Fandom: THE PROFESSIONALS
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle
Author on LJ: No
Author Website: No
Why this must be read:

( I got a bit carried away, so the review is behind a cut! )

Fandom: STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE
Pairing: Garak/Bashir
Author on LJ: selenak
Author Website: My Fanfiction
Why this must be read:

Every pairing should have Five Things That Never Happened... written about them. Selena does the doctor and the tailor proud.

"...what can you possibly have in common with a young distraught girl like Ziyal...?"

"Aside from being exiles, you mean? Aside from being bastards of fathers with the unfortunate tendency to confuse their greatness with the greatness of the state? Aside from being cursed to love those parents, to watch them self-destruct and then to watch them die? Why, I can't think of a thing, unless you count a shared sense of aesthetics."

Paths Not Taken

Title: Seth as a Verb
Fandom: The OC
Pairing/Characters: Ryan/Seth
Author on LJ: hackthis
Author Website: dysfunctional
Why this must be read:

( Seth. v. (seth). Actions inspired by the mannerisms, character and vocalizations of Seth Cohen, son of Kirsten Nichols Cohen and Sandy Cohen. Lately of Newport Beach, Orange County, California. 1. That’s very Seth of you. 2. He pulled a Seth. )

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Dan/Casey, minor Jeremy/Natalie
Author on LJ: pearl_o
Author Website: Illuminated Text
Why this must be read:

CSC has been sold and Dan has moved to LA, only LA isn't quite as he expected it to be. His show is doing okay but his new apartment unnerves him, he hasn't met any Laker Girls and his car is about to divorce him.

Back in New York, Casey is puttering around in his post-Sports Night life, making Charlie inedible sandwiches and writing a column for a magazine. He says he's taking a break from TV and he'll go back when he's ready, whenever that may be.

Meanwhile Natalie and Jeremy are taking their relationship to a very significant level. This inadvertently leads Dan and Casey to the realisation that they're not at all sure what they really need.

In this is a wonderfully understated story, Pearl-O has given us a portrait of two guys who are attempting to move on but are still too attached to their old lives to fully let go. It's not enough just to live day to day. There really is more to life than Laker Girls and sports. But are Dan and Casey ready to face this fact?

There's a lot going on between the lines in this story and it posses a level of humour and pathos that is so very Sorkin you almost expect it to have been written by the man himself. Pearl-O obviously has a great affinity for the characters and she has a good ear for the often complex language style used in his shows. I'm not sure if she's written any more Sports Night stories, but I certainly hope this isn't her last.

Nutrition and Other Needs

Fandom: HARRY POTTER
Pairing: None
Author on LJ: neonhummingbird
Author Website: Neon Humming Bird home page fanfiction

Why this must be read:
This is my favorite HP gen story with an OC, and although I would have loved to find out more of Kit's post-Hogwarts fate, I'll bet it was distinguished, and I am very satisfied with this story by itself. To quote Perri's author's note, it "sucked dead snakes to be a Muggle-born Slytherin" in the first reign of Voldemort. I've never been too interested in Hogwarts stories in the MWPP era, but this one takes us inside Slytherin House, and we get a look at how it might have been to be a Muggle born in that House, and we also get a glimpse of a Snape who seems very much in character. This is dark gen, which won't appeal to some fans, but I think everyone should read it as an example of how a creative, skillful author can stretch the definition of fanfic yet still remain true to the spirit of canon.

Thine Own Self