Fiction:
I finally read The Bone Key: The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth by Sarah Monette. I have had this book since it came out, and every time I saw it, I would think, “ghost stories are scary! I’ll read that later!” Then one weekend I just started reading and I went all the way through with only minor stops for doing stuff. It wasn’t scary in the way I feared it would be scary. The scary was perfectly within my tolerance! My favorite thing about the series of stories were the tiny threads of continuity holding them all together.
As usual with Monette, I love her style, and the way she does point-of-view; I became involved with the characters. Booth’s social anxiety blended well with the Creepy Supernatural Hijinks, and I loved that when two different archaeologist (yay!) characters were friendly to him, he didn’t quite believe it. Booth needs a hug! Except I don’t think he likes hugs.
I also read Wood Sprites by Wen Spencer – this is the fourth book in the Tinker series, except I somehow missed book three. The plot is happening at the same time as the first two books in the series, but I didn’t catch on to that for a while. The protagonists are twin child geniuses, and I was very invested in all their (sometimes unwise) hijinks until (spoiler) their parents got Disneyed. After that, to me it felt like too much story in too little space, though I still was enjoying it and wanted to know how it ended. I now want to add Alien Taste to my re-read list.
Fanfiction:
No Second Coming by Aria is a sequel to the Dark is Rising sequence. Simon is getting married, Bran is having strange dreams, and Jane speaks to the Greenwitch. This story was totally awesome; it captured the feel of the series for me.
The Atlantis Job by LtLJ is a crossover of Leverage and Stargate. Hardison! Parker! Aaaahhhh! So cute!
The Cat-King’s Guest by onethingconstant gives us a new theory on where Bucky might have gone after CA: Winter Soldier. Wakanda!
Known Associates by thingswithwings has a great deal of fun with Captain America’s gender and sexuality. It’s really long – almost 300,000 words – and my favorite part was the 1930s-40s historical portion, which was lovingly researched and skillfully presented. Steve has to deal with how his body and his feelings about it have changed after he’s given the super sereum, then he ends up in a future world with all new rules and has to figure things out all over again. Overall, it’s a sweet story. Also, it has Rhodey!
An Early Thaw by ironychan starts off as a seemingly simple movieverse AU in which Captain America is unfrozen in 1986, but then goes into a terrific action story with space shuttles and conspiracies and hints of The Winter Soldier. Features Peggy Carter in her seventies and Tony Stark at fifteen. I loved all the In Space stuff.