221b_recs | Fic Rec: The Prize

Title: The Prize - AO3 // LJ
Author:

trillsabells
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: 101,022
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: None
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: On 29 January 2010 an unknown Event wiped out 98% of the population. This is the story of the survivors, four months on.

Reccer's comments: So can you tell yet that I like AUs? ;) This is an AU in which Sherlock and John do not meet until after the 'Event', when the world has basically gone to hell in a handbasket. Sherlock is still a consulting detective, one of the elite, now ensconced in a relative paradise run by what is left of the British government (i.e. Mycroft), while John is familiar to us as a former army doctor trying to make his way on his own through the wreckage of civilisation. They meet, danger happens, investigations ensue, conspiracies arise, and sparks fly. Oh, and Moriarty is fabulously evil, and you will LOVE where his headquarters are.

This isn't a zombie!fic, which I only mention because that's what I thought at first from reading the author's summary and based on the current popularity of that genre. It's just your basic, straightforward post-Apocalypse, with gangs and guns and the ragtag dregs of mankind scrounging for fuel and safe food and water. And Sherlock swanning about with impunity, picking up DS games and nicotine patches.

One thing that really stands out about this fic to me is the world-building. I don't just mean the physical descriptions, but the author has worked out in incredible detail all of the many technical procedures and protocoll, the hierarchy, the geography, the floor plan, and many events that happen outside of the main plot, which we only hear about in passing, or are given small hints at. Taken all together, it makes the story incredibly realistic and vivid.

The other part I liked (of course) is the relationship between Sherlock and John. I would venture to say it's even more complicated and fraught than in the BBC version. I don't want to give everything away, but Johnlock shippers should be satisfied with the outcome, even while yearning for more.

It's a pretty long haul fic, at over 100,000 words, but another one that I couldn't put down and stayed up way too late reading.