A Fragment of Endless Night, by Kass

[the-emu.livejournal.com]

Title: A Fragment of Endless Night
Author: Kass
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Q/O/X
( Warnings: )

Author's e-mail, web site and/or LJ id: wickdzoot, kassxf@aol.com, http://home.earthlink.net/~harsesis/kassandra.htm

A Fragment of Endless Night

Reasons for recommending:
There are many Emu bunnies; this is one of my favourite offspring. I wrote a prologue and offered it up to the list, and Kass stuck her fork in it. Wrote a wonderful Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan/Xanatos threesome, with lovely winding, deep and interesting characterisation, particularly of Xanatos. It's the interactions of these three that really lift the story into something special. The plot is kind of background, and Anakin's the (canonically) annoying kid from TPM. (Authors really need to age Anakin and add a lot of character to him in order for me to give a shit about Anakin. This doesn't.)

This is a long story (304k, yay!) which diverges from TPM when a third man - Xanatos - joins the battle against Maul. Of course, the ongoing battle against darkness compells the three to stick together and it's all complicated by Obi-Wan's resentment over Qui-Gon's rejection and Xanatos's scars from his last brush with Palpatine. Qui-Gon is oblivious and wise by turns and occasionally withering. Obi-Wan is stubborn and sassy. Xanatos is sexy and irretrievably bad. Time spent living in each others' pockets finds them all being far more honest with each other than any of them really planned. This is the sort of story I love best: all the drama is simply in interesting characters bantering with each other.

( Quote from story: )

Though Night Shall Fall, by Keelywolfe

[thalia]

(I'm posting this for glasshouseslive, who's out of town but will be back next week. Blame her. -Thalia)

Your Friday "Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me" recommendation.

Gloom, despair and agony on me
Deep, dark depression
Excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck
I'd have no luck at all...
Gloom, despair and agony on me*

Hello campers, TGIF! So break out your popcorn, beer and hankies, because every Friday for the next eight weeks, I'll be recommending a quality, classic death fic.

What's the one constant in the SW Prequels universe? Everybody dies! Usually quite badly. And it's no spoiler to speculate that the deaths will just keep on comin' in Episode III.

Think about it - how many fandoms have that kind of built-in angst? Qui-Gon got killed off before the first movie even ended. So before the first slasher with an angsty heart of darkness could race home and post a death fic, George beat us to it. And fans have alternately praised and cursed him for it. Well, mostly cursed him.

So you would think TPM would be overrun with Qui-Gon death fics - and it is (she says gleefully). But a funny thing happened on the way to the Internet - slashers started killing off Obi-Wan in creative, and decidedly painful ways. The younger, smaller character usually gets the lion's share of angst in any fandom, and TPM is no different.

So without further ado, here's my first rec:

Title: Though Night Shall Fall
Author: Keelywolfe
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Q/O
Summary: Set four years after TPM, a Jedi has fallen to the dark side. A combination of story and POV of the events.

Warnings: ( click here for warnings and possible spoilers )

Author's e-mail: keelywolfe@spatulaproductions.net , keelywolfe@livejournal.com
Website: http://www.ravenswing.com/~keelywolfe/
LJ id: keelywolfe
Link to story: http://members.tripod.com/~SlashGirls/toto/nightintro.html

Reasons for recommending: Keely posted this story as a WIP on the old M_A list. As the angst stacked up, I remember thinking, 'she won't go there, will she?' After all this, she wouldn't GO THERE.

She did, and I've been a fan of her work ever since. The characterization is good and solid, especially for Qui-Gon, and weepy!Obi is not in sight, but desperate!Obi makes several appearances. Anakin is also handled quite well. The alternate POVs are just lovely.

Quote from story: ( Read more... )

*Extra angsty slave boys to anyone with the bad fortune to recognize these lyrics without googling for them. *g*