Title: An Echo of Thunder
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Categories: Action/adventure, SuperXan
Length: Long (30,900 words)
Warnings: Minor character death, parental abuse

Author Website: NotDeadFred
Author on TtH: anotherlostsoul's author page

Summary:
What if Buffy wasn’t the only one of the Scoobies with a destiny? Xander Harris finds a destiny all his own that has nothing to do with hyena possession, Halloween or road trips...

Review:
I'm in two minds about this story. It's an award-winner — the 2007 Crossing Over award for best Buffy/Smallville crossover — but the crossover elements are limited to setting up for the next story in the series. It's well written with good grammar, structure and phrasing, but it doesn't quite grip me. It features a well drawn Xander, except that his good humour is dialled down, and he's the only one of the Buffy cast to fare well; Giles is written as infuriatingly obtuse, and the others aren't even present. It's got a good grasp of the Norse myths that form the basis of the story, but sometimes seems inconsistent about what people know.

It's a good story, don't get me wrong. I like the writing style, I like the story, I like the Xander who isn't yet too far from an Everyman to lose me. It's just that for every aspect of the story that I want to pick up and praise, a niggle leaps to my attention. This is going to be one of those stories that you have to read and decide for yourself.

There are two sequels, Thunder Over Smallville: Book One (the Smallville crossover proper) and Tales of the Thunderverse: Champion of Themyscira. Both are incomplete and haven't been worked on in a while, and I prefer Echo to both of them. Thunder Over Smallville in particular suffers from the high power level of the superheroics going on; nearly everyone, it seems, ends up with powers that let them operate on a par with Clark, and it quickly becomes very hard to rein in that much power and present an interesting and credible challenge.

It's a bit of a Curate's Egg in my view. What's your opinion?

An Echo of Thunder

Title: Dragonholm
Fandom: Merlin
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin
Categories: Modern AU, romance, drama, hurt/comfort, light angst, fluff, first time
Length: Long (23,262 words)
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: camelittle
Author Website: Camelittle

Author's Summary:
Merlin's nervous enough about the ski instructor job; he really doesn't need the added stress of concealing the real purpose for his placement. He's a diligent sort of bloke, so he'll do his best. But he can't help thinking it'd all be a whole lot easier if he didn't have a rapidly escalating crush on his room mate.

Review:
There are so many things to love about this story. The interactions between Arthur and Merlin are so authentic - the snark, the banter, the playful (and sometimes not so playful) insults...and the heat and intensity between them is excellently done. There is some seriously gorgeous writing here, too. In one scene in particular, Arthur and Merlin are walking back to the chalet at night, and I was immediately taken in by the imagery. The author's words were so evocative, and painted such a clear and lovely picture of the setting that served as the perfect backdrop for the moment Arthur and Merlin shared under the stars. The relationship between Arthur and Merlin is well-paced and absolutely wonderful. There is immediate chemistry between them and just a little bit of angst because of Merlin's secret, but it doesn't stop them from growing closer and ultimately falling for one another.

I loved seeing a different take on Hunith than I've seen before, and the rest of the supporting cast was delightfully entertaining and in a couple of cases, menacing. I really enjoyed Morgana's role, as well -- her protectiveness of Arthur and the clever way she gatecrashed Merlin's dinner with his mother, for one, and the sweet sadness of her friendship with Gwen too.

The absolute best part of this for me was that it kept me guessing right until the very end. Throughout the story we see Merlin make reference to his secret purpose for being at Dragonholm, and when it was revealed it wasn't at all what I expected. It was the perfect ending to a really enjoyable read.

I highly recommend reading this delightful story, and don't forget to check out the gorgeous art by fuckyeah!

Dragonholm