Yuletide recs - 2007
Not that it makes that much of a difference now, but I wanted to post my recs before the author reveal.
Okay, so for the past few days I've been gorging on yuletide fics. There are over 2000 this year, and the yuletide good/crap quality ratio is something like 98%/2%, from what I can tell. People on my flist who participated have probably have no need for yet another rec list, but those of you who haven't been browsing the archive, I really do strongly recommend clicking. And participating next year - you will have fun.
And it occurs to me that not everyone knows what yuletide is, because, hey, until last year I didn't really know what it was. So in short - it's a holiday gift fic-exchange for small fandoms, which means anything from books to movies to old TV shows, anything that has less than 500 stories on the web. Stories went live last week, and author names will be revealed tomorrow. It's one of the biggest fandom events online, as far as my personal experience goes, and it's truly an amazing experience.
And now, to my recs - I like this categorization, even though some fics, of course, fit both categories. I chose them based on how they made me feel.
Funny/Fluff/Feel-good:
Five Rules of Thieving by oniongirlsays - David Eddings, Elenium/Tamuli series. This is fun and light and funny, Talen and Danae’s relationship through the years developing in a few short scenes. Put a huge smile on my face and made me want to reread the series.
Blue Screen of Death by numinicious - Discworld. Hex dies, sort of. Perfectly Pratchett.
An Arrangement of Superstitions by chaosmanor - Dogma. Bartleby/Loki (yay!), some very original wing!sex, but more importantly, great dialogue that feels taken from the movie, and a great ending with Metatron.
The Dillon Community Holiday Debacle by minnaleigh - Friday Night Lights. Kind of what Dillon would be like if they lived in a kibbutz. Gen, hilarious and a little bit sad, with brilliant use of cause and effect.
Ionic, Doric, Corinthian, Agony by psychomachia - Greek Mythology. Someday, Ares and Aphrodite will stop sleeping together. It just won't be today. This is hilarious and brilliant, and most of all hilarious.
(And My Heart’s) Keeping Time by mardia - Hairspray. It’s Corny/Maybelle! I just love that pairing, now that I’ve read it. It’s a very nice, mostly light-hearted fic, in the spirit of the play.
Yuletide Treasure by the_alchemist - Historical RPF, 16th century. Kit Marlowe is given a task. Utterly charming with a clever twist at the end, and the dialogue really flows. Slash.
The Prince and the Chaucer ladyvyola - A Knight’s Tale. Chaucer/Prince Edward, PG, nearly gen. Perfect Chaucer POV, with the quick, lyrical, humorous dialogue of the movie, the characters themselves, and the thrill of an anonymous prince. I can’t decide whether to categorize it in comedy or not; it’d light and fun, but weightier than pure comedy.
Do What You Gotta Do (Five Pieces Of Advice Ben Completely Ignores) by hkath - Knocked Up. I kind of can’t believe I’m reccing this, because it’s Knocked Up, after all - but a) I was truly impressed by just how well the author got the characters, and their friends, and the places they all were in life right after the baby was born and their relationships with one another. And b) it’s so damn cute! And funny. And sweet and touching, and a lot less dumb than the movie. And funny, worth mentioning again.
Roanoke by miggy - National Treasure. This is a short Ben and Rile scene where they’re off chasing another mystery, and it’s a perfect Riley POV - and let’s face it, Riley is the saving grace of this entire franchise. The movies are so utterly ridiculous, but the best thing here is that Riley knows it, and this fic has a great balance between being in the spirit of the movie and mocking it.
There Will Be No Survivors (Except for the Survivors Behind the Curtain, But Pay No Attention to Them) by dknightshade - The Princess Bride. Westley trains Inigo to be the next Dread Pirate Roberts, and is met with surprising reluctance. Feels just like another scene in the movie, with a great Westley voice, Inigo voice, and an original solution to the problem of “leave no survivors”.
The Strange and Not Entirely Ineffective Courting of Jon Stewart by Stephen T Colbert by sparky77 - Pundits. Just to make it clear: despite the deceptive title, this is neither RPF nor slash. It’s gen, using Jon and Stephens characters from TV, and it is funny and awesome, especially Stephen’s speech near the end.
Purls Before Pie by fresne - Pushing Daisies. Emerson POV, feels just like the show, which says it all.
Twice Upon a Time by kaneko - Pushing Daisies. The narrator only wants a piece of pie, and intervenes in the story. This fic - even if you don’t watch Pushing Daisies, I recommend it. It’s enchanting beyond words, and plays with time and storytelling and the fourth wall brilliantly. All you need to know is the basic premise: Ned’s first touch brings dead things to life, and his second touch returns them to being dead forever. He’d brought his childhood sweetheart (Chuck) back to life, so now they’re in love and can’t touch. And the entire series is narrated by an omniscient narrator, whose POV leads this story. It really is wonderful. (Here’s a short clip that demonstrates what he sounds like.)
Petition by kassrachel - The Rabbi’s Cat. I’ve never heard of the source, but apparently it’s about a Moroccan rabbi whose cat eats a parrot and thereby gains the power of speech. In the fic, the rabbi wants to teach him the Torah; the cat wants to study kabbalah instead. If that sounds like the sort of fic you’d be interested in, you’ll love it.
The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down by mtgat - Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This has been one of the most widely recced yuletide fics this year, and my initial instinct in these cases is to go against the hype, it really does feel deserved. If you like animated characters, or if you liked the original movie, this is a fic of pure fun. It’s a mega-crossover of Warner Brother and Disney characters, and reads just like a sequel to the movie: someone’s murdering all the CGI cartoon characters, and it’s up to Roger, Jessica, and Eddie’s grandson to find the killer. Which is a great plot in and of itself, based on 2D toons’ feelings of fear and resentment towards the 3D guys who are replacing them, and on the one hand it’s ridiculous, on another it’s completely sympathetic because I miss 2D toons too! - and on another it’s very real, because this is what happens when groups get shoved out of their workplaces to be replaced by brighter and better. So there’s really a lot of depth there, when you think about it. Anyway, my point is - if you liked the Roger Rabbit movie, I guarantee you’ll love this. It’s a rush of gag after gag after gag, only too easy to visualize on screen. (And don’t let the warning in the beginning scare you; the fic is PG-13, and perfectly safe.)
Comedy shorts:
INSECURITY COMICS by kyuuketsukirui - Dinosaur Comics. Short and perfectly in character, which just about says it all. Made me laugh.
Everyone Deserves a Nickname by michellek - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, short and funny.
Fabulous - by aliaspiral The Incredibles. Short, very cute, Edna piece (the designer), with a great punch line.
Drama Non-Comedy/Drama/Comic-tragic/etc (i.e., gorgeous stories that I can’t put in the purely fluff category because they’re more than that, but are still hard to categorize)
The kid from the Narrows by littlerhymes - Batman Begins. The relationship between a boy and Batman; this is breathtaking, in that it managed to captivate me entirely even though most of the story hardly shows Batman at all, and yet you can’t stop reading.
Wild Honey by penways - Bible (Old Testament). David and Bathsheba, with David remembering Jonathan, beautifully written. David and Bathsheba are not each other’s first loves. (D/B and D/J).
Tales Told in Egypt by sanj - Bible (Old Testament). Oh, man, if you like Genesis, you have to read this. It’s about Joseph in the Egyptian jail, telling stories of his forefathers, told from the POV of one of his cellmates. It’s fanfic within fanfic. The words just flow the way the best storytellers can make them, and I love love love love love it, both for the original concept and for its execution.
Dancing Boys by rilla_ - Billy Elliot. Michael/Billy. Okay, I wasn’t even expecting to click on anything from this fandom, but this was recced and I did and oh, there was a line in there that just killed me. It’s just the right length, and shows just the right scenes that keep getting better and better, and I was just as nervous as Michael and just as in love with Billy all along.
Brothers and Sisters: A Most Political Animal (Kevin and Robert) by ishafel, Breathe In, Breathe Out (Rebecca and Justin) by storydivagirl, and Lead Me Not (Kevin/Jason) by romanticalgirl. There’s not much to rec, because if you watch the show, you’ve probably already read these; in any case, all three have excellent characterizations, and portray scenes that complement the show really well. If you’re a fan of the show, I rec.
Five Lessons on the Pandion Order by leyenn - David Eddings, Elenium/Tamuli series. Banter and humor and nervousness and love in a medieval world; what can be better? Berit/Khalad. Totally made me want to reread the books and look for subtext.
Resolution by leaper182 - David Eddings, Belgariad series. Okay, guys, THIS FIC is what yuletide is for. It’s the small fandom - hell, non-existent fandom that I’d never thought there’d ever ever be any fic for, let alone good fic, and then someone comes along and writes this missing scene from one of the books which I’ve been wanting to read for so long, or would have if I’d thought about it. It’s short - the scene where Hettar visits Adara after she took an arrow for him and, mortifyingly, declared her love, not knowing that she would survive. And I am SO happy that it’s out there.
Lousy With Politics by lindensphinx - David Eddings, Belgariad series. Silk in Tol Honeth, and it just feels like Silk in Tol Honeth - I’d honestly forgotten what he sounded like, but recognized him immediately when I read this fic. Great insight into his mind, plus, banter.
Home For the Holidays googlebrat - Discworld. A Hogswatch years ago from Ysabelle’s POV, with the family visiting Death when Susan was a little girl. Rings so true, and so happy, and almost-sad.
Fragmenta by shantih - Donna Tartt - The Secret History. You’ll like this if you liked the book; it’s missing scenes from the book, some pre-book and some post-book, all from Henry’s POV. I didn’t remember too much of the book’s plot, but that didn’t matter - reading this, it all came back to me. Henry’s calculating brilliance really shone through.
Perspective Shift by isabeau - Ender’s Game. He likes to listen to other students talk about the battles, because he can learn things that way. Ender is the sort to learn best by doing, but it isn't possible to be doing everything at once, and so he tries to absorb what he can. If that quote intrigues you as it did me, you will click. It feels like the book.
The Boy Without Fear by nekokoban - Fairy Tales (original). Okay the thing is that there’s this hierarchy: first I read fics of the sources I love, then I read the ones that I know and are curious about, and then I read the original fairy tales, if at all - because it’s not as if I’d be missing out on characters I know; not reading an original fairy tale is just like not reading any other book lying in the story, right? But this was recced, and I clicked, and I love it. It only grabbed my attention after the first quarter, but it’s not long anyway. It’s a good story. It’s not about a boy and a girl but about a boy and a boy; it’s a fairy tale and everything I love about them, being told to me (to me!) by a storyteller by the campfire.
The Biggest Win by umbo - Friday Night Lights. Eric and Tami backstory, sweet and reads like them.
Sun of a Season by therealjae - Friday Night Lights. Great Julie and Tami interaction, a few years into the future.
Where the Air is Clear by thistlerose - Mary Poppins. Just the premise of an aging Bert on a rooftop during the Blitz makes me want to cry, and their voices here were *perfect*. After many years, during the Warm Mary comes back. You know that part in “Chim-chimney” where Bert almost whispers: “On the rooftops of London... coo, what a sight” -- and shivers run down your spine? That’s what this fic made me feel like. (There were actually a couple of really good Mary Poppins stories this year; this was simply my favorite.)
Battle, A Different Kind by seldear - Mulan. After the last scene of the movie, Mulan’s mother and grandmother advise her what to wear and how to act, but Mulan has her own opinion. I love the characterizations here, seriously, and the fact that the author treats the characters fairly, as individuals, not as symbols.
Strangers in a Strange Land by hyperfocused - Northern Exposure. Ten characters, ten crossovers. Tempts the imagination; I’d like to see each of these drabbles expanded.
lonely tourist in a summer dress by leiascully - Pushing Daisies. Beautiful, beautiful prose, with my new favorite phrase on earth: “making confectionary dreams come true”.
People Will Say by likeadeuce - RPS X-Men. I seriously cannot believe I read RPS because I don’t, but it was recced and I did. This fic has a really good, funny internal monologue, and Hugh Jackman and James Marsden singing showtunes (! = love), and great dialogue. And it was really good, if RPS is your cuppa. It’s slash (HJ/JM overtones, HJ/Shawn somethingorother), but very mild, mostly flirty gen until the very very end.
The Fearless Moral Inventory of Milhouse Van Houten by meyerlemon - The Simpsons. Milhouse, all grown up and sad and sweet, and it always amazes me when people write really good stories from these unexpected sources. I don’t even know where one can get the idea to turn Milhouse into an alcoholic war correspondent, but it works.
And two thinky things about this ficathon:
1) Since there are so many stories to read in yuletide, a story has to grab my attention right from the start for me to finish it. Many of the stories look like they’re well written and will probably be worth reading all the way through, but since I literally have dozens of open tags, I’ll quit reading if I’m not into it a few paragraphs in, even though I know I’m missing out on good stories. I actually think my own expositions this year were a bit too long; now that I’ve realized the importance of it especially in yuletide, I don’t know if I’d have kept reading my own fics, if they were just two more on the list. Maybe I’d have scrolled down to the dialogue bits and taken it from there.
I also know that I shouldn’t feel a rush - after all, why do I have to read all these stories *now*? But I do. Yuletide temporarily makes your fandom be small fandoms. But after the reveal, after the initial craziness is over, and my flist starts turning back to my regular fandoms, I start losing interest in both reading and writing small fandoms. Last year I bookmarked about 40 stories to read from the final rec posts; throughout the year, I ended up reading about five. This year - and now, especially, after I’ve posted this - I still have a few open tabs (5, to be exact), and I haven’t finished all of Pushing Daisies, Discworld, and FNL. Other than those, though, I am very pleased with myself. And I even made the Top Commenters list a few times! Spreading the love.
*
2) One of the amazing things about yuletide is seeing so many different kinds of media transferred to the medium of writing, some that you never would have dreamed possible. The best yuletide stories are the ones that capture the spirit of the original fandom, that feel like they’re just revealing missing scene that exists somewhere in the void, and I find it absolutely incredible that that can be done, via writing, for sources such as animated series - The Simpsons for crying out loud, which has so much based on visual comedy and timing and sound effects. Like Dinosaur comics. Like the PC/Mac TV commercial. Like sitcoms - I read Friends this year, Seinfeld last, and I still don’t understand how the fuck the authors made it work but they did. Like plays - The History Boys, or Shakespeare. Like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a movie that depends on so much more than written dialogue.
And of course, that’s always true for fanfic - the best ones are when you read a fic but feel like you’re watching the show. But it’s much more pronounced in yuletide. When I read a whole batch of House fics, I get used to reading fics that feel like the show or I get used to House fanon; in yuletide, jumping from style to style makes you notice their distinction all the more.
*
In conclusion: yuletide = yay!
Okay, so for the past few days I've been gorging on yuletide fics. There are over 2000 this year, and the yuletide good/crap quality ratio is something like 98%/2%, from what I can tell. People on my flist who participated have probably have no need for yet another rec list, but those of you who haven't been browsing the archive, I really do strongly recommend clicking. And participating next year - you will have fun.
And it occurs to me that not everyone knows what yuletide is, because, hey, until last year I didn't really know what it was. So in short - it's a holiday gift fic-exchange for small fandoms, which means anything from books to movies to old TV shows, anything that has less than 500 stories on the web. Stories went live last week, and author names will be revealed tomorrow. It's one of the biggest fandom events online, as far as my personal experience goes, and it's truly an amazing experience.
And now, to my recs - I like this categorization, even though some fics, of course, fit both categories. I chose them based on how they made me feel.
Funny/Fluff/Feel-good:
Five Rules of Thieving by oniongirlsays - David Eddings, Elenium/Tamuli series. This is fun and light and funny, Talen and Danae’s relationship through the years developing in a few short scenes. Put a huge smile on my face and made me want to reread the series.
Blue Screen of Death by numinicious - Discworld. Hex dies, sort of. Perfectly Pratchett.
An Arrangement of Superstitions by chaosmanor - Dogma. Bartleby/Loki (yay!), some very original wing!sex, but more importantly, great dialogue that feels taken from the movie, and a great ending with Metatron.
The Dillon Community Holiday Debacle by minnaleigh - Friday Night Lights. Kind of what Dillon would be like if they lived in a kibbutz. Gen, hilarious and a little bit sad, with brilliant use of cause and effect.
Ionic, Doric, Corinthian, Agony by psychomachia - Greek Mythology. Someday, Ares and Aphrodite will stop sleeping together. It just won't be today. This is hilarious and brilliant, and most of all hilarious.
(And My Heart’s) Keeping Time by mardia - Hairspray. It’s Corny/Maybelle! I just love that pairing, now that I’ve read it. It’s a very nice, mostly light-hearted fic, in the spirit of the play.
Yuletide Treasure by the_alchemist - Historical RPF, 16th century. Kit Marlowe is given a task. Utterly charming with a clever twist at the end, and the dialogue really flows. Slash.
The Prince and the Chaucer ladyvyola - A Knight’s Tale. Chaucer/Prince Edward, PG, nearly gen. Perfect Chaucer POV, with the quick, lyrical, humorous dialogue of the movie, the characters themselves, and the thrill of an anonymous prince. I can’t decide whether to categorize it in comedy or not; it’d light and fun, but weightier than pure comedy.
Do What You Gotta Do (Five Pieces Of Advice Ben Completely Ignores) by hkath - Knocked Up. I kind of can’t believe I’m reccing this, because it’s Knocked Up, after all - but a) I was truly impressed by just how well the author got the characters, and their friends, and the places they all were in life right after the baby was born and their relationships with one another. And b) it’s so damn cute! And funny. And sweet and touching, and a lot less dumb than the movie. And funny, worth mentioning again.
Roanoke by miggy - National Treasure. This is a short Ben and Rile scene where they’re off chasing another mystery, and it’s a perfect Riley POV - and let’s face it, Riley is the saving grace of this entire franchise. The movies are so utterly ridiculous, but the best thing here is that Riley knows it, and this fic has a great balance between being in the spirit of the movie and mocking it.
There Will Be No Survivors (Except for the Survivors Behind the Curtain, But Pay No Attention to Them) by dknightshade - The Princess Bride. Westley trains Inigo to be the next Dread Pirate Roberts, and is met with surprising reluctance. Feels just like another scene in the movie, with a great Westley voice, Inigo voice, and an original solution to the problem of “leave no survivors”.
The Strange and Not Entirely Ineffective Courting of Jon Stewart by Stephen T Colbert by sparky77 - Pundits. Just to make it clear: despite the deceptive title, this is neither RPF nor slash. It’s gen, using Jon and Stephens characters from TV, and it is funny and awesome, especially Stephen’s speech near the end.
Purls Before Pie by fresne - Pushing Daisies. Emerson POV, feels just like the show, which says it all.
Twice Upon a Time by kaneko - Pushing Daisies. The narrator only wants a piece of pie, and intervenes in the story. This fic - even if you don’t watch Pushing Daisies, I recommend it. It’s enchanting beyond words, and plays with time and storytelling and the fourth wall brilliantly. All you need to know is the basic premise: Ned’s first touch brings dead things to life, and his second touch returns them to being dead forever. He’d brought his childhood sweetheart (Chuck) back to life, so now they’re in love and can’t touch. And the entire series is narrated by an omniscient narrator, whose POV leads this story. It really is wonderful. (Here’s a short clip that demonstrates what he sounds like.)
Petition by kassrachel - The Rabbi’s Cat. I’ve never heard of the source, but apparently it’s about a Moroccan rabbi whose cat eats a parrot and thereby gains the power of speech. In the fic, the rabbi wants to teach him the Torah; the cat wants to study kabbalah instead. If that sounds like the sort of fic you’d be interested in, you’ll love it.
The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down by mtgat - Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This has been one of the most widely recced yuletide fics this year, and my initial instinct in these cases is to go against the hype, it really does feel deserved. If you like animated characters, or if you liked the original movie, this is a fic of pure fun. It’s a mega-crossover of Warner Brother and Disney characters, and reads just like a sequel to the movie: someone’s murdering all the CGI cartoon characters, and it’s up to Roger, Jessica, and Eddie’s grandson to find the killer. Which is a great plot in and of itself, based on 2D toons’ feelings of fear and resentment towards the 3D guys who are replacing them, and on the one hand it’s ridiculous, on another it’s completely sympathetic because I miss 2D toons too! - and on another it’s very real, because this is what happens when groups get shoved out of their workplaces to be replaced by brighter and better. So there’s really a lot of depth there, when you think about it. Anyway, my point is - if you liked the Roger Rabbit movie, I guarantee you’ll love this. It’s a rush of gag after gag after gag, only too easy to visualize on screen. (And don’t let the warning in the beginning scare you; the fic is PG-13, and perfectly safe.)
Comedy shorts:
INSECURITY COMICS by kyuuketsukirui - Dinosaur Comics. Short and perfectly in character, which just about says it all. Made me laugh.
Everyone Deserves a Nickname by michellek - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, short and funny.
Fabulous - by aliaspiral The Incredibles. Short, very cute, Edna piece (the designer), with a great punch line.
Drama Non-Comedy/Drama/Comic-tragic/etc (i.e., gorgeous stories that I can’t put in the purely fluff category because they’re more than that, but are still hard to categorize)
The kid from the Narrows by littlerhymes - Batman Begins. The relationship between a boy and Batman; this is breathtaking, in that it managed to captivate me entirely even though most of the story hardly shows Batman at all, and yet you can’t stop reading.
Wild Honey by penways - Bible (Old Testament). David and Bathsheba, with David remembering Jonathan, beautifully written. David and Bathsheba are not each other’s first loves. (D/B and D/J).
Tales Told in Egypt by sanj - Bible (Old Testament). Oh, man, if you like Genesis, you have to read this. It’s about Joseph in the Egyptian jail, telling stories of his forefathers, told from the POV of one of his cellmates. It’s fanfic within fanfic. The words just flow the way the best storytellers can make them, and I love love love love love it, both for the original concept and for its execution.
Dancing Boys by rilla_ - Billy Elliot. Michael/Billy. Okay, I wasn’t even expecting to click on anything from this fandom, but this was recced and I did and oh, there was a line in there that just killed me. It’s just the right length, and shows just the right scenes that keep getting better and better, and I was just as nervous as Michael and just as in love with Billy all along.
Brothers and Sisters: A Most Political Animal (Kevin and Robert) by ishafel, Breathe In, Breathe Out (Rebecca and Justin) by storydivagirl, and Lead Me Not (Kevin/Jason) by romanticalgirl. There’s not much to rec, because if you watch the show, you’ve probably already read these; in any case, all three have excellent characterizations, and portray scenes that complement the show really well. If you’re a fan of the show, I rec.
Five Lessons on the Pandion Order by leyenn - David Eddings, Elenium/Tamuli series. Banter and humor and nervousness and love in a medieval world; what can be better? Berit/Khalad. Totally made me want to reread the books and look for subtext.
Resolution by leaper182 - David Eddings, Belgariad series. Okay, guys, THIS FIC is what yuletide is for. It’s the small fandom - hell, non-existent fandom that I’d never thought there’d ever ever be any fic for, let alone good fic, and then someone comes along and writes this missing scene from one of the books which I’ve been wanting to read for so long, or would have if I’d thought about it. It’s short - the scene where Hettar visits Adara after she took an arrow for him and, mortifyingly, declared her love, not knowing that she would survive. And I am SO happy that it’s out there.
Lousy With Politics by lindensphinx - David Eddings, Belgariad series. Silk in Tol Honeth, and it just feels like Silk in Tol Honeth - I’d honestly forgotten what he sounded like, but recognized him immediately when I read this fic. Great insight into his mind, plus, banter.
Home For the Holidays googlebrat - Discworld. A Hogswatch years ago from Ysabelle’s POV, with the family visiting Death when Susan was a little girl. Rings so true, and so happy, and almost-sad.
Fragmenta by shantih - Donna Tartt - The Secret History. You’ll like this if you liked the book; it’s missing scenes from the book, some pre-book and some post-book, all from Henry’s POV. I didn’t remember too much of the book’s plot, but that didn’t matter - reading this, it all came back to me. Henry’s calculating brilliance really shone through.
Perspective Shift by isabeau - Ender’s Game. He likes to listen to other students talk about the battles, because he can learn things that way. Ender is the sort to learn best by doing, but it isn't possible to be doing everything at once, and so he tries to absorb what he can. If that quote intrigues you as it did me, you will click. It feels like the book.
The Boy Without Fear by nekokoban - Fairy Tales (original). Okay the thing is that there’s this hierarchy: first I read fics of the sources I love, then I read the ones that I know and are curious about, and then I read the original fairy tales, if at all - because it’s not as if I’d be missing out on characters I know; not reading an original fairy tale is just like not reading any other book lying in the story, right? But this was recced, and I clicked, and I love it. It only grabbed my attention after the first quarter, but it’s not long anyway. It’s a good story. It’s not about a boy and a girl but about a boy and a boy; it’s a fairy tale and everything I love about them, being told to me (to me!) by a storyteller by the campfire.
The Biggest Win by umbo - Friday Night Lights. Eric and Tami backstory, sweet and reads like them.
Sun of a Season by therealjae - Friday Night Lights. Great Julie and Tami interaction, a few years into the future.
Where the Air is Clear by thistlerose - Mary Poppins. Just the premise of an aging Bert on a rooftop during the Blitz makes me want to cry, and their voices here were *perfect*. After many years, during the Warm Mary comes back. You know that part in “Chim-chimney” where Bert almost whispers: “On the rooftops of London... coo, what a sight” -- and shivers run down your spine? That’s what this fic made me feel like. (There were actually a couple of really good Mary Poppins stories this year; this was simply my favorite.)
Battle, A Different Kind by seldear - Mulan. After the last scene of the movie, Mulan’s mother and grandmother advise her what to wear and how to act, but Mulan has her own opinion. I love the characterizations here, seriously, and the fact that the author treats the characters fairly, as individuals, not as symbols.
Strangers in a Strange Land by hyperfocused - Northern Exposure. Ten characters, ten crossovers. Tempts the imagination; I’d like to see each of these drabbles expanded.
lonely tourist in a summer dress by leiascully - Pushing Daisies. Beautiful, beautiful prose, with my new favorite phrase on earth: “making confectionary dreams come true”.
People Will Say by likeadeuce - RPS X-Men. I seriously cannot believe I read RPS because I don’t, but it was recced and I did. This fic has a really good, funny internal monologue, and Hugh Jackman and James Marsden singing showtunes (! = love), and great dialogue. And it was really good, if RPS is your cuppa. It’s slash (HJ/JM overtones, HJ/Shawn somethingorother), but very mild, mostly flirty gen until the very very end.
The Fearless Moral Inventory of Milhouse Van Houten by meyerlemon - The Simpsons. Milhouse, all grown up and sad and sweet, and it always amazes me when people write really good stories from these unexpected sources. I don’t even know where one can get the idea to turn Milhouse into an alcoholic war correspondent, but it works.
And two thinky things about this ficathon:
1) Since there are so many stories to read in yuletide, a story has to grab my attention right from the start for me to finish it. Many of the stories look like they’re well written and will probably be worth reading all the way through, but since I literally have dozens of open tags, I’ll quit reading if I’m not into it a few paragraphs in, even though I know I’m missing out on good stories. I actually think my own expositions this year were a bit too long; now that I’ve realized the importance of it especially in yuletide, I don’t know if I’d have kept reading my own fics, if they were just two more on the list. Maybe I’d have scrolled down to the dialogue bits and taken it from there.
I also know that I shouldn’t feel a rush - after all, why do I have to read all these stories *now*? But I do. Yuletide temporarily makes your fandom be small fandoms. But after the reveal, after the initial craziness is over, and my flist starts turning back to my regular fandoms, I start losing interest in both reading and writing small fandoms. Last year I bookmarked about 40 stories to read from the final rec posts; throughout the year, I ended up reading about five. This year - and now, especially, after I’ve posted this - I still have a few open tabs (5, to be exact), and I haven’t finished all of Pushing Daisies, Discworld, and FNL. Other than those, though, I am very pleased with myself. And I even made the Top Commenters list a few times! Spreading the love.
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2) One of the amazing things about yuletide is seeing so many different kinds of media transferred to the medium of writing, some that you never would have dreamed possible. The best yuletide stories are the ones that capture the spirit of the original fandom, that feel like they’re just revealing missing scene that exists somewhere in the void, and I find it absolutely incredible that that can be done, via writing, for sources such as animated series - The Simpsons for crying out loud, which has so much based on visual comedy and timing and sound effects. Like Dinosaur comics. Like the PC/Mac TV commercial. Like sitcoms - I read Friends this year, Seinfeld last, and I still don’t understand how the fuck the authors made it work but they did. Like plays - The History Boys, or Shakespeare. Like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a movie that depends on so much more than written dialogue.
And of course, that’s always true for fanfic - the best ones are when you read a fic but feel like you’re watching the show. But it’s much more pronounced in yuletide. When I read a whole batch of House fics, I get used to reading fics that feel like the show or I get used to House fanon; in yuletide, jumping from style to style makes you notice their distinction all the more.
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In conclusion: yuletide = yay!