Some of my favorite SGA fics so far this year.

[icarus]

More presents for everyone. Some of my favorite SGA stories this year:

Unidentified by fiercelydreamed R. John/Rodney.
Without a doubt "Unidentified," an AU that takes place with SGA characters who met in college instead of in the Stargate program, is the story of the year. What an amazing, powerful, beautiful, poetic read. I'm not a fan of amnesia fics. I can take them or leave them. But here fiercelydreamed built on the understanding that amnesia isn't about Rodney's past, recovering his memories and returning him to who he was, but discovering who he is without his memories. Without the trauma, without whatever had made him the sarcastic, rude, rather bitter man whom you love anyway for his raw, vulnerable honesty. She reveals the traits fundamental to his personality: his wonder, his obsessiveness, and his powerful intellect.

As if that insight alone weren't enough, she slowly adds, in small doses, what John knows of Rodney's recent past, their history together, and what Rodney's memory loss means to John – both good and bad – and then there's the incredible scene where John is kicked out of the military. It would be excruciating (if still bittersweet) without fiercelydreamed's gorgeous writing. Better yet, the story is tightly structured, honed, giving you no more than you absolutely need to know.

Then we have that final scene where you learn Rodney's last act before he lost his memory, and the whole story is turned on its end and you know the truth. I don't cry at stories. But she got me with the sheer joy of it.

All this would be enough to make this the finest story of the year – and I say this in confidence in August. Not a chance anyone's going to surpass this. But as if that weren't enough, then there's fiercelydreamed's beautiful prose:

In late spring, L.A. to Chicago is a high bright daydream. Eight and a half miles of air lie between the wings of John's Learjet and the rumpled fabric of the continent below him, its crude patchwork of golds and greens. An apple dropped out the window would take four and a half minutes to reach the ground. In the stratosphere, numbers sing in John's head like a symphony: the soaring strings of the gracious tailwind, the solid gold horns of air parting around the wings, the thick timpani boom of turbulence. With his hands on the controls and the sun streaming through the windshield, John understands Newton, Einstein. He thinks he understands Icarus, climbing recklessly upward: joyful, burning, calling hallelujah as the wax melted away. Chasing last every second of it, even that final fall.

He loses something when the wheels touch down.

fiercelydreamed, I envy you this story, and applaud, breathless.

The New Atlantean Dictionary of Literary Terms by thingswithwings NC-17. Various.
The first time I tried to read this, I shut it down. Not because I didn't like it but because I just didn't have time for what was obviously a complicated story.

Now I'm glad I've had time to get back to it because – who knew someone wrote the Canterbury Tales for SGA? Okay, it's not Canterbury Tales and bears no resemblance to those stories, save (like Chaucer) some parts are better than others. Yet it has that feel of meandering adventure where you never know if you're going to find a comic piece (that bit with Cadman and Simpson getting themselves into hot water, hee), or something gentle and heartwarming (Ronon and Zelenka telling each other weird Satedan and Czech folktales over a campfire), or – this is fandom after all – incredibly hot strap-on sex. Eventually all the threads interlace and come neatly together. I fully expected the John/Rodney to be the jewel of the story, even knowing as I went in that everyone hooks up in the strangest of ways (hot, lesbian Teyla/Heightmeyer, anyone?). But Lorne/Cadman? Okay, those two steal the show.

Fix by crysothemis NC-17. John/Rodney.
The hottest story so far this year (but I leave room for more, so try hard, all of you). Holy cow. It helps that dubious consent is a bulletproof kink of mine, and wow, while Sheppard went into this willingly, he certainly didn't know the cost. Even hotter, Rodney isn't exactly on board either. John Sheppard finds a room in Atlantis that only he can open and it leads to a dangerous addiction. As they're forced into an uncomfortable sexual relationship you realize what a total and complete disconnect there is between the two of them. Rodney really has no clue what's going on in John's mind, and John can't read Rodney at all.

More than just the hottest story so far this year, it's a refreshing take on John/Rodney (usually portrayed as an easy understanding relationship). What an interesting observation, that they can be close while coming from such different perspectives they misread each other all the time.

She's written the same story from two points of view – for which I'm grateful, since there's so much the other doesn't know. The order that was recommended to me (and the order in which they were written according Crys) is Rodney's POV first, then Sheppard's. The reveal is slower that way and oh, so much better.

Junk Cheap by devildoll R. John/Rodney.
Junk Cheap is an AU written in the classic loose style of first season SGA fanfic: casual, playful, devil-may-care, with a gleeful disregard for canon. Rodney's a professor having to scramble for lodgings at the last moment who ends up in a second-rate building populated with retirees. John's the slacker who runs a junk shop downstairs. We all know they're going to end up together, and it's amusing to watch Rodney's low opinion of John slowly shift as they fumble towards a relationship. Altogether enjoyable. You will probably look up some classic first season fics at the end.

The Checkmate series by beadattitude most G, moves up to R/NC-17. John/Rodney.
Sweet, sweet, sweet. Do you love cats? Do you love John? Do you love the fact that Rodney loves cats? Do you know for a fact that Rodney loves John? Then you have all the prerequisites for this story where John, in an offworld Ritual with Ancient Technology, ends up getting turned into a cat while his mind remains intact. Thank goodness Rodney knows cats better than anyone, eh? It was written by someone who obviously knows cats and her John-as-cat is perfect (see how I avoided the obvious pun? You would never have forgiven me otherwise). Bead captures cat-human communication, the vulnerability of John in his sleek (but little!) feline form, and her scenes left me grinning. John with a dingle ball, anyone? A shredded Ronon? A cat playing chess with Zelenka? The story is a little frustrating in its current form, with scenes posted out of order (best to select the tag and read them all), but hey, it's not like it's an action/adventure where the order matters all that much. I look forward to when Bead polishes the story, but in the meantime, it's too much fun to wait.

Where You Want To Be by wojelah. John/Rodney. NC-17.
By rights, with a name like that, this story should kill you with schmoop, drown you in syrup. Don't run. It's quite the opposite. This is a powerful tribute to the late Dr. Carson Beckett that deals head on with his loss. Rodney, at Carson's posthumous request, is assigned the job of informing Carson's mother of his death. Since Rodney's not known for his tact and diplomacy John goes with him. What follows is a rich description of Carson's large, nutty -- yet strikingly normal in their quirks -- family. His mother is marvelous, I can't imagine Carson crossing her often, and if you don't want to periodically hug and then strangle his sisters you're made of tougher stuff than I am.

wojelah understands loss. How ordinary life continues in a surreal sort of way while the rug's been pulled out from under you. The way you have to continue with silly details -- hotel reservations, rentals, buy flowers, we're out of toilet paper -- as if everything were normal, even while those silly details seem staggeringly unimportant. John and Rodney, in the midst of coping with the Beckett clan, have their own ways of mourning. John's locked up as tight as a drum while Rodney... is Rodney. In the end they prop each other up. The story acts as an epitaph and fandom commentary: so long as the Stargate Atlantis fans still have John and Rodney, they can deal.

Inundation by ltlj PG-13. Gen.
Classic Stargate team sci-fi. John's team, with a bunch of scientists, get caught in a flood off-world. Yes, there's danger and excitement and tension, but you never doubt too much that they'll be rescued. The story was written for a sga_flashfic challenge and the world ltlj describes is magnificent. You're left with a sense of wonder. There's a little hint of meta here, too, noticing and explaining why, although the worlds SG-1 visits are different from each other, the ones in the Pegasus galaxy all tend to look the same.

Weapons of Some Distraction by shrift NC-17. John/Rodney
There's an entire sub-genre of stories about John and Rodney on Earth when the Atlantis team was kicked off Atlantis by the Ancients. The common threads: a) they are bored, bored, bored, and b) they keep in touch, and keep each other entertained. Beyond that the details vary. Here shrift reminds us that, yes, John and Rodney are twelve. Yes, they can subsist on the four food groups: pizza, Pepsi, beer, and take out. Yes, Rodney's idea of making John buy things for his apartment consists largely of toys. They're such boys, in fact, that it's almost surprising they get around to anything as adult as sex. What's amazing is there's no tectonic shift, no romance – John and Rodney just continue, the same as ever.

While You Were Out by mad_maudlin PG-13. Gen.
Good morning, John Sheppard! Do we have news for you. I won't tell you the messages John receives after waking up from a serious injury (that would spoil the fun) but there were a few changes while he was out. His first clue: Rodney's manic exhausted grin. mad_maudlin is howlingly funny. (My favorite part is Caldwell. Hee.)

Catch-19 by mmmchelle NC-17. John/Rodney.
I looked forward to learning the name of the author, and I should not have been surprised. The IOA decides to yank John from the Atlantis mission – nothing personal, they're just don't trust the U.S. military. Rodney concocts a cockamamie plan to solve this: John should marry someone from another country that the IOA will accept. Elizabeth suggests Canada as a top candidate. Yes, you know what's coming. John won't use a woman like that (or set himself up for another divorce) so they decide he'll marry... Rodney. In a delightful inversion of the marriage trope, John and Rodney never take this bullshit wedding seriously for a second. They mock wedding traditions, want to use the vows from Spaceballs, and are completely on the same page – even if their friendship turns out to be a little deeper than they suspected. The scenes with Woolsey in particular are priceless.

When Nothing's Left To Burn by auburnnothenna NC-17. John/Vala.
A story so hot, it's branded on my mind, months later. Mission sex, passionate and intense, these two are amazing together. But it's never going to have any meaning for either of them, oh no, of course not. Told through the lens of Vala's flippant narcissism and quirky sense of humor, tragedy takes on an ironic glow. There's something about the wake John Sheppard cuts through people's lives that makes them also choose to be self-sacrificing. It's like he gives them no choice.