Forsan et haec olim scripsisse iuvabit.

Congratulations to my f-list -- specifically lyrangalia (first place, Divergence), artemisrae (third place, "Everything I've Ever Had") and cornerofmadness (members' choice, "A Better Fate") -- for taking three of four places in the Fullmetal Alchemist category at this year's UFO Awards! You guys rock!

Further congrats to lyrangalia for her second place ribbon in the Dresden Files category, with "The Greatest of These". Wear 'em both proudly!

Go me for getting third in the TRC category, too. Confounded fanon shippers, ignoring all the really good stuff among the ATLA entries, grumble, mutter ... everybody go read "In Our Bedroom After the War", which should've gotten tagged, growl, gripe ...

kanja177 and I have been poking around the Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle fandom these past couple of weeks in search of well-written gen-fic -- no, really, it does exist, though not in great quantity. For example, one_go_alone delves fruitfully into Fai's backstory in the plotfic Porcelain. (I'm also fond of this writer's short story "Family," a Kurogane-centric character piece that's just gen enough -- subtext is everyone's friend.) Another plotfic worth reading, though sadly unfinished and likely to remain so, is iridaceaena's Fleur-de-Lis -- its three chapters only just manage to set up the plot problem, but the character interactions are delightful. Saulie's short story "Tea at Four" lacks a little in execution, but presents an interesting character moment between Fai and Kurogane. Similarly, gisho put together a fascinatingly brief TRC/Narnia crossover, "What Would Have Followed" that IMO begs for a longer treatment to take full advantage of its base concept's power, but even as a sketch it's wonderfully creepy. Klitch unfortunately loses sight of the larger setting of hi/r story "Telling Stories" while focusing on the back-and-forth between Fai, Kurogane, and Mokona, but that back-and-forth has a substantial payoff, so I can't gripe too much. Serenphoria pulls a well-characterized, back-to-the-wall Fai out of the Infinity arc; some insightful attention to detail gives "Breathe, Infinity" great bite. (Heh.) Alexi Moonshine, in her short story "That Would Be Alright, Wouldn't It?" tries with some success to get inside Sakura's head during the Infinity arc -- having spent time wrestling with Sakura's POV in the much less fraught Piffle Arc myself ("Golden In the Mercy of His Means"), I can definitely appreciate the effort (though my orthographic prescriptivism rises up to howl over the use of "alright" for "all right"). Finally, lazulisong tells the story of Syaoran's arrival at the court of Clow in a sweet little ficlet, "Smile".

So far, so good. I might have to put the question to tsubasarc to see if there's more. There ought to be ...

CLAMP, Tokyo Babylon 1-2 (tr. Ray Yoshimoto, Alexis Kirsch and Carol Fox)

( Read more... )

岩永 亮太郎 [Iwanaga Ryotaro], Pumpkin Scissors 2 (tr. Ikoi Hiroe)

( Read more... )

CLAMP, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle 16 (tr. William Flanagan)

( Read more... )