Fandom: HARRY POTTER
Pairing: Severus/Remus, one-sided (Gen for the most part)
Author on LJ: isiscolo and brevisse
Author Website: Isis: HieroglyFICS; Brevisse: Art by Brevisse
Why this must be read:

The Mirror of Erised, which, as it says itself, shows not your face but your heart’s desire, is some that pops up often enough as a plot device in HP fanfiction.

A bit of canon on it:

”However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge nor truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible.”

-Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone

Personally, I’ve always disagreed with Dumbledore on that one. The Mirror of Erised has always struck me as particularly revealing. That one thing you want more than anything else, no matter how foolish, something you may not even have acknowledged to yourself- whatever it is, it tells a lot about a person.

The title pretty much explains it all here. It’s a Snape character piece, but not just any sort of Snape character piece. It’s a comic, as a matter of fact, begun as a drabble by Isis, wonderfully illustrated by Brevisse. Pay attention to the details, folks. For something so short, it touches on so much of Severus’ history.

It’s a Snape piece, it’s different, and it won’t take you long to look, so click on the link, why dontcha?

Severus Looks in The Mirror

Fandom: FARSCAPE
Pairing: John/Aeryn
Author on LJ: sweeterthing
Author's Website: Unknown

Why this must be read:

Possibly one of my favorite post Dog With Two Bones stories, Without is a reunion story but with twists, complications, and a John/Aeryn relationship that is damaged and tattered. This is more an exploration of relationship, between John and Aeryn and John and Aeryn's "companion." Most fans of the show know that John doesn't like to be alone and usually doesn't do to well when he is. Sweet Thing shows us that John can be alone and survive, albeit barely, and still have space in his heart for people, for love.

Also, if you've ever wanted to read a story where Aeryn is in Peacekeeper mode, this is the closest you'll get and still have her with some of the similarities of the Aeryn we saw in the show.

Just a good, different reunion episode that doesn't give you that immediate happy ending. It's a Farscape ending and those are the best kinds.

Without

So, that's it for me. Thanks for much for letting me take the wheel for Farscape this much. I had fun!

Fandom: X-FILES
Pairing: Mulder/Scully
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: N/A
Why this must be read:

The X-Files takes place in such a specific, dangerous world that it can be difficult to imagine the characters elsewhere. This story definitely takes them somewhere different, shows them on alternate paths that test whether they're meant to be together whatever their world. It's a unique premise that's well written and full of that winning combo of angst and romance.

( Excerpt )

The Wish

Fandom: X-FILES
Pairing: Mulder/Scully
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: N/A
Why this must be read:

I've been known to read and enjoy this story year round even though it's a Valentine's story. It's definitely my favorite Valentine's Day story, and quite possibly my favorite X-Files holiday story, which is saying a lot for a show that's inspired a lot of people to write a lot about Christmas and Halloween.

On the first day he left a pastel pink candy heart on her desk, and the words Be Mine wrapped around her heart like a satin ribbon and tugged tight. Be Mine. Too late.

How can you not love such beautiful imagery? The entire story is like that, so heartbreakingly sincere and sugary. I know it should probably be too much, be implausible for pretty much every character pair on any TV show, much less the emotionally challenged Mulder and Scully, but it's just such a beautiful little story.

Go! Read! Enjoy! Feel the lovey schmoop! Wish you had some Necco candy hearts!

it could be sweet

Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing:Jim/Alex (only one time)
Author on LJ: D.L. Witherspoon
Author Website: TVLit 101
Why this must be read:

Because it involves the one character that put a huge monkey wrench in the friendship : Alex Barnes. Post Sentinel too, this story explores what happened to Alex after Peru. The repercussions on Jim and on Blair. The results of the actions taken in Peru.

The author took the story one step further and it worked for me. Of course, it's full of angst, it has a plot, it's over 100K. The first few pages will make you go, I can't read this but read further it's worth it.

Miracles of life

Comments always welcome.

********
This is my last day on the bus. I enjoyed it so much. Can't wait to drive the bus again. : ) Thank you for letting me share some of my favorites Sentinel stories.

Fandom: STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE
Pairing: None
Author on LJ: saragoose
Author Website: this watery place
Why this must be read:

This author wasn't around when I was originally reading DS9 stories, but I came across her writing when the poor girl had to rewrite one of my stories for the Remix challenge.

She writes about the everyday life of Star Trek, perhaps best summed up by the title of one of her TNG stories "A New Kind of Ordinary". I almost chose that one since it had Worf and Troi tentatively getting to know each other after 'Parallels' (and see how I sneakily get in 2 recs for one author <g>). But I chose this one in the end, since it almost reads like a metaphor for a fan when your show finishes; you're still going about your life, but the people you shared it with have gone.

For Kira and Bashir it's business as usual after "What You Leave Behind".

Pleasantries

(That's my last Star Trek rec. I hope you've enjoyed them as much as I've enjoyed revisiting them.

Fandom: Smallville
Title: All My Joy
Pairing: Jor-El/Lara
Author on LJ: happyminion
Author Website: A Thousand Churches
Why this must be read:

Y'know, I really do try to avoid reccing the same people in a month but there's no way I can let my time with Smallville pass without reccing All My Joy. I have very few OTPs even when I do, I don't mind playing outside them but the one OTP that I always have loved and always will and are totally fascinated by are Jor-El and Lara. I admit, Jor-El and Lara interest me even more than Jonathan and Martha do and in Smallville, it is my main complaint. That while we get to see the romance of Jonathan and Martha (albeit not as much as we should) we have gotten a grand total of one scene acknowledging the romance of Jor-El and Lara which took us three seasons to get. But, I am lucky in that there is a fantastic writer who shares my obsession with the Kryptonians and Jor-El and Lara in particular. The day Wendi posted this fic, I think I about went into orbit. All My Joy is the love story of Jor-El and Lara and it is glorious. Wendi brings Krypton to life in ways that can't be given justice here. The story is magical to me and I can't help but go back and reread it time and time again. If there is a must-read story in the Smallville fandom, I have little doubt there is one more fitting of being called that than this one. If Smallville ever gives us more than that one scene of Jor-El & Lara, they're going to have some serious work to do to surpass this story in my mind.

All My Joy

Fandom: Smallville
Title: The Good Wife
Pairing: Helen/Lex
Author on LJ: humbuggirl
Author's Website: Collective
Why This Must Be Read:

Helen Bryce was probably one of the most mis-used characters the show has given us to date. The producers and writers chose to take the character (changing their minds mid-stream) in a old and very tired direction. It's a choice, some would say - I'm not entirely sure of it myself - was made in response to fan dislike of the character. Whatever the reasons they had, they went in that direction and the show, and the character, I believe suffered for that. There were, despite the mistakes made with the character, some very strong fans of Helen and the relationship she had with Lex. I enjoyed it and I know others did as well and, fortunately for us, some of those fans chose to write stories. One of these stories is 'The Good Wife' it's a 'what might have been', a different way to go with the character and the resolution of the plane crash storyline. Told from Helen's POV, it picks up after the crash and leaves some tantalizing hints as to what her involvement might have been while giving us a good look at the character and her view of Lex. It's a story which gives fans of Helen an alternate storyline which is more believable and those who aren't fans a chance to see what they could have done but didn't.

The Good Wife

Fandom: YAMI NO MATSUEI
Pairing: Tsuzuki/Hisoka, Tatsumi/Tsuzuki implied
Author on LJ: rackhamrose
Author Website:
Why this must be read:

Tatsumi's point of view of Tsuzuki's partnership with Hisoka. Insightful and concise, just like Tatsumi.

( Excerpt: )

Better

Fandom: Smallville
Title: Amalgam
Pairing: Chloe/Lex/Clark
Author on LJ: paperbkryter
Author Website: Words
Why this must be read:

*flails*

Why not?!

It's the perfect mix of angst (with character death - of a sort), passion, love, loss and the curse of secrets. Take a dash of Lex, throw in a smidge of Chloe and add a sprinkling of Clark over the top and it's just...the fic is a solid read with great characterizations, a good hard look at the characters and loss and life and how to move on while not really letting go. Add in the sheer fun of the possibilities of the world we've been given with Superman's mythos and you have a damn good read which I am shamed to say I'd somehow managed to miss when it was first posted.

How? Beats me but I am quite happy to have found it and read it.

Amalgam

Fandom: YAMI NO MATSUEI
Pairing: Hisoka/Muraki (yes, in that order)
Author on LJ: ciceqi
Author Website: Blood, Love, and Rhetoric
Why this must be read:

I saved one of my very, very favorites for last. Coyo gets Muraki, and Hisoka, and doesn't flinch from the darker aspects of either character. In this story, that makes the dynamic all the more interesting, when Hisoka finally gains the upper hand. At least for the moment.

Wanting

Well, my fellow crackheads, it's been a blast sharing one of my drugs of choice with you. I hope the highs were as good for you as they were for me.

Later.

Fandom: POPSLASH (STREETSLASH)
Pairing: Nick/Dream-Crushes leading to Nick/Howie.
Author on LJ: zoicite.
Author Website: Commoner’s Tales.
Why this must be read: And so we come at last to the end of the month, the last of July. The Major League trading deadline. Oh, that’s right, and the end of my tenure here. (‘And the people rejoiced.’) I’m not sure whether I or the fandom ought be more relieved.

I leave you, though, with a few recs this weekend that have a common theme, harking back to something we discussed mid-month: that canon keeps changing on us as the corporations decide what we are told from time to time and The Lads’s images are reinvented. The stories I will leave you with are full of all the usual merits, but are especially chosen as being snapshots of the canon-redacted-in-fanon at specific points in the evolution of the popstars we slash.

As our first case in point, here’s a classic Zoicite from the ‘AJ Is Back!’ era. It thrums with the hope – the hope renewed – of that time. And like everything Zoicite has ever written, it is subtly insightful, catholic in its understanding, comprehending of what Growing Up finally entails, and brilliantly observed: Barbara Pym writes Streetslash, if you will.

READ … ‘All the Wrong Places.’

Fandom: HARRY POTTER
Pairing: Harry/Ron/Hermione
Author on LJ: resonant8
Author Website: in medias Res
Why this must be read:

Harry/Ron/Hermione is the only OT3 ship I’ve ever really liked. Why? Because they’ve been through so much together (and will go through a lot more before it’s over). Because they need each other. Because even though it’s going to come down to Harry in the end, you know he wouldn’t be able to do it without the support of his two best friends.

What I really like about this fic, though, is the fascinating picture it presents of Hogwarts after the end Voldemort. It definitely resonates (pardon the pun) with what’s going on in the world today. I could see this happening in the books, especially with the way things were headed at the end of Book 5.

( ‘It'd be nice to talk with someone normal, for a change…’ )

This is one of my favorite trio fics. It’s written by Resonant, so you know it’s fabulous. And while you could call this a PWP, I think it runs a lot deeper. The characterization is excellent, the sex is hot, and it will leave you feeling all waffy at the end.

Bed and Board

Fandom: POPSLASH
Pairing: Lance/Nick.
Author on LJ: without_me.
Author Website: kittenfic.
Why this must be read: As stated, I am finishing us out for the month with recs that have a common theme, harking back to something we discussed mid-month: that canon keeps changing on us as the corporations decide what we are told from time to time and The Lads’s images are reinvented. Again, the stories I will leave you with are full of all the usual merits, but are especially chosen as being snapshots of the canon-redacted-in-fanon at specific points in the evolution of the popstars we slash.

Without Me’s ‘Lucky Stars’ is a quiet classic of the hiatus period, especially as it relates to a grounded, No-Space-For-YOU Bass and a Carter who has learned something about Being Comfortable With Oneself Even If Overshadowed By Someone Else’s Solo Debut. It’s evocative, tactile, sexy, psychologically penetrating, and comprehends the dynamics of guys who are NOT Chicks-With-Dicks. And it has a wonderfully loopy JC-as-Cupid.

READ … ‘Lucky Stars.’

Fandom: POPSLASH (SYNCSLASH)
Pairing: Lance/JC.
Author on LJ: Karen (only) is on LJ, at lady_angst.
Author Website: Karen and LB’s Fiction.
Why this must be read: As stated, I am finishing us out for the month with recs that have a common theme, harking back to something we discussed mid-month: that canon keeps changing on us as the corporations decide what we are told from time to time and The Lads’s images are reinvented. Again, the stories I will leave you with are full of all the usual merits, but are especially chosen as being snapshots of the canon-redacted-in-fanon at specific points in the evolution of the popstars we slash.

This rec is pure retro Basez. Karen and LB are quiet, unassuming veterans of the fandom, dating back to before LJ really took off, and are mistresses of the hook-up story in all its possible variations, permutations, and fugues. ‘Mardi Gras’ contains the elements that brought many of us into popslash, back in the Good Old Days when there was an air of (factitious) innocence to it – and to its subjects. The Lance and JC in this work are the ‘old school’ Lance and JC archetypes, Platonic in every sense save the consummation of their affections, that we had to work with at that period. There are those, no doubt, who will believe that the cast and the fics have become more ‘sophisticated’ since those innocent days, as they have, admittedly, gotten grittier and more Chandlerian and noir. Tastes differ; but there is always a place for the Jane Austen approach as much as for that of, say, a Jim Thompson. And to see this fic as ‘unsophisticated’ is to show oneself just that: the hesitancy, the inarticulateness (notably male) of dangerous young love in a fishbowl, are subtly limned. If only as a walk down memory lane and a snapshot of the fandom at a particular point in canon, you owe yourself this read.

READ … ‘Mardi Gras.’

Fandom: POPSLASH
Pairing: Lance/Kevin.
Author on LJ: bard_mercutio and sirkate.
Author Website: Use the LJ repository, at bard_mercutio; Mercutio’s site is Verona: Mercutio’s Stories.
Why this must be read: As stated, I am finishing us out for the month with recs that have a common theme, harking back to something we discussed mid-month: that canon keeps changing on us as the corporations decide what we are told from time to time and The Lads’s images are reinvented. Again, the stories I will leave you with are full of all the usual merits, but are especially chosen as being snapshots of the canon-redacted-in-fanon at specific points in the evolution of the popstars we slash.

I close, thus, with one of the possible imaginings of the future. It’s a new yet classic Mercutio-and-Kate piece: brokenness and healing, comedy, despair, and hope, pasts that cast long shadows, and the faintest glimmer of new dawns. And its evocation of a broken Lance and a Kevin who’s been through the mill, in a world that has aged and grown a little shop-worn since the glory days, is as excellent as its three-ring-circus batch of Syncers who remain Our Gang (with Spanky and the pup) even after the contracts have ceased to bind and the second and third careers are on the boil.

READ … ‘Reality Bites.’

And now, in the words of several Big Leaguers who’ve been on the phone to their agents on this, the MLB trade deadline, I … Am … OUTTA Here. Thanks for the memories, folks.

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Fraser / Kowalski
Author on LJ: not to my knowledge
Author Website: http://journey.mrks.org/
Why this must be read:

It's been a lot of fun collecting and reccing stories this month and I've ended up re-discovering a lot of my Due South enthusiasm and why I loved that show back in the day. It has been a great pleasure. Thanks to everyone who commented on the recs or offered corrections to my information- it was all appreciated. As my last rec of the month I am being indulgent and reccing a long, epic Fraser/Kowalski, not that I think any of you Due South crack_van riders will mind.

A slow, believable build-up of intimacy and development of how Fraser and Kowalski can fit their lives and how they want to fit their lives together after Call of the Wild and their adventures have ended and they have returned to their normal, separate lives. This story pretty much hits perfectly on all of my quirks. It is funny and sappy, is clearly building a story, deals with issues in a realistic manner, doesn't just rush from sex scene to sex scene, but still delivers some hot, smutty sex by the end.

Fraser and Kowalski clicked as partners from early on and they managed to overcome every hurdle to remaining partners, but being partners or even Kowalski implying he feels more like himself around Fraser does not mean they are ready for intimacy, of the everyday living variety or the emotional variety, and this in particular goes for Fraser. I love how this story takes the slow, measured road to get them from what they want theoretically to how to live it daily.

( He hit the puck cleanly and it sailed away on what looked to be the correct path. But he wasn't able to watch for long. Without warning, and completely illegally, Ray threw his body into Fraser's forcing them both up against the rink wall.  )



Blueprint

Fandom: YAMI NO MATSUEI
Pairing: Tsuzuki/Hisoka implied
Author on LJ: ciceqi
Author Website: http://ciceqi.slashcity.com/
Why this must be read:

Sneaking this in under the wire, I love the descriptions in this story, as Tsuzuki makes fuda and Hisoka observes his calligraphy. Tsuzuki is just so, perfectly, wonderfully in character in this piece, that it is one of my all time favorites, and makes me feel good every time.

I have adored sharing YnM with you this month, and I hope that at least a couple of you have found a new fandom and will be blessing us with your own work in the future :)

Change Into

Fandom:BLAKE'S 7
Pairing:  Blake/Avon
Author on LJ: Not that I know of
Author Website: Don't know
Why this must be read:

In my first post I mentioned that yes, I do like some of the old-skool slash, albeit as a guilty pleasure. This fic is a classic in the old-skool schmoop genre. Complete with cringeworthy, worrying metaphors and OOC exclamations, but... *damn*. I love this story. It's one of these where the characters knew each other pre-series, but were later mindwiped and forgot everything. This particular story starts on Gauda Prime, with Avon in his cell, and then proceeds in flashbacks until we arrive on GP again. The first flashback, to Avon first meeting Blake on a summer camp when they're both sixteen,  is gorgeous and what makes me still love this story, despite its faults. GUH. B/A. Sixteen.

Guilty pleasure, IMHO but enjoyable as a story, if you can overlook the typical old-skool bits.

Heat

***
Hope you enjoyed my recs. I'd love to hear feedback on all of this month's ones, as I'd be happy to rec some more later on:). And yay, only recced one of mine as a sequel as is proper. Whoo. *pimps self too*

Fandom: HIGHLANDER
Pairing: (Duncan/Methos)
Author on LJ:
Author Website:
Why this must be read:

This kills me every time I read it, but I keep coming back again and again. Heart wrenching and brilliant. It has a sequel, but I like it better alone.

The Book of Lost Days

Fandom: HARRY POTTER
Pairing: Harry/Snape
Author on LJ: thisveryinstant
Author Website: Unknown
Why this must be read:

I’m signing off this month (just under the wire) with a Snarry rec, because, even though I’m not a huge fan of this pairing, my sister likes them and I promised. Besides, I looked and surprisingly there hasn’t been a lot of Snape/Harry recced here.

OotP wrecked a lot of havoc in the HP fandom, and damn near destroyed two of my favorite pairings (Snape/Sirius and Percy/Oliver, if you want to know). However, Book 5 really did a lot for Snape/Harry. (There’s no way any slash fangirl worth her salt read the line about Harry being on all fours on the floor of Snape’s office without getting some ideas.) Obviously, a lot of post-OoTP Snarry fics revolve around the Occlumency lessons and the things Harry discovers in Snape’s penseive (which give Snape and Harry’s relationships a lot more complexity than the basic antagonism they’ve got going on before). One of the best fics that touches on these issues is Truth by thisveryinstant.

I like it because it does an amazing job of conveying the entire scope of their feelings towards each other (anger, envy, lust, understanding and even more anger). Harry’s character, which is often so hard to pin down, is extremely believable (he even yells in capital letters at one point).

The plot is begins with that tried and true HP plot device: Snape uses veritaserum on Harry. However, thisveryinstant uses that as merely a starting point for a vibrant emotionally complex story.

Truth

That’s it for me- sorry I didn’t get more in, guys. Hope you enjoyed the recs. I really had fun! *waves*

Fandom: BUFFY
Pairing: Buffy/Faith
Author on LJ: mpoetess
Author Website: Pointy Stakes
Why this must be read: Buffy/Faith is the badass girlslash pairing to rule them all, the original hardcore-subtext chosen two. This story is a long slow bitersweet burn of what-ifs and might-have-beens. Wanting and never being able to say so outright. It gets what made the pairing such a beautiful onscreen carcrash; how very much Faith wanted Buffy, and idolized her, and how everything she did sort of revolved around that. Plus it's very cool character backstory. And it'll make you always look at Faith's heart-drawn-on-the-window a little differently.

Sealed With A Kiss

Fandom: HIGHLANDER
Pairing: (Duncan/OFC)
Author on LJ:
Author Website: http://enook.net/hl/rac/rac.htm
Why this must be read:

The theme of the night is apparently sad endings and sequels that I prefer not to read. As in my last rec, I much prefer this story as a stand alone. Don't let the het and the OFC scare you away. Rereading this one feels like sliding into a warm bath. It was one of the first really well written fan fics I read. It might be a Mary Sue, but I like it anyway. Duncan and an old friend of Tessa's dance through each other's lives briefly.

Old Friends and Chocolate

Fandom: HIGHLANDER
Pairing: (Duncan/Methos)
Author on LJ:
Author Website: http://slashcity.com/monica/index.html
Why this must be read:

I love fics that deal with Methos' tendency to run away at emotionally inopportune moments. This group of fics deals with the complex stumbles and fumbles in getting two fundamentally opposed approaches to life and love to finally mesh. Besides, it's Ani DiFranco and slash all in one place. What more could you want?

The Dilation Collection

Fandom: BUFFY
Pairing: --
Author on LJ: holli
Author Website: --
Why this must be read: Nifty gen ghost story, set in the future. All twisty and memorable. Gives you goosebumps, but not the scary kind; makes me all happysad every time I read it.

By the end of your sophomore year of high school, you're pretty sure that Sunnydale High is haunted.

Four Ghosts

(And that's me, done for the month! I've totally loved doing this and hope you enjoyed it as well. :))