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When I'm stuck at the computer nursing a baby who is having a rough night, I read a lot of fanfic. 90 percent of it is dreck of various kinds. Another 9.5 percent is pleasant but forgettable, or well written but not my cup of tea. Then there are the gems. This is an ever-evolving list of the fics I go back to again and again when I really need to escape into a good story.
ETA: My babies are long weaned, but I maintain this list as a kind of mental palate cleanser. Last updated in 2016.
AVENGERS
"Count the Cost" by katydidmischief (cassiejamie)
A happy ending for Bucky Barnes in which his old friend Steve, a child of the Golden Age of Radio and a veteran of all-American propaganda, quickly grasps the power of social media after the fall of Project Insight. Bucky, brain-damaged and traumatized, keeps trying to disappear into life on the street, but it seems like the entire Eastern Seaboard wants to give him sandwiches and money and little slips of paper with Steve's phone number on them.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/1517447?view_full_work=true
"Hollow and Honeycomb" by antistar_e (kaikamahine)
Wingfic sounds like an intriguing concept, but in execution it is nearly always "my kink, let me show you it" or "gosh I wish I were pretty." This story delves into what it might be like if some people, but only a few, actually had wings.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/1876371
CALVIN AND HOBBES
"Every Day is a Reminder" by ishie
Calvin, Hobbes, Susie, growing up, sad and joyous.
http://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide/works/36485
FOREVER KNIGHT
Pretty Much Anything By Mary Combs
Too much to explain. Too good to pass up. Read it all here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~combsmfk/
HARRY POTTER
"Brave New World" by theatresm
Discovering the Wizarding World as an adult isn't quite like discovering it as a child. Two adults from very different backgrounds meet on the brink of a horrific secret war. And kick butt. One mild buzz-harsh for high-handed behavior within a relationship.
http://www.mirrordance.net/aashby/bnw/bnwindex2.html
"Survivors" by Dyce
After it's all over, after the funerals, the trials, and the cleanup, life has to go on. People grow up and find new lives beyond the Second Wizarding War. Everybody gets a character arc in this one, even Winky.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2544317/1/Survivors
SPIDER-MAN
"Just a Face on a Train" by katheryne
The only thing ever posted under this nym, which is a pity. Peter Parker discovers that somebody has his back.
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/684873/katheryne
STAR TREK
"On Alien Seas, and Shores" by starlady
The only Trekfic starlady has written, apparently, which is a shame. A meditation on grief, the power of the past, and friendships made at sea. Oh, and smuggling.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6466
STAR WARS
All But Name by Mirror and Image
A conversation with newly bereaved Obi-Wan Kenobi at Qui-Gon Jinn's funeral pyre goes differently--and in less than a minute, everything changes, from the lives of two grieving people to the fate of the Jedi--or so it is foreshadowed. This story, completed in 2012, begs for a sequel.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6836473/1/All-But-Name
Everything By Fialleril
The bitter fact that Anakin was born into slavery should have been part of the entire plot arc following its introduction. Fialleril explores this in several series set in alternate universes. Also, the Jedi may think that redemption is impossible...but they're wrong. Or: Fialleril is here for the Tatooine slave revolution.
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/1015225/Fialleril
THE TERMINATOR
"Seven Sunday Mother-Daughter Mornings" by David Hines
Happy this ain't. I would call it more "cathartic." It is about a mother and a daughter, and ordinary moments in the course of human life, and learning how to person, and what can be stopped and what can't.
http://hradzka.livejournal.com/272408.html?page=3
ETA: My babies are long weaned, but I maintain this list as a kind of mental palate cleanser. Last updated in 2016.
AVENGERS
"Count the Cost" by katydidmischief (cassiejamie)
A happy ending for Bucky Barnes in which his old friend Steve, a child of the Golden Age of Radio and a veteran of all-American propaganda, quickly grasps the power of social media after the fall of Project Insight. Bucky, brain-damaged and traumatized, keeps trying to disappear into life on the street, but it seems like the entire Eastern Seaboard wants to give him sandwiches and money and little slips of paper with Steve's phone number on them.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/1517447?view_full_work=true
"Hollow and Honeycomb" by antistar_e (kaikamahine)
Wingfic sounds like an intriguing concept, but in execution it is nearly always "my kink, let me show you it" or "gosh I wish I were pretty." This story delves into what it might be like if some people, but only a few, actually had wings.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/1876371
CALVIN AND HOBBES
"Every Day is a Reminder" by ishie
Calvin, Hobbes, Susie, growing up, sad and joyous.
http://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide/works/36485
FOREVER KNIGHT
Pretty Much Anything By Mary Combs
Too much to explain. Too good to pass up. Read it all here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~combsmfk/
HARRY POTTER
"Brave New World" by theatresm
Discovering the Wizarding World as an adult isn't quite like discovering it as a child. Two adults from very different backgrounds meet on the brink of a horrific secret war. And kick butt. One mild buzz-harsh for high-handed behavior within a relationship.
http://www.mirrordance.net/aashby/bnw/bnwindex2.html
"Survivors" by Dyce
After it's all over, after the funerals, the trials, and the cleanup, life has to go on. People grow up and find new lives beyond the Second Wizarding War. Everybody gets a character arc in this one, even Winky.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2544317/1/Survivors
SPIDER-MAN
"Just a Face on a Train" by katheryne
The only thing ever posted under this nym, which is a pity. Peter Parker discovers that somebody has his back.
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/684873/katheryne
STAR TREK
"On Alien Seas, and Shores" by starlady
The only Trekfic starlady has written, apparently, which is a shame. A meditation on grief, the power of the past, and friendships made at sea. Oh, and smuggling.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6466
STAR WARS
All But Name by Mirror and Image
A conversation with newly bereaved Obi-Wan Kenobi at Qui-Gon Jinn's funeral pyre goes differently--and in less than a minute, everything changes, from the lives of two grieving people to the fate of the Jedi--or so it is foreshadowed. This story, completed in 2012, begs for a sequel.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6836473/1/All-But-Name
Everything By Fialleril
The bitter fact that Anakin was born into slavery should have been part of the entire plot arc following its introduction. Fialleril explores this in several series set in alternate universes. Also, the Jedi may think that redemption is impossible...but they're wrong. Or: Fialleril is here for the Tatooine slave revolution.
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/1015225/Fialleril
THE TERMINATOR
"Seven Sunday Mother-Daughter Mornings" by David Hines
Happy this ain't. I would call it more "cathartic." It is about a mother and a daughter, and ordinary moments in the course of human life, and learning how to person, and what can be stopped and what can't.
http://hradzka.livejournal.com/272408.html?page=3
