gensplosion!

FANDOM: Friends
FIC LINK: Between Spaces
AUTHOR LINK: voleuse
RATING/WARNING(S): T
WORD COUNT: 1021
MAIN CHARACTERS: Rachel Green, Monica Geller, Phoebe Buffay

FIC SUMMARY: Yarn, scrambled eggs, and an absence of snowballs. Rachel Green learns about being a grown-up. Set during the first season of Friends.

RECCER'S NOTES: I really love Rachel's character arc throughout the earlier Friends seasons, where she gradually finds her feet. This fic captures it so beautifully, and it also manages to pin down the general atmosphere of those earlier episodes. The characters and their interactions are dead on. This is exactly the sort of friendship fic I love to read over and over <3

FANDOM: White Collar
FIC LINK: Texts from the Van
AUTHOR LINK: sholio
RATING/WARNING(S): G
WIP?/WORD COUNT: 1956
MAIN CHARACTERS: Neal Caffrey, Peter Burke

FIC SUMMARY: One bored con man + one cell phone = lots and lots of text messages. Takes place between 4x03 & 4x04 (with some spoilers).

RECCER'S NOTES: This fic is hilarious. There's nothing like quite like a fic where Bad Things happen, but are told in a way that is funny and kind of adorable.

FANDOM: Doctor Who/The Chronicles of Narnia
FIC LINK: Out of Place
AUTHOR LINK: rthstewart
RATING/WARNING(S): G
WIP?/WORD COUNT: 1019
MAIN CHARACTERS: Polly Plummer, River Song

FIC SUMMARY: The first time Doctor River Song met Polly Plummer and rules that are meant to be broken.

RECCER'S NOTES: This is a delightful ficlet <3 Polly and River are a fascinating combination. They're very different from each other, but there's something about the pair of them that fits together beautifully. River's POV in this fic is fantastic, and I love how the author gets across her vast experience of the Universe in such a small number of words.

FANDOM: Lost, The West Wing
FIC LINK: Seven Tomorrows
AUTHOR LINK: falseeyelashes
RATING/WARNING(S): R (character death, dark themes, brief sexual content). Spoilers through to the end of season 2 of Lost, no specific West Wing spoilers.
WORD COUNT: 7991
MAIN CHARACTERS: Jed Bartlet, Leo McGarry, Josh Lyman, CJ Cregg, Donna Moss, Toby Ziegler, Sam Seabourne, Jack Shepherd, Kate Austen, Ben Linus, James Ford, Mr Eko, Sayid Jarrah, John Locke… more, probably.

FIC SUMMARY: It took seven days to shape the world. There are seven seals of the apocalypse. And it takes seven, seven events, seven days, seven years, seven, to bring the world to its knees. Planes are meant to crash and nukes are meant to detonate. Men are meant to kill and buildings are meant to fall. Fate is real, fate is a religion and a man not named Henry Gale is its only prophet. He's counting to seven.

RECCER'S NOTES: This fic is very dark and very angsty and very, very well done. The writing style has a hypnotic sort of lilt to it, which feels appropriately dreamlike as the world becomes more and more nightmarish. The descent into darkness and despair is beautifully paced.

It was posted in August 2006, back when the bulk of Lost hadn't yet aired, so it goes 100% AU from the season 2 finale onwards. It also has some background het ships, but they are in absolutely no way a major part the fic.

FANDOM: Firefly
FIC LINK: C. arabica
AUTHOR LINK: SailorSol
RATING/WARNING(S): G
WORD COUNT: 522
MAIN CHARACTERS: Kaylee Frye, Inara Serra, Zoe Washburne

FIC SUMMARY: Inara treats Kaylee and Zoe to a rare delicacy from Earth-That-Was. Kaylee's not so sure it's her cup of tea.

RECCER'S NOTES: This is a lovely, short-and-sweet little ficlet with some of my favourite ladies. It's a nice little glimpse of world building and female friendship, two of my favourite things.

FANDOM: Frozen / Harry Potter / The Little Mermaid
FIC LINK: One Wrong Move (and Everyone Will Know)
AUTHOR LINK: MiraMira
RATING/WARNING(S): Teen / No warnings
WIP?/WORD COUNT: 1419
MAIN CHARACTERS: Elsa (Frozen), Anna (Frozen), Kristoff (Frozen), King of Arendelle, Queen of Arendelle, Pabbie (Frozen), Ursula (The Little Mermaid)

FIC SUMMARY: Five ways Elsa never learned to control her powers (and one way she did).

RECCER'S NOTES: I love fics that explore alternate ways Elsa could have dealt with her powers, and five things fics are perfectly suited to how I like to see this topic played with. This is a quick and fascinating read, one that I expect to keep coming back to <3

FANDOM: War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells / Dracula - Bram Stoker / Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
FIC LINK: Chances
AUTHOR LINK: TheFierceBeast
RATING/WARNING(S): General / No AO3 warnings apply
WIP?/WORD COUNT: Complete / 2118
MAIN CHARACTERS: Mina Harker, Jonathan Harker, Alice (Alice in Wonderland), Martians (War of the Worlds)

FIC SUMMARY:
Original prompt: 
The only characters I nominated are the Narrator and the Martians, but feel free to write about any of the others if you like. I'd love to read anything at all! The only thing I'll beg for is this: please don't "fix" the science with modern knowledge. Old sci-fi is so fascinating to me because yes they're some great stories but also because they're so firmly of their time, they're like glorious little time capsules of every stage of recent scientific discovery and imagination. I'd love to see something in keeping with Wells' era of more limited knowledge but limitless possibility.

Also - so much potential for amazing crossovers! How do Mina and Jonathan/Sherlock and Watson/grown up Alice or Jim Hawkins/Oscar Wilde(?!) fare with the Martians? If you want to write a crossover/fusion type thing I would be all over that. I'm familiar with a lot of Victorian literature, and plenty of modern stuff set around the same time, but even if I don't know your other fandom I'd still be interested in a crossover if there's something you want to write - I get sci-fi disaster fic AND a new fandom, double win :D

RECCER'S NOTES: This fic is amazzziiinnnggg <3 of the three books, the only one I haven't read is War of the Worlds, so I can't comment on that element of it, but I can say that the vocal and turns of phrase in Mina's journal entries felt exactly right, and the whole thing was such a joy to read. Alice's cameo was wonderful too, her little Alice-esque comments felt perfectly Alice without detracting from the seriousness of what's happening to them all. Loved it! <3

FANDOM: Harry Potter
FIC LINK: The Mara
AUTHOR LINK: metabaron
RATING/WARNING(S): G
WIP?/WORD COUNT: 987
MAIN CHARACTERS: Hermione Granger

FIC SUMMARY: A young Hermione Granger discovers something terrible has taken up residence in her home.

RECCER'S NOTES: This is a wonderful little ficlet, the sort of story that proves that fic can be less than 1000 words and still be amazing. I absolutely love how the author has written young Hermione -- brave and clever and clear-thinking, while still being a frightened little girl who has recently learnt that monsters are real. I also really really loved that the author used a folkloric dark creature that isn't mentioned at all in canon (as far as I remember, anyway). Beautiful work <3

FANDOM: The Hunger Games
FIC LINK: Where the Vines Cling Crimson
AUTHOR LINK: ghostie
RATING/WARNING(S): Teen +
WIP?/WORD COUNT: Complete / 1402 words
MAIN CHARACTERS: Rue and Foxface

FIC SUMMARY: As you step through a hole in the fence you can almost hear the roar of the crowds, the wet choke of tendons snapping, the clink of blood dripping onto dark leaves.

There is no blood now, only flowers.

RECCER'S NOTES: This fic is just so haunting. The fairy tale-esque voice matches the premise of the fic perfectly, and it's an amazing example of just how effective second person can be when executed well. It's creepy as hell, which comes from the exact right mix of the horrible things that happen in canon and the supernatural elements added by the author.

FANDOM: Harry Potter
FIC LINK: You Always Liked Apples Best
AUTHOR LINK: rebbe
RATING/WARNING(S): T
WIP?/WORD COUNT: Complete; 3173
MAIN CHARACTERS: Luna Lovegood

FIC SUMMARY: Luna discovers a new creature in the forests of India.

RECCER'S NOTES: This fic is such a gem <3 there's nothing quite like a well-written Luna Lovegood fic. The author has done a lovely job at ageing her up and making her older & wiser without taking away all those things that are innately Luna. I love the future Rebbe has given her and the situation she wrote her into, it's all just beautiful and perfect and the Luna-est thing ever.