Snowflake Challenges 2023 #13: Recommend Us Something

[silveradept]

Challenge #13 asks for our recommendations of fanworks we found worthwhile.

Recs are how I found my way into more than one fandom (or four) and recs are one of my favorite things about fandom. I love to make recs, in part because I want to share the love, and in part because I like to tempt people to join my favorite fandoms. And I love to receive recs. Which is why today is one of my favorite days of the Snowflake Challenge.

In your own space, rec three fanworks that you did not create.

These could be your all-time favorites, fanworks that fit a certain theme, or the last three fanworks you read/viewed/listened to and loved. If you’re looking for a way to make today’s challenge more *coff* interesting, how about rec’ing in small fandoms or rare pairs? A compilation of fanworks that make a great introduction to a fandom?

For the purposes of this challenge, a fanwork is defined as any creative endeavor for a fandom – fic, podfic, art, crafts, vids, meta... If you love it and someone else created it, please share it!

Don’t feel limited (or obligated) to make three recs. One or two is good, and so is a dozen. Just share some fandom love!

I'm actually pretty terrible at recommendations, despite doing it for at least some part of my job. It's not that there isn't a lot of material out there for everyone, it's that I don't do much to actively seek out fanworks unless they're served to me by an algorithm, an exchange connection, or attending a convention. Even then, things that I enjoy are not necessarily things that I would recommend to others. I'm still fan-shy, in a lot of ways, still believing I'm the weird kid that everyone else will think is weird, even in the middle of all the weird people. (And many of us are grown-ups, all the same, and fandom is much more extensive and mainstream than it was before.) But I can do some recs all the same, although it won't be for tiny fandoms.

If you're in the Miraculous Ladybug fandom, I'd blanket recommend AlexSeanchai for thinky works, taking things to logical conclusions, and writing a much more diverse set of characters than the original creators seem to be interested in. You'll need an Archive account to view works, and I'd start with "Where the Firelight Fades," if you have time for it.

In a different aspect of a big fandom, there's sixbeforelunch's Pi'maat series, an exploration of Vulcan society before, during, and after the Dominion War, mostly from the perspective of a healer who needs perspective of his own about his life, his partnerships, and trying to find the balance that Vulcans are theoretically famous for. (You'll need an Archive account for that one, as well.)

Recently, through meta_warehouse or Snowflake, I forget, there's a burgeoning set of meta by flashforeward about Nostalgia for LJ and the current state of social media platforms that I've subscribed to and am looking forward to seeing updates and thoughts about.

I'm also enjoying reading many of the fills in threesentenceficathon, even as the promots and replies explode.

I recently read a professionally published fanwork that I thought was excellent. Twelfth Grade Night is a high school AU of Twelfth Night, but it doesn't skimp on the identity confusion shenanigans and the love polygons of the original, nor does it shy away from making Vi into the gender non-conforming heroine she's meant to be in the story. Good for grabbing from the library.

I've been lucky to get some fanart as exchange gifts recently, and while there's just so much really good art out there on social media and portfolios and at least some of it is available as prints, as well, I got a delightful minicomic and fanart piece about the Twelfth Doctor seeing Amy Pond by dilettantefandomtrash and facethestrange made a fun Renfaire situation for Tendi and Mariner from Star Trek: Lower Decks.

So, yeah, that's what I have right now for recommendations.

Comments

[pronker]

Good, eclectic mix of recs here - and I, too, cherish anything gifted me ... and miss LJ of 2007-2012, approximately. It's a good thing fandom is so forgiving and provides other venues.

[silveradept]

Fandom does its best to try and get to other places when a hub gets shut down, because the party isn't supposed to stop just because one insane gets bought up or bought out.

[spikedluv]

That meta sounds really interesting, thanks for sharing it!

[silveradept]

You're welcome. It's intriguing meta.

[galadhir]

Ooh, that meta looks amazing! I've bookmarked it so I can read it later. Thank you!

[silveradept]

Excellent. It's on a topic that I think is dear to many of the people who would be participating in Snowflake.

[snowynight]

Thank you for your links! The Pi'maat series and the meta are both fascinating!

[silveradept]

They both are, and they're actively updating, which is nice to recommend, too.

[linky]

3 Sentence Ficathon has been so fun! I need to get just a few more prompts in before prompting, and I have some others I want to fill I still have the tabs open for. :D

[silveradept]

Yeah, the amount of prompts that appear on the fest is a giant amount to go through.