The Handbasket to hell is overflowing with goodness.
The Handbasket to hell is overflowing with goodness.Catching up on the recs made in LJ:
From April 10th:
I don't even know how to express my love for this short, wonderful little story by ethrosdemon Family Comes First is an AU, a single twist of fate that changes everything for Sam and Dean, both in joy and in purpose.
I want more of this and at the same time, it's utterly perfect as it is.
From April 26th (Birthday fic for me!)
Tony, Tony, Turn Around
What Once Was Lost
Must Now Be Found
If you know me at all, you know that traveller (aka Cee) is a long time and good friend, whose talent makes me incredibly happy just kind of always. For a gift, she presented me with Novena to Saint Anthony which pretty much...I do not have words for how much I love this story in tone, in content, in mood, in style, and ultimately, 'cause she loves me and she's clever that way, in how she sees Sam, but even more, how Dean sees Sam.
and earlier today, lyra_wing wrote me a lovely short Down With This Ship that gives me and everyone the missing scene from Dead Man's Blood, with lyra_wing's trademark grace, style and humor.
Update!! eighth-horizon just posted another birthday fic, Catalyst in which the Winchester Boys go as the wild things do and I am Still snickering and snorting with laughter. Such glee! Oh, thank you so much for this! (you may need to have her journal friended to read)
Bone, the clever minx, wrote a wonderful and hysterical missing scene from Provenance for my birthday called Two For One about Dean's night out with Brandy and her friend.
I don't read a lot of het fic. There are may be five authors who I love so much that I will read their het. Bone is two of them. (And it shoudl be noted that she's also one of very few writers I will write het-fic with.) Go! Read! Enjoy and feedback.
And halfshellvenus just posted a lovely, angsty, beautiful Dean POV story called Beneath the Silence for me. This Dean is giving and loving and cautious and confused, but the story is clear, and spare, wonderfully realized. So, you should go over there and read it.
Brynwulf posted a late b-day present for me. Texas State of Mind. It's JSquared (Adult) and adorable and even though I'm not much of one for country music, and I don't know this song, I can still hear it in the background.
May 19th:
traveller posted a beautiful story for me that made me cry for reasons somewhat unrelated to the story itself. But I highly recommend it because it's all the best things about SPN, wonderful Sam and Dean, slightly horrific, beautiful atmospheric. It's called, fog
June 12th:
Two recs, although one of them is a series and the other is a novel, so if you're looking for a couple of days worth of reading, here's your chance.
First up is poisontaster's Heart 'verse which I, quite honestly, kind of flail at even trying to explain why I love this 'verse so much. First, there's a dozen or so stories, some that are no longer than drabbles others that are worthy of sitting back in your favorite chair to read. It's a future fic that looks at what happens when Sam and Dean (and Dean especially) can't hunt any longer. There's Gen bits and Slash bits. The Gen bits are lovely and fun and offer a really amazing look at our favorite boys when they push past their beautiful 20's and move into later years, when years of hunting and injuries have caught up to them. The Slash bits are all about coming to terms with a relationship that kind of defies description, where being lovers doesn't supersede being brothers and where being brothers might occasionally get in the way of everything else, only not. The stories cross and recross themselves, occasionally seeming to conflict in small ways because it's not a long epic, it's a series of snapshots, of moments and memories. The affection between Sam and Dean will make you smile and the tension that sometimes snap between them makes you hurt. And when the sex is hot, it's hot…like fog your windows hot.
The stories span a couple of decades and What I Keep and What I Carry lays down a rough guideline of where
This is a happy ending that isn't always happy, but ultimately is really the best and most wonderful life than anyone could hope for, joy and sadness all part of a life well-lived.
+++++
It's possible that if you haven't been reading, or are not now reading nilchance and beanside's post Devil's Trap novel, Of Bastard Saints you maybe be the only one, or one of the few. And I'm just saying, trying to be different? Not good enough reason to miss this. This is an amazingly well-realized, well-characterized, well plotted story, with characters, even minor ones, who make an impression and a series of events and realizations and resolutions that are enough to make your head spin and your heart burst -- you know, when you aren't laughing your head off at the snark that is apparently a Winchester family trait even in their grief. John and Sam especially, when forced together without Dean as a buffer, are like your worst vacation with your siblings, and possibly the best Road Trip duo ever.
I've got more, but in deference to the authors' own notes, I'm going to put the rest behind a cut so as not so spoil inadvertently.
The authors put a character death warning on the first few chapters and rightfully so -- it doesn't take very long to understand what's happened, and it doesn't make the grief any less real. And in some ways, even once you get past that part, this is a story about life and death, and about resurrection, in a way. My view of it is it very much a story about Dean, about who and what he is, what makes him as he is and it turns out that I was more correct than I actually realized. But the story is also about John and Sam and who they are both in relation to each other and Dean.
This is honestly one of the best realized characterization of John I've seen; he's a deeply complex and conflicted man, who loves his sons, but he's also made some mistakes, mistakes that nearly cost him more than he was really willing to pay. One of the coolest things about this is watching John come to realize and appreciate his sons, not just as his sons or his companions in this war, but as the men they've become.
And Sam and Dean are so very...well, Sam and Dean, only more so. What drives them to do what they do, what drives them together and what drives them apart from each other, are all clearly defined, polished and sharpened to a sharp, fine edge that cuts deep but also cuts clean. They are very different people, but ultimately they share a bond and an understanding and a fierce loyalty to one another that makes total sense even before you get to the end.
The plot is lively and full of all kinds of surprises, realizations and danger enough to make you gasp, and at the same time, there's just moments when all you can do is throw your head back and laugh. (I dare you not to at least crack a smile at the scenes in Valhalla). It's just a marvelous ride, from start to finish.
And just when you get to the most excellent ending, the authors double whammy you with an epilogue that both explains everything and nothing at all and still made me just laugh out loud, because that my friends, is the kind of tag and twist that makes a story more than worth reading -- that's the kind of thing that makes you remember it, reread it, and just pray that the authors have got more where that comes from.
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