Okay, so first, obviously what you find worth reading depends on your personal tastes and on which fandoms you might like. This also depends on what you consider … just … worth reading, right? Because a story doesn’t have to be perfect to be enjoyable.
Personally, I prefer works that are novel-length, though shorter can be okay; and I prefer well-written, but I can be more forgiving than you might expect if I like things about the story; and I don’t have to be all that familiar with the original work to enjoy a well-done work of fan fiction.
Also, something to just be aware of, it’s not like I know all that much about fanfic and what’s available. I know about these because someone else drew my attention to them, thinking I might like them, which was true. I don’t poke around on Archive of Our Own looking for fanfiction for the same basic reason I don’t read a lot of any fiction at all right now: because I’m really busy and don’t have time.
But I’m always happy to get pointers to neat fanfic works, on AO3 or elsewhere, and I know some of you are too, so here are a few that I really liked, with comments. If any of you know of others, and from comments on prior posts you obviously do, so please share them in the comments.
It’s easier for me to put in clean-looking links from my end, so if you put in a link from your side, I can redo it in a cleaner format later. If you would like to try putting in a clean link, you can put <a href=”LINK HERE”>YOUR TEXT YOU WANT TO BE VISIBLE</a> and that should, I think, put your link into your sentence properly. If it doesn’t work, I can redo it from this end.
If you’re looking at something at Archive of Our Own, you can click at the top right to download the whole work. If you look at Devices at Amazon, you can send an epub or Word file to yourself at your Kindle’s address and boom! The file will appear on your Kindle or device.
From top to bottom:
1) A Bit Too Much Good Work by A_T_Rain
This is a LMB fanfic, and it is REALLY GREAT. Honestly, it is. If I were LMB, I would contact the author and ask if she wanted to publish this work with a forward from the author, because I would be happy to point my readers to this story. I would think of that because I was impressed with what Eric Flint did with the 1632 universe and I wish more authors would do something like that.
Byerly Vorrutyer is the primary protagonist. There was lots of room to do more with By, and A_T_Rain used that space to the fullest. The female lead is Rish. It’s nearly 100,000 words. The author has written other Bujold fanfic, those stories are shorter by also often good, and you can easily find them by clicking her name under the title.
2) Fictitious Persons by Debby G
This is a Supergirl fanfic. I enjoyed it very much. Clark’s and Lois’s little daughter gets kidnapped and taken to an alternate world where they exist only as comic book characters. There, Kara, who is about eight, develops super powers. This is an intimate story about the woman who fosters Kara, how she and her daughter handle this remarkable foster-daughter of hers, how Kara handles developing super powers, and how this little found-family copes with this. It’s a gentle story, mostly. It’s at least as much about being a good mom as anything else. The frame story is not all that persuasive, but so? That’s not the important part of the story.
At the end, Clark and Lois do get their daughter back and there’s a nice ending for everyone.
3) Martian Manhunter Mediancat
Look carefully toward the top and you will see a link that says “Whole Story.” You can download this story as an epub or whatever if you click on that.
This is one of the stories that went really, really long (250,000 words) and then the author got tired of it and wrapped it up with a section of story summary rather than story. I really enjoyed it despite that because (a) it’s really, really long before you hit that part, and (b) it actually resolved before you hit that part, and (c) it’s just really fun as a concept. In this story, Veronica Mars from the TV show gets dropped into the Buffy universe. Her mission: to make things come out better than they did in the canon TV show.
4) Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model by NNM
This is a really unusual story! Also, this time, I really don’t know anything about the original work this fanfic is based on, which is Good Omens, which I never read or watched.
Okay, so this story isn’t really meant to be a story, exactly. It’s meant to be a model of therapy, viewed through a fanfic lens. Here’s the author’s note at the end:
This is a story that could only ever work as a piece of fanfiction. It only worked because I could trust that everyone reading it was already familiar with Crowley and his back-story. It only worked because the character of Crowley was so beautifully fleshed out, made real, through others’ love and talent. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I never anticipated that people would care about Aubrey Thyme. I designed her personality with two thoughts in mind: 1) she needed to be a therapist who could work with someone like Crowley, and 2) I wanted her to be able to slip into the background and act like just a conduit for information about therapeutic processes and insight into Crowley. It was only when I saw reactions to her, as a character in her own right, that I felt like I could do more with this story than I had originally intended. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I didn’t expect that this would become a story that could be so meaningful for others. I cherish the comments that so many of you have left. I am left feeling something like grace, knowing that there are people out there who have found the strength to reach out to others for help, who have taken steps to make their lives better, who have done something meaningful to help themselves flourish, all because of something I have written. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
You can imagine Aubrey Thyme, down there, sitting in her office. You can imagine her, during her breaks, turning her eyes upwards and locating you. You can imagine her seeing you and seeing all of your strength and resilience and wisdom and insight. You can imagine her seeing you and seeing that you are good enough, that you are more than good enough, that you are good just precisely and exactly as you are. You can think of her offering you her encouragement, because she knows that you can flourish, she knows that you can do the hard work of taking care of yourself, she knows that you deserve to live a good life. You can imagine her, and you can know that one of the greatest gifts you can ever give to another is the opportunity to help you if and when you need it.
One must imagine Aubrey Thyme happy.
So, really, no fooling, this is story as a model of therapy. That’s what it is. It’s strangely compelling to read, even if you don’t actually know anything about the original work. Also, there’s evidently now a sequel, just finished this past June.
5) Forward Momentum by Bracketyjack
This one has writing that is adequate rather than good. And the pacing and plotting and all that is adequate rather than good. And yet … the point of this story is to pick up Miles Vorkosigan, picking up the story after “Winterfair Gifts.” Then many good things happen to all the characters, driving forward to good things happening for the entire Vorkosigan universe. This one is 175,000 words. There are sequels, none of which are anything like that long.
This is the sort of story I would want to read if I had the flu. It’s soothing, and you don’t have to think about it very much.
***
Okay! I wasn’t going for a Top Five list or anything; it just turns out that I happened to have five novel-length fanfic works on my Kindle app, so when I scrolled down to find them, there they were. As you see, it’s a diverse set — three out of five based on original works I’m familiar with, two based on works I barely know anything about.
What they have in common: They’re novel-length and I really enjoyed them.
If you have one or more fanfic works to suggest, please, by all means, drop them in the comments. Any fandom, based on anything, short is just fine, anything you think commenters here might enjoy.
Please Feel Free to Share:
I enjoy Forthright’s take on the InuYasha universe. She has multiple finished stories, some unfinished, mostly more cozy, but with some action/adventure, several over 100,000 words, on https://www.fanfiction.net/~forthright. I find her stories great to read when you’re sick and want something comforting – or just need something calm and unlikely to take a turn for the worse.
They honestly capture the vibe of InuYasha very well – it’s half school story (which I normally cordially dislike), half historical action-adventure, all wrapped up with Yokai and a time-traveling wellhouse at a shrine in Tokyo.
I like 95% of what she writes, honestly, and she’s migrated from fanfiction to actual fiction with the Amaranthine Saga, in which she cleverly recycles the plots of her fanfictions (as well as her own original characters) to create something entirely new and even better. She also writes children’s stories as CJ Milbrandt, and has an excellent series called Galleries of Stone.
The Amaranthine Saga by forthwrite began life as Inuyasha fanfic, I think – definitely fanfic of some sort, but I wasn’t familiar with the source material. Very soothing reads, slow burn romances (any sex is fade to black). I especially like the first couple, but enjoyed the whole thing.
Two of my favorite LMB fics:
Aral Vorkosigan’s Dog, by Philomytha (76,000 words)
This the second half of Shards of Honor from the point of view of Simon Illyan, from when he is assigned to be Aral’s aide/observer to the end of the war. The main theme is Illyan’s initially reluctant and then increasingly intense loyalty to Aral, despite the fact that he is supposed to be a neutral party reporting only to the emperor. It it’s also a very satisfying piece of military scifi in its own right: the writer does a good job of populating the familiar plotline with incidents, characters, and problems that could plausibly have been going on in the background of the novel.
Hydra-Headed, by Glishara (23,000 words)
A solid plotty story of a murder-investigation, set fairly early in Miles’ career as an auditor.
I’m going to try all these, but Lydia, THAT FIRST ONE SOUNDS GREAT. Thanks for sharing that!
Elaine T’s Teen here with part one of a list. Part Two will come later.
Suspicion, Siblings, and Stew
After battle and conflict, people who have been enemies all their lives, learning to get along. The narrator spends the whole time waiting for her captor to kill her, and wondering why he keeps calling her sister, feeding her, and generally taking care of her.
Broken Open Revealing Hollowness and Vibrance – – Hollow Knight.
It picks up after the third potential ending of the game, with elements of the fifth ending. Hornet thought she as alone after the end. When Hollow followed her out, she realized otherwise.
But now she has to try and take care of her older sibling as they recuperate and learn to live in a world where they do not have to be pure, figure out what to do about what Little Ghost left of a body, and try to piece together two kingdoms which fell long ago.
I’ve never forgotten how the author conveyed Hornet’s decline in health as her body matured. Growing wings is not always pleasant. Especially when one hasn’t molted in far too long, and one’s entire exoskeleton is stuck, compressing the new limbs and constricting the shell that’s trying to come in underneath. People help as they can. Family is complicated. The story ends on a hopeful note, not everything is fixed, but it’s getting there. There was room for more, but then it would not have been a story about Hornet and her family anymore.
The Spider and The Wyrm
– Hollow Knight. – Something of a prequal to Broken Open, but written independently. Covers the bargain made by the Pale King and Herrah, Beast of Deepnest, as narrated by the Pure Vessel; the Hollow Knight. A creature born into duty, watching the negotiation for a living chain, and awaiting a sibling.
The Persistence of Endlings
– A very different sort of Hollow Knight Story. Existential themes, things that you believed necessary in the moment and living with their ghosts, choices, good coping mechanisms, bad chopping mechanisms, and never giving up.
Stag Beetles and Broken Legs
– Hallownest is not all gods and monsters. Covers companionship between Quirrel of the Archives; after the completion of his appointed task, and Relic Seeker Lemm.
Confused Partridge, Wondering How This Pear Tree Got Here
One half-english detective can’t go home for the holidays. His three friends: One Japanese police inspector’s daughter, one sorceress, and one international jewel thief, decide to have “A British Christmas” to cheer him up. They’re kind of fuzzy on the details.
The Phantom of the …Warm Red Pavilion???
I honestly know next to nothing about the setting, but I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s added new idioms to my lexicon. In short, someone living int eh world that he wrote into existence tries to evade pursuit by : “Explode the sect rumor mill with Shen Jiu’s tragic backstory and claim he’s renting a room in the Warm Red Pavillion to work on a musical masterpiece.
Shen Jiu was not working on a musical masterpiece. His teacher is very invested in hearing this masterpiece. The only solution is to steal something that won’t be written for centuries, then re-write it to make it make sense. And so Ancient Fantasy China pirates the Phantom of the Opera.
The Things I Do For You Code Geass
Is there such a thing as ‘Callous Despotic Oppression Fluff’? Starring a very exasperated right hand man, and an overdramatic emperor who should really stop adding last-minute touches. It takes work to be effective tyrants.
Ningenkakushi: Lord of the Desert
Dragon Ball story, focused on Yamcha. Myth, supernatural elements, and sci-fi blend here. It is heavily colored by Peter Beagle’s work, specifically the Last Unicorn. It handles the subject with humor, affection, and respect all at once.
To quote the author “I am going to cover the entire original manga of DB and DBZ, as well as the several millennia of backstory we just got and an entirely original arc after the ‘epilogue’ chapters of the manga (this fic will be mostly disregarding the anime, and entirely disregarding GT, DBS, and DB Minus.
The focus is on Yamcha, but expect to see pretty much everyone at some point or another.
Heck, don’t just expect to see them – expect them to be cool! Because I like almost the entire cast of protagonists from this series (sole exception Yajirobe, and even he amuses me at times), as well as a handful of the antagonists. Seriously, everyone. Even Vegeta (when a lot of Yamcha fans seem to take umbrage with him from what I’ve seen), even Hercule Satan and Chichi, I like them all. I just like Yamcha best.
May or may not make sense without knowledge of Dragon Ball.
Did Not Do The Research Princess Tutu Story
I can’t sum this one up any better than the original author did. :
“Fakir has, at best, a tenuous grasp of physics.
Fakir can change reality with his writing.
Fakir really, really needs to use a beta-reader.”
Whiter Fang Castlevania, Netflix version
A boy and his dog. A monster hunter and that smart wolf he picked up that’s way to tame to be anything other than one of those wolf-dog hybrids that can take on bears. A boy and his – ahem. That’d be telling.
where billow meets billow
A story about family. About siblings, who have been separated. About siblings who chose one another. And about a small girl who learns how to be human again, after spending seven years as a seal. And about people taking care of people. Stealing a Selkie’s skin does not make them marry you. As described by the sealman who narrates the prologue, “It’s like if I opened a Room—” And he does, eliciting yelps from his friends. “—and I took out your literal, actual, beating heart—”
“Okay, I get it—”
“—that doesn’t make us married, it just makes you more likely to do what I want. Out of fear, or whatever.”
“Can you put that away?”
“The only difference is that theoretically anyone could take a selkie’s Skin,” Law continues, but he does dismiss the Room. It’s not like he was going to try that particular surgery now. “And that’s just a bad basis for marriage. For a healthy one, at least.”
A Small and Simple Thing
One Piece
Medical care after a battle. Provided by a sentient reindeer to a skeleton. I just remember this one.
Losing Time (You Can’t Go Home Again)
One Piece
A story about traveling through time. About going home and finding one’s self a stranger. About revisiting the past, and learning how much one’s grown. And a story about a boy adrift among strangers, far from home- while friends he doesn’t yet know try desperately not to panic him.
bear hag tiger bandit dad mom
One Piece
Three feral children try to figure out what exactly the bandit boss who sort-of looks after then is to them. With the logic of two ten year old boys and a seven year old, they come to a conclusion, and make her a father’s day card. It’s sweet, and silly.
Secundus
It is a world ruled by Mad Science — but that’s never affected Victor Van Dort. Living far away from all the action, he expected to have a perfectly normal, boring life in his perfectly normal, boring hometown of Burtonsville.
Fate, however, had other plans in store for him — in the form of a flying steam train. Accidentally kidnapped to the Mad Science Capital of the World, Victor’s going to have to learn to adjust. And in doing so, perhaps discover that the city derided as the capital of crazy is more home to him than his real home ever was.
I’m mostly a Harry Potter fanfic reader, but there are other ficworlds that I occasionally dip into. So here are the other ficworld fics that I *particularly* love, and then I’ll do the HP stuff in a second post.
I make no promises whatsoever about the finished/unfinished status of any fics in this list. Some are oneshots. Some are long and complete. And some haven’t been updated in years but are still on my list because what there IS of them, I love.
ATLA:
“While Mighty Oaks Do Fall” by WitchOfEndor.
The newly-crowned Fire Lord Ozai offers his firstborn son to service in the temple. This turns out to be a catastrophic mistake.
The “What We’re Given” series by Haicrescendo.
Started out as a “What would happen if Zuko happened to rediscover sky bison while searching for the Avatar?” and turned into something more than that.
“Spirits Can Be Cruel” by Mikarkus.
Hakoda just wants to destroy the Fire Navy, is that so much to ask?
Apparently yes, as his second in command drags in a net containing one half-drowned fire prince with a severe brain injury. He can’t justify tossing him back like the crew wants, so he will just keep him prisoner until they make it to port and then he’s the Earth Kingdom’s problem.
“kintsugi” by DiscordianSamba.
After being banished from the Fire Nation with no way to return, Zuko does the best he can to survive in hostile enemy territory, which leads him to some… questionable decisions. Caught trying to steal food from a noble Earth Kingdom family, his life takes a bizarre twist when they end up hiring him instead. His job? Watch over their blind daughter, Toph.
(Why, yes, Zuko IS my favourite ATLA character; how did you guess?)
Spider-Man:
The “Here to Stay” series by AngstyDathomirians.
Otto Octavius is sent back to 2004, and decides to use the twenty years he knows are coming to make a difference in Peter Parker’s life. (This is the best rendition of Raimi’s version of Doc Ock that I have ever read. I… kind of went on a fanbinge after NWH.)
“A Really Good Lawyer” by batnsons.
After the events of No Way Home, Matt Murdock ends up taking Peter Parker under his wing.
LotR:
“Master of Wood, Water and Hill” by Karmic Acumen.
Bilbo Baggins wondered what Gandalf was thinking. Oh well, Bag End would sort him out. His house did NOT approve of vandalism, thank you very much. That rune carved into his door learned it personally. Besides, it served the wizard right for not heeding the rumors about Bilbo and the Old Forest.
CROSSOVER: “The Last Unicorn” and “Rise of the Guardians”
“The Tough Get Going” by icarus_chained.
Just a few years after waking up from the ice, Jack Frost has a magical encounter he sorely needed. The magic does as it will, after all.
And here’s the Harry Potter ficlist that I especially love:
“It’s Always The Quiet Ones” by PixelWriter1.
Some people can only be pushed so far. Luna will take a lot, but it’s best not to insult her mother. (I haven’t read Lovecraft, which this is a crossover with, but you can follow it without knowledge of that.)
“Be Careful” by whydoyouneedtoknow.
Draco Malfoy, trapped in a life he never chose, wishes as he falls asleep that he were somewhere he could start over. Maybe he should have listened to his proverbs.
(This is a crossover with another fanfiction of hers – the Dangerverse – and I read that first. I think you should be able to follow it well enough knowing NOTHING, but… just so you know.)
“Dilemma’s Horns” by catzetier.
Sirius took a different corridor on his way out of Azkaban and encountered another innocent locked in a cell – and he couldn’t leave him behind. But the problem with any dilemma is that it never has just TWO horns, and in choosing to rescue him, Sirius has opened up a whole lot of complications…
(Note: this is MY fanfic. I put it in the list because I still like and reread it a lot. The main character walked into my head when I was twelve and WOULD NOT GET OUT and I was in my thirties before I managed to tell his story properly…)
“Toady to Toad Transformation – A ‘Ribbit’ing Tale” by PhoenixFalconsbayne.
Everyone always thought Dolores Umbridge rather looked and acted like a toad. Harry thought she actually was one, and decided to take action.
“A Sorting Song by Severus” by TextualSphinx.
Who but Severus would write a song that insults every house but his own in polysyllabic rhyming couplets?
“insurgere” by Silver Pard.
Hufflepuff is the house of the leftovers, the losers, the forgotten. Well, Tom Riddle thinks, it’s time to change that.
“The Memory of Water” by whitehound.
A view of the Voldemort wars, from beneath the surface (i.e. from the POV of the merpeople in the Hogwarts lake).
“The Accidental Animagus” (and sequels) by White Squirrel.
Blurb for #1: Harry escapes the Dursleys with a unique bout of accidental magic and eventually winds up at the Grangers’ house. Now, he has what he always wanted: a loving family—and he’ll need their help to take on the magical world and vanquish the dark lord who has pursued him from birth.
(This kind-of-sort-of sticks with canon until Y2 plotwise, mostly, with the added bonus of intelligent!Harry ergo intelligent!villains and Adults Actually Adulting… but at Y3, everything goes sideways and the story really takes off. You thought a deranged mass murderer breaking into Hogwarts was scary, even though he was innocent? Try Fenrir Greyback and his pack… and sparing the kiddies is the LAST thing on their minds…)
“Into the Ether” by duj.
Snape writes time-spelled letters to a twenty-years-on Hermione. Covers the events of all seven years.
“Fox Ears” by The Starhorse.
The Weasley family is deep in mourning after the battle of Hogwarts, but George has better ideas than to sit around and cry about something he’d rather just fix. And Charlie believes he can do it.
(Note: there are sequels to this, but THIS ONE is the one that does it for me.)
Having trouble thinking of recommendations, in part because 3 of Rachel’s 5 were originally my recs.
But here’s a very short tour de force, “If Shards of Honor had been written by…” vignettes in the style of (well, over-the-top parodies of) 15 famous authors:
I don’t know any fanfic, except that I read and enjoyed the first linked story about Byerly and Rish, when it was recommended here before.
I just now finished reading the 4th linked story about Crowley’s psychotherapy, and wow that is good!
I’ve bookmarked this page so I can keep coming back to read more.
Thanks to everyone for the recommendations, and sorry I can’t contribute any.
Thank you, these are all new to me except the Byerly fic, which I love, so on that basis I’m sure I’ll enjoy the others.
Seconding Aral Vorkosigan’s Dog – it’s brilliant.
Elaine T’s Teen here, with part 2
Dreaming in Darkness – One piece
It’s a horror story with a happy ending. It’s good horror too, the kind that suggests and implies, and is somewhat explained but never truly answered. Our heroes do get out- but you still believe the risk they face to get through it- and the challenges that they’re up against. Our Heroes dock on an island with a haunted hotel. They agree to stay the night. Our narrator dreams of another possibility, and wakes up when she realizes it isn’t real. The place can’t give them their real dreams, only the things they might turn aside for. It’s a trap and temptation. Our narrator has to traverse the halls and floors, and wake her crewmates one by one. Each time, they must be convinced that they’re dreaming and reminded of reality before it’s too late. And once their companions wake, every one of them goes off to do something important, leaving Nami and Usopp to fetch the rest. Alone. While the place fights back. I particularly remember chapter 10. It was heartbreaking in the best way possible.
Bloodstone :
I just remember this one. It’s a competitive strategy game setting. This story is about not letting external factors dictate what one does with one’s own life. And supportive friends. And vampirism, but that’s not the point.
This is Not a Place of Honor
A ghost story without an actual ghost. A nameless narrator overlooking a dead city, while terror passes by.
Cultivating the Slow Life
The story begins with a man who dies. Then wakes up in a world he knows from a book- he died reading it, in fact. Not being a fool, he goes off in the direction of the utterly unremarkable mountain that never showed up in the book, reasoning that he’s got the best chance of surviving if he Avoids The Plot. The mountain is a friendly sort of place too, very nice in the daytime. The magical peach tree and ramshackle homestead both seem to say- please, stay for a while, and as he’s the sort of nerd who will get enthusiastic about details, Taoren Mountain is paradise to him. It is a very interesting place too, full of arcane plants, a veritable treasury of wonder. Unfortunately, it is besieged after nightfall. Strange and uncanny things throng at night, slinking in closer to the peach tree with murderous intent. Armed with a sickle, a hoe, a woodcutter’s axe, and a bag of meat buns, he explores the mountain, becomes acquainted with its denizens, and makes friends while continuing his efforts to “Dodge The Plot”.
Everything described in his trip up the mountain will be used before the end. Once he gets guests, they have different opinions on everything than he does. Whoever lived here before left behind a treasury of magical plants worth a literal fortune, and Shen Yuan’s friendliness, guileless-ness, and willingness to share information based on how important things are and how distorted his sense of scale is makes him look highly odd indeed to the locals.
I know almost nothing about the source material, but it’s just a very fun and detailed story.
In no particular order, and also, there’s no easy share button from the series page on AO3, so even if I rec the whole series I’m just linking to the first fic below:
Reweave Our Lives (85128 words) by starandrea
Series: Part 1 of Reweave Our Lives
Summary: After the Hallows restore the Guardian, they bring back the Envoy and the Enemy as well. Zhao Yunlan will do anything for Shen Wei, but he has to accept that there is no Shen Wei without Ye Zun: not now, and maybe not ever.
Ruby (19410 words) by Maculategiraffe
Summary: When clearing out a raider encampment, Nora and Hancock make an unexpected discovery.
Remnants. (807 words) by Lanna Michaels
Summary: Ezar Vorbarra has no children. Padma Vorpatril has no parents.
Cultural Exchange (61618 words) by Therrae
Summary: It also didn’t help that the average glyph message was only three characters long, used no articles or prepositions, and usually had no verbs. What was the proper response to:: Curiosity; Sensation of great speed? Was it a question? A comparison? Why, after a brief visit by National Security Director Mearing, did four different ‘Bots send:: Emphasis; overlapping? Why was a particularly bad joke by Bulkhead derided as ::Undercharged when there were actual glyphs for Not funny and Humor fail? How did any of that work?
The Grand Unified Theory of Shěn Qīngqiū: Qi Refining (618828 words) by 00janeblonde
Summary: Shěn Qīngqiū new game pluses himself into a happy ending and unlocks some premium content along the way.This fic is endgame Shěn Qīngqiū/Liǔ Qīnggē/Yuè Qīngyuán.It takes time for the characters to get together, but there is zero partner infidelity and very little angst. There’s lots of pining, but it’s happy pining. This is fluff. Everyone is happy and loving and supportive.
wipe that ash from your mouth (4849 words) by oriflamme
Summary: Laughing, the other shifter darts away. His bronze-tinted scales flare bright in the sunlight. He flies like he loves it, like it’s inextricably part of him, circling in wider arcs as they ascend and leave the jungle and the plateau and the valley behind. Cloud’s never seen anyone so like him before. So when the stranger gestures – a ripple of angled spines to accompany the cheerful wave of his arm and his bright, enthusiastic smile – Cloud follows quietly.
hey, share the weight a little (70352 words) by Tossawary
Summary: Shang Qinghua is miserable as an outer disciple of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, doubtful that the plot will ever begin, when he finally runs into his first character. Yue Qingyuan is only a boy in desperate need of a helpful friend. Well, why shouldn’t Shang Qinghua be that friend? A little investment now when they’re young and Shang Qinghua might just be able to survive this world with the support of a sect leader.It’s definitely not because he’s also in desperate need of a friend.(He’s definitely not expecting love.)
ANBU Legacy – Prologues (24981 words) by Nezuko, saunterleftside, ANBU_Legacy
Summary: Before they were ANBU, they were children, genin, fresh recruits thrust into a war that had been ongoing as long as they could remember. These are their stories.
Also, this is not fanfiction, but it is free fiction on the internet that is updated regularly, and extremely good: Super Supportive, by Sleyca.
Everyone wants superpowers, including Alden Thorn.
But even if he’s lucky enough to be one of the few humans granted magical abilities by the extraterrestrial System that’s been running things on Earth for decades, his goal of being a battlefield support hero is still a long way off.
He’s got determination on his side and maybe a murderous alien desk clerk, too.
The universe is a complicated place. Alden’s about to meet it.
I don’t read a lot of fan fic, but bookmarking so I can read the LMB ones when I finally finish the Vorkosigan books (I found early Miles difficult, but recently read Komarr and more mature Miles is a delight.)
I do like a Jane Austen retelling, and the best I have found is Miss Eleanor Tilney or The Reluctant Heroine by Sherwood Smith, telling Eleanor’s story from Northanger Abbey.
Hey Rachel, the link for “Cultivating the Slow Life on a Monster-Infested Mountain” leads right back to this blog page. Can you change it to lead to the fic, here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42666177/chapters/107176740?
(At least it had an easily-searchable title!)
Thanks :)
Sure; I’m going to redo all the links right this minute anyway.
Okay! Thank you all for contributing; if anybody didn’t notice this post previously, go right ahead and contribute.
A FEW NOTES
I revised the links to put them into the story titles.
Either something was wrong with ONE link or I screwed it up: Elaine’s Teen, I lost “A Small And Simple Thing” and could not find it via Google. Sorry! If you provide the link again, I will do my best not to screw it up again.
I checked ALL the other links and I believe they all work, but if any don’t, sorry, and post the link again and I will fix it.
BUT, two links go to “Archive Members Only” pages, so nothing I can do about that. That may not get in your way if you are registered on AO3.
AND
Diana, I simplified your comment, stripping out the lists of tags in order to make it easier to see the important part of each link. Maybe no one else finds all the tags confusing and a bit overwhelming, but I did, so I hope you don’t mind. I literally didn’t realize one was a Raksura-word fic until I got the post stripped down to essentials and then it jumped out at me. That’s exciting! I love the Raksura series!
AND
Heather, thanks for sharing your own fic! I look forward to reading it WHEN I EVER HAVE TIME TO READ ANYTHING WHATSOEVER, which, I dunno, maybe November.
Elaine T here, that link to small & simple should be: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13435299
it’s a short and sweet story. 1500 words.
I forgot, and I guess the Teen did, too, about the restricted to members only problem.. A lot are cross posted to fanfiction.net, but I haven’t searched on them all. The Dark Lords set certainly is – it’s only recently been put on Ao3. I do thank the Teen for doing to actual posting of fics we’ve both liked and found worthy of recommending – trying to also pick ones that are good whether or not you know anything about characters or setting. Which is hard. And there are some settings we both really like, but couldn’t come up with any fics we thought would work for someone coming to a story cold.
@Diana — hey, that ANBU Legacy fic is 1/4 mine! I’m Kilerkki in ff circles. Surprised and delighted to see it get some love here. :)
Definitely checking out that Raksura fic!
Great, thanks Elaine T, link is now fixed.
Mary Beth, that’s great, and I’m definitely going to try every linked story, though I don’t know the first thing about some of the original sources.
Sorry about the two restricted works. IF you have an Ao3 account and are logged into it, they should work fine. If you don’t and want to read them, try out fichub, a fanfiction downloader. It downloads from the url without requiring a login, if I understand correctly how it works./
To Be Human is To Desire
Fullmetal Alchemist 2009 story.
Within the depths of Laboratory 5, Edward Elric discovers – or more accurately is blindsided by – a pack of chimera attempting escape…alongside another stranger with an Ouroboros tattoo, who most definitely isn’t a friend of the two who are currently threatening him. With the chimera sacrificing themselves to allow him and his new friend(?) to escape, it seems like the Elric brothers have a new traveling companion — the homunculus Greed, who has things of his own he desires, whether or not he realizes what those things are.”
A Taste of Home
– Fullmetal Alchemist 2009 “cooking as love language” and found family. A revenge obsessed man helps a thirteen year old girl who says she’s a princess.
Suspicion, Siblings, and Stew
After battle and conflict, people who have been enemies all their lives, learning to get along. The narrator spends the whole work expecting to be killed by her half-brother. Cooking plays a role in making peace.
The Leitihan Script
A half a million word screenplay that discusses- among other things, kingship, responsibility, and keeping your nose out of things that aren’t your business. And hard, long choices. Has some companion works:
Terrible Gifts
Betrayals, Renunciations
Shadow and Silver
Fell Knowledge
The Splintered Light
– series- Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings. Lots of conversations about heavy topics. This link goes to the third installment, which is the first one I read.
Dragon From Ash
– “Dunmer are everything Nords are not. So when a wayward priest from Morrowind finds himself at the center of Nord legend and bearing a title that his own people regard with fear and disgust, he will ignite a storm across Skyrim, the Empire, and beyond.”
Elder Scrolls is not a medieval setting.
Sleeper in the Cave– Book 1, Thief.
“Adryn really doesn’t know what she’s doing on this land with oversized wildlife, natives who think giant fleas are good forms of transport, and Imperial spymasters so skooma-addled they think she’s spy material, but she has every intention of surviving the rampant stupidity of everyone around her.” Adryn is an excellent example of decent person in way over her head because of things beyond her control or ability to affect. The world is bigger than her, and people have lives around her. The place is alien to her and the reader at once. People keep asking her to do things, hiring her to do things, and expecting that she’s the right person to do things. Even she doesn’t really know how an hourlong excursion to pick up a potion form the other side of the island- (teleportation is useful for cutting excursions short) ended up taking a week and touring the towers of multiple touchy wizard-lords, at wildly far flung locations. And garnered the gratitude of one of the major players in this province. Circumstances beyond her control often involve her in things that; though separate on the surface, are in truth one long affair spanning a few millennia. She’s a much better person than she wants to admit, and kinder than she wants to think about. And really, all she really wants to do is conduct research in peace.
To Dust
After a two-hundred year prison sentence in Akavir, a living legend returns to Tamriel only to find it in chaos. Haunted by the memories of her proud people and her past cruelty, will she be able to remember her forgotten skills in time to stop Alduin from destroying the world? I remember this one for how young the narrator wasn’t, and how large and dangerous the world felt, and how inadvisable some of her choices were. Despite this, I wasn’t engaged so much as interested. Not everyone’s cup of tea.
The Dark Lords of Nerima-. Trilogy. First volume is both sober and very funny, in the satirical farce that is Ranma ½ colliding with Sailor Moon season One.
One act of kindness begins an avalanche of chaos. Neither side really knows what they’re doing, and everyone makes assumptions with hilarious results. Ranma and Ryouga end up masquerading as dark lords from another dimension to bluff both the Sailor Senshi and the Dark Kingdom into losing track of what they’re actually up to – re, survival. It works. A wonderful example of who knows what and how it affects everything else. Part 2(The Dark Lords Strike Back) is sober. Part 3 (The Dark Lords Ascendant)- Indescribable. Elaine’s comment: I put off reading it for years, as nothing in either setting ever appealed to me before. But I really enjoyed these.
Link to the first one
To the second, the Dark Lords Strike Back
And the third, Dark Lords Ascendant
The Benefits of Drinking with Strangers One Piece
Three pirates walk into a bar in the aftermath of a battle… it catches the tone of utter relief that the overthrow of a tyrant brings, and of simple human compassion.
For What It’s Worth
One Piece
Subterfuge, stealth, and undercover work, to meet in public. Complete with character examinations, and things that don’t go as planned. Then they go haywire, and it’s not the expected party who throws the punch. Character study of the allied captains of one piece and their odd relationship.
our reflections as seen (when the water stills)
Modao Zushi/The Founder of Diabolism, Sunshot campaign period. As retold in the world of Tokyo Ghoul. I think it’s comprehensible without knowing much about the original series, but it makes more sense if you do. These people are dangerous. I enjoyed it.
Restoration
A strange place distorted by death. A man who has power there. Wishes to be granted, if you can pay. Things that are not what they seem.
If you read this one, watch the dates. There are time shenanigans afoot.
FYI, I don’t recommend the grand unified theory of Shen Qingqiu. I remember looking at it once and basically spending a few hundred chapters waiting for the plot to do something. If all you want is slice of life, I guess it’s fine.
Sorry, Elaine, I think I messed up the first link — if you repost “To be Human is to Desire,” I’ll try it again.
Here’s the link
https://archiveofourown.org/works/38492656/chapters/96205738
We’ve thought of another that both of us are fond of: Magnets for Trouble by PitViperofDoom, a crossover of Big Hero Six (which I know nothing about) and the Marvel Movies. It worked and was both interesting and intelligent. It’s one of those stories where someone finds something a little interesting and starts poking and everything snowballs.
Which reminds me of a fun short (7759 words) FFVII one, The Snowball Effect – guess what that consists of? Kunsel pokes, and find all the horrible stuff in Science Dept. The narrative voice is a good part of what I enjoy in it. as the POV goes through logic chains of what this means; who to go to including “might legit kill people for this (see points 2 & 3) … his methods were probably not ones to encourage. Well. Maybe. They were awfully effective….”
Here’s another HP fic that I really like… I hesitated to rec it because it’s really just what Harry’s time at Hogwarts would have been if it had been (mostly) normal, with one large exception… but then I thought, well, it’s actually a REALLY good and entertaining school story. Harry Is A Dragon And That’s Okay.
Heather, that’s very okay! That sounds like a great fic!
We were talking about Sherlock stories, and remembered a couple set in the modern era, probably based on the TV show neither of us has watched, worth mentioning here:
A Brief Account of Life With Zombies https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6253167/1/A-Brief-Account-Of-Life-With-Zombies by Silver Pard
Not Yet Dead by Castiron https://archiveofourown.org/works/472335/chapters/817309
Modern Sherlock Holmes, at the age of four, decided to be a detective and prove the innocence of John Watson of the murder of his namesake Sherlock Holmes at Reichenbach Falls. Thirty years later a Sherlock and a John Watson solve crimes in London. A number of recent murders seem to be harking back to those solved by the first Sherlock. If you’ve ever read A. Conan Doyle, expect to see a great many names you’ll recognize. You will also see characters you’ll recognize before the end and most of them won’t be where they ought to be. Sometimes the past can kill, even when everyone involved is dead. Sometimes the past itself is not yet dead.
Thanks, Elaine!