Today's Yuletide Recs
Dec. 28th, 2009 01:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhAll Kinds of Nasty and Fantastic - True Blood, Lafayette/Eric. I got a Yuletide Madness treat! And it is lovely. I adore it: this story manages to combine quite hot Lafayette/Eric sex with a realistic treatment of the trauma Lafayette has suffered. I love it, Yuletide Santa!
a mind overborne - Dracula, Count Dracula/Renfield. Speaking of vampires, this is an awesome, awesome story. It's lovely and horrifying, Renfield's account of his seduction by Dracula and descent into madness. This story really manages to capture just how scary the story of Dracula really is (which in my jaded modern way, I do not feel from the original book). Highly recommended.
Schizophasia - The Sandman, Delirium. And speaking of madness, this story is beautifully told, and manages to really capture Delirium, a feat that I'm not sure should be this possible in a story that doesn't include imaginary words or sounds bursting from the screen.
On Friends, Partners, and Other Unattractive Beasts - Michael Chabon's The Gentlemen of the Road, Amram, Zelikman. And now I have no more segues. But this story is lovely, written in a beautiful prose that really manages to capture Amram's voice from the book. It tells the story of how these characters met and how they grew to know one another, and it manages that delicate tension of affection and intimacy and distance that is so gorgeous. If you've read the book, you should definitely read this.
The Terror from Bohemia: Being the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., in the Year of the Old Ones 745 - A Study in Emerald. Oh my god, this reads just exactly like a second chapter of the original story. Absolutely amazing. Scary and good and lovely, and oh, I adore this story. (By the way, if you have not read the original A Study in Emerald, you need to do so right now. It's available here as a .pdf. Neil Gaiman writes a cross-over of Sherlock Holmes and Cthulhu. IT IS SO GOOD.)
The Furred Boots - Cinderella. What happened after the "happily ever after"? This story is really well-written, and I particularly adore the strange, twisted fairy tales that a character tells within it.
The Path of Thorns - Little Red Riding Hood, but it's also kind of all of the most famous fairy-tales. Funny and smart, a really enjoyable read.
Lord Wolfe and the Ape-Leader - okay, I know this story is really long. But you need to read it. It is so, so good. It's what would happen if Georgette Heyer had written The Wolfman. It's Little Red Riding Hood done as Regency romance. It is awesome. There is a spinster cousin, and bickering lovers, and the waters at Bath, and a silly heiress, and the worst love letter in the history of the human race. It is so funny and perfect!
[Date Redacted], from the Secret Diary of Tim Gunn - Project Runway, Season 6. Hahahahaha I am convinced this story is completely accurate. Let me quote: "Los Angeles continues to not be New York". COME ON, YOU KNOW TIM WAS THINKING THAT EVERY DAY. Short but great.
P.S. I am still taking guesses as to which stories I wrote!
a mind overborne - Dracula, Count Dracula/Renfield. Speaking of vampires, this is an awesome, awesome story. It's lovely and horrifying, Renfield's account of his seduction by Dracula and descent into madness. This story really manages to capture just how scary the story of Dracula really is (which in my jaded modern way, I do not feel from the original book). Highly recommended.
Schizophasia - The Sandman, Delirium. And speaking of madness, this story is beautifully told, and manages to really capture Delirium, a feat that I'm not sure should be this possible in a story that doesn't include imaginary words or sounds bursting from the screen.
On Friends, Partners, and Other Unattractive Beasts - Michael Chabon's The Gentlemen of the Road, Amram, Zelikman. And now I have no more segues. But this story is lovely, written in a beautiful prose that really manages to capture Amram's voice from the book. It tells the story of how these characters met and how they grew to know one another, and it manages that delicate tension of affection and intimacy and distance that is so gorgeous. If you've read the book, you should definitely read this.
The Terror from Bohemia: Being the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., in the Year of the Old Ones 745 - A Study in Emerald. Oh my god, this reads just exactly like a second chapter of the original story. Absolutely amazing. Scary and good and lovely, and oh, I adore this story. (By the way, if you have not read the original A Study in Emerald, you need to do so right now. It's available here as a .pdf. Neil Gaiman writes a cross-over of Sherlock Holmes and Cthulhu. IT IS SO GOOD.)
The Furred Boots - Cinderella. What happened after the "happily ever after"? This story is really well-written, and I particularly adore the strange, twisted fairy tales that a character tells within it.
The Path of Thorns - Little Red Riding Hood, but it's also kind of all of the most famous fairy-tales. Funny and smart, a really enjoyable read.
Lord Wolfe and the Ape-Leader - okay, I know this story is really long. But you need to read it. It is so, so good. It's what would happen if Georgette Heyer had written The Wolfman. It's Little Red Riding Hood done as Regency romance. It is awesome. There is a spinster cousin, and bickering lovers, and the waters at Bath, and a silly heiress, and the worst love letter in the history of the human race. It is so funny and perfect!
[Date Redacted], from the Secret Diary of Tim Gunn - Project Runway, Season 6. Hahahahaha I am convinced this story is completely accurate. Let me quote: "Los Angeles continues to not be New York". COME ON, YOU KNOW TIM WAS THINKING THAT EVERY DAY. Short but great.
P.S. I am still taking guesses as to which stories I wrote!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-12-28 08:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-28 03:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-28 06:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-28 06:17 pm (UTC)I loved this one! The characters were so lively and the humor killed me at times. I mean, the dangers of ha-has! WHUT?! Brilliant!
no subject
Date: 2009-12-28 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-28 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-28 07:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-29 07:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-31 08:32 am (UTC)That's just the kind of story you'd think nobody would explicitly request, because while it seems like the prompt was probably something like: "Gentlemen of the Road: flashback to the meeting of Amram and Zelikman," there's so much there besides that it may as well have been, "write about the characters from Gentlemen of the Road and make sure it's a damn great story," and that sort of thing is just impossible to demand of someone because, not only is it rude, the sad thing is, unless you know the caliber of the writer, it's nearly pointless to expect.
Knowing that readers are a tough crowd to please, it's just so nice to sit down and read a story that was written for someone and get the definite sense that they're going to be well satisfied.