October 27th, 2009 
09:43 am Unexpected by Shayheyred (R)
Fandom: SHAKESPEARE -- RICHARD II
Pairing: Richard II/Bolingbroke
Length: 1790 words
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] shayheyred
Author Website: Today's Menu at Chez Shay
Why this must be read: Richard II is one of the Histories that doesn't get a whole lot of love. That's understandable; Richard II is sort of in the middle of the pack as far as colorful English royalty goes, and the play has a complicated plot that involves the niceties of feudal politics, and you have to know not only who the major characters are, but also how they're related to each other, who they're descended from, and a little something about the laws of medieval French succession. For people four hundred years from now, following the plot of Enron: The Smartest People In The Room will be like this.

Shayheyred neatly sidesteps all of this. She gives us two men caught up in a relationship as complicated personally as it is politically. They wrestle with love, jealousy, their own insecurities and weaknesses, and the bitterness of the way that they finally part. Richard and Bolingbroke are real, flesh-and-blood people whose attraction is almost palpable. It's also one of the very few stories written in the second person that I've ever really enjoyed. That's how good it is.

Richard is late )
crack_van: (Default)
11:36 pm Third (time is the charm, or so someone told Ray once) by lalejandra (R)
Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski
Length: 9,500 words
Author: [livejournal.com profile] lalejandra
Author Website: Fanfic and Sundries
Why this must be read:
You have to love a post-CotW story in which Ray is depressed and possibly gay and Fraser is hopeful and efficient. Or I do. Like, a lot. The way Ray works through his thought process - without ever apparently thinking at all - is delightful.

Ray's headache just gets worse and worse and doesn't get better, especially when he starts playing through Fraser greeting him warmly as though Ray had been gone on a day trip to Yellowknife to sleep with a hooker or something, and then they live together forever in stupid Canadian bliss with no fighting and no problems and they chase down litterbugs and save the environment and sometimes have barbeques or something.

crack_van: (Default)
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