a good year for dead gay kings, and other stories
This was a really good year! yuletide is wonderful every year, but I feel like the general caliber of the stories was even higher than usual, this year -- I just kept being impressed and delighted and falling in love all over again. I love you, the internet. Run away with me? We can sit on my couch in our pajamas and drink tea and eat chocolate and watch the snow and and read yuletide until the end of time.
As usual, there are many fandoms that I care about and have barely touched (Haven, Community, The Middleman, Warehouse 13 -- though a second plug for my totally fantastic gift fic, To End All Wars by
lilacsigil -- etc.), and there's the entire Yuletide Madness Archive, and there are a thousand recs posts, which I also have not looked at; but, also as usual, here are my own offerings! It has become something of a tradition, not to post my recs until after the reveal, but I always do the bulk of my reading and write the recs themselves before the reveal.
The Very Secret Diaries of Saint Augustine by
tryfanstone. 4th & 5th Century RPF and Confessions - Saint Augustine.
Augustine is on my January reading list, but I am strongly considering just reading this, instead. It would certainly make my meetings more hilarious! Mother gave me Latin bible. Discovered Christians believe in talking snakes, bushes and pillars of fire. Also do not know the name of their prophet’s grandfather and cannot spell. Suspect believers to be both illiterate and superstitious. Told Father. Mother angry. Re-read Hortensius instead, Cicero v. soothing.
The Young Chants by
ryfkah. Chronicles of Chrestomanci - Diana Wynne Jones.
Every year I fall in love with a Diana Wynne Jones story, and this year it was this one. This is not a surprise, because this story is about families of choice, and Christopher's family growing and changing and expanding. It also reads very much like Diana Wynne Jones, which makes me especially happy, because I miss her; I may be due a Chrestomanci reread. The truly depressing thing about being an adult was that you started to see why all the things you didn't want to do had to be done regardless.
Scenes from something which is certainly not a friendship by
Vaznetti. Classical Greece and Rome History and Literature RPF.
There isn't a Cicero story this year -- honestly, you all know I live for the Cicero stories -- but there is a story about Terentia and Clodia, not-quite-friends and not-quite-enemies, and it is wonderful. I love that this is a story about the women -- and about how Terentia and Clodia can't ever quite be friends, but still understand one another in a way that really matters; I love that this is also a story about Rome. "You're still a girl," Terentia said. "You'll realise sooner or later that husbands have little to do with the business of being a Roman matron. You have a duty to the city as well." She heard Clodia stifle a laugh as a cough, and frowned at her.
Cui Dono Lepidum Novum Libellum by
Sineala. Classical Greece and Rome History and Literature RPF.
THIS IS A CATULLUS COLLEGE AU. I don't think I need to say anything else, but if you need additional persuasion: Catullus spends the rest of the glorious morning writing an entire poem about Juventius' mouth, entirely ignoring his Greek paper, and going to the campus bookstore to buy refrigerator magnets. He puts up a copy of his poem and then uses the magnets to spell out AURELIUS AND FURIUS CAN SCK MY AMAZING DICK on the fridge. He runs out of Us. (I would read ten million more words of the Roman Republic Frat AU, I cannot lie. IT IS THE MOST PERFECT FRAT AU OF ALL TIME.)
shape of the boundaries you leave behind by
Aria. Demon's Lexicon - Sarah Rees Brennan.
Full disclosure: I betaed this story, and I love it to tiny little pieces. This is a story about the world after Surrender, about Alan and Sin, and Alan's memories of Anzu, and Christmas, and family, and not really being okay. "That's what you're fighting," Alan went on. He wasn't quite sure why he was saying it, except that Cynthia knew how to listen to him like no one else did, and even if she didn't know what to do or say right away, she came to it eventually, and was exactly what Alan needed. "You're fighting being invaded," Alan told her, "and being taken over, of course. But the horror is in what the demon remembers. They want to share it, because it -- it's funny to them, to make you more like them while they're crushing you out." He was hardly shaking at all now. "I suppose it's a little like they're trying to share."
The Wanderer's Reply to the Seafarer by
ellen_fremedon. The Exeter Book.
It's not unusual for yuletide to be one long exercise in how unbelievably fucking impressive the people on the internet are, but this may take the cake, because it is ACTUALFAX ANGLO-SAXON POETRY, IN A BILINGUAL EDITION, WITH FOOTNOTES. It is so impressive, and so glorious, that anyone who cares about such things has probably already seen it; but I want to rec it not only because it is a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, but also because it is a heartbreaking work of elegiac poetry, and I really, really love elegies. Therefore longing seizes me, journey-weary, to seek my rest across the sea-course.
Fated, or, Two Weddings and a House Warming by
Temaris. Friday's Child - Georgette Heyer.
Nothing can convince me that this is not canon. Some Brief Interludes in the Events of Friday's Child over which the esteemed Mrs Heyer drew a Delicate Veil, humbly Revealed to the World by yr most Devoted etc etc.
Springtime Will Kill You by
Luna. Greek and Roman Mythology.
I don't usually read the mythology and fairytale fic that yuletide produces -- I tend to forget about it, I guess, or to find it less interesting than many of the other kinds of stories, and there is so much yuletide and so little time. But
toft recommended this to me -- actually, she told me she thought I wrote it, which is absurdly flattering, though to be fair also totally the sort of thing I would do -- and I am so glad I listened, because this story is so fucking good. It's a Detective Noir AU in which Orpheus is a P.I., and is hired by Demeter to find her missing daughter, Persephone. It is not only unbelievably brilliant from start to finish -- both as a Noir and as an AU of mythology and just as a story, it also, in a way I did not even know that I needed, somehow manages to handle the Persephone and Hades and Orpheus and Eurydice mythology with a kind of narrative delicacy that makes the original mythology even better than it already was, especially when it comes to the women. I can't quite explain -- but I think you'll know what I mean, after you read the story. I simply cannot recommend this one highly enough, especially if you like Noir, or Greek Mythology, or Los Angeles in the 1940s. It was the hottest May anyone in Hollywood remembered, and I was feeling as rich as the sun was bright.
Shipmates by
zlot. Hark! A Vagrant.
This has already been recced all over the place, which is both thrilling and highly deserved, not least because I think it is, ultimately, the Brigand/Nemesis story we have all been waiting for for years -- well, or at least the Brigand/Nemesis story that I have been waiting for for years. “Is this a hugging story?” Talbot did not say. Instead, he asked, “He was your friend, sir? A mere cabin boy?”
After the Hart the Bier by
angevin2. Henry IV Part 1 and Richard II - Shakespeare.
This story had me at the tags, which include, among other glorious items, "Dodgy Hunting Metaphors," "Sad Stories of the Death of Kings," "Inappropriate Church Behavior," and "Royalty in Compromising Positions." I also love this story for the extensive footnotes on hunting puns. Most of all, however, I love this story for the character voices, and for showing us the world of the tetralogy through Aumerle and Hotspur. Harry Percy finds it highly suspect that Edward of Rutland, former Duke of Aumerle and suspiciously close friend of the former King Richard (for definitions of "friend" that involve royal favoritism and sodomy), continues to hang around at court long after a normal person would either have fled to France or some other place where disgraced royal favorites might want to hang out and plot treason, or alternately have been beheaded like all of the other pretty boys Richard generally preferred to keep around, for the aforesaid favoritism and sodomy.
Mingling by
astolat. Henry V - Shakespeare, The Hollow Crown, and 15th Century RPF.
In which Catherine of Valois can see the future. I didn't expect to love this story as much as I did, but I totally loved it -- I mean, magical realism, and Catherine. I love this story because it gives Catherine a story of her own, and I love this story for the way it just slightly alters the whole world. She flinched a little in his grasp, her hand making an instinctive attempt to leap loose: not from fear, only startled. No one had spoken so plainly of it, and with so little unease. But he kept hold of her hand, smiling. “Tell me, my lady Kate,” he said, her name crisp and short and already familiar in his mouth, his deep voice, “with your clear eyes: will you give me many sons, who can see a long road ahead?”
Burn Invisible and Dim by
Lindensphinx and you can't explain away the poetry by
kaydeefalls. History Boys.
This year, I am reccing a few things in pairs, for a variety of reasons that mostly come down to a) thematic relation, and b) my having read them together. These two stories are both about Scripps -- oh, Scripps -- and they are both great; one of them is a lot happier than the other one, and I was glad that I read the one with a happy ending second. The first one will break your heart, and the second will put it back together again.
Burn Invisible and Dim is both stunningly beautiful and very heartbreaking; also, it had me at "commonplace book" -- or maybe at the Housman. He carries around a notebook in an over-nice leather cover that he'd bought new at a stationer's in Turl Street that he couldn't strictly afford, his first week of term. Its function is identical to the notebook he'd had back in Sheffield: a device for turning his life into a commonplace book. Any transmutative significance of clean unmarked pages and creaky unbent leather has so far failed him. If there has been a watershed, it was not coming to Oxford.
In you can't explain away the poetry, on the other hand, there is a happy ending for Scripps and Posner. But this story handles Scripps's faith without simply making him disillusioned, which is something that I always want Scripps/Posner stories to do, and that they often don't -- for understandable reasons, but Scripps's commitment to God does matter, and this story knows that, while also still managing to do a pretty wonderful job of bringing Scripps and Posner together. I love that neither Dakin nor Posner quite understand Scripps -- though for their own complicated and understandable (especially in Posner's case) reasons -- and I love that Scripps's own growing-up-process involves figuring out a way to explain the important things about himself to the people he loves. "'Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law," Scripps said quietly, hands in his pockets. "'And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.'" He met Posner's eyes again, offering him a crooked half-smile. "That's what I choose to believe, anyway. It's really all just poetry in the end." "Only more important." "All poetry's important," Scripps said. "Didn't you learn anything from Hector?"
the rope you began with (was never that straight) by
Fahye. Into the Woods.
My favorite thing about this story -- which is a post-musical story about Cinderella, mostly, although also about the Baker and Jack and Little Red Riding Hood and families of choice -- is that it takes the conceit of the musical, in which all the fairytales exist in the same universe, and lets that continue to be true, while also giving Cinderella and her chosen family the chance to be happy in their new lives. This is a lovely coda. It keeps things busy, and different. For all of her happiness, part of Cinderella is afraid of being stuck in a small story with the same few people for the rest of her life. She's glad to do cameos in the tales of strangers, and it's a good solid role: dispensing wisdom, helping people back onto their paths. She suggests to most of them that it would be easier to avoid the woods, but she's never surprised when they set forth anyway. That's how it goes. You don't learn except by doing.
Protégé by
girl_wonder. James Bond (Movies), Skyfall (2012), Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008).
This is the only yuletide Bond story I have read so far (and I should be honest with you guys, I am such a fucking Bond fangirl, but I am so closeted about it that sometimes even I forget how much of a Bond fangirl I am, and how I have been a Bond fangirl for like fifteen years. Skyfall fandom taking off like it has is weird for me), but I adore it -- most of all, of course, because it is about the women. Also, Peggy Carter trained M. I mean, obviously. “Do you know how girls like us become women like Carter?” M asked. “No, sir,” Moneypenny said. “We do things we are not trained to do, when we are sure we can’t do them. We push ourselves to be better and faster than the enemies of our state. And we do it because we can.”
The Handwriting of St. Thomas Aquinas as read in Cod. Vat. lat. 9850 by the Aged Scholar by
inabathrobe. Lewis.
I haven't read all of the Lewis fic, yet, but I loved this one -- possibly because it hit my academic buttons, but also because of Hathaway. Lewis, too, but mostly Hathaway. Admittedly, Hathaway also hits my buttons. (There is also a moment in this story in which Hathaway is reading Cicero, and I nearly had to stop reading and go flail quietly in the corner because yes, that.) "There's a word for what you are," Lewis says darkly. "A bibliophile." "Sir, I don't think bibliophiles have quite the same relationship with books as, say, a necrophiliac has with a corpse."
An imprint set in wax by
Nary. Lion in Winter and 12th Century RPF.
Richard I of England/Philip II of France, also known as the Great Historical OTP of Dead Gay Kings. There are three Richard/Philip Lion in Winter stories this year, but this is my favorite: the character voices are phenomenal, and the story is funny and dark and bitter and glorious. "Oh Richard," Philip smiled back, almost fondly, "you always have to be on top, don't you."
Down At Your Door by
bluestalking. Love Actually.
I recently rewatched Love Actually, and as a result my desperate need for this story to exist was fresh in my mind. This story is wonderful: it makes Billy Mack/Joe-the-Manager work, and it does so with grace and realism and wonderful character voices, and a whole lot of truth, and absolutely no avoidance of the tough issues or the real problems. I love this story a lot, and I am so, so happy that it exists in the world. “I thought,” says Joe, “I thought you were exaggerating.” “No,” says Billy. “No, I was not--exaggerating. I’m just a coward.” Joe thinks this over, and shakes his head. “If I called my mother right now and said, ‘Happy Christmas, mum, I’m seeing Billy Mack--you know, romantically,’ what do you think she’d say?” Joe asks. “She’d say, ‘He treats you like shit, Joe, try for something better.’” “Er,” says Billy.
Pirates! In an Adventure with Librarians by
cleflink. Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
All three of the Pirates! stories are great -- and if you haven't seen this movie, stop what you are doing and go see it immediately because it is GREAT -- but this is my favorite, because pirates in a library. This is perfectly in keeping with the original, and an utter delight. The Pirate Captain had never tried to board a library before, but there was a first time for everything.
maybe she's the quiet type who's into heavy metal by
Molly. Revenge.
I haven't read all the Revenge stories, either, but the character voices in this one are great, and since I basically cannot get enough of Nolan and Emily being morally ambiguous revengey BFFs, I found this very wonderful -- even though I doubt it's quite the way the storyline with Nolan's evil ex-boyfriend is going to go. She was like a wild, vengeful twist on a Disney princess -- if Belle or Ariel had handled a Glock the way Emily could, those stories might have ended quite differently.
Ghosts of Ettersberg by
kindkit and Though I Sang in my Chains Like the Sea by
lightgetsin. Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch.
Another pair of stories: there's no need to read them together, and I have things to say about each of them individually; but they're both stories about Thomas Nightingale, and they are both wonderful, for different reasons and for some of the same reasons.
I also wanted to rec these stories together because like the two History Boys stories, I needed the chaser of the longer and happier story to cope with the painfulness of the first. Ghosts of Ettersberg is about Thomas's Ettersberg PTSD, and it's a Holocaust story; there is Nazi Death Magic, and it is, consequently, rough going. But in being rough going, this story deals remarkably well with one of the more shrouded and troubled parts of Rivers of London canon, and the author handles Nightingale's memories with grace and delicacy, while also making them very real. Peter is also wonderful in this story, but mostly it's about Nightingale and his past. "Ettersberg." There's a silence. The name has been a sort of code to Thomas, both an identification and a concealment, a screen between him and his memories. He calls it Ettersberg, as a man of his father's generation might have said the Somme.
Though I Sang in my Chains Like the Sea is also from Thomas's POV, and it is the most perfect case fic there ever was. It could have come right out of the series, but it's a case we see through Nightingale's eyes, for once; and seeing the whole world and Peter and Lesley and everyone else (including my personal favorite, DS Miriam Stephanopoulos) through Thomas is absolutely wonderful. This is also, of course, a story about the found family that makes up the Folly, and how Thomas does not, in fact, have to be alone -- especially when he is no longer the last wizard in Britain, no matter how strange these new wizards and the modern world may be. Additionally, this story is quietly, brilliantly hilarious. On a whim, he took the mouse device in hand. He’d never gotten the hang of the things, and the pictograms on the screen were never as intuitive as everyone else seemed to think. But eventually he was able to locate The Google. He typed what is grindlewald? and was immediately presented with some machine cheek for his spelling, and a great deal more information than he could possibly want. It seemed more likely, all things considered, that Peter had been referring to the Harry Potter character and not the geographic location.
Benefit of the Bargain by
Alona. Scandal.
The Scandal story I want most in the world still doesn't exist -- I really want complicated, painful, totally fucked-up and totally canon-compliant Mellie/Olivia (I may have to write it myself) -- but this story is my favorite of the yuletide crop, and it is totally great: Mellie Grant, very dangerous, morally ambiguous political badass, with guns. There’s power in being underestimated, and safety in the appearance of harmlessness, but Mellie has been itching to make a move. This one came ready-packaged. Standing in the open doorway with the cold snaking in, she hesitates a moment, then texts Olivia: Turn on the TV. You’ll know it when you see it. She buttons up her coat and moves on.
Girl Of My Dreams by
Andraste. Singin' in the Rain.
One story from Yuletide Madness, for the movie that may be responsible for making me a die-hard OT3 shipper in the first place. I love this movie, and I love this OT3 with every fiber of my being, and this story is short and funny and sweet and pretty much perfect. Anyone with comic timing that perfect is someone he just has to get to know.
Not knowing what will greet me by
jadelennox. Space Vehicles.
I love this story so much, and MARS ROVERS ARE SO COOL. Curiosity worried whenever Opportunity talked about things like "drifting sand" because hello, elephant in the room, Spirit, buried at Troy with jarosite covering her solar panels. And she wanted Opportunity to talk about Spirit -- it was weird having a sister you had never known, and she wanted to hear everything about her -- but Opportunity was weird. Mentioning Spirit would make her stop talking for days at a time, or sing, randomly, down the radio link, strange little songs Curiosity had never heard before. Strange little songs that didn't sound like they were written by humans at all.
The Door into Britannia by
ambyr. Tale of the Five - Diane Duane and Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliff.
I came to this story from Tale of the Five, not from The Eagle or Eagle of the Ninth, but I think this is a perfect crossover -- and one that can be read from either canon, as well as from both. The emotional arcs of all the characters are subtly and beautifully drawn, and Sunspark is (of course) the poly fairy, which is probably as it should be; this story is a little bittersweet for Tale of the Five readers, because it takes place long enough after the events of the books that some of the people we love are dead, but the subtlety of the backstory is also lovely. I really like this story. “And where is home?” Esca asked without thinking, still a little dazed by the light. “Where my family is,” Sunspark said. It made an out-of-sorts sound halfway between a snort and a whinny. “Troublesome creatures. I never had to worry about the wheres and whens of the Pattern when I didn’t have a ‘home’ to find. But they’re worth it, somehow. I didn’t think they would be."
First know the truth by
Philipa_Moss. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John Le Carre.
Connie Sachs, the woman who knows everything. The phone on her desk rang, a horrid, shrill sound completely unlike the rest of the Circus telephones. Connie was convinced she had been outfitted with an especially irritating one on purpose, but by whom? “Suspicion, paranoia, suspicion, paranoia,” she sang to herself to the Hallelujah Chorus, before picking up. “Connie Sachs.”
In Kind by
resolute. War for the Oaks - Emma Bull.
This is a prequel to War for the Oaks set in the 20s, and as such it is almost original fic, but it also fits seamlessly into the canon of the book. I love this story because it is so dark, because getting involved with Faerie is a bad fucking idea, no matter how much you want to get away from home, and because this story makes the scope of the forces at work in War for the Oaks that much broader and more dangerous -- which, of course, they are. Also, I suddenly want to read a lot of fantasy set during Prohibition. I mean, the Faerie Mob: terrifying, deadly, and kind of brilliant. "Ruby Kind," the lady repeated. "Well, Ruby Kind, you find yourself at the Wabasha Street Speakeasy tonight at nine o'clock, and you give them this card." Mr. Pook handed me a card, engraved and rich to the touch. "And we'll take you away from all this, hm?"
Dice for Decimals by
Gileonnen. The Wire.
Remember back in 2009, when I wrote my The Wire yuletide fic and was pretty sure that I was going to languish alone as the only Stringer Bell/Jimmy McNulty story on the internet forever? I AM NOT ALONE ANYMORE. Rather more to the point, this story is so amazing, and so much better and more brilliant and more surprising and more creative than anything I could ever have imagined, that I kept having to stop reading in the middle to flail at my roommate and walk around my apartment for a little while until I calmed down enough to read the next part. (It's like 4000 words, and it took me an hour to read because I loved it too much to cope.) It will probably not make you as totally insane as it made me, because I am a weirdo, but honestly, you guys, if you have seen The Wire, read this story. It is worth it -- it is so, so worth it -- and it is pitch-perfect from start to finish, and so wonderful that I am actually having trouble putting words together into a rec (I left an insane gushing comment, and I stand by every word). It is both canon compliant and an AU; it is beautifully written, with a light hand and perfect character voices and equally perfect plotting; and I feel I should warn you that it might make you care about economics in new and unexpected ways. Dr. Russell Bell is a week unshaven, with gold-rimmed glasses and leather-reinforced elbows on his court coat. He's professorial in a broad-shouldered Indiana Jones kind of way; if it weren't for the metal detectors at the entrance to the courthouse, McNulty would swear blind he was packing.
Five Things Tom and Carl Did in College (In the First Semester Alone) by
the_afterlight. Young Wizards - Diane Duane (plus just a little Tam Lin - Pamela Dean).
I want 100,000 more words of this story, but it is basically brilliant; if there is one thing I love more than Tom and Carl, and Tom and Carl working shit out as young wizards, it is Tom and Carl working shit out while in college at MOTHERFUCKING BLACKSTOCK. Oh, Blackstock College, the perfect crossover setting for all college-based magical shenanigans. Oh, Blackstock, the college that gave me highly skewed (though not, in fact, entirely inaccurate) ideas about what college was going to be like. Yeah, Tom and Carl fit right in. “You know,” Tom said idly, eying his bed - empty, except for a small pile of bedclothes waiting for him to make it up - and then Carl’s. “I think these were bunkbeds.”
Originally posted at oliviacirce @ dreamwidth. If you'd like, comment there using OpenID.
As usual, there are many fandoms that I care about and have barely touched (Haven, Community, The Middleman, Warehouse 13 -- though a second plug for my totally fantastic gift fic, To End All Wars by
lilacsigil -- etc.), and there's the entire Yuletide Madness Archive, and there are a thousand recs posts, which I also have not looked at; but, also as usual, here are my own offerings! It has become something of a tradition, not to post my recs until after the reveal, but I always do the bulk of my reading and write the recs themselves before the reveal.
The Very Secret Diaries of Saint Augustine by
tryfanstone. 4th & 5th Century RPF and Confessions - Saint Augustine.
Augustine is on my January reading list, but I am strongly considering just reading this, instead. It would certainly make my meetings more hilarious! Mother gave me Latin bible. Discovered Christians believe in talking snakes, bushes and pillars of fire. Also do not know the name of their prophet’s grandfather and cannot spell. Suspect believers to be both illiterate and superstitious. Told Father. Mother angry. Re-read Hortensius instead, Cicero v. soothing.
The Young Chants by
ryfkah. Chronicles of Chrestomanci - Diana Wynne Jones.
Every year I fall in love with a Diana Wynne Jones story, and this year it was this one. This is not a surprise, because this story is about families of choice, and Christopher's family growing and changing and expanding. It also reads very much like Diana Wynne Jones, which makes me especially happy, because I miss her; I may be due a Chrestomanci reread. The truly depressing thing about being an adult was that you started to see why all the things you didn't want to do had to be done regardless.
Scenes from something which is certainly not a friendship by
Vaznetti. Classical Greece and Rome History and Literature RPF.
There isn't a Cicero story this year -- honestly, you all know I live for the Cicero stories -- but there is a story about Terentia and Clodia, not-quite-friends and not-quite-enemies, and it is wonderful. I love that this is a story about the women -- and about how Terentia and Clodia can't ever quite be friends, but still understand one another in a way that really matters; I love that this is also a story about Rome. "You're still a girl," Terentia said. "You'll realise sooner or later that husbands have little to do with the business of being a Roman matron. You have a duty to the city as well." She heard Clodia stifle a laugh as a cough, and frowned at her.
Cui Dono Lepidum Novum Libellum by
Sineala. Classical Greece and Rome History and Literature RPF.
THIS IS A CATULLUS COLLEGE AU. I don't think I need to say anything else, but if you need additional persuasion: Catullus spends the rest of the glorious morning writing an entire poem about Juventius' mouth, entirely ignoring his Greek paper, and going to the campus bookstore to buy refrigerator magnets. He puts up a copy of his poem and then uses the magnets to spell out AURELIUS AND FURIUS CAN SCK MY AMAZING DICK on the fridge. He runs out of Us. (I would read ten million more words of the Roman Republic Frat AU, I cannot lie. IT IS THE MOST PERFECT FRAT AU OF ALL TIME.)
shape of the boundaries you leave behind by
Aria. Demon's Lexicon - Sarah Rees Brennan.
Full disclosure: I betaed this story, and I love it to tiny little pieces. This is a story about the world after Surrender, about Alan and Sin, and Alan's memories of Anzu, and Christmas, and family, and not really being okay. "That's what you're fighting," Alan went on. He wasn't quite sure why he was saying it, except that Cynthia knew how to listen to him like no one else did, and even if she didn't know what to do or say right away, she came to it eventually, and was exactly what Alan needed. "You're fighting being invaded," Alan told her, "and being taken over, of course. But the horror is in what the demon remembers. They want to share it, because it -- it's funny to them, to make you more like them while they're crushing you out." He was hardly shaking at all now. "I suppose it's a little like they're trying to share."
The Wanderer's Reply to the Seafarer by
ellen_fremedon. The Exeter Book.
It's not unusual for yuletide to be one long exercise in how unbelievably fucking impressive the people on the internet are, but this may take the cake, because it is ACTUALFAX ANGLO-SAXON POETRY, IN A BILINGUAL EDITION, WITH FOOTNOTES. It is so impressive, and so glorious, that anyone who cares about such things has probably already seen it; but I want to rec it not only because it is a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, but also because it is a heartbreaking work of elegiac poetry, and I really, really love elegies. Therefore longing seizes me, journey-weary, to seek my rest across the sea-course.
Fated, or, Two Weddings and a House Warming by
Temaris. Friday's Child - Georgette Heyer.
Nothing can convince me that this is not canon. Some Brief Interludes in the Events of Friday's Child over which the esteemed Mrs Heyer drew a Delicate Veil, humbly Revealed to the World by yr most Devoted etc etc.
Springtime Will Kill You by
Luna. Greek and Roman Mythology.
I don't usually read the mythology and fairytale fic that yuletide produces -- I tend to forget about it, I guess, or to find it less interesting than many of the other kinds of stories, and there is so much yuletide and so little time. But
toft recommended this to me -- actually, she told me she thought I wrote it, which is absurdly flattering, though to be fair also totally the sort of thing I would do -- and I am so glad I listened, because this story is so fucking good. It's a Detective Noir AU in which Orpheus is a P.I., and is hired by Demeter to find her missing daughter, Persephone. It is not only unbelievably brilliant from start to finish -- both as a Noir and as an AU of mythology and just as a story, it also, in a way I did not even know that I needed, somehow manages to handle the Persephone and Hades and Orpheus and Eurydice mythology with a kind of narrative delicacy that makes the original mythology even better than it already was, especially when it comes to the women. I can't quite explain -- but I think you'll know what I mean, after you read the story. I simply cannot recommend this one highly enough, especially if you like Noir, or Greek Mythology, or Los Angeles in the 1940s. It was the hottest May anyone in Hollywood remembered, and I was feeling as rich as the sun was bright.
Shipmates by
zlot. Hark! A Vagrant.
This has already been recced all over the place, which is both thrilling and highly deserved, not least because I think it is, ultimately, the Brigand/Nemesis story we have all been waiting for for years -- well, or at least the Brigand/Nemesis story that I have been waiting for for years. “Is this a hugging story?” Talbot did not say. Instead, he asked, “He was your friend, sir? A mere cabin boy?”
After the Hart the Bier by
angevin2. Henry IV Part 1 and Richard II - Shakespeare.
This story had me at the tags, which include, among other glorious items, "Dodgy Hunting Metaphors," "Sad Stories of the Death of Kings," "Inappropriate Church Behavior," and "Royalty in Compromising Positions." I also love this story for the extensive footnotes on hunting puns. Most of all, however, I love this story for the character voices, and for showing us the world of the tetralogy through Aumerle and Hotspur. Harry Percy finds it highly suspect that Edward of Rutland, former Duke of Aumerle and suspiciously close friend of the former King Richard (for definitions of "friend" that involve royal favoritism and sodomy), continues to hang around at court long after a normal person would either have fled to France or some other place where disgraced royal favorites might want to hang out and plot treason, or alternately have been beheaded like all of the other pretty boys Richard generally preferred to keep around, for the aforesaid favoritism and sodomy.
Mingling by
astolat. Henry V - Shakespeare, The Hollow Crown, and 15th Century RPF.
In which Catherine of Valois can see the future. I didn't expect to love this story as much as I did, but I totally loved it -- I mean, magical realism, and Catherine. I love this story because it gives Catherine a story of her own, and I love this story for the way it just slightly alters the whole world. She flinched a little in his grasp, her hand making an instinctive attempt to leap loose: not from fear, only startled. No one had spoken so plainly of it, and with so little unease. But he kept hold of her hand, smiling. “Tell me, my lady Kate,” he said, her name crisp and short and already familiar in his mouth, his deep voice, “with your clear eyes: will you give me many sons, who can see a long road ahead?”
Burn Invisible and Dim by
Lindensphinx and you can't explain away the poetry by
kaydeefalls. History Boys.
This year, I am reccing a few things in pairs, for a variety of reasons that mostly come down to a) thematic relation, and b) my having read them together. These two stories are both about Scripps -- oh, Scripps -- and they are both great; one of them is a lot happier than the other one, and I was glad that I read the one with a happy ending second. The first one will break your heart, and the second will put it back together again.
Burn Invisible and Dim is both stunningly beautiful and very heartbreaking; also, it had me at "commonplace book" -- or maybe at the Housman. He carries around a notebook in an over-nice leather cover that he'd bought new at a stationer's in Turl Street that he couldn't strictly afford, his first week of term. Its function is identical to the notebook he'd had back in Sheffield: a device for turning his life into a commonplace book. Any transmutative significance of clean unmarked pages and creaky unbent leather has so far failed him. If there has been a watershed, it was not coming to Oxford.
In you can't explain away the poetry, on the other hand, there is a happy ending for Scripps and Posner. But this story handles Scripps's faith without simply making him disillusioned, which is something that I always want Scripps/Posner stories to do, and that they often don't -- for understandable reasons, but Scripps's commitment to God does matter, and this story knows that, while also still managing to do a pretty wonderful job of bringing Scripps and Posner together. I love that neither Dakin nor Posner quite understand Scripps -- though for their own complicated and understandable (especially in Posner's case) reasons -- and I love that Scripps's own growing-up-process involves figuring out a way to explain the important things about himself to the people he loves. "'Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law," Scripps said quietly, hands in his pockets. "'And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.'" He met Posner's eyes again, offering him a crooked half-smile. "That's what I choose to believe, anyway. It's really all just poetry in the end." "Only more important." "All poetry's important," Scripps said. "Didn't you learn anything from Hector?"
the rope you began with (was never that straight) by
Fahye. Into the Woods.
My favorite thing about this story -- which is a post-musical story about Cinderella, mostly, although also about the Baker and Jack and Little Red Riding Hood and families of choice -- is that it takes the conceit of the musical, in which all the fairytales exist in the same universe, and lets that continue to be true, while also giving Cinderella and her chosen family the chance to be happy in their new lives. This is a lovely coda. It keeps things busy, and different. For all of her happiness, part of Cinderella is afraid of being stuck in a small story with the same few people for the rest of her life. She's glad to do cameos in the tales of strangers, and it's a good solid role: dispensing wisdom, helping people back onto their paths. She suggests to most of them that it would be easier to avoid the woods, but she's never surprised when they set forth anyway. That's how it goes. You don't learn except by doing.
Protégé by
girl_wonder. James Bond (Movies), Skyfall (2012), Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008).
This is the only yuletide Bond story I have read so far (and I should be honest with you guys, I am such a fucking Bond fangirl, but I am so closeted about it that sometimes even I forget how much of a Bond fangirl I am, and how I have been a Bond fangirl for like fifteen years. Skyfall fandom taking off like it has is weird for me), but I adore it -- most of all, of course, because it is about the women. Also, Peggy Carter trained M. I mean, obviously. “Do you know how girls like us become women like Carter?” M asked. “No, sir,” Moneypenny said. “We do things we are not trained to do, when we are sure we can’t do them. We push ourselves to be better and faster than the enemies of our state. And we do it because we can.”
The Handwriting of St. Thomas Aquinas as read in Cod. Vat. lat. 9850 by the Aged Scholar by
inabathrobe. Lewis.
I haven't read all of the Lewis fic, yet, but I loved this one -- possibly because it hit my academic buttons, but also because of Hathaway. Lewis, too, but mostly Hathaway. Admittedly, Hathaway also hits my buttons. (There is also a moment in this story in which Hathaway is reading Cicero, and I nearly had to stop reading and go flail quietly in the corner because yes, that.) "There's a word for what you are," Lewis says darkly. "A bibliophile." "Sir, I don't think bibliophiles have quite the same relationship with books as, say, a necrophiliac has with a corpse."
An imprint set in wax by
Nary. Lion in Winter and 12th Century RPF.
Richard I of England/Philip II of France, also known as the Great Historical OTP of Dead Gay Kings. There are three Richard/Philip Lion in Winter stories this year, but this is my favorite: the character voices are phenomenal, and the story is funny and dark and bitter and glorious. "Oh Richard," Philip smiled back, almost fondly, "you always have to be on top, don't you."
Down At Your Door by
bluestalking. Love Actually.
I recently rewatched Love Actually, and as a result my desperate need for this story to exist was fresh in my mind. This story is wonderful: it makes Billy Mack/Joe-the-Manager work, and it does so with grace and realism and wonderful character voices, and a whole lot of truth, and absolutely no avoidance of the tough issues or the real problems. I love this story a lot, and I am so, so happy that it exists in the world. “I thought,” says Joe, “I thought you were exaggerating.” “No,” says Billy. “No, I was not--exaggerating. I’m just a coward.” Joe thinks this over, and shakes his head. “If I called my mother right now and said, ‘Happy Christmas, mum, I’m seeing Billy Mack--you know, romantically,’ what do you think she’d say?” Joe asks. “She’d say, ‘He treats you like shit, Joe, try for something better.’” “Er,” says Billy.
Pirates! In an Adventure with Librarians by
cleflink. Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
All three of the Pirates! stories are great -- and if you haven't seen this movie, stop what you are doing and go see it immediately because it is GREAT -- but this is my favorite, because pirates in a library. This is perfectly in keeping with the original, and an utter delight. The Pirate Captain had never tried to board a library before, but there was a first time for everything.
maybe she's the quiet type who's into heavy metal by
Molly. Revenge.
I haven't read all the Revenge stories, either, but the character voices in this one are great, and since I basically cannot get enough of Nolan and Emily being morally ambiguous revengey BFFs, I found this very wonderful -- even though I doubt it's quite the way the storyline with Nolan's evil ex-boyfriend is going to go. She was like a wild, vengeful twist on a Disney princess -- if Belle or Ariel had handled a Glock the way Emily could, those stories might have ended quite differently.
Ghosts of Ettersberg by
kindkit and Though I Sang in my Chains Like the Sea by
lightgetsin. Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch.
Another pair of stories: there's no need to read them together, and I have things to say about each of them individually; but they're both stories about Thomas Nightingale, and they are both wonderful, for different reasons and for some of the same reasons.
I also wanted to rec these stories together because like the two History Boys stories, I needed the chaser of the longer and happier story to cope with the painfulness of the first. Ghosts of Ettersberg is about Thomas's Ettersberg PTSD, and it's a Holocaust story; there is Nazi Death Magic, and it is, consequently, rough going. But in being rough going, this story deals remarkably well with one of the more shrouded and troubled parts of Rivers of London canon, and the author handles Nightingale's memories with grace and delicacy, while also making them very real. Peter is also wonderful in this story, but mostly it's about Nightingale and his past. "Ettersberg." There's a silence. The name has been a sort of code to Thomas, both an identification and a concealment, a screen between him and his memories. He calls it Ettersberg, as a man of his father's generation might have said the Somme.
Though I Sang in my Chains Like the Sea is also from Thomas's POV, and it is the most perfect case fic there ever was. It could have come right out of the series, but it's a case we see through Nightingale's eyes, for once; and seeing the whole world and Peter and Lesley and everyone else (including my personal favorite, DS Miriam Stephanopoulos) through Thomas is absolutely wonderful. This is also, of course, a story about the found family that makes up the Folly, and how Thomas does not, in fact, have to be alone -- especially when he is no longer the last wizard in Britain, no matter how strange these new wizards and the modern world may be. Additionally, this story is quietly, brilliantly hilarious. On a whim, he took the mouse device in hand. He’d never gotten the hang of the things, and the pictograms on the screen were never as intuitive as everyone else seemed to think. But eventually he was able to locate The Google. He typed what is grindlewald? and was immediately presented with some machine cheek for his spelling, and a great deal more information than he could possibly want. It seemed more likely, all things considered, that Peter had been referring to the Harry Potter character and not the geographic location.
Benefit of the Bargain by
Alona. Scandal.
The Scandal story I want most in the world still doesn't exist -- I really want complicated, painful, totally fucked-up and totally canon-compliant Mellie/Olivia (I may have to write it myself) -- but this story is my favorite of the yuletide crop, and it is totally great: Mellie Grant, very dangerous, morally ambiguous political badass, with guns. There’s power in being underestimated, and safety in the appearance of harmlessness, but Mellie has been itching to make a move. This one came ready-packaged. Standing in the open doorway with the cold snaking in, she hesitates a moment, then texts Olivia: Turn on the TV. You’ll know it when you see it. She buttons up her coat and moves on.
Girl Of My Dreams by
Andraste. Singin' in the Rain.
One story from Yuletide Madness, for the movie that may be responsible for making me a die-hard OT3 shipper in the first place. I love this movie, and I love this OT3 with every fiber of my being, and this story is short and funny and sweet and pretty much perfect. Anyone with comic timing that perfect is someone he just has to get to know.
Not knowing what will greet me by
jadelennox. Space Vehicles.
I love this story so much, and MARS ROVERS ARE SO COOL. Curiosity worried whenever Opportunity talked about things like "drifting sand" because hello, elephant in the room, Spirit, buried at Troy with jarosite covering her solar panels. And she wanted Opportunity to talk about Spirit -- it was weird having a sister you had never known, and she wanted to hear everything about her -- but Opportunity was weird. Mentioning Spirit would make her stop talking for days at a time, or sing, randomly, down the radio link, strange little songs Curiosity had never heard before. Strange little songs that didn't sound like they were written by humans at all.
The Door into Britannia by
ambyr. Tale of the Five - Diane Duane and Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliff.
I came to this story from Tale of the Five, not from The Eagle or Eagle of the Ninth, but I think this is a perfect crossover -- and one that can be read from either canon, as well as from both. The emotional arcs of all the characters are subtly and beautifully drawn, and Sunspark is (of course) the poly fairy, which is probably as it should be; this story is a little bittersweet for Tale of the Five readers, because it takes place long enough after the events of the books that some of the people we love are dead, but the subtlety of the backstory is also lovely. I really like this story. “And where is home?” Esca asked without thinking, still a little dazed by the light. “Where my family is,” Sunspark said. It made an out-of-sorts sound halfway between a snort and a whinny. “Troublesome creatures. I never had to worry about the wheres and whens of the Pattern when I didn’t have a ‘home’ to find. But they’re worth it, somehow. I didn’t think they would be."
First know the truth by
Philipa_Moss. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John Le Carre.
Connie Sachs, the woman who knows everything. The phone on her desk rang, a horrid, shrill sound completely unlike the rest of the Circus telephones. Connie was convinced she had been outfitted with an especially irritating one on purpose, but by whom? “Suspicion, paranoia, suspicion, paranoia,” she sang to herself to the Hallelujah Chorus, before picking up. “Connie Sachs.”
In Kind by
resolute. War for the Oaks - Emma Bull.
This is a prequel to War for the Oaks set in the 20s, and as such it is almost original fic, but it also fits seamlessly into the canon of the book. I love this story because it is so dark, because getting involved with Faerie is a bad fucking idea, no matter how much you want to get away from home, and because this story makes the scope of the forces at work in War for the Oaks that much broader and more dangerous -- which, of course, they are. Also, I suddenly want to read a lot of fantasy set during Prohibition. I mean, the Faerie Mob: terrifying, deadly, and kind of brilliant. "Ruby Kind," the lady repeated. "Well, Ruby Kind, you find yourself at the Wabasha Street Speakeasy tonight at nine o'clock, and you give them this card." Mr. Pook handed me a card, engraved and rich to the touch. "And we'll take you away from all this, hm?"
Dice for Decimals by
Gileonnen. The Wire.
Remember back in 2009, when I wrote my The Wire yuletide fic and was pretty sure that I was going to languish alone as the only Stringer Bell/Jimmy McNulty story on the internet forever? I AM NOT ALONE ANYMORE. Rather more to the point, this story is so amazing, and so much better and more brilliant and more surprising and more creative than anything I could ever have imagined, that I kept having to stop reading in the middle to flail at my roommate and walk around my apartment for a little while until I calmed down enough to read the next part. (It's like 4000 words, and it took me an hour to read because I loved it too much to cope.) It will probably not make you as totally insane as it made me, because I am a weirdo, but honestly, you guys, if you have seen The Wire, read this story. It is worth it -- it is so, so worth it -- and it is pitch-perfect from start to finish, and so wonderful that I am actually having trouble putting words together into a rec (I left an insane gushing comment, and I stand by every word). It is both canon compliant and an AU; it is beautifully written, with a light hand and perfect character voices and equally perfect plotting; and I feel I should warn you that it might make you care about economics in new and unexpected ways. Dr. Russell Bell is a week unshaven, with gold-rimmed glasses and leather-reinforced elbows on his court coat. He's professorial in a broad-shouldered Indiana Jones kind of way; if it weren't for the metal detectors at the entrance to the courthouse, McNulty would swear blind he was packing.
Five Things Tom and Carl Did in College (In the First Semester Alone) by
the_afterlight. Young Wizards - Diane Duane (plus just a little Tam Lin - Pamela Dean).
I want 100,000 more words of this story, but it is basically brilliant; if there is one thing I love more than Tom and Carl, and Tom and Carl working shit out as young wizards, it is Tom and Carl working shit out while in college at MOTHERFUCKING BLACKSTOCK. Oh, Blackstock College, the perfect crossover setting for all college-based magical shenanigans. Oh, Blackstock, the college that gave me highly skewed (though not, in fact, entirely inaccurate) ideas about what college was going to be like. Yeah, Tom and Carl fit right in. “You know,” Tom said idly, eying his bed - empty, except for a small pile of bedclothes waiting for him to make it up - and then Carl’s. “I think these were bunkbeds.”
Originally posted at oliviacirce @ dreamwidth. If you'd like, comment there using OpenID.