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sophia_sol) wrote2024-04-01 06:43 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2024-04-01 06:43 pm
March recs: NiF, CQL/MDZS, SVSSS, academic article, short stories, novella
Recs round-up for the month of March, 2024! This month we have:
Go Forward Slowly, by burnt_oranges
- a post-canon jingyan/mei changsu nif fic in which jingyan discovers that mcs survived after all...and never let jingyan know.
- jingyan is uh. not handling it well, the loneliness and responsibility of being emperor. and this only makes it worse!
- anyway it's a venue for lots of real good angst, and I definitely cried at one point!
- I also really appreciate the use it makes of various secondary characters who are also important figures in jingyan's life
- many feels. I love these characters. there IS a happy ending.
- 31k words in length
Never Look Away, by dkwilliams
- hualian fanvid of the TGCF donghua set to Vienna Teng's "Never Look Away"
- ahhhhh it's just very feelings!!!!
- audio is song-only
- youtube video includes lyric captions
- 3:16 in length
Ten Feet Behind, by thetrickisnotminding
- tgcf quanyin canon divergence au where quan yizhen finds the coffin containing the guoshi fangxin
- a fun look at a different way for xie lian and hua cheng to meet again, and for quan yizhen and yin yu to meet again!
- 9k words in length
in the tall weeds, by cordial
- sangyao fic set during the qinghe era of jgy’s life
- a look at trans man meng yao and his experience of his gender, and nie huaisang experimenting with transfemininity
- a beautiful look at the complexities of identity, the precarity of position, and the connection between jgy and nhs
- 1k words in length
A Good Fit, by nirejseki
- canon divergence fic where young Meng Yao goes to the Lan Sect to learn cultivation as a guest, instead of trying to be accepted into Jin
- I had a lot of fun with the route this fix-it took!
- and I enjoyed that it included friendship between Meng Yao and Su She <3
- 5k words in length
Practical Mythology, by metisket
- a fun cute look at a cql wangxian time travel fixit au, where wwx is the alarming immortal who fixed the burial mounds and will grant wishes to deserving people, and lwj meets him for the first time at 8 years old and decides he'll marry him
- I enjoyed the look at how this au has changed things for all sorts of different people across the cultivation world, and the ways in which wwx both is indeed extremely powerful and also is someone who still has his blind spots and emotional vulnerabilities
- lots of different povs throughout the fic which is fun too!
- 17k words in length
Oversharing is Caring, by Prudabaga
- bingqiu fic where during the trial in jinlan city, sqq is given a truth serum that comes with a side of lowered inhibitions
- nobody is prepared for the kinds of truths sqq wants to share (thoughtful and detailed list of who's hottest)
- or, tbh, for the truths that come out by the wayside
- funny and cute
- 4k words in length
Sweet Dreams Are Made of This, Prudabaga
- another bingqiu fic about the jinlan city encounter going differently, this time because lbh has visited sqq's dreams
- and sqq has a Totally Very Straight Of Himself tendency to have sexy dreams about lbh
- hard for lbh to believe that sqq wants nothing to do with him after that! (he's still very confused tho)
- love this for them
- 26k words in length
right from the start, I gave you my heart, by nex_et_nox
- sqq is hit by an obedience curse! uh oh, it's time for the mission to jinlan city!
- fun sqq & sqh interaction, and sqq's first meeting with lbh post-abyss going very differently than in svsss
- sqq absolutely out here making his own life harder on a regular basis
- lots of fun with this trope!
- 11k words in length
cleanse your life of me, by ambrorussa
- svsss au where sy transmigrates into yqy instead of sqq
- the fic is in two parts: first, from sy!yqy's pov as he tries to change events within the parameters the system allows him, and then the second from og!sqq's pov follows where the first part left off, with sqq trying to deal with the fact that yqy is so different now from the one he remembers.
- the two parts are different in tone and both excellent, both really fitting the kind of character and person the pov character is, and what it is they want the most. I loved it!
- endgame ships: liushen & qijiu
- 11k words in length
Scenario: Fix-It Fic, by lettered
- bingqiu fic where due to System shenanigans sqq travels back in time to when he first encountered lbh in jinlan city post-abyss
- sqq does his best to make things go differently this time, within the parameters of the genre "h/c fic" which the system tells him he is now in
- I'm just! so delighted by so much about this fic!
- and I love how the fic plays metatextually with its own fourth wall in ways I haven't really seen much in svsss fic before!
- fic is a WIP; as of my initial rec on mastodon there are 14k words; satisfying to read as is
"Transgender voices: Insights on identity, embodiment, and the gender of the voice" (2018, Language and Linguistics Compass)
- this free-to-read academic article is an overview of the features of a voice that lead people to read that voice as a particular gender
- it pushes back against the traditional view of male vs female voices, of pitch being the main deciding factor in gendering voices, and of a voice's gender being immutable
- it's a pretty accessible read, IMO!
- 16 pages in length; 12 pages if you discount the list of references
The Three Thousand, Four Hundred Twenty-Third Law of Robotics, by Adam-Troy Castro
- really more of a prose poem than a standard short story
- about the experience of being a robot given unfair orders under unbreakable laws
- a satisfying read and I loved the structure
- 2k words in length
Afflictions of the New Age, by Katherine Ewell
- A sci-fi short story about an elderly woman hundreds of years old, making use of every life extending treatment she can, but her grasp on time and on memory is no longer good
- Focuses on her relationship with her family, with her home aide, with her fear of death, with her experience of the confusion of past and present
- Evocative melancholy wistful tone, really effective!
- At the end of the story I'm left with many questions, but in a good way
- 4k words in length
On the English Approach to the Study of History, by E. Saxey
- huh, in the end I'm not entirely convinced I LIKE this novella but it's odd and compelling and interesting for sure
- about the academic study of history in a context where a very specific subset of people have access to a very specific subset of historical figures to ask them directly about what they remember
- asking questions about who's an insider vs an outsider in academic study, about the values of different approaches to history
- ultimately I think it turned too much into a story about the fantastical elements in the narrative and didn't engage as deeply with the themes as I thought it would at the beginning
- but it's still a very interesting and well done story and I'm glad I read it!
- 22k words in length
1 Nirvana in Fire fanwork
Go Forward Slowly, by burnt_oranges
- a post-canon jingyan/mei changsu nif fic in which jingyan discovers that mcs survived after all...and never let jingyan know.
- jingyan is uh. not handling it well, the loneliness and responsibility of being emperor. and this only makes it worse!
- anyway it's a venue for lots of real good angst, and I definitely cried at one point!
- I also really appreciate the use it makes of various secondary characters who are also important figures in jingyan's life
- many feels. I love these characters. there IS a happy ending.
- 31k words in length
2 TGCF fanworks
Never Look Away, by dkwilliams
- hualian fanvid of the TGCF donghua set to Vienna Teng's "Never Look Away"
- ahhhhh it's just very feelings!!!!
- audio is song-only
- youtube video includes lyric captions
- 3:16 in length
Ten Feet Behind, by thetrickisnotminding
- tgcf quanyin canon divergence au where quan yizhen finds the coffin containing the guoshi fangxin
- a fun look at a different way for xie lian and hua cheng to meet again, and for quan yizhen and yin yu to meet again!
- 9k words in length
3 CQL/MDZS fanworks
in the tall weeds, by cordial
- sangyao fic set during the qinghe era of jgy’s life
- a look at trans man meng yao and his experience of his gender, and nie huaisang experimenting with transfemininity
- a beautiful look at the complexities of identity, the precarity of position, and the connection between jgy and nhs
- 1k words in length
A Good Fit, by nirejseki
- canon divergence fic where young Meng Yao goes to the Lan Sect to learn cultivation as a guest, instead of trying to be accepted into Jin
- I had a lot of fun with the route this fix-it took!
- and I enjoyed that it included friendship between Meng Yao and Su She <3
- 5k words in length
Practical Mythology, by metisket
- a fun cute look at a cql wangxian time travel fixit au, where wwx is the alarming immortal who fixed the burial mounds and will grant wishes to deserving people, and lwj meets him for the first time at 8 years old and decides he'll marry him
- I enjoyed the look at how this au has changed things for all sorts of different people across the cultivation world, and the ways in which wwx both is indeed extremely powerful and also is someone who still has his blind spots and emotional vulnerabilities
- lots of different povs throughout the fic which is fun too!
- 17k words in length
5 SVSSS fanworks
Oversharing is Caring, by Prudabaga
- bingqiu fic where during the trial in jinlan city, sqq is given a truth serum that comes with a side of lowered inhibitions
- nobody is prepared for the kinds of truths sqq wants to share (thoughtful and detailed list of who's hottest)
- or, tbh, for the truths that come out by the wayside
- funny and cute
- 4k words in length
Sweet Dreams Are Made of This, Prudabaga
- another bingqiu fic about the jinlan city encounter going differently, this time because lbh has visited sqq's dreams
- and sqq has a Totally Very Straight Of Himself tendency to have sexy dreams about lbh
- hard for lbh to believe that sqq wants nothing to do with him after that! (he's still very confused tho)
- love this for them
- 26k words in length
right from the start, I gave you my heart, by nex_et_nox
- sqq is hit by an obedience curse! uh oh, it's time for the mission to jinlan city!
- fun sqq & sqh interaction, and sqq's first meeting with lbh post-abyss going very differently than in svsss
- sqq absolutely out here making his own life harder on a regular basis
- lots of fun with this trope!
- 11k words in length
cleanse your life of me, by ambrorussa
- svsss au where sy transmigrates into yqy instead of sqq
- the fic is in two parts: first, from sy!yqy's pov as he tries to change events within the parameters the system allows him, and then the second from og!sqq's pov follows where the first part left off, with sqq trying to deal with the fact that yqy is so different now from the one he remembers.
- the two parts are different in tone and both excellent, both really fitting the kind of character and person the pov character is, and what it is they want the most. I loved it!
- endgame ships: liushen & qijiu
- 11k words in length
Scenario: Fix-It Fic, by lettered
- bingqiu fic where due to System shenanigans sqq travels back in time to when he first encountered lbh in jinlan city post-abyss
- sqq does his best to make things go differently this time, within the parameters of the genre "h/c fic" which the system tells him he is now in
- I'm just! so delighted by so much about this fic!
- and I love how the fic plays metatextually with its own fourth wall in ways I haven't really seen much in svsss fic before!
- fic is a WIP; as of my initial rec on mastodon there are 14k words; satisfying to read as is
1 academic article on the gendering of trans voices
"Transgender voices: Insights on identity, embodiment, and the gender of the voice" (2018, Language and Linguistics Compass)
- this free-to-read academic article is an overview of the features of a voice that lead people to read that voice as a particular gender
- it pushes back against the traditional view of male vs female voices, of pitch being the main deciding factor in gendering voices, and of a voice's gender being immutable
- it's a pretty accessible read, IMO!
- 16 pages in length; 12 pages if you discount the list of references
2 short stories
The Three Thousand, Four Hundred Twenty-Third Law of Robotics, by Adam-Troy Castro
- really more of a prose poem than a standard short story
- about the experience of being a robot given unfair orders under unbreakable laws
- a satisfying read and I loved the structure
- 2k words in length
Afflictions of the New Age, by Katherine Ewell
- A sci-fi short story about an elderly woman hundreds of years old, making use of every life extending treatment she can, but her grasp on time and on memory is no longer good
- Focuses on her relationship with her family, with her home aide, with her fear of death, with her experience of the confusion of past and present
- Evocative melancholy wistful tone, really effective!
- At the end of the story I'm left with many questions, but in a good way
- 4k words in length
1 novella
On the English Approach to the Study of History, by E. Saxey
- huh, in the end I'm not entirely convinced I LIKE this novella but it's odd and compelling and interesting for sure
- about the academic study of history in a context where a very specific subset of people have access to a very specific subset of historical figures to ask them directly about what they remember
- asking questions about who's an insider vs an outsider in academic study, about the values of different approaches to history
- ultimately I think it turned too much into a story about the fantastical elements in the narrative and didn't engage as deeply with the themes as I thought it would at the beginning
- but it's still a very interesting and well done story and I'm glad I read it!
- 22k words in length
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*gasp* A NEW FIC FROM METISKET???!!! *grabs*
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Thanks for the recs
Re: Thanks for the recs