This week I 'ave been mostly 'eatin... chocolate biscuits

Aug 30, 2010 01:44

STXI

Like a riot (don't need order) and remixed Spock POV Like a fire (don't need water)
STXI
AU, WIP
Spock/Kirk, (Uhura/Gaila) BUT even if those ships aren't your thing, read it for the character studies.

WARNINGS OMG WARNINGS. Read them. - In general - dark themes, language, violence, sexual themes, rape, slavery, abuse. But particularly check before reading the Uhura story, (So don't let it kill you.)

I cannot rec this enough. It's fantastic. Very dark, violent and vicious, but also clever, detailed, gorgeous. Just stunning. Even if it's not usually the sort of thing you'd go for (dark AU), try it anyway.

In a universe where first contact with Earth in the throes of the Eugenics War
repulsed Vulcan too much for them to consider an alliance, the Terran-Orion
Union is the terror of the black, their Starfleet branch maintaining relations
with a facade of neutrality while Syndicate ships raid and kidnap slaves.
Smaller worlds hide in the so-called Free Space behind Vulcan's blockade, but
150 years isolated from any kind of emotional influence has left Vulcan law
stagnant and cold to the plight of other peoples.

I love every one of these, there's a bunch more since I made this rec (see the links at the top of the fic) McCoy and Gaila character studies as well as a further continuation to the main plot. (And there's hopefully more to come.) The entire world is built SO DAMN WELL. It's thought out carefully and meticulously, jane_potter has such a wonderful eye for detail. And the AU characters themselves are so dark and beautiful and flawed and strong. It's like there couldn't be anything better. And then we suddenly have this wonderful plot unfolding. IT'S EVERYTHING YOU COULD WISH FOR IN A FIC.

It's like jane_potter has taken STXI and mixed it with acid, then shook up and replaced everything sweet and soft with something bitter and hard and cold, but through it all the characters are still the same ones we love, you can recognise them, though the setting has changed and changed them with it, at their core, they are true to themselves. The best kind of AU.

Also, particularly in So don't let it kill you, there's a lot of meta thoughts going on behind the scenes, about how things would be, firstly with the canon events really considered - WW3 etc. and then how it would be in the world of her AU with the Orion/Terran partnership. You get the details neatly slipped in, the bits and pieces that build a gradual picture of the world, but it's all done very smoothly so the focus is still tight on Uhura and her story. An example of how solid world-building and thorough research can be done right.

We are stardust by garryowen
STXI
Gen ensemble
Part of a challenge with danahid to write in the 1st person plural. Both of them do it fantastically, but in different ways. This one is just epic. The whole thing is like a song, or a chant. I can imagine it being spoken in a great auditorium, with hundreds of people listening, mourning and celebrating and just bringing people together. Fantastic writing, really lyrical and beautiful.

What we know by danahid
Gen ensemble
This makes you utterly fall in love with Jim-as-Captain. I want to serve on Starfleet. I want Jim Kirk as my boss. CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN! (*cries*) The writing is absolutely gorgeous. I love how these pieces are awesome, both as pieces of literature - in the technical aspect of the challenge they set each other - and in the stories they tell.


MISC FANDOMS

I was trading HP recs and started on some of sam storyteller's fics. I haven't read many of his, a terrible failing for an HP fan, I know *hangs head in shame*

Cartographer's craft by sam storyteller
HP
Remus/Tonks, Harry/Sirius
The voices are just gorgeous. Remus and Tonks especially, really work, it's all very English and understated and pip pip, chin up and all that. Without veering into farcical. I love it, and I can be very picky over people getting it wrong.

"Harry," she said, cautiously.
"Mm?"
"I'm glad you're here. I sort of think we can win, really."
Harry nodded. "That's a big part of the plan, winning."

I've also realised I really love these, family-forming fics - where a set of loners and misfits end up growing close and becoming family. Like aspeninthesunlight's AYLNO with Harry, Snape and Draco, and here with Remus/Tonks and Harry/Sirius. Yeah and I have a kink for sensible, mature, adult Harry. (Pretty much the opposite of canon!Harry >_<) And here he's wonderful, there's inspiring hints of maturity, but it never gets overpowering. It's a young boy/man growing into adulthood, not a freakishly wise youngster, or an absurdly stupid child. It's a perfect balance and it makes me fall in love with the man Harry is going to grow up into.

On the wings of war by alchemyalice
SPN
AU, WIP
Nice and plotty, lots of gore and blood and drama, good characterisation of the four. I like the relationship between Dean and Gabriel, nice to see how they interact. Fantastic writing, bright and vicious, vivid, visceral... other words beginning with 'v'. Also? Insanely hot.

Don't play with (powerful) magic
LotS
Cara/Dahlia
The undoing spell has repercussions and realities begin to collide. Strong characterisation tie it together, especially love Cara as the focus character. Lovely shippiness, in all its permutations.

TVD
Uninvited by scorpiod1
Damon/Stefan, Damon/Stefan/Bonnie, Bonnie POV
Bonnie is my least favourite not my favourite character, but the fic won me over anyway, clever use of magic, a nice way to make the sex plotty, not gratuitous. Good characterisation of all three, and very hot.

CROSSOVER

Suddenly by spasticat
TVD/Being Human
Damon/Mitchell
Short and hot, good George voice.

NON-FIC

VIDS

TVD

AEIOU by giandujakiss
Elena/Stefan
Reminds me how much I actually, genuinely like Elena and Elena/Stefan. Showcases Stefan's cluelessness and the way Elena just doesn't take his shit.

don't call me baby. by silviakundera
Female agency in TVD. One of the things I love about the show is the abundance of strong female characters. Strong female characters who DO THINGS. Strong female characters who DO THINGS TOGETHER - I really love the friendships showcased here. The vid notes at the end give more depth.

Meddle by bop_radar.
Vicki character study
Vicki's really grown on me since the season ended and this is a lovely character study with an upbeat soundtrack.

ART

SPN
Comic strip
Racebending revenge
Sam and Dean in Arizona part one and Sam and Dean part two plus bonus meta-satire by glockgal
If you've been living under a rock for the past year: Racebending.com and the Racebending revenge ficathon.
Quote from glockgal's post:

So in my previous post, silviakundera was like:

"(on a sorta related note: someone on the anon meme was like, "what do you want? for people to write the J2 as POC in these fics?" and I thought, 'heeeeey. wait. PEOPLE COULD DO THAT. (okay, on second thought, they would probably do awful things with it. but the idea! ) except wait--you were joking? so, why not? come on, don't tell me that's deviating from "canon" more than jared being a mermaid or jensen being a submissive ship captain IN SPACE.' I love how THAT's a total random and implausible suggestion--making the J2 actual participants in these cultures people want to write about, instead of sparkly white journalists)"

-- and really what I got from it was "what do you want? for people to write the J2 as POC in these fics?" and "heeey wait. PEOPLE COULD DO THAT" combined with the fact that my mind is currently full of the awesome that is The Racebending Revenge Ficathon --

And yeah. Stuff happened.

Really awesome comic strip, very short, just two parts and the bonus meta-piece. Very incisive and brilliant, in that picture/1000 words kind of way, and goes without saying, lovely art.

fandom: harry potter, fandom: being human, fandom: star trek xi, non-fic: art, pairing: het, non-fic: vids, pairing: slash, pairing: gen, fandom: legend of the seeker, fandom: the vampire diaries, fandom: supernatural, [crossover], pairing: femslash

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