Fandom: Popslash.
Pairing: JC/Justin.
Author on LJ: sarahq
Author Website: a likely story.
Why this must be read:

A sort of urban fantasy story based on elements from the fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princess, Somnambulist is a chilling and hypnotic tale about fame - not only about the temptation of it, but also about being its hostage.

Excerpt:

( Justin was missing again. This time, JC hadn't had anything harder to drink than lukewarm tea. )

Somnambulist.

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey/Dan subtext, Dan/Rebecca, Abby
Author on LJ: find_rightbrain
Author Website: None, but also at allfireburns

Why this must be read: the heart of Sports Night is Dan Rydell; the heart of Dan Rydell is a complex, extraordinary, wonderful thing. Again and again we try to fathom its mysteries, and each one of us finds something new, something different, something marvellous.

Here, find_rightbrain takes "four addictions Dan Rydell never had, and one he has", and makes every one of them real.

A side note: I would never have found this fic if I hadn't been bored, and doing a Google blog search for Sports Night fanfic. Which leads me to wonder – how much else is out there that's not being posted to the SN communities, and is going largely unmissed …?

Strong Chemistry

Fandom: STAR WARS
Pairing: None
Author On LJ: izzardwizzard
Author's Website: No Clue
Why this must be read?

This is a lovely ode to Obi-Wan. Yoda feels Obi-Wan's death even on Dagobah, and his loss of a padawan and fellow Jedi is achingly sad and beautiful.


The events on the Death Star reverberate throughout the galaxy, momentarily wounding the lone resident of a murky swamp planet.

Fandom: FIREFLY
Pairing: N/A; Character-study: Shepherd Book
Author on LJ: I believe this is maystone
Author Website: Unknown
Link: The Uses of Temptation

Why this fic must be read: It's a fic about Shepherd Book! Seriously, there seems to be too few pieces about the good shepherd, an enigmatic and shadowed figure to say the least. This fic is a nice exploration of the character we really seemed to know the least about, because everything we know is a guess, a hint, a speculation. Maystone takes those glimpses and brings us into the thoughts and conflicts of the quiet figure of Shepherd Book, without stepping away from the reality of the character.

( Excerpt )

The Uses of Temptation

Fandom: MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Pairing: None. Gen-fic
Author on LJ: n/a
Author Website: BlackRaptor Archive
Why this fic must be read:

Cold Hard Cash is a great Old West fanfic. The focus is on Ezra, with Chris and Buck as supporting cast. The three are called to pick up a gold shipment in a nearby town, only to discover that there isn’t much gold to guard. Ezra decides to do a little poking around and ends up uncovering a huge counterfeiting operation.

If this were a cop show I’d call it a case fic. It’s the guys doing their jobs, dealing with the populace and fixing other people’s messes.

One thing I really enjoy about this story is that it has a believable level of conflict between the main characters. Chris Larabee can be an ornery bastard on a good day, but some fics show him as being an abusive drunkard who beats his men into unconsciousness. J. Brooks doesn’t go to that extreme. Instead she keeps them all in character, and the conflict stems from scenarios that we could easily see happening in the series itself. Ezra’s annoyed at being dragged along, so he spends the entire trip annoying Chris. Chris is frustrated about being dragged all that way for nothing, so he snaps at everyone he sees. Buck… well, he looks at pictures of naked ladies for a while. Not much seems to rile him. ;)

In short, a good story with a nice plot and some terribly amusing dialogue.

( ”Ezra )
Cold Hard Cash