Fandom: POPSLASH
Pairing: Chris/Justin, Justin/Lance
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: Just So Pretty
Why this must be read:

I was going to rec one more Career AU, but found I'd lost the link to it. So instead, I'm going to move on to my favorite sub-genre: Historicals. In these stories, the authors place our boys in some historical setting, with more or less accuracy. Sometimes the setting is the center of the story, and the boys just along for the ride. Other times, the aim is see how these particular personalities might mesh in a different cultural matrix. The best are those that use the boys to illuminate the history, and the history to distill their characters.

Ledishka, along with its sequal Proschai and a short Coda are set during the Russian Revolution. I could let it go at that - Russian Revolution!SYNC!! - but these are so much more. Amber both illustrates the human cost of the political upheaval, and draws our guys with razor-sharp outlines. Justin and Chris shine within their flaws, and fit beautifully into that time without loosing what makes them uniquely them. All this, plus lushly melancholy prose, make these stories prime examples of how an AU can shed new light on our old favorites.

Ledishka
Proschai
Coda

Fandom: SILMARILLION
Pairing: Witch-king/Sauron
Author on LJ: vulgarweed
Author Website: None, but some other stories by Vulgarweed can be found c/o TFF
Why this must be read:

Who were the Ringwraiths in life? Why did they accept the Rings from Sauron? Vulgarweed gives some chillingly plausible answers in this tale of dark desires and even darker fulfilment. Stylish writing that can't fail to send a shiver down your spine -- 'The Ring and the Crown' is a truly exceptional piece.

( Cut for the squeamish... )

The Ring and the Crown

Two for Tuesday!

Fandom: Star Trek: TNG
Pairing: Picard/Q
Author on LJ: tiggymalvern
Author Website: Tiggy Malvern's Slash Fanfiction
Why this must be read:

The classic form of the romance involves obstacles to the two main characters' love. Without obstacles, a story can be a PWP, or it can have a plot that *isn't* the classic romance plot and involve the romance on the side, but for a story to be about how two people began a relationship, there must be obstacles to that relationship.

Slash fanfic often uses obstacles such as "I never knew I was gay/bisexual", or "I never knew I was attracted to so-and-so". These work fine for characters under the age of 30. It is, however, really hard for me to imagine that a 50-something man in a quasi-utopian society where there are no prejudices against homosexuality doesn't know by know that he's bi and doesn't know that he's attracted to certain people. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, any guys who might be reading this, but unlike how it is with women, where you can actually confuse passionate dislike with passionate attraction because you have no physical signs one way or another, men know who they are attracted to because they get erections. Therefore just because a man dislikes another character is no good reason for him not to know that he's also attracted to that person.

Also, stories where the obstacle is "I didn't know I was attracted to that guy" are resolved easily by the discovery of the characters' true feelings. Lust equals love, and discovering you physically desire someone removes all barriers standing between you and hot sex with that person. The complexity of wanting someone and not wanting to want them is ignored.

All this is by way of explaining what blew me away about "Sanity" when I first read it. Up until that point, P/Q fic always used as the primary obstacle that Picard did not realize he was attracted to Q (pretty much everyone reads Q as knowing he's attracted to Picard), or even failed to realize that he could be attracted to a man. Discovering an attraction to Q, in these fanfics, inevitably led to Picard and Q having sex. This always bugged me because, as mentioned, I find it hard to believe that a middle-aged man could be confused about who gets him hard without an oppressive society out to confuse him. In "Sanity", Tiggy Malvern cuts the baloney and gets right to it. Picard is hot for Q, he knows it, Q knows it, but he still won't get involved with Q because nobody trusts Q. Even after he himself has come to trust Q and feel a degree of friendship, he fears for his command, for the opinion of Starfleet, for the power dynamics involved when one becomes the love object of a god. This is so utterly believable and so much more realistic than the usual obstacles, I'm amazed no one came up with it earlier.

"Sanity" is the first of two stories (I will be reccing the second one today also). In this one, no one has any sex and the ending, from the perspective of romance, is either unhappy or unresolved depending on how you look at it. But it's more *real* than "oh, yes, we're both hot for each other so let's have sex!" There are a lot of reasons in the real world why lust is not enough to make a relationship, and I like enough realism in my escapism to enjoy fanfic that acknowledges this truth.

( Excerpt: )

Sanity

Fandom: Star Trek: TNG
Pairing: Picard/Q
Author on LJ: tiggymalvern
Author Website: Tiggy Malvern's Slash Fanfiction
Why this must be read:

I recced the prequel to this story, Sanity, today, but if I keep reccing stories that have no sex in them people are going to start to think I'm a prude or something. :-) Besides, after the setup established by that story, I remember I was pretty eager to see if it was ever going to be resolved. Well, it was, and here it is.

This story doesn't shy away from some of the harder issues P/Q fanfic has to deal with -- can Picard trust Q? How does a mortal maintain self-determination when involved with an omnipotent being? Is it ever fair to call on the help of such a powerful entity, and if so, when? It also deals with romantic issues without devolving into the kind of "let's endlessly discuss our relationship" conversations that actual men in gay relationships have very rarely and men as repressed as Picard or as proud and invested in personal image as Q *never* really have. It also finally gets around to the sex, which is worth the wait.

( Excerpt: )

Reality

Fandom: ANGEL THE SERIES
Pairing: Oz/Devon and Lorne (sort of)
Author on LJ: glossing
Author Website: glossings
Why this must be read: Well it's just a lovely little peice. Post "Not Fade Away" it sets the tone for a possible future for sideplayers who survived. I never remember I love her work til I read a new one and I go man that's was great even though I never read Oz-slash and I rush to her site and look at all fics and realize I've read 'em all and loved them. Lovely peice. I heart Lorne.

And I Feel Fine

Fandom: LORD OF THE RINGS
Pairing: Merry/Pippin
Author on lj: Unknown
Author website: rrain's coffeehouse
Why this must be read: My favorite thing about this too-short fic is how quiet it is-- It captures a very small moment in time and uses it to say quite a bit about Merry, Pippin and even Gandalf. If nothing else, this fic is very well-observed.

"I want to know what's over here," he said, taking sure steps toward a crevice in the rock. "I want to see."

"You want to see everything."

"Only till there's nothing left to see."

Where the Dead Things Are