221B Recs

David Macaulay, Ship (1993)

Lengthy (96 pages!) illustrated for-older-readers children's book detailing an underwater archaeology expedition to investigate the wreck of a fifteenth-century caravel, finishing with a builder's journal documenting the caravel's construction. Lots of information about archaeological planning, research, and methods, followed by a similarly detailed section on historic ship construction. The illustrations and diagrams are as information-rich as the text. (When reading this aloud to grrlpup, I often stopped to elaborate further on some detail in the drawings.) For a fully-illustrated picture book, the reading level is fairly advanced (verbose and with lots of specialized vocabulary), providing lots of opportunity for an older child to nerd out undisturbed. (An older child -- or me!)


Lois McMaster Bujold, The Paladin of Souls (2003)

Immediate sequel to The Curse of Chalion, plus a few years. Our point-of-view character is someone who was mostly dismissed in the first novel for alleged madness -- and in fact, her early motivations are wholly about getting out from under the "protection" of people who think she's mad.

Of course, once she does get out, adventures start being had. And she's mad about it, because she wasn't planning on having adventures, she just wanted to have a nice life being left alone on her own terms. Alas.

Ripping yarn, I liveblogged most of it to phoenixfalls as I read it, things kept snowballing in that classically Bujold way, and much like in The Curse of Chalion we were a good ways into it before figuring out what the larger plot ultimately even was. There were a number of moments that made me laugh out loud. (When she experimentally kisses the literally too-handsome-for-his-own-good guy to see if it will break a spell, and he isn't fazed in the least, just kisses her back as if this happens every so often and he considers it "impolite to duck".) Ista reminds me more than a little bit of Cordelia, and I wouldn't call that a bad thing.


Charlotte McConaghy, Wild Dark Shore (2025) -- DNF

I don't usually post about my DNFs (Did Not Finish), because why bother, but I did read about half of this, and was hugely conflicted.

( Did Not Finish )

Anyway, it's a month overdue and four hundred people are waiting for it at the library, and I keep thinking about other books on my tbr list that I want to read but I "have to" read this one first. Boo. I hate it when I can see the book I would have found compelling around the margins of the book the author actually chose to write.

In my last public update I said I made a bunch of things for fandomtrees and I would post later, then never circled back. Here I am, circling back!

( First time in Fandomtrees )


Top Gun (1986), All to Pieces
Carole/Goose/Maverick, sexy pre-canon threesome.

A friend fell hard into Top Gun fandom last year, and I read literally everything she writes more or less as she writes it, so I've been reading a lot of Top Gun fic in draft lately. So I figured I could write a sexy little threesome flash fic for the first movie. I was living in a Navy town at the time that the first movie came out, so I enjoyed dropping some hometown detail into the story.


Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, In Case of Dog
Edgin/Xenk, pomegaverse getting-together fluff.

A friend fell hard for Edgin/Xenk when the movie came out, and has been frustrated by how quickly the fandom dried up. I've watched the film twice in the hopes of writing something for her, but the magic never happened. So when I saw this Edgin/Xenk request (from a stranger, not my friend), I decided to give it a go and see if I could make my friend happy, too.

The request asked for "unusual curses", and I had Pomegaverse on the brain, just having finished writing a Pomegaverse story. (That is, a story in which someone turns into a Pomeranian because they got stressed out, and can't turn back again until they get lots of cuddles and affection.) And I thought, That certainly qualifies as an unusual curse! and also Edign would bitch SO MUCH about having to take care of Pomeranian!Xenk. The biggest trick was making it not-furry while I was making it yes-slashy, but it worked out, I think. It was stupid fun to write, and I hope it's stupid fun to read, too.


Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Pillars of Their Community
Roberta/Susan, Roberta/Dez, post-canon drabble sequence.

At this point, it was clear reveals were going to be delayed for unfilled trees, so I started looking for fandoms that I could read/watch quickly and maybe create a drabble for. I'd never seen Desperately Seeking Susan and had the vague idea that it wasn't any good (mostly because I'd never seen a film in which Madonna was any good, sorry), but china_shop was requesting this and I respect their taste, so I gave it a shot.

Happily, this was a very enjoyable film! Madonna basically plays Madonna, and isn't the main character, either, so that all works out. I had 80s-nostalgia all the way through. I worry about all the post-concussion syndrome everyone is going to have after all this. The original ending is MUCH better than the ending that was showed in the theaters. Also, I spent the entire film looking at Dez and thinking God you're pretty and where do I know you from?? and it turns out that he's Aidan Quinn! Captain Gregson from Elementary! Who apparently was a dish when he was young.

Anyway, have a drabble sequence for three of the four main characters, speculating on how they're getting on after the movie. (I wrote a fourth drabble for the fourth character, too, but didn't publish it, because I couldn't quite decide if it was brushing up against the recip's DNWs.)


Dracula's Guest - Bram Stoker, A Kind of Kinship
The Guest/Young Officer, hurt/comfort first-kiss.

Again, looking for quick-to-consume canons in unfilled trees, this is a short story set in the Dracula universe. Many people consider it to be deleted material from the Dracula novel, and it may in fact be (with Jonathan Harker as the unnamed guest), but the requester asked for it to be treated as its own story with its own characters, and I was more than happy to do that. Victorian military slash, easy-peasy, my fic-career-to-date was all but made for this.

Sadly, the story dropped into the "uncategorized fandom" hole; it never appeared on the Fandomtrees fandoms list and it doesn't appear on my dashboard's list of fandoms, either. Which means almost no one is ever going to see it. I'm considering sticking a Dracula-novel fandom tag on it just so the thing is fucking visible somewhere, but I am happy to take advice.


Head On (1998), that secondhand living, it just won't do
Ari & Alex, siblings post-canon

plicate's tree was very late to fill, and this movie was available streaming on Kanopy through my library, so I gave it a go even though I had my doubts about my ability to write 1990s Greek-Australian gay subculture. In fact, I spent most of the movie convinced that I was going to strike out, there was no way I could write for this.

But after sleeping on it, I did see my way into a short, tender, siblings-talking-about-boys story which encapsulates some of my hopes for Ari. Here's hoping that Ari finds a good boyfriend someday. Here's hoping Ari can be a good boyfriend someday. Or, if "boyfriends" is not something Ari is ever gonna be interested in, let's reach for "hookups where everyone has a good time and no one gets beat up." (Get it together, Ari! We're rooting for you!)


In the end, I had fun making things, I read/watched some new cool stuff, and I believe I can say that I was not a net drain on fandomtrees. Hooray!