Five-Star Recs for December 2009
Jan. 16th, 2010 11:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dmarley_recsFollowing are the five-star recommendations for December, 2009. You can find these stories tagged on Delicious under the ***** tag, where you can further explore by navigating the tags. You can also find all the five-star rec posts on this journal under the five-star recs tag (five-star recs tag on Livejournal).
Five-Star Recs for December, 2009
Title: I. Jones, Author
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cyus
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters and Pairings: Ianto
Rating: R
Summary: They show these places in the films, bigger and greater and everyone's happier, always.
Length: 1,000-5,000 words
Comments: This is a visit to the fucked-up world inside Ianto's head, and it's a scary, beautiful and horrific place. In this story, cyus shows a Ianto who is in many ways completely removed from the reality around him, but who is also trapped in that same reality and struggling to cope with it. The revelation that Ianto has lied about his family, that he interprets events differently, is implicit in this story, and is used to create a truly fascinating character study of Ianto. It's a story that cuts uncomfortably close to what we see in canon, pulling out parts of Ianto's personality in ways that are all too plausible.
Title: Ratio
Author:solsticezero
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters and Pairings: Ianto/Suzie
Rating: R
Summary: The orders were to deposit her safely to her flat, and Ianto would carry them out to the letter, despite her ranting that it was unnecessary.
Length: 1,000-5,000 words
Comments: One of the great things about Torchwood fandom is that stories where Ianto and Suzie are friends are just as plausible and believable as stories where they are each the other's potential nemesis. This story is from the latter school, and it's brilliantly done. Solsticezero has done a great job with both scene-building and background, setting up the story with an attention to detail that adds to the story rather than bogging it down. Both Suzie and Ianto are completely believable in this, each with their own agenda and their own way of carrying it through. It's a great piece of character study, building a relationship between two characters that never really interacted in canon, but who do so very plausibly here.
Title: The Treachery of Images
Author:curriejean
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters and Pairings: Ianto, Lisa, Jack
Rating: NC-17
Summary: He hollered for help for fifteen minutes before he accepted none was coming. She screamed until she exhausted her larynx, and then her throat kept whistling because it hurt, it hurt, it hurt, and she wished she couldn't feel, oh if only they'd finished the job.
Length: 32,000 words
Comments: This post-Cyberwoman story takes a long, careful look at Ianto's life with Lisa after Canary Wharf. Part of the appeal of this story is the attention to detail, the little story elements teased out from canon and integrated into the plot. But the heart of the story is about Jack and Ianto, Jack's way of trying to help Ianto cope with the aftermath of Lisa's death. I like this because it shows them both as imperfect, trying to do what they can but neither of them, frankly, really good dealing with the issues at hand. It's a lovely, complex, intricate look at the psychological fall-out from Cyberwoman.
Title: Never Love A Wild Thing
Author:51stcenturyfox
Fandom: Torchwood/Breakfast at Tiffany's Crossover
Characters and Pairings: Holly Golightly/Paul Varjak, Holly Golightly/Jack
Rating: R
Summary: "'Never love a wild thing, Mr. Bell,' Holly advised him. 'That was Doc's mistake. He was always lugging home wild things. A hawk with a hurt wing. One time it was a full-grown bobcat with a broken leg. But you can't give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they're strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky. That's how you'll end up, Mr. Bell. If you let yourself love a wild thing. You'll end up looking at the sky.'" - Holly Golightly
Length: 1,961 ;)
Comments: This is a perfect little gem of a story, using a narrative to tell a story as well as to be part of the story itself. Holly, the narrator, is spot-on, and the author manages to paint a complete picture in nothing but Holly's own words. Holly is breezy and chipper, but with her own moments of telling insight into Jack and their friendship. It's really lovely to see Jack from Holly's perspective, to see him as a dashing party-goer, having fun with her. She knows there's more than that, though, and her almost instinctive understanding of Jack is one of the true strengths of this story. She's a real friend when Jack seemed to need one.
Five-Star Recs for December, 2009
Title: I. Jones, Author
Author:
cyusFandom: Torchwood
Characters and Pairings: Ianto
Rating: R
Summary: They show these places in the films, bigger and greater and everyone's happier, always.
Length: 1,000-5,000 words
Comments: This is a visit to the fucked-up world inside Ianto's head, and it's a scary, beautiful and horrific place. In this story, cyus shows a Ianto who is in many ways completely removed from the reality around him, but who is also trapped in that same reality and struggling to cope with it. The revelation that Ianto has lied about his family, that he interprets events differently, is implicit in this story, and is used to create a truly fascinating character study of Ianto. It's a story that cuts uncomfortably close to what we see in canon, pulling out parts of Ianto's personality in ways that are all too plausible.
Title: Ratio
Author:
solsticezeroFandom: Torchwood
Characters and Pairings: Ianto/Suzie
Rating: R
Summary: The orders were to deposit her safely to her flat, and Ianto would carry them out to the letter, despite her ranting that it was unnecessary.
Length: 1,000-5,000 words
Comments: One of the great things about Torchwood fandom is that stories where Ianto and Suzie are friends are just as plausible and believable as stories where they are each the other's potential nemesis. This story is from the latter school, and it's brilliantly done. Solsticezero has done a great job with both scene-building and background, setting up the story with an attention to detail that adds to the story rather than bogging it down. Both Suzie and Ianto are completely believable in this, each with their own agenda and their own way of carrying it through. It's a great piece of character study, building a relationship between two characters that never really interacted in canon, but who do so very plausibly here.
Title: The Treachery of Images
Author:
curriejeanFandom: Torchwood
Characters and Pairings: Ianto, Lisa, Jack
Rating: NC-17
Summary: He hollered for help for fifteen minutes before he accepted none was coming. She screamed until she exhausted her larynx, and then her throat kept whistling because it hurt, it hurt, it hurt, and she wished she couldn't feel, oh if only they'd finished the job.
Length: 32,000 words
Comments: This post-Cyberwoman story takes a long, careful look at Ianto's life with Lisa after Canary Wharf. Part of the appeal of this story is the attention to detail, the little story elements teased out from canon and integrated into the plot. But the heart of the story is about Jack and Ianto, Jack's way of trying to help Ianto cope with the aftermath of Lisa's death. I like this because it shows them both as imperfect, trying to do what they can but neither of them, frankly, really good dealing with the issues at hand. It's a lovely, complex, intricate look at the psychological fall-out from Cyberwoman.
Title: Never Love A Wild Thing
Author:
51stcenturyfoxFandom: Torchwood/Breakfast at Tiffany's Crossover
Characters and Pairings: Holly Golightly/Paul Varjak, Holly Golightly/Jack
Rating: R
Summary: "'Never love a wild thing, Mr. Bell,' Holly advised him. 'That was Doc's mistake. He was always lugging home wild things. A hawk with a hurt wing. One time it was a full-grown bobcat with a broken leg. But you can't give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they're strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky. That's how you'll end up, Mr. Bell. If you let yourself love a wild thing. You'll end up looking at the sky.'" - Holly Golightly
Length: 1,961 ;)
Comments: This is a perfect little gem of a story, using a narrative to tell a story as well as to be part of the story itself. Holly, the narrator, is spot-on, and the author manages to paint a complete picture in nothing but Holly's own words. Holly is breezy and chipper, but with her own moments of telling insight into Jack and their friendship. It's really lovely to see Jack from Holly's perspective, to see him as a dashing party-goer, having fun with her. She knows there's more than that, though, and her almost instinctive understanding of Jack is one of the true strengths of this story. She's a real friend when Jack seemed to need one.