Rec: Pages from a Broken Book

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

This is my final rec for the week, so I'd like to thank calapine, first, for allowing me to come back and share some more of my favourites with you all, and isiscaughey for her own recs this week. It's been a pleasure, and I hope that you've found at least one story this week that you've enjoyed.

Story: Pages from a Broken Book series - 14 separate single-part stories
Author: Azriona
Rated: Most individual stories rated All Ages; one rated Adult, one rated Teen
Word count: 26501 (most individual chapters between 1000-3000 words)
Author’s summary: He thinks of life as a book, every page a different story. His life, as he once knew it, is broken; these are the pages therein. Told from 10.5's POV.
Characters/Pairings: Rose Tyler, The Doctor (Duplicate 10th)
Warnings: None

Reason for Recommendation: This, like The Devil You Know, is a post-Journey’s End story that sticks in my brain, because it makes me think. Fluffy, happy endings for the Duplicate Doctor and Rose are ten a penny. Stories where they have to work for their eventual happy ending are fewer, but still fairly plentiful. Stories where the author actually gets inside the Duplicate Doctor’s head to show us why this is practically a nightmare scenario for him, and not at all one where a kiss and a smile from Rose can make it all better, are very rare indeed. This one’s the best by far.

The Duplicate Doctor is half-human, which means he is also half-Time Lord. He’s been torn away from the only life he’s ever known, and from his constant companion, the TARDIS. Yes, he’s got Rose, but that’s not straightforward either because she’s still working out who he is to her compared with the original Doctor. This Doctor has no idea who he is; the only way he can define himself is that he’s not him, the original Doctor. He’s tied to one place and time, without even the final remnant of his own race and planet, and he’s suddenly genetically altered. azriona doesn’t make light of the Doctor’s adjustment trauma, or the way he’s trying the patience of those around him and, while he does eventually find his measure of peace with the life he’s been abandoned to, this story still makes my heart ache for him.

( Short extract below the cut: )

Rec: 'Twixt Earth and Paradise

[mysticalchild_isis]

This is my last rec for the week- just wanted to say thank you to the Calufrax mods, my fellow reccer wendymr, and to everyone who commented on the recs and the stories. It's been a blast!

Story: 'Twixt Earth and Paradise
Author: Patrice
Rated: All-Ages
Word count: 45,336
Author’s summary: The Doctor is curious about a new settlement on a small, remote planet. However, an inquisitive mind is not always a good thing.
Characters/Pairings: Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, OCs
Warnings: None

And for my final rec, I offer a fantastic Fifth Doctor multi-chapter adventure story. Excellent writing and impeccable characterization make up a story that easily could have been an episode. Beyond being an excellent mystery story (with an occasional tinge of creepiness), the fic also contains some wonderful individual moments with each of the characters.