Jules Jones

Sartorias aka Sherwood Smith has a good fanfic rec and discussion thread going, which is worth reading in its own right -- but to my delight, one of the links was to a fic I read a couple of years ago and failed to properly bookmark, to my deep regret.

Green Ice by Adina is a Bertie Wooster-Lord Peter Wimsey crossover that captures both universes perfectly. It starts out light and fluffy, as befits the Woosterverse, but soon the darker aspects of Wimsey's world intrude -- and in true Woosterverse fashion, do so without Bertie ever noticing this, but with it being clear to the reader from Bertie's prattle what is going on. Bertie's prattle is in fact a significant clue in its own right, for Wimsey and Bunter were partly based on Wooster and Jeeves, and this fic draws the parallels between the two pairs very tightly indeed. Tight enough to break your heart by the last part.

Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/59649.html, where it has received comments. I'd prefer comments at DreamWidth given LiveJournal's repeated link hijacking on my paid account.

Another long piece of Whoniverse fanfic from Sam_Storyteller/Sam Starbuck/Copperbadge. This one's about 40k words long, i.e. short novel length, and uses those words to great effect. Sam has taken the "Doomsday" and "Cyberwoman" material, and linked it with some of the things we're shown about the classic Cybermen in the Hartnell and Troughton eras. The result is a story that takes Torchwood season 1, drops in one small fact a second or two after the credits roll in Cyberwoman, and makes you see parts of that season in a whole new light. It's beautifully written, with characterisations that build on and deepen what we get in canon. But this is more than good characterisation. There's a solid story here, one that would make a good tie-in novel.

The small fact is that Ianto wasn't physically converted, but *was* subject to direct mind control by Lisa's Cyber personality. With her death, the conscious control is gone, but that doesn't mean Ianto's free. Jack's interrogated more than one person who's survived an encounter with the Cybermen, he's heard enough about their methods to recognise what he's seeing, and he's not giving up Ianto without a fight.

It's not quite compatible with canon for me, because it doesn't quite mesh with the scene towards the end of Cyberwoman where Ianto is pleading with Lisa to remember who she is. But it makes a great deal of sense in the context of what we've been shown canonically about Cybermen over the years, both the original Mondas Cybermen of classic Who and the parallel universe Cybermen of new Who. This is an excellent piece of work, tying together elements of classic Who, new Who and Torchwood in a satisfying way.

Posted in five parts, plus author's notes on the canon material used, part 1 here. Sam's own description:
Rating: PG-13; R in the final chapter
Summary: Jack has studied the Cybermen for forty years, and he's damned if he'll let one take any of his people away from him without a fight.

Sam Storyteller's been at it again. Today's offering is a rather good cross-over, details as follows:
Title: The Justice League Of Cardiff Is A Stupid Name
Rating: PG
Summary: Superman is evil and Batman wants to know why Torchwood's agents don't wear capes.

The bit where I started laughing out loud:
"Yeah, but we're not proper superheroes, I mean we don't have cost...umes..." Gwen trailed off, watching Jack hurry past to his office, greatcoat sweeping along as always.

Sam_Storyteller has been at it again, with a gorgeous series of "what if" vignettes about the many lives and deaths of Jack Harkness. If you've not watched Torchwood: Children of Earth yet, leave this until you have -- there are mild spoilers, but more to the point, you'll miss some of the emotional layering. If you have, I think The Harkness Variations is worth your attention.