Hi everyone, I'm very glad to drive the van for a specific small fandom: stories about characters portrayed by actor Michael Biehn in various movies and TV series.

Some of those characters are better known than others, like Kyle Reese from Terminator, Cpl. Dwayne Hicks from Aliens, Johnny Ringo from Tombstone, Lt. Hiram Coffey from the Abyss and Chris Larabee from the TV series the Magnificent Seven, but there are some very good stories about lesser known characters as well that I'll certainly hope to rec. I will rec gen, het and slash stories.

I won't be reccing stories about Chris Larabee though, since the Magnificent Seven is a featured fandom here.

For my first rec I'll start with what might very well be his best-known movie, the one that gave him his breakthrough: The Terminator.


Fandom: MICHAEL BIEHN CHARACTERS - KYLE REESE IN TERMINATOR
Pairing: Kyle Reese/Sarah Connors, but it's basically a gen story
Length: both stories have a length of about a long page
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: The fiction archive on the Phoenix Michael Biehn site

Why this must be read:

I think I'm not the only one who was very sad to see the tragic hero Kyle Reese die at the end of the movie. Before that we saw him fight to save Sarah and also try and make sense of the world he had been thrown into, our world.

These two stories of Kath Tate explore how it would have been for Kyle if he hadn't died, but survived in the end. How would he have reacted to living in our world without a Terminator chasing them? But with the doom of the future still hanging over them? The stories are poignant and yet have a nice, subtle humor, without ever diminishing how Kyle might have reacted to what he encounters in the world before Doomsday.


Where roots will grow - Sarah wants them to stop running and put down some roots which, for Kyle, isn't easy.

There has to be some magic - Sarah tries to make see Kyle the joy of Christmas, but things don't go all that smoothly, especially when Kyle finds himself fighting through the winter weather to try and get home.

My second rec is also from one of Michael Biehn's most famous movies, Aliens.


Fandom: MICHAEL BIEHN CHARACTERS - CPL. DWAYNE HICKS FROM ALIENS
Pairing: -
Length: about 110 kb (and I hope I did that right) or in other words: nicely long, but not overlong
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: the author has her stories on the fanfic net
Warning: violence (hey, it's Aliens!)

Why this must be read:

It's hard to find a good Aliens story, and with that I mean one who manages to capture that battle between the marines and those frightful predators as depicted in the movie. Maybe that's because almost everyone died in the movie...  But this story does just that: capture the grittiness, awfulness and plain horror of fighting against such an alien and ferocious enemy. A fight for your life. And Cpl. Dwayne Hicks is in the middle of it, knowing full well what they are facing even if no one else does.

Very well written, and a small movie in itself.


Presence of the Predator

Hi all! I'm ladyoneill aka Laure Alexander and I'm driving the van for Buffy and Angel, my very first fandom! I'm so excited to be doing so, as I've been in the fandom since the middle of Season 2. Yes, that long ago! Back in the beginning there were only a couple of email lists, no yahoogroups (or its predecessors), only a few archives for fanfic, certainly no LJ, and only about a hundred writers. Boy have things changed! It's a great pleasure to see the fandom continuing to thrive with new fans and writers arriving all the time, but I'm going to share with you some of those old, old gems of stories, written back when the fandom was new and small. While there are great stories being produced today, most of my favorites are ten years old at least. While many of the authors are long gone or moved onto other fandoms, some of the fics are still available online, and I've managed to find several of my favorites. Most of the stories will be BtVS for the simple fact that, in many cases, AtS didn't exist yet, but there will be many 'ships as, well, I read everything back then and shipper wars were pretty much non-existent!

Fandom: BTVS/ATS
Pairing: Buffy/Spike
Length: Twenty two chapters
Author on LJ:burningeden
Author Website: Burning Eden
Why this must be read:Chelle starts with the idea that Buffy is crippled and develops a beautiful, plot and character driven story that intertwines some of the themes of Season 4, going off in new directions on many of them. Buffy is bitter and frustrated and both Giles and Joyce are overwhelmed. There is one person, though, who understands her. Spike. Spike is chipped and Chelle writes him as he was in Season 4--brash, bold, belligerent--and not in love with the Slayer, at least not at first. Everyone is wonderfully depicted, including Angel. Maggie Walsh is used in an interesting way and there are some new characters as well, all well fleshed-out. A few later chapters are co-written by syzylynx of Secrets & Lies fame which I would be reccing like crazy if it was finished. Her Spike and Buffy mesh beautifully with Chelle's vision of the pair. Oh, and there's hot sex, pain, angst, more pain, and fighting, too. Just a great fic!

( excerpt )

Walking After Midnight

Hey there :) I'm Lissa, and I'm getting my first set of wings and flying the Raptor this month. I'm a big fan of fic for the second-tier characters, so most of my recs have their actors credited after the main credits are done.

Fandom: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
Pairing: mention of Tory/Baltar, but it's really Tory gen
Length: ~5000
Author on LJ: frolicndetour
Author Website:
Why this must be read: Tory is far from my favorite character, but unfortunately, she really got the one dimensional treatment in the show. I don't mind her being a villain, but I do mind her being simplistic and boring. Fortunately, there's this fic. This fic takes what we've been given of Tory and fleshes her out, taking the Tory we met pre-Crossroads (you know, the one that actually stood a chance of being interesting), and extending her story into Season 4 and everything with Cally. I don't remotely like Tory any better after reading this fic, but I understand her and I feel like she actually got a story from it. frolicndetour really does a great job of getting that cold, practical feeling of Tory down without turning her into a drooling evil monster, and I could believe that this was really what was going on in Tory's head.

Light at the End

Hello, everyone! I'm horseriderjen and I'm back for another round in the driver's seat! Fasten your seat belts :)

Fandom: DOCTOR WHO
Pairing: Doctor/Rose
Length: ~50,000
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: Rallalon's author page on Teaspoon
Why this must be read:

    One of the main themes of Doctor Who is the fact that the Doctor is always jumping around through time - I mean, thats what he does. This story however is different,  though he is still traveling, Rose is the one jumping in at different times, just when the Doctor needs her the most. The Doctor is traveling on the slow path, and of course, being the Doctor and all, hes not very happy about it.  Rallalon writes beautifully the Doctor's thoughts coming up on the Time War, then his healing after...up until he meets Rose for her first time, and then beyond.

He stands, wishes he were taller again. "You’re not going to tell me your name, are you?"

"Not when I’ve already told you," she says and he can’t imagine how that simple contradiction could feel so significant.

"When?" He doesn’t know her time period, but he can guess her planet. He knows a London accent when he hears one, thinks he’s thinking of the right London.

"Not yet," she tells him and something in her eyes tells him that she’s seeing a different face. She turns from him, crosses to the door.

"Will I love you?" he calls after her, jumbling his pronouns as her hand touches the door handle. He can’t think, can’t move, can’t care that all of his clothes are still on the floor.

She smiles at him over her shoulder, bright and shining and mystifying and fantastic. "Don’t you already?"

She walks out of his life and into his future.

Non-Linear Love Story

Hi! I'm sionnain, and I'll be driving the van for due South this month. ::waves:: I'm a relative newbie to dS fandom, and I'm really super enthusiastic and squeeful about how much I love this fandom and all the awesome fic it produces. (Seriously, so awesome). I have a lovely list of favorite stories to share with y'all, yay!

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski/Ray Vecchio
Length: 24,700
Author on LJ: brynnmck
Author Website: http://www.tandtweb.com/brynnhome.html
Why this must be read:

When I first got into due South fandom, I figured out in about three seconds I was going to 'ship Fraser/Kowalski/Vecchio. I love the way they compliment each other, I love the way they work together, I love everything about this threesome. And I have probably, no lie, read this fic at *least* six thousand times; I've seriously read it so many times, I think I could recite it to you. ;) There are laugh-out-loud lines, hot hot HOT sex, a sense of shared history that makes me flail and flap my hands around in glee a lot, and the characters are just *pitch perfect*.

Also, the ending makes me tear up every single time I read it. Enjoy!

( Read this excerpt, yay! )

Just Geography

Okay, I thought I was going to rec something funny after that last one, and this one starts funny... and introduces another one of my favorite themes, clones. There will be more clones, I promise.

Fandom: MARVEL COMICS -- Iron Man movieverse
Pairing: Tony Stark/Tony Stark. Sort of.
Length: 2,800
Author on LJ: th_esaurus
Author Website: fic_saurus
Why this must be read:

Well, if this doesn't convince you, I'm not sure what will:

"Planning something ridiculous?" Jarvis asked him, when Tony had him take a full-body scan, butt naked, and to extract the DNA from a couple of blood samples. "Pretty much," Tony replied.

Tony solves his problems with SCIENCE and SHINY TECHNOLOGY and yeah. Clones are just a logical extension of that tendency.

This story manages hilarity and creepiness and angst and spot-on characterization all in one package. It sucks you in with the very Tonyness of Tony's solution to having to attend boring events when he'd rather be saving the world, and then... runs with it.

"And what happens when you get bored of it?" Pepper insisted, her fingers bunched tight into her palms. "When you get older and it doesn't? When it's no longer useful?"

Indeed.

Magic Mirrors Never Lie

And I wanted to rec this Aliens story immediately after the previous one. Because this one could have happened, like a missing scene, seen and experienced from Hicks' POV.

Fandom: MICHAEL BIEHN CHARACTERS - CPL. DWAYNE HICKS FROM ALIENS
Pairing:  Hicks/Hudson
Length: short
Author on LJ: the_summoning_d
Author Website: unknown

Why this must be read:
Because this is so utterly, utterly canon, a rare thing with Aliens stories. Hicks is, well, Hicks, and Hudson is also exactly that, Hudson. Trying to keep it together. And the end is bittersweet.... Because, well, you known, it's Aliens.


Excerpt:

“We fucked this one up big time, didn’t we?”
“True.”
“We probably don’t have long left,”
“It’s likely.”
“I don’t want to die like this.”
“Too bad.”

He laughed bitterly and ran a hand through his hair. Although I’d never admit it, the hopelessness of our situation was getting to me too. This was the first time I’d ever been certain we weren’t going to make it. It was frightening, but at the same time liberating. When death is imminent, everything else is put into perspective. You do things you wouldn’t do under normal circumstances, because you know you won’t have to deal with the consequences.

He kissed me. And because it seemed like a good idea at the time, I kissed him back.


Gunshots and cigarettes

Hi, I'm snycock, and I'm back to drive The Sentinel van for September! The last time I had the keys, I was on a gen binge, but this time I'll be reccing a mix of gen and slash.

Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing: pre-slash (Jim/Blair)
Length: almost 400k
Author on LJ: gillyp
Author Website: temporarily down, but you can find her stories here
Why this must be read:

This is an AU that starts at the beginning of the fourth season. Blair survived his ordeal at the fountain, but walked away from the hospital one night eight months ago, and hasn't been seen since. Jim is convinced that he's still alive, and in trouble somewhere, and he won't stop searching for him, even if it means his job. How he finds Blair, and what happened to him, is a wonderfully engrossing tale. But don't start reading too late at night - you won't be able to stop until you get to the end! If you like angst and hurt/comfort, then this is the story for you. Here's an excerpt to tempt you:

( That night, Jim dreamed of the jungle... )

And don't forget to check out the slash sequel, Angel Dust.

Chasing Rainbows
Angel Dust

Hi! I'm Ender and I will be your reccer for Smallville for September.
SV fandom, and especially Clark/Lex were the main reason, why I was starting to be active fannish-wise, after years of lurking :)
So, driving crack_van this month seems like a perfect excuse to revisit some of my favorite stories! I hope, you will enjoy them along the way with me!

Fandom: SMALLVILLE
Pairing: Clark/Lex
Length: 52K
Author on LJ: nymphaea1
Author Website: -
Why this must be read:
(  the must-read reasons turned into sort of ramblings...therefor cut!  )


There are precisely twenty-nine people lying in Smallville cemetery because of the meteors, because Clark failed to keep them breathing. Sarah will make an even thirty. They'll lay her finally to rest in same dark earth that holds her latest three victims, just a few plots away from her first: Derek Morello, one time Smallville High soccer goalie and captain of the Math-letes. Future husband of Sarah Johnston, though everyone had scoffed at that. No one finds their destiny in high school.
........

He isn't human, and there is no room for him in human error.

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