Fandom: ANGEL
Pairing: Cordelia/Wesley/Gunn
Length: short
Author on LJ: elenabtvs
Author Website: Elena's Stories
Why this must be read: I always loved the friendship between Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn after Angel threw them out in S2. After they sing "We are the Champions" at Caritas, well, this fic totally seems inevitable. And what a great title for a fic, gah.

and we mean to go on and on and on and on

Fandom: DOCTOR WHO
Pairing: Bit of Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler/Jack Harkness, but no more than you see in canon
Length: 4,408 words
Author on LJ: wendymr
Author Website: The Doctor and Me (incomplete);
Account on A Teaspoon and an Open Mind
Why this must be read: So, I hated "Journey's End." A lot. Like, to the point where I couldn't even make a coherent LJ post about it. To the point where I was going around swearing off Doctor Who for good.

However, wendymr seems determined to make me like this show again, by reminding me of just what I loved about it in the first place, with this wonderful Nine/Rose/Jack piece (so, no actual spoilers for Season Four in the story). Diabolical of her, really. I mean, how can I keep hating something that inspires wonderful moments like:

"Whatever you do when you leave me an’ go back home, don’t go back to workin’ in a shop.” His expression’s very serious, hands buried deep in his jacket pocket, eyes focused intently on her in a way that makes her breath catch. “Get some qualifications, Rose. Do somethin’ that makes you happy, ‘stead of just somethin’ to get by on. Do that for me. No, don’t do it for me,” he amends quickly. “Do it for you. An’ for your dad, and for your mum.”

When Luck Runs Out

Fandom: CANADIAN ACTOR RPF
Pairing: Callum Keith Rennie/Katee Sackhoff, Katee Sackhoff/Jamie Bamber
Length: ~ 4,000 words
Author on LJ: marenfic
Author Website: Maren at Insanejournal
Why this must be read:

Because love triangles are fun! *g* Seriously, the way that marenfic tackles the complexities of the relationships is an absolute joy. I suspect that she might have meant for Jamie to come off as a bit more of an ass than I choose to read him as, but at the end of it all, they are just people, trying to find their happiness where they can.

Seven Virtues, Minus Six

ETA: links updated to permanent AO3 links

Hi, my name is beatrice_otter and I'll be driving the Star Trek van for the Small Fandom of the Month. I'm going to rec from each Star Trek series. I like primarily gen and het, so today's slash rec is a real rarity for me. Trust me, this one's worth it.

Fandom: STAR TREK
Pairing: Jake Sisko/OMC
Length: three stories, each medium/long
Author on LJ: none
Author Website: Macedon's Taberna
Why this must be read:

Macedon was, for years, one of the greats in the Star Trek fanfic world, especially in alt.startrek.creative. It was a great loss for the fandom when he retired from writing fanfiction. Fortunately for us, his website is still available. His story Wisdom and Beauty has already been recced; I'm reccing at least this series, and possibly one other this month. Macedon's greatest gift is the ability to take an idea, a theme, a moral (or a set of them, for his longer works) and make them come to life in the lives and thoughts of his characters. He explores issues realistically, without ever becoming preachy or moralistic or filled with platitudes, and he does it because everything (plot, theme, world-building, etc.) flows naturally from the lives of his characters. He makes every character he writes (original or not) be realistic, three-dimensional, and fascinating.

Jeu-Parti is the three-part story of Jake Sisko, the son of Commander Benjamin Sisko, and his relationship with a Vulcan named Salene. But it's also about more than that. It's about choosing to be different, about choosing to pursue your dreams at the expense of normality, about dealing with society's disapproval, about friendship, about love, about family, about mental illness, about the difficulty of building a relationship--friendship or other--across cultural lines.

( Snippet from Orfeo )

If you don't like slash, you can read the first story without any qualms; each story stands on its own, and the first one is pure friendship. But I would still encourage you to try the other two stories. They're definitely worth reading.

Orfeo. (PG) When Bajor hosts an interstellar music festival, to which a very unusual star singer is invited, Jake must face questions about friendship, manhood and culture, as well as freedoms of belief.
Eye of the Storm. (R) This story is a sequel to the DS9 episode, "Nor the Battle to the Strong," as well as to "Orfeo."
Anslem. (R) Eleven years after his abrupt, late-night departure, Salene reappears in Jake's life. He finds a twenty-nine-year-old Jake whose writing career is beginning to blossom even while his private life is falling apart.

Fandom: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Pairing: Elizabeth/Darcy
Length: approximately 20,000 words
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: The Derbyshire Writer's Guild
Why this must be read:

In the first 'what if' fic this month, mariafaith poses the question: what if Darcy and Lizzy were to meet in London immediately following their acrimonious parting in Kent? She provides us with insight into Darcy’s feelings and wishes, something the intolerably cruel Miss Austen seldom did, as well as Elizabeth’s. In the space of an evening and a morning, tentative hope flowers and is crushed by misunderstanding, much is discussed, and the end is, in fact, only the beginning.

The Theater in May

Fandom: LIFE ON MARS
Pairing: Sam Tyler/Gene Hunt
Length: total series length, approx. 20,000 words
Author on LJ: Loz
Author Website: Fic list on her journal

Why this must be read:
This is actually a series of 7 stories, being:

We Both Go Down Together [NC-17]
Red Right Ankle [PG]
How I Dreamt I Was An Architect [NC-17]
Of Angels and Angles [PG-13]
Billy Liar [PG]
The Perfect Crime #2 [NC-17]
The Sporting Life [PG-13]

Loz's summary is Sam and Gene find themselves in a tight situation and snatch a stolen moment when they're caught in an explosion. After rescue, they have to navigate successful criminal capture with damaged bodies and conflicted emotions.

And that is an excellent summary of a beautifully written series of stories. Sam and Gene are trapped together in a very confined space after an explosion, and it looks for a time as if they will both die. Given that probable scenario, Gene decides to tell Sam things he would probably never have said during the normal course of their lives. While this is a very popular story concept, Loz sucks you in as the story unwinds, because with these two characters as Loz writes them so eloquently, nothing is every straightforward.

It's written in third person present tense, which is a style I tackle only when under the influence of mind-altering substances, but Loz handles it with convincing style, and its immediacy sucks you right into the tale.

A sample: ( Read more... )

Few fan writers just get these characters the way Loz does. Go read the first story WE BOTH GO DOWN TOGETHER and share the pleasure.

Fandom: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Pairing: JD/Casey, but gen
Length: about 5000 words - pretty short
Author on LJ: not that I know of
Author's website: blackraptor
Why this must be read:

Continuing on in my MOMA 2008 report, this is a 'two-fer': not only is it gen, which I normally do not read, but it's also - yes, prepare yourselves, a *tear-jerker* winner, which I can assure you, usually makes me head for the hills, looking for straight bourbon, straight men, and straight-shooting.

But on a - well, dare, if you must know - I allowed myself to be convinced to at least check out one of the gen-winners of the infamous 'Embroidered Hanky Award' for best gen tear-jerker.

I won't lie to anyone - this is a deathfic.  But not - quite - in the way you think.  The ending is . . . fraught with suggestion, but suggestion that I can cope with.  And what's better, the stuff before it is a good rendering of how things might happen after the end of the far-too-short run of this television show we love.

Sarah B. is  a strong writer, the style is clean, the voice of the point-of-view is actually quite believable.  As is the 'present-time' in which the story is set, and the references to the past, some of it canon, some of it post-canon.

It is kinda . . .sniffly, but a hearty dose of Larabee-glare to fortify you before reading will keep away any inconvenient emotional angst.  And the ending is just on the right side of soothing.

Promises