This has taken entirely too long, I know, and I know there was more stuff I wanted to include, but it has escaped me for the moment. :(

Les Misérables

The Shadow by Soujin Prouvaire
An AU, and a thing of beauty and a joy forever. The tale of Samuel Enjolras, who, after the death of his adored older brother, begins to build a new life for himself; it's simply written, with the delicate detailing that Soujin does so well.

He learnt Dimitri's handwriting by tracing it over and over with his pen, until he had mastered it. Of course it wasn't perfect. Samuel had never been perfect. He didn't mind.

Scar Tissue, by Sandrine
(R) Okay, so it's Montparnasse/Marius. But this is one of those stories that redeems your faith in cracked-out pairings from hell. It's dark and wrong and weird, and lovely. I could wish it took more account of Cosette, but other than that it's very well done.

"You think I'm crazy," the boy says afterwards. It's the first time he said something other than 'more' and 'please' and 'yes'.

Harry Potter

hot ice and wondrous strange snow, by victoria p.
In which Sirius is sick as the proverbial dog (sorry), and that's only half his trouble. A lovely little vignette, with angst! and friendship! and cuddling! that captures quite nicely the misery of being a teenager, laboring under the awareness of your own mortal stupidity. :)

Sanare Lupum, by Soujin Prouvaire
I could sum this up in two words, namely So and Cute, but in the interests of being helpful to the public, I won't. Instead I'll suggest that if you're fond of MWPP, and you think Peter always gets much too short shrift in fic, and you appreciate little British boys being written as little British boys rather than anything else, and you're a sucker for warm fuzzies -- read this.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Childhood Dreams, by Daegaer
Arthur, Ford, an acquaintance, and far too much alcohol. Confessions, aspirations, and peculiar looks. Hysterically funny and oddly touching, much as the books were.

"I wanted to make a name for myself, one that people could actually pronounce."

Mythology

Unnatural Daughters, by Thamiris
Mythfic is about the only thing Thamiris writes that I can follow, which is entirely my loss, I suspect. She does it wonderfully, in a lyrical but unpretentious way. This one is short, concerning Iphigenia at Aulis, and is Ouch.

Crossovers

Psychological Demons, by Daegaer

Good Omens/Cyteen. "The hell?" I hear you say. Yes, me too. I'm not much of a crossover girl, but it figures that if anyone could write one this weird and still make my heart hurt, it would be Daegaer. Grant is doubtful; Crowley is diligent; the rest follows inevitably. Oh, and implied canon m/m, if it matters. (You'll have to forgive me; I'm having trouble saying much about it beyond "omigod omigod omigod".)

You know, when I started this, I thought it was going to be mainly Les Mis recs, because that's what I'm mainly into. But of late, I'm not finding nearly as much reccable stuff there as I am in other odd fandoms.

So. First I should mention Uncertainty, by Mage O'Dell. The writing style is a bit wobbly ("it's a good style, only it wobbles"), but overall this is a wonderful, understated piece. Courfeyrac is nervous about the planned insurrection, so he confides in Prouvaire. The key thing, for me, is that he's nervous, not convinced of failure; I've always been bugged by Clairvoyant!Suicidal!Amis who, in fic, apparently know that they are going to fail and die, but go off to the barricades anyway. Mage O'Dell's Courfey suffers reasonable doubt, and therefore I sympathize with him.

And now, an oldie but goodie. Ladies and germs, I present Lieutenant Arh, by Ruel, for my money the best piece of weirdness in Miz fandom. An alien soldier recounts his memories of a long-dead hero, exiled to a backwater planet for a crime he never committed... still with me? It's not a flawless story; the plot devices aren't particularly cleverly disguised; but the originality of the whole thing and the tragicomic feel -- it's so silly, and yet poor Arh! -- more than make up for any shortcomings.

Onwards and outwards. I've been writing Phanfic lately, but having qualms about reading it because of the astounding piles of "Erik-is-a-God Raoul-is-a-fuckwit Christine-is-a-ninny who-will-pay-for-her-Awful-Mistake" dreck. And then there's Mademoiselle Meg, who shares my affection for the maligned Monsieur de Chagny, and who wrote Masquerade. It's a vignette written from the Phantom's viewpoint, some time in the future. What makes it stand out for me is that this Phantom has, at long last, outgrown his self-absorption and become a genuninely caring, moderately sane human being -- which he wasn't to begin with. It's sweet and touching and very well done.

Imposter, by Augustus, is comforting proof that I am not the only person who finds Martin Guerre the Slashiest Thing Ever. :) In this, short and not at all sweet, Guillaume details exactly how he knows that it isn't Martin Guerre. Augustus clearly has an evil, twisted mind, and how can I not appreciate that?

Last but not least, it's Good Omens fic again. Falling, by Daegaer, is a series of three drabbles that send shivers down my spine. GO is a very silly book, and I love it that way, but it makes it all the more impressive when the angstier side of the characters is brought out like this. What's it about? Just what it says. :)

Hello. I have never done this before, but it seemed like a moderately good idea. Bear with me, won't you?

So I'm going to begin in the middle, and make this as diverse an entry as possible in an effort to ensnare as many people as I can. ;) Now, ordinarily I am fannishly monogamous, but of late so many lovely fics in so many unlikely fandoms have surfaced that my resolve is weakening.

First, while dallying, as it were, with a former love, I ran across Bearer of Bad Tidings, by LOTR_lover. Now, left to myself, I wouldn't really give a hoot about Elrond, who was too remote in the books to spark even my eccentric interest. But this story, capturing him as he faces the loss of his daughter and a reunion with his spouse, is lovely, and makes him much more real and sympathetic (one hesitates to say human). Not only that, but the author has Galadriel's voice dead-on.

Now I'm going to be shamelessly partisan and suggest that you go read Petronelle Lemaitre's two Hornblower slash drabbles, here and here. Petronelle is dragging me kicking and screaming into this fandom, mind you, but if it's going to inspire her to write little gems like these, I may yet resign myself. ;)

I already recced Caught In Between, by Mori, in my regular journal, but it deserves to be recced again. Mori has posted a handful of Les Miz fics so far, several of which I enjoyed, and this is the best of those: Combeferre, on the barricades, meditates on his friendship with Enjolras and where it's led him. It's an emotional story, but never descends into saccharine angst, and leaves me feeling heartachey and tremulous.

And then there's Denouement, by K. Telfer. There is a sore, sore lack of good Cosette fic; the character mostly gets either demonized (???) or ignored. But Telfer has written an honest, moving portrait of Cosette and Marius just after the close of Les Miserables, that shows clearly what it's easy to forget: Cosette has suffered before, and she will again, and she's never been weak in the face of suffering. It hurts, but in the good way.

LotR again: In Bliss by Jenelin is not new. Neither is Amy's A Gardener's Toil. But you should read them, if you haven't already. The first is short and spare, the second sprawling and verbose, but Jen's Éowyn and Amy's Sam have two things in common: they are doing their best with Happily Ever Afters that turned out to be Life Goes Ons, and they are exactly, completely recognizable as themselves.

And then there's The Men of Renown, by Daegaer, which is as much Biblefic as Good Omens fic, and is strange and wonderful for all that it is, in spots, amusing. I want Daegaer to come to my fandoms, man.

I'm not really into Harry Potter fic yet, mainly because I've only read the one volume. That said, The Frenzy of Agauë, also by Amy, tackles the childhood of Remus Lupin and makes my chest hurt even though I don't know the character from Adam. That's Amy for you. It's a bit rambly and digressive, and if you're not weird like me you may object to the random classical reference (I found it delightful), but it's still achily wonderful.

And lastly, while I'm here, I ran across Flower Children by Essy, neatly summarized as "Petunia Dursley as a young girl". I am eternally a sucker for fic that humanizes your average cardboard villain, and this does it so well.