there will be a fish

By no means a complete list, but here's eight recs from my reading so far, in order of reading:

( Temeraire, Jumper, Sense & Sensibility, Octopus Steals My Video Camera and Swims off with It While It's Recording, The Breakfast Club, The Losers, Sports Night )

I've had AUs on the brain (XMFC fandom is rife with them), so apparently the thing to do with that situation is to rec some of my favorite AUs. In alphabetical order by fandom:

1. The Art of Running & Fearless on My Breath (The Fast & The Furious, Brian/Dom)
Because what the world really needed was for someone to take a massively testosterone-infused fandom like this, and change one of the main characters into a woman. That's right, people -- this is Brian genderswap (of the always-been-a-girl variety), and it's really good. Brian is totally crazy in the exact same way, but then also crazy in some other new and fun ways, but it's all excellent. I think what I love best about this is that the author preserves their friendship and mutual respect from the movies; Dom doesn't treat Brian like a girl, he treats Brian like a person. IDK, it's genderswap fic! They drive really fast cars while being attractive! It's great! The sequel (Fearless on My Breath) then takes on the second movie, and it's kind of better this way.

2. Sixteen Days In September (Generation Kill, Brad/Nate)
This is an amazing story. Fair warning: it's a really intense war story, so there's violence of many kinds and very heavy subject matter. That said, don't be scared off! I can't imagine there's someone out there who hasn't read this yet, since it was recced to high heaven, but it's one of those stories that deserves every scrap of praise it gets. This is a point-of-departure AU: instead of joining the Marines, Nate joins the Peace Corps, and is sent to East Timor...and then a civil war starts up, and Nate, of course, does whatever he can to look out for people and do the right thing, but his pragmatic idealism takes a real beating from the war. A lot of the rest of the ensemble show up (as Marines still; actually, RL Nate went to East Timor as part of the peacekeeping force when he was a Marine), and everyone is just perfectly characterized. The Brad/Nate is a delicious slow burn that I love to pieces. Seriously, I cannot recommend this highly enough.

3. Play It Again, Jeeves (Jeeves & Wooster, gen-ish Bertie/Jeeves)
And now for a 180-degree tonal shift! The last was epic and very serious; this is short and completely ridiculous. The author did it on a request for "cracky retelling of Casablanca with Jeeves and Bertie." It's a very brief little piece (set in the last scene of the movie, so DON'T READ IT if you haven't seen the film, if you care about spoilers), but it makes me just die with laughter. Imagine recasting Rick with Bertie and Captain Renault with Jeeves, and then shifting the tone of the whole thing way into the Wodehouse range of things, and there you are. And by "there" I mean "laughing your ass off." Hee.

4. Next of Kin (The Losers, gen-ish)
This author writes the best damn Jensen in The Losers fandom, hands-down. If you like Jensen -- and who doesn't? -- you should read everything else she's ever written, basically. Anyway, this AU is also a point-change: Jensen never joins the Losers...and then Max gets his hands on his niece and sister and blackmails Jensen into working for him as his pet hacker. So Jensen is left to do an impossible task with his family's life on the line, and he has no backup. And then the Losers hear about Max's computer expert and decide a little bad guy kidnapping is in order, not realizing that Jensen's about as not-bad as you can get.... ♥ I've re-read this many many times, and it continues to delight me.

5. Apotheosis (Sherlock, gen-ish John/Sherlock)
AWESOME AU IS AWESOME. This is an inversion of "The Empty House" (the ACD short story wherein Holmes was revived after supposedly dying at Reichenbach Falls) setup -- after the confrontation with Moriarty at the pool, instead of Sherlock going after Moriarty alone for three years, John does. Long, plotty, full of pining, and lots of badass John! Truly excellent, and really creative in certain ways that I refuse to spoil for you.

Anyway, that's it. Enjoy!

(This is still not my Dear Yuletide Author letter, like it should be. Oops? /Rick Perry)

First: did you guys know that Sports Night is streaming on Netflix? Time to go a-pimping, my fellow SN fans! And second -- man, how much fun was that ridiculous NCIS:LA episode this week? It had many of my favorite things -- Deeks showing cracks in that obnoxious/cheerful act he tries to pull off, lots of fun Kensi/Deeks interaction, undercover shenanigans, character backstory, and explosions. I was pretty well pleased. :D

I'm sitting around insomniac-ly being bored tonight, again. *sigh* Do you ever get into that mood where you want to re-read something, but what you really want is to be reading it again for the first time? Like you want to re-experience exactly how awesome it felt when you first read that story, not actually re-read it. I'm in that kind of mood right now.

So, recs! The top five seven things I wish I were re-reading (for the first time):

1. Look Here, Look Back, Look Ahead (Marvel Comics, Iron Man Noir) by marinarusalka
So, I was looking back through my journal to find where I originally recced this so I could link to that post, and discovered to my horror that I'd never actually posted my rec for it. *facepalm* Which is just wrong, because this story is AWESOME. I am maybe a little biased because I helped beta it, but not really -- it's just really fucking awesome. See, Iron Man Noir is basically a canon AU where Tony Stark becomes Iron Man during WWII instead of modern day. And, well, you know, Steve Rogers was kind of around then, too...and Marina picks up that idea and runs with it. It's amazing, and even if you haven't read the comics, WHO CARES, because it's Captain America and Iron Man fighting the Nazis (FTW!), you really don't need to know much more. Marina is fantastic with plot and characterization, as always, and she just kicks ass with all the period stuff and the action shenanigans and EVERYTHING. I really love this fic. I might actually go re-read it now, in fact....

2. What You See Is What You Get (If You're Looking Hard Enough) (The Mentalist)
This came out of the most recent Yuletide, and it's excellent. It's a steampunk/fantasy AU of The Mentalist -- which is an extremely bizarre concept that seems like it would never work, right? But instead, it's pretty much exactly the same as the show, only slightly more magical -- which is a neat trick; the execution is just stellar. The Lisbon POV is absolute perfection and forms the steel-solid core of the fic, the rest of the team is spot-on, the plot is long and interesting, and this story is just so clever. I can't even tell you what a fun ride it is.

3. Aral Vorkosigan's Dog (Vorkosigan series) by philomytha
Amazing, amazing story. I've never really read much Vorkosigan fic because it's so hard to find people who can mimic Bujold's style, and without that it just doesn't feel right to me. I also have no real desire to read fic about Miles -- his story is told perfectly to my satisfaction in the novels, so why would I want fic? Philomytha is the perfect answer -- she writes so eerily like Bujold that I sometimes am a little suspicious that she's actually LMB herself, and she writes entirely about the secondary characters and canon ships -- with special love and attention to Simon and Alys, who are clearly her favorites. This particular story is Epic and deserving of that capital -- it's Simon's story, a gen epic starting when he meets Aral after the events on Sergyar in Shards of Honor, and following him through the Escobaran War and some small way into the events of Barrayar (so mind the warnings, seriously). And oh my god, it's SO GOOD. Simon's characterization is superb, his developing relationship with Aral gripping, and the action sequences utterly thrilling. It's like the Simon-POV novel that Bujold never got around to writing, and it makes me really happy. *hearteyes* (The rest of Philomytha's fic is excellent as well, if you're looking for Vorkosigan stuff -- I particularly love Secrets and Lies, probably the best Byerly story out there, Vorkosigan's Day, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, Dancing Lessons, and Five Conversations in Alys' Office)

4. Switch (Star Trek reboot)
I am normally not a Kirk/McCoy girl, for whatever reason -- but if they were all like this fic, I totally would be. Long, intense, slow-burn, Bones-POV set largely during their time at the Academy, but stretching through the movie and beyond. Friendship! Pining! Hurt/comfort! It's like everything I want in a fic. It's enormous, too -- 230k+ words, which makes for a really delicious read.

5. Drastically Redefining Protocol (Merlin) by rageprufrock
I may be thinking about this one because of the Royal Wedding, SO SUE ME. :D I'm pretty sure everyone in the world has read this, because, come on. Pru's always good, and this story is certainly no exception.

6. The Student Prince (Merlin)
So, I was going to leave it at 5, but DRP always makes me think of the other epic Merlin modern!AU that I adore. I may even love TSP a little bit more, actually, because I prefer slow-burn romance over love-at-first-sight every time, and their friendship in this is so lovely. The atmosphere of the school setting is wonderful and heart-soothing in the way that only stories about school can be (god knows actual school was never like that). This one's another monster -- 145k words, FTW.

7. Next of Kin (The Losers)
I feel obligated to rec at least one non-novel-length fic here. So here's this one: an AU where Jensen never joins the Losers, and Max kidnaps his sister and niece to force Jensen to work for him. I LOVE this trope so so so much, and it's done terribly well here. ♥