221B Recs

Title: The Queen of Gondal Series
Author: AJHall
Pairings: SH/JW, SH/OFC, JW/OFC, Mycroft/OFC, Lestrade/Donovan, Lestrade/OFC
Length: approx. 204,000 words
Rating: from teenage to explicit
Warnings: see below
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: The dying King of Gondal lays a solemn trust on John Watson, court physician; at all costs to keep the fourteen year-old Crown Princess Charis out of the clutches of the corrupt Heir of Gondal. Which means arranging her marriage to Sherlock, heir to the neighbouring throne of Gaaldine, Gondal's traditional enemy. John escorts the Crown Princess to her wedding, acutely aware of the pressure of history and unspoken - unspeakable - secrets which he had thought buried forever.

AJHall’s introduction to the series: This is a quasi-historical AU of the BBC Sherlock series set (more or less) in three fantasy kingdoms devised by the Bronte children.
The time period is roughly the late seventeenth century and readers should bear in mind that this saga contains the doings of a set of supremely dysfunctional more-or-less European Royal families steeped in the "divine right of kings" ideology of monarchy, filtered through an early nineteenth century Romantic/Gothick sensibility and then depicted using the freedom of expression afforded by the early twenty-first century internet.
Furthermore, if the Greek myths contemplated it, some member of the Royal houses of Gondal, Angria or Gaaldine has probably put it into practice somewhere.

Reccer's comments: One of the perpetual mysteries of the Sherlock fandom, and one I fear even the world’s only consulting detective will never be able to solve, is this series lack of recognition and applause. For this series contains everything to lift a girl’s heart and have her enthralled for days on end.

Imagine a swashbuckling, dashingly attractive Crown Prince who’s too clever for his own good and eternally testing the patience of his brother, the brooding crafty King who has to slalom between his Council and the eternal threat for war. Add an ever patient, loving battle-hardened doctor who has sworn to obey his liege lord even though doing so nearly breaks his heart.

Is that enough romance for you? Then take treason, double-dealing, life at court, grandiosity, magnificent balls, conspiring abbesses, golden-hearted whores, gossipy and cunning landladies, murder and mayhem, loyalty to the death and every trick the human heart is capable of and you’ll have an inkling of the contents of the fic for starters.

And the language! Oh my god, the wildly imaginative language that soars like the wild peaks of the mountains that separate the rival Kingdoms, speaks the flattering language of court officials, and is so wholly IC when dealing with the series' main protagonists. There’s humour as well, lots of it, both in the situations depicted and in the telling.

To round it all off all the OCs are just perfect, from the Crown Princess Charis herself to her mother Felicia (my favourite OC by far) and the lovely woman on whose breast King Mycroft can lay his weary head at night. The story is told from various POVs throughout, both Sherlock’s and John’s, as well as from that whole host of OCs who serve to shed new light on the characters we know so well.

What more can I say to make you sit down and start reading this? Perhaps you should just do so. You won’t regret it, I’m sure. Not one little bit.