Rec me stuff!

[springgreen]

Now that I have an ereader, I find I've been reading more long fic than I have since probably high school.

So, rec me stuff! And feel free to rec things from around 2000 till now. I think I read a lot of long fic in Rurouni Kenshin, GWing, and XF, but I stopped after that.

I am more interested in long, gen-type stuff, particularly exploring consequences of world building or character development. I am also feeling more like reading gen, het, or femslash and generally am not interested in most of the big pairings.

Badass female characters and/or badass characters of color double plus good.

Notable fandoms I am unfamiliar with: Star Trek, SG-1, SPN, SV (what is it with the s's?), Prince of Tennis, Due South, Highlander, HikaGo, YYH, Dr. Who, pretty much all RPF, Farscape, Hetalia, non-GWing Gundam, non-X-Men Marvelverse, non-Batman-DC-verse, Inuyasha, One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh, DBZ, WK, and probably a lot of other stuff I forgot to mention that shows I have had my head in a ditch for the past decade.

Go forth and rec!

Comments

[lnhammer]

I've liked both of the two longest fics from this Yuletide:

I Have to See a Man About a God - Greek myth jazz-age AU, with a slightly noir-ish story. And Apollo/Dionysus bromance.

By Any Means Necessary - Vorkosiganverse, an Ivan adventure set on Barrayar a little after Diplomatic Immunity, anticipating the forthcoming Captain Vorpatril's Alliance.

---L.

[springgreen]

Awesome, will check out the Greek myth one!

And alas, forgot to mention I am actually not familiar at all with Vorkosiganverse =(. (Have read the first two Cordelia books and started one or two Miles ones, but generally find that I bounce off Bujold...)

[lnhammer]

In that case, that's not the fic for you -- it very much aims to scratch the itch for More Stuff Like Bujold's.

---L.

[laceblade]

I've been reading tons of fic on my e-reader, too, :D

Alas, the only fandom I am familiar with is FF7.

[springgreen]

Fic on ereader = BEST THING EVER.

Oh, darn, I am totally unfamiliar with the FF series except the first hour of FFX. Hrm. Any old Sailor Moon recs by any chance? I don't think I've read anything in there since the 90s.

[laceblade]

I've actually not read very much in the Sailor Moon fandom! Except for the songfic I wrote when I was 14, *cough*

I'd like to read more of it, but it's pretty daunting because it's such a huge fandom there's bound to be a lot of duds. If I find any, I'll do a post about it! I'm planning to do a post about my rereads of epic-length FF7 fanfiction that I first read 10 years ago, to see how it holds up.

I'll probably start poking at Sailor Moon fics, too. Once I have my surgery, I expect I'll be doing lots of fic-reading in the following weeks!

[springgreen]

Yay! I knooow, I vaguely remember reading a lot of SM in high school, but I don't remember very much of it, or what the big epics everyone read were...

[the_rck]

If you know GetBackers, you might like Opening the Way by incandescens. This is alternate ending for the series.

For Harry Potter, I like <ahref="http://www.fanfiction.net/u/386600/deadwoodpecker">Backward With Purpose and sequels by deadwoodpecker. It's a time travel story with a lot of depth.

In Naruto, you might like <ahref="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2859078/1/spying_no_jutsu">Spying no Jutsu by daniel-gudman. It has some verb tense problems, but it's fun.

Also in Naruto-- Uprooted by Orrunan. Danzo succeeds in getting Naruto into Root, but is it really a good idea?

You probably don't know Negima!, but if you do, I enjoyed this one-- Child of Mine by Ambrant Arandel. Negi looks into several alternative futures, trying to find the one that produced Chao.

In Ouran High School Host Club, I really like this one-- In the Circle of Elemental Arms by Kryssa's flute. This is an AU in which the members of the host club have elemental magic that's more powerful when worked together. I recommend it highly.

You may have heard of this one. It's Ranma 1/2 and was unfinished for a very long time but is now done. Hearts of Ice by Krista Perry.

In the Chronicles of Narnia, I highly recommend rthstewart's The Stone Gryphon series. The final third of it isn't done yet, but you can read the first two parts now. The Stone Gryphon, Part 1: Oxfordshire and The Queen Susan in Tashbaan.

I can't say for sure that you'll like any of these, but I liked them a lot, and they're nice and long.

[the_rck]

Sorry about the broken html. I thought I'd gotten it all.

[springgreen]

Not a prob, and thanks for all the recs! I'm not familiar with Get Backers, Negima, or Ranma (I knooooooow.... I need to read it some day....)... do you think the fic you recced would be okay for someone who doesn't know the canon, or should I hold off?

[the_rck]

For Ranma, I think familiarity with the basic concept is required. Ranma doesn't so much have plot as characters (sometimes with more comedy schtick than personality) and loosely connected incidents. If you know that Ranma sometimes turns into a girl and has several competing fiancees (who in turn have other, competing, love interests), I think you can get by with that story. It may take a little to get up to speed with who the characters are.

I think the GetBackers fic needs canon knowledge because the setting of the story is very particular, and the story uses a lot of characters introduced at different points during canon. There's more story to be aware of there than in Ranma.

For the Negima story, I'm iffier. I think it benefits from knowing the characters, but I also have trouble with keeping track of who's who in canon, so I was reading it and not being sure who exactly was being talked about. I think I could have enjoyed it not knowing the canon, but I'm not sure somebody else would. If you want to try it, I'd be happy to give you a thumbnail of what I think you need to know.

One other recommendation that I forgot about-- You might want to try Vathara's fics. She writes long AUs and crossovers of the sort that most people either love or hate. I can't predict which way you'd go on it. She crossed Gundam Wing with Stargate: SG-1 and Rurouni Kenshin with Star Wars. She has a long Avatar: the Last Airbender WIP that I like quite a bit (she updates about every three weeks). The Avatar fic isn't to everyone's taste (my husband bounced hard off Zuko Sue), but it's interesting world building.

[lady_ganesh]

The Magician Longs to See is a Twin Peaks/X-Files crossover, where Audrey has become an FBI agent. I think it's readable if you only know one canon? It's great anyway.

Major Pieces is a long BBC Sherlock genfic. (Full disclosure: The author is a longtime friend. But it's good!)

[springgreen]

Yay thank you!! Do you think the Sherlock piece is readable if you don't know the canon? (I know... I have been under a rock for the past 3 years or so.)

[lady_ganesh]

Yeah, I think so. Most BBC Sherlock fic I suspect is pretty easy, IMO, as they try to hew pretty closely to the stories (John Watson, f'rex, is a military doctor discharged from Afghanistan) and the personalities are quite consistent. (John isn't an idiot, which is a nice change from many adaptations/reinterpretations.)

[springgreen]

Eh heh, actually, all my Sherlock Holmes knowledge is via the movie -_-;;... hopefully I will know enough via fannish osmosis to get the fic though!

[lady_ganesh]

Fingers crossed! But yeah, that's probably enough. It's not dependent on specific canon events, though I think it refers to a few.

[fignewton]

Hi! Paian linked to this entry.

As you're looking for gen and SG-1 is on your list, may I suggest poking round figs_sg1_rec? I don't have tags for longer fic, but try the reccer's choice tag for starters and work up from there. :)

[springgreen]

Thanks for the link! Unfortunately, SG-1's on the list of fandoms that I'm not familiar with, but if you have any recs outside of those fandoms, that would be great!