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Bird of Prey by Jane Potter (NC-17)

  • Mar. 23rd, 2010 at 12:31 PM
Title: Bird of Prey.
Fandom: Nolan-verse Batman.
Pairing: Jim Gordon/Bruce Wayne.
Categories: Action, Angst, Case File, Dark, Drama, Hurt/Comfort.
Length: Epic.
Warnings: A *lot* of violence, mentions of drug use, prostitution (which involves dub-con) and non-con, OC deaths, illness as a result of psychological trauma.

Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] jane_potter
Author Website: Jane Potter@ Ao3

Author's Summary: "A new Mafia kingpin. A vigilante in exile. A commissioner without allies. Half a year undercover, deep in the heart of the criminal underworld. Half a year to redeem Batman, salvage a broken partnership, and-- maybe-- save Gotham."

Review:
A new Mafia boss threatens Gotham city and Bruce Wayne decides to fight the spreading wave of criminality from within. Assuming a new identity, he goes deep undercover and becomes an enforcer for the Mafia, a position that will put him in considerable danger, physically and mentally. Thankfully he is not alone: Jim Gordon refuses to be kept in the dark and offers his support and friendship.

I've been waiting for the author to post the last chapter on Fanfiction.net (for all of those that would rather download a single file instead of going through 24 different parts) so I could rec this story, which is absolutely brilliant. While I'm not put of by angst or even the occasional dose of drama (especially if followed by a happy ending), I'm not usually a fan of darker fics. Perhaps because the fandom itself is a bit darker than my usual fare, "Bird of Prey" really worked for me. Yes, there's quite a bit of violence in the story, but it is always used as an important part of the plot and never just for the shock value.

The thing that really made me enjoy the story, besides the interesting plot, was the portrayal of all the characters. The OCs are interesting and fleshed out. The unbeatable Major Crimes trio of Stephens, Bullock and Montoya is fantastically written (Montoya, in particular, is beyond awesome). Barbara Gordon is, thankfully, not painted as a villain and the dissolution of her marriage with Jim and his increasing involvement with Bruce don't feel forced. Last, but certainly not least, I couldn't fail to praise the author for not ignoring the effects of such a long term "undercover operation" on Bruce and how he and and Jim deal with them.

All in all this is a wonderfully crafted story about the sacrifices people are willing to make for the things they believe in and the consequences thereof.

Bird of Prey
@LJ : here (link to the first part - every chapter has a link to the next) or here (link to last part, with links to the previous 23 chapters).
DW Post (wich links to .doc and .pdf files)
Bonus Post (with references, deleted snippets, character information and fic timeline).

Short "Prequels"
Merry Christmas, Comissioner.
Happy New Year, Batman.

Comments

[identity profile] jane-elliot.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 23rd, 2010 06:23 pm (UTC)
Thank you! Especially for waiting for the ff.net version to be complete -- I would have never read this on LJ due to the number of chapters.
jane_potter: (Bird of Prey)
[personal profile] jane_potter wrote:
Mar. 26th, 2010 02:34 pm (UTC)
Thank you so much for reccing this! I blush like crazy when I find that people have done that. I figured I would let you know, though, that you can link to the first part of the story on my LJ-- the link to the next chapter is always at the bottom of the entry. Since LJ seems to be an inconvenient format for people to read long fics in, is there any way I can improve upon that?
[identity profile] slytherin-gypsy.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 26th, 2010 03:20 pm (UTC)
Thank you so much for writing it! This has definitely become one of my favorite Bruce/Jim fics.

I've edited the post to add a link to the first chapter as well. I tend to link to the last post if it contains all chapters in my recs because a) I know some people save the fics to read later and this makes it easier and b) many authors don't take the trouble to go back and add a link to the next chapter in the previous one. Since you did so I've added the link to the first chapter, which does make it a lot easier for most readers to follow on LJ.

You've really done two of the major things that really help reading a long fic on LJ: added links to the next chapters (so you can continue to follow the story that way) and added links to all previous chapters in subsequent ones (so people can go back as far as they may need to). Other things that can be very helpful are tags specifically for series (which you've also added: "nano09") or creating a "Master Post" for the fic with links to all chapters, but those are a bit superfluous if you link to all chapters as you do.

One great thing is the fact that the story is also available on FF.net. While (unfortunately) the site does not have an option for you to view the whole story, readers that want a single file (either to read later or to save to their computer) can use the fanfiction downloader program (linked on the comm's side bar) and get the complete fic in seconds.

I'd like to add a thank you for taking the time to think on how you can improve your readers' lives. While LJ is a great platform for posting WIPs and for a lot of reader/writer interaction, it can be quite inconvenient when you're looking for long, finished fics (I've recently found a fic that streched over 100 posts - if I hadn't found it on FF.net I wouldn't have read it, no matter how interesting it looked). Seeing that a writer took the trouble to make his/her fics more accessible to the reader is sometimes the deciding factor for me on whether I'll read a fic or not, so I for one definitely appreciate it.

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Length Guidelines

Short: under 2,000 words
Medium: 2,000-15,000 words
Long: 15,000-40,000 words
Epic: 40,000-100,000 words
Super Epic: 100,000+ words

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