Fandom: THE DEAD ZONE
Pairing: Johnny Smith/Walt Bannerman
Author on LJ: shaenie
Author Website: Mindless Entertainment with Absolutely No Redeeming Features
Why this must be read:

Every time Johnny touches someone, he sees a part of them that they never chose to show him. It's a potent intimacy--some would call it a trespass--but it's one that he has very little control over, and the knowledge that comes from it can hurt as much as help. The only way to avoid it is to avoid that contact, but even that can be revealing, if that someone knows what to look for. In this fic, Walt is a little too observant for the comfort of either Johnny or himself. Little Thefts is threaded with touch, and the consequences of avoiding it and embracing it. It's also a powerful story of two men who are inextricably entwined in ways that even they have difficulty understanding.

( Excerpt )

Little Thefts

Fandom: THE DEAD ZONE/THE SENTINEL
Pairing: Johnny Smith/Bruce Lewis, Jim/Blair
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Legion's Fanfiction
Why this must be read:

I admit, I'm not much of a Sentinel fan, but Wheels Within is still a worthy read from the Dead Zone side of things. Johnny and Bruce are on the return leg of a road trip and end up sharing a room at a Bed & Breakfast that once was booked by a rather unusual couple. The intensity of the visions they left behind lead Johnny and Bruce to a police officer in Cascade... and a strange link from the other end of things ties Blair to a psychic in Maine. On a personal level, the visions act as a catalyst for Johnny/Bruce, but the relationship is allowed to develop at its own pace, with understanding on both sides.

( Excerpt )

Wheels Within

Fandom: THE DEAD ZONE
Pairing: Johnny Smith/Walt Bannerman/Sarah Bannerman
Author on LJ: clannadlvr
Author Website: FanFiction.Net : Profile : Clannadlvr
Why this must be read:

The visions can have a mind of their own--sometimes they don't reveal what Johnny needs them to reveal. In Clips, in trying to save Walt's life, he learns a lot more about Walt's life than he ever thought he'd want to know. In the process, he moves from jealousy and anger to a new understanding of the man who took his family, and just possibly the realization of how he can get it back.

( Excerpt )

Clips

Fandom: Farscape
Pairing: John/Aeryn
Author on LJ: rainer76
Author Website: none listed
Why this must be read:

The author gives us a look into both Aeryn Sun and John Crichton following the traumatic and life-changing events of DNA Mad Scientist, although the greater emphasis is on Aeryn. She has a strong grasp of season one Aeryn, John, and D'Argo, and, as an added bonus, a suspicious and conflicted Moya, who has not yet recovered from her own Peacekeeper inflicted trauma. Domino Effect is a haunting fic that will stay with you for a good long while. :)

Domino Effect

Don't forget to leave the author feedback!

Fandom: ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO
Pairing: El Mariachi/Kate Martin
Author on LJ:vanillafluffy
Author Website: fanfiction.net profile
Why this must be read:

This story is a wild and woolly "Mexico" ride. Just like in the movie, the action never stops, unless you call the pauses for steamy hetsmut stopping. Into the same universe as her story Darkness Bound, Vanillafluffy introduces Kate Martin, who works for the same mysterious organization, Millenium Consulting, that Sands learned about in the earlier story. A fast-driving, fiery-tempered, techno-twink with a gun, she is sent to Mexico because this Sands person, whom her boss calls "Lucifer," has gone missing. I expected her, in proper OFC fashion, to fall in love with Sands, and I love it when an author surprises me. Kate can not be said to fall in "love" with anyone, but she enthusiastically falls into bed with the smoky Latin gunslinger. She and Sands do not get on at all, which is fun to watch. And no, none of this is the point of the story. The plot is about a drug cartel, the Gomez cartel, which is trying to move in on Culiacan. After all, the Barillos left a power vacuum there. Unfortunately, one insane, blind ex-CIA agent has decided that Culiacan is his territory and the Gomezes were not invited. Much mayhem ensues.

Vanillafluffy's writing sparkles with her inventive uses of metaphor and language, as well as with the somewhat manic "voice" of her main character. The results are fresh and funny.

( Kate meets El Mariachi )

In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that Vanillafluffy calls this story a crossover with Silence of the Lambs, because she used the-girl-down-the-well in that movie as inspiration for Kate. What becomes of someone after such an experience, she asked, and thus was born Kate Martin, determined to be competent, prepared, and never someone's victim again. But Silence of the Lambs serves only as obscure backstory for a character who is in all other ways original. This is a Mexico story, and a thoroughly enjoyable one. It has a sequel, called Taking Care of Business, which is more about the Gomez cartel and does not have Kate in it.

Clockwork Mexico

Fandom: THE WEST WING
Pairing: CJ/Ann Stark
Author on LJ: quasiradiant
Author Website: quasiradiance.com (it doesn't seem to be working right now)
Why this must be read:
On The West Wing, Ann Stark was just a one-episode sneaky Republican that had been friends with Toby for a really long time. Ellen Milholland has taken the character and fleshed her out into a fallible, sensual woman. You can hear the characters speaking the dialogue and the sexual give-and-take between CJ and Ann is so palpable you can practically feel it through the screen. Definitely worth the read.

Ruthless

Fandom: BUFFY
Pairing: Buffy/Nina (Buffy/Angel, Nina/Angel)
Author on LJ: marenfic
Author Website: Consummate Love

Why this must be read:

Wow, again, this was totally unplanned when I started gathering the links I knew I wanted to rec. But once again, here is a story that's a little more threesome than it is pairing; and the ways in which Maren has constructed that threesome are what make it awesome. I seem to recall reccing her Assignation my last time at the wheel, which also holds hints of threesome. But this time, it's structure, and style, that makes the story rec-worthy. Because, you see, this is another second-person POV that works--and you don't find those often.

Nina and Buffy have a lot in common--most particularly, Angel. Whether Angel has a type, or serendipity came into it somewhere, he seems to fall in love with women who are more than meets the eye: a little bit monster underneath that beautiful-girl facade. Werewolf, slayer--they have powers they never asked for, and identities that have to remain hidden. Maren writes angry, desperate prose that captures both of them perfectly: and the title is so apt, and the POV is so well-chosen, that this story resonates on many levels. You'll read it; you'll scroll up and read it again; and then you'll be left thinking, which is, of course, the best recommendation of all.

Mirror

Fandom: BLAKE'S 7
Pairing: implied Avon/OCF, near Avon/Blake
Author on LJ: astrogirl2
Author Website: Betty Ragan's Home Page, but Betty's on-line B7 stories are in the Hermit Library
Why this must be read:

This is a riotously funny black comedy, written well before the film Sean of the Dead came out, or Noranti appeared on Farscape. I say this because the gruesome humour reminded me of the first, and the old Gaudan woman of the second, but this very original story has been languishing in zine limbo for years.

Avon, the sole survivor of the Gauda Prime massacre, encounters an old native woman who demonstrates that she can raise the dead. In return for a favour of a certain nature, she teaches Avon how to do the same. He re-animates the corpses of Blake and the Scorpio crew for a price: a human sacrifice and half of his soul--the little he has left.

Avon and his army of zombies were gathered around the breakfast table. Avon sat eating his own meal in silence and trying not to look too closely at the contents of the others' plates. The others, for their part, were generally attempting the same thing, albeit with rather less success.

And then, of course, there was Vila.

"I can't eat this!"

Avon calmly lifted a forkful of his own breakfast to his mouth and chewed. "Why not?"

"Why not? Why not? Because it's a human brain, Avon, that's why not!"

Avon, however is the zombie master of the title and his every order must be obeyed.

"Vila." Avon's tone was perfectly reasonable, and Vila looked up at him with hopeful eyes. "Shut up and eat your brains."

Vila's hand lurched out, grabbed the fork, scooped up a huge, gooey chunk, and popped it neatly into his helplessly struggling mouth.

Avon smiled.

"May I be excused, please?" said Dayna. "I think I've had enough."

Eventually the zombies decide to win back their independence the only way they can, a quest that takes them to the heart of the Federation and an ironic fate for Avon. Go and read it. It's a comic masterpiece as black as Avon's soul.

The Zombie Master (part 1)
The Zombie Master (part 2)

Fandom: STARSKY AND HUTCH
Pairing: Starsky/Hutch
Author on LJ: laceymcbain
Author Website: Stickyman Press
Why this must be read: Lacey is an established author in other fandoms, most notably Smallville. This, her first foray into the S/H fandom, sweetly captures the nuances of the long-established friendship between the boys while navigating them into the deeper relationship that apparently everyone recognized existed but them. But this isn't just another almost-first-time story; Lacey has a talent for weaving solid plotlines for her characters to follow, and this one is no exception.

Along for the Ride