Fandom: THE DEAD ZONE
Pairing: None
Author on LJ: aka_arduinna
Author Website: Arduinna's Propylaeum
Why this must be read:

Johnny spends the morning at the mall trying to find just the right birthday present for Walt. A lovely slice-of-life piece, highlighting the friendship between Johnny and Walt but also detailing the extended family that is Johnny, Bruce, and the Bannermans. It's a cozy fic, and does an excellent job of showing just how the awkward relationships between the characters evolved and grew until they fit together just right.

( Excerpt )

Serendipity

Fandom: THE DEAD ZONE
Pairing: None
Author on LJ: cesperanza
Author Website: Speranza's Fiction
Why this must be read:

It's a truism about the series that you can't take Johnny anywhere without him stumbling into some kind of vision-induced drama. In this fic, a simple visit to an exhibition pulls both Johnny and Bruce into a vision over a hundred years in the past, to discover the truth about one murder victim, save another before it's too late... and maybe rewrite a little history along the way. The story exploits several aspects of Johnny's visions in an imaginative way, and features a sort-of crossover with the Great Detective himself. The interplay between Johnny and Bruce is entertaining and true to the characters, complete with affectionate needling.

( Excerpt )

A Vision In Scarlet

Fandom: ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO
Pairing: None, in this first story
Author on LJ: evilmissbecky
Author's stories on LJ:missbeckymexico
Author Website: fanfiction.net profile
Why this must be read:

Miss Becky's first OUaTiM trilogy, called "Still Standing" is an absolute classic in the fandom, and I can think of nothing better to rec first in order to introduce people to OUaTiM. After the Dust Has Cleared is followed by When All is Said and Done and finally, by Que Queires en La Vida. The first two stories are action-adventure, but not slash, though the relationship between El Mariachi (El) and Sands is angsty and intense. In the third story (which is in English, despite the Spanish title) Miss Becky satisfyingly gives us a slash relationship. I guess you could refer to the first two as pre-slash. I have a friend who has trouble believing in many slash relationships, but she totally accepted this one because of the intense build-up to it in the first two stories.

In After the Dust has Cleared, which, like many OUaTiM stories begins right at the end of the movie, El Mariachi, a man who often operates more on instinct than on reason, kidnaps the injured Agent Sands from the home of Jorge Ramirez, for reasons even he isn't entirely clear about. Sands slowly heals while El drives them aimlessly from town to town, telling the blind Sands nothing about where they are going or why. For some reason, one of my favorite moments in all of Miss Becky's stories is the scene where they eventually try to kill each other, and reach some kind of understanding.

( In Which War Breaks Out And A Truce is Declared )

OUaTiM Overview

After the Dust Has Cleared

Hi, I'm ahkna and I'll be your West Wing driver for October.

Fandom: THE WEST WING
Pairing: CJ/Toby/Sam
Author on LJ: raedbard
Author Website: ex urbe
Why this must be read:

This story was just posted in the last two weeks so it's still new and shiny. The fic is fairly short but what it lacks in length is made up for in great Toby characterization. I imagine this is the kind of dialogue Aaron Sorkin would have written if he was writing smutty interludes. The oodles of sex is more like a backdrop for the way CJ, Toby and Sam relate to one another. Short, sweet and oddly beautiful.

Laughter, and Other Things Which Make No Sense

Hello! I'm Rain, I'll be your driver for the sparkly boy band love (also known as PopSlash!) this month. I'm an Nsync girl at heart so that will probably be the gist of my rec's. I hope you enjoy the ride.

Fandom: POPSLASH 
Pairing:  JC/Joey, Joey/Justin
Author on LJ: no longer online
Author Website: Lois Lane Archive
Why this must be read: This serial is the reason I got into popslash. It was actually the first one I ever read. I had read the het fic's. Some good, most bad. The Mary-Sue's being seen across the crowded concert hall with their perfect hair and skin. They were bland. This was firey. This is what H/C writing is about. Friends. Lovers. History, past and present. It all flows here beautifully and it doesn't become a "slash" story about boy on sparkly boy love. It just becomes a story about loving someone and all the things you/they can't leave behind.

All You Can't Leave Behind: Chapter One

Hi, I'm Gilda and I'm your Man from UNCLE driver for the month of October. I'm starting out with the story that got me hooked on UNCLE.

Fandom: THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.
Pairing: Napoleon Solo/Illya Kuryakin
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: http://www.visionsofprettyboys.com/home.htm
Why this must be read: I'd read a few UNCLE stories before this one, mostly those that crossed with other fandoms I'm in. But it had been years since I saw the show and, while a nice diversion, the pairing didn't do anything for me. Until this one. The story is all in Napoleon's POV and his love for his partner is just so there, from the very start. I couldn't get enough. And what a roller-coaster ride, as you're dragged down into Napoleon's depths of dispair only to be swept up to his heights of happiness, and then back again. I think I've read this story at least a dozen times.

The Tuesday Affair

Hi there! I’m Karen and I’ll be driving the van for Farscape this month, and I can’t express how excited I am that I get to drive during the same month my beloved Farscape hits national syndication. Whee!!!!!

To start things off, I’m going with dark and angsty…

Fandom: Farscape
Pairing: John/Aeryn
Author on LJ: simplystars
Author’s website: stars_fic archive

Why this must be read: John Crichton is trapped in a nightmare of what-ifs that plague his poor brain in the exhaustion caused by his search for Aeryn. The fic has the same disjointed feeling of a nightmare as the disturbing possibilities flash past his mind, never stopping until he again becomes aware of his surroundings and the nightmare begins again.

The story is dark, yes, but even so, for me it expresses what John Crichton is all about: hope. You don’t see that hope on the surface, but it’s still there in the unrelenting way that John continues his search, even when his own mind seems to be against him. Future recs will contain a bit more of the famous (or infamous) Farscape humor, but this one was the first fic I ever added to LJ memories and I wanted to share it with you all. :)

Spoilers for A Constellation of Doubt. And please, don’t forget to leave the author some feedback.

In the Nightmare of the Dark

Welcome, passengers, from this month's LOTR driver. I brake for minor and/or underused characters (even -- gasp! -- the occasional OC), Elvish lands and Rohan, and well-done AUs, plus I have a soft spot for funny metafic.

Buckle up, don't forget to send feedback to the author if you like the story, and let's go!

Fandom: LOTR
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: dracunculus
Author Website: n/a
Why this must be read:

Even if you're not a lover of angsterrific Aragorn, you must admit he had an awfully dysfunctional odd childhood. This piece made up of short scenes from his early life brilliantly shows the eerieness of growing up not merely in a different culture, but mortal among immortals.

( excerpt )

Scenes from Rivendell

Hi! I'm queenzulu and this is my second turn behind the Buffy-reccing wheel. Like last time, I'm going to be reccing mostly femslash, and like last time, I'm not going to focus on any one pairing. I hope you enjoy exploring both the unconventional and the OTPs with me!

Fandom: BUFFY
Pairing: Buffy/Giles/Oz
Author on LJ: glossing
Author Website: glossings

Why this must be read:

For my first rec, I thought I'd start with something a little off the beaten path. "Restricted Supplement" was written for me in a threesome ficathon, and when I wrote my request it was with Glossing's style in mind. Glossing's been recced several times on crack_van, and deservedly so. She is very much a writer's writer, with prose that is filled with detail and emotion without getting purple and unreadable. Over the course of several stories, she has entrenched a love of Buffy/Oz in me--it's probably the closest thing I have to a het OTP--and her Oz/Giles stories are gentle, yearning, and achingly sweet.

With this story, Glossing touches on several issues from the fifth season with a deft hand: Buffy's trust of Giles and their deepening Watcher/Slayer bond; the mysticism of Buffy's visit with the First Slayer; the idea that Giles could possibly have a life outside of the Scoobies and Sunnydale. The story is warm, comfortable, evoking an amazing mood. I love Buffy and Oz making out; Glossing writes them kissing so calmly, and as if it is the only possible result of their relationship--not different from, not apart from, but inherent somehow, as if they only had to wait long enough to get around to it. It feels abundantly real.

( exerpt )

Restricted Supplement to the Watchers' Guide, Concerning Amatory Matters

Fandom: STAR TREK: TOS (sort of)
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Invisible Planets
Why this must be read:
Because I have never laughed so much as I did reading this. I suppose it treads the line of RPF, but it's so much crack, it's impossible to take seriously. The premise is as follows: what if Kirk had been a woman? Set up as a "historical" piece, it follows the casting and filming of the first season of Star Trek - with a female Kirk. The story has so many in-jokes and references, which makes it even more enjoyable.

( Excerpt )

Read: Backwards and in High Heels

Fandom: STARGATE: ATLANTIS
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard, O'Neill/Jackson
Author on LJ: formerly, maching_monkey; currently without LJ, I believe.
Author Website: http://www.geocities.com/coffeeslash/leah/index.html
Why this must be read:

If you have ever wondered where the bizarre penguin obsession in Atlantis fandom comes from, here's the source. This is one of the earliest penguin stories, possibly even the first. It's set in the pegasus_b AU; there is another early penguin story set in the main Atlantis universe called "Mating Rituals" by Karen Mcfadyyon, but the author's website is down and it's very hard to get your hands on, so I couldn't honestly tell you which came first.

The basic premise is: Atlantis has a machine that will turn people into animals. (Oh, those wacky Ancients, what were they thinking.) Sheppard and McKay get themselves turned into penguins, and proceed to have various penguin adventures such as escaping into the ocean, being recaptured, giving each other pebbles, and having lots of penguin sex while their teammates react with varying degrees of bafflement, surprise, and awww, isn't that cute.

Pygoscelis (Or, a Gift of Pebbles)

Hi! I'm rushthatspeaks and I'll be your driver for one of this month's Featured Small Fandoms, the ongoing Japanese anime Naruto. Your overview will be up later in the week, but since this series has a large and varied cast and complicated set of plotlines, I figured I'd get started with the recs as soon as possible so that I can try to squeeze in a little something for everybody. We'll have slash and angst and hurt/comfort and comedy and a variety of really good smut, some of it even (gasp) het, but the first story that I'd like to point out to you showcases two of the things that the Naruto fandom does very, very well simply because of innate plot elements: threesomes and serious genderfuck.

Naruto is about ninjas, and it's about ninjas who are fairly young and still in training, so many of the characters have been placed in instructional teams of three people apiece, under the guidance of a teacher. These teams are a natural breeding ground for tension, angst, and romance, since the integrity of the team is a life-and-death matter: hence, a lot of threesome fic.

In addition, the protagonist, Naruto, has a ninja technique called Sexy no Jutsu that can cause him to appear to be a buxom, super-model-type woman; he uses this as a distraction, and it's a good one. It's generally assumed in fandom that the change is more than skin-deep, and that the technique is teachable-- so that basically any character in the series can be either gender at any time, with only a little bit of canon-stretching. Total freedom to play with this is one of the things that makes this fandom so interesting-- later on this month I'm going to rec you some hot lesbian sex between male characters, and some hot gay sex between female ones.

For now, let's go with some triosmut.

Fandom: NARUTO
Pairing: Ino/Shikamaru/Chouji (Team 10)
Author on LJ: suzukiblu
Author Website: fanfiction.net profile
Useful Japanese Vocabulary: a genin is a first-level ninja, and a kunai is a throwing dagger; the honorific suffix -kun is used to male friends and acquaintances at about one's social level or lower, but not usually to women
Why this must be read:

A sweet little romance, perfectly in character, between three people who might not be expected to care for one that deeply, or at any rate not like this. The emotion is around the edges, but the sex is both funny and tender. In addition, the author is one of the pillars of the fandom, always literate, sometimes poetic, and inevitably worth reading.

( Excerpt )

Lessons on an Incomplete Relationship