Yuletide recs: batch the second

[lunabee34]

A Stitch in Time Mansfield Park
In this fic, Edmund realizes his feelings for Fanny far too late. This is short and melancholy.

Symmetry Mansfield Park; very non-explicit sibcest
As one commenter to this fic states, who deserves a Crawford but a Crawford? LOL The dialogue here is wit at its best. *loves*

Snow and Mirrors Northanger Abbey
Northanger Abbey has long been my favorite Austen novel, and this fic does its whimsy and humor such justice. Catherine is such a fun heroine--head in the clouds and ready to see a ghost or a vampire around every gothic corner. Here, Nonny wonders, what if Catherine is right?

all over these eyes a storm is rolling over Dark is Rising
Oh man. Wow. Just wow. This story is about a Jane who remembers when others do not, a Jane full of power and potential, a Jane who is alone and yet perhaps not entirely. Such a beautiful story.

Guns'n'Neuroses Frasier/SPN XOVER
OMG, this is the best thing ever! What if Niles and Frasier discovered the truth of things that go bump in the night? Saving people, learning things, the family business--you know. LOL

Comments

[thelastgoodname.livejournal.com]

Re: "all over these eyes a storm is rolling over": I completely agree with the author's note (as you may recall). I also agree with you: Jane, full of power and awareness and potential. Thanks; I'm only slowly making my way through the 2010 stories.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you like this story. I think it's just fantastic.

(I thought you'd really like how much of a presence the Greenwitch has in the fic.)

[havocthecat]

Jane fic! Oh, if anyone is my favorite in The Dark is Rising sequence, it's Jane, and I always hated that everyone was made to forget at the end. All that beautiful character growth, so utterly lost. Thank you for pointing me this way!

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I know!!!! I hated that in the same way I hated the way they all had to sail off into the sunset at the end of LotR and Chronicles of Prydain. Boo hiss. Jane is awesome, and I'm glad you enjoyed this story.

[havocthecat]

I feel like there was this convention, for a very long time, that people who were special in any sort of magical way had to leave, because the authors felt like they had to "reset" the world and leave it mundane. At least for fantasy authors. (Horror authors were all about the terror lurking under the mundane, tyvm, Lovecraft.) Even the Friends of Narnia all had to die (excepting Susan, of course, which is just another problem entirely).

Which, you know, resetting the world to normal is kind of boring. (Also, didn't Eilonwy have to give up her powers or something to be Tristan's husband? It's been a LONG TIME since I've read those books, but I remember being really annoyed that the girl had to give up something to be good enough to get the guy.)

I'm trying to figure out when the first author to demolish that premise came about, and I would guess it's sometime in the seventies or eighties. Maybe Charles de Lint or Emma Bull? Gah, probably someone even before that. Anyway, thank goodness for urban fantasy (and its descendant, paranormal romance) for ignoring those former conventions of the genre.

[havocthecat]

P.S. Did you see the Alice in Wonderland/Chronicles of Narnia crossover posted this year? It's called "Snow, melting."

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I don't remember that part about Prydain (but it's entirely possible).

Oh, Susan. *sobs* I did read that Alice in Wonderland XOVER (I think I recced it a post or two back), and it's so good. She got such a shit deal, and I have always, always hated her being banned from Narnia because of her burgeoning sexuality. So disgusting. Have you read Neil Gaiman's story about Susan? I think it's called "The Problem of Susan?" *loves*