Yuletide 2014 recs, part 2
Dec. 31st, 2014 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
raspberryhunterI haven't read half the Yuletide fandoms half as completely as I would like (I've still got some queued up), but here are some more I did get to and loved. (Rec post 1, including my awesome gifts, is here.)
The Madonna (1518 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Snowman (Oryx and Crake)
Summary: A woman who never stopped haunting Snowman. It isn't Oryx.
I read the O&C trilogy recently (I'd read O&C itself before, but not the sequels), and this is a lovely little snippet that takes a character who doesn't get any development during the book itself and fleshes her out. I especially liked the ending and how it slightly retcons the book.
Excerpts from “A Persian Carpet: The lost memoir of the real Lord Henry” (With notes from the Editors) (7011 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Dorian Gray/Basil Hallward, Basil Hallward/Henry Wotton, Dorian Gray/Henry Wotton
Characters: Basil Hallward, Henry Wotton, Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
Additional Tags: Metafiction, Victorian, 19th Century, Academia, Memoirs, Unreliable Narrator, Queer Victorians
Summary: “Scholars have long assumed that Lord Henry Warren was the prototype of Oscar Wilde’s ‘Lord Henry Wotton’ in The Picture of Dorian Gray, and that he may have known more about the mysterious disappearance of his friend, painter Basil Holland (the known antecedent of Wilde’s ‘Basil Hallward’), than he ever admitted in his life.” A bit of metafictional fun with The Picture of Dorian Gray, imagining that its characters were based on Wilde's own contemporaries, and that one of them wrote a secret tell-all.
I thought this was a spectacular 19thC-memoir pastiche, and I suspect if I were rather more versed in either Dorian Gray or Wilde's life I would appreciate it a lot more. Worth reading just for the meta-academia notes.
The Crown of Hed (6397 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Riddle-Master Trilogy - Patricia A. McKillip
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Tristan of Hed, Morgon of Hed, Astrin Ymris, Rood of An, Lyraluthuin, Bere of Isig
Additional Tags: Misses Clause Challenge
Summary: When Tristan left Hed, she took her warmest cloak and her second-best dress, and the pieces of jewelry that Bere of Isig had sent to her, one each year since the end of the war.
I suspect everyone who loves the Riddle-Master trilogy as much as I do has already read this and loved it, but here you go anyway. This may be the Yuletide fic I loved most that was not my own gift. The Riddle-Master books have always held a special place in my heart because of the way they combine a sense of magic and wonder with a complete and utter tenderness -- I can't offhand think of any other books where this is true (maybe Robin McKinley approaches this? the Duane Rihannsu books also come close, see next rec) -- and this fic entirely captures that. And it gives closure, in a sense, to the story of Morgon.
I knew I was going to like it when I read this exchange:
“What on earth will I do with a crown?” Granit had said, when Tristan had told her it was hers.
“You can wear it when you milk the cows,” Tristan had told her. “I don’t think they’ll try to eat it.”
Because that, right there, is what I love about the Riddle-master books.
this done, day comes up new (10125 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Rihannsu - Diane Duane
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ael t'Rllaillieu/Aidoann t'Khnialmnae
Characters: Ael t'Rllaillieu, Leonard McCoy, Arrhae t'Llhweiir, t'Hrienteh, Romulan Commander, Aidoann t'Khnialmnae, Assorted Rihannsu
Summary: Ael t'Rllaillieu and some of the women she has loved.
Every Yuletide, there is one story that is so amazingly good that it makes me despair of writing for Yuletide and really in general, because I think, wow, what I want is to be able to write like that! This is that story for this Yuletide -- except for my gifts, the story that most completely bowled me over when I read it. It seriously reads as if Duane herself wrote it, what with the pseudo-and-highly-entertaining academic/translation notes, the pitch-perfect character voices, the character interrelations (yes, of course Ael and McCoy need to have another conversation)... but even better, as it ties up lots of loose ends that the book did not. And I am a total sucker for familial relationships, and the whole section about Ael's sister-daughter broke my heart, in all the very best ways; I'm so glad to have this, and it's now my headcanon... and there is a theme of trust, of what you do when your trust has been broken, that runs all throughout it and binds the sections together. If you have read the Rihannsu novels, read this fic. Read it, read it. If you haven't, go read the Rihannsu novels, then come back and read this fic.
(Also, something about the tagging seems to have gone a little wonky on this fic, so it only shows up under Star Trek: Various Authors -- and this may be preventing people who would really like it from getting to it.)
A Haven of Iron (4938 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tam Lin (Traditional Ballad), Tam Lin & Related Fandoms
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Janet/Tam Lin
Characters: Tam Lin, Janet (Tam Lin), The Queen (Tam Lin), The Baby (Tam Lin)
Additional Tags: Fae & Fairies, Ballads, Magic, Culture Shock, Children, Devils, stories about stories, POV Third Person, Past Tense
Summary: After being kidnapped as a child and raised by fairies, Tam Lin has a difficult time adjusting to life among humans once more.
Ah, I loved this one. Tam Lin struggles with being mortal (and a husband and dad). I loved the strangeness of Tam Lin's viewpoint -- the idea that being called "iron" is a super insult, for example -- and how he, and Janet, fight their way to a better place. I loved Tam Lin's gradual development over the course of the fic.
The Madonna (1518 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Snowman (Oryx and Crake)
Summary: A woman who never stopped haunting Snowman. It isn't Oryx.
I read the O&C trilogy recently (I'd read O&C itself before, but not the sequels), and this is a lovely little snippet that takes a character who doesn't get any development during the book itself and fleshes her out. I especially liked the ending and how it slightly retcons the book.
Excerpts from “A Persian Carpet: The lost memoir of the real Lord Henry” (With notes from the Editors) (7011 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Dorian Gray/Basil Hallward, Basil Hallward/Henry Wotton, Dorian Gray/Henry Wotton
Characters: Basil Hallward, Henry Wotton, Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
Additional Tags: Metafiction, Victorian, 19th Century, Academia, Memoirs, Unreliable Narrator, Queer Victorians
Summary: “Scholars have long assumed that Lord Henry Warren was the prototype of Oscar Wilde’s ‘Lord Henry Wotton’ in The Picture of Dorian Gray, and that he may have known more about the mysterious disappearance of his friend, painter Basil Holland (the known antecedent of Wilde’s ‘Basil Hallward’), than he ever admitted in his life.” A bit of metafictional fun with The Picture of Dorian Gray, imagining that its characters were based on Wilde's own contemporaries, and that one of them wrote a secret tell-all.
I thought this was a spectacular 19thC-memoir pastiche, and I suspect if I were rather more versed in either Dorian Gray or Wilde's life I would appreciate it a lot more. Worth reading just for the meta-academia notes.
The Crown of Hed (6397 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Riddle-Master Trilogy - Patricia A. McKillip
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Tristan of Hed, Morgon of Hed, Astrin Ymris, Rood of An, Lyraluthuin, Bere of Isig
Additional Tags: Misses Clause Challenge
Summary: When Tristan left Hed, she took her warmest cloak and her second-best dress, and the pieces of jewelry that Bere of Isig had sent to her, one each year since the end of the war.
I suspect everyone who loves the Riddle-Master trilogy as much as I do has already read this and loved it, but here you go anyway. This may be the Yuletide fic I loved most that was not my own gift. The Riddle-Master books have always held a special place in my heart because of the way they combine a sense of magic and wonder with a complete and utter tenderness -- I can't offhand think of any other books where this is true (maybe Robin McKinley approaches this? the Duane Rihannsu books also come close, see next rec) -- and this fic entirely captures that. And it gives closure, in a sense, to the story of Morgon.
I knew I was going to like it when I read this exchange:
“What on earth will I do with a crown?” Granit had said, when Tristan had told her it was hers.
“You can wear it when you milk the cows,” Tristan had told her. “I don’t think they’ll try to eat it.”
Because that, right there, is what I love about the Riddle-master books.
this done, day comes up new (10125 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Rihannsu - Diane Duane
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ael t'Rllaillieu/Aidoann t'Khnialmnae
Characters: Ael t'Rllaillieu, Leonard McCoy, Arrhae t'Llhweiir, t'Hrienteh, Romulan Commander, Aidoann t'Khnialmnae, Assorted Rihannsu
Summary: Ael t'Rllaillieu and some of the women she has loved.
Every Yuletide, there is one story that is so amazingly good that it makes me despair of writing for Yuletide and really in general, because I think, wow, what I want is to be able to write like that! This is that story for this Yuletide -- except for my gifts, the story that most completely bowled me over when I read it. It seriously reads as if Duane herself wrote it, what with the pseudo-and-highly-entertaining academic/translation notes, the pitch-perfect character voices, the character interrelations (yes, of course Ael and McCoy need to have another conversation)... but even better, as it ties up lots of loose ends that the book did not. And I am a total sucker for familial relationships, and the whole section about Ael's sister-daughter broke my heart, in all the very best ways; I'm so glad to have this, and it's now my headcanon... and there is a theme of trust, of what you do when your trust has been broken, that runs all throughout it and binds the sections together. If you have read the Rihannsu novels, read this fic. Read it, read it. If you haven't, go read the Rihannsu novels, then come back and read this fic.
(Also, something about the tagging seems to have gone a little wonky on this fic, so it only shows up under Star Trek: Various Authors -- and this may be preventing people who would really like it from getting to it.)
A Haven of Iron (4938 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tam Lin (Traditional Ballad), Tam Lin & Related Fandoms
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Janet/Tam Lin
Characters: Tam Lin, Janet (Tam Lin), The Queen (Tam Lin), The Baby (Tam Lin)
Additional Tags: Fae & Fairies, Ballads, Magic, Culture Shock, Children, Devils, stories about stories, POV Third Person, Past Tense
Summary: After being kidnapped as a child and raised by fairies, Tam Lin has a difficult time adjusting to life among humans once more.
Ah, I loved this one. Tam Lin struggles with being mortal (and a husband and dad). I loved the strangeness of Tam Lin's viewpoint -- the idea that being called "iron" is a super insult, for example -- and how he, and Janet, fight their way to a better place. I loved Tam Lin's gradual development over the course of the fic.
