A Rec, A Rec, My Fandom for a Rec!!!

[m31andy]

So yesterday was both the gig at the We Make Craft Fair and also the annual Professionals Christmas meet-up. The gig went well enough, and the meet-up was much fun. I finally got to put some faces to names (meeting the most wonderful byslantedlight and also the incredibly cool erushi). As is turning out to be inevitable, erushi and I ended up talking to a lovely girl about Life on Mars and promised to write down some recs on my journal for her.

So, especially for foxcat74, I would love to see your recs for someone who has seen the first series only, but doesn't mind spoilers, is looking for nice, sweet* slash featuring Gene, or, you know, anything else that she might like in that vein. Especially anything on mystical origins of Gene (am a little stumped there). Under the cut is mine and erushi's first stab at this, but pretty, pretty please add to this if you can.

1. Where to find recommendations

First off, lifein1973 is where all the cool kids hang out and the most wonderful lozenger8 (who is also a prolific and fantastic writer) has run several recommendations events. The best one to start with is Recommendations for First Time Readers, the rest of the Rec posts can be found here and here.

Life on Mars has a monthly presence on crack_van (except this month, which is Small Fandom Month) and you can check out the recs on the Life on Mars tag

2. Other good places to start

elfinessy is where most of us started out. You can find a list of her fic here. Some of it's a bit on the violent side, and I'd avoid Polar if you're not into Rape!fic, but it's good stuff and all warned for.

lozenger8 is where a lot of us also started out. Her fic list is here, complete with summaries so you don't accidentally stumble over her serial killer!Sam fics! I would personally recommend:
Nine Things Gene Hunt Did Which Pissed Sam Off and One Way Sam Returned the Favour (gen)
Five Fantasies Sam Tyler Didn’t Live (gen)
Aggressive Male Affection (slash, Sam/Gene)
Inverse (slash, Sam/Gene)
Brace Yourself (Here Comes the Blade), (slash, but more like case-fic. Sam/Gene)

A list of all porn posted to lifein1973 can be found here. It's in order of pairing and Sam/Gene is by far the biggest category. But there's other Gene slash on the list.

severa's Slashers guide is a light-hearted look at the relationship between Sam and Gene. It's picture-heavy, which is a bonus in my book.

3. Individual recommendations - Mystical Gene

mikes_grrl wrote Say It Ain't So. I wouldn't really call it sweet (there's technically character death, but it's mystical, so don't let that put you off), but it's certainly good fun.

To be honest, all the mystical origin stuff I know is fairly dark. We're not always a happy bunch!

4. Individual recommendations - Slash

Obviously, it being a Pros Meet, it makes sense that you may have seen The Professionals (*g*) so bistokids and dorcas_gustine's Life on Mars / The Professionals crossovers are perfect. It's a trilogy.
1. One in Every Port (Sam/Bodie)
2. Meeting of Minds (Sam/Doyle)
3. Old Habits Die Hard (Bodie/Sam/Doyle, Sam/Gene)

dorsetgirl wrote one of the sweetest/hottest/funniest alleyway encounters in What Do Girls Do?, Sam/Gene

halotolerant wrote That Old Zen Paradox. Not so much sweet as raw and real. Absolutely gorgeous.

constance_b wrote London Calling, where Sam turns up in London

5. Individual recommendations – Other

If you like cats, walkerbaby's Sleuthing for Sammy is a fantastic little story.

draycevixen's Autogenesis series is, well. Crack of the highest order. And I'm not sure how you feel about man/car, but I would recommend this as being brilliant, hysterically funny and really lovely and sweet. Er, yeah. Gene/Tina.
1) Stock Car Sam, Gene, Cortina.
1a) Caprice
2) Cara Mia Gene, Sam/Cortina.
3) Automate Sam/Gene/Cortina.
4) Auto-Erotic Sam, Gene, Cortina
5) Autocratrix
6) Molto Carino
7) To Beep, Perchance to Dream
To My Bronze Lady a rif on Shakespeare's sonnets.
One Guy Named Moe Tina/Mobile phone.

culf's The Tale of Princess Gladys is a lovely fairy-tale with dragons and knights and stroppy princesses (oh my!), also Sam/Gene.

dakfinv writes long, angsty fic and all of it is utterly brilliant. But she also writes nice stuff as well (sometimes). Check out the incredibly sweet Sam and the Sheep.

How We Smashed Johari's Window by halotolerant is a nice long, fairly angsty, 'but it all turns out all right in the end' fic. (it also has a sneaky bit of Pros in it…)

I know there's lots more out there, including a couple of, well, mystical CID fics. Any help would be appreciated!!!

* Please note, in this context, sweet means no rent-boys, evil!Chris, Stockholm Syndrome, serial killers or character death. There's plenty of time for indoctrination later…

Comments

[culf.livejournal.com]

How on earth did you miss out on dakfinv's lovely Sam and the Sheep? ( http://community.livejournal.com/lifein1973/958622.html#cutid1 )
I was about to suggest Sam and the Tree as well, but then remembered that you were looking for sweet fics.

[mikes-grrl.livejournal.com]

TOTALLY was going to rec Sam and the Sheep! Love that fic!

I did that one Say it Ain't So that gives Gene mystical origins...not really aware of too many other fics that do.

Also love WalkerBaby's Sluething for Sammy which isn't slashy but is very sweet.

dorsetgirl is known for her very romantic Sam/Gene stories.

Then there is the brilliant How We Smashed Johari's Window which even includes a bit of Pros crossover. (sneaky Halo!) And oh yeah, my favorite EVER, also by Halo: That Old Zen Paradox.

And I have to say, this story by Constance_b I adore, even though it is set every post-everything. It shows a deep and loving relationship between Sam and is very hot too. Never a bad mix. London Calling.

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks for that list.

The only other mystical origins fic I can think of are all fairly dark. And they don't really fit the criteria anyway. We all did a fair bit of Sammy!bashing back last year, didn't we?!

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

I think I forgot to write it down when I was in the pub... Ta chuck.

[paulgregory.livejournal.com]

mystical origins of Gene
That might have to wait for the inevitable Demons cross-over. (link may need refreshing thrice, bonkers server).

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

*bwah* And I don't doubt that there will be at all.

(Actually, I'm quite surprised there's not been any Life on Mars / Devil's Whore cross-overs as yet...)

[peppapig.livejournal.com]

We Make gig was good :) For a 1st gig and with only 6 of us! :) Yay we are great

Loads of good comments coming our way and one person saying "That's a great sound system they have....what? Oh, they're over there! Aherm That's why it sounds so good..."

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

We Make gig was good :) For a 1st gig and with only 6 of us! :)

Yeah, that's pretty much what I meant!!!

Glad we got good feedback.

[peppapig.livejournal.com]

Good cos that's what I heard. I was just agreeing with you :)

One of the stall holders' mother was Austrian and she loved the German carols. She was singing along and really wanted her mum to hear, but she didn't arrive until later in the afternoon. Said we were good with pronunciation.

[erushi.livejournal.com]

Hullo! I'm incredibly sorry I this late to the party. You did a fabulous job - the list is looking mighty fine. *g*

Did a little bit of link-poking, so here're a few more I mentioned that day just to save you the trouble of digging around for links:

Five Ways to I Love You by mikes_grrl, because it has LC in it and how could a Pros fen not read something with LC in it? *g*

By nepthys_uk,

Just Another Monday Morning because jealous!Gene is always a sight worth having

Adventures in Cleaning with Edith and Edna

Kidnapped!Gwen by bistokids, whose writing I have often secretly fangirled from afar, Those Two Impostors

And! I managed to find the film noir AU I babbled about that afternoon/evening after a surreptitious bit of poking in the archives. yo_mawari's Shadow Man, which deserves points for being nice and plotty and executed with suitable film noir style.

It was lovely meeting and chatting you at Scarsdale! Fingers crossed that I'll be able to see you at next year's bash, or at any London LoM thingy held when I'm around and I'm able to work up the courage to show my face.

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks for these. I'll add them to the list!

And it was fantastic to meet you at last. I've seen you around on various friends journals and I always wondered what you were like! I sincerely hope you'll be able to make the next LoM meet-up as it's a pity you won't be around in London for the 20th.

[erushi.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Well then, I hope I didn't disappoint. *g* I admit that I'd seen you around various friends journals too (and heard rumours about your greatness too), and was curious as to what you were like as well. *g*

[eta] I hope you don't mind too terribly that I've friend-ed you. Anyone who can make me laugh about serial knitting murders deserves wagons of admiration. *g*

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, rumours of my greatness are greatly exaggerated. Or something like that! And no, you didn't disappoint in the slightest!

Will friend back, but be warned, the serial knitting murders is probably the most interesting post on this journal for ages!

Thank you!

[foreverfoxcat.livejournal.com]

Goodness me, I don't know where to start! Thanks ever so much for getting this list together, I feel like Christmas has come early! You've certainly given me a lot to get my teeth into, I'll let you know how I get on and which fics I particularly enjoy. I read a couple on the Life in 1973 first time readers recs page you pointed me to, and they were pretty hot. I can see there's a lot there to fuel my guilty passion for Gene Hunt. :D

It was really nice to meet you at the Scarsdale and talk LoM with you, and to take my first steps towards dipping my toes in this new fandom.

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! And please, yes. Let us know which ones you really like - then we can rec even more good fic!

It was lovely to talk to you as well and I look forward to seeing you around in the LoM fandom!