Me? Have email alerts set up for the Snowflake Challenge? Pfffft, what makes you think that?

[jadesfire]

Day 3

In your own space, post recs for at least three fanworks that you did not create.

This is a shorter list than I'd like. I've been caught up in a podfic/Yuletide-writing haze lately, and my mind has gone blank. So these are old favourites, recent finds and other things in between.

PODFIC

It's a truism that podficcers don't get feedback. It's partly the nature of the medium - not many people have the comment page open when they're listening - and partly that not as many people listen as they do read. So if you like anything here, or if you listened to something lately, please go and give the podficcer some love. It's hard work and we do it first and foremost because we love it, but I promise you every kudos is treasured and cherished.

I have a basic rule, that if Blackglass records it, and I am vaguely aware of the fandom, I will listen to it. Having said that, there is one of hers that I find myself about to quote regularly, in her exact intonation, before remembering that no one else will get the reference.

Culture, and other balls of twine is how post-Avengers canon *should* have gone. But mostly, the rendition of "that's what's going in the diary for June?" is firmly stuck in my head, and I have now earwormed myself. I also commend to you Fonder (Star Wars) and Robot Trip (MCU)

The whole of Scifigirl47's Toaster-verse, but especially Four (or five) reasons for kidnapping Tony Stark as read by Hananobira. It's not my sort of fic - I am strictly a Gen girl, and prefer my emotions unstated - but I find the reading comforting, and I turned to it in a bout of severe anxiety lately. There's something about Hananobira's voice that I find deeply reassuring.

The best podfic in the history of ever remains Texts from Cephalapods. The original fic was on Photobucket, and hasn't yet been replaced. The original podfic went down when the Audiofic archive had a mishap. But there is a GLORIOUS live recording from Podfication 2016 that I urge you to listen to now. No, right now. Shoo. I'll wait*. From that same year, Drunk Historians and From the Desk of N Fury are also glorious.

*I pulled it out and created it as a single track from the audio file so that I could have it on repeat for a while. I still laughed every time. It's possible I need to get out more...

FIC

I suspect these are mostly 'big hits' but they're maybe a chance to revisit something you'd forgotten.

Recently, Go Now, You Are Forgiven hit me just about as hard as is possible. It's Critical Role, but to a certain extent, you can read it without knowing much about the fandom. It handles religion in one of the most sensitive ways I've ever come across, feeling respectful, critical, sharp and tender, all at once. There's tons and tons of good CR fic, of which I particularly love Impossibletruth's two AUs, We're on the road to nowhere (let's find out where it goes) (Star Wars fusion) and it starts with an earthquake (post-apocalyptic).

To get a little old on you, The Best Laid Plans is a wonderful Merlin Gen story. It's long and plotty and clever and the character voices are So. Good. Similarly Let Us Dare is a wonderful AU and The Five Kingdoms is fabulous. Both take things in unexpected but utterly believable directions, which is definitely something I look for a in a fic.

I recently stumbled across the Rivers of London stories of Philomytha and tore through them in a few days. the walls of where is particularly haunting, but they're all great to read. In the same fandom, Mind the Gap by maple_clef is a great case-fic.

For laugh out loud funny, a recent favourite was Occupational Safety (podfic link - story link in post), which picks up an obvious question from Star Wars: why aren't there more handrails?

For such a good fic, Ask no questions, hear no lines has criminally few hits. It's a wonderful Maria Hill character study that is just perfect in tone and execution. If you know the MCU and read nothing else on this list, go give this one some love.

Comments

[teigh_corvus]

I had NO IDEA that there were podfic of the Toasterverse! Bwheee! I wish I'd known before December, as that would have been a PERFECT counterbalance for all the travel, but now I have it for work! YAY. :D :D

I was wondering - do you have any suggestions for tracking down podfic? My AO3 search techniques leave a lot to be desired for that medium.

This recs list is fantastic! I am absolutely coming back to roll around in the shiny, after I post my own. ;D

[jadesfire]

Yay! So glad I could help :D

For finding podfic, most of us tag our work, so I find the best thing is to search for the fandom you want, then in the 'Other tags' box, put "podfic". You could also try putting it in the 'search within results' box, in case it's in there, but not tagged.

If you're after podfic, you're in luck as the annual #ITPE has just been published. There are 999 new podfics about to hit AO3! Give it about 48 hours for people to upload, and you'll find them here. There are also collections from previous years here, so you could have a trawl through the fandoms for them. There's also the comm amplificathon, which is well-tagged and a lot of people cross post there (*cough*when they remember*cough*)

Most podficcers are reasonably prolific, so when you find someone with a voice you like, you can always go through their back catalogue. All the folks in my post have got awesome collections, and most of them are good about AO3 posts.

Let me know if you're looking for something specific! I listen to lots in different fandoms and am happy to steer you towards the good stuff :D

[teigh_corvus]

You've helped so much, I'm bookmarking this page. ;D

And can I say - 999 new PODFICS???? WOW!

I don't have anything specific I'm looking for - I am so used to the podfic search being rather like looking for four-leaf clovers - combing through either 1) all the entries that inexplicably appear when the tag 'podfic' is searched or 2)closing your eyes and reaching blindly into an archive with no or poor summaries. Sometimes you get a handful of luck, sometimes you spend an hour or two in a clover field, with nothing to show for it but green-stained fingers. :) As I've said above all of this information has helped immensely. Thank you.

[jadesfire]

Yeah. It's possible that some people got carried away this year...

I don't think everyone has uploaded their ITPE podfic to AO3 yet, but they're all on the amplification posts, so hopefully you can find things there that work for you.

I do know what you mean about trying to find things, though. The old Audiofic Archive was great, but it did lack in the summary department. With AO3 providing decent interfaces and streaming provision now, it seems to be more normal to upload there. Still, I tend to go by rec lists and names I recognise, rather than anything else. Although that's not a million miles away from how I find fic!

[egret]

Thank you for the Merlin recs! Marked to read later!

[jadesfire]

Yay! There was a truly ridiculous amount of excellent Merlin fic out there, so let me know if you want more!