25 August 2002
Although I'm hesitant to recommend a work in progress, Syn's dystopian futurefic Your Enemies Closer is 45,000 words down now and looking close to finished, and I'm finding her portrayals of a stressed-to-breaking Wesley, damaged Fred, domestic Anne and Gunn, and a Faith who seems doomed to keep making the same mistakes over very compelling indeed. R rated
FayJay's Brave New World takes a look back at the Wesley of BtVS season 3 and applies the facts we know about the character now in a heart-rending deconstruction of his failures in 'Bad Girls'.
Evan Como has a whole host of intruguing fics, and although the author's conception of Angel's world doesn't always gel with mine the writing is exceptional. In Disruptor, Evan writes Wesley beautifully, pinning down the character's contrasting insecurities and courage in a way that's subtle and moving. Also recommended is Aurora, a strange, sprawling labyrinth of a story dealing with several different elements, one of which is the continuation exploring the Angel-Wesley interaction begun in Disruptor. R rated
I don't usually enjoy reading script format, but I've found the CyberScripts fan-production of an Angel season 4 to be absolutely gripping. The developing plotlines are well handled, the characters by and large sound like themselves, and some of these scripts I think would not look at all out of place filmed on the series for real.
Jedi Buttercup's Lesser Men is a real gem. It tells a story of Wesley and Jonathan, fathers and sons, coming back from the dark side, and prophecy and twisty time paradoxes. There are also two versions kicking around, so if you've read the original, follow the above link to the reworked version on her site, which is polished up enough to be worth reading again.
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20 July 2002
Katta's new story is out and much as I shouldn't really pimp for this one since I beta-read it, I happen to think it's a delightful story so I'm reccing it anyway. Guess Who's Coming to Manchester sees Wesley and Doyle dealing with their respective families, and is a sequel to Unwilling Euridyce. Slash.
Two very dark Angel 3rd season stories by Julie Fortune that actually manage to be dark without stepping outside the characterisation on the show - Slightly Darker than Black and it's sequel, Burn. Her Angel and Wesley are positively scary. Rated NC-17.
Jennifer Oksana's new future-fic Reconciliation is well worth a read. Her future Wesley is very intriguing indeed. She's been writing a lot of wonderful Wes/Lilah recently, in fact. The shorter 40 Days of One Night Stands is an interesting outsider's view of the relationship. R to NC-17 ratings.
Shrift writes Wes/Gunn better than anyone. Latency is particularly effective, with some lovely humourous moments as well. Slash. PG-13 to NC-17 ratings.
Some more great fics by Misty Flores: Dating For Dummies is the sequel to How to Date a Beautiful Woman and keeps up the humour and the angst. Hungry Eyes is an episode-style story which deals with the Gunn-Fred-Wesley triangle in a compelling way, with Angel/Cordy angst (and laughs) extra. R rated.
Yahtzee is on everybody's recs pages and deservedly so, although for some reason several of her fics appear to have passed me by until just recently. I very much liked her Casablanca pastiche As Time Goes By with its dystopian future and its terrific future-Cordelia. Captive of the Soul, while its logic struck me as flawed, has wonderful characterisation of the fang gang post-season 1, and The Quality of Mercy deals very effectively with the fractured post-Epiphany Angel Investigations.
And then, of course, there's Splinter, Rheanna and Yahtzee's novel-length collaboration. This should have been in last bunch of recs but somehow slipped through the net, I don't know what came over me.
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22 June 2002
Jennifer Oksana's Old Movie Series is a must-read. Especially recommended are Kiss Me Deadly, a Wesleycentric story with a noir feel, Odds Against Tomorrow, a thriller told with interesting structuring and point of views, and Strange Bedfellows, a BtVS crossover that features some great interaction between Wesley and Tara. These are seriously good, as indeed are most of her shorter fics. PG-13 to NC-17 ratings.
Usually, multi-ship stories will send me running screaming in the opposite direction, especially if one of the 'ships is C/A. But Misty Flores' How to Date a Beautiful Woman is strongly plotted and structured, extremely funny, and has great characterisation all around. R rated.
Jintian's Theodicy is skillfully written, with great resonance and texture and striking images. Post-Sleep Tight.
Inside by Gyrus is a post-redemption Faith fic set in prison. Much of the story is interior and though there's an action plotline involving Wolfram and Hart, it's for the look inside New Faith's mind that this story really stands out. It also has two more action-oriented sequels.
Hth has written two striking Buffy/Faith stories: Orleans is an amazing piece of writing with a disjointed, experimental flavour, told entirely in second-person present tense, the sort of thing you wouldn't believe would work until you read it. Witness is a gorgeous Faith-centric future fic. Slash. R rated.
Mike Dewar's Pure Emotion is one of those rare fics that manages to be both a comedy and to include serious character issues. Partly a parody of Cordelia/Angel 'shippage and partly an exploration of Early Angelverse Wesley, this story is a breath of fresh air after the unremitting angst quotient of most Wesleyfic.
Kuzibah has a wonderful Wesley short story, Seven Day Cruise. I'd forgotten about this one, having first read it about two years ago, and only rediscovered it recently, but it's a gem.
In her Angel/Lindsey fiction, Brenda Antrim channels Lindsey like nobody else, with an unrepentant and gritty portrayal that doesn't ignore the amorality of the character. A particular stand-out is Epiphenomenon, an AU Epiphany told from Lindsey's point of view. Slash. Rated NC-17.
Rheanna's fics could be episodes. Strong writing, humour, action and spot-on characterisation of all the AI crew combined with strong themes make these some of the best reads out there. My favourites are probably the two which diverge the most from the episodic format: Vivere, an AU future fic with extraordinary emotional depth, and In the Waiting, told in the first person from the point of view of an original character, which brings in the shrinks to psychoanalyse Angel.
Spirit's The Clockwork Vampire was I think the first slash I read in the Angel fandom. A highly entertaining, funny and creative re-interpretation of season 1. I am forever in awe of this author for writing Doyle/Welsey and selling me on the idea of them so completely, but even Angel/Spike is good in this. Slash. Rated NC-17
IngridSarah has a lovely series of Wesley/Faith shorts, post-Five by Five (these ignore the events of Sanctuary), although my favourite of her stories is surely Adagio, an early Wesley piece which is poetic and beautiful and makes some sharp observations about Angel and Cordelia after Doyle's death.
Ellen's Cordelia/Doyle stories deal with the characters with sensitive, human detail. Her 'return' vignette Learning to Love is 'shippy but with a sense of humour, capturing the essense of the romance the PTB wouldn't let be.
Gabrielle Lawson wrote the bring-back-Doyle fic that pretty much makes it impossible to write bring-back-Doyle fic, kind of an awesome monolith that will never be topped. Close to Home, So Far Away is an exceptionally written novel-length piece and a highly entertaining read.