Elizabeth Culmer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
edenfalling) wrote2008-12-31 11:59 pm
edenfalling) wrote2008-12-31 11:59 pm
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Yuletide 2008 recs, just under the wire of anonymity
Happy New Year! Here are 23 Yuletide 2008 recs, just under the wire of anonymity. Fandoms include Captain Britain and MI-13, Eve Forward - Villains by Necessity, Guy Gavriel Kay - The Lions of Al-Rassan, Jim Butcher - The Dresden Files, Joan D. Vinge - Psion trilogy, Karin Lowachee - Warchild trilogy, L. Frank Baum - Oz series, Lloyd Alexander - The Chronicles of Prydain, Lloyd Alexander - Westmark trilogy, Lucifer, Madeleine L'Engle - Many Waters, Neil Gaiman - Murder Mysteries, Patricia McKillip - Riddle-Master trilogy, Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials, Stephen King - The Dark Tower series, Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Terry Pratchett - Discworld, and xkcd. (The ones I especially liked are marked with asterisks.)
Captain Britain and MI-13
--Five Times Faiza Hussein Meets a Superhero: Faiza through the years, in a wonderfully endearing mix of practicality and fangirl squee.
Eve Forward - Villains by Necessity
--Blackguard: Blackmail and his horse, before the great quest. (I can't believe someone wrote fic for this book, but oh my god, I am so glad this story exists. It's such a lovely mix of humor and pathos!)
Guy Gavriel Kay - The Lions of Al-Rassan
--*Somewhere in Time: Of course Rodrigo and Ammar went off and learned each other's fighting styles in private. Neither is a stupid or careless man. (This captures Kay's style so perfectly -- that aching, inevitable sense of loss held against the beauty of the passing moment -- that I just have no words. Go. Read this. Now.)
--The Name of the Stars and the Moons: Zabira loved two men. Both were taken from her. (Gorgeous, elegiac, and a wonderful deepening of a minor canon character.)
Jim Butcher - The Dresden Files (books):
--Détente: Sometime after Small Favor, Marcone arranges a meeting with Murphy. (Understated, with undercurrents and a strong sense of place and season. Brilliantly in-character dialogue for both of them.)
Joan D. Vinge - Psion trilogy
--*Can't Go Back Again: After Dreamfall, Cat returns to Quarro to visit Jule and Siebeling. (Cat's narrative voice is dead-on in its mix of cynicism and idealism and battered hope, and this is a story I have been wanting to read for YEARS without realizing what I was hungry for.)
Karin Lowachee - Warchild trilogy
--you try and you try: Four alternate possibilities for Jos. (This is written in second-person, like the opening section of Warchild, which helps anchor the alternate realities back to what happened in canon. Even the worst outcome has a grace note and even the best has an underlying bittersweet feel. Absolutely lovely.)
L. Frank Baum - Oz series
--Four Views of General Jinjur: Jinjur, the leader of the army of young women who deposed the Scarecrow, as seen by her mother, a member of the Army of Revolt, Mombi, and Ozma. (This story pulls off the interesting trick of being completely respectful of canon while also examining its flaws and trying to make sense of them. Oz becomes at one and the same time a whimsical fairy kingdom and a real country inhabited by real people with recognizable problems and desires.)
Lloyd Alexander - The Chronicles of Prydain
--The Kindly King of Hummings and Strummings: During Taran Wanderer, Fflewddur Fflam deals with an unexpected difficulty in his kingdom, aided by Eilonwy, Gurgi, and Doli. (Joyful, touching, and sublimely ridiculous, exactly like Fflewddur himself.)
Lloyd Alexander - Westmark trilogy
--*Restante: Mickle writes two letters to Sparrow. She only sends one. (Written for me, and oh, I love it! Because The Beggar Queen left so much unresolved, and there are no victories without a cost.)
Lucifer
--Crux: Christopher Rudd and Lucifer speak in Hell before the final battle. (A touch overboard on the italics -- emphasis doesn't always translate well from comics to prose -- but so brilliantly true to canon that I don't really care.)
--Gloria in Exelsis Deo (maybe the highest, but not-Heaven): Elaine reembodies herself to go see a Harry Potter movie in IMAX, and eats pie at a diner with Duma and Gabriel along the way. Post-series. (I really like the self-reflection in this piece, and the use of Gabriel -- I'd always wondered what became of him after the incident with Lilith, since he's not a player in the modern-day story.)
--*In places across the wide world: Snapshots of Lucifer through the ages, with an unexpected crossover. (Spare and stark and uncompromising. I especially like the one about Denmark.)
Madeleine L'Engle - Many Waters
--*By the Waves We Left Behind: In the winter, during their sophomore year of college, Sandy and Dennys cope with growing up and their memories of Yalith and the desert. (This captures L'Engle's tone perfectly, and faces Christianity more directly than she sometimes did -- because really, falling into a Biblical story would cause all sorts of questions later in life. The original characters are wonderfully drawn and the relationship between the twins is perfect.)
Neil Gaiman - Murder Mysteries
--*Even in Darkness: Raguel and Lucifer speak, after the execution but before Raguel leaves the Silver City. (I feel so bad for Lucifer as he tries and fails to make sense of his world. He means so well and it will all end so badly. The sense of nuanced, reflective distance Raguel conveys is also interesting.)
--*Lightbringer: Lucifer walks in the Darkness and tries to make sense of his world. (...You may have noticed by now that I have a thing for versions of Lucifer. I think one thing that attracts me is the sense of how trapped he is, both by himself and by the oppression of God's omnipotence. Because I do not care how good and loving such a God may be; slavery is still slavery.) Technically this is for last year's New Year Resolution Challenge, but it's so well done that I am reccing it anyway.
Patricia McKillip - Riddle-Master trilogy
--*Song Without Words: Deth and El, and the story behind the song he wrote for her. (Lyrical, beautiful, perfectly structured, as if it had simply been edited out of the series for time constraints. Even the riddles are perfect.)
Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials
--The Teethmarks of Time: Will, afterwards, trying to live. (It broke my heart to see him so wounded and lost, but it makes just as much sense as any less despairing epilogues, and through it all he refuses to give up his last shreds of hope.)
Stephen King - The Dark Tower series
--Things Half in Shadow (Are Halfway in Light): The first few hours after Jake is drawn into Midworld are awkward. (This touches on the price Susannah paid, and the bond between Roland and Jake. It also includes underage kissing but is surprisingly non-squicky; ka makes people do strange things, and there's always an element of disquiet and foreshadowed doom in King's work anyway.)
Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
--*Weather continues very fine: Arabella Strange returns to London and resumes her life. (I always wanted to write a version of this story, though I had a notion to go slightly AU and include Arabella/Flora femslash, but this story does Arabella's return so well that I have no further need to fill that gap on my own. This is canon for me now.)
Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn
--Persistence of Memory: Many years in the future, Jiriki visits Simon in the forest. (Quiet, thoughtful, and suffused with a warm, solid friendship.)
Terry Pratchett - Discworld
--The Uninvited Guest: Death refuses to be Susan's godparent. He sends Granny Weatherwax instead. (Weirdly, while Granny is perfectly in-character, and both Death and Susan are well-written, what I especially liked was seeing Mort and Ysabell muddling through adulthood. It's a shame they didn't have more time or happiness.)
xkcd
--*The Amazing Adventures of Hat Guy and the Girl Who Stole His Hat: They go on a road trip. Anything you're expecting to happen probably does. (Insane and brilliant and made of utter win.)
Captain Britain and MI-13
--Five Times Faiza Hussein Meets a Superhero: Faiza through the years, in a wonderfully endearing mix of practicality and fangirl squee.
Eve Forward - Villains by Necessity
--Blackguard: Blackmail and his horse, before the great quest. (I can't believe someone wrote fic for this book, but oh my god, I am so glad this story exists. It's such a lovely mix of humor and pathos!)
Guy Gavriel Kay - The Lions of Al-Rassan
--*Somewhere in Time: Of course Rodrigo and Ammar went off and learned each other's fighting styles in private. Neither is a stupid or careless man. (This captures Kay's style so perfectly -- that aching, inevitable sense of loss held against the beauty of the passing moment -- that I just have no words. Go. Read this. Now.)
--The Name of the Stars and the Moons: Zabira loved two men. Both were taken from her. (Gorgeous, elegiac, and a wonderful deepening of a minor canon character.)
Jim Butcher - The Dresden Files (books):
--Détente: Sometime after Small Favor, Marcone arranges a meeting with Murphy. (Understated, with undercurrents and a strong sense of place and season. Brilliantly in-character dialogue for both of them.)
Joan D. Vinge - Psion trilogy
--*Can't Go Back Again: After Dreamfall, Cat returns to Quarro to visit Jule and Siebeling. (Cat's narrative voice is dead-on in its mix of cynicism and idealism and battered hope, and this is a story I have been wanting to read for YEARS without realizing what I was hungry for.)
Karin Lowachee - Warchild trilogy
--you try and you try: Four alternate possibilities for Jos. (This is written in second-person, like the opening section of Warchild, which helps anchor the alternate realities back to what happened in canon. Even the worst outcome has a grace note and even the best has an underlying bittersweet feel. Absolutely lovely.)
L. Frank Baum - Oz series
--Four Views of General Jinjur: Jinjur, the leader of the army of young women who deposed the Scarecrow, as seen by her mother, a member of the Army of Revolt, Mombi, and Ozma. (This story pulls off the interesting trick of being completely respectful of canon while also examining its flaws and trying to make sense of them. Oz becomes at one and the same time a whimsical fairy kingdom and a real country inhabited by real people with recognizable problems and desires.)
Lloyd Alexander - The Chronicles of Prydain
--The Kindly King of Hummings and Strummings: During Taran Wanderer, Fflewddur Fflam deals with an unexpected difficulty in his kingdom, aided by Eilonwy, Gurgi, and Doli. (Joyful, touching, and sublimely ridiculous, exactly like Fflewddur himself.)
Lloyd Alexander - Westmark trilogy
--*Restante: Mickle writes two letters to Sparrow. She only sends one. (Written for me, and oh, I love it! Because The Beggar Queen left so much unresolved, and there are no victories without a cost.)
Lucifer
--Crux: Christopher Rudd and Lucifer speak in Hell before the final battle. (A touch overboard on the italics -- emphasis doesn't always translate well from comics to prose -- but so brilliantly true to canon that I don't really care.)
--Gloria in Exelsis Deo (maybe the highest, but not-Heaven): Elaine reembodies herself to go see a Harry Potter movie in IMAX, and eats pie at a diner with Duma and Gabriel along the way. Post-series. (I really like the self-reflection in this piece, and the use of Gabriel -- I'd always wondered what became of him after the incident with Lilith, since he's not a player in the modern-day story.)
--*In places across the wide world: Snapshots of Lucifer through the ages, with an unexpected crossover. (Spare and stark and uncompromising. I especially like the one about Denmark.)
Madeleine L'Engle - Many Waters
--*By the Waves We Left Behind: In the winter, during their sophomore year of college, Sandy and Dennys cope with growing up and their memories of Yalith and the desert. (This captures L'Engle's tone perfectly, and faces Christianity more directly than she sometimes did -- because really, falling into a Biblical story would cause all sorts of questions later in life. The original characters are wonderfully drawn and the relationship between the twins is perfect.)
Neil Gaiman - Murder Mysteries
--*Even in Darkness: Raguel and Lucifer speak, after the execution but before Raguel leaves the Silver City. (I feel so bad for Lucifer as he tries and fails to make sense of his world. He means so well and it will all end so badly. The sense of nuanced, reflective distance Raguel conveys is also interesting.)
--*Lightbringer: Lucifer walks in the Darkness and tries to make sense of his world. (...You may have noticed by now that I have a thing for versions of Lucifer. I think one thing that attracts me is the sense of how trapped he is, both by himself and by the oppression of God's omnipotence. Because I do not care how good and loving such a God may be; slavery is still slavery.) Technically this is for last year's New Year Resolution Challenge, but it's so well done that I am reccing it anyway.
Patricia McKillip - Riddle-Master trilogy
--*Song Without Words: Deth and El, and the story behind the song he wrote for her. (Lyrical, beautiful, perfectly structured, as if it had simply been edited out of the series for time constraints. Even the riddles are perfect.)
Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials
--The Teethmarks of Time: Will, afterwards, trying to live. (It broke my heart to see him so wounded and lost, but it makes just as much sense as any less despairing epilogues, and through it all he refuses to give up his last shreds of hope.)
Stephen King - The Dark Tower series
--Things Half in Shadow (Are Halfway in Light): The first few hours after Jake is drawn into Midworld are awkward. (This touches on the price Susannah paid, and the bond between Roland and Jake. It also includes underage kissing but is surprisingly non-squicky; ka makes people do strange things, and there's always an element of disquiet and foreshadowed doom in King's work anyway.)
Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
--*Weather continues very fine: Arabella Strange returns to London and resumes her life. (I always wanted to write a version of this story, though I had a notion to go slightly AU and include Arabella/Flora femslash, but this story does Arabella's return so well that I have no further need to fill that gap on my own. This is canon for me now.)
Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn
--Persistence of Memory: Many years in the future, Jiriki visits Simon in the forest. (Quiet, thoughtful, and suffused with a warm, solid friendship.)
Terry Pratchett - Discworld
--The Uninvited Guest: Death refuses to be Susan's godparent. He sends Granny Weatherwax instead. (Weirdly, while Granny is perfectly in-character, and both Death and Susan are well-written, what I especially liked was seeing Mort and Ysabell muddling through adulthood. It's a shame they didn't have more time or happiness.)
xkcd
--*The Amazing Adventures of Hat Guy and the Girl Who Stole His Hat: They go on a road trip. Anything you're expecting to happen probably does. (Insane and brilliant and made of utter win.)
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PS - your link to the Psion trilogy rec is borked.
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And yes, there IS Villains by Necessity fic! Who knew? I didn't even know I wanted some until I saw the story in the quicksearch links!
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(Though really, it also makes me happy that people who are not me have commented. It's such a small fandom, and it deserves more love than it has.)
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So, thank you. And happy new year!
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