Story recommendations

[selenak]

My Garak and Bashir opus got recced by Big Shiny Objects, which painted a silly smile on my face.

Now, after a weekend of reading Multiverse 2004 (and periodic checkings as to whether my two kids got reviewed, which they did), here is my personal recommendation list:

Crosses and Naughts: an epic Firefly/Farscape crossover. Set a few years after both shows ended (well, got cancellet - insert appropriate curses here), in the 'Fly universe, Mal pov, with Aeryn Sun being the Farscape character transported there. It's Mal with his issues and messed-up ness and even more lost than usual, covering with Whedonian quips, and Aeryn at her wounded stoic deadliest, with glimpses of her grief and rage breaking through, and also, in a scene with Zoe's and Wash's kid that never goes to the wrong side of sentiment, her capacity for caring. Additionally, this is one of those crossovers which work equally well if you haven't watched one of the shows in question. All you need to know about Aeryn to understand this particular story is what Mal finds out about her during its course.

"Persistent Mysteries" is also a Firefly/Farscape crossover. This time, Chiana is the one ending up in the 'fly-verse, and the explanation for this gets an extrabonus for originality (especially considering it plays with the Firefly rule that there seem to be no Aliens around). This story, as opposed to "Crosses and Naughts", is an ensemble piece, with Chiana reacting to each of the Firefly characters. My favorite bits are the River povs, and the scene with Inara, but the Kaylee voice is also to die for.

And a third Firefly/Farscape: "Walls of the Sky" tells its story in the language of a fairy tale. Beautiful and poetic and strange; at one point, I thought: This is what both universes as described by Neil Gaiman would sound like.

As I mentioned before, I only watched four or so episodes of Stargate, and it never really caught on with me. However, this means I do know who the main characters are, and a bit of the mythology. "There and Back Again" has Stargate's Samantha Carter ending up in the DS9 universe. I originally read it because of the other main character, Jadzia Dax, and its fabulous DS9 descriptions, but found myself liking Sam just as much. Which, considering that this story presents Jadzia at her funny, charming, clever and rogue-ish best is saying something. The parallels drawn between Trills and their symbionts on the one hand, and the Tok'ra on the other, are inspired.

If someone tells you a story features Babylon 5's G'Kar and Farscape's Zhaan in the leads, you probably expect enlightened philosophical discussion. Not so, stunningly not so, in "Playing Poster Child". Set before either show starts, here are Zhaan (before she commits the murder that will get her banished and imprisoned) and G'Kar (during the first fight for Narn freedom) at their angriest. It's elegant and sharp and vicious and makes you think about all kind of parallels that never occured to you before. In my case, about what Zhaan will do to Bitaal, and what G'Kar will do to Londo in Dust to Dust.

Finally, "Displaced Persons" has Blake's 7s Kerr Avon encountering Farscape's Scorpius. It's scary and witty, and the punchline, when you know your B7 canon, is just perfect. I really would be unable to place any bets, though.*g*

***

karabair gave me the link to a review of the "Parsifal" production I described yesterday, from The New Yorker. I have to say, I'm with the critic.

Comments

[cavendish.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting the Wagner review. a) because I found the comments made on the German theater remarkably true, and b) because I will gleefully present it to a friend who told me yesterday that "all the reviews of the production where great" (a fact that Ross' article interprets nicely, I think) and that everybody who said otherwise (I told him about your opinion, of course without mentioning your name ;-) ) would surly know nothing about Wagner and stagings about Wager at all ... (no, he has not actually seen the production ;-) )

F.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You can tell him that Wolfgang W. is with Ross on that matter as well. Now whether or not he likes Wagner's grandson, there is no doubt WW has been staging Wagner all his life, so does have an idea about it.*g*

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

I quickly read through "Crosses & Naughts". The typos and tiny but common errors ("you're" for "your") were distracting. It could have used a beta, and I'm still no fan of Mal, but yay, kick-arse Aeryn kicking arse.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

True about the typos, but the story captured me so much that I didn't really mind.

Walls also has a great Aeryn, btw, and River and Simon instead of Mal, if it's Mr. Reynolds rather than his show you're objecting to.*g*

[(Anonymous)]

This is just a note to say that:

Beautiful and poetic and strange; at one point, I thought: This is what both universes as described by Neil Gaiman would sound like.

is possibly the very highest complement my writing has received to date.

Thank you.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You're most welcome. I meant it.

[kathyh]

Congrats on being recced. Is it my imagination or does that story seem to have garnered quite a lot of attention (not that it doesn't deserve it *g*) but it just appears to have had more than some of your others?

And thanks for the recs. I think I'm going to amend my usual position of not being a fan of crossovers to not being a fan of bad crossovers. I am being reluctantly forced to admit that sometimes they work really well.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

It did, and comparing it with what, say, Quark's Day got, I'm tempted to assume it's because the popularity of the Garak/Bashir pairing.

I amended my position in that way a while ago, for pretty much the same reason, so I know how you feel.*g*

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the recs, and I'm glad someonme sent you the New Yorker review - I meant to find the link for you.