Keep Breathing by Kittydesade
'...She liked the rain. It felt and smelled different here than it had on the colonies. You could chew the rain, it had a flavor, the whole city did.' Most of the tiny amount of fanfiction for this film focuses on Roy Batty, so this study of Zhora is a treat. The inevitable ending is beautifully written
[Added 18/01/2012; Character Piece; 1000-2500; Blade Runner]
Watch for the Greenwitch by Selden
'In the light from the bonfire the Greenwitch rose up, tall and ragged against the sky, like something from long ago. Not the fine past of the grail, of long spears and iron, thorny, intricate poetry and patterns. Not even the past, thought Jane, of neat sharp flints laid out on red velvet under museum lights, axes and arrowheads. Something older, like rough rock, the rings of yellow lichen spreading out through the years like ripples from a stone thrown into still water.' The luscious description really makes this unusual slow-building horror story, which spins off Greenwitch
[Added 20/01/2012; Drama; 1000-2500; Dark is Rising]
The End and the Way by Luzula
'On Posthe Tuwa of the Year One in the reign of Argaven XII, Harny Sord of Gernahan gave birth to a pervert.' This quietly moving coming-of-age tale explores Gethen via an engaging OC who is a 'female pervert', but it encompasses so much more than just a queer slant on the universe's gender norms. Simply wonderful!
[Added 04/02/2012; Drama; 6000-20,000; Hainish Cycle]
The Courtship of Benjamin Jink by Delphi
'So another sharp-tongued young Briton happened to wear the same unfashionable twenty-year-old boots as a man who had died two years, seven months, and four days ago. So he had also had cause to replace the original buckles with bronze. Funny old world.' Delphi's work is always beautifully written, but this novelette is particularly enjoyable for its subtle, sympathetic yet believable characterisation of Slughorn
[Added 18/01/2012; Drama; 6000-20,000; Harry Potter]
Playing For Keeps by Vissy
'...She hid the two new boxes towards the back of cupboard with the worst of the best-before tinned apricots and canned soups. Her wand was somewhere back there too, tucked behind a set of cracked glass phials and her old brass scales.' It's a rather darker interpretation of the Snape family dynamics than I usually enjoy, but this twisted tale gives a strong picture of Eileen's life at Spinner's End, and highlights the sheer nastiness of parts of Rowling's creation
[Added 18/01/2012; Drama; 2500-6000; Harry Potter; Adult]
Back to the Beginning by Adina
'He searched but could not find. For twice the lifespan of a man in these diminished days he searched for the one he had lost. Never had it taken so long; always before he had found his love within a hundred years.' This Fourth Age Legolas/Gimli story runs with a highly unusual premise to its poignant ending, and features an interesting version of the much older Elf. Well worth a read despite a scattering of typos
[Added 20/01/2012; Drama; 6000-20,000; Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit]
The Examination by TeaRoses
'The Thought Police didn't take recruits, and they didn't take refusals. Either she went through with this or she lost everything.' This powerful short gives a grimly realistic glimpse of life under Big Brother
[Added 04/02/2012; Drama; <1000; Nineteen Eighty-Four]
The Captain of the Caledonia by Zdenka
'The monitor beside the door flickered to life, displaying words. MACBETH MACBETH MACBETH. Only his name, three times.' Given the spaceship setting, this is a surprisingly faithful retelling of the play, highlighting the differences in the way the tragedy plays out in this environment (Macbeth)
[Added 04/02/2012; Drama; 2500-6000; Shakespeare]
The sky above us shoots to kill by La Reine Noire
'My brothers were out on the claim and I was in Warwick's saloon when Black Meg and Clifford her mad dog took off Father's head with a Bowie knife in the middle of the street.' The Deadwood universe makes a wonderful alternate setting for Richard's malevolence (Henry plays)
[Added 20/01/2012; Character Piece; 1000-2500; Shakespeare]
Along the Way by Ariana
'In the end, you discovered that you had lost three days along the way, exchanged for a shiny purple hairband and the knowledge that moving to a new place was perhaps not the worst thing in the world.' A moving conclusion to Chihiro's story, with a lovely smooth style & a spot-on ending
[Added 13/01/2012; Character Piece; 1000-2500; Spirited Away]
Becoming by Springgreen
'But long before that, the river once was not, once was a swirl of gas slowly coalescing, then a molten core of lava, then earth and rock and veins of metal. Then came the rains and the run off from snow-capped mountains, and time, so much time, carved a course. That was the river.' This lyrical telling of the river-god's legend is stronger, perhaps, in the beginning than the end, but well worth a try
[Added 13/01/2012; Character Piece; 1000-2500; Spirited Away]
Tales of the Bathhouse by Littlerhymes
'Like most of her kind, the weasel was very bold and very clever, and in a more prosperous year she would have been far too clever to even think of trying to steal from a sorceress. However in times of hunger, daring was in much greater demand than wit.' A charming set of tales within a tale which fleshes out the bathhouse universe & its inhabitants completely believably
[Added 13/01/2012; Character Piece; 2500-6000; Spirited Away]
Twenty-Year Man by Ellen Fremedon
'He ran his gloved fingers under Ivan's collar, very slowly and lightly--Ivan shivered--and came up with a tiny slip of clear plastic, all that was left of a pharmaceutical patch. "Punch," By said. He slipped it into a sealed pouch and secreted it in a pocket. "Or to you and me--fast-penta."' This future novella starts out with a bit of a cliché, but matures into a complex & twisty plot resembling the political machinations thread of A Civil Campaign. Ivan takes centre stage, but there's a large cast including a well-drawn OC
[Added 20/01/2012; Drama; 20,000-50,000; Vorkosigan series]
