More SPN bigbang recs

[norwich36]

As usual, if you want your recs free of criticism, don't click. Similarly, if you're an author who got here by googling yourself, be aware that I am sometimes critical of stories I rec, so read at your own risk.


To the Day We Burned Maps by dayadhvam_triad (gen).
Lovely AU in which Castiel has to travel to the past (specifically, to season 1) to save the future. Meanwhile, though, Victor Henriksen has arrested Dean for murder, and a mysterious psychic breaks him out of jail, but they have to get the Colt and get to Sam in time to save him. Great Henriksen and Jess in this story.

Alive and Well (And Living in Hell) (gen) by dear_tiger.
Kind of awesome AU in which hunters mistake Dean and Sam for zombies and kill them; Sam winds up in Hell and Dean in Heaven. While in Hell, Sam finds Jess; meanwhile, Dean is busy trying to escape Heaven by starting an angelic cult of Sam, much to Castiel's disapproval. I really enjoyed this--it's fairly lighthearted for a hell story, despite the torture bits. I particularly liked the explanation for why people end up where, and the explanation for why Jess ended up in Hell.

Walkabout (Sam/Jess/Dean and various permutations thereof) by pixymisa. Set right before the start of season 1. Dean is finishing up a case in New Orleans when he gets a call from Jess that Sam is in a coma--though it turns out that Sam is really a spirit trapped outside his body, and Dean and Jess have to figure out a way for him to get back in. They communicate with Sam through dreams and him possessing them (which is how the threesome gets started). I adore this threesome, so I was predisposed to like this, though it's a pretty good casefile fic, and the ending is ambiguous enough to leave some hope.

All The Way Home (Jared/Jensen) by peggy_lane. A nice, sweet slow romance. Jared is a rancher who is running from his past mistakes; Jared is a wanderer looking for work. At first they both just want a temporary arrangement, but of course after they split up both of them decide they want more. There's nothing that really differentiates this from the bazillion other ranching AUs (well--maybe the fact that they don't stay on the ranch?), but I still enjoyed it.

You Be the Prom Queen (Jared/Jensen) by poor_choices
Chash wrote this, and I haven't met a story of hers I didn't like, so take that as you will. This is a rather fluffy story (everything slightly angsty is easily resolved) in which Jared is a construction worker putting himself through school who develops a crush on the hot guy who's always walking by the construction site. Not particularly deep, but fun.

Under a Vast Sky by harrigan. I would call this gen, though one could certainly see it as very G-rated Jared/Jensen.
A story about a Polish POW (Jarek) and his friend Jensen, framed by the story of a young woman from today finding her grandmother's keepsakes in the attic. I was initially skeptical about this story, because I think WWII AUs can be exploitative, but actually I thought this was an excellent perspective on the postwar experience, with flashbacks to the war. It's very Jared (or I should say Jarek)-centered, and has a couple great OCs, especially his niece Rosie, who is of course the grandmother from the beginning of the story. A lot of the story is him telling (filtered) versions of his experience in a POW camp to her, including many stories with his good friend Lieutenant Jensen. (Apparently parts of this are based on the Great Escape, which I haven't seen).

The Jungle Book by beadslut and jenna_thorn. An AU where Jensen is the CEO of a naval contracting fim and Jared is the pilot who helps him survive when his plane is sabotaged and crashes in the jungle. A decently plotted adventure story with a lot more sex than I personally would be having if I were in a tropical jungle with a broken arm, but I'm sure all that sex will actually be a draw for most people. I honestly don't know if the sex was unengaging or I just wasn't in the mood for it--I skimmed those scenes, but I did enjoy the adventure plot, especially Jared MacGyvering his way through all their obstacles. Super-closeted Jensen was a little annoying, but he does eventually loosen up, and I loved the supporting characters.

Fiddler's Green(Jared/Jensen) by splashpink.
An AU where Jared is a movie star and Jensen is a former marine who now does corporate security (the rescuing people from Somalian pirates kind, not the security guard kind). The first two chapters of this are fine in a character-expositiony kind of way, and I was trying to anticipate how Jared was going to have to prove himself a real hero (which the story summary suggests will happen--I was thinking Jensen would be kidnapped on a mission) when all of a sudden chapter three turned into a Michael Bay movie (which is metalicious because at that point in the story Jared was starring in a Michael Bay movie).

Lots of action, I won't spoil you about the actual plot twist, since that's part of the crackalicious fun, but chapters 3-5 are definitely faster paced and action-adventury, and enjoyable in that summer blockbuster sort of way. Be warned that there are character deaths, though not the J's. Also, this is apparently a sequel to an earlier story, but I hadn't read it and I got along fine.

Comments

[yaycoffee.livejournal.com]

I love your recs! And... I now want to read like all of these. What a fantastic way to kick off my summer vacay :-)

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And yay for having time to read.

[norahy.livejournal.com]

I share you view about porn, it is just very hard to believe that when people are running for their lives, they'd still have the urge and energy for sex. That, and I like the porn in a plotty story with a side of character development/plot advancement.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Well, I think a lot of time it depends on my mood, really. And I've seen a lot of reviews of bigbang stories where people say they won't read if there's no porn, so obviously people's mileage varies a lot on this.