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A first installment of Yuketide fic recommendations, in no particular order:
An Abecedary of Tragic Ends, Explicated for the Reader - By far the best Gashlycrumb Tinies fic of the season. Twenty-six inventive drabbles elaborating on (often in ironic ways) the 26 children. Spoiler: contains 26 major character deaths. Probably requires knowing the source.
All the Old Knives - A Kalevala fic that includes the tags "Kyllikki/Aino," "Alliteration activate!", and "Damn you're hot for a dead lady." If that's not enough to make you want to read it, then mentioning that teh sex is hawt and that the language is absolutely gorgeous will probably not induce you either. Probably works even if you don't know the source.
Mother Tongue - A post-Tehahu story in which Apple visits her mother ostensibly to find out the truth behind the rumors of what happened to her but mostly to meet this new man, not her father, that Tenar has taken up with. Sometimes a little too explicit to be pitch-perfect Le Guin, but the prose and low-key storytelling is otherwise spot-on. Oh, Ged. Requires knowing the source.
Songs for the Jingwei Bird - Interlocking stories using tropes from Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, framed by the Chinese myth of a bird who attempts to fill up the ocean with pebbles. Best read on-site for the illustrations. Doesn't require knowing the source.
Neptune Cast in Bronze - The fandom is Measure for Measure and while the summary is "A casefile from CSI: Vienna," what it actually is are Elbow's reports on his investigation into the death of Duchess Isabella, plus aftermath. Beware that Unreliable Narrator tag. Requires knowing the source and a very thinky brain.
Jeeves and the Amatory Dilemma - If you are going to read Wooster/Jeeves slash, at the very least you should read fics that manage nail Bertie's voice. This is one: tags include the direct quote "Oh death - where is thy sting-a-ling-a-ling?". It's not quite up to Plum's level as comic writing (the density of similes is a bit low) and the voice bobbles a little (as all to often happens in fanfic) when Bertie talks about actual sex, as opposed to the romantic entanglements he was designed for -- but there's a lot of entertaining piffle before things come to that. Doesn't require knowing the source.
Contagious Fogs - A Midsummer Night's Dream university AU in which Robin Goodfellow is a first-year student at the University of Oxenfloode, watching as his tutor, Dr. Oberon, engages in academic politics against his rival, Titania. Most startling about this is the way that patches of it remind me of Diana Wynne Jones's low-key manner with fantasy mayhem, only without all the secret identities. Or maybe its source is the spring that Jones drank from. Whichever, it's a lovely novelette about being an undergraduate, magic studies, and floods. Knowing the source probably helps.
Springtime Will Kill You - There's something about Greek mythology that takes well to noir dectective AUs. Something to do with that messed up Olympic family. Last year, we got the brilliant novella I Have to See a Man About a God in a Prohibition-era setting -- this year, we get a 1940s Hollywood in a story that starts with Ms. Demeter Dione hiring a private eye named Orpheus to find her missing daughter. The narrative tone is a little lighter than typical noir but the story is every bit as dark -- as one might expect given the source material. Doesn't require knowing the source, but you'll appreciate more details if you do.
Galois Theory - Five scenes from the lives of Meg Murry-O'Keefe and family, the first three set shortly after The Wind in the Door, Many Waters, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet, ending with hints of what fills that other big hole in the series, Meg's mathematical career. Requires knowing the source.
Plus, of course, my two Tanabata fics. More to come. Feel free, also, to point me in comments to others I may be missing.
(Short shameful confession: I am sad that there's only one Yotsuba&! fic this year. The fandom is losing its popularity.)
---L.
An Abecedary of Tragic Ends, Explicated for the Reader - By far the best Gashlycrumb Tinies fic of the season. Twenty-six inventive drabbles elaborating on (often in ironic ways) the 26 children. Spoiler: contains 26 major character deaths. Probably requires knowing the source.
All the Old Knives - A Kalevala fic that includes the tags "Kyllikki/Aino," "Alliteration activate!", and "Damn you're hot for a dead lady." If that's not enough to make you want to read it, then mentioning that teh sex is hawt and that the language is absolutely gorgeous will probably not induce you either. Probably works even if you don't know the source.
Mother Tongue - A post-Tehahu story in which Apple visits her mother ostensibly to find out the truth behind the rumors of what happened to her but mostly to meet this new man, not her father, that Tenar has taken up with. Sometimes a little too explicit to be pitch-perfect Le Guin, but the prose and low-key storytelling is otherwise spot-on. Oh, Ged. Requires knowing the source.
Songs for the Jingwei Bird - Interlocking stories using tropes from Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, framed by the Chinese myth of a bird who attempts to fill up the ocean with pebbles. Best read on-site for the illustrations. Doesn't require knowing the source.
Neptune Cast in Bronze - The fandom is Measure for Measure and while the summary is "A casefile from CSI: Vienna," what it actually is are Elbow's reports on his investigation into the death of Duchess Isabella, plus aftermath. Beware that Unreliable Narrator tag. Requires knowing the source and a very thinky brain.
Jeeves and the Amatory Dilemma - If you are going to read Wooster/Jeeves slash, at the very least you should read fics that manage nail Bertie's voice. This is one: tags include the direct quote "Oh death - where is thy sting-a-ling-a-ling?". It's not quite up to Plum's level as comic writing (the density of similes is a bit low) and the voice bobbles a little (as all to often happens in fanfic) when Bertie talks about actual sex, as opposed to the romantic entanglements he was designed for -- but there's a lot of entertaining piffle before things come to that. Doesn't require knowing the source.
Contagious Fogs - A Midsummer Night's Dream university AU in which Robin Goodfellow is a first-year student at the University of Oxenfloode, watching as his tutor, Dr. Oberon, engages in academic politics against his rival, Titania. Most startling about this is the way that patches of it remind me of Diana Wynne Jones's low-key manner with fantasy mayhem, only without all the secret identities. Or maybe its source is the spring that Jones drank from. Whichever, it's a lovely novelette about being an undergraduate, magic studies, and floods. Knowing the source probably helps.
Springtime Will Kill You - There's something about Greek mythology that takes well to noir dectective AUs. Something to do with that messed up Olympic family. Last year, we got the brilliant novella I Have to See a Man About a God in a Prohibition-era setting -- this year, we get a 1940s Hollywood in a story that starts with Ms. Demeter Dione hiring a private eye named Orpheus to find her missing daughter. The narrative tone is a little lighter than typical noir but the story is every bit as dark -- as one might expect given the source material. Doesn't require knowing the source, but you'll appreciate more details if you do.
Galois Theory - Five scenes from the lives of Meg Murry-O'Keefe and family, the first three set shortly after The Wind in the Door, Many Waters, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet, ending with hints of what fills that other big hole in the series, Meg's mathematical career. Requires knowing the source.
Plus, of course, my two Tanabata fics. More to come. Feel free, also, to point me in comments to others I may be missing.
(Short shameful confession: I am sad that there's only one Yotsuba&! fic this year. The fandom is losing its popularity.)
---L.