Fic Rec Post #1! (August 25-312009)
So, as promised here's my first rec post! I decided to do it retroactively, so here's for the last week of August. I did a big Merlin rec list not too long ago for 
keewick so there might be some repeats in here.
I should also note that one of my common ways of finding fics is through fic finding comms, so I kind of have lost my filter when it comes to spoiling fics. So if you don't like being spoiled for a fic, my recs might make you unhappy.
Because a lot of my fic comes in podfic form I've listed the title as a link to the fic but have added links in brackets beside with links to the podfic. I listen to everything as MP3s but I've included links to the M4B form as well for anyone interested in the podbook format.
Merlin Recs
Title: The Beltane Series by
astolat
-Beltane (MP3 or M4B, read by
winkingstar
-Coming of Age (MP3 or M4B, read by
fayjay)
-That Shall Achieve the Sword (MP3 or M4B, read by
fayjay
Type: Gen, Preslash (Merlin/Arthur)
Length: Total Series: 10K-15K, 1:00-1:30hours
-Beltane: 1K-2K, <10min
-Coming of Age: 5K-10K, 30-45min
-That Shall Achieve the Sword: 5K-10K, 30-45mins
Summary:
Beltane: There is a story that is not told in Ealdor anymore, not for many years now, a story about Beltane Eve.
Coming of Age: "I have called you to give you a warning," the dragon said. "A red moon rises over Camelot this night. The Wild Hunt will ride."
That Shall Achieve the Sword: Arthur had just started to get really irritated, as opposed to the low-grade and permanent Merlin-is-late-again irritation that somehow managed to be endearing -- and how exactly Merlin had managed that, Arthur would really have liked to know, mostly so he could work out how to use it on Uther.
Reason for the rec: I liked how this series started out with Beltane as a little one off to explain why Merlin is as powerful as he is and then grew into something so much bigger. I found Coming of Age really interesting if only because in fics we often get to see Arthur's father reacting badly when he finds out about Merlin, it was interesting to see *Merlin's* father react badly to *Arthur* instead. And in both Coming of Age and That Shall Achieve the Sword we get to see just how devoted Merlin and Arthur are to each other.
While I enjoyed the whole of this series, it's really That Shall Achieve the Sword that makes this series amazing. I love how even after Arthur finds out that Merlin is *insanely* powerful he still can't help but think of Merlin still as his bumbling friend. So much awesome in this fic ♥
My Tags:
Gen, Preslash, Merlin/Arthur, Merlin_Isn't_Human, Destiny, Merlin's_Magic_is_Revealed, Awesome
Title: The Weight of Words by
waldorph
Type: Slash (Merlin/Arthur)
Length: 5K-10K
Summary:Merlin is not the only one for whom words have power.
Reason for the rec: This was a really nice look into Arthur's thought process. Showing that while he sometimes plays the fool, it's only play. I also love it for how it shows how differently Merlin acts compared with the others Arthur interacts with. Great read.
My Tags: Merlin's_Magic_is_Revealed, First_Time
Title: Today We Are Victors by
nightanddaze
Type: Slash (Merlin/Arthur)
Length: 2K-5K
Summary: The first thing Arthur Pendragon ever learned was that he could have almost anything he wanted. The history of Arthur's need.
Reason for the rec: This is another Arthur fic that does a great job of showing how Merlin is just so different from what Arthur is used to dealing with. I'm going to admit right now, I haven't reread this, or any of the fics I'm rec'ing here to refresh my memory, and to some extent I think I'm conflating this fic with the one I rec'ed above. But yes, they both show good Arthur thought processes.
My Tags: First_Time
Title: Lord Drake's Bequest by
pennyplainknits (MP3 or M4B read by
pennyplainknits)
Type: Slash (Merlin/Arthur)
Length: 5K-10K, 45-60mins
Summary: "To my great-nephew Arthur I bequeath Tintagel Distribution, wholly and without reserve, save for one condition. You must marry, and stay married, for a period of no less than six months. You're a wonderful businessman Arthur, but a full life needs love and companionship, not just a string of affairs. Settle down young Arthur, and your life will be the richer for it."
Arthur needs to marry to take control of Tintagel Distribution. Fortunatly he knows the right man for the job.
Reason for the rec: So, I have this thing. This thing where I adore harlequin fics. So very very much. And this is such a nice one where the boys are forced to marry and don't even notice that they've been married for year. Much love for this fic :D
My Tags: AU, Modern_AU, First_Time, Harlequin, Awesome
Title: Crown Of the Summer Court by
astolat (MP3 or M4B, read by
fayjay)
Type: Slash (Merlin/Arthur)
Length: 15K-25K, 2-3hours
Summary: The king sent me to get you," Merlin said, with a tone that implied strongly that he wasn't rolling his eyes where Arthur could see, but just wait until his back was turned. "He said you're to get changed into formal clothes and meet him in the Great Hall, there's a delegation coming from the Summer Court.
Reason for the rec: Is there anyone in the Merlin fandom that hasn't read this fic yet? There's a reason it's on every Merlin rec list. To name some of them:
The politics of this fic are really well thought out so we get to have Merlin out as a sorcerer but still have Uther as king.
We get to see a whole other culture in the Elves.
And speaking of the Elves
fayjay did an awesome job with the podfic and managed to do the two toned voices that had been described in the fic but do it in a way that it wasn't distracting or hard to understand at all! (seriously, when you listen to as much podfic as I do you often end up dreading and "special touches" the reader does as they can be super distracting and can make the fic impossible to listen to but this one *totally* works!).
We get to explore Merlin's magic with some awesome, intense sex scenes thrown in.
Awesome fic. :D
My Tags: Merlin's_Magic_is_Revealed, Merlin_Isn't_Human, First_Time, Awesome
Title: Sick Leave by
waldorph (MP3, read by
ibactress)
Type: Slash (Merlin/Arthur, implied Uther/Gaius)
Length: 1K-2K, <10mins
Summary: merlin is sick!
Reason for the rec: OK, Uther/Gaius is a pairing I can totally get behind (in a tragic if sort of abusive way) so I really enjoyed this fic of Gaius observing our boys and comparing it some what to his relationship with Uther.
My Tags: Established_Relationship
Stargate Atlantis Recs
Title: Another Word for Optimism by
celli_lane (MP3, read by
celli_lane)
Type: Slash (John/Rodney)
Length: 1K-2K, <10mins
Summary: In which Rodney has coffee, optimism, luck with Ancient tech, and absolutely no tact whatsoever.
Reason for the rec: This is such a cute little ficlet I just love the whole idea of it and the humourous way in which it's presented. Trust me, just read or listen to it, you won't regret it :)
My Tags: First_Time, ATAGene, Awesome
Terminator Recs
Title: Convergence by
indiefic
Type: Gen
Length: 2K-5K
Summary: despite a lifetime of planning, it somehow never occurred to John that there would be a time in his own life when Kyle Reese was alive and a hero and an adult - all at once.
Reason for the rec: Some of my favourite fics in Terminator fandom show us future!John. The glimpses of future!John that we saw in the first two movies is so different from the John of the show and I love seeing them contrasted, of seeing the shift, of seeing how John got from one to the other. This one contrasts and gives us an idea of how he could send his father to his death.
My Tags: Future_Fic
Meta
Title: Seeing subtext the author didn't intend post by
trobadora
Summary: 1. Subtext is not defined by what the author intended to be there or not. It's a matter of interpretation.
2. Isn't that what we're doing all the time? We read subtext. It's how we watch our shows. It's how we read our books. Why should it be any surprise we're reading fanfic the same way?
3. If we see subtext between two characters on the show, and someone writes them in character, of course we're going to see the same subtext in their fanfic too. Frankly, I'd find it bizarre if we didn't.
Reason for the rec: Is it weird to be including meta in a fic rec post? Especially meta that's over 2 years old? Probably but I've been bookmarking the meta I read as well so it's going to get grouped in with the fic and podfic. When this post was originally made I had set up to track comments so when I randomly started cleaning up the threads that I was tracking on LJ I came across this and reread it all, every comment.
There was a lot said in this post that I still think about randomly, years later. How much authority does an author (or vidder, artist or other) have over their creation? The other day I was having a discussion with
diurnal_lee about a vid we both love. She was confused over a section of clip choices and didn't understand why they were there in the vid. After a series of discussions we discovered that while I thought the vid was of Elizabeth watching her people and learning to deal with Atlantis,
diurnal_lee had thought it was of Atlantis observing the people living within her. I almost went up to look up the vidder's post to see what she had to say about it before stopping myself because really, just because (or, in this case if, since I didn't look it up) the creator agrees with me doesn't mean that
diurnal_lee's interpretation of the vid is any less valid than mine. I never would have thought something like that before reading this piece of meta.
My Tags: Stargate:Atlantis, Subtext, Fandom
Oh God, this took me all night and it was just a few days worth of fic! :S
keewick so there might be some repeats in here.
I should also note that one of my common ways of finding fics is through fic finding comms, so I kind of have lost my filter when it comes to spoiling fics. So if you don't like being spoiled for a fic, my recs might make you unhappy.
Because a lot of my fic comes in podfic form I've listed the title as a link to the fic but have added links in brackets beside with links to the podfic. I listen to everything as MP3s but I've included links to the M4B form as well for anyone interested in the podbook format.
Merlin Recs
Title: The Beltane Series by
astolat
-Beltane (MP3 or M4B, read by
winkingstar
-Coming of Age (MP3 or M4B, read by
fayjay)
-That Shall Achieve the Sword (MP3 or M4B, read by
fayjay
Type: Gen, Preslash (Merlin/Arthur)
Length: Total Series: 10K-15K, 1:00-1:30hours
-Beltane: 1K-2K, <10min
-Coming of Age: 5K-10K, 30-45min
-That Shall Achieve the Sword: 5K-10K, 30-45mins
Summary:
Beltane: There is a story that is not told in Ealdor anymore, not for many years now, a story about Beltane Eve.
Coming of Age: "I have called you to give you a warning," the dragon said. "A red moon rises over Camelot this night. The Wild Hunt will ride."
That Shall Achieve the Sword: Arthur had just started to get really irritated, as opposed to the low-grade and permanent Merlin-is-late-again irritation that somehow managed to be endearing -- and how exactly Merlin had managed that, Arthur would really have liked to know, mostly so he could work out how to use it on Uther.
Reason for the rec: I liked how this series started out with Beltane as a little one off to explain why Merlin is as powerful as he is and then grew into something so much bigger. I found Coming of Age really interesting if only because in fics we often get to see Arthur's father reacting badly when he finds out about Merlin, it was interesting to see *Merlin's* father react badly to *Arthur* instead. And in both Coming of Age and That Shall Achieve the Sword we get to see just how devoted Merlin and Arthur are to each other.
While I enjoyed the whole of this series, it's really That Shall Achieve the Sword that makes this series amazing. I love how even after Arthur finds out that Merlin is *insanely* powerful he still can't help but think of Merlin still as his bumbling friend. So much awesome in this fic ♥
My Tags:
Gen, Preslash, Merlin/Arthur, Merlin_Isn't_Human, Destiny, Merlin's_Magic_is_Revealed, Awesome
Title: The Weight of Words by
waldorph
Type: Slash (Merlin/Arthur)
Length: 5K-10K
Summary:Merlin is not the only one for whom words have power.
Reason for the rec: This was a really nice look into Arthur's thought process. Showing that while he sometimes plays the fool, it's only play. I also love it for how it shows how differently Merlin acts compared with the others Arthur interacts with. Great read.
My Tags: Merlin's_Magic_is_Revealed, First_Time
Title: Today We Are Victors by
nightanddaze
Type: Slash (Merlin/Arthur)
Length: 2K-5K
Summary: The first thing Arthur Pendragon ever learned was that he could have almost anything he wanted. The history of Arthur's need.
Reason for the rec: This is another Arthur fic that does a great job of showing how Merlin is just so different from what Arthur is used to dealing with. I'm going to admit right now, I haven't reread this, or any of the fics I'm rec'ing here to refresh my memory, and to some extent I think I'm conflating this fic with the one I rec'ed above. But yes, they both show good Arthur thought processes.
My Tags: First_Time
Title: Lord Drake's Bequest by
pennyplainknits (MP3 or M4B read by
pennyplainknits)
Type: Slash (Merlin/Arthur)
Length: 5K-10K, 45-60mins
Summary: "To my great-nephew Arthur I bequeath Tintagel Distribution, wholly and without reserve, save for one condition. You must marry, and stay married, for a period of no less than six months. You're a wonderful businessman Arthur, but a full life needs love and companionship, not just a string of affairs. Settle down young Arthur, and your life will be the richer for it."
Arthur needs to marry to take control of Tintagel Distribution. Fortunatly he knows the right man for the job.
Reason for the rec: So, I have this thing. This thing where I adore harlequin fics. So very very much. And this is such a nice one where the boys are forced to marry and don't even notice that they've been married for year. Much love for this fic :D
My Tags: AU, Modern_AU, First_Time, Harlequin, Awesome
Title: Crown Of the Summer Court by
astolat (MP3 or M4B, read by
fayjay)
Type: Slash (Merlin/Arthur)
Length: 15K-25K, 2-3hours
Summary: The king sent me to get you," Merlin said, with a tone that implied strongly that he wasn't rolling his eyes where Arthur could see, but just wait until his back was turned. "He said you're to get changed into formal clothes and meet him in the Great Hall, there's a delegation coming from the Summer Court.
Reason for the rec: Is there anyone in the Merlin fandom that hasn't read this fic yet? There's a reason it's on every Merlin rec list. To name some of them:
The politics of this fic are really well thought out so we get to have Merlin out as a sorcerer but still have Uther as king.
We get to see a whole other culture in the Elves.
And speaking of the Elves
fayjay did an awesome job with the podfic and managed to do the two toned voices that had been described in the fic but do it in a way that it wasn't distracting or hard to understand at all! (seriously, when you listen to as much podfic as I do you often end up dreading and "special touches" the reader does as they can be super distracting and can make the fic impossible to listen to but this one *totally* works!).
We get to explore Merlin's magic with some awesome, intense sex scenes thrown in.
Awesome fic. :D
My Tags: Merlin's_Magic_is_Revealed, Merlin_Isn't_Human, First_Time, Awesome
Title: Sick Leave by
waldorph (MP3, read by
ibactress)
Type: Slash (Merlin/Arthur, implied Uther/Gaius)
Length: 1K-2K, <10mins
Summary: merlin is sick!
Reason for the rec: OK, Uther/Gaius is a pairing I can totally get behind (in a tragic if sort of abusive way) so I really enjoyed this fic of Gaius observing our boys and comparing it some what to his relationship with Uther.
My Tags: Established_Relationship
Stargate Atlantis Recs
Title: Another Word for Optimism by
celli_lane (MP3, read by
celli_lane)
Type: Slash (John/Rodney)
Length: 1K-2K, <10mins
Summary: In which Rodney has coffee, optimism, luck with Ancient tech, and absolutely no tact whatsoever.
Reason for the rec: This is such a cute little ficlet I just love the whole idea of it and the humourous way in which it's presented. Trust me, just read or listen to it, you won't regret it :)
My Tags: First_Time, ATAGene, Awesome
Terminator Recs
Title: Convergence by
indiefic
Type: Gen
Length: 2K-5K
Summary: despite a lifetime of planning, it somehow never occurred to John that there would be a time in his own life when Kyle Reese was alive and a hero and an adult - all at once.
Reason for the rec: Some of my favourite fics in Terminator fandom show us future!John. The glimpses of future!John that we saw in the first two movies is so different from the John of the show and I love seeing them contrasted, of seeing the shift, of seeing how John got from one to the other. This one contrasts and gives us an idea of how he could send his father to his death.
My Tags: Future_Fic
Meta
Title: Seeing subtext the author didn't intend post by
trobadora
Summary: 1. Subtext is not defined by what the author intended to be there or not. It's a matter of interpretation.
2. Isn't that what we're doing all the time? We read subtext. It's how we watch our shows. It's how we read our books. Why should it be any surprise we're reading fanfic the same way?
3. If we see subtext between two characters on the show, and someone writes them in character, of course we're going to see the same subtext in their fanfic too. Frankly, I'd find it bizarre if we didn't.
Reason for the rec: Is it weird to be including meta in a fic rec post? Especially meta that's over 2 years old? Probably but I've been bookmarking the meta I read as well so it's going to get grouped in with the fic and podfic. When this post was originally made I had set up to track comments so when I randomly started cleaning up the threads that I was tracking on LJ I came across this and reread it all, every comment.
There was a lot said in this post that I still think about randomly, years later. How much authority does an author (or vidder, artist or other) have over their creation? The other day I was having a discussion with
diurnal_lee about a vid we both love. She was confused over a section of clip choices and didn't understand why they were there in the vid. After a series of discussions we discovered that while I thought the vid was of Elizabeth watching her people and learning to deal with Atlantis,
diurnal_lee had thought it was of Atlantis observing the people living within her. I almost went up to look up the vidder's post to see what she had to say about it before stopping myself because really, just because (or, in this case if, since I didn't look it up) the creator agrees with me doesn't mean that
diurnal_lee's interpretation of the vid is any less valid than mine. I never would have thought something like that before reading this piece of meta.
My Tags: Stargate:Atlantis, Subtext, Fandom
Oh God, this took me all night and it was just a few days worth of fic! :S