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1 TGCF art rec
a fish hook; an open eye, by consumptive_sphinx_art (consumptive_sphinx)
➤ this is a hella cool collage-based piece of art on the theme of beefleaf from tgcf
➤ highly recommend looking at it on a larger screen than just a phone screen if possible, as there's a lot going on
➤ it's composed so beautifully out of all these disparate parts to both look cool as a piece of art as a whole AND to have lots of details with meaning worth exploring when you look closer
1 MDZS fic rec
Inquiet, by acernor
➤ wangxian flashfic about lwj successfully summoning wwx's spirit after death to ask questions
➤ OUCHHHHHHH YES IT'S SO GOOD
➤ 350 words in length
1 SVSSS fic rec
Pick on Someone Your Own Size, by villainousfriend (katzenfabrik)
➤ moshang ficlet about having a size similarity kink
➤ it's so cute and fun!!
➤ 830 words in length
2 NIF fic recs
the future moves under our feet, by BromeliadDreams
➤ HELLO it's a 12k NiF Lin Chen/Mei Changsu/Xiao Jingyan ship fic, I am there with bells on!!!
➤ mcs has a thing with jingyan and separately a thing with lin chen. he wants to make them be in the same room with each other.
➤ mcs gets what he wants and immediately gets to regret it in like five different ways, which is exactly what I love to see
➤ it's got so many delightfully fraught conversations between various iterations of the characters!
➤ it involves lin chen and jingyan talking about mcs behind his back!
➤ it involves lin chen and consort jing teaming up!
➤ LOVED IT.
The spring wind blows, by Nineveh_uk
➤ omg it's NiF genfic focusing on Tai-nainai and Gao-gonggong
➤ canon divergence AU where Tai-nainai hears about the Chiyan rebellion and decides to take her own action
➤ I love how well Tai-nainai and Gao-gonggong understand each other!
➤ thanks to aegtx for the rec!
➤ 1.3k words in length
1 SGA fic rec
veritas levata cordis, by SleepyMaddy
➤ sga gen fic about Rodney and Jeannie's sibling relationship
➤ in order to access the Ancients' science thingy they need to tell each other truths....enough to make the door-opening device accept them
➤ some petty things get said but also, in the end, some pretty major acknowledgements
➤ I love this sibling pair and it's always a delight to see a fic focusing on their relationship with each other!
➤ the balance of their conversation and truth-telling and how it shifts over time is so well done
➤ 4k words in length
8 original fiction recs (4 short stories, 3 novelettes, 1 novella)
One Flew Over the Songhua River, by Qi Ran, translated by Andy Dudak
➤ scifi short story translated from chinese; originally published in 2021
➤ it's a fascinating outside-outside pov, a nephew telling the story of his aunt, whose story is that of her famous physicist-astronaut husband
➤ the multiple layers of abstraction work well for this story -- and the narrative loops around itself in how it's told, too, wandering forwards and backwards in time to circle around the heart of things
➤ which is really a story about family and about place and about how you decide what to prioritise in your life
➤ it's lovely and thoughtful and wistful. I really liked it!
➤ 7k words in length
Himalia, by Carrie Vaughn
➤ Scifi novelette about growing up somewhere you always know you're going to have to leave eventually, because it was never intended to be permanent
➤ and leaving your best friend behind, who wants to never leave, because it's home
➤ it's really good!! I had a lot of feelings about the characters, and the way Niri is drawn in Jenny's life through her absence in this day of her return
➤ also it's set in space, on one of the satellites of Jupiter!
➤ 8k words in length
The Weight of Your Own Ashes, by Carlie St. George
➤ scifi short story about a multi-bodied alien in a relationship with a human
➤ questions of identity, of whether you're being seen for who you truly are by people who want to interpret the whole world as being inhabited by people like them, eyes closed to the reality of differences
➤ I loved the intertwining of the worldbuilding and the relationship drama, and I loved that we got to see Yonder's relationships with other people, friends and siblings and so forth, the ways those relationships are different than the one with Alice
➤ 6k words in length
Half Sick of Shadows, by Elle Engel
➤ post-apocalyptic novelette about a girl who's the only survivor left in a tower that protected her and her ancestors from the outside world
➤ the whole story is just Lena and her interiority as she faces the realities of her situation, as she grows and changes and develops the strength of will to do what needs to be done
➤ and it's so well done! I was captivated the whole time
➤ 10k words in length
Blackjack, by Veronica Schanoes
➤ fantasy novelette about a jewish grandmother, after the death of her daughter, facing and dealing with the ways her troubled first marriage affected her life and her daughter
➤ Schanoes is so good at character and setting and emotion!
➤ and it's always great to have a story where the hero is an older woman
➤ 12k words in length
The Spindle of Necessity, by B. Pladek
➤ short story about a trans man who's obsessed with the m/m novels of a dead historical novelist who he's convinced was trans
➤ and about the dreams he has where he meets her and talks with her
➤ it's a story that feels unsatisfying but like, in a satisfying way?
➤ idk how to explain! it makes me want to reread it 3 more times and think about the way one's relationship with oneself is mediated through the stories one reads and loves
➤ it's really good
➤ 6k words in length
An Intergalactic Smuggler's Guide to Homecoming, by Tia Tashiro
➤ a scifi short story set in space, about a smuggler who left her sister behind when she left the shitty planet she grew up on
➤ but her latest mission has her returning to that planet to deliver the goods
➤ (the goods are hundreds of teeny tiny sentient bioluminescent jellyfish fleeing civil war)
➤ I enjoyed the worldbuilding, and the difficult emotions about family, and how the things that felt world-endingly true at 17 don't need to be true forever
➤ 7k words in length
Between Blades by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko
➤ a full novella published online for free the same way a short story would be!
➤ secondary world fantasy about two women from the outskirts of empire, who don't fit the identities their cultures expect of them but who are also out of place within the empire
➤ they're gladiators in a partnership where one in a pair of gladiators takes a "swordform" and the other wields them
➤ great characters and great worldbuilding and great reflections on identity in this context!
➤ I loved Leris and Gerthe, and Ulmo too
➤ and the Empress herself and her story is fascinating, and I can see how in a different narrative her backstory would be the focus of a heroic narrative, and I love that that's not the story we get, this isn't a "monarchy is good with the right person in charge" kind of story like so much fantasy is
➤ the narrative perspective on religion is really cool too
➤ 36k words in length
Tags:
- author: b pladek,
- author: carlie st george,
- author: carrie vaughn,
- author: elle engel,
- author: filip hajdar drnovšek zorko,
- author: qi ran,
- author: tia tashiro,
- author: veronica schanoes,
- fandom: cql/mdzs,
- fandom: nirvana in fire,
- fandom: sga,
- fandom: svsss,
- fandom: tgcf,
- post type: crosspost from mastodon,
- recs: fic,
- recs: other,
- recs: short stories
