Christmas Pic Spam

Somewhat belated, because the combination of my Aged Parent having a severe cold and bad weather on Christmas Eve meant we did our annual walk from one Bamberg church to another to admire the nativity scenes in same on the 26th instead. Said bad weather, which keeps going, ensures that you're not getting any outside pictures of Bamberg this year. Luckily, the week before Christmas the weather was quite nice in the snowy Alps when I was there, so, have an impression of the Tegernsee (Rottach-Egern, to be precise) in winter first before we get to the nativity scenes:



Now, on to the annual selenak Christmas tradition:

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Yuletide II

Blake's 7:

Compendium

Five games Avon and Servalan played with each other (and mostly lost). I always have had a soft spot for the twisted Avon/Servalan relationship, and find them both deliciously in character here.

Hamlet/Faust

How Luther laughed at the devil

Not a slash pairing, but a crossover of plays! And ten times more entertaining than when Gerhard Hauptmann sort of did it in his prequel play Hamlet in Wittenberg. (No, you didn't miss anything.) Official summary of this delight: "When a Wittenberg mathematics professor is possessed by a demon, there's only one man to whom Prince Hamlet can turn: the demonologist Doktor Faustus."

The Good Wife

Something to talk about

A Dana pov story that explores her while at the same time having a go at Cary and the way he relates to different women - Kalinda, Diane, Alicia, Wendy Scott-Carr, and of course Dana herself.


Greek and Roman Myths

The Dioskouroi

A story that uses the Castor and Pollux myth (brothers to Helen and Clytaimnestra, if you're not so up on your Greek mythology) to create a sci fi story with some wonderful world building. It's absolutely awesome, a treat both if you're familiar with the various Greek myths and if you've never heard of them. (For example, if you know who Jason is in Greek myths - he of the Argonauts, Medea's no good Greek husband - you'll get a kick out of the characterisation, but solely within the context of this story he works just as well.) If you're squicked by incest, I should warn you that this story has the twins, Castor and Pollux, as lovers, but that's handled very subtly, and left to hints; unless your squick is also a trigger, I would really advise you to read the story regardless, because it's just that good.

The death and resurrection of Persephone, in stages

A feminist rewrite of the myth of Persephone, and what's most impressive about it is that the actual actions were not changed from (many of) the myths - but the motivation and agenda, oh, that's such a very different story now. Brilliant.

Fairy Tales

Lovely, dark and deep

This one tackles Hänsel and Gretel, with Gretel as the pov character and center, focusing on her relationship with the witch. Who turns out to have another fairy tale identity as well. Really well written, disturbingly good.

Rome

Let it be

Despite having a song title by the Beatles, this one is not by me. :) It's Antony and Caesar talking shortly before the Ides of March. Considering how much the relationship with Caesar shaped Antony both in history and on the show, it's amazing how little it gets explored. Here we get a good glimpse.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Son of a Preacher Man

Jake and Nog through the years. Both get rarely tackled by fanfic, and I was delighted to find them and their relationship front and center here. Bonus for added Quark!

Tough Guide to Fantasy Land

A special limited time offer

A marvellously funny spoof of dark, gritty fantasy. Just the thing to read after watching Game of Thrones and/or reading G.R.R. Martin, among others. :)

Winnetou - Karl May

Okay. Karl May's Winnetou novels were the very, very first books I ever read, as soon as I could read, because my grandfather used to tell me stories from them when taking me along for walks, and so something in me shall remain eternally six years old, tackling books and being enthralled and thus not capable of sensible criticism when it comes to these novels by a nineteenth century German novelist who basically proved fantasy to be stronger than reality for a long time until reality caught up with him in a brutal fashion. And the first fictional character I ever cried for is the woman who gets explored by these two stories, one in English, one in German. Two character explorations of Nscho-Tschi:

Beautiful Dawn (the one in English)

Poetry in Motion (the one in German)