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Top Ten* Books I Read* in 2024 (in no order in particular)

2025-01-06T03:22:37Z

* Actually, 11 books. No wait, 12 books.
** Not including anything Tolkien related, because the would be unfair.
*** Read for the first time, no rereads.

1. North Woods by Daniel Mason

The book exceeds the hype. The prose is gorgeous - lyrical and toothsome. Within the first few pages, I was deliriously happy about how the author was describing both the physical landscape and the one of human emotion. The book focuses on a single location in western Massachusetts, telling a story of place through the voices of the people and creatures who live or pass through there, including two lovers feeling the repressive Puritan colony, a soldier and his two daughters who plant and raise apple trees, a two horny beetles doing what nature intended, a painter longing for love, a family torn apart by mental illness, and even spores brought in by the wind. The interplay between the landscape of the woods, the people living there, and the ghosts of everything that has gone before, highlight the drama of the world around us, even if we can only catch glimpses of it, with only slivers of true understanding. When I think about one particular part of the story, I still tear up. If you like historical fiction books about New England, ghosts, apples, environmentalism, and landscape and memory, I recommend this book.

2. Midnight in the Century by Victor Serge

It is strange to call a book focused a town of captive political prisoners internally exiled to a remote Russian village during Stalin’s rule as a hopeful book, yet Serge is telling us that in the greatest darkness, a pinprick of hope shines brightest. The story’s point of view shifts from individual to individual, giving us their internal truths and lives, as they exist in an overwhelmingly brutal political system. The best parts, however, are the conversations. Serge’s characters talk constantly about their ideological beliefs; no, they don’t talk - they argue, they declaim, they pontificate, they have Socratic dialogues, they banter - and it is never sterile or dull, it is humanity itself. Love, wonder, idealism, resistance all may be thwarted or destroyed singularly, but can never be stamped out entirely. People who enjoy political literature, anarchist philosophy, and European history from the first half of the 20th century may enjoy this book.

3. To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Yes, yes, I had never read this book before. The error has been corrected. What can I write about this masterpiece that has not already been written? Only its effect on me, as an individual reader. I read this book while commuting on the train and I could only go a few pages at a time, sometimes only a few passages, before I had to stop and breathe. I felt that I was being filtered through the text. I became hyper-aware of my own stream of consciousness and the absurdity of trying to engage with this level of art while tired or exhausted, struggling in a crowd of people, on a vehicle galumphing along uneven tracks. I kept thinking about the author herself, how her life turned out, and about the cost it takes to write, and the cost not to write. And I thought about my own “wedge-shaped core of darkness” - that place where everything that I would call ‘me’ disappears and I can become truly myself. Everyone should at least try to read this book.

4. The King Must Die by Mary Renault

Earlier this year, I got into a bit of a snit about some of the retellings of Greek myths that clog bookshelves and review pages and booktok. In fact, it was more than a snit - it was a full-on panty-twisting petulance. One of my problems is that the plethora of Greek-myth inspired dreck spring mostly from someone’s vague ideas of what the myths are, not from any actual knowledge of the text. Mary Renault is one of the antidotes to this phenomenon. She understands that if the past is a foreign country, then fiction set in the past requires us to travel there, not the other way around. She puts forward a strange and sometimes grotesque setting for the myth that many of us know, Theseus and the Minotaur. The modern voices that plague these types or retellings do not speak here. Theseus is a flawed hero - but his flaws change whether you look through the eyes of his world or ours. Where I expected to root for him, I didn’t, and where I expected to hate him, I understood. This a story about power, patriarchy, religion, force, and the true nature of leadership. After reading this book, I walk around with the thought that perhaps sacrificing our leaders to a hungry god or goddess might be a better test of leadership than whatever we have going on right now. If you like retellings of myth, historical fiction, or speculative fiction concerning religion and power, then you would like this book.

5. Threads that Bind/Hearts that Cut by Kiki Hatzopoulou

Full disclosure, this is actually a duology, but the story needs both books to be complete. Kiki Hatzopoulou (a Greek writer) uses elements from the Greek myths (and other culture’s myths), to tell a vibrant, new story, about a world that is falling apart in the most interesting ways. In this world, there are people who are descended from mythological entities, like fates, muses, and furies, walking through the streets, shaping society, but mostly trying to get by every day. The main character, a descendant of the Moirai (the fates), can see the threads that connect people to each other and the place they are from. She uses this skill to work as a detective and ends up investigating a series of supernatural crime in order to save her growing city and her own family. If you like young adult novels with inventive dystopian societies, Greek myths, or plucky heroines, check these books out.

6. War and the Iliad by Simone Weil and Rachel Bespaloff

I often joke that I am never not reading the Iliad. It’s truly amazing how multiple times I year, I end up reading books that are based on the Iliad, which then means that I go back to the source text (Lattimore translation, thank you very much). This book is actually two essays from the middle of century discussing the Iliad. The first, The Iliad, or the Poem of Force is written by Simone Weil in 1939 and published in 1940. The second essay is Rachel Bespaloff’s On the Iliad, written between 1939 and 1942, and published in 1943. The essays, written within a year of each other share other remarkable similarities - both are written by women, both in French, both who have Jewish roots, both in response to the circumstances of World War II and the Third Reich, and both looking at the Iliad as a meditation on the use of force and its effect. Weil argues that the central figure of the Iliad isn’t one of the characters, but is Force itself, and that anyone who uses Force is ultimately conquered by it, everyone is ultimately victimized. Bespaloff instead focuses on Hektor as a resistance-hero who must use force to save what is worth saving. Bespaloff, however, does analyze the scene between Priam and Achilles to illustrate, as Weil also does, that Achilles is as much a victim of force as the men he kills. If you like thinking about ancient texts in modern contexts, these essays are well worth your time.

7. The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon

Epic fantasy novel with a great enemies to lovers slow burn romance. Full disclosure: I read a version of this book before it was a book (iykyk) and I adored it then, so there is no way I wouldn’t adore it now. Thea Guanzon has created a phenomenal world inspired in equal parts by Philippine mythology and Star Wars. The political intrigue is top-notch, the emotions of the main characters are beautifully drawn, the magic system is fascinating, and the interactions between the main couple are electric, particularly the . . . fight scenes. (What did you think I was going to say? Yeah, yeah, those scenes are great too.) It’s the first part of a trilogy, the second book is out and high on my TBR, and I have no fear that it will be just as good, if not better. For romantasy fans, fans of cool world building, and fans of the Star Wars trilogy.

8. The Fallen Star by Claudia Gray

We’ve moved from a Star Wars-inspired novel to a full on Star Wars novel. I don’t care what people say, a media tie-in novel can most certainly make the top 10 books of the year. And this is no ordinary media-tie in novel. The Fallen Star is one of the final books of Phase One of Star Wars: The High Republic (a transmedia story telling tour de force set centuries before the events of the movies, showing the Republic as it expands through the galaxy and the Jedi at the height of the Order’s power, but also showing the beginning of what will lead to the destruction of both). Without spoiling too much, this book is about failure, failure on a personal level and on a galactic level. It ends in destruction. But it is also a book about what it means to be a Jedi - the sacrifices, the duties, and above all, the hope. If you like Star Wars, read the High Republic, and when you get to The Fallen Star - brace yourself.

9. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

This book is part of what I like to call “administrative fantasy.” Yes, there are elves and goblins and stuff that looks like magic, but mostly this is about the inner workings of imperial courts and the bureaucracy necessary to run a large empire. And it’s brilliant. The central character is a half-elven, half-goblin prince who is fourth in line for the imperial throne and basically forgotten by everyone, that is, until his father and three older brothers are suddenly killed in what appears to be a freak accident. The prince is suddenly elevated to emperor, despite having little to no exposure to the imperial court. While the outward struggle is him trying to navigate venomous court politics while solving the possible assassination of his family, the real conflict is his attempts to be an effective ruler without sacrificing his own ideals of kindness, fairness, and goodness. If you like ‘The Traitor Baru Cormorant, ‘A Memory Called Empire’ or ‘The Hands of the Emperor’, give this a try.

10. The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Do you like monster movies (like Godzilla), dinosaur movies (like Jurassic Park), or kaiju movies (like Pacific Rim)? Do you like hilarious stories about ordinary people getting caught up in ridiculous scientific projects? Do you like stories where the real enemy is corporations? Then you should read this bok. The plot starts when the main character loses his job and becomes a delivery driver in order to have some income during the COVID-19 shutdown. He jumps at the chance to take a mysterious job in Greenland with little to no understanding of what the job entails. Imagine his surprise when he learns that his new job is to travel to a parallel Earth to monitor the inhabitants, huge creatures called kaiju who survive because they have their own internal nuclear reactors. If you want to know more, read this book.

11. Last Days in Plaka by Henriette Lazaridis

Set in modern Athens, this story follows an unlikely friendship between a young Greek-American woman trying to find her artistic voice and connect with her roots and an older Greek woman living on the edge of poverty and telling tales about a happier past. The book is languidly paced, but the contradictions, hopes, and self-delusions of the two main characters draw you in immediately as you try and tease out who they are and what their future holds, either alone or together. I was entranced by the characters, how familiar they felt in some ways, but how uncomfortable they made me. I loved the descriptions of the modern Athens, taking us far from the tourist areas, into the neighborhoods with crumbling houses covered in graffiti. If you like books by Elena Ferrante and post-war European films, please give this book a chance.

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Yuletide 2023 Recs - Post 1

2023-12-30T21:14:14Z

My first set of 10 Fics from Yuletide 2023

1. 1/3 Of What You’re Saying – Only Murders in the Building
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52228417
Post-canon. Mabel tries to figure out what she wants to do with her life, while learning
more ASL. Theo helps.

2. The Visitation – The Lion in Winter
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52341208
Post-canon. Henry’s ghost visits Eleanor.

3. After the Dream is Broken – We Are a Picturesque Small Town And We Refuse To Be The Setting
For Your RomCom
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52330882
Chet Anderson and the town doctor try to figure out what is going on in Spirit Falls.

4. all the rest would have to be thought about later – The Charioteer
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52332424
Ralph and Laurie move in together. Eventually.

5. not mine – Andor
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52324441
Post canon - Cinta and Vel try to get off of Ferrix amind the chaos of the uprising.

6. The Lai of Sir Gawain – The Green Knight
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52167532
Canon-divergence – Gawain returns to Camelot, accompanied by Bertilak and shame.

7. Nightfall – Earthsea
https://archiveofourown.org/works/51576559
Canon divergence - At the end of the Tombs of Atuan, Tenar decides not to go with Ged but to
return to the Temple and her position as the priestess of the Nameless Ones.

8. To Sooth The Savage Beast – Beauty and the Beast
https://archiveofourown.org/works/51805828
Adam does not take it well when he and Belle fight.

9. descent – Gods of Jade and Shadow
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52005157
Post-canon fic where Vucub-Kame realizes that there is something off with his brother and
decides to involve the woman who had been his downfall.

10. Knit, Purl, Improvise – Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves
https://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2023/works/52474879
Xenk tries to help Edgin knit.

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RECLIST 4.1 - I Put A Spell On You

2022-12-04T22:59:18Z

Witch!Rey has definitely put a spell on me.

When Rey is a witch, I know I'm going to have a good time reading. The identity of ‘witch’ serves as a great lens to look at Rey’s self-sufficiency, knowledge, and power - along with digging into her loneliness and lack of trust. Plus, I love stories about badass witches and Rey is such a good one. Most witch!Rey stories are au’s - usually historical fantasy or modern urban fantasy. They run the gamut from fun and cute to dark and violent. In many of them, Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is also non-human, such as a vampire, werewolf, or demon, but sometimes he is a human. I don't have any canonverse fic where Rey is a type of witch, like a Nightsister. So, if anyone knows one, please send it my way. Otherwise - enjoy!

(Also posted on:
Twitter - https://twitter.com/earis_recs/status/1600348410338373632
Tumblr - https://at.tumblr.com/earisridesagain/earis-recs-41-i-put-a-spell-on-you/2vamblt5prea)

1. The Witch in the Wood

Authors: HarpiaHarpyja and Inmyownidiom
Tumblr for HarpiaHarpyja
Twitter for HarpiaHarpyja
Twitter for inmyownidiom

This was one of the first ‘Rey is a witch’ fics I ever read and it’s enchanting, no pun intended. Set in a fantasy world, Kylo Ren is a knight who fights monsters to defend the kingdom and make up for his crimes. He takes on an assignment to rescue a beautiful princess from an evil witch. But when he makes his way into the forest, he meets Rey, a lovely, brilliant, independent young witch who happens to look like a woman from Kylo’s dreams. Rey is equally intrigued by Kylo and the way he makes her feel, but she also has to deal with an evil poisoning her forest.

Status: Complete
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: violence and gore, necessary patricide, angst

2. The Devil Is Not as Black As He Is Painted

Author: aemondkinslayerx (could not find other socials)

Rey is a young witch, and not quite as successful as she would like. Plus, she has finals and they are kicking her ass, so she tries to do a little spell to help herself out. Only she accidentally calls on a lord of hell named Kylo (or Ben) and now she is stuck in a small apartment with a demon trapped in a summoning circle until she can find a spell to return him whence he came. Good thing he likes scarfing Doritos and binging sitcoms.

Status: Complete
Rating: Mature
Warnings: A little bit dub-con, if you squint; Kylo gets a bit possessive

3. Nine in the Afternoon

Author: RamboBrite
Twitter
Tumblr

Rey is very happy working for Luke in his magical apothecary shop. The only fly in the ointment is Luke’s nephew, a snooty asshole who thinks he is too good for retail and too big for the shop. One day, however, Luke leaves Rey in charge of the shop, and in charge of his naughty nephew. The same day, the shop receives a shipment of a very potent batch of a very special pollen. Can you guess what happens? (n.b. This is also a sex pollen fic!)

Status: Complete
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Dub-Con due to Sex Pollen

4. Good Fences

Author: quamquam20
Tumblr
Twitter

For me, this is THE Witch!Rey + Vamp!Ben fic. It’s got everything - independent, creative, brave, compassionate Rey and moody, mysterious, dangerous, but oddly gentle Ben. Magical artifacts, interesting rules, and of course, hot sex.

Status: Complete
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Violence

5. Our Endless Numbered Days

Author: frito_reys
Twitter
Tumblr

This fic is not yet complete, but I HAD to rec it. One of my historical interests is the Salem witch trials, mostly because they are a truly bizarre moment in history and a revelatory glimpse into the worst of human behavior. Here, Ben is Magistrate Judge and is part of the witch trials, but his wife, Rey is definitely a witch. So, go read, and give love and comments to the author.

Status: Not finished, 1/3 chapters
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Historical accurate misogyny, temporary character death, historical accurate violence and injustice

6. The Baker and the Lily

Author: steelandtemper

Werewolf Ben is very intrigued when a woman moves to the edge of the town where he is the baker, and learns that she is a witch. He is concerned for her because the town might now be very friendly to a witch, and because her cottage is dangerously close to the territory of his old pack.

Status: Complete
Rating: Teen and Up
Warnings: Some Violence

7. Unfamiliar

Author: SolarLilith
Twitter
Tumblr

Rey is a witch and binds a demon, Kylo Ren, as her familiar. After a horrible attack forces Rey to drop her wards, he reverses their situation and binds her as his familiar, bound to serve him and all his violent whims. DARK.

Status: Complete
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Dark Fic, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat; Rape/Non-Con, Murder, Violence, Gore, Sexual Slavery, Forced Pregnancy, Forced Body Modification, Forced Lactation

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Reclist 3.1 - Sex Pollen. That's It. That's the Rec.

2022-10-11T00:43:23Z

Reclist 3.1 - Sex Pollen. That's it. That's the Rec.

There’s something pure about sex pollen fic. It’s just compulsory fucking. That’s it. I’ve often joked that sex pollen walked so that A/B/O could run, but sex pollen does not have the societal complications of A/B/O and certainly does not require alternate anatomies. Sex pollen can run the gamut from crack fic (oh no, we’ve wandered into this mysterious greenhouse together what will happen) to heavy plot-driving devices (oh no, we’re mortal enemies who have been forced to have sex maybe we should work together.) Sex pollen can be considered to be a subset of a larger aphrodisiac-related trope. In aphrodisiac fics, there are all sorts of entities causing the need to fuck - including sand, moth dust, aphrodiasiac sap, alien pheremones, etc.. And while it usually rides the line of dub-con/non-con, it doesn’t have to mean that the characters themselves are forcing themselves on each other (at least until one party doses the other(s) without consent).

For my first iteration of this theme, I will be focusing on classic sex pollen in Reylo (but there will be background pairings, which I will note). 6 full fics plus a 7th microfic/drabble. As always, if you think there is a tag I missed, please let me know. And for some of these authors, I could not find them on Twitter or Tumblr, so please let me know if I’m missing someone.

General Warning: For sex pollen, most of these recs are dub-con, verging on non-con. Please read the tags in the fic!

1. This Dust Survives

Author: RedRoseWhite; Twitter

Rey has houseplants in her pod on Ajan Kloss. She starts have sex with her friends. She learns about love, friendship, loyalty, strength, and kindness. When the Force Bond opens, she shares what she has learned with Ben and brings him home. While Rey is definitely horny because of the plants, she does not regret what she has done. I love this fic because it is sweet and languid and sexy in the best way. It does have non-Reylo sex, but the true emotional connection here is Rey and Ben and it is Reylo HEA.

Pairing: Reylo, Rey/Rose, Rey/Kaydel/Poe, Rey/Original Male Character
Status: Complete
Rating: Explicit
Warning: Dub-con due to sex pollen

2. Avaritia

Author: bbl8te; Twitter; Tumblr

Rey is lost and stranded on an unknown planet. In a panic, she reaches out through the Force to Kylo. When he gets there, he realizes that Rey has been exposed to a plant that causes living things to want to have sex. This fic a great example of one of my favorite sex pollen tropes - when one of the characters realizes what is going on and tries valiantly to resist the pull of the sex pollen, despite the fact that they want the other person, even without the botanical encouragement. Kylo Ren is tinged with sadness here and feels resigned to violence, but Rey brings him to a more hopeful place.

Pairing: Reylo
Status: Complete
Rating: Explicit
Warning: Dub-con due to sex pollen

3. L’etrange affair de Venerem Pollini

Author: ELopez; Twitter; Tumblr
Language: French

Translated into English - The Strange Affair of Venerem Pollini

Translated by: ELopez with help from Everren (Twitter; Tumblr) and annonna

Regency Era Sex Pollen AU. Need I say more?

Okay, okay. Miss Rose Tiloy-Connor needs Euryale Palpatine to chaperone her when she and her suitor Lord Armitage Huxley visit a greenhouse to witness the blooming of a rare flower rumored to be the incarnation of a fertility goddess. Unfortunately for Euryale, the utterly unbearable Lord Benvolio Kylopold Soloren is there with Hux. Hopefully the beautiful flower’s blooming will provide some much-needed entertainment.

Pairing: Reylo, Gingerrose, various other background characters
Status: Complete
Rating: Explicit
Warning: Dub-con due to sex pollen, public sex, public orgy, period typically attitudes towards extra marital sex

4. Blue Flowers and Silver Skin

Author: blueyedgurl

FUCK OR DIE. Ugh, what a great fuck or die sort of medieval AU. Rey is looking for a specific flower to make a potion. The flower, she knows, has a pollen that, if encountered, makes people want to fuck, and if they don’t, they will perish. She’s carefully harvesting the flowers when the local woodsman, Ben, comes into the clearing, covered in pollen. Whatever will happen?

Pairing: Reylo
Status: Complete
Rating Explicit
Warning: Dub-con due to sex pollen, rough sex, somnophilia

5. Apart From My Beating Heart

Author: ReyloRobin2011

A post-TROS fix-it fic (sort of). After facing Palpatine, Ben and Rey escape Exegol in the decrepit X-Wing. They crash land on a planet with some very interesting trees and are overwhelmed with desire. This fic is lyrical and lovely, especially for a sex pollen fic. The sex is wonderful, and the ending strangely happy.

Pairing: Reylo
Status: Complete
Rating: Explicit
Warning: Dub-con due to sex pollen, mild somnophilia

6. Unto Dust

Author: LyricalRiot; Twitter; Tumblr

Post TLJ, Rey is searching the galaxy for works that can help her learn about the Force. She lands on a planet with the promise of deep knowledge about the Force, but her journey brings her into a cave populated by plants with a very specific purpose - increase fertility by causing a driving desire to have sex. Unfortunately, the desire for sexual pleasure is so intense that people exposed to the plant will waste away from dehydration while they are trying to satisfy their appetites. Hey, what do you know - it’s FUCK OR DIE again! When Rey is affected, the Force bond opens and Kylo recognizes where Rey is and what is happening. In addition to some very hot sex, this fic has great character work, as the two of them try to find a common ground.

Pairing: Reylo
Status: Complete
Rating: Explicit
Warning: Dub-con due to sex pollen

AND A BONUS MIICROFIC (DRABBLE)

7. Allergic (part 4 of Cap’s Explicit Reylo Microfics)

Author: CaptainMarvel42; Twitter; Tumblr

Basically, Rey’s been exposed to flower pollen and is sooooo horny. Kylo won’t touch her.

Pairing: Reylo
Status: Complete
Rating: Explicit
Warning: Dub-con due to sex pollen, voyeurism

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RECLIST 2.1 - Jail for 1000 Years

2022-09-16T00:30:49Z

RECLIST 2.1 - JAIL FOR 1000 YEARS

One of the justifications for the alleged necessity of the death of Ben Solo was that there was no other option for his character after his crimes, primarily the murder of his father. This is an absurd argument. It speaks to a total lack of imagination about what possible solutions could exist, and in fact, what would be thematically satisfactory ending for the character. While I am NOT in support of carceral justice, I do enjoy fic where Ben or Rey are or have been sentenced to prison or exile. For serious in-canon fic, the question of how to sentence and imprison Kylo Ren is fascinating, and leads to some of my favorite fics ever. These fics wrestle with themes of forgiveness, self-hatred, redemption, and rehabilitation. Additionally, from a plot perspective, isolating characters and trapping them in one place usually forces them into the introspection that I adore.

This reclist is focused on canon-verse fic where Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is in prison or exile for his crimes, either serving out a sentence or awaiting execution. There are plenty of alternate universe prison fic, which I will rec in later versions of this theme, but I wanted to focus on the canon-verse fic first.

I’ve put quotes from each fic here as well. I think these quotes do a great job of illustrating what I like about each fic.

As a general warning, all these fic discuss prison and imprisonment. Some also discuss execution and the death penalty. In several, Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is in solitary confinement, which is effectively torture, and suffers the well-documented psychological effects.

1. Morning in the Burned House

Author: disasterisms; Twitter

I consider this a Reylo fic, but it’s primarily a beautiful Leia character study. Leia Organa has lived through so much, lost so much, sacrificed so much, and now has to deal with her son’s murder of his father. At the beginning of the fic, both Kylo and Rey are broken, angry, and in pain, albeit showing them in different ways. Kylo is sentenced to exile with Luke Skywalker, and is only permitted communication with Leia, and by extension, Rey. In this fic, we never forget that Leia was the daughter of a man who tortured her and took almost everything away from her, and the mother of a man who killed her husband and destroyed almost everything she built. So, how do these characters move forward? And what can they look to to help?

She stares down at her hands. These hands have signed treaties, have been wooed by the prince of the Hapes Consortium, have killed Jabba the Hutt with his own chains, are now slicing apples in a house of exile. These hands were helpless to prevent the evil that wormed its way into her child's soul.

Status: Complete
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Grief, Angst, references to torture and murder

2. The Way To Tomorrow

Author: the-reylo-void; Tumblr; Twitter

This fic is not a light read. Which may be why this is possibly one of my favorite fics. Again, in this fic, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren is sentenced to exile on an uninhabited planet and is forbidden communication with anyone else. He is given a weapon, a blaster with a single shot. Of course, Rey neglected to inform the sentencing body about the bond, and she and he are able to communicate. Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is a very broken character here, resigned to self-hatred and self-destruction. But Rey refuses to give up on him.

There are days when the darkness hovers close, predatory, and Rey stands before him with shoulders back and a fierceness in her gaze, sends him subtle reminders of light through the bond. Sometimes he’s unreachable, deep in meditation, and more than once she finds him in tears.
Other days are hopeless ones, where the bond is awash in pain and regret, and Rey quietly backs away, allows him the space to grieve.
And sometimes, at the brief space where their day cycles overlap, they meet in the rolling darkness of their shared dreamscape, sitting back-to-back, hands barely touching, steady-eyed, holding off the darkness together.
The bond hums.

Status: Complete
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Suicide Attempt. Heavy Angst and Grief.

3. A Brief Equinox

Author: dustoftheancients; Tumblr

Kylo Ren is imprisoned while he provides information to the Resistance. He is also injured, injured protecting Rey. Rey does not remember this. Rey visits him in prison, at first reluctantly, angrily, and then more willing as she tries to figure out what happened and begins to understand him, at least a little. But he won’t talk to her. And the wound won’t heal.

With as much dignity as she can muster, she turns to leave. The hallway leading to his cell seems so much darker now that her eyes have adjusted to the light, even the weak one from the lantern. Her footsteps make a shuffling sound against the stone in the same way they had when she had come.

She had expected to feel better, somehow. Or, at least, to have a better grasp of the last forty-eight hours. All she feels is angry, and she's no less confused.

Rey doesn't make it far before she hears his sigh- it's long and shaky as a piece of flimsy in the wind.

His breath chases her down the hallway.

Status: Complete
Rating: Teen and Up
Warning: Discussion of the death penalty, heavy angst

4. Astrometric Binaries

Author: pontmercy44

At first, Kylo is sentenced to death. But at the last moment, through Rey’s intercession, he is reprieved and sentenced to exile on a harsh, unforgiving planet with little light and little change in the available light from day to night. Kylo struggles. Rey is the only one who interacts with him (except for a droid), and at first, he cannot be anything but cruel to her. However, once again, she keeps him alive.

Every day, at what he estimated to be high noon – the brightest time of the day of Cygnus II – Kylo climbed the rusty ladder and emerged from the abandoned mine. He stood on the landing pad, in its very center. He didn’t go near the cliff edge. If he did, he might break an unspoken promise he’d made to Rey. He had to be alive when she came back in two cycles.

The center of the landing pad was the center of his universe. Gravity would inevitably draw her back to that spot. He told himself that the laws of physics demanded she come back every time he lost count of the days and wondered whether she was gone forever.

Status: Complete
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Dub-con in places (mostly bad communication), contemplation of suicide, self-hatred, discussion of starvation, death penalty, solitary confinement, mental health issues

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SOURCES - Acafans and Acafandom

2022-09-06T11:23:16Z

Academia and fandom - an uneasy relationship at the best of times. Fandom studies, including studies of fans, fan activities, fan spaces, fan communities, and all sorts of fan behavior, are usually categorized as a type of media studies, but overlap with plenty of other fields, including literary criticism and cultural anthropology.

On the surface, there shouldn’t be discord between academia and fandom. Many academics are also fans and engaged in fannish behavior. Many fans experience or analyze their preferred texts or media through academic lenses or practices. And indeed, there are a lot of academic studies that are written by fans, for fans. But there are differing motives in academia and fandom which can drive a wedge between the denizens who walk in both words. Some academics look at fans or audiences as mindless, naive entities who passively consume mass-produced pop culture, or as infantile social rejects who can’t let go of their ids. There are academics who enter fan communities and study them without respect. Fans, for their part, generally do not want to be seen primarily as objects of study or figures of scorn. There are also academics who are very wary of engaging in fannish behavior because it diminishes the appropriate distance between the scholar and topic. And though fans do process media and fandom thoughtfully and analytically, fandom space contains multitudes - enthusiasms, hatreds, reactions, personal gripes, flame wars, shipping, and tons of activities that could violate copyright laws. While academia certainly has a lot of that (especially personal gripes), there are academics who prefer not to engage with those activities, and view them as distractions that take away from substantive work.

Nevertheless, I am someone who is fannish and someone who has been an academic. It can take a while to negotiate the relationship, but with some care and self-reflection, academia and fandom need not struggle against each other, but can even work together. After all, both include critical analysis, investigations of texts, and a constant interplay between thought, creation, text, and analysis. In the end, we’re just nerds nattering on about our hyperfixations. For me, reading academic works on fandom is a fun, fannish endeavor, and it has helped me understand what I am doing as a fan, where I come from, and where I am going.

In that vein, I now present a reading list/bibliography - books, edited volumes, articles, and other sources that have shaped or informed my own activities and understandings of acafandom and fan studies. This list is not comprehensive, and not necessarily an endorsement. Rather, the listed work has something interesting to say or has been an important piece in the evolution of fan studies. I’ll add to the list as I continue to read and discover.

Start here:

Books

The Fanfiction Reader: Folk Tales for the Digital Age, Francesca Coppa

Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, Henry Jenkins

Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World, Anne Jamison

Productive Fandom: Intermediality and Affective Reception in Fan Culture, Nicolle Lamerichs

Edited Volumes

Fanfic and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet, eds. Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse - table of contents here https://karenhellekson.com/?page_id=14

Articles

Thinking About Slash/Thinking About Women - Edi Bjorklund (Nome #11)
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Thinking_About_Slash/Thinking_About_Women

Why We’re Terrified of Fanfiction - Constance Grady
https://www.vox.com/2016/6/2/11531406/why-were-terrified-fanfiction-teen-girls

The Fan Historian - E Charlotte Stevens and Nick Webber https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/2125/2955

African American Acafandom and Other Strangers: New Genealogies of Fan Studies - Rebecca Wanzo
https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/699/538

Want to Go Further?

Books

Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth, Camille Bacon Smith

Novelization: From Film to Novel, Jan Baetens

Characters Before Copyright: The Rise and Regulation of Fan Fiction in Eighteenth-Century Germany, Matthew H. Birkhold

Black Women as Cultural Readers, Jaqueline Bobo

The Practice of Everyday Life, Michel DeCerteau

Rogue Archives: Digital Cultural Memory and Media Fandom, Abigail De Kosnik

Archive Fever, Jacques Derrida

Fanfiction and the Author, Judith Fathallah

Fan Cultures, Matt Hills

Black Looks: Race and Representation, bell hooks

Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the movies, bell hooks

Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Henry Jenkins

Dubcon: Fanfiction, Power, and Sexual Consent, Milena Popova

Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Culture, Janice Radway

Fan Fiction and Copyright: Outsider Works and Intellctual Property Protection, Aaron Schwabach

Edited Volumes

Fan Studies: Researching Popular Audiences, eds. Alice Chauvel, Nicolle Lamerichs, and Jessica Seymour

Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, eds. Jonathan Gray, C. Lee Harrington, and Cornel Sandvoss

Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Story Telling, ed. SA Guynes

The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, ed. Lisa Lewis

A Tumblr Book: Platform and Culture, eds. Aliison McCraken, Alexander Cho, Lousia Stein, Indira Neill Hoch

Science Fiction across Media adaptation/novelization edited by Thomas Van Parys and I.Q. Hunter

Other Resources

The Routledge Companion to Media Fandom

Fanlore - a wiki about fandom by the Organization for Transformative Works - https://fanlore.org/wiki/Acafan

Journal of Transformative Works and Cultures - a peer-reviewed journal published by the Organization for Transformative Works - https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/index

Confessions of an AcaFan - http://henryjenkins.org/

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REC LIST 1.1 - Defy the Stars

2022-08-31T03:42:37Z

REC LIST 1.1 - DEFY THE STARS

'Defy the Stars' is what I call Reylo fics with the word 'Stars' in the title.

I wanted to start with something simple because that allows me to:

a) search my bookmarks quickly,

b) rec some fic I adore, and

b) introduce people to some of the big tropes in Reylo fic.

1. A Path to Broken Stars

Author: stellardarlings; Twitter; Tumblr

Who does mythology better than Reylos? No one. This is one of my favorite fics in the entire Reylo ship because of its skillful use of the myth of Eros and Psyche as a lens for the Reylo relationship. Kylo Ren, a magic user, betrays his mother’s kingdom of Alderaan to Snoke’s armies. In the desert of Jakku, Rey struggles to survive until a chance encounter with Kylo and his Knights of Ren reveal that, unbeknownst to her, she is a magic user as well. Kylo takes her as an apprentice and begins to train her. The fic deals with themes of masks and hidden identities, female desire, and the greatest moral of all time - AMOR OMNIA VINCIT.

Status: Complete
Rating: M
Warnings: mythologically correct dub-con

2. Under Different Stars

Author: Aaveena; Twitter; Tumblr

Perhaps the largest and most fruitful type of Reylo fanfiction is where an author picks a moment in their story and has a character make a different choice. In Under Different Stars, Ben makes a radically different choice - after the destruction of the Jedi Temple, Ben does not go to Snoke, but rather cuts himself off from the Force and disappears. Rey remains on Jakku, continuing to scavenge, until a bounty hunter named Kylo Ren comes to the planet to pick up an old YT 1300 light freighter from the junkyard.

Status: WIP, 24/35 chapters posted
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: oblique reference to sexual assault

3. A Collision of Stars

Author: dustoftheancients

Completed before The Last Jedi aired, A Collision of Stars was one of the first long fics I ever read in this pairing. It has many of the hallmarks of classic, early Reylo - a darker characterization for Kylo, the incorporation of a lot of established Star Wars lore, and a brilliant prediction of the Force bond but in a way that’s really kind of different. This fic is painful in the best way, creative, gorgeous, and shot through with intense emotion and incisive characterization. The author took what we learned in the Force Awakens and careened off into the galaxy, developing their own narrative that is completely plausible and incredibly engrossing.

Status: Completed
Rating: Mature
Warnings: violence, cannibalism, plenty of dark side stuff

4. Stars Across Your Skin

Author: andabatae; Twitter

A modern AU with two of my favorite tropes - 1) at least one of the pairing is an artist, and 2) the two interact over the Internet without realizing who each other are. Rey is an art director and Ben is a photographer working on the same project, a fashion shoot. And they HATE each other - or so it seems. This is a particularly beautiful story because it also deals with intense loneliness. Both Rey and Ben are touch starved, and it laces their interactions with anguish and, later, ecstasy.

Status: Complete
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Discussion of emotional trauma and neglect

5. Broken, Accidental Stars

Author: HarpiaHarpyja; Tumblr; Twitter

Here we have a fic dealing with one of crucial the tipping points of the sequel trilogy - Kylo Ren and Han Solo on the bridge in Starkiller Base. In this fic, Kylo Ren makes a different choice, he leaves the First Order and returns to the Resistance with Han. But this is not a happy ending, just a difficult beginning. He is not entirely healed, not entirely forgiven, and not entirely comfortable. And Rey? Rey is conflicted and difficult. Honestly, this is one of my favorite characterizations of Rey out there - she is stubborn, smart, angry, compassionate, curious, and utterly herself.

Status: WIP 34/40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: nothing i can remember

6. Holo Porn Stars: The Career Change

Author: CaptainMarvel42; Twitter; Tumblr

Oh crack!fic, the engine that keeps many, if not all, of us going. This is a canon fic where footage of the Interrogation leaks on the holonet and many in the galaxy read the encounter as . . . sexually charged. So naturally, the galaxy starts making porn about it. Rey and Kylo are appalled at the low quality of much of the porn and decide to see if they can do better.

Status: Complete
Rating: Mature
Warnings: dub-con is a plot point in the in-universe porn

Happy Reading Everyone!

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The Rules of the Reclist Road

2022-08-28T15:33:23Z

Before I put up my first reclist, let's go over what to expect.

As I stated in my Intropost, one of the reasons I am returning to dreamwidth is to be able to put together fanfiction reclists like I did when I was on livejournal. A longer format allows me to better explain why I'm rec'ing what I'm rec'ing. However, when I post, I’ll also cross post the recs themselves to Twitter and an abbreviated version of the post to Tumblr.

QUESTION 1: WHAT WILL I BE REC'ING?

Right now, I am reading mostly Reylo - Rey/Kylo Ren|Ben Solo from the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. The large majority of my recs right now will stem from that ship.

HOWEVER, I am also going to rec fic from other fandoms I have loved, including Smallville, Supernatural, Stargate:Atlantis, Merlin, etc. (I won't be able to do as much of this as I would like as some of the fics I loved the most never made it to AO3 and have been lost).

In addition, I may put together other types of reclists, but the focus will always be on fandom.

QUESTION 2: WHAT IS INCLUDED IN A RECLIST?

Each post will include 3-6 fics along a theme. The themes will vary, but they can be a trope, an image, a kink, a character, something that unifies all the fics rec’d. I will repeat themes and if the fic is on AO3, the theme will be in my bookmarks.

When I rec a fic, I’ll provide a title, author, link, rating, whether or not it is completed, and short description, including why I am rec’ing this particular fic. I will be rec’ing WIPs! I personally believe that WIPs are as important as completed fics in fandom and should not be ignored, as long as everyone knows they are not complete.

For the most part, I’ll try to link to the fic on AO3, but there may be some that are on people’s own pages or other fanfiction websites. If the fic is on AO3, the theme title will be in my bookmarks. If I know the author’s Twitter or Tumblr handles, I will include them. However, I do not know them all, so if you do - let me know!

QUESTION 3: OKAY, ARE YOU DOING CONTENT WARNINGS OR TRIGGER WARNINGS?

I’ll be providing major content warnings but the tags will be more comprehensive and have more details so, please, please, please - read the tags. I am not the definitive authority on content and trigger warnings for a fic. If, however, an author choses not to use any trigger warnings or content warnings - I will do my best to be as informative as possible.

Heads up - I will be rec'ing darkfic. So, dldr, sals, and ykinmkato.

QUESTION 4: WHY DIDN'T YOU REC MY (FAVORITE) FIC?

There will be more fic that fit my stated theme than I rec in a single post. I am not slighting the author, ignoring those fics, or saying they are bad. I either: 1) am saving them for another theme; 2) am saving them for a future post with the same themes; or 3) have not read it yet.

QUESTION 5: WHY DON'T I JUST GO TO YOUR BOOKMARKS AND READ THOSE?

You are more then welcome to. I have almost a thousand and they are poorly curated. This journal is just me trying to share love with the world who does not have time to wade through a bunch of bookmarks.

A SUGGESTION:

If you read a fic I rec and enjoy it - share the love! Leave kudos, make a comment, or just boost the fic on your blog, timeline, wherever!

Happy Reading!!!

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Earis is Back, and She is Participating!

2022-08-27T02:36:30Z

Hi! My name is earis, or at least that is says on my AO3 account - earis. Here, on dreamwidth, I am earisparticipates, and on Tumblr as earisridesagain. I also am on Twitter as archaelologog and EarisRecs.

I’ve had the opportunity to take some time to reflect on fandom and fannish activities, especially as I am coming up on 20 years of participation in fandom. A variety of recent events, talking on a podcast about my experiences, some popular writers taking down works or leaving fandom, researching the intersection between massive ip and fanfiction, and the increasingly loud and troubling voices who advocate for censorship, have encouraged me to think about who I am as a fan and who I want to be.

I remember reading a book that opened with a discussion of broken hyperlinks. As a fanfic reader, when I find a fic I like, I bookmark it, or the site hosting it, and return to it when I need to. But eventually, links break, people leave, and fics are taken down, either by the author or someone else. And while a broken link is not the burning of the library of Alexandria, there is still a loss when it happens.

The ephemerality of fannish activities and the ‘products’ of fandom is part of what makes participation precious. We revel in works, and then they are lost. We lose ourselves in a fandom, and then our enthusiasm wanes. We join servers and then abandon them. We forge intimate friendships, and then we drift apart. We get hooked on a fic, and it is never finished.

I am tempted to look back and forward with no small measure of despair. And if I did, that would be my experience in fandom. Doom, gloom, and mourning something that may have never existed.

Instead, I’ll do something different. I’ll celebrate. And my favorite way to celebrate fandom is by recommending fanfic, and other fannish things I adore.

Rec’ing is one of the great joys of fanfiction. Sharing a wonderful piece of writing with the world - or at least the portion of it that pays attention to me on the internet - makes me feel connected to readers and writers.

I used to make reclists all the time, on my livejournal (RIP). But, now that I am on twitter (mostly), there isn’t space to do it justice. So I am going to do something different. I am moving back to the blog - specifically, to dreamwidth. And I am going to put together recs for people to enjoy.

So strap in, because earis is back, she is participating, and she is ready to rock.

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Introduction

2022-05-28T15:18:36Z

I'm earis and this is where I am on DW.

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