Compiled by the Espresso Addict

Espresso Recommendations

Innovative and stylish fanfiction, showcasing the very best across multiple sf, fantasy & literature fandoms. Good writing in all its forms can be found here, including gen, het, slash, OCs, AUs, crossovers, future fics, humour & pastiche

Contents: 1010 recs in 235 fandoms; 65 links

Songs

Abraham's Daughter by Evelyn b

'That night old Abraham was shaking the toff like it was full of spiders, and toothless Sarah tolling off the set of all things that could fit around her waist back east in Ur, where she was young, and Abraham's daughter held Isaac's skinny arms still around his narrow chest so we could dot-dot-dot his face with sap.' Yuletide 2012 had several interesting stories based on the song, 'Abraham's Daughter', itself a revisionist reading of the Abraham & Isaac story. My favourite is a bit rough, but gains power from linking Canaan with another promised land. Clever & moving

[Added 04/10/2013; Drama; 2500-6000; Songs; Crossover]

bears the crown by Bloodbright

'She had been long inured to the sight of death, of gore, and at any rate had never much troubled herself with the pain of others; and yet something in her heart stirred uneasily when at last he fell, and the rats burst from his belly; and the young queen had felt the first gnawing behind her own navel.' A weird, dreamy, ambiguous sequel to Suzanne Vega's 'Queen & the Soldier', reminiscent in tone & theme of Wilfred Owen's 'Strange Meeting'. Bleak but with a thread of hope

[Added 27/12/2017; Drama; 2500-6000; Songs]

The Coffin Builder by Calvinahobbes

'The sign was not so much a sign as a miniature coffin, lid disconcertingly ajar.' Calvinahobbes has crafted a rich & original fairy tale from the song 'My Boy Builds Coffins', with echoes of 'Bluebeard' building tension to a lovely slippery ending

[Added 15/04/2015; Drama; 2500-6000; Songs]

Nothing borne by HotUtilitarian

'Their mutual favourite, though, was a salver with a cashew tree modelled in silver sprouting from the middle of it, by all accounts a very fine piece of work. ... Mrs Harris claimed it was wrought upon the occasion of the marriage of Mariana Victoria to Prince José of Portugal, and God knows, that might even have been the truth.' This clever ghost story, based on the nursery rhyme, 'I had a little nut tree', is made by the strong, if wince-inducingly misogynistic, narrative voice

[Added 13/01/2019; Romance/Erotica; 2500-6000; Songs]

Rose in June by RecessiveJean

'First time I ever saw her, I'd no inkling that she might become my friend. She was a grown lady, and I was just gone thirteen, and that sort of disparity in ages didn't seem what you might call conducive to friendship. But that was back when things were ordinary, before everybody gave up the habit of staying dead when they died, so the rules were different then.' A darkly comic tale, based on 'Darling Cora' & 'Down in the Willow Garden', with a wonderfully pragmatic narrator. Unusual & engaging

[Added 15/04/2015; Drama; 2500-6000; Songs]