Rec the Thing

I haven't posted recs here for a while, other than links to posts elsewhere. I've been busy adding fics to my fic database and finally finished a fandom post or two, and decided I might as well post a few recs here specifically.

I won't post every fic I added - you can poke through my master recs post to find the posts they're in - but I thought it might be a good idea to post any fic that I either consider a favorite (i.e. I love re-reading it) or exceptionally well-written (something about it stands out to me as outstanding writing in some way).

( Icon guide )

( Explanation of ratings )

( Content warnings and spoilers )

( Ships )


Below are the recs:

( Alphas )

( FBI Most Wanted )

( Profiler )

( The Matrix )

If any of the links above no longer work, please let me know so I can flag them as "Dead" in my database, thanks!

Enjoy! :)

A friend of mine recently asked me to create a couple posts of recs from my database for her - emotional and physical hurt/comfort, and excluding any fics tagged with incest or crack/parody. She also wanted ALL of the themes (tropes and more) listed underneath so it would be very spoilery.

If that appeals to you at all - my previous posts have avoided potential spoilers via the tags - you are also welcome to browse them. I thought it might be useful to link them here:

Emotional Hurt/Comfort
Fandoms: Alphas, FBI CBS, FBI Most Wanted, Flood (2007), Fried Green Tomatoes (book/movie), Push (2009), Speed (1994), The Matrix

Physical Hurt/Comfort
Fandoms: Alphas, C-16: FBI, FBI CBS, FBI Most Wanted, Push (2009), Speed (1994), The Matrix

All of these are fics I read in the past month and enjoyed or found interesting enough to add to my database. I finally caught up to the end of the fics on Fanfiction.net but was only able to enter a few of them so far; the rest will come next time, most likely.

( Icon guide )

( Explanation of ratings )

( Content warnings and spoilers )

( Ships )

Below are the recs:

( Alphas )

( Speed (1994) )

( The Matrix )

If any of the links above no longer work (and are inaccessible via the Wayback Machine), please let me know so I can flag them as "Dead" in my database, thanks!

Enjoy! :)

This is sort of an unusual list - all of these are WIPs, and most are really old and will never be completed. But some people (*cough*me*cough*) are willing to read even permanently unfinished fics because they can be enjoyable, so I'm sharing them here. If you can't stand WIPs, then this post most definitely is not for you!

As always, ratings are all converted to a single system for convenience:
Fanfiction.net - G through R
AO3 - PG through X (though the occasional child-friendly fic I mark G)
anything without a rating (AO3 or other site) - Unrated

I listed any ships I thought were major below each fic. If there are any minor/background ships you want to avoid, please leave a comment and ask for a list to be made for you. Note that ships may refer to one-sided or unrequited ones as well as to requited/mutual.

( My favorite WIPs, all Matrix )

and the rest of the WIPs:

( Alphas )

( Push )

( Rizzoli & Isles [TV] / Rookie Blue )

( The Matrix )

If any of the links above no longer work, please let me know so I can flag them as "Dead" in my database, thanks!

Enjoy! :)

So I realized the other day that all those rec posts I posted back in September… only featured fics I had marked as favorites (ones I'd like to re-read). That actually is not the same thing as well-written fics, as I have some I like that I have to admit aren't very well-written, and there are very well-written fics that just don't appeal to me for whatever reason. (I liked them enough to read through them and save them, it just means I probably won't re-read them very much if at all.) I went through my fanfic database and added a separate marking for the ones that I thought were very well-written, whether or not they were on my favorites lists. These had to strike me as exceptionally well-written, not just decent. You may disagree with my choices, and that's fine. :) But you can rest assured that any on this list are not riddled with SPAG errors, and show a good command of the English language, even if the style isn't always your thing.

I created a query of just the ones that were very well-written but NOT on my favorites list, for whatever reason, and I wanted to showcase them here. Just because they're not something I want to re-read a bunch doesn't mean they shouldn't be noticed and appreciated by someone, and hopefully one of these will appeal to you! Please kudos/comment as you feel comfortable doing for them, and enjoy! (Most of these are pretty tiny fandoms, but that's a function of what I've got in my database so far.)

Most of these I don't recall off the top of my head what they are about in order to describe them, but I put what notes I do remember. If you need a recs list that's more tailored (to avoid a particular theme or whatnot), please let me know - one of the major bonuses of using a database is that I can create all manner of queries to select just what I want.

Ratings are taken from the fics themselves and adapted to a combined rating system in my database, with ff.n fics getting G through R, and AO3 fics getting G/PG to X. AO3 fics and those on blogs without ratings are marked Unrated.

( Alphas )

( Anthropomorphic )

( Deep Impact )

( Fried Green Tomatoes )

( Push )

( Rookie Blue )

( The Matrix )

Hope someone enjoys some of these!

I wouldn't remember most fics under 1k if I were asked off the top of my head, and the few I would, I rec'd the other week in the "works I re-read" post. However, this is exactly why I built a fanfic database in the first place. A little fiddling with the SQL to build the right query and some formatting to create a report, and I have a list of all my favorite fics (that were entered in the database so far - I didn't quite get to 1000 total fics before the Yahoo Groups project took over my life last fall, only a handful of smaller fandoms) which are under 1K words. Since that list includes any favorites of the works I wrote, which would violate the self-rec rules, I'll paste the recs here and filter those out.

The one thing that this list doesn't have are the ships, though I'll try to note those if I remember them. (I can run queries and generate reports that limit by ships - or any number of themes, for that matter - that's easy enough, but to include the list of ships in the query results or report would be prohibitively difficult and the results would be terrible to try to wade through, formatting-wise.) So you're getting author - title, with rating and words below that. I'll group fandoms under cuts to make it easier to expand just the ones you know, since this is mainly tiny/rare fandoms. (I'd started with the small ones, adding those to my database, and I hadn't finished the Matrix ones, even, plus I know I'm behind on the FBI ones since that's been an active fandom.)

With short fics it takes more time to describe them than it does to read them, so I'm probably not going to say anything about most of them, and recommend just trying them. I'll try to warn if there's any serious triggers that I remember, but mostly just look at the tags.

One note about ratings: My database includes fics from both Fanfiction.net and AO3, so I adopted a standard MPAA-style rating system, where G to R corresponds to ff.n's K to M, and PG to X (which was shorter to use than NC-17) corresponds to AO3's General Audiences to Explicit, but I may occasionally mark a General as G if it's particularly suitable for children to read. It's a bit of a compromise but so would be any other option. Fics that chose not to use a rating (on AO3 or a blog post) are Unrated.

( Crossovers )

( Alphas )

( FBI (TV) )

( Flood (2007) )

( Fried Green Tomatoes )

( Push (2009) )

( The Matrix )

I hope someone finds something enjoyable on this list. :)

I was going to do all the weekly themes in one but fanvids are kind of their own thing, so here are a bunch of my favorite fanvids for a ton of fandoms, and I'll get to the fics later.

All totally SFW as far as I know (though the Alphas and Rookie Blue ones do have some making out in them).

tomorrow, when the war began || it's a brave new world
Fantastic TWTWB movie vid to the song "This is War" by 30 Seconds to Mars. It's got some interesting coloring, nice cuts, and is way deeper if you've read the books and know what's going to happen with the different characters.

Alphas TV
An Alphas fanvid with the idea that you're watching TV and changing the channel, so there are different song choices to different parts of it. Uses songs such as "Have a Nice Day" by Bon Jovi, the Imperial March theme from Star Wars (by John Williams), and Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber. Ranges from hilarious to heartbreaking.

Idgie and Ruth Love Story Fried Green Tomatoes (FGT)
A well-done video for Fried Green Tomatoes showing the relationship between Idgie and Ruth to Taylor Swift's Love Story.

Leave Me Hypnotized, Love [Push]
One of multiple Push fanvids made to this song (featured in the film) and focusing on Nick/Cassie.

Rizzoli & Isles - Crazy Jane
A funny Rizzoli & Isles vid to Crazy Jane by Dizzy Balloon. The song is too perfect for Jane Rizzoli, lol.

Andy McNally and Sam Swarek ~ Crash and Burn
A lovely Rookie Blue fanvid for the Andy/Sam ship to Savage Garden's Crash and Burn.

Éomer's Bootcamp (I'll Make a Man Out of You)
A very funny LOTR video to the song from Mulan. If you've seen the LOTR films and you've never seen this video, you have to change that right away. :D

LOTR - music video -Fallin
A blast from the past, this LOTR video was reposted in 2007 and made years before that, probably just after the first film came out (note that it isn't remotely hi-def; the version I have on my hdd, which is the original size, was 320x240 - best to watch from a distance if you can't shrink Youtube's version small enough). It's set to Falling by K-Otic and features the Fellowship falling over, and over, and over… :D

One Step At a Time - Women's Murder Club (Cindy)
You'll need to find a way to stretch this back to landscape somehow (download from Youtube and watch with VLC is my recommendation), but it's a great Women's Murder Club video focusing on Cindy and using Jordin Sparks' song One Step at a Time.

Lois & Clark fanvid - That's All - season 1
Very well-done Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman vid to the tune of That's All by Genesis. I particularly love all the newspaper bits.

And I posted my favorite Leverage fanvids in a comment to a community recs post earlier, but I reposted that to my own DW to save my recs, so if anyone didn't see them before, here they are.