Fandom: DC COMICS
Pairing: gen, focusing on Tim Drake (Robin), Virgil Hawkins (Static), Richie Foley (Gear)
Length: medium
Author on LJ: mtgat
Author Website: http://mtgat.livejournal.com/tag/fanfic
Why this must be read:

Because this fic is awesome. It takes something we learn about in Batman Beyond (a cartoon set 50 years after Batman: the Animated Series) and extrapolates it back to what must have happened during/after B:tAS. It's well written, the characters are well-rounded people, and it deals with the aftermath of trauma in a realistic way. It fills the gap perfectly. It is a crossover with the cartoon Static Shock, but you don't have to know anything more about that series than that Virgil and Richie are teen superheroes. ( Cut for spoilers for Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. )

The Year of Living

Fandom: SUPERNATURAL
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Length: Over 20,000 words
Author on LJ: ellipsisblack
Author Website: conquest
Why this must be read:

I debated reccing this because while it was one of my absolute favorite stories that came out of last year's Supernatural Big Bang challenge, it hurts. A twelfth-century Scottish village appears on the South Carolina shoreline and Sam and Dean go to investigate. But when it disappears once again, Dean is still inside, and just as desperate to return to his brother as Sam is to get him back. A month later he reappears on the beach, and both Winchester boys have a hard time dealing with the results.

The brotherly love here is just as strong as it should be and the sex is hot, but the pain is what you're left with. The writing is exquisite, it is definitely worth reading, and I cannot recommend enough. But I can almost guarantee you will only read it once.

The Far Side Of The Sea

Fandom: SUPERNATURAL
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Length: Over 20,000 words
Author on LJ: impertinence
Author Website: None
Why this must be read:

After that last rec, how about some crackfic?

Another Big Bang fic, the premise here is simple -- Dean gets turned into a rubber ducky. The resulting story is hysterically funny and completely insane.

Rubber Ducky, You're The One

Fandom: THE MAN FROM UNCLE
Pairing: NS/IK gen
Author: Valentina (cousinnat)
Author Website: Look for Agent Valentina at File 40's gen page
Why this must be read:

I have to warn you that this is deathfic - the story summary acknowledges as such, so I swear it's not a spoiler. Dear reader, don't despair! More precisely, this story is life-after-deathfic that affirms that some partnerships never change even when you've passed the Pearly Gates. Amidst the occasional sly breaking-the-4th-wall references are some of the playful and subtly revealing exchanges bordering on the outright flirtatious between our favorite agents I've read yet. We're offered touching glimpses as to what Napoleon and Illya want to relive from their past and now finally have a chance to do. Valentina lovingly reassures us that you just can't keep a good agent down.


The See You Later Affair

Fandom: THE MAN FROM UNCLE
Pairing: NS/IK gen
Author: odindvatre
Author Website: She posts her stories at muncle.
Why this must be read:

I'm a sucker for pieces that include the other staffers of UNCLE and their perspective on section two, and odindvatre keeps fueling my addiction with her humorous fly-on-the-wall slice-of-life pieces. odindvatre fleshes out the unsung heroes among the support staff and their charming, entertaining conspiracy theories about the true loyalties of our enforcement agents; I find myself wishing that my co-workers were as endearingly quirky as these UNCLE employees. She brilliantly subverts certain fanon clichés about Illya, his ethnic heritage and anti-Soviet sentiment in America almost entirely through dialogue, which is a feat in itself as we're never lost as to who's talking.

Would it be too manipulative to strongly encourage a sequel to this piece? :D

The KGB Spy

Fandom: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN
Pairing: Will Turner/Elizabeth Swann-Turner, James Norrington/Elizabeth Swann-Turner
Length: 20,268 words
Author on LJ: elyse24601
Author Website: Fanfiction.net
Why this must be read: In the wake of At World's End, there were a few million James-on-the-Dutchman stories. I feel that this particular tale is one of the strongest. I love its portrayal of James and his undeserved guilt complex.

Absolution

Fandom: STAR WARS
Pairing: Shmi Skywalker/OC
Length: Novella
Author on LJ: I don't think she's got one.
Author Website: Profile on TheForce.net JC forums, Profile at Fanfiction.net
Why this must be read:

As much as I love this story, I was expecting to have an easier time explaining why. Doesn't everybody need to read a novel about Shmi Skywalker's love life?

No, that's selling it too short--far too limited a description. This story brings Shmi Skywalker to life in ways far beyond her few minutes of screen time in the movies, but utterly consistent with them. You can hear the rhythms of her canonical lines, though the wisdom, I think, is some time growing. She's still Anakin's mother, yes, but the story reaches back before and beyond that role to focus on her story, without denying her role as part of his--it shows her as a person, as a slave, as a friend, as a lover, as a victim of others' cruelty and scheming, as an agent of her own choices that will eventually affect the course of the galaxy, and as someone developing the core of strength to be live boldly, to love, and to be gentle in a harsh world.

There are three layers of nested narrative: the outermost is set during Anakin's childhood, when the subject of fathers comes up among his friends. The second is the tale of the Slumbering Princess--a GFFA-adapted version of Sleeping Beauty, mingling a few known variations of the fairy tale with some universe-specific changes--that Shmi tells him after dealing with his questions. The third is an extended flashback that actually makes up most of the eighteen-chapter story. Don't worry, though, it's not really confusing to follow at all, though I think I was a little startled by the end of the flashback to remember that I'd started reading in a different time period. The flashback starts with the day she meets Kern Bluesand; it ends the morning after Anakin's conception. As you might guess from her lines in the movie, the relationship between these events is somewhat complicated.

The story includes really lovely characterization (including the OCs), a GFFA equivalent to the Underground Railroad, heartbreaking almosts, a heartstopping vision of the two current Sith, and very skillful use of choice details to convey everything from the glories of love to the horrors of slavery without exceeding the TFN boards' rating limits.

The Slumbering Princess (TFN)
The Slumbering Princess (FFN)