fajrdrako | Entries tagged with recs

For my information and amusement, I've been looking for places where I can find White Collar fanfic.

White Collar Fanfiction Archive
Which Collar Fanfic Community on Livejournal
White Collar Fixation - recs
Non-Slash LJ Community Whitecollared
Caffrey-Burke LJ Community
Archive of Our Own

Does anyone know of other good sites? Does anyone have recommendations?

~ ~ ~
Addendum:

Now I'm adding sites as people suggest them:

More Archive of Our Own
Dreamwidth

Rec sites:
stasha2g
movies-michelle
dragonfly

I don't often comment on fanfic in my LJ here, mostly because I don't have time. You know I can never be brief when I talk about something I've read. I also don't talk much about the books I read. (Currently enjoying Linnea Sinclair's Gabriel's Ghost).

But I feel like commenting, so... Because of the anniversary of "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" and the Hart-fest on

guns_n_poodles, and because Jack/John is one of my favourite Torchwood pairings (and one of the more complex and enigmatic ones), I did a bit of a Captain John Hart fic-binge last night and this morning. One doesn't usually put ratings or warnings on reviews and comments, so be warned, my comments on these stories are somewhat NC-17, reflecting the nature of some of the stories. This is also making me think that my own writing has become very vanilla, and I should do something a little deeper or spicier for a change.

I read:

1. Mission of Mercy by

51stcenturyfox. ( A series of... )

2. Smile by

anduria_trianys. ( A post-Exit Wounds story, interesting... )

3. Addict by

sistercarrion. ( A post-Kiss Kiss Bang Bang story, as John thinks about Ianto... )

4. Filing Away by

sistercarrion. ( Ianto's point of view used to good effect. )

5. Impossible by

sistercarrion. ( Playing to Captain John's kinks. )

5. Safety Catch by

sistercarrion. ( Sexual fun and games with Jack, Ianto and Captain John. )

6. Share and Share Alike by

sistercarrion. ( No plot here, and almost no theme, just an unrepentant pwp. )

7. A selection of drabbles from

sistercarrion:

Ties that Bind Us - A nice John pov for "Exit Wounds".
Bleeding Me Dry - tamer than it sounds, given the context.
Bittersweet - my favourite of these: heartbreaking, and very like I see the Jack/John relationship.
The Line Drawn in the Sand - Sexy, but the last line, which should have been punchy and strong, failed to convince me. I'm not sure why.
Sleeping Rough - A cute scenario to say, essentially, the same thing as "The Line Drawn in the Sand" - much subtler and stronger, though not as sexy.
Spank the Monkey - A cute visual play on John's jacket.

I ran out of time to comment on more, and there was a lot I want to say about

paperclipbitch's I Nothing But to Please His Fantasy, which was the story that moved me to write down my thoughts in the first place. Nor have I commented personally to these authors on all their stories, as I intended to do before posting this. Ah, well, good intentions remain. I'll write more later.

I don't often recommend fanfic but I read a Jack/Ianto Torchwood fic yesterday that I thought was extraordinarily good. By someone I never heard of -

rallalon, where have you been hiding? I liked the story on so many levels: for its sense of character and romance, and for its sense of plot and structure. And it hit a lot of my buttons. And it surprised me; not one of your cliche plots, but something delightfully different in a way that fits nicely with series canon.

The story is Tryst by

rallalon.

A recommendation that is a story recommendation, but it isn't entirely a story recommendation, either. It's more than that.

You probably all know about the traditional Doctor Who advent calendar on the official BBC website. It's loads of fun: clips, quizzes, pictures, and so on. Sure, it all adds up to one big advertisement for "Voyage of the Damned", but that's all part of the Christmas fun. (How many days till it airs now? 20?)

Getting into the Christmas spirit,

jovialien has set up her own Advent Calendar for Captain Jack Harkness, and each calendar day gives us an icon picture of Jack and - behind it - a Christmas story. We're currently on the Captain Jack Harkness version of A Christmas Carol, and I'm loving it. Without too much of a spoiler - Rose is the Ghost of Christmas Past! Gorgeous.

I'm a sucker for Christmassy things, and of course for Captain Jack, and

jovialien has made this a treat.

Note to self: now start working on that Captain Jack Christmas story you were planning....

I greatly enjoyed this piece that

eryaforsthye posted today. She calls it a ficlet; I think I'd call it poetry; whichever it is, I liked the insight and her approach.

I've had a pile of fic that I've been wanting to mention; the list is growing exponentially. So: here you are... fanfic I have particularly enjoyed over the last while.

Most of these are Captain Jack stories, or Torchwood, ( one way or another... )

limmenel wrote me a ficlet about Peter and Claude from Heroes, on my prompt. I love it. If you want to read it, you can find it on her lj here.

A few odds and ends to recommend:

A music vid about Ianto that I liked by jekyllhj7.

The Comedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by reina_isabella. The funniest thing I've read for a long time. The TARDIS as a "cerulean spectre" and the Doctor sounding just like himself, but in Shakespearean metre... "I could a tale unfold whose lightest word/Would gobsmack thee..." Okay, okay, it cracks me up. Every time.

Keys by reina_isabella, who stunned me twice in two days by the quality and originality of her work. This is just a drabble, but what a drabble. Smart and snappy and sexy.[1]

Erogatio by misspamela. R. A Doctor Who crossover with Rome: Captain Jack decides he wants sex with Marc Antony. Good choice. Original, in character for characters of both shows, with imaginative use of time travel. And I love the little coda at the end.

Every Time We Kiss by fatchickengirl. Jack/Ianto. I have become wary of Jack/Ianto stories, but this was a cut above the norm. Maybe I was just charmed by the rating: "I'd call it filthy, but Ianto's a clean boy."

Think Yourself Out In the Darkness and Spin by 3jane. Jack/Owen. R. Jane St. Clair is one of my favourite slash writers, and though I preferred her previous Torchwood story, this had an edge to it that even made me like the pairing in spite of myself.

Live in Infamy by livii. G. Jack/Tosh AU. This story really rises above itself: what if Jack and Tosh were not able to return from 1941 after "Captain Jack Harkness"? Not a promising premise, I would have said, but the story pulled me in. I loved Jack's steadfastness here.

Torchwood Emergency Protocols for the Recognition and Apprehension of the Doctor by shaggydogstail. R. Starts with Jack/Doctor and Jack/TARDIS and more or less moves on too everybody/everybody. Yes, it's as silly as it sounds, and I don't usually go for 'silly' but there are always exceptions, and after all, Jack/Doctor stories are rare and to be valued. Especially when they have lines like, "There was a crash from the coffee-area and a stream of muttered obscenities that the TARDIS refused to translate."

The Honey Trap by basingstoke. R. Torchwood crossover with Highlander for Jack/Duncan. I'm really not sure why this ended up on my 'recommend' pile. Perhaps it's the charming notion of Jack being beheaded as an immortal. Maybe it was the lift/CCTV sex. Mind you, all the time I was reading it, a little voice in the back of my head was thinking, "Why Duncan? Why not Methos?" But that, of course, would be a very different story.

Kissing is for Lovers by cupiecake. Jack/Ianto. PG-13. A ficlet about denial and acceptance.

Fractal Julia by troyswann. G. No pairing; Jack introduces Gwen to an alien. Of sorts. This is delightful science fiction, a story about concepts and - well, just read it. Clever. Unique.

Ianto Doesn't have a Thing For His Boss and Jack Doesn't Fancy the Tea Boy by dikaeopolis. Jack/Ianto (of course). PG. Deserves an award for the titles alone.

Shiny Prize by lightgetsin. Jack/Doctor and Jack/Ianto. PG-13. Another story that's greater than the sum of its parts. I love lightgetsin's writing style.

Think of Something by lightgetsin. Jack/Doctor. PG-13. A time paradox.

A Maddening Addiction by hegemony. Jack/Ianto/Toshiko. NC-17. Quirky, edgy, haunting.

Inhibitions (And Jack's Lack Of) by _afterism. Jack/Doctor. R. An odd story with a Jack that didn't quite work for me, but which made it to my rec list on the strength of its final sentence.

[1] Truth is, I'm grappling with jealousy here because I wish I'd written this one. I have wanted to write a "Jack and the TARDIS key" story from the time Torchwood began and I hope to do it soon, and nothing in my head yet is nearly as good as this drabble. But I'll get there, one of those days.

One of the things I love about Doctor Who and Torchwood fandom is the music vids.

There were some brilliant vids in Horatio Hornblower fandom, and I have some old favourites from The Professionals, but it isn't an aspect of fandom I participate in - I just appreciate the good vids when I find them. That used to be a matter of going to conventions, or sharing CDs by mail with other fans, but thanks to new web venues like Megauploads and YouTube, it's vid heaven.

At least for this Doctor Who and Torchwood fan. There seem to be three types of vid: the ones where I can't tolerate the music; the ones that seem to have no point; and the others, the beautiful, clever, well-crafted ones that make me laugh and pull me in and sometimes break my heart. In Torchwood fandom, it's a bonus when the vid is done to a John Barrowman song. Dare I ask vidders of the world for more of that? Pleae? Begging you on bended knee?

This rambling is all a prelude to a recommendation of

emiloy's new Jack/Doctor vid to Vicki Carr's version of I will wait for you, which... well, thematically and musically, it's just as right as it can be and it still breaks my heart.

This made me laugh out loud: Ianto's Top Ten Moments. And clever

clarity_lore didn't even have to resort to coffee jokes, though she could have.

I made lentil soup. I can almost smell it through the sensory deprivation of my congestion. Nice. I don't usually think of lentil soup as exciting, but my standards this week are minimal.

The big thrill of the day was make a sortie to Costco to buy chicken for supper.

maaboroshi, who is as sick as I am (but with a slightly different virus), came with me and

maaseru. We bought almost nothing. I ate a hot dog - I love Costco hot dogs - and I could even mostly taste it. It was delicious. Then we shared some vanilla ice cream - one serving split three ways - it was really too much for me but I could actually taste the cream and that was great. One of these days I'll be back to real food.

Costco ice cream is a substance that terrifies me. Something that delicious must be demonic.

I was griping yesterday that even if you don't eat anything but chicken broth for four days because you're sick, you don't lose weight because you're expending no energy either. Why is it that sinking into the sofa and watching Torchwood isn't an aerobic activity? I got a nice surprise when I weighed myself today, though - I've lost five pounds. And that's despite a few Christmas treats over the past few weeks, like that Belgian chocolate that Sherwin gave me that kept ambushing me so ruthlessly at work. I hope everyone else has finished it off by the time I get back to work tomorrow - not that I'm in any state to approach it just now, but, alas, my appetite is bound to return some time.

The weight loss makes me feel a little better about having done no exercises since last Monday. And no, crawling slowly to the bathroom every once in a while doesn't count, either.

I did dance today: one of my many New Year's Resolutions, to dance every day, has been unfulfilled because I wasn't feeling well. For an obvious reason, the tune of A Nightingale Sang in Berekely Square wouldn't leave my head, so I gave into temptation and started playing

dawn_e_h's beautiful music vid version of it while dancing around the living room.

I feel happy.

And speaking of music vids based on "Captain Jack Harkness", I quite liked this one by

spankmonkeyjack. Different. Somewaht... ironic. Sets up an interesting and disconcerting cognitive dissonance in my mind because the Torchwood imagery and theme is so much the opposite of homophobic.

I was reading A Hand in a Jar again, finding myself with a strange love of Torchwood handfics. I thought I'd already recced it but don't see it among my earlier listings.

A few Torchwood story recs:

20 Things I must not do at Torchwood by

flopsy_cotton. Funny.

Encounters on the Slow Road by

aeshna_uk. A het PWP in which Jack Harkness has an encounter with Sarah Jane Smith. The things he does for Torchwood! A nicely characterized story.

I really can't stay by

iamsab. I like creative approaches to the hand, and this is delightful - it makes Jack, the Doctor, and the hand an odd sort of love triangle, which is pulled off more smoothly than you'd expect. Clever and original.

Interstice by

aibhinn. It was the first part of the story I most liked, about the passage of time in Jack's life and his relationship with his lovers. I thought the parallel in the second part was not entirely successful, but interesting.

The Night is Darker Now by

lonelywalker. A well-written overview of Ianto's career at Tochwood. "There's a look in Jack's eyes... that thousand-yard stare that hinted at horrows."

Paramagnetic by

fahye. Beautifully written.

A rose, by any other name by

laurab1. A piece that works in the information we got about Jack's youth in "Captain Jack Harkness". Kudos to

laurab1 for tackling that aspect.

Something by

scifichicx. A poem by Ianto about Jack that really caught something of the right spirit.

Survial Instinct by

order_of_chaos. A tiny snippet answering the question: What was Jack doing during The Christmas Invasion? Clever and chilling.

Time Has Told Me by

autumn_whispers. Another tiny snippet playing on the parallel between Gwen and Rose, as seen through Jack's eyes. It was the writing style that captured me here.

Too Many Beginnings by

toestastegood. Another snippet, another beautiful writing style, this time about Jack and Ianto.

Unboxed by

keikokinn. A Jack/Ianto ficlet, good concept, nice style.

A Doctor Who story rec:

Lord of Time, King of Dreams by

honorh. Rose/Doctor, a post-Doomsday fic. I usually carefully avoid them, but this one was inspired: a crossover with Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, in which the Time Lord needs the help of Dream to reach Rose. Great idea, great story.

Miscellaneous things:

Somnabulist by

sadbhyl. A series of drabbles, of which I particularly liked the first: the subject of Jack in relation to the concept of "home" fascinates me. I know what I think Jack considers his home - it's a six-letter acronym.

Random Clocks by

clarity_lore. Jack/Ianto. I think this story needed one more draft to really have punch, but it's a brilliant plot in which I couldn't see the twists and turns coming up. Conceptually inspired.

One Burning Bridge Too Far by

fanfic_whore. A Jack/Jack story. Another story that is very cleverly plotted, this one examining what happened to Harkness after our Jack went through the rift in "Captain Jack Harkness". This might have been a brilliant story if the author hadn't written it at 1 am and if she'd done a few more drafts to polish it more. (I wish I could write like that at 1 am.) As it is - it's clever and entertaining. I hope she writes a sequel, as she hints she might.

Here I am, wide awake at 4 a.m., so I might as well write the Torchwood fic recommendation list I've been meaning to do for a while now.

Torchwood fandom seems to be in a creative upsurge, with stories just getting better and better. Four or five months ago I was desperately searching in vain for more good Captain Jack stories. Now I can't keep up with the quantity. There was a whole slew appearing when Torchwood premiered, an escalating number of stories as the series continued and built momentum, and an influx of renewed enthusiasm when the Jack/Ianto slash became canon two weeks ago. I love this. Simmering enthusiasm, erupting into creativity. This list is mostly Jack/Ianto, for fairly obvious reasons.

The pick of the crop:

Fairytales by

andrealyn. Jack/Ianto. [PG-13] A study of who Jack is, or might be. "An enigma that draws your eye because he sparkles and shines, but like all beautiful things, he is dangerous at the core."

Four Ways Jack Harkness Is Every Bit the Monster Ianto Jones Said He Was, and One Way Ianto Might be Worse by

the_moonmoth. Jack/Ianto. This story has the virtue of being clever. Can't say I really like the plot; but it pulls you in and turns you around and surprises you at the end and is quite beautifully written.

the_moonmoth also won my respect by writing a scene I'd been thinking about (part 3) and alluded to in my story Attitude Adjustment, but never actually wrote. Since

the_moonmoth has done it for me, I don't have to! [1]

Jokes I May Have Misremembered by

mercurial_wit. Episodic biography of Captain Jack's life and thought, by a writer who gets it absolutely right.

Sun in the Sky by

giddygeek. Jack/Ianto. I'm not quite sure why I'm including this; other people have recommended it, and the appeal here for me is difficult to define. I'd like to call it a gentle story, a comfortable story, but that doesn't sound like praise. In this case it's meant as such. It's a story that plays up "Jack as nurturer" and this is an aspect of him that I particularly love, and which has generally been neglected by fanfic writers. (I can't think why they don't all pander to my tastes at all times. What's up with that?)

Redemption in Figures by

notevery. Jack/Ianto. It feels odd to be recommending a story I really didn't much like, but this one haunted me. In a good way? In a bad way? I'm not sure. Perhaps this is a rec and a warning at the same time. I consider this story way out of character (especially for Jack), but maybe still a legitimate interpretation - and a strong, chilling story. "Unpretty emotions", the author calls it. I don't ever want to ever read it again, but I admire its intelligence.

Aliens Exist by

3jane Jack/Ianto. Jane St. Clair is one of my favourite slash writers ever, and I am always thrilled when she produces a story in one of my fandoms. Imagine my delight when she writes a Torchwood story. Imagine my delight that it's as good as I would expect from her. Love it with a passion. Must quote:

Jack is all about performance. He's perfectly capable of blending in, but something in him rebels against it. He dresses in military vintage and swirls into rooms and sparks every time a camera's turned on him.

Bathtubs and Bananas by

boji, a writer whose version of Jack I always love. Jack/Nine. A beautifully written, rather laid-back story about Jack in a bathtub on the TARDIS, doing his best to seduce the Doctor. Boji captures the Doctor's quirky combination of humanity and alienness (not to mention alienation), but it's her first-person Jack who really shines.

Choice by

torakowalski. Jack/Ianto. A story of unusual delicacy and insight.

[1] I am joking, of course. Just because someone else has written a theme doesn't mean I would avoid it, and if I wrote it, I would do it in my own way. But sometimes it's a good excuse for being lazy about it, especially when I'm at the stage of Torchwood thought where I have more ideas than opportunity to write them.

Very short fics aren't my favourite thing, but I came across two good ones. Technically one is Torchwood fic and the other is Doctor Who, but both are really in that crossover area which ties them together in the relationship between Jack and the Doctor.

The first is a bit of Torchwood handporn... Now, in the show, I love Jack's concern for the hand and everything it implies. Yup, Jack/Doctor is my thing and the whole canonical hand theme just shivers my timbers. But the idea of handporn fics was just an amusing oddity till I read this one, with (I thought) an inspired premise: That the Doctor can still feel with his lost hand, at least when Jack is touching it. The story: Handporn III by

order_of_chaos. For concept alone - and for that, credit goes to

cyberamanda, I see - it's an R rating. For brilliance of idea and smutty writing skills, it's A+++ in my book.

The other story, frustratingly short, is Five Times Jack Thought Better of It by

lightgetsin, and I liked it so much that I won't even complain about the title. It's a glimpse of Captain Jack, especially in relation to the Doctor and Rose and his life on the TARDIS. There are only a few stories I've found that I think interpret Jack correctly, and this one is perfect enough to make me throw up my hands and think I might as well stop trying to write it myself because this story already said what needs to be said, presenting Jack as I see him. Good lines (and think here of "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances"):

It's funny, in that way of things which are not funny at all, because he used to clean up this sort of thing for a living and he understands all to well what he's done.

And later:

Fucking up isn't new to him - though this scale certainly is - but doing the right thing after is new and strange. But somehow it settles around his shoulders like it's always been there.

Core Values by

legionseagle made me laugh out loud. My favourite item was #7. (Poor pizza girl.)

As you might guess if you know me, I've been reading a lot of Torchwood and Doctor Who fanfic lately. I figure it's time to make a few recommendations. As usual, there are many stories who read as if they were written by teenagers without much life experience, or people who don't know how to use an apostrophe, and stories that just don't have the punch they might have. I find that Doctor Who fandom is rather too full of gen stories, and with Torchwood we need a few more episodes under our belts before we can really get to the substantial, meaty characterization.

This being said, here are stories I think are worthy of recommendation:

Torchwood
Employee Benefits (or, Personnel for Dummies) by

mimarie. [R] Jack/Owen. A story that helped me to understand Owen Harper, whom I normally just don't get.

Hub Games by

cyberamanda. [R] Jack/Ianto. [NC-17] Just... charming.

Five Ways Ianto Jones Said Sorry by

sage_theory. [PG] With the caveat that I'm somewhat tired of "five ways" stories, this had good characterisation.

Salvaging Surrender by

boji. [PG]

boji's best work so far is Blogging On, but this is a nice character study.

Doctor/Jack
The Beautiful Simplicity of Motion by

nostalga_lj. [R] A story greater than the sum of its parts, with the advantage of being my favourite pairing.

Doctor/Rose
Perversions by

regala_electra. [NC-17] Not perverted really, sorry. Actually kind of tame. But this is one of the few stories I have seen that in my judgement gets the Doctor's sexuality right - he isn't inhibited or shy, and he certainly isn't asexual; he approaches sex with the same enthusiastic curiosity as he does everything else. What this story lacks in structure, it makes up for in spirit.

Five Things the TARDIS Understood about Rose Tyler (and One She Didn't About the Doctor by

misscam. [PG] A nice alien look at Rose.

What, is that all? I'll have to look harder.

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In search of White Collar fanfic...
Torchwood: Comments and reviews of Captain John Hart fics...
Tryst...
A Christmas recommendation...
Doctor Who fic rec...
Torchwood and Doctor Who fic recs...
(no subject)
Torchwood story recommendations...
Torchwood vid rec...
Vid rec: Ianto's top ten moments...
Bits of stuff, recs and otherwise...
Torchwood: some story recs...
Torchwood recs...
A couple of recs...
(no subject)
A few Torchwood and Doctor Who story recs...

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Entries tagged with recs

In search of White Collar fanfic...

Torchwood: Comments and reviews of Captain John Hart fics...

Tryst...

A Christmas recommendation...

Doctor Who fic rec...

Torchwood and Doctor Who fic recs...

(no subject)

Torchwood story recommendations...

Torchwood vid rec...

Vid rec: Ianto's top ten moments...

Bits of stuff, recs and otherwise...

Torchwood: some story recs...

Torchwood recs...

A couple of recs...