Fandom: CRIMINAL MINDS
Pairing: Derek Morgan/Aaron Hotchner
Length: 550 & 700 words
Author on LJ: innerslytherin
Author Website: Fic List or Thestral Excrement
Why this must be read:

( Possible spoilers for 4x01: Mayhem in the review )


( Hotch didn't speak, but he tightened his fingers on Derek's. Derek bowed his head and kept his gaze on the knot of strong hands, light and dark skin, blood still rimming Hotch's fingernails, knuckles abraded. )


Respite by Innerslytherin

and its sequel

Coda by Innerslytherin

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Last week, I tried to illustrate the diversity in Hot Fuzz fanfic by recommending a variety of stories from different genres. This week, I would like to delve into the earlier work, written in the months after the movie's release. Many of them have similar themes, but use different means and skills to showcase them.

Fandom: Hot Fuzz
Pairing: Nicholas/Danny
Length: 4,593 words all together
Author on LJ: ldhenson
Author Website: unknown
Why this must be read:

This is a beautifully written exploration of Nicholas as he realizes, and struggles with, his attraction to Danny. Told in three parts, this story weaves memory and interaction together to form a thoughtful portrait of a man who has failed in previous relationships and fears what furthering this new one may damage. Throughout the entire story, I feel I am inside Nicholas's head completely and believe this is exactly what he may think. That is, I believe, the heart of true characterization. Added to this, her Danny is a wonderful amalgamation of enthusiastic boyishness and hidden maturity that I adore.

( A brief taste. )



And Not Be Moved By You
(part 1)
(part 2)
(part 3)

Fandom: PROS (THE PROFESSIONALS)
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle
Length: 900k
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: HG at The Hatstand and HG at The Circuit (there are slightly different story lists at each archive)
Why this must be read: Because the time has come to put meat on some classic Pros bones. One of the things I love about Pros is how many long stories there are out there, especially in zines. And a maestro of the form is HG. For years HG has been zine only (and you’re really not a Pros fan, btw, unless you’ve got some in your collection:)). However, over the last year some of her stories have finally started coming online, so I thought I’d rec this novel, one of my favourites of hers.

The idea is to strap yourself in with HG, because her thing is emotional rollercoasters. She’ll bring the lads together, then separate them spectacularly, then bring them back inch by painful emotionally satisfying inch, as she does here. In Jigsaw they spend more than a year apart and out of CI5, only brought back into the fold with screaming reluctance. She teases their reunion and its aftermath out perfectly - the buried pain and missteps of their past, the world of CI5 and its new agents, the case they’re assigned – all must be worked out if something new is to evolve between them. And it’s all wrapped round her familiar gift for angst, hurt/comfort, great dialogue, warm, spiky humour, and characters you’re right there with, willing to succeed.
( an excerpt, near the beginning )
Jigsaw Puzzle, Part One ( links to 2-6)

I just realized I've been neglecting to put ratings on these recs. Sorry! I've gone back and edited those previous posts.

Fandom: M*A*S*H
Pairing: Hawkeye/BJ, Radar/Henry (mild)
Length: 2,730 words
Rating: PG
Author on LJ: garnettrees
Author Website: Demando Dot Net
Why this must be read:

Meredith has an interesting take on Radar's telepathy that shouldn't be missed. And I could truly hear Gary Burghoff saying these words, which should be the goal of every author writing a character piece. The award this story won a while back was well deserved.

( Read more... )

I May Know The Word

Fandom: TOY SOLDIERS
Pairing: Billy Tepper/Joey Trotta, Ensemble Cast
Length: 3000 words
Author on LJ: vissy
Why this must be read: This story was written for me in the 2006 Yuletide Treasure fic exchange. vissy has done an absolutely outstanding job of capturing the characters' voices, and she also got the group dynamic down pat. If this piece doesn't leave you grinning like a loon, I'll be shocked. It's nothing short of delightful.

(Pluck On Laughter)

Hello! I'm Phoebe, and I'll be doing the driving for Yami no Matsuei this month.

I know, I know. Another bloody anime/manga series you've never heard of, or think maybe you might have heard of but aren't sure because all these animanga titles sound more or less alike to you. But -- Well, allow me to quote an anonymous Stranger To YnM 's reaction to her first glimpse of it:

All I knew about this fandom was:

Nothing, and fucking hell was my life empty for it.

Beautiful, fragmentary, permanently unfinished* and dreamlike in its shifting, treacherous narrative threads (irrational to the point of almost-incoherence, but at the same time suggestive of some order underneath, a logic almost but not quite graspable), YnM is what you might think of as an Arthurian-source kind of text. Like the Matter of Britain, it can and does support many different interpretations, both of character and of core narrative. And like the Matter of Britain, it deals in issues that are the stuff of myth and philosophy: destiny; death and the flight from death; what it is to be human; the end of the world, and a new heaven and a new earth. At the same time, its issues are the stuff of genre epic: True Love, detective work, fights with monsters, inappropriate attractions to enemies, bureaucratic infighting, court intrigue, and -- this is VERY IMPORTANT -- the quest for dessert.

It's a fun series, but more than that, it's an extraordinary fandom. boniblithe and ranalore wrote a wonderful fandom overview for YnM's first appearance on crack_van back in 2004. But the images have (temporarily, I hope and believe) disappeared from that overview, and believe me, you want the images. Follow me beneath the cut and I'll show you why.

ETA: You'll need to click the images for the full-size versions; LJ has shrunk my attempt to post legible pictures down to thumbnail size. She said, cursing under her breath.

( I'll make it worth your while. Promise. )

Title: Keep the Home Fires Burning
Fandom: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Pairing: None; Gen
Rating: Teen
Length: Short
Author on LJ: indiefic
Author Website: None known, except for the author's LJ
Why this must be read:

Author's Summary: Of all the painful lessons Sarah struggled to teach her son, the ones she hadn’t intended him to learn were the ones that burned the most.

Like my last rec, this one focuses on the relationship between Sarah and John. Even more than that though, this is a story that focuses on Sarah. It shows us how she became the woman who would raise the John Connor.

And it hurts like hell.

( Excerpt )

Keep the Home Fires Burning

Fandom: YAMI NO MATSUEI
Pairing: Tsuzuki/Watari
Length: about 3000 words; oneshot
Author on LJ: childofatlantis
Author Website: atalan_fic

Why this must be read:

childofatlantis is an amazing writer, and I can't think of a single thing she's written that isn't worth your attention. But I'm leading off my month of recs with this one because it combines the virtue of being accessible for a reader with even the most minimal knowledge of the fandom with a remarkable precision and sensitivity of observation, and because it's one of those amazing stories that gains in depth and resonance with rereading, and as a reader comes to know more about the series.

And last but by no means least, because it's one of the funniest stories in the history of ever.

Four Days of Doughnuts and an Evening of Eclairs

Fandom: PRIMEVAL
Pairing: None
Length: one-shot, around 7,000 words
Author on LJ: lsellersfic
Author Website: Louise Scribblings
Why this must be read:

There aren't many stories in the fandom that have a harder SF edge, but this is one of the best exceptions. It's an eerie little story, one in which - in spite of its relatively short length - the world building is strong and gives a sense of the way that timelines colliding can really mess things up. In short, Nick comes out on the other side of an anomaly and realises just how much Helen's experiments have changed everything.

It's a very interesting, and creepy, idea, and lsellersfic runs with it and runs with it well. What makes it particularly interesting is the fact that it's not told from Nick's point of view, which adds another eerie edge to it.

( Extract )

Dragonfly over Kazakhstan

Fandom: LAW & ORDER (ORIGINAL)
Pairing: Michael Cutter, Connie Rubirosa
Length: 1,048 words
Author on LJ: clearbell
Author Website: (or a link to where more of their fic is archived)
Why this must be read: Because it's lovely :)

It's a wonderful introduction to the current characters. L&O Original is so averse to revealing anything about the characters that it takes patience and persistence to piece together their personalities, their possible interactions outside of the office, their real feelings about each other... and this story does all of that, beautifully.

Excerpt: She looks out the window of the diner, at the people struggling to stay upright in the snow. No sign of him yet, but that’s not unusual, because he’s chronically late. It occurs to her that she now spends half her life waiting for him.

Settling