FIC: James Bond - "Black Stone:

Title: Black Stone
Author: fajrdrako
Fandom: James Bond, "Skyfall"
Characters: James Bond, Q, M
Rating: G
Length: 638 words
Disclaimer: Not mine, no claims.
Notes: Post-Skyfall. Cross-posted to my Dreamwidth account, my Livejournal account, my fanfic journal, and Archive of Our Own.

( Black Stone )

About Skyfall...

rosiespark sent me this wonderful link to The Graham Norton show with Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and Javier Bardem, all of whom are utterly delightful. As one would wish. The show itself has its annoyance, but they are funny and quite wonderful.

I'm reading more Skyfall fic, especially 00Q stories. I haven't found any first-class stories yet - they're rare enough anyway in any fandom, and this is a new one. I've found a few that come close, and a few others that are extremely good in various ways. Worthy of recommending, if I get my act together and make notes. I'll have to go back to the stories: I don't even remember authors' names, let alone titles.

As an example of the good stuff, here's a great line from stellary's story the end is where we begin - a description of Bond: Killer on a tightrope with a whisper in his ear and winter in his eyes, all katana-sharp suits and radioactive blue. But then, I should expect good things from a writer whose title is a paraphrase of T.S.Eliot. If you steal, steal from the best. Someone give that woman inspiration for a good plot.

There are certain story tropes that I got tired of very, very quickly - like Q scolding Bond for breaking his gadgets. I know Q doesn't have a lot of scenes in Skyfall and there isn't much material to working with, but we don't need to turn what we have into clichés by too much repetition.

I see a tendency of slash writers to feminize Q, or to make him sound like a thirteen year old girl... which I don't like as a general rule, but some of the stories are fun anyway. I am aware that people haven't had time to write anything substantial in this fandom yet, myself included. I am just... impatient. And greedy.

One story casual referred to Q as Bond's boss, which made me blink. Where'd they get that? Bond is management; Q is support staff. Q can and does give Bond instructions on equipment, but he's in no way Bond's superior. Rather the contrary. And either way round, it raises some of the interesting/tricky questions about personal relationships with colleagues and subordinates.

One story's summary contained the phrase, "Bond is not subtle." No? I thought Bond was very subtle indeed.

Good news for the movie's success: 'Skyfall' Returns to No. 1. It's making money, which bodes well for the next Bond movie. Makes me want to go and see it again. Properly, in a theatre.

Is there a place people are actually talking about the movie? Forums? Something apart from individual blogs? I'm most interested in the slashy context, but any context at all will do!

It's that or a twelve-step programme...