Modern Love / by Penknife (PG-13)

Title: Modern Love
Author:  penknife 
Fandom: Discworld
Pairings: OC/OC
Genre: General, LGBT
Length:  Short

Author's Summary:
It's amazing how the world rarely gets less complicated.

Review:
Part of the lgbt fic fest, this is a story about the changing understanding of gender among Discworld's dwarves.  There's not really a plot, just a couple of scenes with various characters dealing with how these societal changes affect them in ways that resonate with queer identity issues in our world.  It's well-written, but requires you to have some knowledge of dwarf culture in canon so be sure you've read the Watch books at least through The Fifth Elephant, otherwise you could be a little lost.

Modern Love (on lj)

Son is on a Midnight Run Like DeNiro / by hackthis (NC-17)

Title:  Son is on a Midnight Run Like DeNiro
Author:  hackthis 
Fandom: Southland
Pairings: Ben Sherman/John Cooper, past John/Cesar, past Ben/OFC
Genre: Romance
Length:  Medium (Words: 38,152)

Author's Summary:
None given.

Review:
I love the slow build of the romance in this fic.  It's hard to find that in smaller fandoms but this works really well to introduce fanon's favorite ship into a canon where it's pretty thoroughly jossed.  Add in great spelling and grammar and getting the characters' voices right and this is a great fic.  The only criticism I have is the rookie/training officer issue is treated a little lightly for me, but it's still a great fic.

Son is on a Midnight Run Like DeNiro (on lj)

Oral History / by acadine (PG-13)

Title:  Oral History
Author:  acadine 
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairings: none
Genre: General
Length:  Very Short

Author's Summary:
None given.

Review:
This fic is very short, but it gives a thoughtful glimpse into Padma's world view as a second-generation British-Indian (witch) in the Harry Potter universe.  I'm kind of a sucker for any fic that deals well with ethnic identity, diaspora, and representations of history (which were the subjects of my Master's thesis).  I especially like it in the Harry Potter universe where there's all that blood purity 'racism' going on and characters throw around the phrase "wizarding world" when they're only talking about magical Britain.  And yet, this fic doesn't go on at length about issues that fill hundreds of textbooks and it doesn't  use Padma's point of view to condemn the canon perspective.  It's just a short story about one girl.  It really does just enough to make you think and I like that about it.

Oral History (on lj)

No Me Without You / by acadine (PG-13)

Title:  No Me Without You
Author: lint138 
Fandom: Caprica
Pairings: Lacy & Zoe
Genre: Friendship
Length:  Short

Author's Summary:
It's a scary feeling, realizing she's so dependent on their friendship, that she doesn't know to exist on her own.

Review:
This is a good friendship fic in its own right, even if you have minimal knowledge of Caprica.  It's about the relationship between Lacy and Zoe from Lacy's point of view and it's complicated but nice too.  Knowing about Caprica means you know how its going to end, but the girls are pretty cool characters and the storyverse is depicted in the style of canon - where you feel like you're just getting tantalizing glimpses of a big, complicated, fantastic universe.

No Me Without You (on lj)

The Republic of Heaven / by Blind_Author (NC-17)

Title:  The Republic of Heaven
Author:  Blind_Author 
Fandom: BBC Sherlock, His Dark Materials
Pairings: John Watson/Sherlock Holmes
Genre: Fantasy, AU, Romance
Length:  Very Long (Words: ~119k)

Author's Summary:
HDM AU.  Sherlock and Raniel puzzle over the prophecy as a mysterious bomber draws them into a deadly game.  Meanwhile, John and Amarisa take a hard look at their relationship with the intriguing man and his dæmon...

Review:
I love stories that mix a world similar to ours with the world of Golden Compass, mostly because I like daemons a lot but don't care for the religious plot of canon.  This story is especially nice because it works with BBC's Sherlock canon to bring in elements of the His Dark Materials world, making a creative AU, without rehashing every episodes of Sherlock.  It's well written except for tiny pacing problems once or twice when I felt like it dwelled too long on daemons when it needed to get on with plot for a little bit at that point.  I think this story is good for anyone who knows even a little about His Dark Materials (it's been years since I read Golden Compass and I was fine following), but you will need to have good knowledge of BBC's Sherlock to follow the storyline.

The Republic of Heaven (on AO3)

Shanghaied! / by Viridian5 (NC-17)

Title:  Shanghaied!
Author:  Viridian5
Fandom: Andromeda
Pairings: Harper/Original AI characters, Harper/Dylan
Genre: General
Length:  Medium

Author's Summary:
The rescued AI fleet needs repairs and a vacation. And Harper. So they steal him.

Review:
I think the warships as characters are one of the best things about the Andromeda 'verse and I really like all the original A.I. characters in this fic.  I also like Harper (who's the series' Everyman) getting to be awesome and really important to all these warship people.  The shippiness, I'm ambivalent about --- this is one fandom where I prefer gen --- but that's personal preference.

Shanghaied! (on the author's site)

Fidelity / by Lake (NC-17)

Title:  Fidelity
Author:  Lake aka beyond_belief 
Fandom: Generation Kill
Pairings: Brad Colbert/Nate Fick
Genre: Romance
Length:  Medium (Words: ~25k)

Author's Summary:
1. "That," he says, "is how you know it was close." - Sebastian Junger, War
2. What happens after.
3. The first time it happens, Brad's under a Humvee in Iraq. (Brad-POV prequel to "Apres Moi...")

Review:
I have to start out by saying the sum total of everything I know about Generation Kill is that it's a TV show about US Marines.  You do not need to know the series to love this fic.  It's just a great relationship fic.  I actually found this fic when I was working on the TV Tropes entries for a couple of Soul Bond tropes and went Tag searching on AO3 to beef up the examples lists.  The soul bond in this fic involves some magical connection and seems mostly to allow empathy, it just happens to these two guys for no known reason and seems to be a largely unknown phenomenon in the fic's storyverse, but it brings these two comrades together into a relationship that they don't really want to quantify but nevertheless can't do without.  This fic is so well written.  I think it's easily one of the best soul bond fics out there and its even better that the fic works without relying on knowledge of canon.

Fidelity (on AO3)