Absolution in the Asking, by Lemonbella (G)

[irony-rocks.livejournal.com]

Rec Category: Elizabeth Weir
Pairing: Gen.
Category: Gen. Elizabeth Weir. Rodney McKay. Teyla Emmagan. Ronon Dex. John Sheppard, Character Study. Friendship
Warning: none
Author on LJ: Don't know.
Author's Website: Wraithbait Author Page.
Link: Absolution in the Asking.

Why This Must Be Read: Though this is a rec for the Elizabeth Weir catagory, the story involves everybody and is from mulitple POVs. It takes place somewhere in the early seasons, and the story is simply how each member of the team tells a secret of their own. Deep and meaningful, with a hefty dose of that friendship and sense of solidarity we saw in S1.

Great read. ;)

( Excerpt )

"Shattered Things" by Sholio (Friendshipper) (PG-13)

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Rec Category: H/C
Pairing: none
Category: action, suspense, drama, h/c, friendship, Atlantis
Warnings: violence
Author on LJ: friendshipper
Author's Website: City on the Ocean's Edge: Stargate Atlantis Fanfic
Link: "Shattered Things"

Why This Must Be Read: What if you needed to perform surgery, but you couldn't remember how—although your own and your friend's life depended on it? Victims of a drug that causes amnesia, Carson and Rodney become prisoners in a civil war. Meanwhile, Elizabeth struggles to get the details necessary to plan a rescue—from a John Sheppard with no memories of Atlantis, let alone the mission that left him, Teyla, and Ronon fighting off hallucinations as they stumbled back through the Stargate. Radek and Lorne get involved with the rescue efforts, rounding out the cast. "Shattered Things" also features one of the best Jumper sequences I've ever read.

( snippet )

What Waits, by Julie Fortune (PG-13/R)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Rec Category: Drama

Pairing: none

Categories: drama, Daniel Jackson, Samantha Carter, team, gen, angst, hurt/comfort, horror

Warnings: “gross stuff” (to quote Julie), major offscreen violence, language

Author on LJ: juliefortune

Author's Website: Julie Fortune's Fanfic for the Fearless

Link: What Waits

 

Why This Must Be Read: In this intense drama, Julie plunges us right into the thick of events, as the team recovers Daniel from a truly horrific situation. Slowly, eerily, we learn the backstory and the mystery of why Daniel acted as he did – and what was really behind it.

 

Written with an excellent Sam first-person POV, and with everyone in sterling character, this creepy story will have you reading it breathlessly until the end... And remembering it a long, long time.

 

( snippet of fic... )

Failure to Communicate by Tipper (T)

[sholio]

Hi! I'm back to rec John & Rodney friendship again this month.

Rec Category: John Sheppard & Rodney McKay friendship

Pairing: none
Category: Atlantis, action/adventure, h/c, gen
Warning: none
Author on LJ: tipper_green
Author's Website: Tipper's Stargate Atlantis Fic
Link: Failure to Communicate

Why This Must Be Read: This was the story that got me hooked on SGA, two years ago. Not on the fanfic, but on the show itself. I read it with very little knowledge of the characters or universe, and was so deeply sucked in that I had to go out and get those DVDs! Reading it again, now, after having fallen for the characters and their milieu, I find myself appreciating it all over again now that I have a better, deeper understanding of the emotional nuances between the characters. However, it's well-written enough that it got its hooks into my emotions and made me care about and sympathize with the characters even without having the slightest clue who most of them were. Fanfic that can do this are few and far between in any fandom.

This story takes place in early season 2, post-Runner. In the wake of Ford's betrayal and the re-establishment of communication with Earth, Sheppard and McKay's lives are in turmoil and their friendship has grown strained to the breaking point. Unfortunately, they have to work out their issues under the worst possible conditions. Where the story begins, Elizabeth and the rest of the team are in the hands of dangerous enemies, and Sheppard's on the run with a badly injured Rodney. Things pretty much go downhill from there. Tipper always delivers fantastic action/adventure, keeping the pace quick and exciting while never neglecting the interpersonal relationships between the characters. In this story in particular, Sheppard and McKay's odd and, here, slightly troubled friendship is very much front-and-center.

Beyond the travails of the main characters, one of the most compelling things about this story (and one of the things that really sucked me in when I first read it without knowing anything about SGA) is the excellent world-building. I'd seen several seasons of SG-1, so I already understood the general concept of the Stargates, but this story gives a solid impression of the Pegasus Galaxy as a very different sort of place from the Milky Way, with its own history and culture that existed before the strangers came from beyond the stars and will carry on long after they're gone. Most of the story takes place off-world, and the world itself is much more than just a flat backdrop for the action -- with gypsy-like traders who travel between worlds, a mix of high and low technology, a government divided by inner strife and an OC as well-developed as the canon characters around him.

If you haven't read Tipper's stories before, you are in for a treat, and this is an excellent place to start.

( A small snippet )