Slash, het, and gen fanfiction recommendations // 1157 stories in 54+ fandoms.
Historical
AU. It’s 1938, and John Sheppard hears about a piloting job up in Canada. It turns out his new employer is involved in some dangerous work, and John and Rodney end up running for their lives.
Action // AU // Explicit // Historical // Romance
Atlantis
I have a long queue of other stories waiting to be recommended, but sometimes a story comes along, so wonderful that it sweeps you away, and this is one of those.
A selection of passages from scholarly works treating the events following Atlantis’s break from the SGC and Earth, interspersed with the story of those same events. My mind boggles at the amount of work that must have gone into this, over and above the work of conceiving and creating such a marvellous tale.
“Yeah, I like it,” John said, sitting back.
Rodney jerked a sharp look at him. “You mean, I actually get to name something?”
“Just this one thing.”
“Oh, well, fine. So an electronic identity card that serves as a provisional IDC, situates its owner within a trust network, and can be used to effect trades in units of Mars Bars?”
“Exactly,” John said. “It beats the fuck out of Amex.”
Although there’s McShep, it’s really mostly a gen story.
Action // Explicit // Gen // Historical // Romance // Sci-fi/Fantasy // Top 100 // Top Ten
A very original idea. The story is fun, and it looks absolutely amazing.
General audiences // Historical // Mystery // Romance
Voyager
During “Future’s End,” Tom Paris sees two men holding hands in 20th century L.A. But Human males don’t do that anymore…
I don’t know why I didn’t rec this earlier. Actually, I could have sworn I did.
Maybe the geneticists should have tried to figure out what gene caused homophobia and wiped *it* out of the population.
Future Dystopia // Gen // Historical // Sci-fi/Fantasy // Teen
Enterprise
The Solomon Islands, 1942
Enfant Perdu, a tiny speck of an island with no resident population, hides a secret that could turn the tide of the war in the South Pacific. Lieutenant Malcolm Reed of the Royal Navy is sent to retrieve it, but his American hosts insist on sending along one of their own men as well – a beached PT boat commander, Lieutenant Skip Tucker. It’s not exactly the start of a beautiful friendship…
AU of the only Trek incarnation I’ve never seen. As far as I can see, it would have worked just as well as an original story; definitely no knowledge of canon required.
Action // AU // Historical // Mature // Romance
The creativity of fanfic writers constantly amazes me.
1969, New York, Spike and Dru see something brand new.
No slash (or even het) this time, but a well-written story with Spike in it is always of the good.
“No, no, no,” she whispered in delight. “There will be dancing on the moon. They will spin and jump and dance in the night.” She sighed and pouted. “But I only get to dance on the earth.”
Gen // Historical // Teen
AU. In Rome during the time of the Borgias: a young priest, a band of mercenaries, vampires, and the Holy Inquisition.
Action // AU // Character Death // Explicit // Historical // Mystery // Romance
Voyager.
Set before, during and after The Killing Game. Bobby and Brigitte’s story. Hasn’t been updated in some time, but what’s there is still worth reading.
Explicit // Historical // Romance // WIP
The Charioteer
Seven years on, Ralph and Laurie have found a precarious refuge together in Gibraltar. But in the post-War world attitudes are hardening and positions becoming polarised, and they find themselves engaged in a new conflict, one in which they may not necessarily be on the same side. And then an unexpected visitor arrives -
- Act I, Parts One through Four: in which Ralph distracts Laurie from his writer’s block with a trip to the cinema; Edward Longenhurst arrives, and Ralph and Laurie have an apalling evening; Ralph and Laurie discuss Ralph’s mysterious business; Ralph completes his delivery, and Alec makes a dramatic entrance.
- Act I, Parts Five and Six: in which Alec tells his story; Ralph, Laurie, and Alec go to the beach.
- Act I, Part Seven: in which Ralph and Laurie confront all their past dishonesty.
- Act II, Part One: in which Laurie makes a decision.
- Act II, Part Two: in which Longenhurst behaves just as one would expect.
- Act II, Part Three: in which Laurie deals with the mess left by Longenhurst.
- Act III, Part One: in which Laurie meets with his agent.
- Act III, Part Two: in which Laurie considers the decision he has to make.
- Act III, Part Three: in which Laurie seeks advice.
- Act III, Part Four: in which Laurie prepares for the trip, and has dinner with an American.
- Act III, Part Five: in which Laurie has a shock on the quayside.
- Act III, Part Six: in which Laurie finally writes the letter.
- Epilogue: in which Laurie receives his answer.
The plot wasn’t quite what I expected, but the writing was easily up to A.J. Hall’s usual standards. She has a talent for dialogue and pacing in particular. Her characters sound – and think – like real people, and there’s hardly an unnecessary line in the story. An all-around excellent story in a fandom which has far too few.
8 Jan 06: Finally fixed the links to the first six chapters!
Historical // Romance // Teen
To Huard, priest of the tribe of the Feasters, under the care of the City Priest, under the care of the High Priest of the Northern Peninsula:
This letter is borne to you by Prosper, who until a few hours ago held the honored position of City Priest, but who has been stripped by the High Priest of his title and of his priesthood, and who has been placed under the God’s curse. The sentence given to him was exile from the Capital Territory and from the God’s presence for one year’s time.
I can’t think of anything to say to explain this story, so I’ll just say that it’s very, very good.
Historical // Sci-fi/Fantasy // Teen
AU. Smallville, Noir-style.
He wasn’t a blond. Or a brunet or a redhead, he was bald. Bald as a billiard ball, bald as the lies a dime-a-dance girl tells you on lonely Saturday nights, and he wanted my help. Everybody did, I was the answer man, the fix it man, sometimes the garbage man, but for the uncreative, the uninitiated, they just called me Superman. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and after a busy day of playing knuckle music on the coconuts trying to make trouble in my city- able to leap tall buildings in a single bound to make it home in time catch the game on my trusty radio set.
The only quarrel I have with this story is the narrator is called Bert, a name I don’t particularly care for. Parhelion makes up for this with some of the best writing around.
Explicit // Historical // Romance
The plot doesn’t work for me as well as I would like it to, but there’s so little good Sherlock Holmes fanfic out there that I’m going to rec this anyway.
Watson comes face to face with his own prejudices.
Explicit // Historical // PWP // Romance
An AU where Wolfe and Archie meet while they’re working for a circus in the late 20′s.
I slid down the side window, took a good look, and then looked again. It was a necessary effort. “Holy smokes. Who built that?”
It was like nothing I’d ever seen in my home town. The garden was jam-packed with leafy trees, fuzzy trees, fronded trees, and huge masses of cascading shrubs that I would later learn to call bougainvillea, hibiscus, and jasmine. The house was crazier than the garden. Too much was going on in too small a space. All in all, the place seemed to have been designed for Zorro by Maxfield Parrish after his fourth or fifth shot of bad hooch in a speakeasy just outside of Baghdad.
I think my jaw dropped.
Action // AU // Explicit // Historical // Mystery // Romance // Top 100
Ah, another one of those Trek clichés that Ruth Devero handles so well. Chakotay and Paris inadvertently stumble into trouble in a slave society.
I think the author does a pretty good job of not romanticizing the culture they’re in – it’s a nasty place to live if you’re a slave, and she doesn’t gloss over that. I like how every time Chakotay or Paris try to find something decent within individual master-slave relationships, they keep running up against the slavery aspect of it.
Action // Explicit // Historical // Romance // Sci-fi/Fantasy
Voyager
Every good Star Trek author must inevitably tackle certain fandom clichés; this is Ruth Devero’s holodeck-sex story. It’s really, really, unexpectedly good.
Explicit // Historical // PWP // Romance
Nero and Archie go to Alexandria to see a man about a book.
Action // Explicit // Historical // Romance
Jeff and Rusty had once been best friends. Of course, Jeff was human then.
Everything Parhelion writes is wonderful, and this is no exception. And no one has a better grasp of period dialect and how to make it work.
Action // Explicit // Future Dystopia // Historical // Horror // Mystery // Romance // Sci-fi/Fantasy
The Iliad/Greek myth
My other favourite Iliad story, because Gloria Mundi is just so talented.
“I will avenge you, when you’re dead,” he’d said to Achilles once.
“You think even Death can part us?” Achilles had murmured, pretending surprise. “Surely I will find my way back to your arms.”
“And leave me waiting for you?” Patroclus had said, laughing. “No! I’ll come to Hades, and bring you out with me.” He’d sealed the vow with a kiss.
Achilles had kissed him back, and let the kiss seal his lips. That was not the fame he had been promised.
The death of Hector, and Achilles sends a message to Patroclus.
Action // Character Death // Darkfic // Extreme Violence // Historical // Mature // Non-con // Romance // Top 100