SGA recs

[schneefink]

siria is thinking about SGA in a post that reminded me of some old favorites and that SGA fandom has the best stories. (So I'm biased, so what? ^^)

It also reminded me that I wanted to rec some new SGA stories that were posted in December and badly advertised. Maybe there are more good ones, but browsing the AO3 SGA feed really makes me appreciate a good summary.

Speak Slow by jendavis
Gen, John/Ronon, 4,6k
John and Ronon are stranded on a planet when the gate translation system breaks down. I like how they communicate and become closer. Some unnecessary italics imo, but a very nice story.

Dona, Dona by faith_manages
Gen, Radek + OCs, 4,6k
Radek backstory! I want more Radek backstory. This one is about his childhood. My favorite part is the story in the end.

Easy by mayachain
Gen, Jennifer, 260words
Post-EatG. This reads like a story written against fanon, not canon, and that I dislike this bit of fanon makes it even better.

Blackmail by mosymoseys
John/Elizabeth UST, John&Rodney, 250words
I suspect that part of the reason why I like this snippet is also because it's not the sort of fanon I usually encounter: John wants to sleep with Elizabeth, and Rodney is mean, and while it's not my headcanon it's not further from canon than many McShep fic.

Just a Case of the Flu by kerravon
Gen, Carson, team, and Athosians, 11k
Reading this story made me realize that I don't think I've seen a lot of gen Carson POV. Maybe I would have liked him better? This was a bit strange to read because I expected something very different from the ominous summary talking about the 1918 influenza, and it never got as dark as I expected. While it's nice to see more of the medical staff, I wish they'd been more competent. Some nice team interaction with Ford.

Answer-Man and Terrific Torren Verses the Man in Black by ami_ven
Gen, John&Rodney&Torren, 430words
This is silly and funny and adorable.

sga_santa starts posting soon! I'm so excited. I get a story this year, and also comments on a story I wrote!
Now back to work, hopefully, and maybe this time I can skip feeling so incredibly stupid because of how far behind I am. (Yes I know writing this doesn't help.)

Comments

[gaffsie]

This is such a cool collection of recs! I've gotten used to seeing the same ten stories recced over and over so this is a real breath of fresh air.

It kind of makes me want to do one of my own!

[schneefink]

Yes, I noticed that too: there's a couple of stories that are recced over and over, and maybe a hundred or so that are recced with some frequency, but mostly older fic and many McShep. I know that I often feel reluctant to rec fanworks that are "just" good, not amazing, but maybe other people don't know them yet and would enjoy them.

Please do! :D

[astridv]

Cool. The John/Ronon one sounds particularly interesting. I like SF fic that deals with the auto-translators breaking down, and that rarely gets explored in canon. Jendavis wrote very good Hardison/Eliot plotty fic for Leverage.

And if the Jennifer one is anti-fanon, it goes on my reading list too. Have I mentioned recently how much I loathed Jennifer fanon? (I probably have. But it bears repeating. smh)

[schneefink]

Fortunately the first thing that comes to my mind when thinking about Jennifer fanon are sholio's fic because she's one of the few writers who actually writes Jennifer as a character and not as McShep background. Not at all representative of fandom as a whole, but I'm very happy with my selection and ignoring the rest.

It's always nice to remember that even though there are so many fics written already there are still more than enough stories to explore. Now I want stories where the auto-translators never existed in the first place.

[astridv]

Yeah, Sholio and Tipper! And a handful more.

Hm, yeah, I wonder whether those exist. I read at least one more where it's defunct.

[schneefink]

I remember two Rodney/Teyla fic where the translation system temporarily failed.

Hm. The planets who trade a lot would use a common trading language in addition to their own, but having your own language is a sign that your people are still alive and have survived the Wraith so everyone is proud of it. Others who trade less, like the Genii, don't like using trade language, so people who want to trade with them have to use Genii. Interpreter would be a valued job.
We know from canon that Rodney picks up new written language relatively quickly (Ancient, probably Goa'uld, Genii etc.), what about John? Ford, who's been with the program longer, probably already had all kinds of introductory language classes, as had many other Marines and some of the scientists. The words of ancient Latin and Greek they studied just in case aren't very useful because the languages evolved so much over 10,000 years, but at least they remember quick ways to fit the important parts of a language together.

[saphirablue]

Thank you for the recs! :)

[schneefink.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! :)