January 1st, 2004 
01:16 pm Roses in December by Rheanna (PG)
Fandom: STARGATE SG-1
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] rheanna27
Author Website: Palimpsest

Why this must be read: According to the author's notes, this story was written during the second season, but everything holds up with the view of the characters we've gotten as the series has progressed. It pairs a fantastic plot that involves an unusual form of Amnesia slowly robbing Jack of who he is. There's also wonderful characterization that just feels right, from Daniel and Sam's scientific rapport to Jack's sarcasm that is never overbearing or out of character to Janet's care and Teal'c quiet support. Add that to some amazing character interaction and beautifully stated emotional depth, and you'll start to get why this is one of my all time favorite Stargate stories.

Roses in December
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01:17 pm Cocaine by Elina (PG)
Fandom: WITHOUT A TRACE
Pairing: Danny/Martin
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] wliberation
Author Website: none that I know of, but her fics can be found at Pretty FBI Boys
Why this must be read:

Hi, I'm Caroline and I'll be reccing this month's featured small fandom, Without a Trace. I'm a slasher almost exclusively, but I'll do my best to bring you a balance of recs in the fandom.

Everybody in the Danny/Martin camp writes a 'Danny likes to push Martin's buttons' fic. Everybody. (I am no exception to this rule.) It's almost a rite of passage for new Danny/Martin writers, and the interest in these fics comes in with how each writer chooses to handle Danny's motivation and Martin's reaction to it. This is one of those fics, and I chose it because I like the flow of the prose and the way Elina puts you in the moment and makes you feel the addiction taking hold of Danny. Her Martin isn't just a slightly bewildered victim of Danny's charm, and that makes it even hotter.

This Danny starts the game, but very soon he finds that he's really just along for the ride. It's hot without being explicit, and a great example of Danny and Martin's natural chemistry just the way it appears onscreen.

Cocaine
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02:30 pm Rain Series by Rynalwyn (NC-17)
Fandom: LOTRIPS
Pairings: Billy/Dominic, Elijah/Dominic
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] rynalwyn
Author Website: Her LoTRiPS fic
Why this must be read:

I'd like to start of by saying that I'm not active in this fandom. Quite honestly, I couldn't even tell you what fics are considered classics or which writers can do no wrong. Come to think of it, I don't even know much about the 'characters' themselves, except that they are all very cute and slashable. So, this month, you can expect from me recs of many different pairings (since I'm not particularly attached to any of them) and stories I think are enjoyable even if you know next to nothing about the characters.

Some back story for this fic - Dominic was staying with Elijah in LA (this actually happened) and they were having a casual affair of sorts (this is made up). Their relationship comes to an end and Dominic, heartbroken, decides to visit Billy (who lives in Glasgow).

This is *my* kind of story. It's a nice length. It's got healthy doses of angst and confusion. Add some sex and a happy ending (well, happy, as long as you don't hate Billy/Dom); I promise, you'll have a very good time. Oh, and if you can't remember who's who, don't forget that the fandom overview is right here.

Rain
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04:55 pm On Gorgoroth Plain by Teasel (PG-13)
Fandom: LORD OF THE RINGS
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: n/a
Author Website: Amazing Creatures
Why this must be read: Many authors have tackled the subject of Frodo and Sam's journey through Mordor, but Teasel breathes fresh life into the subject. This is a true gem of a story which works beautifully on so many levels.
On Gorgoroth Plain
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04:55 pm Jealous by kaydee falls (R)
Fandom: LOTRIPS
Pairing: Elijah/Dominic
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] kaydeefalls
Author Website: lasciatemi cantare
Why this must be read:

This one is set in New Zealand. It's just... extremely amusing. It's filled with great little moments that make you want to chuckle to yourself. The fic takes off from a comment Elijah Woods made to a magazine regarding a NZ actress, Madeleine Sammy. There's Elijah acting his age, Orli getting pissy, Billy noticing more than he wants to notice and Dominic being, well...

Jealous
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04:57 pm Purple Haze by Executrix (PG)
Fandom: BLAKE'S 7
Pairing: Various, including Avon/OMC
Author on LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/executrix/
Author Website: not known
Why this must be read: This was in the zine ttba, a real cracker which won an award; it's now out of print but many stories from it, including this one, can be found online at ttba's web site
Executrix specialises in setting her source property in other times and places. Rather than localising it, this universalises it; Blake belongs as much in the university protest culture of the 1960s as he does in his own futuristic time. For anyone alive then (guilty, m'lud) this is an evocative, nostalgic fic; for those not around at the time it's a bit of a political education. And a very good read. To quote Una McCormack; "This is a superb piece of politically critical fiction; it could only exist as fanfiction, and is all the better for it. Anyone claiming that fanfiction cannot be as good as profiction should be forced to read this story until they understand the point." Sometimes, mixing real-life events and fan fiction can look dubious but it never does here. The speech of the black activist Hal Mellanby is as relevant whenever he makes, made or will make it:

'Dig, the Federation is a wartime state. They have to have a war, someplace. Either they need conquests so they can exploit the resources of new planets, and send out colonists to planets that haven't been poisoned by the Atomic Wars, or they need to stir us up into a frenzy of hate so we won't notice that all the resources go to the Alphas. Otherwise, we might think that all the Grades had some common cause to make. This way, we just stay put, and we put up with the shortages they create because it makes us feel patriotic. And we put up with our boys and girls dying in those wars, because otherwise there'd have to be jobs for them, and housing for them, and education for them, here at home."


Purple Haze
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04:59 pm The Secret Life of Samantha Spade by tahlia (PG)
Fandom: WITHOUT A TRACE
Pairing: Sam/Jack inferred, but none, really
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] daygloparker
Author Website: My Muse Wears Prada
Why this must be read:

And now for a gen-bordering-on het rec.

Much of the fandom is taken with Samantha Spade. Who can blame us -- Poppy Montgomery is breathtaking (see icon), and Sam as a character is fascinating. She's central to the het contingent, and she even plays a key role in many slash fics, thanks to a brief, awkward flirtation with Martin onscreen. Sam's struggle with her job and her past with Jack has become more or less a central theme in season two, which makes her even more interesting to fic writers.

This story takes a look at Sam's origins pre-canon, right up to the genesis of her relationship with Jack. It's a hard, at times bitter portrait of where Sam came from and how that shaped her into the FBI agent we see on our screens every Thursday night. Not every detail is supported by canon, but tahlia makes it easy to believe that this could have been Sam's past. An excellent character study of probably the most-written WAT character to date, and the last line is my favorite part of the piece.

The Secret Life of Samantha Spade
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05:42 pm Chains by Kipler (PG)
Fandom: X-FILES
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: no
Author Website: here

I should introduce myself. I'm cofax and I'll be your tour guide to the wild and wonderful world of XF fic for the month of January. There's far far too much good fic in XF to do more than scratch the surface, but I'll try to provide a good sampling of what there is. I'll be focusing on casefiles, post-colonization, and romance, since those are the kinds of fic I know best. Sit back and enjoy some of the best the Interweb has to offer...

Why this must be read:

Kipler's name is immediately recognized by almost everyone in X-Files fandom. She's been around since the early season, as both a regular poster on the Usenet groups and a formidable ficwriter. She specialized in tightly-written casefiles with clean, occasionally poetic prose, and solid characterizations. While casefiles are the holy grail for many readers in XF, the truth is that a really good one is hard to pull off, and Kipler's are very good indeed.

Chains is set in season 4, after Scully is diagnosed with cancer but before she becomes debilitated by it. The focus is on the case itself, but the subtext of the story shows a deep concern with the partners' relationship.

She must have been nine or ten, the first time she read those words. It had been a sultry summer night, and winter had seemed far off and mysterious. Somewhere her mind still stored the image of that reading: the living room carpet, the thick red book lying open on the floor, the quiet of the house. The dark and the slant of the kitchen light falling across the pages of her book. The gentle fall of snow in the cold woods. Her father's voice calling her to bed.

Read and enjoy.
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