Paian is one of my absolute favorite Jack/Daniel writers; her characters are mature, wholly dimensional, believable entities whose feelings and thoughts I can empathize with and care about, in short she achieves what so many people can’t quite reach: real stories about real people who I really care for. This story is no different. It’s set after Fragile Balance and centers around both the clone!Jack and the regular Jack and Daniel. It’s lovely, plotty, and satisfyingly long.

Not Us

This is a different, harsher Daniel than canon really suggests but Komos makes me buy it the same way she makes me buy nearly everything she writes: because I am a complete sucker for internal logic and interesting characterization.

Pars Pro Toto

Funny, sweet, just this side of schmoopy and hotter than hell. John has uncontrollable seizures and Rodney’s the only one who can help.

That Pon Farr Thing

An Orchestra AU in which John is a violinist and Rodney is a prodigy conductor and they are both broken and put together again in interesting and complex ways. This is the kind of AU that just fully envelops you, where the universe is so rich and the characters so spot on that everything clicks immediately.

String Theory

15.000 words + graphics, audio, and video. Utterly engaging. A gorgeous, gorgeous telling of the story of John Sheppard, World War II test fighter pilot and Dr. Roney McKay, airplane engineer. This is well worth more than two read throughs, it’s lovingly detailed throughout and put together so well.

Missed the Saturday Dance

Set during the team’s first return to earth back when Sheppard was still Major Sheppard this is a lovely filling in canon’s missing blanks type story, one of my favorite genres of fanfiction.

Things to Do In Denver When You’re Dead

When Resonant takes on a cliché you’re pretty much guaranteed a good time. Terms of Service is Res’ take on slave fic and it’s fabulous.

“You’re telling me that you would sell your bodies for curiosity, orbital shielding, and a quarter-charged ZPM?”

“Well, yeah. Who wouldn’t?”

Terms of Service

I have no idea how I missed this story on the first go-round because I’m about 7 months late now, but anyways, perhaps there are still some people who haven’t read this either. I should preface with the fact that I do not always love Helen’s writing. I often find her style to be a little to sparse for my tastes. This story, however, breaks the pattern in fabulous ways. It’s complex, and just slightly painful, and very subtly character driven and I adore it. Also, the title is wonderfully misleading.

Your Inevitable Unhappy Ending

Some fandoms lend themselves better to AUs than others. For me, SGA is one of those fandoms in which I cannot read enough AUs. This story is AU to a point: John is still in the Air Force, at least at the beginning of the story, and Rodney is still a physicist, but they never go to Atlantis. Instead, John finishes out his tour in Antarctica and goes to Iowa to live on the farm his grandfather left him when he died. And Rodney meets him there after his tire blows out near John’s farm. What I like most about this are the details and the slow build of their friendship. Good characterization and solid pacing.

A Farm in Iowa

There’s Sam learning about his powers and Dean angsting as Dean does, and a Missouri we maybe sort of got a glimpse at in canon, and really, really good plotting.

Until I Can See Again

Lenore is a fabulous storyteller. Her scenarios are always inventive and completely entertaining. This is a fantastic take on the aliens make them do it genre of fic.

What Happens on Telarus and What Happens in Atlantis

This makes two het!threesome recs in one day which is weird for me because normally I am not all about the threesomes. But this is so much more than that. Warm and layered, and told from Sam’s point of view, I love that she really gets John and Rodney and genuinely cares about them. I also love that John is so hesitant about it all, because for serious, the only way this could ever go down would have to be like that. And this is as much a John/Rodney story as anything else, which was a lovely surprise.

Yoshino

OMG 12,000 words of amnesia fic from one of my favorite Jared/Jensen writers is like heaven on a good day. And this is so, so fabulous. Touching and funny, with a perfect side cast and all these lovely details, all paced incredibly well.

You Must Remember This

Shallot pretty much rules at everything so when I heard that she’d written new Smallville I jumped at the opportunity for a good, long read. And this satisfies perfectly. Long, plotty, and well detailed, it ties in perfectly with the Batman Begins mythology and has a great Bruce Wayne.

Ulterior Motives

This is a really interesting story because Toft takes all these things (or maybe really only one thing) that I didn’t think could possibly work and convinces me of them absolutely. John’s into cross-dressing and Rodney’s pretty much just into John; but it’s so much more than that too.

Second Skin

This is such a fantastic story, detailed and complex. This Sheppard is really interesting, I love that Lenore goes into his Afghanistan experience and ties it in with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell so thoroughly. Also, Teyla especially is really excellent in this, strong and intuitive and incredibly loyal.

Parsus

Messy and complicated and lengthy. Jared is really good in this, and the whole story is just good. The author calls this porn with a little plot, and while the sex is scorching, there’s totally a plot in there with it.

6 lessons to live by (as told by jared padalecki)

I love that this is a fandom that gives good gen fic, This is exciting and well told, and Sam and Dean’s voices are spot on. There’s fantastic banter and a spooky bad guy and some really cool spell mythology.

Crossing the Line

This is such a perfect first time fic. And the boys are delightfully funny with a good blend of angst and humor.

Six Degrees and Morning Light

You’ve probably all read this already but I’m just getting into the fandom so I’m all a-squee over it. Gorgeously written and wonderfully characterized. I love this Jensen. And I love how tentative they are around each other. This is a fantastic story.

By the Letter