Fan Rec Friday! #1
Sep. 11th, 2015 11:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lostlenoreWelcome to the inaugural Fan Rec Friday post! This weeks recs below the cut.
I read a lot of amazing stories this week but I'm gonna try and whittle it down for y'all a bit (gotta save some stuff for next week!) I've got two novels, three fics, and a movie!
The Novels:
1) Have you ever wandered through your local library and said to yourself, 'Self, what I really want to read is the bastard lovechild of the Sabriel series by Garth Nix and Inception, set in ancient Egypt.' If so- you're in luck! NK Jemisin has got you covered, because the Dreamblood duology is exactly that. NK Jemisin is an amazingly talented author and one of the few writers I know of who writes about divinity and gods/goddesses in the terrifying, sublime way they honestly deserve to be written. Not to mention the books are super addictive- I stayed up all night finishing the first one because I just HAD TO KNOW. If that's not the mark of a good story I don't know what is.
2) On the complete other end of the spectrum is Ruth Reichl's nonfiction memoir Garlic and Sapphires. I know what you're probably thinking- 'but SJ, nonfiction is crusty and dry!' Yeah, I've failed out of a lot of nonfiction that people promised me was really fucking excellent but guys this one is really fucking excellent. Ruth was the New York Times' food critic for years and years, and this book is as much a love letter to the city and its food as it is a chronicle of the absurd lengths she has to go to to keep from being recognized. It reads really easily- like your weird aunt telling you a story at the dinner table- and comes with a ton of good recipes which i'm absolutely stealing. Food and comedy and undercover shenanigans? Sign me up.
The Fics:
1) Son of the Nuclear A-Bomb by nimmieamee (The Raven Cycle) 37k, Ronan/Adam
Oh my fucking god where do I start with this fic??? I want to call Maggie S and tell her to stop working on the Raven King and just publish this instead, it's that good. Cannon-compliant and set after Blue Lilly Lilly Blue this fic deals with so beautifully with change. Change in the dynamics of the group relationships, the change inherent in growing up and leaving high school, and the consequences of squaring up and dealing with that change. There are some par-fucking-excellent elements of southern gothic horror scattered throughout, and one absolutely terrifying scene where Ronan and Matthew visit the barns that will probably have you sleeping with the lights on. But mostly this fic is a love letter to Ronan and Niall Lynch, their abilities, their histories, and their failures. (Niall Lynch dreamt himself a wife and it's just??? Kind of glossed over???) There's such a deliciously creepy folktale vibe to this story I love it so much. If the fourth book handles itself anything like this fic I'll be so, so happy.
2) The Lovesong of the North America Douchebag by gyzm (Star Trek RPF) 25k, Chris Pine/Zachary Quinto
A weird, sarcastic, probably blasphemous lovestory told from the perspective of fandom's favorite douchebag Chris Pine. There's something so magical about his and ZQ's characterizations in this fic. The author does an incredible job of straddling the line between charming and dickishness and charming dickishness. I love fics where Cpine is a sentimental asshole slash filthy lit major *raises glass in solidarity* and ZQ is allowed to be as ruthless as he appears in real life. Like, they're such jerks, and they fit so well together! We get to see them grow over the course of the story! They're the best, most caustic version of the friends to lovers trope, and I'm so into it.
3) Hetaeriae Eaeque Brevi Fient by sineala (The Eagle of the Ninth) 13k, Marcus/Esca
UNDERCOVER RELATIONSHIP FOR GREAT JUSTICE AT GAY ROMAN ORGY. Spies. Fake dating. Historical fake dating. Orgies. Need I go on?
The Movie:
Private Romeo (Available on US Netflix and probably the dubiously legal streaming site of your choice)
Yes, this is exactly what it sounds like: a gay military boarding school version of Romeo and Juliet. I love adaptations and cover and remixes. I firmly believe that if done well they can be invaluable in revealing new, interesting facets of stories we already know and love. Private Romeo is exactly this for, like, two-thirds of the movie. I'm not really sure what happened in that last third but I'm willing to forgive because those first two thirds were so great. Seriously- I've watched the 'Lips do what pilgrims do' speech like 15 times because the physicality of these actors is amazing. All the jokey-but-not-really flirtation, the crowding, THE FUCKING AMAZING KISS SCENES. God bless this directors fixation on hands, because the actors hands here telegraph just as much emotion as their faces, and he tracks hands throughout the movie like a fucking champion. The whole 'wherefore art thou Romeo' speech? One hundred times more effective in the context of gay boarding school angst tbh. And everything about this movie is gorgeous: the lighting, the spare scenery, the gratuitous ab shots. Even if the metaphor breaks down towards the end i'm so glad this is an adaptation that exists.
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Date: 2015-09-11 08:48 pm (UTC)And omg, a long Raven Cycle fic! I hadn't really found too much that captured the voice of the books, so this one is definitely worth a look. Also, Eagle, lol. Nice. Wow, do I love that silly movie.
Thanks for these recs!
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Date: 2015-09-11 10:38 pm (UTC)Yaaaas, do it it's so *chef kissing fingers noise*. Channing Tatum has the most entertaining imdb page what a gem