Fandom: POPSLASH
Pairing: Chris/Lance
Author on LJ: vaudevilles
Author Website: Her fic tag.
Why this must be read: Because so few people are writing long, funny, fun, awesome popslash anymore, it's exciting when new folks join the fandom and produce something as good as this is. The characterizations of all the guys are hilarious and perfect, and the slow-but-amusing build up to Lance and Chris's relationship feels just right. It's an idea we've seen a couple times in popslash (forced to date via media outting), but this fic really gets into the media-drivenness of it all. And did I mention hilarious? And long?? I don't think nearly enough people have read this in proportion to the sheer amount of awesome it contains.

( In JC's world it was fine to get freaky with alien probes of no particular gender as long as you were having a good time. )

link: All That Stuff's A Sideshow

Fandom: THE MAGNIFICENT 7
Pairing: Well, Chris and Vin and an OC woman - het, thought, even though there are slashy-kinds of subtexts
Author on LJ: not that I know of
Author's Website: Julia Verinder's Fanfiction
Why this must be read:

As a rule, I don't read het - no, I know, it's close-minded and short-sighted of me, but I've rarely found het that wasn't so romanticized and 'Mary-Sue-d' that I could stand it (as I was explaining to a close friend recently, there are very very few romantic bones in my body and most of those were broken and now give me pain when I get cold).

Julie Verinder, however, is an exception to the het rule.  I stumbled across her slash a while back and she's been rec'ced here for some of her other works as well (see "Footfalls Echo in the Memory"), quite deservedly.  She's one of those writers who just writes so wonderfully that you take a chance on something you wouldn't otherwise read.  She does a very credible job with the characters, making me believe that Vin and Chris would do as they do in this story, in this very realistic interpretation of life in the American West.  They're hard men - but good in their own ways, as the series itself reflects, and as this story reflects.  Very nicely done.

"A Night to Treasure" - get to it from this page.

Fandom: NCIS
Pairing: None (Leroy Jethro Gibbs&Timothy McGee Gen)
Warning: Major character death.
Author on LJ: enthused_fish
Author Website: Not that I know of

Why this must be read:

I don't read much gen, for a variety of reasons. However, the main two characters for this story (being two of my favourites) as well as the title caught my eye - and I am glad it did. Gibbs and McGee have been captured and are trapped in the hold of a ship. Gibbs is seriously injured, McGee not quite so much. During their time, Gibbs draws McGee out, talks to him, and tried, in true Gibbs style to make things easier for him. They talk, of all things, about poetry; indeed the story was inspired by the poem O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman and the poem is used, by McGee to great effect throughout the story.

The story shows the deep affection, caring, and I'm going to use the term 'love' (in the friendship, filial sense) that exists between Gibbs and McGee (and by extension the entire team). And the final line of the story sums up what Gibbs is to them all. It is an incredibly beautiful, moving, sad, painful, bitter-sweet, so right in its wrongness story that is so very much in characters. It also, amazingly given the subject matter and the inevitable outcomes, even has a smidgeon or two of humour in it - the author does a superb job. It could easily be a scene from the series that we are watching unfold. Even on re-read I am sniffing. I can honestly say that no gen story, especially one that doesn't feature both halves of my pairing, in any fandom has ever touched me so much.

( Extract )

---

O Captain! My Captain!

Fandom: STARSKY AND HUTCH
Pairing: Starsky/Hutch
Author on LJ: http://callistosh65.livejournal.com/
Author Website:
http://www.callizz.org/
http://meandthee.shahrazad.net/author.php?authorid=85
http://bcl.skeeter63.org/wcallisto.shtml
Why this must be read:

Callisto’s beautiful story is of big things disguised as small things, of how getting to the end of the day, or night, is sometimes all one can do, and of how a space can be an understanding.

“Part of the new set up became the pleasure Hutch took in occasionally napping on Starsky's brand-new orthopedic mattress. Starsky still grumbled about it, seeing it as some kind of comment on his age rather than his injuries. Hutch's back, on the other hand, loved it instantly and without reservation.”

The Great Wall of China

Fandom: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Pairing: Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy
Length: 1,400 words
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Skylar's FFN Profile

Why this must be read:

This very short story details the first kiss between the newly engaged Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. It is a bit fluffy, but it maintains the arch tone for which Jane Austen is so justly famous. Darcy and Elizabeth are completely in character, and the reader can see Darcy's unique sense of humor coming out.

The story will take you less than five minutes to read, and it's not perfect. There is a point-of-view problem for one thing, but it's a fun little story that gives you a warm glow. You won't regret reading it, I promise. Also, check out Skylar's other P&P fics, for they are all excellent.

* * *

( Excerpt )

Too Clever By Half

( Update January 2012 )

Fandom: STARGATE ATLANTIS
Pairing: Sheppard/McKay
Author on LJ: ladyflowdi
Author Website: Dianann's SGA Fics at Wraithbait
Why this must be read: On one level this is a smoking-hot melt-the-Antarctic-ice PWP with John and Rodney meeting as strangers at McMurdo's equivalent of a base liquor store and ending up with a one-night stand. Except it's also a lot more than that.

Rodney knows how to have a one-night stand. There are rules and expectations, and as usual, John Sheppard manages to mess up all of Rodney's carefully laid (no pun intended) plans. It's hot and touching and perfect.

( Alarm bells went off in Rodney's head. That this was not a One Night Stand, this was something else, something more, something Rodney didn't want, not now, not when he was this vulnerable. )

Read the Story / Feedback the Author: Class 6

Fandom: Torchwood
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Author on LG: calathea
Author Website: planet fiction
Why this must be read:
I have to admit at times I have a love hate relationship with Owen but in the long run I do adore him in all his incarnations. The fact is, that I love stories that feature an Owen that is slightly wicked and twisted, which this story does very well as he goes after his favorite target, Ianto.
Curiosity