The wide wide world of zine preferences (a kind of reccing)
Tuesday, 1 November 2005 07:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
byslantedlightSo, as a follow-up to last night's pondering on zine recs it would probably be helpful if I explained what I would like "recced". Which means explaining what I like. As the bods from ProsLit quite rightly pointed out, there really is a huge range of Pros fic out there, enough for all our tastes, but unless you know someone's tastes...
I have exceedingly broad tastes, so this probably won't narrow it down much. However:
There are moments when I am right in the mood for anything along the Oblique lines, and other times when I won't read it because it'll just depress seven hells out of me. In general though I would say that I do love M.Fae and her incarnations, O.Yardley, Sebastian, Helen Raven's "Freezing" sequel to the Siren series, and all that ilk.
Kitty Fischer. Although I don't like the really heavy BDSM that some authors write, where one of them is totally humiliated with no... restoration of equality somehow at the end of it. If that makes any sense at all. In my Prosverse, whatever their kinks, they even out somehow in the end and are equals.
On the completely opposite end of the spectrum, my all time favourite fic is still "Voice Over" by Elizabeth O'Shea, where they're sweet as all get-out. She manages to avoid making them gaggingly sugar-y, but has you rooting for them all the way. Tempers it with hilarious real-life bumps and scrapes I guess. Perhaps part of the magic is that its like a holiday - people do act differently when they're away, so although I couldn't see B or D like this in London, it totally works in France.
And in a similar way I surprised myself by really liking... oh, for the life of me I can't remember title or author, even though it was only just recced to me by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
minesapint, and I can't find the right thread... this is why I'm making the compilation! Anyway, the boys go on a coach holiday to Italy, and end up having to share a room, and of course discover that they really both want each other desperately. When I gathered the premise as I began reading my first thought was ick this is gonna be sappy but they were just enough out of place that it actually worked. And the ending (which obviously I won't tell) actually made the situation even more "real". I will remember what this was called and edit this post to add it in later... "Et In Italia Ego" is the fic, by the wonderful Sebastian!
Lets see, what else? I am adoring my "HG Collected 1" zine, and desperately want the second, but the children need shoes... well, I need food this week. Thinking about it, outside the lovely flow of writing, her B and D are kind of close to the sappy edge sometimes (I really can't see either of them buying a hideously crocheted cardigan and dozens of jars of jam just to make an old lady happy...), but she generally manages to take the edge off that, often with humour. And when she writes stuff like "Loose Change", which I think is just genius and hilarious, with hints of real life prattage (like Warren), the hard edge of being in CI5 and for me at least, was kind of poignant at the end... And the fact that she does this makes it clear that she doesn't see B and D as soft little dolls, but just occasionally takes them out to play with in a slightly different game. Which is okay by me.
There's actually a thread right now on another LJ about canon vs fanon in Pros, and now that I've read enough fic, and re-watched the eps enough times to be able to (usually) tell the difference I think this is something that either makes or breaks a fic for me. If I can fit the fic-lads into the ep-lads somehow then it works for me. If, as I said above, they're too soft to be able to do their job, or are clearly not "them" then the whole fic is ruined for me. So, put in far fewer words, good mostly canon-based characterization is important to me!! I don't mind an author like HG playing, as long as its clear that they know the boys. And I have no issue with expanding on traits we only see briefly in the eps (like Doyle cooking) as long as its a feasible trait. Bodie is not an uneducated lout, no matter how much he pretends to be, which even Cowley teases him about!
Castalia - "Never Say Goodbye". For the same reason I adore the film "Iris". As the Swedish apparently say, "sometimes its good to be sad". And although I'm less keen on her "Can't Answer That Question, Sir", because I want the boys out there doing their job, I am car-crash fascinated by the idea. Good writing.
Ultimately, and again as many people on ProsLit have said, if a fic is well-written, then I'll read it and like it. What counts as my well-written? Good characterization, as I said. They've gotta be the boys in the first place. The ability of the author to actually write "well", so that I'm not being jolted out of the story every few minutes by silly grammatical errors or issues. If I become aware that I'm reading while I'm doing it, then all is lost and I have to put it down, my eyes just won't do that to my brain any more. I bought a couple of anthology zines, and I was amazed by the number of stories that I just couldn't force myself through because of bad english. Which disappointed me dreadfully, which set me out looking for zine recs!!
Erm... In general I don't like either AU or crossovers. That said, I really liked the recent halloween story at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
the_safehouse that crossed Pros with BtVS! So maybe its partly that I don't know alot of the series that they're crossed with, like the Chief (but how can he be Doyle and Cade -is that right?- at the same time? Unless you kill off Doyle, but then why subsitute Cade in the first place? Compared to that, for me, vampires in London are an easy jump!) But if I see a fic is a crossover I'm unlikely even to pick it up.
AUs - haven't liked any of the historical fics I've (started to) read so far. And her sci-fi Pros fics are what made me avoid Helen Raven's "Heat Trace" for this long. The boys are the boys because they live in 70/80s London, in 70/80s England. Except that, being me, there are always exceptions to the rule. Most of them keep the AU incredibly close to our world - like the (very not-Pros) author Charles de Lint, whose magic-y supernatural realm overlaps ours, is just not seen by most people for what it is. I can suspend my disbelief and watch the boys battling with a haunted mirror, but Doyle is not an elf!
And now I really need to get to work. For anyone who has actually read to the end of this post - thank you!
I have exceedingly broad tastes, so this probably won't narrow it down much. However:
There are moments when I am right in the mood for anything along the Oblique lines, and other times when I won't read it because it'll just depress seven hells out of me. In general though I would say that I do love M.Fae and her incarnations, O.Yardley, Sebastian, Helen Raven's "Freezing" sequel to the Siren series, and all that ilk.
Kitty Fischer. Although I don't like the really heavy BDSM that some authors write, where one of them is totally humiliated with no... restoration of equality somehow at the end of it. If that makes any sense at all. In my Prosverse, whatever their kinks, they even out somehow in the end and are equals.
On the completely opposite end of the spectrum, my all time favourite fic is still "Voice Over" by Elizabeth O'Shea, where they're sweet as all get-out. She manages to avoid making them gaggingly sugar-y, but has you rooting for them all the way. Tempers it with hilarious real-life bumps and scrapes I guess. Perhaps part of the magic is that its like a holiday - people do act differently when they're away, so although I couldn't see B or D like this in London, it totally works in France.
And in a similar way I surprised myself by really liking... oh, for the life of me I can't remember title or author, even though it was only just recced to me by
minesapint, and I can't find the right thread... this is why I'm making the compilation! Anyway, the boys go on a coach holiday to Italy, and end up having to share a room, and of course discover that they really both want each other desperately. When I gathered the premise as I began reading my first thought was ick this is gonna be sappy but they were just enough out of place that it actually worked. And the ending (which obviously I won't tell) actually made the situation even more "real". I will remember what this was called and edit this post to add it in later... "Et In Italia Ego" is the fic, by the wonderful Sebastian!Lets see, what else? I am adoring my "HG Collected 1" zine, and desperately want the second, but the children need shoes... well, I need food this week. Thinking about it, outside the lovely flow of writing, her B and D are kind of close to the sappy edge sometimes (I really can't see either of them buying a hideously crocheted cardigan and dozens of jars of jam just to make an old lady happy...), but she generally manages to take the edge off that, often with humour. And when she writes stuff like "Loose Change", which I think is just genius and hilarious, with hints of real life prattage (like Warren), the hard edge of being in CI5 and for me at least, was kind of poignant at the end... And the fact that she does this makes it clear that she doesn't see B and D as soft little dolls, but just occasionally takes them out to play with in a slightly different game. Which is okay by me.
There's actually a thread right now on another LJ about canon vs fanon in Pros, and now that I've read enough fic, and re-watched the eps enough times to be able to (usually) tell the difference I think this is something that either makes or breaks a fic for me. If I can fit the fic-lads into the ep-lads somehow then it works for me. If, as I said above, they're too soft to be able to do their job, or are clearly not "them" then the whole fic is ruined for me. So, put in far fewer words, good mostly canon-based characterization is important to me!! I don't mind an author like HG playing, as long as its clear that they know the boys. And I have no issue with expanding on traits we only see briefly in the eps (like Doyle cooking) as long as its a feasible trait. Bodie is not an uneducated lout, no matter how much he pretends to be, which even Cowley teases him about!
Castalia - "Never Say Goodbye". For the same reason I adore the film "Iris". As the Swedish apparently say, "sometimes its good to be sad". And although I'm less keen on her "Can't Answer That Question, Sir", because I want the boys out there doing their job, I am car-crash fascinated by the idea. Good writing.
Ultimately, and again as many people on ProsLit have said, if a fic is well-written, then I'll read it and like it. What counts as my well-written? Good characterization, as I said. They've gotta be the boys in the first place. The ability of the author to actually write "well", so that I'm not being jolted out of the story every few minutes by silly grammatical errors or issues. If I become aware that I'm reading while I'm doing it, then all is lost and I have to put it down, my eyes just won't do that to my brain any more. I bought a couple of anthology zines, and I was amazed by the number of stories that I just couldn't force myself through because of bad english. Which disappointed me dreadfully, which set me out looking for zine recs!!
Erm... In general I don't like either AU or crossovers. That said, I really liked the recent halloween story at
the_safehouse that crossed Pros with BtVS! So maybe its partly that I don't know alot of the series that they're crossed with, like the Chief (but how can he be Doyle and Cade -is that right?- at the same time? Unless you kill off Doyle, but then why subsitute Cade in the first place? Compared to that, for me, vampires in London are an easy jump!) But if I see a fic is a crossover I'm unlikely even to pick it up.AUs - haven't liked any of the historical fics I've (started to) read so far. And her sci-fi Pros fics are what made me avoid Helen Raven's "Heat Trace" for this long. The boys are the boys because they live in 70/80s London, in 70/80s England. Except that, being me, there are always exceptions to the rule. Most of them keep the AU incredibly close to our world - like the (very not-Pros) author Charles de Lint, whose magic-y supernatural realm overlaps ours, is just not seen by most people for what it is. I can suspend my disbelief and watch the boys battling with a haunted mirror, but Doyle is not an elf!
And now I really need to get to work. For anyone who has actually read to the end of this post - thank you!
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 2 November 2005 12:01 am (UTC)Well, there I was sitting, all ready to set off for work, when a whole bunch of LJ comments came in! What else is a girl to do..?!
I think the episode you mean is The Fugitive? I love it, but hate the scene when Bodie gets beaten up, too convincingly
Yes, that'll be it! I know, all the beat-up scenes are horrid, but then we do at least get to see the concern of whichever of them wasn't hurt... which I guess for me is part of the insight into their relationship... I'm afraid h/c is probably one of my bulletproof kinks - assuming its well-written (or on an ep in this case! One of my favourite moments is Bodie tearing around once he finally cottons on that Doyle is missing in *brain mulch* the ep where the restaurant is blown up... gods, I only watched that night before last!).
expand your recs page, maybe even make it separate? No idea how easy that would be.
Yes, could do. I've been toying with the idea. You know I've just seen the recs at http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=crack_van&keyword=The+Professionals+Fanfic+Recs&filter=all so I think there should be a way - although that's a community so I dunno if the rules are different... Probably its just tags... you know, this whole fandom thing is a work in its own right. If only someone would pay me..! Anyway, I haven't joined
Do try and read JM's In Hot Water on the Cd if you get a spare moment(!) No pressure you understand. The word 'languid' always springs to mind when I think of this lovely story.
Sounds lovely. I'm still waiting for the cd to arrive, but this shall go to the top of my list.
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 2 November 2005 08:39 pm (UTC)When I think of it, if you hadn't come across Et inter Italia Ego before then maybe you also haven't read Sebastian's Wonderful Tonight either? Another superb, later, Sebastian story. One of my all-time favourites.
I think it is worth taking a look at Crack Van, it does have a dedicated Pros page.
I wrote to PFL a short while ago and she mentioned that I might like the writer Irene who hasn't got anything published online but has a few stories in the Roses and Lavender zines. I don't know anything about their reliability but it might be worth keeping an eye out for secondhand sales as Nell Howell has also recommended them a lot and her tastes reflect mine. Adios!!
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 2 November 2005 11:00 pm (UTC)I have browsed CrackVan before, I don't know how I missed the recs...
I really want to find some Roses and Lavender zines, especially the one with the story by Elizabeth O'Shea in it! Plus alot of fics I like turn out to have been printed in R&L.
You know, I thought I'd read all the Sebastian's that are up at Circuit, but I'm gonna have to go through them again and check. It was all when I was in the middle of packing, so maybe I have. Ooh, I hope so! What a thing to look forward to!
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 2 November 2005 11:16 pm (UTC)