Fandom: X-MEN MOVIEVERSE
Pairing: Wolverine/Rogue
Author on LJ: lilmissrrhood
Author Website: Eye Teeth
Why this must be read: Logan travels back in time to make sure that Rogue meets up with the X-Men and stays with them. The story borrows elements from The Terminator, which I consider to be a love story, by the way. It's beautiful and tender, but sad, too. The ending has sort of unsettled feeling to it, like the author wanted to go somewhere else with it, but didn't. Despite that, it's a great read and a beautiful story. Possible age issues, though I think Rogue is legal, just young.

( Excerpt )

Chasing Chronos

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey/Dan
Author on LJ:celli
Author Website: Fanfic 101
Why this must be read:

celli is a busy woman with many fingers in many fannish pies. And, presumably, extremely sticky hands. Every once in a while she turns her considerable talents Sports Night-wards and, when she does, it more than makes up for the wait. (Although shorter waits would be nice, too. I'm just saying.)

There's snow on the ground today, and temperatures in minus figures – only tiny minus, I'm in England, but minus nevertheless; celli's fic takes place in a heatwave (and on Casey's very, very clean kitchen floor), but even if it were set in a blizzard it would still take one's mind off the weather, or anything else, for that matter: it's that hot. And Danny is wearing cut-off denims and nothing else, which is …

… I'm sorry, I'm sure I had something profound to say there, but lucidity has deserted me.

[Untitled]: Casey's smugness was cut off when Dan slid his hands back down into his shorts. He tried to say something else, but it was missing something. Like sentence structure. Or consonants.

Pairings: Starsky & Hutch
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Me & Thee Archive
Why this must be read:

Slashy gen, what fun! Poor Hutch is laid up post-Survival, and Starsky comes along to brighten his day. The writing is vivid, and the boys sound like themselves, which is always a treat. Dawn gives us a lovely peek into Hutch's developing feelings that even he hasn't gotten all figured out, along with a glimpse of backstory for Terry. I always love to see the contrast of all the intimacies of behavior between S&H while discussing the new female-interest in so-called "gen" stories, and this one delivers that intimacy in spades (come ON, they lick CHOCOLATE off each other and feed each other STRAWBERRIES. This is gen? Btchplz.). Truly a charming snapshot of a story.


Rainy Days and Mondays

Fandom: LORD OF THE RINGS
Pairing: Aragorn/Arwen
Author on LJ: Not as far as I know
Author Website: The Way Station
Why this must be read:

This is quite a sweet, funny story. Aragorn's daughter, Gliriel, seems almost determined to embarrass Legolas as much as possible - and it's safe to say she succeeds. Gliriel is a wonderful character - it's easy to see parts of Aragorn and Arwen in her.

Dragons or Ribbons

Fandom: POPSLASH
Pairing: Chris/Joey, other pairings
Author on LJ: i_naiad
Author Website: n/a
Why this must be read: This is another of my favourite stories from last year's popslash Secret Santa. It's only minorly a crossover (but I just had to rec it this month anyway). It's a gorgeous AU, sweet and romantic while so in character for Chris and Joey, and the other guys are great too. And really, how can you not be intrigued by that title?

"Chris! Hey, Chris!"
"What? Can't you hear I'm having a discussion?"
JC laughed. "We can all hear it, dude. Just let Justin play with the music for a little bit and get your ass over here. I have something for you." JC cast a sly look at Joey and muttered. "Two things if you're lucky."
Joey felt himself get hot. It was lucky he didn't get embarrassed. He bumped JC on the head with The Tick before handing it to him. When he looked back at Lance, there was someone new standing beside him.
"Well 'C. What have you got for me?"
Chris was short. That was the first thing Joey noticed about him. Compared to Joey, he was really short. His black hair spiked up in a million different directions, he had a goatee that appeared to have two...horns, there was a light sheen of sweat across his upper lip and beside his sideburns, his black t-shirt said 'real live action hero', and he had an attitude that radiated beyond his size.

( pictures )

When The Tick Met Mr. T

Fandom: FARSCAPE
Pairing: gen
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: N/A
Why this must be read:

Farscape's writers liked to take a traditional plot device or story element and twist it, warp it into something unexpected. The seemingly stereotypical 'monster of the week' character of M'Lee, from season one's Bone to be Wild, was slowly peeled back, layer by layer, from villain to victim to... something more complex and morally ambiguous.

Northlight cleverly captures the alien-ness of M'Lee, fleshing out a brief but memorable appearance by Francesca Buller (in her first Farscape guest role) and giving the character a canon-esque backstory.


Meek

Fandom: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA 2003
Pairing: Lee/Laura
Author on LJ: k_julia
Author Website: Entenpotential
Why this must be read: Politics can be a dirty business and it's the ambiguity of this political moment that makes this story so compelling. An enigmatic Laura Roslin holds the triumphal focus of not only the audience and Lee Adama, but also the reader.

( Excerpt )

In Good Faith

Fandom:  Queer as Folk: US
Pairing: Brian/Michael, Jenny
Author on LJ: n/a
Author Website: n/a
Why this must be read:

Michael reads “Peter Pan” to Jenny and finds it all to easy to see the parallels between the story and his own life.

His Neverland though, was a bizarre swirl of the story book tale and his own life. Brian was there, alighting at his bedroom window, whisking him away on so many adventures. Mrs. Darling was his mother, always trying to pull him in, keep him tied to reality, and trying to soothe Brian’s wild ways, but Brian could not be tamed. His loft became the fairy nest in the trees, where so many lost boys came to play but, were soon forgotten. There were so many of them after all. Soon Michael tired of their adventures, choosing to grow up. To become a man. Brian promised to never forget him, but his visits became less frequent until they didn’t occur at all. Many a night, Michael would lie awake, his husband sleeping peacefully at his side and he would strain to hear a crowing in the distance, some sign that he would return but, alas it never was. He was left, staring out the window reminiscing about a magic time that seemed so long ago that he wondered if it ever was…

Straight On 'Til Morning

Fandom: THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.
Pairing: None
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Unknown

Why this must be read:

It is easy to answer; because it's the most definitive, thoughtful, clever and satisfying presentation of U.N.C.L.E.'s nature and mission you can find in all the MFU fictions available on line or in zines so far; because it's bliss to read a text where every word is pondered, precise and meaningful; because for some persons, intelligence is more intoxicating than sex and, more prosaically, because MFU "canon" and "fanon" badly lack plausible information about the diplomatical and political background of the U.N.C.L.E. organisation.

The main accepted feature is its international support by all the nations belonging to the "U.N.O." community. It implies (or should do) the equal contribution of all the signatories countries, whatever their system of government or their political ideologies, including -of course- the Soviet Union and its East-European allies. But, strangely, in most MFU stories this aspect of the question is quietly ignored or deliberately flouted: U.N.C.L.E. is implicitely shown as a western organisation, strongly resembling O.T.A.N, The Soviet Union (and the monstruous KGB) is the ennemy and, evidently, Illya Kuryakin, though Russian, cannot be else than a defector. This vision is very strange for an European reader. How many times, while reading some fiction (otherwise pleasant) written by an American author, had I wondered in dismay if we really were living on the same planet (and apparently we didn't).

Therefrom my relief when I found out this text, which is more a prologue to a future and complete fictional universe than a stand alone story and yet as exciting and lively as a good action/adventure tale. In one word, it explains how Waverley managed to recruit his first Soviet operative agent and the reasons of his choice.

That allows the author to set out in the same time the morals and politics of both U.N.C.L.E. and Kuryakine:

“If in practice you are the organization defined by your principles, then you are in the business of protecting the rights of nations – all nations – to make their own decisions, define their own beliefs, pursue their own ideals (...) without the threat of interference by supranational or individual outside forces.”

Such a definition of U.N.C.L.E. principles and missions give, I think, quite another dimension and significance to the MFU fictions that would be placed on this ground. And that is one of the many reasons I have to wish, patiently but fervently, that N.L. Hayes would soon write all the stories one could expect from such promising premises.

Roots of the Present

Fandom: HIGHLANDER
Pairing: Duncan/Methos
Author on LJ: None known
Author Website:Home of Westwind
Why this must be read: Set in the future after a plague has sent technology back to the early 20th century, Duncan and Methos struggle to keep both their relationship and their immortality a secret. With a Little House on the Prairie feel, they help their neighbors, adopt a couple of cats and battle natural forces while teaching school and putting out a newspaper. However, there are occasional reminders that their physical relationship has the diversity learned in a long life.

In Fifty Years