Title: Three Days, Two Nights and One Lifetime
Fandom: Star Wars
Pairing: gen
Categories: Amnesia, Drama, Hurt/Comfort, Family
Length: Medium (7,480 words)
Warnings: n/a

Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: Mina1 on fanfiction.net, Author's website

Author's Summary:
When a mission goes sour and leaves Luke with mild amnesia and temporary blindness, he finds himself rescued by a black-caped Imperial Force user. Luke and Vader must work together to escape death. Unashamed Luke Vader Father Son story, 1 year post-ANH.

Review:
I'm a sucker for amnesia stories, and the amnesia and temporary blindness in this fic allow for an interesting father/son story set post Star Wars: A New Hope. We never got to see much interaction between Luke and Vader, and here we have Luke conversing with a man he doesn't quite recognize as they struggle through a hostile environment together to make it to safety. We, the readers, know who the mysterious "Kin" really is and it's fascinating to see Vader start to get to know Luke, while concealing his own identity.

It may be a bit medically implausible, but like all good h/c fic it really hits me in my id and satisfies my love of Original Trilogy family-centric Star Wars.

( Click here to read an excerpt. )

Three Days, Two Nights and One Lifetime (ffn), (author's website)

Title: Buffy vs Edward: Twilight Remixed
Fandom: Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Twilight
Pairing: gen
Categories: meta, crossover
Length: 6:03 minutes
Warnings: stalking, main character death

Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: rebelliouspixels on youtube, http://www.rebelliouspixels.com/ & http://blip.tv/rebelliouspixelscom

Author's Summary:
In this re-imagined narrative, Edward Cullen from the Twilight Series meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's an example of transformative storytelling serving as a pro-feminist visual critique of Edward's character and generally creepy behavior. Seen through Buffy's eyes, some of the more sexist gender roles and patriarchal Hollywood themes embedded in the Twilight saga are exposed - in hilarious ways. Ultimately this remix is about more than a decisive showdown between the slayer and the sparkly vampire. It also doubles as a metaphor for the ongoing battle between two opposing visions of gender roles in the 21ist century.

Review:
This vid is wonderful on so many levels. It's a great mash-up of two canons, showing how Buffy would react to Edward's "courtship" style. It's vampire slayer versus vampire, but it's also an empowered woman against a creepy guy. Go, Buffy, go! Further, it's a great example of a transformative work, showing how you can take video from various sources and create something new and meaningful.

This remix vid has been around since 2009, and has been discussed by many others far more cogently regarding both its excellent social commentary and how it's a great example of a transformative work under fair-use in copyright law. But beyond all that, it's a great vid. I admit I'm not a Twilight fan; Edward's romancing style of watching people while they sleep and following them around always creeped me out, and it's so fun to see Buffy commenting on it, being concerned, not putting up with it,
and finally taking care of business.

[Note: recced previously on epic_recs by jane_elliot here]

Buffy vs Edward: Twilight Remixed

bonus materials:
creator's original post with commentary
FAQ post about the remix
creator's blog post about the recent erroneous DMCA take-down and reinstatement of the vid

Title: They Want More
Fandom: Jurassic Park trilogy
Music Used: "I Want More" by Elton John (edited demo from Lestat the musical)
Pairing: gen
Categories: crack, dark humor
Length: 3:31 minutes
Warnings: per creator: "Dinosaur-related violence, gore, cruelty to animals, morbid humor. One clip has possible overtones of sexual threat. There is lightning at :23-:24 and 1:18-1:19."

Author on LJ: bironic
Author Website: unknown

Author's Summary:
The inevitable outcome of cloning giant carnivores.

Review:
Okay guys, are you fans of dinosaurs? How about dinosaurs serenading you about how bloodthirsty they are and how much they like eating people, complete with full visuals? If this sounds like your type of humor/fun, then this is the vid for you. Bironic must have found every moment of dinos stalking and chomping down on people (and animals) in the Jurassic Park trilogy and set it to Elton John's vampires-bloodlust-for-eating-people song from the defunct Lestat musical. Morbid, yes, but also darkly humorous.

They Want More (vidder's LJ)
They Want More (festivids)

Here's a another entry in our Alternative Media Week!

Title: Star Trek: Tik Tok
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
Music Used: Tik Tok by Ke$ha
Pairing: gen with slight Kirk/Spock
Categories: crack, humor
Length: 2:31 minutes
Warnings: n/a

Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: MissSheenie on youtube

Author's Summary:
Working on the Enterprise is pretty much a non-stop party as far as I'm concerned. (Probably because the only parts I pay attention to are the Kirk/Spock moments, Scotty when he's drinking, Chekov when he's macking on his girlfriend and doing no work, and Uhura singing and just HAVING A GOOF in general.)

Review:
A vid that is just pure fun! Who knew the Star Trek crew was such party animals? MissSheenie must have found every single clip where they're drinking something, I swear. Beyond that, the vid is so well edited to the song, with the crew getting up, putting on their sunglasses and proceeding to party down. Drinking, dancing, fighting, grooving, this vid has it all and is such a blast. If you need a happy moment (and to be reminded of a couple seriously peculiar moments in TOS) check it out.

Star Trek: Tik Tok

Another late entry in our Alternative Media Week

Title: I Swear
Fandom: Smallville
Music Used: I Swear by All4One
Pairing: Clark/Lex
Categories: crack
Length: 4:20 minutes
Warnings: main character death, MPreg, catbabies, child abandonment

Author on LJ: dualbunny, greensilver & sweetestdrain
Author Website: unknown

Summary:
12 years later. A Clark/Lex story.

Review:
A mind-bendingly bizarre experience, this vid starts out as a sappy romance with Clark and Lex. And then SHIT GETS WEIRD. In a good way. And keeps getting weirder. A rollercoaster of weird. It's like the freaking Matrix of weird: no one can tell you how weird the created reality of the vid is, you have to see it for yourself. It's romantic...sort of. It's sad...sort of. If you're like me, you'll be laughing til you're crying (or vice versa, I'm not sure).

I'm just so impressed with the strange and convincing things the co-vidders were able to accomplish that left me wondering if there was an episode of Smallville that had...certain things in it. How did they do it? Impressive vidder magic, is how, along with evil genius minds.

I Swear

A day late and a dollar short, here's my entry for Alternative Media Week

Title: Starships!
Fandom: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien/Aliens, Apollo 13, Archer, Battlestar Galactica (2004-8), Cocoon, Community, Doctor Who (2005-), Dune, Farscape, The Fifth Element, Firefly/Serenity, Forbidden Planet, Futurama, Galaxy Quest, Independence Day, The Muppet Show, Odyssey 5, Planet of the Apes (1968), Spaceballs, Star Trek (TOS, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager; movies II, IV, VII, VIII and XI/Reboot), Star Wars IV & V, Stargate: Atlantis, Stargate SG-1, Sunshine, Superman (1978), Toy Story 2, Virtuality, WALL-E
Music Used: Starships by Nicki Minaj
Pairing: gen
Categories: sci-fi, fluff, happiness?
Length: 3:36 minutes
Warnings: n/a, except the author's warnings: "sci fi action, swear words and makeouts. *Physical note for camera movement (shaking, spinning, tilting), flashing lights and some fast-cut sequences."

Author on LJ: bironic
Author Website: unknown

Summary:
A celebration of pilots, captains, engineers, crew members, and the spacecraft they love to fly. (And race, and crash, and fix, and play in, and fight in, and...)

Review:
This is one of my favorite vids ever (no lie). It's a perfect combination of music and content, and as a life-long sci-fi fan I adore the love and care the vidder shows to the genre and joy the vid gets across. There are great little character moments, and I particularly liked how Bironic wove together similar situations in the INCREDIBLE HUGE amounts of fandoms into coherent sequences (wormholes, crashes, ode to engineers, and my favorite the spinning/crashing sequence).

Starships!
with bonus Lyrics + Breakdown of clips

Title: Spruce Moose
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Categories: Crack, Humor
Length: Short (1,037 words)
Warnings: n/a

Author on LJ: sharpest_rose & angstslashhope / hope
Author Website: SharpestRose on AO3 ; Hope on AO3

Summary:
In which Jack microwaves his TARDIS coral.

Review:
Jack decides to jump-start his proto-TARDIS coral's growth with a little microwaving.. It works, creating a microwave/TARDIS after Jack's heart, and reasons for Gwen to never ever be the first one into work. Ianto, Jack and Gwen are all hilarious (especially Ianto's internal monologue). This is a silly bit of early Torchwood fun, and it gives me the giggles.

( Click here to read an excerpt. )

Spruce Moose

Title: Belle Époque
Fandom: Downton Abbey, The Eagle
Pairing: gen + Marcus Flavius Aquila/Esca Mac Cunoval
Categories: Fusion/Crossover, Drama, Humor, Matchmaking
Length: Medium (10,896 words)
Warnings: n/a

Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: songbird on AO3

Summary:
Written for the prompt: Downton Abbey/The Eagle fusion. Esca MacCunoval is part of the Grantham family[...]Marcus is the new driver.

Review:
This story is so much fun! I freely admit I know very little about Downton Abbey other than bits and pieces caught on PBS, so take all comments about that fandom with a grain of salt. I don't know if Violet Crawley the Dowager Countess is canon accurate, but she's an absolutely enjoyable and hilarious narrator, though commenters on the story did indicate she is. As one bookmarker on pinboard (thebodyeclectic) said in their bookmark notes, "it's like Shit the Dowager Countess says."

Beyond the humor, there's the story of Marcus--the Countesses new chauffeur, invalided out of the French Foreign Legion--and Esca--Violet's beloved great-nephew, who recently lost his close family to the Spanish Flu--and their friendship. Both are suffering from their recent tragedies, and when Esca visits the family at Downton Abbey, the two becomes friends (and perhaps more).

While that all makes the story seem to be entirely about Esca and Marcus, it's certainly equally about Violet. It's a great series of snapshots of Violet's life, with her visiting relations, observing everything around her and her internal (and not-so-internal) commentary on it.

Violet sees the relationship, and what it does for the two, and encourages it. The climax of the story, in which Violet fixes this to her satisfaction and everyone elese's varying levels of surprise and bafflement, is a delight.

( Click here to read an excerpt. )

Belle Époque

Title: Going Native
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica (2004), Star Trek: The Next Generation (with references to Star Trek: The Original Series)
Pairing: gen, with Felix Gaeta/Anastasia "Dee" Dualla (and background/slight Lee Adama/OFC, Reginald Barclay/Racetrack, Saul Tigh/Lwaxana Troi)
Categories: AU, Crossover, Drama
Length: Super Epic (156,591 words)
Warnings: n/a

Author on LJ: rap541
Author Website: Rap541 (on FF.net)

Summary:
What do you do when you're a lost Starfleet officer in the Beta Quadrant? You blend in and hope for the best.

Review:
It's been ages since I visited either the The Next Generation or Battlestar Galactica fandoms, and the fic totally hits my id for both fandoms and for crossovers. The author fuses the two canons together cleverly, and includes elements of the Star Trek: Original Series episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?" to help reconcile the otherwise conflicting canons and their mythologies. I must admit to spotty familiarity with later seasons of BSG, but it seems to be a post-Season 3 AU.

Felix Gaeta, a member of Star Fleet, was transported via a freak wormhole (a la Farscape's John Crichton) to the Twelve Colonies a decade ago, and blended in to the society there for survival and to avoid breaking the Prime Directive. Deeply undercover, he'd given up on returning home when the events of the early seasons of Battlestar Galactica occur. Eventually, the fleet make it to Federation space, and Gaeta's varied loyalties and history are revealed.

What ensues is a long, engrossing tale focused primarily on Gaeta, but that also deals with the complexities of the Twelve Colonies survivors first contact with the Federation (through it's flagship, the Enterprise and her personnel), the culture clashes between them, and the stress and PTSD of the refugees, and bonus Romulans! Gaeta, in particular, is put through the wringer; the stress and guilt from canon events combined with his conflicting loyalties and years of living in fear of discovery all taking a toll, and the first contact situation requiring his continued input despite the need for a break. He also gets to see his (original character) family members for the first time in a decade, which is both joyful and stressful. Gaeta may be over-woobiefied and perhaps overpowered, but it worked for me within the parameters of the fic's fusion of canons and within the context of the plot.

Most everyone gets great character moments, with sections that show both crews perspectives of each other; I particularly liked Picard and Bill Adama's POV sections, which really gave great perspectives of the clash of cultures and on the other characters around them. My favorite character interactions of all may have been between Bill Adama and Worf, and Barclay and Kara Thrace. Many character are given a chance to shine, including Barclay and Lwaxana Troi, Dee, Lee, Bill Adama and President Laura Roslin, and Gaius Baltar. Complex interpersonal issues with the BSG characters are resolved, and the author took me from a place of complete frustration with Kara Thrace to really enjoying her character again. The Cylons, too, appear later in the fic, and some aspects of their culture and existence are resolved in a way that totally works for me (more so than in canon).

The various romances, though not central to the plot, were fun and sweet, especially between Gaeta and Dee and I got a real kick out of Ambassador Lwaxana Troi and Tigh as well.

I did have a hard time getting into the story in the first chapter or two since it starts in medias res; the author did add the earlier scenes of the initial meeting of the crews as a sort of epilogue, so if you prefer to start at the chronological beginning you can skip to Chapter 65 and read through to Chapter 67, and then go back the Chapter 1.

( Click here to read an excerpt. )

Going Native

[Note: there's also a pretty awesome sequel Going Forward that is sadly a WIP, last updated November 2011. Check it out if you like the Going Native'verse and don't mind reading unfinished fic, but the first story can stand on it's own. The fic is strongly rooted in Trek'verse events--the Dominion War--shown in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.]

[ETA: to fix ~many~ spelling errors and add in a few forgotten details, such as a mention of the Cylons]

Hi all. Sorry for my long unannounced hiatus. I hit a reccing dry-spell, and super busyness in RL. I'm back after revisiting some beloved fandoms, and hopefully can hit my reccing stride again.

Title: Dear Soong
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Pairing: gen, with background Juliana Tainer/Noonian Soong & OFC/OMC
Categories: AU, Canon Fix-it, Drama, Family Relationships, Fluff, Epistolary
Length: Short (1,379 words)
Warnings: n/a except spoilers for practically every Data-centric TNG episode (especially 3x16 The Offspring and 7x10 Inheritance)

Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: KiranInBlue (at AO3)

Summary:
In which Dr. Soong chooses a friendlier colony on which to finish his work - and Lore is given the chance to live, and never develops a psychotic streak in order to survive. Lore never kills Dr. Soong, and Dr. Soong is there to help guide Data in building Lal. And Juliana gets the daughter she always wanted.

Review:
This is the canon fix-it I always wanted for Data and his family, particularly after the events of The Offspring, the episode in which Data creates (and looses) a daughter. I love the sweetness of the family interactions via letter. The Soong family was never broken apart by tragedy or Lore's mental illness, and instead are living happy lives in the Federation 'verse. The sheer amount of worldbuilding the author sneaks in in so few words is boggling, and I wish they'd been inspired to write an epic about the family's continued adventures. Though that was not to be, the idea of Lore working as an artificial intelligence rights lawyer, Noonian's antics with the Daystrom Institute, hints at Spot's future appearance, and the addition of Data and Lore's sister Memory are so much fun.

Dear Soong

Title: See the Light
Fandom: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II
Pairing: Bao-Dur/Visas Marr, The Jedi Exile/Atton Rand (+ unrequited Exile/Mical)
Categories: Angst, Drama, Romance
Length: Long (32,617 words)
Warnings: Character Death

Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: missbecky on AO3

Summary:
Through the events of KOTOR 2, Bao-Dur begins to see Visas in a new light. Meanwhile, the Exile is torn between the two men who love her.

Review:
I've recently played the Star Wars game Knights of the Old Republic II and this story really satisfied my desire to spend more time with the characters. The story takes place during the games action, but told through one of the secondary character's perpective. We see the actions and situations of the games through Bao-Dur's eyes, and what happened with the secondary characters when the main character/gamer is elsewhere. Bits of in-game dialogue are included or slightly altered and expanded on, so everyone sounds just right. Further, the author included situations in the fic that were cut out of the original release of the game, and that, combined with her own changes, made for a more satisfying resolution to the story.

I was skeptical at first of the romance between Bao-Dur and Visas, but the author really makes it work. They've both suffered, though in very different ways, and find kinship and comfort with one another. The other pairing--one I personally shipped while playing the game--between the Exile and Atton was sweet, though less of a focus than the relationship between Bao-Dur and Visas. There's a bit of a love triangle, were both Atton and Mical are in love with the Exile and Bao-Dur isn't sure of the Exile's feelings. I liked that this was included, because both were hinted at in the game, though Mical does get the short end of the stick.

Be warned that there is character death in this; basically any of the characters that aren't in the two main pairings may be in danger. Also, this story may not be very accessible if you haven't played (or finished) the game, but if you have it's a great expansion and re-telling of the game's story with added slow-building romance.

See the Light

Apologies again for late posting; Wednesdays have not been kind to me lately.

Title: Strange and Distant Shores
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Pairing: Elim Garak/Julian Bashir
Categories: Romance, Interviews, Post-Canon, Yuletide
Length: Medium (6,839 words)
Warnings: n/a

Author on LJ: gryvon
Author Website: gryvon on AO3, Gryvon on ff.net

Summary:
In 2398, reporter Felix Marian interviews Chairman Garak and Ambassador Bashir about the formation of the Cardassian Democratic Union and ends up learning more about Cardassia than he intended.

Review:
Set far after the series ended, the story alternates between interviews with Garak and Julian talking about working on Cardassia after the war and telling how they met again and finally got together. I really enjoyed the outsider perspective in the interview scenes, and they perfectly frame the flash backs scenes of both Julian and Garak of their early romance. Garak is working on rebuilding his home planet, while Julian has quit Starfleet ("In retrospect, he shouldn't have called the Rear Admiral a xenophobic asshole.") and has come to Cardassia to where the need for doctors is the greatest.

Garak and Julian are so very themselves, their character voices and reactions are pitch-perfect. The bits of Cardassian culture are fun and surprising, and the original character is well done. A great story that shows the beginnings AND future of their relationship, in a completely believable way.

( Click here to read an excerpt. )

Strange and Distant Shores

Title: Paper Bag Diplomacy
Fandom: The Paper Bag Princess
Pairing: gen
Categories: Humor, Post-Canon, Yuletide, Fanart
Length: Medium (~3,000 words)
Warnings: n/a

Author on LJ: galaxysoup
Author Website: galaxysoup (on AO3)

Summary:
Princess Elizabeth has vanquished the Dragon and danced off into the sunset. Too bad the story doesn't end there! Now she has a kingdom to run and some very uppity neighbors to manage. Her only weapons: a half-burnt country, a certain way with words, and the kind of moxie that lets her bluff a dragon while armed only with a paper bag...

Review:
This story is a delight! Ever wonder what happened to the princess after the picture book ended? Fear not, for galaxysoup has provided an illustrated account of how Princess Elizabeth gets her kingdom in order after the dragon business...with a little help from the dragon himself, but mostly with her own clever moxie. The drawings are adorable, especially the last one, and the whole thing put a huge smile on my face.

Paper Bag Diplomacy

Sorry I've been MIA for two weeks!

Title: My Adventure, by Belladonna Baggins nee Took
Fandom: Tolkien: Hobbit & Lord of the Rings
Pairing: gen (with background Belladonna Took/Bungo Baggins, and OFC/OMC elves)
Categories: Action/Adventure, Humor, Pre-Canon
Length: Medium (11,443 words)
Warnings: implied secondary character deaths

Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: Thimblerig (on AO3), Thimble (on fanfiction.net)

Summary:
Gandalf exclaimed once: 'That I should live to be 'Good morninged' by a son of Belladonna Took!'

Bilbo's mum has a story to tell and this is it. Holidays by the Sea, Elves, and much Falling in the Water.

Review:
I was utterly charmed by this story. Belladonna (Bilbo's mother) wants an adventure before her coming-of-age birthday, and does just that. Her narration is lots of fun, with her slightly unreliable perspective on things and her gung ho, exuberant attitude. The best parts, for me, were when she interacts with characters the reader would be familiar with from Tolkien's other works and how she sees them, such as some of the dwarves from The Hobbit or the nice "bandits" she runs into (Aragorn's great-grandfather). Though it's a small part of the story, I also really liked the relationship between Belladonna and Bungo.

Make sure to read the notes at the end of each chapter, which read like a historian's notations on Belladonna's diary with extra information and commentary.

( Click here to read an excerpt. )

My Adventure (AO3), (ff.net)

Sorry I've been MIA for two weeks!

Title: My Adventure, by Belladonna Baggins nee Took
Fandom: Tolkien: Hobbit & Lord of the Rings
Pairing: gen (with background Belladonna Took/Bungo Baggins, and OFC/OMC elves)
Categories: Action/Adventure, Humor, Pre-Canon
Length: Medium (11,443 words)
Warnings: implied secondary character deaths

Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: Thimblerig (on AO3), Thimble (on fanfiction.net)

Summary:
Gandalf exclaimed once: 'That I should live to be 'Good morninged' by a son of Belladonna Took!'

Bilbo's mum has a story to tell and this is it. Holidays by the Sea, Elves, and much Falling in the Water.

Review:
I was utterly charmed by this story. Belladonna (Bilbo's mother) wants an adventure before her coming-of-age birthday, and does just that. Her narration is lots of fun, with her slightly unreliable perspective on things and her gung ho, exuberant attitude. The best parts, for me, were when she interacts with characters the reader would be familiar with from Tolkien's other works and how she sees them, such as some of the dwarves from The Hobbit or the nice "bandits" she runs into (Aragorn's great-grandfather). Though it's a small part of the story, I also really liked the relationship between Belladonna and Bungo.

Make sure to read the notes at the end of each chapter, which read like a historian's notations on Belladonna's diary with extra information and commentary.

( Click here to read an excerpt. )

My Adventure (AO3), (ff.net)

Title: On Adventures and Other Forms of Conduct Unbecoming of a Wizard
Fandom: Tolkien: The Hobbit (both book & movie 'verses)
Pairing: Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield
Categories: Action/Adventure, AU, Romance, Canon Fix-it
Length: Epic (51,524 words)
Warnings: Spoilers for Entire Book

Author on LJ: manic_intent
Author Website: manic_intent (on AO3)

Summary:
That AU where Bilbo is a hobbit-shaped wizard who doesn't approve of adventures.

For as long as even the old Gaffer could remember there had been a wizard living in the hill at Bag End, overlooking the Shire. As wizards went, this one wasn't the wandering sort, always out to lure gentle folk out onto nasty adventures, or even the powerful kind, the sort that lived in high towers, reaching out into the ways of the world.

Review:
This story follows canon closely, save for the major difference that Bilbo is a wizard...and that is a difference that makes all the difference in the world. Events are tweaked in just the right ways with a wizard hobbit along on the journey instead of a burglar hobbit (I was particularly fond of the resolution of the dragon problem here). The developing relationship between Bilbo and Thorin is at turns sweet and fraught, with two such people having so wildly divergent outlooks and motivations while still pulled together by friendship and affection. The tragedies of the book still occur, but in slightly different forms, a trade-off of one type of pain for another. That said, there is a happy (if slightly bittersweet) ending for the story and characters.

Overall, the story is so well written with great understanding (and playful tweaking) of Tolkien's mythology and just great fun.

On Adventures and Other Forms of Conduct Unbecoming of a Wizard

Title: On Adventures and Other Forms of Conduct Unbecoming of a Wizard
Fandom: Tolkien: The Hobbit (both book & movie 'verses)
Pairing: Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield
Categories: Action/Adventure, AU, Romance, Canon Fix-it
Length: Epic (51,524 words)
Warnings: Spoilers for Entire Book

Author on LJ: manic_intent
Author Website: manic_intent (on AO3)

Summary:
That AU where Bilbo is a hobbit-shaped wizard who doesn't approve of adventures.

For as long as even the old Gaffer could remember there had been a wizard living in the hill at Bag End, overlooking the Shire. As wizards went, this one wasn't the wandering sort, always out to lure gentle folk out onto nasty adventures, or even the powerful kind, the sort that lived in high towers, reaching out into the ways of the world.

Review:
This story follows canon closely, save for the major difference that Bilbo is a wizard...and that is a difference that makes all the difference in the world. Events are tweaked in just the right ways with a wizard hobbit along on the journey instead of a burglar hobbit (I was particularly fond of the resolution of the dragon problem here). The developing relationship between Bilbo and Thorin is at turns sweet and fraught, with two such people having so wildly divergent outlooks and motivations while still pulled together by friendship and affection. The tragedies of the book still occur, but in slightly different forms, a trade-off of one type of pain for another. That said, there is a happy (if slightly bittersweet) ending for the story and characters.

Overall, the story is so well written with great understanding (and playful tweaking) of Tolkien's mythology and just great fun.

On Adventures and Other Forms of Conduct Unbecoming of a Wizard

Title: The Cuckoo's Agenda
Fandom: C.J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union 'verse, primarily Cyteen
Pairing: gen
Categories: Drama, Post-Canon
Length: Medium (4,813 words)
Warnings: ( Spoiler )

Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: vanillafluffy (on AO3)

Summary:
There is more than just a scientific breakthrough on the table when the second Ariane Emory meets with a spacer of humble origins.
Or, as the Author's note put it, "a young woman confronting Ari II with an important discovery and suspicions about Ari's part in her life."

Review:
This is one of those stories where you really have to have read the canon to really get it; if you haven't read Cyteen, it probably won't make a lick of sense. But if you have, it's brilliant. There was a little something, a backstory sub-plot about a certain character, that always tickled at me...always made me wonder. This fic fills in that hole, and does so marvelously with an original character's vibrant first-person narrative. The original character, Grette Pedersen, fits seamlessly into Cherryh's greater Alliance-Union universe, and has a unique voice. Confident, smart, and clever, she's a great conversational foil for Ari, and I really enjoyed Grette's story and it's addition to Cherryh's world.

The Cuckoo's Agenda

Title: The Cuckoo's Agenda
Fandom: C.J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union 'verse, primarily Cyteen
Pairing: gen
Categories: Drama, Post-Canon
Length: Medium (4,813 words)
Warnings: ( Spoiler )

Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: vanillafluffy (on AO3)

Summary:
There is more than just a scientific breakthrough on the table when the second Ariane Emory meets with a spacer of humble origins.
Or, as the Author's note put it, "a young woman confronting Ari II with an important discovery and suspicions about Ari's part in her life."

Review:
This is one of those stories where you really have to have read the canon to really get it; if you haven't read Cyteen, it probably won't make a lick of sense. But if you have, it's brilliant. There was a little something, a backstory sub-plot about a certain character, that always tickled at me...always made me wonder. This fic fills in that hole, and does so marvelously with an original character's vibrant first-person narrative. The original character, Grette Pedersen, fits seamlessly into Cherryh's greater Alliance-Union universe, and has a unique voice. Confident, smart, and clever, she's a great conversational foil for Ari, and I really enjoyed Grette's story and it's addition to Cherryh's world.

The Cuckoo's Agenda

Title: Top Billing
Fandom: Singin' In The Rain
Pairing: gen
Categories: Drama, Post-Canon, Character Study, Yuletide
Length: Medium (3,568 words)
Warnings: n/a

Author on LJ: romanticalgirl
Author Website: romanticalgirl

Summary:
Singin' in the Rain was the end of the beginning for Don and Kathy, but what was it for Cosmo and Lina?

Review:
After the movie, life moves on. Lina makes a life for herself as gossip columnist and Cosmo moves into acting and eventually writing. Mostly by happenstance, they start meeting periodically for drinks and sniping. Through these meetings, we see what happens to them, and peripherally what happens to the other characters from the film.

The character voices are pitch-perfect superb, and this story allows them to age and grow and be more nuanced while still very identifiably themselves. Lina especially is a delight!

( Click here to read an excerpt. )

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