Happy Yuletide!

Because whatever holiday you celebrate (or don't celebrate) this season, everyone cheers when yuletide opens, right? My only complaint is that with my limited internet time in the next week, I have a hard time deciding what to read first. And do I save my favorite rare fandoms (like Peter Wimsey and the Chronicles of Narnia and Temeraire and Harold and Kumar) for last, or do I dive in and read them first? Such challenging decisions! It's like having hundreds of presents delivered to my door--and thank you so much, all you organizers and writers, for all of these wonderful goodies!

So tonight I decided to start with all of the Diane Duane fandoms, because I hadn't read a lot in them yet I love them LOTS, and all six of the stories there are worth reading, but my favorite of that group has to be An Unwilling Heart , from Duane's Young Wizards series. The series follows the exploits of two young wizards, Kit and Nita, on various transdimensional adventures, and I really love it, but this particular story focuses on their wizardly mentors, Carl and Tom, giving both characters really interesting backstories (especially Carl) and explaining exactly how they met. The romance isn't tremendously foregrounded--the story is PG, and definitely follows the overall tone of the series--but it's a long plotty tale that really read, to me, like a missing story from the series.


In other news of holiday loveliness: THANK YOU VERY MUCH, anonymous person who gave me paid time! That was very sweet of you!

more Yuletide recs

Everyone in my family decided to nap this afternoon, so I got to get in some Yuletide reading. I'm working my way up from the bottom of the list, as you can probably tell from these recs:

All for One and One For All Tanya Huff, the Fires Stone universe, Dar/Aaron, sort of Dar/Aaron/Chandra. Pitch perfect character voices, even for minor characters like Chandra's nanny, but I think what I love best about this story is how it captures the complicated relationship between Darvish, Aaron and Chandra which was my favorite part of the book.

Smoke and Frost , Tanya Huff Blood and Smoke series, Tony/Lee. I love the development of Tony and Lee's relationship in this story, but it is also a fun demon-hunting tale, which is one of the things I love about the series.

Three Things Superman Returns, Clark/Lois/Richard. My favorite pairing for this fandom, and done really believably, with a nice slow buildup, and Richard doing most of the seducing, which I love.

Five Things Maggie Simpson Never Said. Simpsons, Maggie-centered character piece. A hilarious and occasionally poignant "Five Things" AU, with some lines that are worthy of the Simpsons, such as "Dad had been so sweet about Maggie getting her license; he'd declared that a teenaged girl needed a convertible, and had taken a hacksaw to the old car" and "Ammo, though! Cases and cases of it! She could probably hold off the zombies long enough for Ralph to fill her bike's tank. He really liked siphoning; what had he said? "Tastes like road trip."

The Madness of Love . Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio/Romeo). There never was a tale of more woe, than that of Mercutio, and his Romeo. Lovely and bittersweet, with a great backstory for Mercutio, who has always been my favorite character from that play.