Hi, all! I'll be driving the Crack Van for Rurouni Kenshin this November. A lot of my recs are going to be pretty old-school, but I'll try to include some great new stuff as well!

Fandom: RUROUNI KENSHIN
Pairing: Kenshin/Kaoru, mentions of Yahiko/Tsubame and Sano/Megumi
Author on LJ: sekiharatae
Author Website: The Akabeko
Why this must be read: Let's party like it's 1999! This fic won the RK Reader's Choice Awards that year. It's an extremely funny fic in which Kenshin is strong-armed into giving The Talk to Yahiko, and does so by recounting the way that Hiko gave him his own Talk as a boy. It's also a great fic for getting more of the characters we know and love, since all the characters' personalities and voices are very distinct in this fic.

Lessons

Fandom:STARSKY AND HUTCH
Pairing:None
Length:231K
Author on LJ:fee_folay
Author Website:http://meandthee.shahrazad.net/author.php?authorid=163

Why this must be read:This is a very angsty read. John Colby is back and he's out to get Hutch and Starsky. If you like a good mystery, it doesn't get much better than this. This is how the author describes her story:"Like in eternal damnation, like in 'Paradise Lost'!"

"What about what John said in the courtroom."

Hutch shrugged. "Grandstanding, Starsk. John was just trying to save face."

Starsky reached out and snagged his partner by the arm.

Hutch jerked his arm but didn't quite pull away.

"He said if he ever got the chance he would come after you and this time he would kill you. " Starsky face twisted with a quiet sort of pain too familiar to both of them. "I didn't sound like grandstanding to me, Hutch. It sounded like a promise, like that time Colby told Alfred Needermyer he'd get him for laughing at him on the obstacle course. You remember what happened to Needermyer, Hutch?"

Hutch rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "Starsky. Nobody ever proved..."

"No. You're right." Starsky voice was low and level, but it crackled with an potency that would not be denied. "Nobody ever proved a thing, but you and I both know that thing with the climbing rope wasn't an accident."

Hutch was getting angry. Cold, blue eyes glared at Starsky. "No, we don't know that! John said he didn't do it!"


Bottomless Perdition

Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing: (slash) J/B
Length: 175,208 words (total; posted in three parts)
Author on LJ: fluterbev
Author Website: Fluterbev's Fanfiction (on Dreamwidth)

WARNINGS: per author's notes on the first arc of the story: "There are a number of potentially triggering themes in this story. These include:
* Male rape (not shown, though the aftermath is alluded to frequently).
* Suicidal thoughts.
* References to molestation and rape of female characters. This is not graphically depicted."

Why this must be read: The Night Terrors is a (novel-length — long enough to revel in) fantasy AU that beautifully creates and sustains a mythic feeling and style in a richly built world, one that lingers long after you read it. And it has one heck of a plot, with pacing that feels natural and inventiveness that makes for satisfying — and gripping — reading.

As always in Bev's fic, the emotional connection between Blair and Jim (James here) is strong and deeply affecting. I especially love seeing Jim through the lens of this world as James: he's even more the protector of his tribe than he is in canon (on a broader and more powerful, political, responsibility-laden basis, which…okay, appears to be a kink of mine about Jim. Who knew?). Bev fits various other TS canon characters into the world she's made in plotty and fascinating ways that remain true to the essence of those characters, and several well-done original characters also play small but vital parts.

The Night Terrors themselves — I'm in so much love with them, it's practically embarrassing (it can't be right to love monsters — if that's what you call them — can it?). They're scary (truly, truly scary). I'm not going to say anything else about them, much as I want to, because you need to discover them through the unfolding of the story (and oh, you really do need to discover them, they're such wonderful monsters).

This is most definitely a world worth immersing yourself in. (And if you like angst and h/c, or, you know, are deeply addicted to them ::points shamelessly at self:: — this fic has so very much to offer in the action and the developing relationship between James and Blair that gets challenged to its very core.)

< /barely scratching the surface review >

Links to The Night Terrors:
  ~  on Dreamwidth (scroll down to Slash Stories section)
  ~  at Archive of Our Own
 
 

Fandom: A-TEAM MOVIE!VERSE
Pairing: H/F/M/BA (or as we’ve taken to calling it, H-BAMF)
Length: 13,500
Author on LJ: napalmedsteak
Author Website: Napalmedsteak's LJ
Why this must be read:

I love the angst with the boys - and believe me, we’re going to see quite a bit of it this month! - but I also love the lighter side of the team, where they’re acting like big kids, pulling pranks on each other, making mistakes or just generally having a good time. And of course, I do love me some sweaty, hot, grinding smut as well. And there are a few very special stories somehow manage to combine all three of those elements.

This one by napalmedsteak is a great example of that. Hannibal gets quite sad after a less than ideal performance at a nightclub, and Face and Murdock decide to cheer him up. With Viagra. I think you can see where this is going, and believe me, it gets there in spectacular style. I swear, I’m addicted to her stuff; she writes some amazingly hot stories that somehow rarely seem to descend into PWPs. Totally, totally worth it!

Hard Day’s Night Part One

Hard Day’s Night Part Two

Fandom: SUITS
Pairing: Mike/Harvey
Length: 13,656
Author on LJ: maja_li
Author Website: AO3 page and lj masterlist

Why this must be read: Because maja_li's writing is crisp, her humor sharp and her characters really, really spot on. Because this deals with one of my favorite tropes, which is Mike figuring out how to be an adult, at least financially. Because Harvey here has just enough humanity and dorkiness. Basically, because it's awesome.

( Excerpt: )

Sweet Thang