Rec: Transit of Venus

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

Story: Transit of Venus
Author: LilacFree
Rating: not given, but it's got to be All Ages
Author's summary: Who are you when you're not the man you used to be? Who created the Universe? And can a girl who was raised to be a human computer find happiness in a commune with a boy in a skirt and a Beatle in a gi?
Characters/Pairings: Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe
Warnings: none

Recced because: It's cute and sweet, in the best possible way. First there are looks at Jamie, Zoe, and the Doctor as individuals, where each character considers an issue unique to his or her situation. Then there's group interaction that shows what an incredible team these three make. No mortal danger or running for their lives; just nice character work. And if you ever wondered where the Doctor learned Venusian aikido, here's your answer. After reading this story, my first impulse was to go and watch the Second Doctor serials I haven't yet seen.

Rec: "Bacchus, Ever Fair and Young"

[livii.livejournal.com]

Story: "Bacchus, Ever Fair and Young"
Author: aces
Rating: Adult
Author's summary: "Nothing like a little chemical high to take your mind off being stuck on a damned backwater for crimes you didn’t (really) commit."
Characters/Pairings: Turlough/Fifth Doctor, Turlough/Tenth Doctor
Warnings: none

Recced because: Turlough might be exiled on Earth, stuck in the 1980s at uni, but there's good drugs and sex, and he's cool with that. An AU Turlough who didn't end up at Brendan, this one likes them dark, or blond, and always pretty. Ten's willing enough, Five less so, but Turlough manages to get his way, in loud clubs and public spaces. The ending nicely wraps things up, more neatly than you could have imagined from the set-up, and throughout the writing of Turlough's character – in this incarnation – is terrific. It's hot and twisty and I'm really, really cool with that.

Rec: Sense

[dark-aegis.livejournal.com]

Story: Sense
Author: Adalia Zandra
Rating: Teen
Author's summary: One by one they left him, increasingly cut off, alone, in the silence and the dark, until only touch remained… touch, and pain.
Characters/Pairings: Tenth Doctor, Rose, Jack (Ten/Rose/Jack)
Warnings: none

Recced because: I'm a sucker for hurt/comfort fic. It's my guilty pleasure. Give me angst, beat up the characters, but give me the heart-warming comfort at the end. This story delivers in spades. Adalia Zandra brings a terrifying world to life where the Doctor's senses are stripped away, leaving him nothing but pain. Every aspect of this story is so vivid, so painful, and so real that it practically hurt to see how much pain the Doctor was going through. But it doesn't end there. Adalia then gave me some of the best comfort and the most realistic ways of dealing with the Doctor's losses that I've ever seen. This was a painful, touching, and most of all real story and I recommend it to anyone who loves hurt/comfort fics as much as I do.