Yuletide recs, part one
Due to server slowness, I'm been sticking even more than usual to fandoms I particularly love. There are a lot of fandoms I haven't even looked at yet, so this is the first list of at least two and probably more.
Two of the Discworld stories included here (the ones written for me) I've already talked about in a previous post, but I wanted to include them in a proepr recs post.
The Sandman (Neil Gaiman)
Schizophasia
A poet who can't find the words meets Delirium, who has words without meaning. This story romanticizes mental illness a bit, but it's well-written and a nice look at Delirium as a character.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Stoppard
A Theory of Quantum Mechanics
The guys on the road to Elsinore, trying to understand how they got there. This story is both a charming character study and a nice bit of metafiction in the style of the original.
Philip Marlowe - Chandler
The Woman in the Picture
This is casefile fic that feels like a lost Chandler short story. The author captures Chandler's prose style beautifully (with a few little wobbles), and the plot is also perfectly Chandleresque. I recommend this with some reservations, because the author also chose to include the racist attitudes held by Chandler's characters; this is authentic but troubling, and I feel the story needed some kind of critical distance in that respect.
The Shadow Line
Philip Marlowe/Terry Lennox slash, with major spoilers for The Long Goodbye. This story takes a while to get going, but the characterization of both Marlowe and Lennox is very effective and there's a nice sense of place, too.
Discworld - Pratchett
A Day In The
A slice-of-life story about Death. This is exactly what I've always wished there was more of in the Death books, and the writer does a great job of showing both Death's cosmic, inhuman nature and the ways in which humanity has crept up on him. The writing is the best kind of Pratchett-y, subtle and sometimes very funny but with a distinct strain of melancholy.
Wizard Muddle
A funny story about what happens when Ponder Stibbons takes some time off. What happens is, of course, disasters large and small.
Like Clockwork
This was written for me, and it's gorgeous. It takes Vetinari through a typical day, capturing both Vetinari's deep isolation and the strangely intimate nature of his working relationship with Drumknott. The language is beautiful and the Vetinari POV is the best I've ever read.
A Place Called Home
Another lovely story written for me. This one shows Drumknott on his day off, spending time with his sister's family and thinking about the nature of home, and work, and the divide between the two. I love this story's pragmatic yet thoughtful Drumknott and the complex, layered interaction among the characters.
Bisclavret - Marie de France
J'ai vû le loup
A fascinating look at what becomes of Bisclavret after the lai ends, as he tries to live with being both man and wolf.
Bas Lag - Miéville
Thicker Than Salt Water
This story takes up one of the many intriguing gaps in The Scar (a throwaway line about Uther Doul and the Brucolac helping defeat "razor golems") and fills it with a fascinating story about a fraught, intense relationship.
Two of the Discworld stories included here (the ones written for me) I've already talked about in a previous post, but I wanted to include them in a proepr recs post.
The Sandman (Neil Gaiman)
Schizophasia
A poet who can't find the words meets Delirium, who has words without meaning. This story romanticizes mental illness a bit, but it's well-written and a nice look at Delirium as a character.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Stoppard
A Theory of Quantum Mechanics
The guys on the road to Elsinore, trying to understand how they got there. This story is both a charming character study and a nice bit of metafiction in the style of the original.
Philip Marlowe - Chandler
The Woman in the Picture
This is casefile fic that feels like a lost Chandler short story. The author captures Chandler's prose style beautifully (with a few little wobbles), and the plot is also perfectly Chandleresque. I recommend this with some reservations, because the author also chose to include the racist attitudes held by Chandler's characters; this is authentic but troubling, and I feel the story needed some kind of critical distance in that respect.
The Shadow Line
Philip Marlowe/Terry Lennox slash, with major spoilers for The Long Goodbye. This story takes a while to get going, but the characterization of both Marlowe and Lennox is very effective and there's a nice sense of place, too.
Discworld - Pratchett
A Day In The
A slice-of-life story about Death. This is exactly what I've always wished there was more of in the Death books, and the writer does a great job of showing both Death's cosmic, inhuman nature and the ways in which humanity has crept up on him. The writing is the best kind of Pratchett-y, subtle and sometimes very funny but with a distinct strain of melancholy.
Wizard Muddle
A funny story about what happens when Ponder Stibbons takes some time off. What happens is, of course, disasters large and small.
Like Clockwork
This was written for me, and it's gorgeous. It takes Vetinari through a typical day, capturing both Vetinari's deep isolation and the strangely intimate nature of his working relationship with Drumknott. The language is beautiful and the Vetinari POV is the best I've ever read.
A Place Called Home
Another lovely story written for me. This one shows Drumknott on his day off, spending time with his sister's family and thinking about the nature of home, and work, and the divide between the two. I love this story's pragmatic yet thoughtful Drumknott and the complex, layered interaction among the characters.
Bisclavret - Marie de France
J'ai vû le loup
A fascinating look at what becomes of Bisclavret after the lai ends, as he tries to live with being both man and wolf.
Bas Lag - Miéville
Thicker Than Salt Water
This story takes up one of the many intriguing gaps in The Scar (a throwaway line about Uther Doul and the Brucolac helping defeat "razor golems") and fills it with a fascinating story about a fraught, intense relationship.