The Rec Center #118
Hi folks! This week we have college AU recs, an article about Atlantis, and an end to the Dumbledore vs Gandalf debate. — Gav
new stuff
“Of Mice and Men” by Simon Parkin at The Economist’s 1843 Magazine
Exploring the esports world at this year’s Overwatch World Cup.
“SFF and the Enduring Myth of Atlantis” by Liz Bourke at Tor
The first in a fantastic 2011 series on SFF’s classical roots was republished at Tor this week. You can check out the whole list here.
“You Can’t Do That” podcast
Continuing my habit of reading hockey fanfic and finding hockey fandom distantly entertaining without actually Watching A Sport, I loooooove this new hockey podcast. It’s four hilarious women explaining weird hockey stuff, thirsting after intensely weird and embarrassing athletes, and generally illustrating why ~our lil corner~ of hockey fandom is awesome. — Gav
older stuff
“Cosplay, Drag, and the Transformative Nature of Living Out Your Fandom” by Emily Roach at The Mary Sue
“Just as transformative works can offer an alternative queer narrative to heteronormative canons, cosplayers disrupt, interrogate and play with depiction of gender.”
tumblr & beyond
Hannibal dollhouse by Natalie Smith
A thread on gender roles and fashion in the Legend of Zelda universe.
“Randy dwarf” easter egg hidden in The Hobbit game.
“gandalf is and will always be cooler than dumbledore this isn’t even a debate”
fanfiction
As centrumlumina’s recent stats on jobs in fanfic show, college has a large (possibly outsized!) place in the broader fic landscape. But even without the stats, we could’ve guessed this, because college AUs are pretty damn popular. We put out a call for recs just a few days ago and go so many submissions we can’t fit them all in one list, so here’s the first college AU reclist, with more to come. Thanks, as always, to everyone who sent in a rec. — Elizabeth
“A Very, Very, Very Fine House” by lady_ragnell. 7K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Reign; Ship: Lola/Aylee
Recced by: quidam9
Backstory: Reign, an historical drama television series about Mary, Queen of Scots, is given a modern uni/college AU twist here by turning Mary and her ladies-in-waiting into roommates and friends. This fic does not take into account the canonical deaths of Aylee and Lola, which is great for obvious reasons.
Rec: This is a fic I come back to time and again as a source of comfort. Watching Aylee and Lola navigate the changing boundaries of their friendship as it blossoms into romance is deeply touching to me, and Lady_Ragnell really does a fantastic job of showing the bond between all the girls in the house.
Content warnings: Brief mentions of past minor character death and grief
“Bring You Down (to Just One Knee)” by notevenyou. 24K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Hamilton; Ship: Alexander Hamilton/Aaron Burr
Recced by: Claire
Backstory: In which Aaron Burr, tempted by cheap housing, embarks on a marriage of convenience with fellow political science graduate student, Alexander Hamilton. What could go wrong?
Rec: Hamilton & Burr's personalities are spot on, they do clash and baffle each other, but you can also see the influence they have on one another.
Content warning: Alex is quite sick at one point, so warning for mentions of vomiting
“The Student Prince” by FayJay. 145K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Merlin; Ship: Merlin/Arthur
Recced by: Bookworm_nz
Backstory: A modern day Merlin AU set at the University of St Andrews. Merlin is still a secret wizard and Arthur is still a prince. Hijinks ensue!
Rec: Fandom classic—utterly delightful and hilarious. I want to put in a particular recommendation for the podfic version of this story read by the author which is super charming.
Content warnings: N/A
“she knows her way around” by lavendersgreen. 18K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Les Miserables; Ship: Eponine/Cosette
Recced by: cairophoenix
Backstory: Canonically, Marius and Cosette fall in love at first sight while Eponine pines for Marius, and they’re all in 1800s France and a lot of people die. Here, they’re university students, no one dies, and Cosette is a lesbian. It’s nice.
Rec: The writing is stunning—stylized in a way that’s a little dreamy, funny without being obvious about its jokes, quirky in a way that is nothing short of delightful. This story feels a little bit like what having a crush feels like, maybe? It’s just a gift.
Content warnings: N/A
“Soft Hands, Fast Feet, Can't Lose” by dolce_piccante. 113K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: One Direction; Ship: Louis Tomlinson/Harry Styles
Recced by: Liz
Backstory: Louis is into ballet and Harry is a football frat guy. Their worlds collide thanks to a bet.
Rec: It's basically one of Dolce’s best Louis and Harry fics in my opinion. I mean who can turn down football player Harry or a Louis who is into ballet. That and it offers a nice escape from canon compliant fics.
Content warnings: Homophobic language, panic attacks, dubious sexual content
“A Girl Worth Fighting For” by hapakitsune. 5K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Disney Princesses (Sleeping Beauty and Mulan); Ship: Aurora/Mulan
Recced by: lizzy_someone
Backstory: Modern AU where Aurora and Mulan attend the same college.
Rec: It’s adorable, feels very much like my college experience, and translates the Disney princesses into the modern world in lots of little clever ways.
Content warnings: N/A
“Good Boys” by jennypen. 25K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Voltron Legendary Defender; Ship: Shiro/Keith/Lance
Recced by: Brig
Backstory: Keith becomes infatuated with an amateur camboy’s videos, and realizes to his horror that said camboy is actually his fellow obnoxious college student Lance, who he has to face in class every day.
Rec: A fic where Shiro and Lance are actually a couple first, with emotionally constipated Keith coming late to the party. Also this is the continuation of a fantastic super kinky WIP, which doesn’t have to be read first.
Content warnings: N/A
“Miss Atomic Bomb” series by chash. 97K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Tortall - Tamora Pierce; Ships: Alanna/George, Buri/Thayet, Jonathan/Raoul, Numair/Daine
Recced by: Kay
Backstory: Tamora Pierce's Tortall books include several multi-book middle grade/ya series in a pseudo-medieval-ish fantasy world setting. This delightful modern college AU features favorite characters from the Song of the Lioness and Immortals quartets. You need next to no canon knowledge to enjoy the series on its own.
Rec: Chash tends to write a lot of my favorite modern aus for SFF fandoms, and Miss Atomic Bomb is a particular favorite. Features lots of found family feels and genderqueer Alanna of Trebond (which is now my headcanon for the Tortall universe).
Content warnings: canonical age differences, emotionally abusive parents, references to homophobia and discrimination toward non-binary characters
FINAL THOUGHT
Shout-out to Jenny, who is generally wonderful and specifically wonderful because of this great suggestion for a call for recs. So a new challenge for a future rec list: if you have an old favorite that hasn’t been moved onto AO3, please send it via our trusty submissions form with the tag “pre-AO3” in the “tropes” field, so it’s easier for me to find.
One point of clarification: since the early days of the newsletter, Gav and I have had a policy against...bootleg fic? PDFs of fics that have been taken down, that sort of thing. Obviously this is stuff that people pass amongst themselves, but we don’t feel comfortable sharing those with a large list, especially since often authors take down their work for a reason. So please only send fic if it’s still online.
And a final note: the OTW is doing the invaluable work of moving old archives onto AO3 via their Open Doors project, but since many older archives are still online in their original form, we would certainly welcome a guest rec of a specific *archive* rather than a single fic. Hit reply or write elizabethandgav at gmail if you have a favorite spot on the web from Ye Olden Days of the Internet. :-) — Elizabeth
Have a favorite one-off rec? Please send it our way! We’ll use it in a future list. Other fanworks—comics, vids, etc—are strongly encouraged as well. And if you have any interest in doing an entire rec list, explainer, or ship manifesto, please get in touch! elizabethandgav at gmail dot com.
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