and Ridcully is actually sharper than Ponder gives him credit for.
A Place Called Home, Discworld
One of Drumknott's filing systems may be in need of some revision.
Drumknott tries to keep home and work separate. It doesn't work as well as he'd like, but that's all right.
Pointillism, Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The place is like a museum. It's very beautiful and very cold, and you're not allowed to touch anything. Can you appreciate what it must have been like for Cameron to be in that joint as a baby?
Sort of Ferris/Sloan/Cameron, but mostly Cameron's childhood, how he met Ferris and how the two of them met Sloan, and how he reached the point of saying he needed to take a stand and defend it. Absolutely lovely, and the time jumps are handled quite well.
And now, off to Column B!