yuletide recs: fantasy literature slash

First, a new pairing. I'm a big fan of Discworld, and I've even read and recommended a couple of pieces of fanfiction for it in the past, but I not only didn't know of the existence of this pairing, it had never really occurred to me. Drumknott/Vetinari! It does make sense, though, and both the pieces from this Yuletide (although both are UST, and one leaned all the way over into potentially innocent friendship) were impressive and just really wonderful. I went looking for more at once, but there's very little of it out there (in fact, the only person I could find who'd written it was kindkit, and she was also the recipient of both these pieces. My heart goes out to her: it's such a drag to have a fandom of one. Hopefully many other people will have their attention caught by the pairing this Yuletide like I did, and more fic will eventually result.)


1. Like Clockwork. Discworld, Vetinari, Vetinari/Drumknott, gen/UST. This is an exquisitely crafted, wistful little story. Using Vetinari's POV works incredibly well for it, too. It's so disciplined and restrained, even in the length of the story; everything is said with very few words and large portions of what it says it doesn't actually say at all, but leaves to be inferred.



2. A Place Like Home. Discworld, Drumknott, Drumknott & Vetinari, friendship/UST. Another extraordinarily well-done little piece, but this one is all Drumknott. A Sunday off work with his sister's family, a gift for his geeky nephew, an awkward conversation with his sister, and his character really shines through it all. Drumknott's confidence and his ... unexpected closeness to the Patrician is just so sweet, calm, and understated. The whole piece is a cosy, heart-warming delight.




Since there is only one other piece of Drumknott/Vetinari that I was able to find, it seems appropriate to rec it here as well.

Midwinter by Kindkit. Discworld, Drumknott, Drumknott/Vetinari, mature, 16000+ words. Set during and after The Truth. A long, delicious, leisurely, exquisitely-executed slow piece. Drumknott's POV is fantastic, and there are lots of hilarious little details that make the narration sound like canon. Especially at the climax(es), the writing is just perfect, tense and dramatic and really touching. The really astonishing thing about this story is that it moves out of UST like the two Yuletide pieces into, well, sex, and actually carries it off for a pairing where such a thing is necessarily tricky. What it does with the rest of the relationship is even more fascinating, though.



Another pairing that honestly hadn't occurred to me, but which I really enjoyed, was Bod/Silas from Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book.


3. Home is the Hunter. Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman. Bod, Bod/Silas. A grown-up Bod, working as an architect, eventually moves back to his hometown to be near the graveyard.


I'm quite a fan of Richard/Marquis de Carabas fic from Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. I've seen it before of course, but it's a rare pairing partly, I think, because the Marquis is so tough to get a handle on, in such a way that it's much easier to write gen about him.


4. A Very Big Favor. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman. Richard Mayhew, Marquis de Carabas, gen or debatably UST. This piece is funny, adventure-filled, and perfectly captures that slightly confusing madcap-quest aura of canon, while still allowing Richard to be more confident, and less clueless, than he was in the book. It's also got some really wonderful dialogue and characterization, to say nothing of the really delightful bits of London Below, and the details it added about the Marquis were instantly added to my personal canon. A really awesome story.


Lastly, another piece of Laurence/Tharkay from Naomi Novik's Temeraire universe. I have quite a soft spot for this pairing.


5. A Voyage of Discovery. Temeraire - Naomi Novik. Laurence, Laurence/Tharkay. Three times William Laurence was oblivious on the journey to Australia. The slight sense of humor and the narrative voice in this piece were especially great, and Laurence's POV both believable and sympathetic. All three of the scenes are lovely.

back to boots

1. Hush Pupppies - Shiver
2. Sugar - Pull Up Party in Red Crowded Garden

 

Agatha Christie's Poirot: Peril at End House

In retrospect, most of what I remembered from Peril at End House, the BBC version (eps 201-202), was Polly Walker being hot (well, she always is) and Hastings's adorable little pyjamas.



What I'd forgotten was Hastings flirting, sticking to Poirot like glue, and generally giving one of his strongest impressions of having a schoolboy crush on Poirot (which is really saying something). ( Read more... )