Yuletide recs

[white_hart]

I don't know if Yuletide is smaller this year than in previous years, or if there are just fewer fandoms I know these days (and quite a few of the ones I do know are ones I tend to avoid fic for, or at least exercise extreme caution - there's quite a lot of fic for Rivers of London, for instance, but it's almost all Peter/Nightingale and that is a definite NOTP for me). I feel as though I've done more poking around and less actually reading things, and haven't found any of the joyous fics for things so tiny I never even realised that they counted as fandoms that I have loved in previous years - but again, this may be me just not knowing the source canons well enough.

Anyway, I have some recs, and am, as always, very glad that Yuletide continues to exist even if I doubt I'll ever have the time or confidence in my writing abilities to participate again.

Limelight, Candlelight, Sunlight, Shadows (2667 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Kirsten Raymonde
Additional Tags: 5 Things, Post-Canon, Theatre, Slice of Life, Acting, Technology, Character Study, Personal Growth
Summary:

Five decades, five plays: Kirsten stepping on stage in a changing world.

On Daemons in Royal Portraiture (2991 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Lyra Belacqua, Pantalaimon, a mess of portraits
Additional Tags: Daemons, minutiae - Freeform, Scary English Monarchs, Not So Scary English Monarchs, Portentous Heraldry, Portraiture, Ephemera - Freeform, Accidental Art History
Summary:

Excerpts from the catalogue for an exhibition held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford shortly after the events of The Amber Spyglass.

Handshake Protocol (8651 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams, The Middleman (TV), Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries), C-3PO (Star Wars), R2-D2 (Star Wars), Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ida (The Middleman), Marvin (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Data (Star Trek), Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen | Breq
Additional Tags: Crossover, Travel, Time Travel, 5 Things, Grumpy AIs, Elevator Music, This is not a hero's journey okay
Summary:

Murderbot doesn't want to be a hero or take part in someone's incredible journey. Why does it keep bumping into people who think it will?

A Mathematical Possibility (2827 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Murder Most Unladylike Series - Robin Stevens
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Daisy Wells, Hazel Wong
Additional Tags: Pre-Slash, Misses Clause Challenge, Post-Series
Summary:

Hazel finds a new life after Deepdean. But is there room for her in Daisy's life now? And what is a woman to do in wartime in a country that isn't quite her own?

A Mile of Marchpane (3218 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Archer's Goon - Diana Wynne Jones
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Awful Sykes, Erskine (Archer's Goon), Nan Hathaway (Archer's Goon), William Hathaway (Archer's Goon), Venturus (Archer's Goon), Shine (Archer's Goon), Hathaway (Archer's Goon)
Summary:

Hathaway's children, Will and Nan, discover the red typewriter, which has been stowed away in the 16th century for safe-keeping. When their sticky misadventures lead to Nan's disappearance, Will summons help. It arrives in the form of Time-travelling International Master Criminals Awful and Erskine, whose malefactory careers are currently being hampered by a brotherly curse which means they cannot commit any wrongdoing that leads to more harm than good ...

Ancillaries of Seville (4226 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Le nozze di Figaro | The Marriage of Figaro - Mozart/Da Ponte, Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Conte di Almaviva | Count Almaviva (Figaro Trilogy), Rosine Contesse D'Almaviva | Rosina Contessa di Almaviva (Figaro Trilogy), Suzanne | Susanna (Figaro Trilogy), Figaro (Figaro Trilogy), Chérubin | Cherubino (Figaro Trilogy), Barberine | Barbarina (Figaro Trilogy), Bartholo | Bartolo (Figaro Trilogy), Anaander Mianaai, Naskaaia Eskur
Additional Tags: Pastiche, in-universe scholarship, in-universe opera, in-universe cultural production, In-Universe RPF, roman a clef, in-universe roman à clef, probably banned in the radch
Summary:

Excerpts from the great politico-satiric Entertainment of Mozaatr and Dapontai, translated and edited for the student of Radchaai imperial history.

Comments

[lilliburlero]

It is actually smaller fwiw: the smallest number of fandoms and works in the main collection since 2009, though not hugely down on the biggest years.

[el_staplador]

Yes, and some surprising omissions. (No Babysitters Club femslash! The end is nigh!) Although I feel that I don't really have the right to complain, not having participated for the last couple of years at least.

[white_hart]

No, I can't really complain either, but I'm sorry for it. Perhaps I should try to participate next year, but although I have done it a couple of times in the past I don't really have enough confidence in my writing abilities for the experience to be anything other than incredibly stressful.

[el_staplador]

At the moment I'm thinking that I will at least try to participate next year, but it always is a stressful time of year, and of course it's going to depend on what's going on elsewhere. And I know what you mean about its being a stressful experience.

Having said that, I've found this year that there have been smaller, lower-stress exchanges that I've enjoyed doing instead.

[lilliburlero]

I just coincidentally spotted this in a recs list:https://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2017/works/13097577 I don't know the Baby-Sitters Club at all though. I do sense overall that there's been a move from small book fandoms, and less of the stuff based on folklore, myth and medieval lit. that I've often enjoyed. There's a nice Canterbury Tales casefic with the Wife of Bath as sleuth.

[white_hart]

Oh, I hadn't spotted the Wife of Bath one, but that's rather fun.

[white_hart]

I was looking at that just now. And Madness feels even smaller. Also I think the balance of fandoms has shifted, even if the numbers haven't declined that much - there are a lot more anime/manga fandoms than I remember there being in the past, and correspondingly fewer small book fandoms which are the ones I like.

[lilliburlero]

Madness really has declined. I've noticed a lot of quite vehement anti-Madness sentiment on FFA and elsewhere but I like it: I often read through the Madness fics first, as they're low-commitment and can be read on my phone.

[white_hart]

Sometimes FFA is just weird. I quite like Madness (and the Imperial Radch/Marriage of Figaro fic I've recced was in Madness this year, and is one of my favourites - possibly the author didn't quite get it finished in time for the main collection?)