Fandom: HIGHLANDER
Pairing: vaguely Duncan/Methos
Author on LJ: jacquez
Author Website: devilmonkey

Why this must be read:
The summary for this story reads: “What happens when the world's oldest (and most annoying) man loses his head.” I don’t want to give anything away. What happens is a really creepy-cool and original sequence of events based on the idea of Methos’ power and will to live. I like this story because it in no way glosses over the brutality of the immortal world, yet manages to weave in moments of humor and tenderness. Nothing explicitly sexual happens between Methos and Duncan, but their relationship is very real and poignant. The reader is never left in any doubt about what they mean to one another.

This one is really worth reading if you like a little bit of sci-fi, a good dose of subtext, and a whole lotta Methos.


Metempsychosis

Fandom: THE WEST WING
Pairing: Jed/Abbey
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: both sides now
Why this must be read:

Beautiful Jed/Abbey set at the beginning of Jed’s presidential campaign, in which Jed realizes they’re bad at being apart, he's missing her before he even leaves, and he doesn’t want to go on the road for three weeks without her. It’s a warm story, a great view of their prickly yet loving marriage -- these are people who’ve raised three kids together, been through a lot in their thirty years together, and it shows in the rhythm of their banter and sex.

Plus, Kat nails Jed’s voice, and that’s *so* important in first person stories. Jed’s not easy -– he’s irritable and lovable, clueless and brilliant, cocky and insecure, all at the same time. I believe in this Jed, can hear him thinking and saying the things he thinks and says in this story. And Abbey is wonderfully in character: smart, sharp and still in love with her husband despite his less sterling qualities.

A quote:

It wasn’t easy, being the only man in a house with four women. I figure running the country’s gotta be a piece of cake after that. Bras and stockings hanging from shower rods and doorknobs, boxes of tampons beneath the sink—birth control pills in the medicine cabinet!—there are times when a man starts to feel like a trespasser in his own home. The phone ringing day and night, shoes in the foyer, shoes in the hallway, on the stairs, and who knew women used so much Kleenex? And Q-Tips? Two more industries I could see through hard times. There were moments, of course, when I was banished—by force or voluntarily—when I would sit out on the back porch and welcome the respite of quiet and the company of a good cigar. The continual traumas and dramas of their daily lives could wear a fella out after a while.

The Odds of Faith in the Face of Doubt

Fandom: OZ
Pairing: Beecher/Cloutier
Author on LJ: N/A

Why this must be read: The pairing seems almost blasphemous...And it is. There is something insiduous about this fic: the language is simple but it is fraught with meaning and intention. The two men are both repelled and drawn to one another, representing temptations they both want and fear.

Fire and Brimstone

Fandom: FARSCAPE
Pairing:  John/Other, sort of
Author on LJ: kixxa
Author Website:
Why this must be read:

Farscape is all about the what if moment, the snap of the fingers that sends events careening in one direction or the other, the really bad choice that seemed like a good idea at the time.

At the end of Look at the Princess, Pt. 2, the audience was left with an unthinkable situation: John Crichton married and frozen, a popsicle for 80 cycles. Then, later, we find out there's a kid on the way.
 
Kixxa's Memento Mori shows us what would happen if time, as the audience knows it, had stopped at that point. What if John had woken up 80 cycles later to a different world and had to go on from there. As it turns out, many of the same issues still face him, including the conflicts abounding in the universe and Scorpius' obsessions with him and with wormholes. Life has not been kind to the others, and John is left with himself, his wife and child and the life he woke to. But things are just never that easy.

The writing is compelling, stark and lovely, drawing us in while still keeping us at the same distance that John Crichton himself exists in:

The hank of dark hair ripples over his outstretched fingers, a fugitive shadow even now. Still running because she runs, from the silk curtained mornings or the closeness of his touch. The curtains rise and fall - breathing as if alive - shadows dapple the tousled bed. The ghost sighs, rises and is gone.

John watches her leave like a thousand times before, but knowing that this time she will not return.

He rolls over and strokes Kat’s alabaster body to warmth and life, cups a hand around the fullness of her breast, presses his fingers into the well muscled flesh of her stomach.

She stirs, runs her hand through her pillow tangled hair, tries unsuccessfully to blink the sun from her eyes.

“Kat.”

“Yes,” her voice still as dark as the night as she turns and rolls into him. “Different kindling....” she murmurs drowsily ...

“...makes one hell of a fire.”

She laughs herself awake.

+++++
   
The explosions unroll lazily, one here, one there, like time-lapse photography, exquisite slow-motion studies. Unfurling large petalled flowers, waxing and waning in a shower of glowing pollen. They hang and shimmer and dissipate to blackness, a small hole of nothing where once a self-targeting defence cannon had glimmered solidly in the night sky.

The endless string of flying transports tugging through the traffic lanes brake sharply and judder to the ground. All eyes are turned to the sky. Stunned silence and nothing. Nothing but the bland glow of the endless stars. But then someone points and there the flower explodes again, slowly and silently, grotesquely beautiful. Shock morphs into terror; some of the crowd disappear as quickly as they came. The rest will stay and watch all night, and the next, and the next, and the next.

+++++

The Palace techs, weary and frustrated, turn their faces to the outer reaches of a black and furtive space, but the enemy is as vague and nebulous as the dispersed remnants of their floating defences.

“Who are they? We still don’t know. We can’t locate them - they are firing on us from beyond our scanner range. Predictions? It’s too random. There is no pattern - therefore no predictions. They have,” he licks his dry lips and shrugs his shoulders hopelessly, “harnessed the power of dark energy to fire upon us from such a great distance ... at a target so small ... the degree of accuracy that is required ...” And the techs collectively shake their heads and turn bewildered bleary eyes to their endless calculations, try to figure out trajectories, map out some form of defence or retaliation and try not to think of their husbands or wives or lovers.  Of their children and their homes.

John watches their blank determined faces as they fire back into the dark void of space - watches the long spears of fission generated plasma stream into nothingness. Random arrows shot by frightened children. He murmurs something about ‘pinnin’ the tail on the frelling donkey’.

And when they get a short moment to themselves, they look at each other and blame the isolation - blame the cloister wall bristling with self-targeting defences that has for so long kept the rest of the universe at bay. As unwitting prisoners they have slept long and dreamed with their idyllic planet, gently caressed it into bustling life, created a history that made them strong, until they had needed nothing. Nothing that is, until the game was over.

The Royal Planet is an anachronism the creeping virus of homogeneity has finally been drawn to. The planet writhes helplessly on its blanket of stars, as seductive as a naked Venus who cannot see her lover.

Memento Mori

Fandom: X-FILES
Pairing: Mulder/Scully
Author on LJ: n/a
Author's Website: Fialka's Candybox

What can be said about Arizona Highways that hasn't been said by plenty of people already? It's a masterful casefile, a suspenseful thriller, an examination into the psyche of one Dr. Dana Katherine Scully, and a stunningly imagined investigation of the Mulder-Scully relationship, combined with a thoughtful plot involving the Cloning element of the mytharc.

When people talk about the Big X-Files stories, they always mention Arizona Highways, for good reason. The characterizations are complex and believable: Mulder and Scully are flawed and interesting, resentful and captivating, moody and prickly. The plot itself is logical and sneaky, and the settings are full of the tiny gracenotes that indicate the author's familiarity with the Southern California and Arizona locations. Original characters are full of life and their own agendas.

The story itself spins off from the canon universe at Two Fathers/One Son (mid-season 6), but the plot and characterizations revolve closely around the discovery of Scully's daughter Emily in the season 5 episodes Christmas Carol and Emily. After the implosion of the Consortium in 2F/1S, Mulder and Scully are sent to Arizona to investigate a child-kidnapping, and discover far more than they'd ever expected.

While both Mulder and Scully get their time in the sun, this story is primarily about Dana Scully, her life, her choices, and her heart. It's brilliantly written, tightly plotted, and occasionally heartbreaking.

Mulder got there fifteen minutes early, grabbing a booth overlooking the parking lot. Glutton for punishment, he told himself, but he
wanted to see her with Kresge, before she had the chance to put her usual mask on.

He needn't have bothered. Scully's face was already set when she drove up, alone, in Kresge's car.

"You're early," she said, sliding into the booth, not quite meeting his eyes.

"So are you."

They ordered coffee and waited. The silence felt sharp as a bed of nails and about as inviting. Scully was staring out the window. He wondered if she was waiting for Kresge to arrive.

The coffee came and Mulder busied himself measuring a teaspoon of sugar, stirring, laying the teaspoon down precisely on the saucer.

"Mulder," she said at last. "Mulder, look at me."

He did. Hungry himself, he searched her face for signs of feasting. He could find none. She looked tired and strained, the same -- more or
less -- as she'd looked for weeks.

"I'm sorry that I made you worry," she said. "But you do that to me all the time. Now you know how I feel when I don't know where you are."

"At least when I disappear, I'm looking for answers."

He saw her eyebrows dip down, the first warning of anger.

"Mulder, you have no--"

"You're right," he agreed quickly. "I don't."

Arizona Highways, by Fialka.

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Ray Kowalski/Benton Fraser
Author's Website: http://trickster.org/speranza/
Author on LJ: cesperanza

Why this must be read:

It's hard to know where to begin talking about Speranza. It's almost redundant these days to rec her due South stories - she's so prolific, so amazingly talented, so active and involved, and such a presence in the fandom that it's easy to take her for granted. In fact, it's difficult for me to believe that I've yet to rec a Speranza fic. I do have an excuse, though it's a feeble one - I just haven't been able to figure out where to start! So many of her stories are on my list of favorites, and even those that aren't are nonetheless incredible and should not be missed. I've struggled endlessly to decide what to rec - I've vacillated and changed my mind a thousand times. I'm tempted to just throw up my hands and say simply - go read everything she's written.

But that would be cheating, and besides, it would deprive me of the opportunity to talk about her stories - which is something I love to do. So I've decided that the next few days will be "Speranza days" - I'm going to rec two or three of my favorites. These are not necessarily the ones that get recommended most often, but they are the ones that I read and re-read the most. I'm beginning with The Bodyguard, which was originally published in zine form and so, in my opinion, has not received the accolades it deserves. I think it illustrates a number of Speranza's many, many strengths.

In particular, one of the things Speranza does best is capture the wacky, bizarre, slightly surreal humor that characterized the show, and The Bodyguard is a great example. Fraser finds himself responsible for babysitting a word-famous Russian diva ballerina who defected to Canada in the early '80s. Olga's a prima donna, gorgeous and high-strung and accustomed to getting what she wants, especially, it seems, when what she wants is a man. She hits on Fraser relentlessly and predatorily - if the situation were reversed it would clearly be sexual harassment - and in desperation, Fraser beseeches Ray to stay at the Consulate for the duration of her visit so he doesn't have to be alone with her. It's a great setup for zaniness, and Speranza makes the most of it, playing up the humor and surrealism of the situation without ever going overboard. In particular, Ray's conversation with Fraser's dead father about Ray's intentions toward his son is not to be missed - it could have come straight out of an episode.

But like the show itself, Speranza's fics are never one-dimensional, and there's much more to The Bodyguard than humor and zaniness. At heart this is a story about oppression, and how it takes away choices and puts people in the untenable position of having to lie whether they want to or not. It's about the consequences of having to hide - from others but also from oneself - and the difficulty of reconciling who one really is with what one must seem to be in public:

"Having no options," Fraser said softly, leaning forward over the table. "Or having only a few options, all of them bad. Being forced to lie, only to be branded a liar. Needing to be secretive, and then being accused of deceit. What does admirable behavior even look like under such circumstances? The only respectable position seems to be one of self-denial--and that itself is a species of what you would call chickenshit, isn't it?"

Ray burst out laughing, but Fraser didn't laugh, didn't even crack a smile.

"Well, isn't it?" Fraser insisted. "We're poultry either way, Ray--damned if we do and damned if we don't. Unless, of course, we're prepared to throw everything else over in favor of this--risk everything else that makes us who we are. What kind of choice is that?"

"No choice," Ray replied; he'd stopped laughing, he didn't feel like laughing now. "No fuckin' choice at all."

Pretty wrenching stuff in there, seamlessly interwoven with the humor. This is a story with real depth, one that stands up to repeated re-readings (although I must say, that could describe any number of Speranza's stories).

And yet it's ultimately a happy story. There may be angst along the way, but in the end, Speranza is all about happy endings, the romantic, "fairy tale" aspect of slash - which really is canonical in due South, since Ray and Fraser literally sled off into the sunrise together in Call of the Wild, a true and classic fairy tale ending. When you pick up a Speranza fic you can count on the guys transcending whatever difficulties confront them and ending up together and happy and in love - while always remaining indisputably guys ("men only better," I think Speranza described it once). You can count on great guy-like love and tenderness, which is always incredibly satisfying - along with wonderful guy-like hot, smutty, physical sex scenes, which are also incredibly satisfying! The Bodyguard has all these things in spades.

In fact, The Bodyguard really epitomizes what I love about Speranza - her trademark mix of funny, silly, deep, sweet, touching, and hot. The writing (as in all Speranza's fic) is top notch, the voices and characterizations and dialogue are deadly accurate, Olga is one of the best original characters I've ever read, the sex scenes are sizzling and real, and the guys are so damn in love you can't help but smile. It's an utterly satisfying read on every level.

The Bodyguard

Fandom: STAR WARS
Pairing: mild Han/Leia UST
Author on LJ: ?
Author Website: At the Corellian Embassy
Why this must be read:

Leia and Han go on a mission--one complicated by a deal Han had made previously. This was a nicely written and plotted story with enjoyable Han and Leia interaction.

The Bounty

Fandom: STAR WARS
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: ?
Author Website: At the Corellian Embassy
Why this must be read:

The destruction of Alderaan was, to me, one of the most memorable and heartbreaking moments in Star Wars movie canon. This story follows Leia, before, during and after, the destruction of her home world. This story helps explain why I like Leia so much: she is strong, and brave, and hurt.

Whither Thou Goest

Many apologies on the lateness of this rec -- beginning of the semester and all -- I will try to be more punctual in the future.

Fandom: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN
Pairing: none, Jack-centric
Author on LJ: phoenixchilde
Author Website: purplebrickroad(dot)net
Why this must be read:

Beth is one of that rare breed: the really good, really funny gen writer (rare, at least, in this fandom). Of all the stories explaining the reference to Jack impersonating a cleric, this is my favorite, and of all the stories about Jack's beads, this is in my top five.

The characterization of Jack is wonderful, and it's a good, funny Jack-adventure well worth reading.

His Holiness, Captain Sparrow, by Beth/CG.

Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing: Jim/Blair
Author on LJ: cesperanza
Author Website: http://www.trickster.org/francesca/
Why this must be read:

I'm following justacat's lead and pointing you toward a delightful little story from the uber-talented Francesca, a/k/a Speranza.

For whatever reason, "Anniversary Story" is a little gem that, somehow, has been overlooked by quite a few people who think they've read 'everything she's written.'

And you really shouldn't overlook it: it has the snappy dialogue, the non-wimpy!Blair, the gruff-on-the-outside-yet-mushy-on-the-inside!Jim, the "hey, you know what? We're in love" conceit that's used a lot because, particularly for Jim and Blair, it fits.

Plus, you know - it's hot. Not NC-17 (click around her page for a while; you'll find some, trust me), but it does feature a kiss both delicious and delightful.

Now, then - off with you. You have reading to do.

Anniversary Story