4 fic recs: Daniel Blackland series
Jul. 14th, 2022 04:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sholio posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
recthethingThe Daniel Blackland series by Greg van Eekhout is an obscure series of alt-history/urban fantasy heist novels from the mid-2010s with the rare distinction that a) all the fics in the fandom that I've found so far (all 4 of them) are really good, and b) all of it features my OTP. When does that ever happen?!
If you've never heard of these books, they're GREAT. In a magical alternate version of our world, magic is powered by consuming the bones of extinct creatures, Los Angeles is a canal city like Venice and also an independent country (actually two countries, North and South), and a small band of thieves plan a heist on a magical dictator's impregnable vault, while a bureaucrat working for the corrupt government tries to stop them and then gets sucked into a revolution aimed at overthrowing the horrible dystopia they all live in, and rescues a slave along the way .... guess who my favorite characters are. Start with California Bones. I wrote it up along with a primer for my OTP here.
The two long(er) ones:
San Andreas Aftermath by Rivine (13K words)
Set a few months after the end of the series, this absolutely delightful, plotty post-canon fic centers around a fake marriage get-together but also lets the whole cast shine and includes a canon-typical heist with a lot of magical shenanigans. Very much in keeping with the tone and style of the books except with more gay sex.
The Retirement of Gabriel Argent by Sixthlight (5K words)
Set a couple of decades after the end of the series, a lovely getting-old-together fic with about the closest thing to an HEA that these characters are capable of. I loved it.
The two short ones:
Timmy's Down the Well Again by Rivine (1K wds)
Short and iddy, just some really nice h/c including presumed dead and near-drowning.
Paper Risk by Rivine (2700 wds)
A year or so after California Bones, Gabriel takes steps to ensure that Max's past can't be used to blackmail either of them.
If you've never heard of these books, they're GREAT. In a magical alternate version of our world, magic is powered by consuming the bones of extinct creatures, Los Angeles is a canal city like Venice and also an independent country (actually two countries, North and South), and a small band of thieves plan a heist on a magical dictator's impregnable vault, while a bureaucrat working for the corrupt government tries to stop them and then gets sucked into a revolution aimed at overthrowing the horrible dystopia they all live in, and rescues a slave along the way .... guess who my favorite characters are. Start with California Bones. I wrote it up along with a primer for my OTP here.
The two long(er) ones:
San Andreas Aftermath by Rivine (13K words)
Set a few months after the end of the series, this absolutely delightful, plotty post-canon fic centers around a fake marriage get-together but also lets the whole cast shine and includes a canon-typical heist with a lot of magical shenanigans. Very much in keeping with the tone and style of the books except with more gay sex.
The Retirement of Gabriel Argent by Sixthlight (5K words)
Set a couple of decades after the end of the series, a lovely getting-old-together fic with about the closest thing to an HEA that these characters are capable of. I loved it.
The two short ones:
Timmy's Down the Well Again by Rivine (1K wds)
Short and iddy, just some really nice h/c including presumed dead and near-drowning.
Paper Risk by Rivine (2700 wds)
A year or so after California Bones, Gabriel takes steps to ensure that Max's past can't be used to blackmail either of them.
no subject
Date: 2022-07-14 05:31 pm (UTC)Can that last rec be read with only knowledge of California Bones?
no subject
Date: 2022-07-14 07:04 pm (UTC)