Very Last-Minute Yuletide Recs!

[chomiji]

I can't read too much Yuletide at once - the brain overloads on the switching among settings and characters. But I have enjoyed these ... I freely admit that I have included recs for the fic received by my fic-writing alter ego.

• A Man in Hue (After School Nightmare) - Notes passed in class, and Shakespeare, and Sou's obsession. Lovely and funny and sad.
• Fools and Their Money (Antique Bakery) - In which Tachibana reveals that Chikage has a surprising talent. Cute in the best kind of way.
• Symbiotic Nature (Mushishi) - Ginku shares his sense of wonder with Tanyuu.
• To what place (Neil Gaiman - American Gods) - After Laura's final death comes judgement. Ironic and weird and humane, just like Gaiman himself.
• Song Without Words (Patricia A McKillip - the Riddle-Master series) - The love-story of the Morgol of Herun and the High One's harpist.
• Moab (Zenna Henderson - The People series) - The People don't always speak with a single voice. Pays faithful homage to the tropes of the original series while standing many of them on their heads, and telling a cracking good tale at the same time.
• To Be of Use (Diana Wynne Jones - Homeward Bounders) - What's behind the brief backstory that Joris tells Helen, Jamie, Adam, and Vanessa? This fic explains so much.
• A Questionable Pursuit (Sandman (comic)) - Dead-on snapshot of Lucifer and Makizeen that draws extra richness from its parallels with the main storyline.
• Three Jade Mice (Barry Hughart - Master Li series) - Funny, richly detailed adventure that gives the indelible impression that there's much more both before and after it.
• Snakes and Sparrows (Barry Hughart - Master Li series) - The same comments as the previous one ... in fact, I could see both of them being part of the same missing Master Li novel!
• Silent Night (E L Konigsburg - From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler) - There's a reason why the young protagonists of so many children's adventure stories are orphans: the authors don't want to have to deal with what's shown in this story. A realistic, heart-breaking look at the ones they left behind.
• Midnight (Gouhou Drug aka Legal Drug) - Sweet and sexually explicit: Kakei needs to be distracted from his thoughts.
• Easy to See (Gouhou Drug aka Legal Drug) - How Kakei and Saiga met. Strong, true-to-canon characterization.

Comments

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

I think I had to wait a week before reading much stuff in Yuletide-- with the other exchanges it was just getting to be overwhelming and frustrating! :) I've found a couple of really astounding stories there, though, in the last day or so. Thanks for the link to the Mazikeen/Lucifer fic-- I don't read much Sandman fic but this was really unique, I think.

I have Antique Bakery sitting here on disc and am looking forward to watching it.

Happy New Year! :;hugs::