Makoyi's Fanfic Recs and Other Stuff

Title: May You Never Meet Her
Author: ketren / ketren
Fandom: Hunger Games
Genre: AU
Length: Medium/Long (50k words & counting)

Author's Summary:
AU. Gen. When she's too late to step in for her sister at the District 12 reaping, Katniss will stop at nothing to enter the Hunger Games and fight beside Prim, even if it means asking Haymitch for help and sneaking into the reaping of District 3. She'll have to let out a few secrets, make a few allies, and defend her sister to the death – if Prim will even allow the sacrifice.

Review:
Just getting started but already so, so good. Author takes a little creative license to make the premise work, but go with it - it's worth it. I'm already especially loving how this revolves around a Sisters!plot instead of a romance. I also like Haymitch's view and I am really enjoying the bigger roles for Beetee and Wiress.  Also, Prim may be the brains, but Katniss is serious BAMF (just wait til you get to Chapter 8!)

May You Never Meet Her (on ff.net), May You Never Meet Her (on AO3)
Cover:

Title: Pageant of Death
Author: Azure_K_Mello
Fandom: Hunger Games
Genre: AU - Gale takes Peeta's place in the 74th games
Pairing: Gale/Peeta, Katniss&Darius
Length: Long (61,269+ words)

Author's Summary:
Gale goes into the arena to save Peeta, his young man, from going in. Things would have been very different if Katniss and Gale were together: two kids from the Seam who know how to hunt. They play the Games and they play them well but regardless of how well they play, regardless of whether either of them survive, nothing will ever be the same for them or the country.

Review:
I stayed up way to late reading this fic straight through (and have reread it several times since) and just loved it. Don't expect a copy of canon with Gale written in over Peeta - it's creative and original and Gale is a much more intelligent and aware character than either Katniss or Peeta so putting him in cahoots with canonically brilliant Haymitch from the start is fantastic and it was just plain fun seeing him manipulating the games with the same kind of cunning as he analyzed the problem of the The Nut in Mockingjay.  I also really like Haymitch's character and the way that Gale, and later Katniss, treat him.  Know though that Katniss and Gale had some serious plot armor and genre savvy throughout - it didn't break the suspension of disbelief, but it's clear that this is a best case scenario for them... Considering how dark some Hunger Games AUs are, this can be a breath of fresh air (I felt that way) or it may not be your cup of tea.

What's written so far is equivalent to the first book of the series and it ends differently enough that I don't know where it's going so I'm really looking forward to seeing where the next story in the series goes.

Edit: I've been given a sneak peak of the next book in exchange for catching the typos and it's at least as awesome as the first!  I can't wait for it to be finished and posted :D

Pageant of Death (on AO3)

This journal passed 600 recs today!  :D  Yay!

(Do you think maybe I read too much?)

Title: Northern Lights
Author: silver_sun
Fandom: Rivers of London, Shetland (no knowledge of Shetland, a British police procedural TV show, is required to read this fic)
Genre: Casefic, Crossover
Pairing: hints at future Peter/Nightingale
Length: Medium (48,026 words)

Author's Summary:
The theft of three Pictish stone carvings from a museum in London lead Peter and Nightingale to Shetland. The reason for the theft is clear: The stones are ancient storage devices for magical energy. Who took them and why is a lot less so. That Shetland has its own mythology and magics which are far closer to that of Scandinavia than London doesn't help matters.
Between the lack of information, the cold and wet January weather and Nightingale's cold, Peter can't help but wish they were back in London.

Crossover with Shetland. No knowledge of Shetland, which is a police drama set in Shetland, is needed. The story is from Peter's POV, and any information about the three detectives, DCI Jimmy Perez, DS Alison 'Tosh' McIntosh and DC Sandy Wilson, who make up the core cast of Shetland will be found out where needed as Peter does.

Set post Broken Homes for Rivers of London and after series one of Shetland.

Review:
I really enjoyed this fic. The case was interesting and perfectly suited to the canon universe. The way the investigation progressed was believable and well-paced. While I like Thomas/Peter shipping well enough, I still prefer genfic so that may be why I found that aspect of the story to be out-of-character - otherwise, the characterizations were pretty good. I do think this fic badly needed to be proofread (badly enough that I stopped reading it on my ereader after the first chapter and opened it up in my laptop in calibre's editor and fixed my epub as I read -- if you're a serious grammar nazi, message me and I can send you a copy because I really don't want people to avoid reading this fic because it wasn't beta read). It also suffered from the same flaw as Midnight Riot where it tells what was just said in description rather than just giving the dialogue. This makes for a lot of long paragraphs and, at times, a slow pace to what could have been a page turner.

Northern Lights (on AO3)
My cover art for this fic

Title: Mandala
Author: Dr_Doomsduck
Fandom: Torchwood, Doctor Who
Genre: Fix-it, AU, Character bashing, Fixing Canon's Broken Logic, Sci Fi
Pairing: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Amy Pond/Rory Williams, Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams
Length: Long (124,126 words)
rec'd on fancake

Author's Summary:
It began, or rather continued because nothing ever truly ends or begins, with a man who grew old but didn’t age. He was standing in a building that wasn’t ever built and looked out to a world that would never turn.

Review:
How did this fic sit on my ereader for so long and not get read?! This is an amazing fic with epic plot and some seriously clever twisting of notoriously-unlogical Whoniverse canon into shapes that actually make sense. I won't say this fic is without faults and a few teeny tiny plot holes of its own but it's so very good anyways.

So this fic is a Miracle Day AU that doesn't just reject canon reality and substitute fan's ship of choice - but wait, don't run away yet! I hated Miracle Day and this fic actually changed my mind about it a little bit - if this fic were Season 5, it would all be okay again.

Basically, Ianto and Amy and a Time Agent OC - who fits very nicely into the spectrum of dis-functionality of other Time Agents we know from canon - end up trapped in the Time Agency after it was destroyed and have to figure out why they're there, why they can't leave, why they all remember different timelines, and, once that's sorted, how they're going to stop reality from falling apart while also saving the human race from The Miracle. It really is an amazing fic. There's only one problem I have with this fic and that's that the villain's accomplice (who I can't name without spoiling) starts out alright but becomes very one dimensional in the end - this, as you will understand, might actually be considered a plus to some fans, but to me it could have been a little less heavy-handed at least. I actually loved the villain himself though - zero complaints there.

Mandala (on AO3)
Podfic for Mandala (on AO3)

Now with cover art:

Title: There is Another Sky
Author: Shana_Storyteller
Fandom: Torchwood, Doctor Who
Genre: Romance, Time Travel, Psychic Abilities, Sci Fi, AU, Competence
Pairing: Jack/Ianto, John/Jack, John/Ianto, John/Ianto/Jack
Length: Long (78,182 words)

Author's Summary:
Ianto has some secrets, and some talents, and he is more than meets the eye. He was a Junior Researcher at Torchwood One, but that's not the whole story. This is.

Review:
Creative and evocative story. AU where Ianto is different (some of the differences are explained but there's also foreshadowing that never gets as far as the reveal) and repeatedly makes very different decisions but still very much the canon universe, just filled out a lot more with detail. Ianto is pretty awesome in this one and so are both Jack and John. Tosh and Owen are also very likable and clearly competent in their own rights. This fic hasn't been updated in awhile which makes me very sad because it's fantastic but even what is there so far really deserves a read.

There is Another Sky (on AO3)
Now with cover art

I also made one for Sam's "Paper Chase" (Sherlock BBC/White Collar), one for ya-fic's Love Bug (X-files), and one for cutebutpsycho's "The Lester Rule" (Sherlock BBC).  As always, PM me an email address and which covers you want if you're interested in any of the unposted covers.

A few more covers posted.

  Cover art for "The Time Travelling Werewolf's Confused Spirit Guide" by miscellea
  Cover art for "Dead Man's Keeper" by Cheryl W
  Cover art for "Folly to be Wise" by Philomytha
  Cover art for "Detritus" by Speranza

Just one new cover because I had to work today.


Cover for "The Vast Profundity Obscure" by mistyzeo

If you put your favorite fanfics on an ereader like I do, it's nice to have cover art for them, so I've done covers for several fics today and posted 4 of them so far.

  Cover for "You Say You Want a Revolution" by Malteaser
  Cover for "Cerberus" by Crunchysunrises
Cover for "Twice in a Lifetime" by Serene_Quill

I also made covers for No Reservations: Narnia, Bent (Sherlock casefic), The Brain Thief, A Little Mental Yoga (Southland fic), and Thomas and the Society of Sentinels today.
... Wow.  I wasn't counting as I did them, but that's a lot of cover art for one day.  That would explain why my eyes are twitchy now.  Anyhow, if you want any of the as-yet-unposted covers (no promises on when I'll get around to posting them), send me a PM with your email address and the ones you're interested in and I'll send you the jpg file(s).