Yuletide 2014
I have spent the last several weeks trying to convince myself I had gotten over either the flu (though no fever, so probably not?) or a nasty, lingering cold; finally gave up this week, called in sick on Friday, and spent the better part of two days in bed. Feeling much better today, if a little panicky over how behind I am at work. At least I expect to be more productive on Monday than I've been the rest of the holiday season.
Anyway, I'm a bit late to the Yuletide recs game, and I still have quite a lot of stories marked for later reading, but here are the ones I've enjoyed most so far.
My own writer was brave enough to take on one of my more intimidating prompts for Alice from The Magicians, about Quentin growing up after all the mistakes he's made and Alice reacting to her new circumstances, and whether they manage to get back in step after the end of the third novel. The result is a lovely, quiet (if often very angry, and occasionally funny) story about recovery and readjustment. I don't think Grossman intends to write any more of these books after The Magician's Land, but this serves as a hopeful coda. A wonderful gift:
Winter Kept Us Warm. Summer Surprised Us. (7205 words) by VerySleepy
Fandom: The Magicians - Lev Grossman
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Alice Quinn/Quentin Coldwater
Characters: Alice (The Magicians), Quentin Coldwater
Additional Tags: Cats, stray cats, Bourgeois Cat Food, Poorly Articulated Feelings, Sleepy Cats, Feather on a Stick Cat Toys, Feline-Oriented Architectural Details, Cats as metaphors, Cats as non-metaphors, Metaphors as non-cats
Summary:
The cat, of course, wasn't magical.
Gifts for others:
Charioteer (13854 words) by petrichoral
Fandom: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Costis (Queen's Thief), Eugenides (Queen's Thief)
Additional Tags: Adventure, Loyalty, ridiculous plans, Background canon pairings, Post-Canon, Yuletide Treat
Summary:
Captured in battle and stuck in the Mede capital, Costis has given up all hope of seeing his country again. But Eugenides has a habit of turning up where he's least expected.
This is incredibly entertaining, reads very like the source, and boasts a plot that's twisty and predictable by turns in exactly the right balance. (Oh, Eugenides.) On rereading, some of the dialogue is a bit anachronistic, but I don't actually care at all, because it's so perfectly in character. So much fun!
Good Grammar (6523 words) by Sixthlight
Fandom: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Peter Grant/Thomas Nightingale
Characters: Peter Grant, Thomas Nightingale
Additional Tags: Future Fic
Summary:
You can ask plenty of members of the Metropolitan Police who will assert that it’s my stupid ideas that get me in trouble (especially, to pick an example entirely at random, newly-minted DCI Stephanopoulos) but they’re wrong. Okay, they’re mostly wrong.
Or: Peter can rationalize himself into anything, given long enough. Including a crush on his senior officer.
So I don't ship Peter/Nightingale at all in the context of the books, but this is set far enough in the future and portrays their relationship so differently that it works really well for me; great Peter voice, and I love the glimpses we get of what happens after Peter's apprenticeship ends. I'd be happy to read a lot more of that, actually--all about Abigail and the others, and more on Peter's innovations and the new dynamics at the Folly, and while I totally understand why the author only refers in passing to Lesley's future the reference is tantalizing--but as a ship!fic this is really nice.
The Cartographer Tries to Map a Course (2018 words) by eudaimon
Fandom: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Abigail Kamara, Thomas Nightingale
Summary:
Wizarding was never going to be the thing for Abigail Kamara - the world was just too wide.
And here's a future fic focused entirely on the world outside Peter's immediate concerns. Abigail Kamara chooses a different route to magic: "The more she thought about it, the more she thought that maybe there were other ways to get involved - had to be- because there were people (people's as good a word for them as any) who are never ever going to be interested in talking to you if you arrive at their door with a warrant card. And people are what Abigail's interested in, really."
I'm so glad this was written; it's stunning and deeply moving, and the language is beautiful. There are enough typos and errors in formatting that I do feel the need to mention them, which is a pity--but this is still very, very well worth reading.
fighting vainly the old ennui (13049 words) by Fahye
Fandom: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Phryne Fisher/Jack Robinson, Jack Robinson & Elizabeth Macmillan
Characters: Jack Robinson, Phryne Fisher, Elizabeth MacMillan, Hugh Collins, Dorothy "Dot" Williams
Additional Tags: Identity Porn, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Summary:
The Bowerbird wasn't playing fair; Jack couldn't debate these pieces of paper. He couldn't tell pieces of paper and a growing pile of feathers that he, too, remembered the rare treat that was eating a single piece of tropical fruit in the heavy heat of a Christmas afternoon, stickying his best suit of clothes, which had been so clean and pressed for church that morning.
(In which Inspector Jack Robinson is having a fairly uneventful year, divorce notwithstanding, until he acquires a lady doctor for a drinking buddy and receives a series of flirtatious notes from a jewel thief.)
And now for something light and fun! Plenty of people have already recced this, and for very good reason. Great Mac and Jack interaction.
Gentle Antidote (11200 words) by x_los
Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey, Charles Parker/Mary Wimsey, mentioned Sylvia Mariott/Eiluned Price
Characters: Harriet Vane, Charles Parker, Peter Wimsey, Mervyn Bunter, Mary Wimsey, Honoria Lucasta Wimsey, Sylvia Mariott, Eiluned Price, Gerald Wimsey Viscount St George
Additional Tags: Soulmate-Identifying Marks, AU, Yuletide, Yuletide 2014, Misses Clause Challenge
Summary:
At twenty-one, Harriet Vane gets her Name. It's rather longer than she expected.
This is worth a look even if the soulmate trope isn't your thing. The author does a deft job of playing with readers' knowledge of canon, including repurposing recognizable Sayers quotes into a new context. The characters are very recognizably themselves, but of course they react differently (or not so differently?) to a meeting ten years earlier and under much better circumstances. (Though I think Harriet is a little more self-possessed than I expected of her at twenty-one, but I can more than forgive that!) Sweet and romantic, with some interesting worldbuilding and great use of secondary characters.
إن سرقت، اسرق جمل، وإن عشقت، اعشق قمر by Lexie (8068 words)
Fandom: The Mummy Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Rick O'Connell
Characters: Evy Carnahan O'Connell, Rick O'Connell, Alex O'Connell
Summary:
The first thing that Evy does, upon coming out of the desert, is sleep for what feels like a week.
The second thing she does is get married.
I haven't seen these movies in years, but this had me grinning from beginning to end! May have to arrange a rewatch of the first film.
The Wheel of the Year (5183 words) by masterofmidgets
Fandom: Witch of the Westmorland - Stan Rogers (Song)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Knight/Witch
Characters: Knight (Witch of the Westmorland), Witch (Witch of the Westmorland), Owlet (Witch of the Westmorland), Raven (Witch of the Westmorland)
Additional Tags: Magic, Paganism, Yuletide 2014
Summary:
Kissing doesn't last - and neither does magic. The seasons turn, and the Knight goes back.
Lyrical, interesting take on a song of which I'm very fond.
Fair Winds and Homeward Sail (48882 words) by Ione
Fandom: Persuasion - Jane Austen
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Admiral Croft/Sophia Croft, Anne Elliot/Frederick Wentworth
Characters: Sophia Croft, Anne Elliot, Admiral Croft, Frederick Wentworth, Louisa Musgrove, Lady Russell, Mary Musgrove, Charles Musgrove, Captain Harville
Additional Tags: The Royal Navy, References to Jane Austen, Regency
Summary:
Sophia Wentworth was devoted to her brothers before she found happiness. Then she wanted the same for Frederick . . .
Via
legionseagle's rec--I haven't finished this quite yet, as it's long and I got sidetracked by a very enjoyable reread of Persuasion itself (so very much my favorite Austen!), but so far this is well-researched (as well as I'm able to tell), well-written, and very much in the spirit of the book.
comments at http://pendrecarc.dreamwidth.org/178559.html. Feel free to comment wherever you prefer.
Anyway, I'm a bit late to the Yuletide recs game, and I still have quite a lot of stories marked for later reading, but here are the ones I've enjoyed most so far.
My own writer was brave enough to take on one of my more intimidating prompts for Alice from The Magicians, about Quentin growing up after all the mistakes he's made and Alice reacting to her new circumstances, and whether they manage to get back in step after the end of the third novel. The result is a lovely, quiet (if often very angry, and occasionally funny) story about recovery and readjustment. I don't think Grossman intends to write any more of these books after The Magician's Land, but this serves as a hopeful coda. A wonderful gift:
Winter Kept Us Warm. Summer Surprised Us. (7205 words) by VerySleepy
Fandom: The Magicians - Lev Grossman
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Alice Quinn/Quentin Coldwater
Characters: Alice (The Magicians), Quentin Coldwater
Additional Tags: Cats, stray cats, Bourgeois Cat Food, Poorly Articulated Feelings, Sleepy Cats, Feather on a Stick Cat Toys, Feline-Oriented Architectural Details, Cats as metaphors, Cats as non-metaphors, Metaphors as non-cats
Summary:
The cat, of course, wasn't magical.
Gifts for others:
Charioteer (13854 words) by petrichoral
Fandom: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Costis (Queen's Thief), Eugenides (Queen's Thief)
Additional Tags: Adventure, Loyalty, ridiculous plans, Background canon pairings, Post-Canon, Yuletide Treat
Summary:
Captured in battle and stuck in the Mede capital, Costis has given up all hope of seeing his country again. But Eugenides has a habit of turning up where he's least expected.
This is incredibly entertaining, reads very like the source, and boasts a plot that's twisty and predictable by turns in exactly the right balance. (Oh, Eugenides.) On rereading, some of the dialogue is a bit anachronistic, but I don't actually care at all, because it's so perfectly in character. So much fun!
Good Grammar (6523 words) by Sixthlight
Fandom: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Peter Grant/Thomas Nightingale
Characters: Peter Grant, Thomas Nightingale
Additional Tags: Future Fic
Summary:
You can ask plenty of members of the Metropolitan Police who will assert that it’s my stupid ideas that get me in trouble (especially, to pick an example entirely at random, newly-minted DCI Stephanopoulos) but they’re wrong. Okay, they’re mostly wrong.
Or: Peter can rationalize himself into anything, given long enough. Including a crush on his senior officer.
So I don't ship Peter/Nightingale at all in the context of the books, but this is set far enough in the future and portrays their relationship so differently that it works really well for me; great Peter voice, and I love the glimpses we get of what happens after Peter's apprenticeship ends. I'd be happy to read a lot more of that, actually--all about Abigail and the others, and more on Peter's innovations and the new dynamics at the Folly, and while I totally understand why the author only refers in passing to Lesley's future the reference is tantalizing--but as a ship!fic this is really nice.
The Cartographer Tries to Map a Course (2018 words) by eudaimon
Fandom: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Abigail Kamara, Thomas Nightingale
Summary:
Wizarding was never going to be the thing for Abigail Kamara - the world was just too wide.
And here's a future fic focused entirely on the world outside Peter's immediate concerns. Abigail Kamara chooses a different route to magic: "The more she thought about it, the more she thought that maybe there were other ways to get involved - had to be- because there were people (people's as good a word for them as any) who are never ever going to be interested in talking to you if you arrive at their door with a warrant card. And people are what Abigail's interested in, really."
I'm so glad this was written; it's stunning and deeply moving, and the language is beautiful. There are enough typos and errors in formatting that I do feel the need to mention them, which is a pity--but this is still very, very well worth reading.
fighting vainly the old ennui (13049 words) by Fahye
Fandom: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Phryne Fisher/Jack Robinson, Jack Robinson & Elizabeth Macmillan
Characters: Jack Robinson, Phryne Fisher, Elizabeth MacMillan, Hugh Collins, Dorothy "Dot" Williams
Additional Tags: Identity Porn, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Summary:
The Bowerbird wasn't playing fair; Jack couldn't debate these pieces of paper. He couldn't tell pieces of paper and a growing pile of feathers that he, too, remembered the rare treat that was eating a single piece of tropical fruit in the heavy heat of a Christmas afternoon, stickying his best suit of clothes, which had been so clean and pressed for church that morning.
(In which Inspector Jack Robinson is having a fairly uneventful year, divorce notwithstanding, until he acquires a lady doctor for a drinking buddy and receives a series of flirtatious notes from a jewel thief.)
And now for something light and fun! Plenty of people have already recced this, and for very good reason. Great Mac and Jack interaction.
Gentle Antidote (11200 words) by x_los
Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey, Charles Parker/Mary Wimsey, mentioned Sylvia Mariott/Eiluned Price
Characters: Harriet Vane, Charles Parker, Peter Wimsey, Mervyn Bunter, Mary Wimsey, Honoria Lucasta Wimsey, Sylvia Mariott, Eiluned Price, Gerald Wimsey Viscount St George
Additional Tags: Soulmate-Identifying Marks, AU, Yuletide, Yuletide 2014, Misses Clause Challenge
Summary:
At twenty-one, Harriet Vane gets her Name. It's rather longer than she expected.
This is worth a look even if the soulmate trope isn't your thing. The author does a deft job of playing with readers' knowledge of canon, including repurposing recognizable Sayers quotes into a new context. The characters are very recognizably themselves, but of course they react differently (or not so differently?) to a meeting ten years earlier and under much better circumstances. (Though I think Harriet is a little more self-possessed than I expected of her at twenty-one, but I can more than forgive that!) Sweet and romantic, with some interesting worldbuilding and great use of secondary characters.
إن سرقت، اسرق جمل، وإن عشقت، اعشق قمر by Lexie (8068 words)
Fandom: The Mummy Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Rick O'Connell
Characters: Evy Carnahan O'Connell, Rick O'Connell, Alex O'Connell
Summary:
The first thing that Evy does, upon coming out of the desert, is sleep for what feels like a week.
The second thing she does is get married.
I haven't seen these movies in years, but this had me grinning from beginning to end! May have to arrange a rewatch of the first film.
The Wheel of the Year (5183 words) by masterofmidgets
Fandom: Witch of the Westmorland - Stan Rogers (Song)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Knight/Witch
Characters: Knight (Witch of the Westmorland), Witch (Witch of the Westmorland), Owlet (Witch of the Westmorland), Raven (Witch of the Westmorland)
Additional Tags: Magic, Paganism, Yuletide 2014
Summary:
Kissing doesn't last - and neither does magic. The seasons turn, and the Knight goes back.
Lyrical, interesting take on a song of which I'm very fond.
Fair Winds and Homeward Sail (48882 words) by Ione
Fandom: Persuasion - Jane Austen
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Admiral Croft/Sophia Croft, Anne Elliot/Frederick Wentworth
Characters: Sophia Croft, Anne Elliot, Admiral Croft, Frederick Wentworth, Louisa Musgrove, Lady Russell, Mary Musgrove, Charles Musgrove, Captain Harville
Additional Tags: The Royal Navy, References to Jane Austen, Regency
Summary:
Sophia Wentworth was devoted to her brothers before she found happiness. Then she wanted the same for Frederick . . .
Via
legionseagle's rec--I haven't finished this quite yet, as it's long and I got sidetracked by a very enjoyable reread of Persuasion itself (so very much my favorite Austen!), but so far this is well-researched (as well as I'm able to tell), well-written, and very much in the spirit of the book.
comments at http://pendrecarc.dreamwidth.org/178559.html. Feel free to comment wherever you prefer.