Comparative Thaumaturgy by WynCatastrophe

I hope very much that this is going to be finished. I like the portrayals of Felix and Mildmay, and I like the OFC, who I think is remarkably like a female character Monette would have written.

We’d been living out in the country for the better part of an indiction before Felix started to show serious signs that he was bored to tears. I was actually kind of liking the peace and quiet, but I guess I should’ve known that couldn’t last long.

Worth reading even incomplete. Gen so far, het probably to come. Quite funny in places, too.

Gen // Het // Mystery // Romance // Teen // Words: 15,608

Someone on Your Side by Isagel

Like so many awesome stories in Figure Skating fandom, this story is a WIP that was started for a kink prompt and may not everbe finished (although the author has said she? would like to, so there’s a chance!)

This was a much, much better story than I expected. The dialogue and some of the situations are very funny, managing to hit the right note of absurdity without becoming annoyingly stupid or improbable. Johnny and Evan’s tense ceasefire is fun to watch, and the mystery is interesting so far.

Johnny comes back to his hotel room to find a man’s corpse in his bed and the police outside his door. He makes a run for it to try to prove his innocence, and ends up taking Evan Lysacek with him.

Action // Humour // Mystery // Romance // Teen

Only Good for Legends by Leupagus

Reboot

An AU where Spock grow up on Earth after his father’s death and becomes a police detective rather than a Starfleet officer. After he gets embroiled in a political situation, he’s sent away from San Francisco to keep him out of trouble. If course, he ends up in Riverside and meets Iowa’s Most Wanted.

There’s some initial Spock/Uhura, which is so not my thing, but it didn’t bother me too much.

The link is to the secret epilogue, which has a list of links to all the previous chapters at the top.

Action // AU // Mystery // Romance // Sci-fi/Fantasy // Teen

Reboot Duo by Seperis

Reboot

The first story in this series is You’ll Get There in the End (It Just Takes a While), a pon farr story. A Jim Kirk has pon farr story,  no less.

There are some cut scenes set between the two stories.

And there is the second story,War Games. It has the most wonderful original characters and the best plot of any story I’ve read in this fandom so far. The Romulan Empire and the Federation may be on the verge of a war–one that not everyone seems interested in preventing.

Action // Explicit // Mystery // Romance // Sci-fi/Fantasy // Top 100

A Distorted Genius by Hwshipper

A crossover of Nero Wolfe and House may sound strange at first, but it works amazingly well, as this story proves.

Wilson is accused of murder, and House hires New York’s best private detective to find the truth. Hwshipper does a good job of bringing Wolfe and Archie into the 21st century while keeping the fundamentals intact.

“I’ll google Dr. House, shall I?” I asked innocently.

Wolfe glared at me. “Don’t goad me, Archie. You know perfectly well that word is not a verb in this house.”

Action // Crossover // Gen // Mystery // Teen

Male from Home by Bob Hutchinson

The Moyans are asked to investigate the murder of a man they had rescued from a damaged ship. Crichton has some Maltese Falcon-esque fun.

Action // Het // Mystery // Romance // Teen

Smoke and Frost by Brighid

Tanya Huff (Smoke series)

It doesn’t usually get cold in Vancouver, but there’s a new villain in town. Naturally, it’s up to the entire gang to save the day.

Action // Explicit // Mystery // Romance // Sci-fi/Fantasy

Ride by Deifire

Tanya Huff (Smoke series)

Tony and Lee try to continue their relationship, but some new, sinister deaths demand their attention.

Action // Mystery // Romance // Sci-fi/Fantasy // Teen

Angel: No Limits by Ladycat, The Brat Queen, Jane Davitt, Just Human, Kara, Kita, Mad Poetess, Ros Fod, Soundingsea, Stakebait, Tracy, WesleysGirl, Wolfling

Yet another Angel S6 series, this one the collaborative effort of a number of authors. Angel, Spike, Illyria, and Gunn survive the last battle, and a few other old friends show up in the course of the season. And in lieu of the Hyperion, the AI team is now living in an old movie theatre (which actually would have been pretty cool-looking if they’d done it on the show. And so perfect for the L.A. setting…)

Action // Character Death // Gen // Mature // Mystery // Sci-fi/Fantasy

At the Hands of the Wicked by Quasar

A new fandom—and for once I’m actually familiar with the canon. Serious spoilers for Sarah Monette’s Mélusine and The Virtu. If you haven’t read them yet, go do so. Right now.

After the events of The Virtu, Mildmay sees a ghost.

Action // Explicit // Incest // Mystery // Non-con // Words: 14,781

The Uninvited Guest by Yahtzee

When I started reading this, I didn’t think I was going to recommend it. And then I got to the Connor POV section, and I fell in love. I wish more people wrote first person Connor as well as Yahtzee does. (Well, okay, I wish more people wrote Connor, period, but that’s not important right now.) At first this story made me kind of angry, and then it made me want a sequel. One narrated by Fred, Connor, and Angel.

AU set after Angel S3, where things went a little differently, and BtVS S6, where things went a lot differently.

Snow has begun to fall from a few clouds in the sky, but there is a patch in the distance that shows stars. Winifred points toward it. “See that?” she says. “That’s Andromeda.”

“Andromeda?” I do not know this word, or why she would be pointing at the sky. So for the next several minutes, I stand and listen to her as she tells me the legends of the people she sees in the stars. Winifred is always patient with the things I don’t know. She remembers what it’s like to be different in the world, not to know all the rules. I don’t have to explain things to her; Winifred just understands, without words.

As she gestures at the heavens, she tells me about the princess chained to the rocks, and the horse that could fly. And she teaches me the name of Orion, who was a hunter, like me.

AU // Character Death // Explicit // Gen // Het // Mystery // Romance

Prometheus Project by Mistress Ace

After Clark and the Kents are kidnapped, Lex and Chloe spend years looking for them, but even Lex doesn’t expect what happens when they find them.

Action // Explicit // Mystery // Non-con // Rape // Romance // Sci-fi/Fantasy // Torture // Underage Sex

Jeeves/Wooster picture book by Lucy

A very original idea. The story is fun, and it looks absolutely amazing.

General audiences // Historical // Mystery // Romance

Nessuno by Two Ladies of Quality

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

The Drums of Heaven by Sol 1056

(Link is to GWA main page)

Five years after Endless Waltz, Heero hasn’t kept in touch with the other pilots. When he hears that Duo and Trowa have disappeared, he decides to go looking for them himself.

This is a very long and satisfying story. I’m particularly fond of post-war stories where one of the pilots (usually Heero, which is pretty much canonical) has been out of contact with the others, and has to work to understand the changes that have taken place in his absence. Sol 1056 makes the best of that plotline in this story; she doesn’t oversimplify and never takes the easy way out.

Action // Explicit // Mystery // Romance // Top 100

Left My Heart by Emma Grant

A slightly unusual HP fic. When Draco Malfoy goes missing, then turns up in San Francisco, Harry Potter is sent to investigate him.

There’s also a sequel, Surrender the Grey.

Action // Explicit // Mystery // Romance

Freeport by Maldoror

Just yesterday I recommended The Arrangement, and said it was Maldoror’s best story so far. Forget that. Freeport is, beyond a doubt, the best thing she’s ever written. In fact, it’s actually one of the best sci-fi fanfics I’ve ever read.

Freeport colony: a notorious den of pirates, smugglers and thieves. Wufei persuades one of its denizens, his one-time ally Duo, to help him catch a killer hiding there. Agent Chang thinks he knows what to expect, from this case, from Freeport and from Duo Maxwell. He couldn’t be more wrong.

Freeport is a truly fascinating place.

Action // Explicit // Mystery // Romance // Sci-fi/Fantasy // Top 100 // Top Ten // Torture

Touch the World by Jei

Another great fic by the author of Axiomatic, although very different in tone. After the war, the pilots struck a deal with the government, but didn’t get exactly what they bargained for. Heero is living in comfortable apathy when an attempt on his life forces him into action.

Action // Mature // Mystery // Romance // Top 100

Axiomatic by Jei

Five years after the war, Heero is called in by the Preventers when something important goes missing.

One of the best GW fics I’ve ever found, and, at 946k, one of the longest. Jei does an excellent job of letting the backstory to this fic emerge naturally, and of writing from Heero’s POV.

Action // Mystery // Romance // Sci-fi/Fantasy // Teen // Top 100

A Deeper Season by E.E. Beck, Sahiya

Okay. Okay. I’m very excited right now, but I’m going to try to be coherent. I have just finished one of the most enjoyable stories I’ve read in a long time. And it’s something I never thought could be done well: Gregor/Miles slash. It’s takes a bit of suspension of disbelief, since LMB obviously didn’t write the books with this pairing in mind, but A Deeper Season is what the book after Memory might have looked like if she had. The story is only slightly AU, completely canon through Memory except that Laisa never happens.

I found this story accidentally; while googling ‘vashnoi’ I found a recommendation of A Deeper Season at The Bog of Lost Scholars. I heartily agree with everything Castiron says about it there. She(?) says it as well as I ever could, so if you need more convincing to read A Deeper Season, check out what she has to say about it.

I think I have to go re-read my favourite scenes now.

“We’re going to the symphony tonight,” Gregor said.

“We as in you and the Cetagandans?” Miles asked, having somewhat surreal mental images.

ETA: The sequel, What Passing Bells, is now finished! It’s really good, definitely up to the standard set by A Deeper Season.

ETA: The third (and final) planned co-written instalment in the series is Seeds, an Ivan/Ekaterin fic roughly equivalent to Winterfair Gifts.

Action // AU // Mature // Mystery // Romance // Sci-fi/Fantasy // Top 100 // Top Ten