Fic recs: mostly long-form
Jul. 16th, 2012 12:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
raspberryhunter*SGU: So I recently discovered the whole SGU show/fandom (uh, obviously), and the huge freakily amazing thing going on in that fandom is CleanWhiteRoom's fics, especially Force Over Distance. This is a master of the long-form, here. (395k!) I must append here that I'm a bit of a comma stickler, and I'm of the camp that does not accept that "alright" is a word (though I am informed that The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style says it is fine ;) ), and even though CWR and I have agreed to disagree on "alright" I am still super-recommending this fic (and this gives you an idea of how amazing it must be, because usually that kind of thing makes me stop reading the fic, and what actually happened is that I dropped everything to read 395k). In fact, even if you don't know the SGU show, I'm informed that it's still possible to read this and enjoy it. It's got it all -- a tight plot, humor, worldbuilding, awesome characters. IT EVEN HAS A TIME LOOP CHAPTER. I am also so psyched by CWR's clear love of and knowledge of the hard sciences (D-branes! YANG-MILLS THEORY. "The universe doesn't have an edge that one can travel to. It's spatially infinite." YES). There are also two other AUs in the works (EDIT 7-31-12: THIS MEANS THEY ARE WIPs. Sorry!): Ad Noctum (which I love) and Mathematique (which is a huge crossover with SG-1 and SG-A, and which I like very much but will probably like more once I watch those).
*In Once Upon a Time, there are two major things going on in that fandom on AO3:
-Fyre is writing the heck out of it. My favorite is her Home Before Midnight, which has two sequels. This was the one that started it all, I believe. It focuses on and has a deep compassion for all the characters, like OUAT itself. She's currently writing a season 1 AU WIP that is rather interesting.
-THE Rumpel/Belle-AU fic, and I say this as someone who maxed out on Rumpel/Belle quite a long time ago, is a WIP, A Bed of Thorns. It is quite possibly the only explicit fic I will ever rec, because it is that rare beast: a fic where the sex is actually there as character development. (Okay, honestly, it's a bit more indulgent than that, and I've started skipping some of the sex parts, but it's way better about it than most of the explicit stuff I read.) It is also an extremely rare beast in that it doesn't gloss over Rumpel's evil side. As an AU, this is very possible to read even if you know nothing about canon.
*I recommended this a while back on my media-rant journal before I got this one, but since I'm talking about the long form, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, alas, another WIP, but worth every chapter even if he never does finish it, is flipping fantastic. From my rec there:
*In Once Upon a Time, there are two major things going on in that fandom on AO3:
-Fyre is writing the heck out of it. My favorite is her Home Before Midnight, which has two sequels. This was the one that started it all, I believe. It focuses on and has a deep compassion for all the characters, like OUAT itself. She's currently writing a season 1 AU WIP that is rather interesting.
-THE Rumpel/Belle-AU fic, and I say this as someone who maxed out on Rumpel/Belle quite a long time ago, is a WIP, A Bed of Thorns. It is quite possibly the only explicit fic I will ever rec, because it is that rare beast: a fic where the sex is actually there as character development. (Okay, honestly, it's a bit more indulgent than that, and I've started skipping some of the sex parts, but it's way better about it than most of the explicit stuff I read.) It is also an extremely rare beast in that it doesn't gloss over Rumpel's evil side. As an AU, this is very possible to read even if you know nothing about canon.
*I recommended this a while back on my media-rant journal before I got this one, but since I'm talking about the long form, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, alas, another WIP, but worth every chapter even if he never does finish it, is flipping fantastic. From my rec there:
What would happen if a) Harry were brought up in a loving super-rational super-academic household, and b) everyone and everything in the HP universe was, well... more-or-less reasonable? (Not necessarily sane, mind you -- just not holding the Idiot Ball.)... Harry starts out by explaining things like observer bias to various people at Hogwart, and decides to run experiments to figure out how magic works! He explains Punnett squares to Draco in the context of blood purity! The first several chapters are a little one-note like that, but I don't care because I love that note! I would have loved it had it all been riffs on that, but as it progresses it also acquires a really interesting plot, layers on layers of hints to be explained, I think maybe every character in the entire fic is now involved in at least one secret plot, and I find the relationship between Harry and Draco extremely moving (and no, not in that way; it's gen/het).
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-13 08:03 pm (UTC)That's... actually... way better than what I was fearing, which was something along the lines of "This is terrible and you are a bad person for enabling me to watch it!" ;) I feel kind of the same way about it, myself, except maybe slightly more on the "enjoy" side?
I can comment on "Sabotage", "Pain", "Subversion", and "Incursion" 1 & 2.
Huh. I thought "Pain" was... not really worth watching (there's a reason I thought you should begin with Subversion). I liked "Sabotage," although partially for an Eli/Rush moment (I kind of heart Eli-Rush as a mentor/rivalry thing, even though I think part of what I like is the FoD version rather than the actual show version) and partially because I am drawn to Perry EVEN THOUGH SHE CLEARLY NEEDS TO GET OVER HER SCHOOLGIRL CRUSH. (I like that they don't shy away from the fact that this is what it is, but STILL. Am waiting for you to watch "The Greater Good" so I can really complain about her.)
The only other Season 1 I think is worth watching is "Human," but you have to also remember that a) I am a sucker for Carlyle, and b) SHOR'S ALGORITHM. So YMMV. But, hey, Daniel Jackson!
Season 2: "Intervention" is needed to tie up the arc. "Aftermath"... hmmmm... not my favorite, but I do like Riley quite a lot. "Awakening" I actually don't remember if I liked or not -- I think it was OK, and features Telford being decent. "Pathogen" wasn't one of my favorites, but it's Chloe-centric (sort of) and I do very much like the Eli-Wray subplot. "Cloverdale" is really not worth watching unless you want to see the actors do small-town America dreamscape (I thought it was a hoot, myself, and the *acting* is really good, but the whole concept is... eh. I'd advise against it unless you're feeling pretty punchy). "Trial and Error"... is Young acting stupid again. I know how much you love that! Wheeee! From "The Greater Good," as I've said, I think they're pretty much worth watching ("Visitation" has some pretty awful science, but in retrospect is one of my favorites in an incredibly creepy way) -- oh, except for "The Hunt," which was this totally random one-off in a half-season of arc. (I still liked it, because TJ is awesome, but it would be fine if you skipped it.)
Netflix has told me I can't watch SG-1 OR SG-A anymore. What the crap! I may have to go back and resurrect the DVD membership again. Or get amazon prime, which works out to about the same amount and would give me two-day shipping. Hmmmph.
(Manny on Destiny, oh my stars and garters.)
*head explodes*