Up for the small fandom van this month is Harsh Realm and I'll be more than happy to drive you around if you wanna hop in.

( It's Just a Game )

Fandom: HOUSE
Pairing: House/Wilson
Author on LJ: summerfling
Why this must be read:

I have a particular weakness for the painfully beautiful, the beautifully painful, and this story always floors me for that very reason. It is exquisite in every detail, and every detail tears at your heart. Esse describes with melancholic grace the torment of giving what you know will never be returned, of touching without hope of having, and she captures the kind of overwhelming love that can make you resign yourself to taking what is offered, even when it's no more than a pale shadow of what you really want. This fic is bleak, but it is also gorgeous beyond words.



A Love Restrained

Hello, I'm AstroGirl, and I'll be driving the Crack Van for Farscape this month. I have a particular fondness for Stark, so you're going to be seeing a great deal of him, but I won't neglect the rest of the crew, I promise.

To start things off this month, I'm going to continue fbf's trend of recommending stories from the Sprog-a-thon, because (somewhat to my surprise, given the subject matter), that ficathon produced an extraordinarily good crop of fic.

Fandom: FARSCAPE
Pairing: John/Aeryn, though I wouldn't exactly call it a "pairing" fic
Author on LJ: lady_smith
Author Website: none that I know of
Why this must be read: I admit to being a bit biased towards this particular story, as it was written for my request. But you hardly need to be me to appreciate it, given everything it's got going for it: a good plot; interesting aliens; Crichton being, well, Crichton; a heck of an emotional impact; and, yes, a well-written post-Peacekeeper Wars Stark.

( here's how it starts... )

The Last Place

Hi! I'm zeldaophelia (though, I write in the M7 universe under the pen name Jenifer Davis) and I'll be driving the Crack Van for The Magnificent Seven one of this month's featured small fandoms. While I tend to be partial to JD (I'm a Dunne's Darlin' through and through), I am going to try to rec fic that feature each of the guys and the various adventures they get up to. Not to mention introduce all the different Alternate Universe Sandboxes we have to play in.

Fandom: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Pairing: None
Author on LJ: Not as far as I know.
Author Website: N/A (her fic can be found at Blackraptor)
Why this must be read:

While The Magnificent Seven lend themselves to a number of Alternate Universes, we're going to start out this month with purely Old West (or the original series universe) fic. The boys tend to have a rather wicked sense of humor, and how better to demonstrate than with a story that will make you laugh yourself silly? This is a great fic for newcomers, it isn't an epic-novel length adventure, but a short introduction to the guys and the town and, well, boys being boys.

Plus, the warning speaks for itself:
Warning: They use some bad words. The chicken does too, but it doesn't translate well.

( Any fic that starts like this is worth reading. )

Fandom: Harsh Realm
Pairing: None
Author on LJ: tookhernowhere
Author Website: Her website
Why this must be read:

This is a fic that has stuck with me over the years. So it gets to be my first rec. It's a dark look at how the Game could end and the sequal answers the question of what happens after. It's short and sweet and fantastic. Hopefully I'll get better at this reccing thing as the month goes on.

Fourteen Miles to the Border and it's sequal Thirty Seconds.

Hey, I'm lizzypaul and I'm driving for X-files this month! X-files is one of those weird fandoms where I'm equally into the slash and het, and that's definitely reflected in my recs.

Fandom: X-FILES
Pairing: Mulder/Scully, Scully/Other
Author on LJ: No LJ, as far as I know.
Author Website: Dawson's Webpage
Why this must be read:

This fic is long and addictive. Like other fics by Dawson, it's complex, riveting, technical, political, and romantic. Yes, there's romance, but the plot certainly wasn't sacrificed for it, and it emerges naturally during the course of the story. It's a unique twist on the mythology of the show. The fic was around years before the show ended, so much of it is definitely AU now, but don't let that scare you.

Umbra

Hi, I'm myrebelcat and I'll be driving for Starsky and Hutch this month! (I almost thought I wouldn't get that wheel away from Starsky, but Hutch thoughtfully distracted him for me.)

I'm a bi-fictional reader and writer, perfectly happy in either the slash and gen universes, so you'll be seeing a healthy mix of both. And several stories which can't be so easily catagorized as either.

To start off this month, I'm reccing a brand new story, by a fantastic writer who has just recently discovered this fandom. Lucky us!


Fandom: STARSKY AND HUTCH
Pairing: Starsky and Hutch (gen)
Author on LJ: troyswann
Author Website: http://salieri.bonuspoints.net/
Why this must be read: Because it's absolutely friggin' fantastic? Oh well, if you MUST have another reason, because Salieri uses the minor character of Alice, the southern-belle prostitute, to show us a 1970's Bay City that's gritty and grim and so real it hurts.

Girls Like Alice

This month I'm driving for Lotrips, and my pairing of choice is Orlijah. So hold onto your seats, because there's a lot of very, very pretty boy!sex ahead...

Fandom: LOTRIPS
Pairing: Elijah Wood/Orlando Bloom
Author on LJ: talesinbloom
Author Website: None
Why this must be read: Written for the recent Lotrips Fuh-Q-Fest (lotrips_fqf), "Lost and Found" embodies what I love best about the Orlijah pairing: it's got great banter, wonderful opposites-attract tension, a clever chronology, and a sex scene to melt your brain. In short, everything to make me go guh!

Lost and Found

Fandom: POPSLASH
Pairing: Chris/Justin
Author on LJ: deepsix & silviakundera
Author Website: Hoping Is Out Of Style
Why this must be read: This is a fabulous example of what makes popslash so unique. It's hilarious and it's silly and these guys are just so detached from reality but we don't care. The characterisations are wonderful, and all the guys get a moment of greatness.

( In which everyone is just really, really gay. )

Exactly How It Never Was

Hi, y’all! I’ll be drunk driving your X-Men fandoms this month. I'll tell you right off that I'll be rec-ing mainly Jubilee-focused fic. Now before y'all start gagging, I promise that there really are some good ones out there if you can stomach digging through the ickosity. Lucky for y'all, I can.


Fandom: X-MEN COMICVERSE
Pairing: A teensy bit of Wolverine/Jubilee with a kind of weird smattering of Bishop/Jubilee.
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: N/A
Why this must be read:

I’m totally stunned that this hasn’t been thrown into the mix before. It's one of my very favorite fics within the fandom. A title taken from one of my favorite poems? Check. Good characterization? Check. Engaging plot? Check. Decent, though occasionally uneven writing? Check. Overall, Home from the Hill is a fun, long-format, action-adventure story. Enjoy!

( Excerpt )

I'm going to include two links to this story. I know some people despise fanfiction.net. I find the white text on black background at The Wolverine and Jubilee Page super-hard to read. It's good to have options.

Home from the Hill at fanfiction.net

Home from the Hill at wolverineandjubilee.com

Hi. *waves* I'm driving the QaF:US van for the month of February. A little about me? Well, I'm a Brian/Justin shipper, with a thing for Ted/Justin. And I'm not anti-anyone, not even Ethan. *ducks flying shoe* So I'll be reccing fics that I feel show all the characters in a fair and realistic light. And? I don't do angst.

Except for this fic.

Fandom: QUEER AS FOLK: US
Pairing: Brian/Justin, Brian/Michael
Author on LJ: mclachlan
Author Website: her stories on bjfic.net
Why this must be read:

R.C. is one of my favorite authors in fandom. While her fics do tend to be (really, really) angsty, she has, to me, an excellent grip of the characters as they're portrayed on the show. Her writing is balanced and doesn't favor any one character over any other, which is a quality I really appreciate.

As for why I chose this particular fic of hers (besides the fact that it's brand new), is that as much as I adore Brian, it made me hate him for just a brief moment. And then I remembered that THIS IS AN AU. It's not canon. And when a fic can make you forget that nothing like it ever happened on the show? That's the sign of an excellent story.

Quick synopsis: In episode 212, Michael finds out that Ben, his new boyfriend, had sex with Brian, Michael's best friend and unrequited love interest of... probably at least a decade, before Michael and Ben ever met. There is a scene where Brian offers to fuck Michael, so that Michael can see what it's like. And Michael turns him down. This fic answers the question: what if Michael hadn't stopped him?

If you like this story, and you surely will, make sure you leave R.C. some feedback!

Ceremony