Snowflake Challenge: Day 2

[toujours_nigel]

Day 2: Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create.

I am very lucky to be following a lot of people who not only write but rec widely, so I get to read very widely indeed. So these are from three separate fandoms, but all centre on female characters, two of them genderbent, and one canonically female. I love how this focus recontextualises and often changes the story.

Oldest, best known, and fandom classic, The Least of All Possible Mistakes, by the amazing rageprufrock, all of whose fic you should read as and when time permits. TLoAPM stars no-nonsense Detective Inspector Georgiana Lestrade, who is large and in charge and beset by a plague of Holmses, and vaguely befuddled to be falling for one of them. Pru's George is the sort of woman I want to grow up into, commanding and compassionate and exceedingly cherishable. While her growing relationship with Mycroft Holmes is central to the story, arguably as important are her friendships and camaraderie with the other women of the Met., her exasperated fondness for Sherlock and resigned affection for John and Anthea. I loved it to pieces the first time I read this fic, if it were a physical book I'd have turned it to tatters with my multiple rereads, and the audiofic by lazulus is a separate delight.

sovin is primarily a Les Mis writer, at least by proportion, but I first encountered the mist that cloaks the river, the clouds that hide the stars, which is a Nirvana in Fire fic, and fell promptly and deeply in love, both with her writing, and the character around whom the story is built. Canonical Yan Yujin, a sweet and deceptively intelligent young aristocrat, is something like Bertie Wooster with brains, and extremely appealing in his own right. Genderbent in sovinly's hands, Yujin is a masterclass of soft power and careful networking and the absolute necessity for young women to keep themselves largely hidden to hold onto autonomy. Yujin, unmarried ten years past adulthood and carefully brushing past the continuing implications of her childhood betrothal to [spoilers], assiduously maintains her relationships with other women (mostly canonical) and brings to the reader's attention the depth of female and familial connections that underpin the world of the show. Sovin also talks at some length about the fic on her tumblr, and I raged through the fic, through her tag, and then through the fic again in a matter of a weekend.

I found out about Work of all Saints, antistar_e's epic Coco fic through a rec by I think notbecauseofvictories. I hadn't watched the film at that point, but lack of knowledge of canon rarely stops me from consuming fanwork, so off I went. And then I spent the whole day reading the story, and then I watched the film and wept my way through it, so, uh, good decisions all around. Anyway. The fic is primarily from the perspective of Imelda Rivera, who falls in love, grabs onto her chance for independence, and sets off singing through early twentieth-century Mexico. She finds new people and friendships along the way, tries to figure out polyamory, and finds herself alone in a village with a toddler: metamour vanished, husband assumed vanished [but really spoilers]. She gets back up, learns a trade, sets up and runs a multigenerational household, and just... lives. She lives so completely that death doesn't do much to take away her vibrancy, and that is the sort of old lady I hope all of us manage to become. The fic is steeped in the material history of the time, and the intricacies of revolution, counter-revolution, insurgency and demographics of which I know less than nothing, but which make it feel real in a way that both throws the supernatural elements into stark relief and meshes with them.



ETA: I cannot believe I forgot to rec Erebor and Weeds, my favourite Hobbit genderflip series, by the inimitable leupagus.



.... I really hope we get to rec creators at some point during this, cause I can think of easily a dozen whose collected works have kept me alive and some semblance of sane.

Comments

[makamu]

Although I don't know Coco and am only at the beginning of watching Nirvana in Fire , all of your recs look like they are right up my alley! Thank you! *gets out e-reader*

[toujours_nigel]

Oh, lovely, someone else watching NiF!

[makamu]

I am only on episode 3, so I am actually thinking of doing an episode reaction reblog after Snowflake :)

And I had the same thought ("Oh, someone else who likes this!") when I saw your "Hindu epics" tag and saw you talking about Bollywood :)

[toujours_nigel]

Oh good, commonalities!

There's an ongoing NiF episode reblog at https://disgracetoscholars.dreamwidth.org/tag/nirvana+in+fire

[makamu]

Yep! (Judging by your recs earlier, we are similar in general outlook as well it seems)

Thanks for the link - I will check it out :)

[kiki_eng]

Okay, genderswapped Bertie Wooster with brains is an incredibly intriguing description and inspirational old ladies are always where it is at. Thank you for adding like 400K words to my reading list? :) Those both sound awesome.

[toujours_nigel]

Always happy to be a plague vector for NiF fic.

[spatz]

Ooh, I've that NIF fic open in a tag for ages since you recced it to me on Tumblr, I really need to commit a long day off to reading it. The women of NIF and their various ways of wielding power PLUS Yujin's sunshine smarts? Yes please!

[toujours_nigel]

I mean, NiF has such amazing stories all round, but this one struck me then as one of the few that looks at and centralises the networks of conventionally feminine women. It introduces a few from the book, notably Jingyan's consort, but primarily stays with Yujin, Consort Jing, and the Empress. Nihuang and Xia Dong are very much involved and possibly more than for canonical Yujin but even so their interactions are differently inflected.

[sunlit_stone]

Oooh, the Nirvana in Fire one looks amazing! Thank you :)

[toujours_nigel]

I've been reccing it to everyone, yeah. :)

[luthien]

I read The Least of All Possible Mistakes ages ago. Will try the audio. Thanks!

[toujours_nigel]

I love lazulus' voice in it.

[dreamkist]

I want to rec your recs, they are so beautifully written!

[toujours_nigel]

*g* Thank you!

[coyoteclaw11]

I had never even considered reading Coco fic... but oh man that just sounds so, so intriguing??? I'm definitely going to have to check it out!

[toujours_nigel]

This one is amazing, but quite a few are rather good. *g*

[lyrithim]

Oh god these all sound like amazing recs, thank you for sharing. Also, I can't believe I didn't know that Lazulus did a podifc of TLoAPM considering I was just listening to her podfic of astolat's Newts yesterday.

[toujours_nigel]

*g*

[mmouse15]

Holy smokes, that Coco story was FABULOUS. Thank you!

[toujours_nigel]

Isn't it? I was blown away by the detail and thought and just... depth of field.