Hi there. I’m reetchick, and I’ll be your TS crack_van driver for January.

What can you expect from me? I like snappy dialogue and writers who aren’t afraid to take chances. I despise weepy!Blair, and I have a kink for bottom!Jim. Oh, and if you hadn’t guessed, I’m a big old slash whore. Additionally, I'm a bit of a cranky-pants tonight, so don't let anything I say wound you too grievously.

Anyway – though I am an inveterate slasher, in the spirit of bifictionality, I’ve promised myself to rec at least one gen and one het story this month. (Though that might end up being quite the challenge, given that this is TS, and the abundance of hetfic? Not so much.) Those, however, will come later in the month. Tonight is slashariffic, baby dolls.

Sit down, buckle up, and let’s roll.

Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing: Jim/Blair
Author on LJ: ETA: I'm told she's here - helenish.
Author Website: ETA: Helen's fic can be found here.
Why this must be read:
Eating at Home

Remember what I said earlier about my love of snappy dialogue? This story’s got it in droves, and the guys - well, they talk like guys. Here, look at this ( brief excerpt- )

How can you not love that? Call me crazy, but in it's the tiniest bit schmoopy. Sarcastic and gripey, yes, but schmoopy too. And for all the kvetching, the story's ending always makes me a little misty-eyed.

Things of which you should be aware: Helen can be a little ... unconventional ... in her capitalization. If that sort of thing bothers you, get over it. No, I’m serious. If a red-pen wielding freak such as myself can read through the little things like that, you can too. Oy.

Now then. What are you still doing here? Go read it!

Eating at Home.

Fandom: X-FILES
Pairing: Mulder/Scully
Author on LJ: n/a
Author's website: here
Why this must be read:

My favorite genre of XF fanfiction is probably post-colonization, or post-col for short. Post-col stories take the issue of alien invasion which was dangled before the viewers so enticingly during the show, and play it out to the extreme. What you get in post-col is angst, and death, and heroics, sometimes in equal measure. It's up to the writer to decide whether the plot will involve epidemics, or cloning, or just rampant destruction: all of these possibilities were raised during the series, so the ficwriters get a free hand in their plotting.

One of the best post-col stories around is Meredith's A Show of Strength, which addresses the cloning issue from an intensely personal perspective. It's brilliant and wrenching, and makes you feel for someone you would never expect to.

I wonder what it would have been like to have grown up.

To be a child -- playing, crying, laughing, learning, loving. To be created stupid and slowly get smarter. So very slowly. I think it would be hell. Wasting 21 painstaking years, at the minimum, just to get to the starting point.

It must be agony for them.

Don't forget to send feedback!

Fandom: STAR WARS
Pairing:  Not pairing focused, but there is mild Leia/Han
Author on LJ: ?
Author Website: The Force.Net
Why this must be read:

Though I don’t fangirl Star Wars (doing the Crack Van recs for this fandom was a spur-of-the-moment decision, really), Princess Leia is one of my all time favourite female characters. It is her story, her history, and her potential that intrigued me the most during my first--and all subsequent--viewing of the trilogy.

This story is an AU of The Empire Strikes Back--it is Leia, not Luke, who seeks out Yoda. Though she sought him out on behalf of Luke, it is Leia who begins training with Yoda. Some people may find that Luke suffers in comparison to Leia in this story--she has a far easier time in some ways than did Luke in the movies--but I found that Leia’s reactions simply highlighted her history as a princess and diplomat.

Leia Organa, Jedi Knight

Fandom: Blakes 7
Pairing; Travis and a female character it wouldn't be a good idea to identify here
Author on LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/archbishopm/
Author Website: http://members.shaw.ca/pennydreadful/
Why this must be read: Because it shows that fan fiction at its best is as good as anything out there in profic land. You don't really need to be into B7 to get it, either. It is about a mutoid, a human being chemically modified, who is gradually reverting to her human origins. It is, in fact, about what it means to be human and the mutoid's gradual process of reclaiming her identity is mirrored in a subtly-changing use of language, from the time, early on, when she still refers to herself as "this object":

Imperative: if subject uses phrase which includes word/sound 'outlaw', then subject equals Commander of this object. Perform this operation only once.

to when, her identity gradually returning, she becomes "I" again. This story, which first appeared in the zine ttba is an award-winner, justly so. You won't often read an author, in any genre, so interested in style, in the craft of writing, and at the same time never forgetting that she has an audience to keep hooked.

The Killer of Dole Nui Lin

Fandom: FARSCAPE
Pairing:  John/Aeryn
Author on LJ: searose
Author Website:
Why this must be read:

In Farscape fandom, the temptation to fill in the blanks during "A Human Reaction" seemed to have been irresistable. The sex between John and Aeryn was implied, but not explicit and certainly during the broadcast airing, not even a given.

Searose gave into the temptation, but twisted it ever so slightly so that the encounter and it's aftermath rang true. She poured reality into the fantasy so that Human Reactions is not sweetness and light, not first love, but an encounter that's about attraction and fear, release and escape and the haunting possibility of "what if this really is the end?"

There's hot sex, and harsh language, moments of clarity and understanding bracketed by the real divide between these two alien species, and it's all written in searose's clear, compelling prose. There are also moments of ugliness and the fear that is stamped into these characters as they face potential death on a planet that was supposed to be home and haven and you finish the story hoping that these two can find some commonality.

The characterization is spot on, especially for Season 1. John is losing his innocence as he deals with a betrayal of what, to him was the prize at the end of the rainbow, Earth and the alien girl. Aeryn is remote, chilly but scared, trying to figure out what to do next, wanting something from John, but not knowing what.
 

From searose's Human Reactions

She was beautiful, but she would never think so. There never would be the time to tell her, and he couldn't imagine why she would ever want to hear it from him. His mind could recall those rare moments when he had coaxed her into relaxation, just enough for her to let her guard down. Not... human, no, that was a lie he tried not to buy into, but something with kinship, something he could recognize.

He wondered how long she would keep up the fighting stance. Forever, until the soldiers of his planet dragged her down. He should be lying to her right now, telling her to calm down because this was his home planet; he could keep them both safe. He should be lying to himself.

There was thunder in the sky, but the rain had slacked to a fine mist. He got to his feet and looked out the open window. The city, the harbor, the water, the sky. He was home, tucked down under the atmosphere in a way only those who have lived above it could ever really sense. Maybe even a bit of uniqueness for having been beyond all others clung to him. Six and a half billion related lives swirled around him, but he may as well have been back on board Moya for the connection he didn't feel.

Movement behind him made his head turn. She was discarding the rest of the flight suit, the gun behind her ankles at the foot of the bed. He watched silently until she sat only in her grey undershirt and black overalls. Her shoulders were slightly slumped, as if she was at lost about what action to take next. Well, he might be worth something now after all.

Fandom: CSI
Pairing: Grissom/Sara
Author on LJ: minttown1
Author Website: none; here is her page on grissomandsara.com
Why this must be read:

I had some angsty Warrick/Sara picked out to rec today, but you know what? I failed a final this morning, so you're getting fluff. I'll get to the angst later in the week.

It's a fic that features playful!Sara, always fun, and has some nicely snarky dialogue contained within an open, easy relationship that just makes you want to smile.

It's also about Scrabble, and even though it's fluff, it's intelligently written; you can follow the game, and you get the sense that Minttown1 wrote it with a Scrabble board at hand.

"Word Play" may not be Shakespeare, but it's one of those fics you can read and just be happy. And sometimes, that's all you really want out of fic.

snippet:

He looked at his tiles. "Can I have one of your U’s? I know you have at least two left."

"Hey! And, no, that’s cheating," she told him smiling. "Anyway, what happened to Mr. By-The-Book?"

"He started sleeping with one of his co-workers."

"You and Catherine?" she asked in mock shock.

Word Play

Hi, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Glenn...

And I'll be your OZ fic pimp for January. Admittedly, I haven't written much for this fandom as I wanted to but hey, there are some gems out there, if you just look. Anyway, I love slash - from QAF to Angel & Buffy to Harry Potter to X-Files to Oz. I'm primarily a Chris/Toby fan but hey, I love angst. In any shape or form. So expect pod-fulls of that in the next few weeks, whether it be a dark Vern drabble, a bitter Beecher/Keller epic, or even a gen/het story featuring Ryan and Gloria.

Anyway, hope to see ya soon!

Fandom: HORATIO HORNBLOWER
Pairing: mostly gen, though some Pellew/Cobham, Kennedy/OFC, OMC/OFC
Author on LJ: not known
Author Website: not known
Why this must be read:

There are times, in fandom, and especially a new one, that you run across a story, or better yet, a series of stories, that you want to horde like gemstones of the finest quality. The ones you wish were bound as good quality zines. The ones you'd take with you on a long trip, to re-read again for the umpteenth time, because in doing so, it's like visiting and catching up with old, true friends.

The kind of stories that fill in almost every missing scene the way you might see them onscreen. Not necessarily the way you as a viewer might like to see them (naked and buggering one another at every available opportunity), but in a way that is true to the canon characters we see on screen. Fleshing out the smaller details we get to see presented by the actors cast as the characters. Creating a wonderful bridge between that which we see and that we don't.

I discovered this series of stories on a Friday afternoon, and did very little for the rest of the weekend but sit on my big fat ass in front of the computer, totally enraptured by the work of Meanjean.

Her stories go AU (A&Everse rather than literary) after a certain point, but I enjoyed every one of them. I laughed, I cried, I sighed at the characters triumphs and tragedies. I actually got up at certain points to run around the room because I was so tense and jittery about what might happen next in the story, and needed to bleed off some tension before I continued! I enjoy her presentation of Horatio, but am bowled over by how well she fleshes out many of the other established characters like Kennedy and Pellew. Her original characters are charming and captivating as well.

I hope those out there who play exclusively in slashdom will give these a chance.

The series, as I understand it, goes something like that listed below. I am linking the first set here, and will link the others in a separate post later. This set of stories encompasses the time period seen in the first four Hornblower mini-series episodes: The Even Chance, The Examination for Lieutenant, The Duchess and the Devil, and The Frogs and the Lobsters (names may vary by region, of course).

Perspectives
Part One: The Duel
A Perspectives Christmas

Part Two: The Fire Ships
Perspectives: November

Part Three: Duchess and Devil
Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | The Sail to England

The Prequel to Muzillac: How Archie Kennedy Made Acting Lieutenant
Part Four: Muzillac

Hey there cats and kittens, victoria p. coming at you with the January West Wing recs. *g*

May as well begin as I mean to go on. I will likely be reccing a variety of pairings and character-centric stories, but my first West Wing love is Donna, and Josh/Donna fic. So...

Fandom: THE WEST WING
Pairing: Josh, Donna
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: N/A
Why this must be read:

This story gives a great Josh POV on the aftermath of the whole "Donna dates Cliff Calley" arc, and about Josh and Donna's relationship. Josh sees betrayal, not only of himself but of everything he's worked for, and he comes to a decision about how to rebuild whatever is between him and Donna.

The language is poetic yet spare; it sparkles like ice and stays with you after you've read.

A quote:
She knew he kept the pre-tied kind hanging in his closet next to his '80s skinny ties. That he found them perfectly useful on the G7 trip to Brussels or at the fundraiser in Chicago when she'd had Strep never came up whenever the circulating social office memos said "Black Tie" or "White Tie." But they had this ritual, in addition to the myriad of small things they did everyday, and neither one of them cared too much whether Ginger did this for Toby or whether Margaret was tweaking Leo's bow because this was them. She sat him down on the edge of his desk, lifted his collar and went to work, fussing and primping. He liked submitting to her whims, allowing himself a moment of passivity.

As Chaste as Ice by Heather Jarman