Hieroglyfics Recs

(Podfic version as edited by Lim.) Every once in a while I see a mention of this story on my flist that begins, “I know I must be the last person to read this…” so I figure I’m maybe not the last. A great action/adventure/history in an engaging and clever format, read by three dozen readers and assembled with care and skill into a not-quite-seamless but nevertheless pretty darn good whole. The variations in volume and quality of the various recordings have been mostly evened out. And I realized that I really don’t mind hearing American and Canadian (and Athosian and Satedan :-) voices as rendered in an English accent; I thought it would throw me, but quickly the accent faded into the metaphorical background, and I just heard the story.

Laura Cadman-centric, het, slash, and femslash elements. Full disclosure: I beta-read (and Ameri-picked) this story. And it’s really nifty: it’s Laura Cadman’s narrative during the events of Duet (although this story doesn’t so much fit within canon as much as it bends around canon), while she’s in McKay’s body. The Cadman-voice is a lot of fun, and watching her view of McKay change as she gets to know him better is satisfying. And the ending? Wow.

It’s hard to list pairings for this story for two reasons: several pairings are only hinted at, and some of them it would spoil the story to know in advance. Let me just say that the characters are Cadman, McKay, Brown, Zelenka, and Beckett, and most of the possible pairings among them are at least suggested in this story.

Ronon/John, Ronon/F, John/Rodney. An incredible Ronon character piece written for the Seven Deadly Sins challenge at sga_flashfic, this consists of 7 pairs of vignettes, each pair dealing (sometimes elliptically) with one of the deadlies in one year as a Runner and the corresponding year in Atlantis. Overall it builds up a remarkably deep portrait of Ronon and his relationships with others. The other characters are all beautifully drawn as well. Very highly recommended.

Radek/Elizabeth, John/Rodney. An action/adventure story that reads almost like an episode: an Ancient spaceship is found, and it has a sentient brain which develops an attachment to Rodney. The Zelenka POV is nicely done, and the characterizations of him, Elizabeth, and Laura Cadman seem so canonical to me that I can hear their voices in my head. Beautifully plotted and paced, with clever incidental details and references.

Sheppard/McKay, a touch of Dex/Weir. Apparently Atlantis is just like a Major Publishing Corporation - who knew? I probably missed half the in-jokes, but this is a funny and well-written romp in which Dr. McKay (”My doctorates are, in chronological order, Middle English morphology and syntax, applied linguistics in North America, and the history of punctuation in the Canadian novel”) runs the production department and Ronon Dex managed to leave Sateda LLC just before their takeover by Wraith Alliance.

There are sequels. I don’t like them as much as the original story.

Zelenka/Weir, Zelenka/Dex. Great structure and an interesting metaphor. I don’t normally like no-dialogue introspective stuff like this, but it’s short enough to hold my interest, and the exploration of why and how Radek loves who he does is very cool.

Hermiod/Novak, Sheppard/McKay. Hermiod asks John to help him woo Lindsey Novak. This is a wildly entertaining and witty romp that really deserves a read despite the rather odd pairing and incomprehensible title. I also enjoyed the podfic of this story as read by Temaris, which can be found here on her site.

Teyla/Ronon. This one has been widely recced, and deservedly so. A gennish look at the interactions among people of different cultures. Ronon’s background is given here as much more technological than most writers assume. The characterizations are lovely.