Personal Rec
May. 30th, 2003 01:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thistlechaserI don't recommend fics here in my LJ too often (other than the oft-mentioned IYAP), but here's one I really need to mention.
Summon the Lambs to Slaughter
Usually I'm mostly looking for a good story in a fic. Writing often takes a back seat; so long as it's got a good story, I'll overlook some spelling and grammar mistakes. Summon the Lambs to Slaughter is different than most fics. It's got writing to die for. How common is it to be reading a story and to have to stop to admire how something was written? The choice of wording? The imagery? Now, how common is it to need to stop many times in a chapter? That's what you get with Summon the Lambs to Slaughter.
La Guera is not only one of the most skilled technically fanfic writers I've found in a long time, she's telling a great story. There's no rush in it (other than as scenes require); at 18 chapters done out of 67 total (just in this book!), it's an enjoyable, relaxing, and very interesting trip.
Way back on 3/12 I added it to my recs page. (And as a side note, it was at ten completed chapters at that point. Eight (long) chapters finished in 2.5 months. Even impatient me cannot complain!) I did so with one warning and one heads-up, both of which I continue to stand by:
Warning: Snape in the earliest chapters (1-2) came off as meaner than in the books. The character smoothed out fast though, and he's absolutely perfect now.
Heads up: The second main character is an OC. However, she is not a Mary Sue. From my rec: "The handling of the girl's major handicap is so realistic that it's unattractive. It's almost hard to read at points. Either the author is handicapped herself, or she's one of the most skilled fanfic writers on the planet.". I believe it's in the first chapter that she's twice described as having beautiful blonde hair, which pinged my warning system, but it was a false alarm.
As mentioned above, it is a WIP, but it's still worth getting into. Very, very worth it.
Summon the Lambs to Slaughter
Usually I'm mostly looking for a good story in a fic. Writing often takes a back seat; so long as it's got a good story, I'll overlook some spelling and grammar mistakes. Summon the Lambs to Slaughter is different than most fics. It's got writing to die for. How common is it to be reading a story and to have to stop to admire how something was written? The choice of wording? The imagery? Now, how common is it to need to stop many times in a chapter? That's what you get with Summon the Lambs to Slaughter.
La Guera is not only one of the most skilled technically fanfic writers I've found in a long time, she's telling a great story. There's no rush in it (other than as scenes require); at 18 chapters done out of 67 total (just in this book!), it's an enjoyable, relaxing, and very interesting trip.
Way back on 3/12 I added it to my recs page. (And as a side note, it was at ten completed chapters at that point. Eight (long) chapters finished in 2.5 months. Even impatient me cannot complain!) I did so with one warning and one heads-up, both of which I continue to stand by:
Warning: Snape in the earliest chapters (1-2) came off as meaner than in the books. The character smoothed out fast though, and he's absolutely perfect now.
Heads up: The second main character is an OC. However, she is not a Mary Sue. From my rec: "The handling of the girl's major handicap is so realistic that it's unattractive. It's almost hard to read at points. Either the author is handicapped herself, or she's one of the most skilled fanfic writers on the planet.". I believe it's in the first chapter that she's twice described as having beautiful blonde hair, which pinged my warning system, but it was a false alarm.
As mentioned above, it is a WIP, but it's still worth getting into. Very, very worth it.
