Lord of the Rings

Lord of the Rings
Bandage by Keelywolfe
Legolas helps Aragorn heal. Very hot, and I especially like the way she handles the Arwen factor.

Breathe by Fileg
Three scenes on Anduin, between Boromir and Faramir. Nice sketch of them as youngsters, and a nice tie-in to their final meeting.

The Darkness That Endures by Branwyn
Eowyn makes a different choice, because not every problem can be solved by love. ::sniff:: My poor sad girl, she’ll never be able to be happy.

Elven Eyes, Human Hands by Caenis
Eowyn has seen the jewel Aragorn wears before. Intriguing look at Legolas/Aragorn and Aragorn/Arwen through Eowyn’s eyes.

The Flower and the Sun Ezra’s Persian Kitty
The metaphor is a little heavy-handed, but it works in a humorous way, as Legolas gets exasperated with Gimli’s fumbling around the subject of their relationship.

Folk Unfree by Two Ladies of Quality
Eowyn and Aragorn share a moment after Helm's Deep. The details are just ... right. Evocative, poignant, and real.

Just a Thought by Afrai
Bwahahahaha! Elrond’s thoughts as the Council convenes. So. Funny.

The Last Elf Standing by Suzene Campos
::snicker::
Elves behaving badly. Epistolary fic. Letters between Elrond and Thranduil. They're not all buddy-buddy, either. Elrond doesn’t listen to Thranduil’s advice, and Thranduil gets to say, “I told you so.” I enjoyed this more than I should have. You'll have to take the colloquial language and the broad characterization in stride.

Reflections on Absent Men by Your Cruise Director
Boromir's death left a gap in many lives. This fic explores the effects of his death on various people, and does it well.

Singing in the Sun and Chasing the Moon by Kielle
AU – Eomer accompanies Boromir on his search for the legendary Imladris. Engaging characterization, nice action, good buddy-flick kind of stuff. I really enjoyed these more than I expected to, given my reluctance to go too far AU in Tolkien.

Thoughts by kerosene
Nice thought piece, gets right into Eomer’s head as he contemplates Eowyn’s choices and his own. One minor quibble – I cannot imagine him referring to Theodred as ‘Dred,’ but eh, I can overlook it, since I’ve run across so few good Eomer stories.

~*~

XMM

X-Men (X2 included)

Last Season by Akazukin Elle
Bobby thinks about a lot of stuff, like how it’s wrong for him to be shagging St. John while he’s dating Rogue, and how his parents would respond to a mutant son, and even worse (in their oh-so-conservative eyes), a gay mutant son. This is a sweet, lovable Bobby and this POV feels right.

Tulsa by Ransom
Logan’s got a lesson to learn, and Rogue sends him off to learn it. I love the wistful tone and spare writing of this story, and the way Rogue does what she needs to do to make both of them happy, or, rather, to make Logan realize what they both need to be happy.

Weakness by Diebin
Okay, first, let’s take a moment to squee over Die’s return to writing L/R. Second, let’s take a moment to squee over the scene she writes about here (the infamous Temptation of Wolverine scene – 'ware spoilers for X2). And then let’s squee over the accuracy of her Logan-voice. Personally, I’d have loved to see this version of the scene onscreen.

XXX Mansion by Beth
I can’t believe I never recced this. Talk about more bang for your buck. ::snicker:: AU, with the X-Men as porn stars and Xavier and Magneto competing as rival studio heads. Sex, action, sex, humor, sex and more sex. Hot sex. Funny sex. Porny sex. All hail Beth.

***

Heathers

Heathers
Winner Takes All by Amy
Heather/Heather fic. Guh. Sharp observations of the interaction between the ringleader and her second-in-command. Hot and in character and just... you’ll never look at croquet or cliquey girls the same way again.

~*~

Firefly

Firefly
Big Damn Zombies, Sir by Shrift
Zombie!Jayne! Monkey brains! Too many funny lines to quote. Absolutely hilarious and dead-on balls accurate characterization.

On the Mend by MollyTM
Lovely post-War Stories Firefly fic in which Kaylee and Mal discuss some things.

~*~

Buffy

Buffy
Disco Inferno by Amy
Excellent Dawn story. Excellent Dawn characterization. Dawn is pushing the limits of what Buffy will allow, when Buffy bothers to notice. Dawn’s figured out how to slip under her radar. Sharp, insightful and reveals Dawn’s character. Good stuff.

Sunnydale Calling, Five Conversations and Three Fights by nwhepcat
AU with Xander breaking Faith out of jail to help with the First. *Great* Xander characterization, good plot, lovely Willow/Xander friendship moments, beautifully broken but trying to heal Faith... It’s all good here, and with the sequels, the one problem I had with the first story (i.e., the Buffy-Xander conflict) is solved. And how can you go wrong with a story where Xander listens to The Clash? There is no bad here. (I understand there’s another story in the series in the works, so watch this space! *g*)

Touchstone by LadyCat
Post-Dirty Girls Xander fic. ::sniffle:: They hurted my Xander! But LadyCat gets to the heart of him, and what he means to Buffy, Willow and “The Mission.”

~*~

I prefer the term *focused*

Yes, my little foray into Sirius/Remus (theirloveissopure) fic has turned into a fullblown obsession focus on stories featuring the two characters (preferably as lovers or on their way there (again), but gen fic about them and MWPP is okay too *G* as long as Remus is featured), so expect a lot of that in the future.

Now, I got lots of good stuff for all y'all in various fandoms:

Harry Potter
Anatomy of a Dysfunctional Relationship by zahra
Harry hates Draco. He really, really does. That doesn't mean he won't take what he wants, though. Now, this is the kind of alpha male jostling for dominance slash that makes my little heart go pitter-pat. Harry and his shadow self, and how different are they, really?

Darkness Dying by Iniga
I was looking for fic that explained why Sirius distrusted Remus back when he convinced James and Lily to make Peter their Secret-Keeper, and marina_rusalka recommended this to me. It's very, very good, a sharp, in-character portrayal of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, at least from what little we know of them. The story continues in Interim, which focuses on what happens to Peter, Remus and Sirius in the twelve years before they meet up again, and then continues through the events of Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire and beyond with Innocence Lost and Found, Cyanide (which focuses on Percy Weasley), and Parvati Among the Slytherins, and then climaxes with Raised to the Third Power.

As the series goes on, the author seems to have given less attention to technical details (there are typos and occasionally, words are left out, and honestly? We all know the war's not going to wrap up until the 7th book), and while there's some lovely Sirius/Remus subtext (if you choose to see it), it definitely remains a completely non-romantic story, which for me is perhaps its main weakness (Sirius and Remus are so MFEO it hurts). Snape is brilliant and bitter, Ron and Hermione are brave and loyal, Sirius is charming and slightly mad, and I just want to take Remus home and, well, yes. Ahem.

Anyhow, I spent three nights reading through this series almost non-stop because it's really well done, minor quibbles aside.

Down from the Tree: Actions by Firelocks
Dumbledore announces that Lupin has been hired as the new DADA teacher. Snape remembers the Prank. Great Snape characterization. I didn’t like him here any more than I like him in the books, but I understood him. Then read Down from the Tree: Consequences by Arabella, in which Sirius recalls The Prank as he waits for the Dementors in Flitwick’s office. Dumbledore lets the punishment fit the crime and while I feel bad for Sirius, really I do, my heart damn near broke for Remus.
Absolution by Arabella is the third story in the trilogy, but isn’t archived anywhere I can find, yet. So if you've got a link, that'd be appreciated. and I now have a link for it. Thanks firelocks.

Draco Malfoy the Amazing Bouncing Rat? by Maya (the epilogue is here)
Oh. My. God. I almost died laughing. I don’t care if everyone and her uncle has recced this, you must read it. Now. Especially if fanon!Draco irritates you like he irritates me. This is too funny to miss.

Flame and Shadow by Maya
Ron Weasley and Pansy Parkinson. It's convenient. It's sex. It's... much more than either of them expected, and Ron gets to be happy and have lots of sweaty sex, which makes *me* happy. Hermione's a little off (i.e., prissier than I think she would be), but I managed to overlook that, and think you should too.

The Good Morrow by Fay Jay
Remus wakes up in an interesting position. Sweet, funny first time story, and I love this line: Hitherto unknown portions of his friend's anatomy were cheerfully making their presence felt in the most disconcertingly intimate fashion. Sirius Black, it appeared, was considerably less heterosexual than all previous evidence had seemed to indicate. Okay, that’s two lines. But the whole fic is clever like that.

The Happy Valley Puppy Farm, aka Canis M’s Sirius Black/Remus Lupin page
I rarely do blanket author recs, because there’s usually something I dislike or can’t in good conscience recommend, but Canis M’s stuff is... sweet, hot, poignant, lovely – if you are in any way a fan of SB/RL, just read it all and be so very happy, and then poke her to write more, faster.

An Intimate Conspiracy by Rochefort
The most compelling version of Sirius’s ‘prank’ on Snape that I’ve seen, this story explains how Sirius could be pushed to be so thoughtless, and why Snape kept quiet about it.

Moon Scars and Strewn Stars by llamajoy
Sirius figures out Remus's secret. Tense, spare, poignant and lovely.

The More Is My Unrest by Arabella and Jedi Boadicea
Oh man. This hurts. This hurts a lot. Draco watches Ginny watch Harry. Draco is a petty bastard, so he's in character, but I felt really bad for him anyway. I remember what it was like to be in his position, and in Ginny's, and this story captures that feeling really well.

Night Vision by Keieru
Snape and Lupin have a mission, and some words. I don't know if I believe this basis for the Sirius-Snape hatred, but the story itself works wonderfully. I mean, I felt bad for Snape. That *never* happens.

Second of Our Reign WaxJism
Harry’s dead, and his friends have retreated to hiding in the Muggle world to live after Voldemort’s defeat. Draco is alone, a living ghost in Malfoy Manor. And then he discovers a secret in the basement.

This is dark and plausible. Jagged prose, sharp characterizations, and a Lupin/Black relationship that makes me want to sniffle, because I can so see it ending this way for them and, well, that’s not what the story is about really, but it’s the part that stuck with me -- He'd been thinking about getting a blanket - somehow, the sun refused to warm him, and there was a low ache somewhere in his back, as if he'd suddenly aged fifty years. Then he'd thought about the look on Sirius's face if he'd had to watch Lupin sit hunched under a blanket like an old man. Sirius still wanted to think they were teenagers.

I felt for everyone here, and they feel for each other – sharp sorrows muted but not erased by the passage of time. The ending raises more questions than it answers, which is not my usual preference, but the story is well done.

Strange Bedfellows: A Comedy of Assumptions by Mad Maudlin
Absolutely hilarious. Hermione may be on crack, but the story is funny enough that I didn't mind the characterization. Just hilarious.

Summer Thing by Halrloprillalar
The summer between fifth and sixth year, Hermione loses her virginity. And goes about it in a perfectly in-character, wonderfully hot and sweet way. With Fred and George Weasley. Love this.

~*~

Well, that was ... lengthy.

Go. Read. Love. Send feedback.

And feel free to let me know... anything. You liked. You hated. A link is broken. Etc.

~victoria