Top five great reads from 2011!

[lusciousxander.livejournal.com]

1) New York by drsquidlove: Xander is thirty-seven. Divorced. Two kids. 4000 miles from Sunnydale and his Hellmouth childhood. Also, straight. Only someone forgot to tell Giles. In fact... where the hell is Giles? drsquidlove is the awesomest writer out there! She manages to hook so many fans up on her fics and she writes Xander/Giles! It's a hard pairing to sell, but she does it so well. I've always been a fan of Xander/Giles, but I've never been a huge fan of it until I read drsquidlove's fics. She knows how to make an impossible pairing believable.

Also, what makes drsquidlove a great writer is how her fics aren't just about the main pairing, but expand to their relationships with other characters which creates a very complex character driven story.


2) Tools of the Trade by sparrow2000: A three parts Xander/Oz story. Xander goes on a little recon mission and discovers something unexpected. I love the Xander/Oz conversations here, very similar to how they interact on the show which makes it so much fun. I came to believe that the Xander/Oz banter is the FUNNIEST, WITTIEST banter in the Buffyverse. Thanks to this lovely fic.

3) Arrangements by stormwreath: Dawn didn't figure out that Willow and Tara were a couple, until the summer after Buffy died. Writer's thoughts: " I recently had a thought about Dawn. In 'Real Me', she seemed to be amusingly and totally oblivious to the fact that Willow and Tara were in a relationship. By 'Once More With Feeling', she was well aware of it, although Buffy and Xander were both still trying to preserve her presumed innocence. "Buffy, it's okay. I do know about this stuff. Besides, it's all kinda romantic."

So presumably at some point in the intervening year, she discovered the truth. When? Well, one logical moment would be when Willow and Tara moved into her house, after Buffy's death. I started imagining how the conversation might have gone, and then all sorts of other things kept popping into my mind, like the age-old question of whether W&T were paying rent for living in the Summers' house, and why they didn't send Dawn to her father... "

4) Left Behind by devo79: Xander is literally all alone in the world. Scary, heartbreaking, and wonderful.

5) Natures' Boy by iyalode: Xander-centric. Powerful languages, lovely prose, memorable images and so utterly heartbreaking.

Comments

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Very nice selection of authors. THanks for posting.

[lusciousxander.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

[drsquidlove.livejournal.com]

Impossible? Impossible! Noooo, it's the easiest pairing. You just stick 'em in a room together, and they're automatically fabulous.

Also, thank you! And squee!

S.

[lusciousxander.livejournal.com]

Haha! Tell that to all the people I talk to about your fics and they go like, "Xander/Giles?????? Ewwww! He's like his father!!"

He totally isn't and never wanted to be.

[sparrow2000.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you so much. You really have been incredibly generous with your recs!

[lusciousxander.livejournal.com]

Welcome, your fics deserve to be recced.

[yourlibrarian]

That's great to see something so epic length. Not so many of those around these days!

[lusciousxander.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I miss long epic fics. I'm trying to write one myself these days.