Yuletide recs
Dec. 29th, 2007 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
st_aurafinaFirstly, I received three (THREE!) ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
yuletide gifts this year!
"Battle" (Ladyhawke, G)
This is a tiny gem captured in a haiku, and it's small and perfect.
"Waiting for a Sign", (Ladyhawke, G)
A prequel, just as the curse has settled on Etienne and Isabeau, this is sweet and sad.
"The Journey West", (American Gods, G)
The story of how Monkey comes to America, perfectly in tune with the story-telling style of American Gods - sharp and clever and dripping with history and culture.
Thank you, mystery authors! It's the best Yuletide ever!
I'm reading in a scatty, swoop-and-peck kind of way, because this is the busiest time of the year at work, and things are frantic, but I wanted to share some recs, in fandoms I've read so far:
1602
"Renaissance Portraits"
Elizabethan miniatures of Pyro, Mystique, Wolverine and Rojhaz. Beautifully written, and a really imaginative take on the movieverse characters in the 1602 universe.
"Something Like the Sun" (PG, Scotius/Werner)
Werner calls Scotius a Scottish Puritan, and Scotius calls Werner a Bavarian drunkard; Werner replies that his mother was in fact from Westphalia, and his father an Englishman, and Scotius asks how he came to believe that the latter fact is anything at all to take pride in.
This is set after the events of the original series, and it picks delicately and sweetly through the tangled relationships between John, Werner and Scotius.
James Bond - Casino Royale
I don't know whether to ascribe the great stories in this fandom to the movie itself, or to Queen of Spades by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
astolat. Whichever, James Bond gets to be gritty and hot in Yuletide this year, and we all win because of that.
"Hardly Chastened" (NC-17, Bond/OMC)
This is all about the push and pull between M and 007, dry and blistering, and the OMC is so horribly, cruelly irrelevant.
"Operating Instructions" (R, Bond/OMC, Bond/M)
M is brilliant in this one, clever and ambitious and feline. Bond is calculating, his personality deliberately pared away to the point of psychosis. The characterisation is set against a well-written espionage plot.
Diana Gabaldon - Lord John Grey series
"Aid and Comfort" (R, John/Hector)
This is beautiful and sad - a look at John at Culloden, from his older brother's POV. The choice of Hal as the POV character is interesting and compassionately handled.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
"The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" (PG-13)
Warnings: slash, femslash, het, OC, RPF, songfic, mpreg, implied non-con, implied BDSM, unauthorized reference to an infamous Yuletide story from 2005, character death, nudity, recreational drug use, potential tarnishing of childhood icons, potential tarnishing of childhood, tortured logic, tortured prose, clichés, and one scene of an FDA-banned use of a chicken.
I'm lying about the chicken.
Probably.
Every year, Yuletide spawns a one-of-a-kind fic for an extremely unlikely fandom, and this is one of those. It's funny, fast and wicked and the warning at the top of the page sets the scene perfectly.
CS Lewis - Chronicles of Narnia
Again, this is a fandom that traditionally produces beautiful fic every year at Yuletide. This year there's over twenty fics, and they're all good. I've chosen a couple with interesting POVs.
"Before Once Upon a Time" (G)
This is the story of the two sister Queens of Charn, the home of the White Queen, whom Diggory and Polly awaken in The Magician's Nephew. It takes a very CS Lewis approach, showing how dark feelings properly exploited can break a world.
"Three True Things About Archenland" (G)
A story of Cor and Aravis adjusting to life in Archenland - the climate, the culture and their new roles in life.
Barbara Hambly - Those Who Hunt the Night
"The Inconstant Moon" (PG)
This is a perfect take on Barbara Hambly's Victorian setting of her vampire novel - espionage, Victorian science and mystery, from Lydia's point of view before she has qualified as a doctor or married James.
Top Ten - The Forty-Niners
"Beneath the Moon" (NC-17, Steve/Wulf)
I loved the dynamic between these two characters that was established in the book, and this is a lovely chance to see a little more of it - complicated, compassionate, and hot.
RPF - Comic Industry
"The Adventures of Mistress Gail and the Unfortunate Fates of Dan DiDio and Frank Miller" (R)
This? This is a tonic. If you've ever cried over the treatment of a character you've loved, or over the sheer lunk-headedness of something these two gentlemen have ever said, then read this, and heal.
"Ten Scenes from Friendship with Alan Moore" (PG-13)
This is a peek into the strange and random life of Alan Moore, as seen by Neil Gaiman. It's sweet, and pokes gentle fun at the rest of the world.
V for Vendetta (comic)
It's hard for me read in this fandom - the canon source is wracking, but I can't resist the chance to explore the characters.
"Valediction" (PG-13)
Five acts from V's point of view, set before the comic begins, beautiful and bitter and fierce.
"Nor Shall My Sword Sleep In My Hand (PG)
Finch staggers from the chaos at the end of the comic, and finds purpose.
Yuletide is brilliant. Everyone writes to the best of their abilities, and the fic is the best I read all year, but one of the best things about Yuletide is that it drives me to the book store to buy more comics and books and movies and TV shows. It counters every argument that fanfic is damaging to the authors of the material we write about. I can't wait until next year.
yuletide gifts this year! "Battle" (Ladyhawke, G)
This is a tiny gem captured in a haiku, and it's small and perfect.
"Waiting for a Sign", (Ladyhawke, G)
A prequel, just as the curse has settled on Etienne and Isabeau, this is sweet and sad.
"The Journey West", (American Gods, G)
The story of how Monkey comes to America, perfectly in tune with the story-telling style of American Gods - sharp and clever and dripping with history and culture.
Thank you, mystery authors! It's the best Yuletide ever!
I'm reading in a scatty, swoop-and-peck kind of way, because this is the busiest time of the year at work, and things are frantic, but I wanted to share some recs, in fandoms I've read so far:
1602
"Renaissance Portraits"
Elizabethan miniatures of Pyro, Mystique, Wolverine and Rojhaz. Beautifully written, and a really imaginative take on the movieverse characters in the 1602 universe.
"Something Like the Sun" (PG, Scotius/Werner)
Werner calls Scotius a Scottish Puritan, and Scotius calls Werner a Bavarian drunkard; Werner replies that his mother was in fact from Westphalia, and his father an Englishman, and Scotius asks how he came to believe that the latter fact is anything at all to take pride in.
This is set after the events of the original series, and it picks delicately and sweetly through the tangled relationships between John, Werner and Scotius.
James Bond - Casino Royale
I don't know whether to ascribe the great stories in this fandom to the movie itself, or to Queen of Spades by
astolat. Whichever, James Bond gets to be gritty and hot in Yuletide this year, and we all win because of that. "Hardly Chastened" (NC-17, Bond/OMC)
This is all about the push and pull between M and 007, dry and blistering, and the OMC is so horribly, cruelly irrelevant.
"Operating Instructions" (R, Bond/OMC, Bond/M)
M is brilliant in this one, clever and ambitious and feline. Bond is calculating, his personality deliberately pared away to the point of psychosis. The characterisation is set against a well-written espionage plot.
Diana Gabaldon - Lord John Grey series
"Aid and Comfort" (R, John/Hector)
This is beautiful and sad - a look at John at Culloden, from his older brother's POV. The choice of Hal as the POV character is interesting and compassionately handled.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
"The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" (PG-13)
Warnings: slash, femslash, het, OC, RPF, songfic, mpreg, implied non-con, implied BDSM, unauthorized reference to an infamous Yuletide story from 2005, character death, nudity, recreational drug use, potential tarnishing of childhood icons, potential tarnishing of childhood, tortured logic, tortured prose, clichés, and one scene of an FDA-banned use of a chicken.
I'm lying about the chicken.
Probably.
Every year, Yuletide spawns a one-of-a-kind fic for an extremely unlikely fandom, and this is one of those. It's funny, fast and wicked and the warning at the top of the page sets the scene perfectly.
CS Lewis - Chronicles of Narnia
Again, this is a fandom that traditionally produces beautiful fic every year at Yuletide. This year there's over twenty fics, and they're all good. I've chosen a couple with interesting POVs.
"Before Once Upon a Time" (G)
This is the story of the two sister Queens of Charn, the home of the White Queen, whom Diggory and Polly awaken in The Magician's Nephew. It takes a very CS Lewis approach, showing how dark feelings properly exploited can break a world.
"Three True Things About Archenland" (G)
A story of Cor and Aravis adjusting to life in Archenland - the climate, the culture and their new roles in life.
Barbara Hambly - Those Who Hunt the Night
"The Inconstant Moon" (PG)
This is a perfect take on Barbara Hambly's Victorian setting of her vampire novel - espionage, Victorian science and mystery, from Lydia's point of view before she has qualified as a doctor or married James.
Top Ten - The Forty-Niners
"Beneath the Moon" (NC-17, Steve/Wulf)
I loved the dynamic between these two characters that was established in the book, and this is a lovely chance to see a little more of it - complicated, compassionate, and hot.
RPF - Comic Industry
"The Adventures of Mistress Gail and the Unfortunate Fates of Dan DiDio and Frank Miller" (R)
This? This is a tonic. If you've ever cried over the treatment of a character you've loved, or over the sheer lunk-headedness of something these two gentlemen have ever said, then read this, and heal.
"Ten Scenes from Friendship with Alan Moore" (PG-13)
This is a peek into the strange and random life of Alan Moore, as seen by Neil Gaiman. It's sweet, and pokes gentle fun at the rest of the world.
V for Vendetta (comic)
It's hard for me read in this fandom - the canon source is wracking, but I can't resist the chance to explore the characters.
"Valediction" (PG-13)
Five acts from V's point of view, set before the comic begins, beautiful and bitter and fierce.
"Nor Shall My Sword Sleep In My Hand (PG)
Finch staggers from the chaos at the end of the comic, and finds purpose.
Yuletide is brilliant. Everyone writes to the best of their abilities, and the fic is the best I read all year, but one of the best things about Yuletide is that it drives me to the book store to buy more comics and books and movies and TV shows. It counters every argument that fanfic is damaging to the authors of the material we write about. I can't wait until next year.