Recs: March 18, 2012
Mar. 18th, 2012 10:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bethbethbeth posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
beth_hI will clearly never catch up with old stories. If you have a favorite story (your own or somebody else's) that you think I might have missed and it's in a fandom that I've recced before (see my main recs page), feel free to leave a link below
Due South
zelempa (zelempa on LJ): "Volcanic Geranium" (Fraser/Kowalski. "Fraser raised his eyebrows thoughtfully. "Lipstick colour names can be rather obscure. I assume it's a metaphor to describe something fragile and lovely but also dangerous and potentially capable of raining hot destruction upon an unsuspecting citizenry. On the other hand, it may refer to the fact that this particular coral shade is common to molten lava and geraniums. Don't lick it." / "It tastes like Jujubes," Ray reported. / "Nevertheless, resist the urge."" Cross-dressing is not my kink - or rather, it wasn't, but after reading this clever, funny post-"Strange Bedfellows" story, I may have to reconsider. Lovely work, in character - not ignoring or excusing Ray's stalkerish tendencies - and perfectly in voice, with an excellent blend of snark and gentleness.)
Sherlock Holmes
Anonymous: "When first we practise to deceive" (BBC. Mycroft/Lestrade. "Lestrade thinks Mycroft is only occupying a minor position in the British Goverment. He knows him only as a kind, well-mannered, understanding man as opposite to his younger brother. Mycroft tries his best to hide the fact that he is the British Goverment.. Written for the kinkmeme and so there's no way to say thank you! to the author for this very engaging, early example of BBC Sherlock Mystrade [yes, that's what it's called...I do apologize]. Set pre-canon, and strangely believable. *g*)
ariadnes_string (ariadnes_string on LJ): "The Things We Say with Our Hands" (Ritchie!Verse. Holmes/Watson. "They never spoke of it." In which Watson has vulnerabilities [only some of which have to do with his injured leg], Holmes is believably sensitive, and more than one thing is unspoken.)
eight_demands (eight_demands on LJ): "Their Whole Life Through" (BBC. John, Sherlock, background Mycroft/Lestrade. "If his patient thought he was the first person to ever try to intimidate John Watson, he was sadly mistaken. John sometimes considered, in his own head, the subtitle of his Afghanistan years to be "Arseholes with Guns who Love to Yell." If anything, being verbally abused by a haughty git who was bleeding all over him brought back a rush of warm nostalgia." A wonderful, gennish AU, in which Sherlock and John don't meet in the usual way, but instead they get to know each other when Sherlock comes in as a patient to the surgery where John's working. The dynamic is mostly what we seen in canon, but John's slightly more...pushy. *g*)
fitofpique (fitofpique on LJ): "What You Wanted" (Ritchie!Verse. Holmes/Watson, Gladstone. "Watson stood in the doorway and stared incredulously into Holmes' room. It looked as though a small, extremely localized cyclone had recently passed through, but that was typical and not what had captured his attention. The high bed was untidily made and not one but two individuals were deeply asleep, sprawled across the coverlet and sharing one pillow." Sweet and funny and...strangely believable.)
flawedamythyst (flawedamythyst on LJ): The Art of Seduction series (BBC. AU. Sherlock/John, with some Lestrade/Mycroft in the background. "Sherlock ran a website called The Science Of Seduction, on which he gave advice on the best ways to get laid, wrote blog entries detailing the results of his various sexual 'experiments' and generally contributed to the stereotype of 'every gay man is a sex-mad playboy'. John avoided the thing like the plague." The summary is for part one of this three part, 82,000 word series, which...okay, I have to admit I thought it was a ludicrous premise when I first saw it, and so I put off reading it for months. But the story - which owes some of its foundational structure to Queer as Folk, if you're familiar with that show - is engaging and smart and pretty astoundingly in character. Content information: some rather graphic torture during the Moriarty sections and...do I need to warn for a great deal of sex talk/action, considering the summary? *g*)
hyacinth_sky747 (on LJ): "A Conversation Held with the Lamp Switched Off" (BBC. Sherlock/John, John/Mary. "Twenty plus years, three weddings, some funerals, elephants, rats, a wet cat, a very lumpy cake and criminals. Or, John Watson, a life well-lived. ." Really nicely conceived and executed, with some extremely touching moments. The Ritchie!verse has quite a lot of stories that show how Sherlock could be included in John's marriage - whether polyamorously or not - but this is a rare example of that sort of story in the BBC Sherlock universe. Content information: Character deaths.)
hyacinth_sky747 (on LJ): "Seven Hours in the Sun" (BBC. Sherlock/John. "Sherlock likes to look but not be touched." I read this, mouth agape, although whether that was an expression of sheer pleasure at the progression of the relationship or complete disbelief at how patient and/or long-suffering John is with Sherlock, I just don't know. Either way, this story is engaging and sexy and well worth your time.)
hyacinth_sky747 (on LJ): "Torchlight" (BBC. Sherlock/John, past John/Mary. "Sherlock is back after three years of being dead." A moving pre-season 2 take on the fall-out from Reichenbach and Sherlock's return. Content info: Mentions of Mary's death and suicidal ideation. )
juxtapose (caughtfire on LJ/je_suis_loser on tumblr): "In Which Lestrade Has Observation Powers of his Own (Or, "I Think Lestrade Filmed You on His Phone")" (BBC. Lestrade, Sherlock, John. "John and Sherlock through the eyes of someone you may not have known was really watching." As the summary suggests: Lestrade's pov. Simple and insightful.)
Laura JV (jacquez on LJ): "Nine Cigarettes" (BBC. Gen: Lestrade, Sherlock, others. "How Sherlock Holmes acquired a number of Lestrade's cigarettes." Pre-canon - mostly. An excellent look at Sherlock from DI Lestrade's pov.)
Laura JV (jacquez on LJ): "The Wrong Tree" (BBC. Sherlock/John...eventually. "He didn't see why John wouldn't be interested, but John was peculiarly picky about some things (such as firing guns in the flat and going on dates with people who were not Sherlock), and he did not have enough data to know for certain whether John was, perhaps, only interested in burly men, or blond men, or non-sociopathic men. (On the other hand, John found shooting people pleasant and steadying, so he didn't have any room at all to object.)" This fandom is [understandably] rife with asexual!Sherlocks and virgin!Sherlocks; here, instead, is a clever, amusing tale of a believably sexual!Sherlock...for some values of 'sexual' *g*)
lavvyan (lavvyan on DW): "Finger Exercises..." (Ritchie!Verse. Holmes/Watson, Watson/Mary, Mary/OMC. "A love story told in seven much-beloved fanfic tropes." Utterly recognizable moments without being a bit cliched - and for the exclusively Holmes/Watson shippers...potentially spoilery content information: the Mary issue is 'solved' without recourse to her death.)
marmosette (marmosette on tumblr): "Tea" (BBC. Mycroft/Lestrade. "Mycroft has a meeting with Greg over tea at Fortnum & Mason's. A waiter puts his foot in it, and Mycroft explains to Greg his definition of "consequences."" Really no more than a simple conversation over tea before the two men really know one another, but the conversation is layered and the negotiations are certainly more than work-related. *g*)
pargoletta (pargoletta on LJ): "Soul By Soul And Silently" (BBC. Gen: Sherlock, John, Sarah, Mycroft, others. "Mycroft takes advantage of his position to bring Sherlock and John behind the scenes on a potential political deal. But what was supposed to be a single gala event quickly becomes a puzzle that Sherlock, John, and Sarah must unravel to expose the secrets of powerful men." A really good mystery that could easily be slotted into ACD canon. Instantly recognizable voices and excellent interactions amongst all the principals.
randomly_rusted (on LJ): "A Reliable Man" (BBC. Mycroft/Lestrade. "Mycroft wants to know if the people around Sherlock are reliable. Lestrade just wants to get the paperwork finished." The summary is for the first story in a nine-part series, featuring a tough - if occasionally out of his depth - Lestrade and a true puppet-master Mycroft. There's also a bonus sequel - "Footsore" - here)
roane (fear_the_squee on DW): "the Defence Mechanisms series" (BBC. Sherlock/John. "Made up - as of March 2012 - of "Displacement" and "Sublimation"" And note that "Displacement," in psychoanalysis, is "the transfer of an emotion from its original focus to another object, person, or situation" John should have read a few more psychology textbooks.)
tyleet (tyleet on DW): "Second Verse, Same as the First" (BBC & Ritchie!verse. Sherlock/John. "A hundred years on and a world away, and nothing much is really changed." Parallel timelines, with a single conclusion...and both perfectly in character.)
what_alchemy (what_alchemy on LJ/DW): the 'Embers' series (BBC. Sherlock/John. "Regular people, normal people, people like good, warm, tea-making, hair-stroking John, they have visible pulses, pulses that slow and quicken, pulses tied to their emotions and their brains and their life forces. Pulses attached to whatever animates them. Sherlock has no such time-keeping." So...the summary is for the first story in the series - "Tremolo" - and there's a second story ["Dismantle the Sun"] already written, although as of this rec, the series is incomplete. In 'Embers,' Sherlock is...to say he's something akin to Pinocchio is to make light of the premise, I think, but suffice it to say that he was created, not born, yet you need to know this series is no parody. Really smart, very original, and very moving. It's a 'Reichenbach'-centric story, in some ways, but ultimately, it's far more than that.)
Due South
zelempa (zelempa on LJ): "Volcanic Geranium" (Fraser/Kowalski. "Fraser raised his eyebrows thoughtfully. "Lipstick colour names can be rather obscure. I assume it's a metaphor to describe something fragile and lovely but also dangerous and potentially capable of raining hot destruction upon an unsuspecting citizenry. On the other hand, it may refer to the fact that this particular coral shade is common to molten lava and geraniums. Don't lick it." / "It tastes like Jujubes," Ray reported. / "Nevertheless, resist the urge."" Cross-dressing is not my kink - or rather, it wasn't, but after reading this clever, funny post-"Strange Bedfellows" story, I may have to reconsider. Lovely work, in character - not ignoring or excusing Ray's stalkerish tendencies - and perfectly in voice, with an excellent blend of snark and gentleness.)
Sherlock Holmes
Anonymous: "When first we practise to deceive" (BBC. Mycroft/Lestrade. "Lestrade thinks Mycroft is only occupying a minor position in the British Goverment. He knows him only as a kind, well-mannered, understanding man as opposite to his younger brother. Mycroft tries his best to hide the fact that he is the British Goverment.. Written for the kinkmeme and so there's no way to say thank you! to the author for this very engaging, early example of BBC Sherlock Mystrade [yes, that's what it's called...I do apologize]. Set pre-canon, and strangely believable. *g*)
ariadnes_string (ariadnes_string on LJ): "The Things We Say with Our Hands" (Ritchie!Verse. Holmes/Watson. "They never spoke of it." In which Watson has vulnerabilities [only some of which have to do with his injured leg], Holmes is believably sensitive, and more than one thing is unspoken.)
eight_demands (eight_demands on LJ): "Their Whole Life Through" (BBC. John, Sherlock, background Mycroft/Lestrade. "If his patient thought he was the first person to ever try to intimidate John Watson, he was sadly mistaken. John sometimes considered, in his own head, the subtitle of his Afghanistan years to be "Arseholes with Guns who Love to Yell." If anything, being verbally abused by a haughty git who was bleeding all over him brought back a rush of warm nostalgia." A wonderful, gennish AU, in which Sherlock and John don't meet in the usual way, but instead they get to know each other when Sherlock comes in as a patient to the surgery where John's working. The dynamic is mostly what we seen in canon, but John's slightly more...pushy. *g*)
fitofpique (fitofpique on LJ): "What You Wanted" (Ritchie!Verse. Holmes/Watson, Gladstone. "Watson stood in the doorway and stared incredulously into Holmes' room. It looked as though a small, extremely localized cyclone had recently passed through, but that was typical and not what had captured his attention. The high bed was untidily made and not one but two individuals were deeply asleep, sprawled across the coverlet and sharing one pillow." Sweet and funny and...strangely believable.)
flawedamythyst (flawedamythyst on LJ): The Art of Seduction series (BBC. AU. Sherlock/John, with some Lestrade/Mycroft in the background. "Sherlock ran a website called The Science Of Seduction, on which he gave advice on the best ways to get laid, wrote blog entries detailing the results of his various sexual 'experiments' and generally contributed to the stereotype of 'every gay man is a sex-mad playboy'. John avoided the thing like the plague." The summary is for part one of this three part, 82,000 word series, which...okay, I have to admit I thought it was a ludicrous premise when I first saw it, and so I put off reading it for months. But the story - which owes some of its foundational structure to Queer as Folk, if you're familiar with that show - is engaging and smart and pretty astoundingly in character. Content information: some rather graphic torture during the Moriarty sections and...do I need to warn for a great deal of sex talk/action, considering the summary? *g*)
hyacinth_sky747 (on LJ): "A Conversation Held with the Lamp Switched Off" (BBC. Sherlock/John, John/Mary. "Twenty plus years, three weddings, some funerals, elephants, rats, a wet cat, a very lumpy cake and criminals. Or, John Watson, a life well-lived. ." Really nicely conceived and executed, with some extremely touching moments. The Ritchie!verse has quite a lot of stories that show how Sherlock could be included in John's marriage - whether polyamorously or not - but this is a rare example of that sort of story in the BBC Sherlock universe. Content information: Character deaths.)
hyacinth_sky747 (on LJ): "Seven Hours in the Sun" (BBC. Sherlock/John. "Sherlock likes to look but not be touched." I read this, mouth agape, although whether that was an expression of sheer pleasure at the progression of the relationship or complete disbelief at how patient and/or long-suffering John is with Sherlock, I just don't know. Either way, this story is engaging and sexy and well worth your time.)
hyacinth_sky747 (on LJ): "Torchlight" (BBC. Sherlock/John, past John/Mary. "Sherlock is back after three years of being dead." A moving pre-season 2 take on the fall-out from Reichenbach and Sherlock's return. Content info: Mentions of Mary's death and suicidal ideation. )
juxtapose (caughtfire on LJ/je_suis_loser on tumblr): "In Which Lestrade Has Observation Powers of his Own (Or, "I Think Lestrade Filmed You on His Phone")" (BBC. Lestrade, Sherlock, John. "John and Sherlock through the eyes of someone you may not have known was really watching." As the summary suggests: Lestrade's pov. Simple and insightful.)
Laura JV (jacquez on LJ): "Nine Cigarettes" (BBC. Gen: Lestrade, Sherlock, others. "How Sherlock Holmes acquired a number of Lestrade's cigarettes." Pre-canon - mostly. An excellent look at Sherlock from DI Lestrade's pov.)
Laura JV (jacquez on LJ): "The Wrong Tree" (BBC. Sherlock/John...eventually. "He didn't see why John wouldn't be interested, but John was peculiarly picky about some things (such as firing guns in the flat and going on dates with people who were not Sherlock), and he did not have enough data to know for certain whether John was, perhaps, only interested in burly men, or blond men, or non-sociopathic men. (On the other hand, John found shooting people pleasant and steadying, so he didn't have any room at all to object.)" This fandom is [understandably] rife with asexual!Sherlocks and virgin!Sherlocks; here, instead, is a clever, amusing tale of a believably sexual!Sherlock...for some values of 'sexual' *g*)
lavvyan (lavvyan on DW): "Finger Exercises..." (Ritchie!Verse. Holmes/Watson, Watson/Mary, Mary/OMC. "A love story told in seven much-beloved fanfic tropes." Utterly recognizable moments without being a bit cliched - and for the exclusively Holmes/Watson shippers...potentially spoilery content information: the Mary issue is 'solved' without recourse to her death.)
marmosette (marmosette on tumblr): "Tea" (BBC. Mycroft/Lestrade. "Mycroft has a meeting with Greg over tea at Fortnum & Mason's. A waiter puts his foot in it, and Mycroft explains to Greg his definition of "consequences."" Really no more than a simple conversation over tea before the two men really know one another, but the conversation is layered and the negotiations are certainly more than work-related. *g*)
pargoletta (pargoletta on LJ): "Soul By Soul And Silently" (BBC. Gen: Sherlock, John, Sarah, Mycroft, others. "Mycroft takes advantage of his position to bring Sherlock and John behind the scenes on a potential political deal. But what was supposed to be a single gala event quickly becomes a puzzle that Sherlock, John, and Sarah must unravel to expose the secrets of powerful men." A really good mystery that could easily be slotted into ACD canon. Instantly recognizable voices and excellent interactions amongst all the principals.
randomly_rusted (on LJ): "A Reliable Man" (BBC. Mycroft/Lestrade. "Mycroft wants to know if the people around Sherlock are reliable. Lestrade just wants to get the paperwork finished." The summary is for the first story in a nine-part series, featuring a tough - if occasionally out of his depth - Lestrade and a true puppet-master Mycroft. There's also a bonus sequel - "Footsore" - here)
roane (fear_the_squee on DW): "the Defence Mechanisms series" (BBC. Sherlock/John. "Made up - as of March 2012 - of "Displacement" and "Sublimation"" And note that "Displacement," in psychoanalysis, is "the transfer of an emotion from its original focus to another object, person, or situation" John should have read a few more psychology textbooks.)
tyleet (tyleet on DW): "Second Verse, Same as the First" (BBC & Ritchie!verse. Sherlock/John. "A hundred years on and a world away, and nothing much is really changed." Parallel timelines, with a single conclusion...and both perfectly in character.)
what_alchemy (what_alchemy on LJ/DW): the 'Embers' series (BBC. Sherlock/John. "Regular people, normal people, people like good, warm, tea-making, hair-stroking John, they have visible pulses, pulses that slow and quicken, pulses tied to their emotions and their brains and their life forces. Pulses attached to whatever animates them. Sherlock has no such time-keeping." So...the summary is for the first story in the series - "Tremolo" - and there's a second story ["Dismantle the Sun"] already written, although as of this rec, the series is incomplete. In 'Embers,' Sherlock is...to say he's something akin to Pinocchio is to make light of the premise, I think, but suffice it to say that he was created, not born, yet you need to know this series is no parody. Really smart, very original, and very moving. It's a 'Reichenbach'-centric story, in some ways, but ultimately, it's far more than that.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-18 08:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-03-18 10:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-19 01:29 am (UTC)Excellent! A bunch of new stories I'd never seen (esp. the Mycroft/Lestrade). Funny how we usually don't overlap in what we find and rec---it's such a huge and rapidly-growing fandom that we seem to read mostly different stories.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-19 01:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-19 01:55 am (UTC)It is surprising. I explain part of it (but only a small part) by the fact that you like more upbeat, romantic stories than I do. This was true in HP, but we were both Snape-centric, but it is really true in Sherlock.
In most of your earlier rec posts, I saw stories that I had also read but wouldn't have rec'ed, because they were just too romantic for my tastes (also, you seem to accept and enjoy asexual! Sherlock more easily than I do). I doubt you'd go for the more edgy stuff I rec.
But that accounts for only part of it. I had only read two of the stories you posted about, here, and I rec'ed them both, too. The others are now all open in tabs on my toolbar now, waiting for me to get a chance to read them.
Anyway, I think it's not that it's such a big fandom (not BBC Sherlock, anyway)---it's that it's a fandom that is currently expanding as fast as a nova. You see the long lists on the Holmesian News each day, and that's only a fraction of what is posted at AO3 every day. No one could keep up with all of it. And we both seem to chose different stories to read, out of the river flowing by every week.
Anyway, it's good. It's all fine. :-) I mean, then I find stories on your list that I would have missed otherwise.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-19 04:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-19 04:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-19 05:07 am (UTC)And then there are just the inexplicably subjective differences. Like...where do you stand on the extremely long, very interesting AU where John is still in Afghanistan and Mycroft sends Sherlock over there on business, and the two almost immediately get up to shenanigans? Because everybody and their sister recced that and gave it feedback and I...couldn't even finish it. It wasn't that I didn't think it wasn't well written, and lord knows it isn't as if I'm somehow opposed to reading AUs...so, I don't even know. Possibly too much sex? (I said that as a joke, but it's possible that it's a little true *g*)
Or...the parallel time-line wrist watch story, which...same thing. Creative, original, madly-popular, well written...and I couldn't finish it. Subjective fanfic tastes are subjective (much like "Longcat is long")
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-19 11:18 am (UTC)The watches story was different: it, too, is very well written and I like this author's characterizations. But the story concept didn't grab me, and I found the constant changes in the setting somewhat disorienting (I was always having to stop and figure out where we were now). The narrative structure didn't work well for me, in other words.
Clearly ours were minority reactions, though, because both stories are really beloved and I see recs for them everywhere.
Maybe it's more as I said upthread: there are so many stories being posted every day, now, and no one can read them all---and you and I just tend to grab mostly different ones out of the queue.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-19 12:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-19 12:53 pm (UTC)I have to agree about the two long stories (but long stories are a very hard sell for me) that you mentioned above. What's interesting about the post-Season 2 spate of stories is that so few outstanding stories are by unfamiliar writers; or rather, that so few new writers, as opposed to new single stories, have stood out.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-19 12:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-19 01:03 pm (UTC)And...hmm...when you say most of the outstanding season 2 stories are by already-known writers, do you mean people who became names in the fandom just after season one? Because I didn't really start paying any attention to Sherlock fic in any focused way until this past December, so I have no idea who the 'cool kids' were supposed to be.
As for
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-19 02:28 pm (UTC)I could be missing something, but I try to sample and keep up with the recs, on our comm and in sherlockbbc.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-19 08:57 pm (UTC)As for stories you might like of mine, maybe < a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/325459">Danger Night? It's pretty indulgent, though. Alternatively, I don't know if we have the same taste in Snape, but if you're in the mood for some nostalgia I posted a Snape/Lupin story at long last. :)
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Date: 2012-03-19 08:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-03-20 01:45 pm (UTC)wCyJLiHgPBqNnpZ
Date: 2012-05-02 02:44 am (UTC)