Story 211: “In the Bleak” by Teanna

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

Our next fic is a relatively short colonization apocafic. To my knowledge, Teanna is a largely unknown author in the XF fandom. She only ever wrote three short XF fics, but her writing is spare, intelligent, sharply observant, and poetic without being wordy. She unflinchingly explores the characters and how they cope with fear, grief, and failure. I should definitely warn everyone that this story is, as the title suggests, bleak. Teanna warns readers that it’s "not a happy story," but at the risk of spoiling everyone, I should probably warn you that major character death is strongly implied and death in general is pretty ubiquitous in this story. This is the apocalypse portrayed with more grim realism than usual.

I hope some of you will read it anyway. There’s plenty in this fic to discuss, and I think summertime is probably the best time to read it, so that those of us who are particularly susceptible to gut-wrenching fanfic can shake off the darkness with a healthy dose of sunlight afterwards.

Read In the Bleak.

Comments

[wendelah1]

I've recced it a couple of times in my journal. It's not Sherlock/John and it's not slash. It's also not canon compliant after season one. It's very, very long, like novel length, it's het fic, and it's NC-17 like whoa, but not kinky. The pairing is Sherlock/Molly. It's also brilliant. Everyone's in character and so beautifully written. The plot is complicated, exciting and ultimately life-affirming. I think it's supremely better than the series itself, at least in the second season.

Still interested? Let me know and I'll track down the link for you. It's at AO3 under Maybe Amanda.

[littlegreen42.livejournal.com]

Hmmn, I'm not really into novel-length fics and I tend to skip through sex scenes, but I might give it a try anyway.

[wendelah1]

Here you go: The Sustain Series. I think the first part can stand alone, part two is a cliff-hanger and part three is the resolution to part two.

Since I disliked the second series and don't ship any pairings and don't enjoy the kind of fic written for it (and yes, I have read enough to tell), I do not consider myself in the Sherlock fandom but I am in theirs forever more. I'll read anything they write anyway, but together, they're an amazing writing team.

I tend to skip the sex, too, but OneMil writes really great sex so I read hers. Anyway. Enjoy!