Enormous post of Star Trek recs, leavened with comment and bitchery

(Occasionally, my LJ posts do exactly what they say on the tin.)

First of all, a quick statement of policy. This doesn't come up as often as it might, but well, I am about to link to stories which may or may not have porn in, and who knows, one day I may even post some, if I ever manage to type "cock" without laughing, one never knows. I am an adult in (almost) every jurisdiction you care to name, but I'm well aware that not everyone reading this is, and well... I'm not going to attempt to stop you. (O hai, I was lying my way into ficathons at fourteen, I am not inclined to be BIGGEST HYPOCRITE EVAR.) But if you're reading me and understanding me, you're smart enough to know what's okay for you personally to read, and what isn't. (Click the back button if people start saying "cock". Or don't. It's cool.) On to the good stuff.

Recs! I actually recommend you read the others first, and then come back to these first two, because while they are my undoubted favourites, they're also pretty long and take a peaceful evening to read.

Break by yahtzee63.
26,000 words. I told you it was long. It is about Uhura, and about Spock, and about both of them together, but it takes its time getting there, goes through logical, nuanced explorations of character, and theme, and builds up a whole world out of small pitch-perfect details: like Uhura's family traditions and the childhood games Spock played on Vulcan. I love the characterisation - I love driven, awesome Uhura and Spock's fundamental uncertainties, and I love how she shows them complementing and changing each other. It's just beautifully, beautifully done.

(It's a little hard to navigate at the moment, so here are parts two and three.)

Lunch and Other Obscenities by rheanna27.
Everyone should have seen this already, but in case not: Uhura and Gaila, getting to know each other. There's an amazing structure of Orion family life and taboos created for this fic, and it all fits together beautifully, and also it kind of cracks me up. Read it.

Dear Star Trek fandom: yes, yes, yes to the Kirk/McCoy. I like Kirk/Spock, but mostly for nostalgic reasons. When it comes to reading, Kirk/McCoy, though, is all fabulous and snarky and BFF and yes. I love it. Fandom, keep it up.

In A Moment Close To Now, by thistlerose.
Kirk/McCoy, and very... them. Funny, and full of those BFF vibes I was talking about, but with subtle undercurrents. I like everything of hers, actually - Access Denied, in which Scotty is awesome and Kirk is.... not, is another great piece - but this is my favourite.

Body of Evidence by the_dala.
Kirk/McCoy, ish. The crew of the Enterprise start laying bets. Sweet and very funny.

The Hard Sell by exiled_mind.
Kirk/McCoy. Jim is very persuasive. It's not quite perfect, this one - the pacing struck me as a little off - but it's gentle and wonderfully silly and has the characters down right.

In Truth, by mint_amaretto.
Kirk/McCoy - but that's not the point. This is... hard to quantify. It's an AU, it is not nice, and it does not mean to be nice. But it's well-executed and memorable. One to make your own mind up about.

While we're still on the Kirk/McCoy, by the way, whoever decided that making McCoy a girl was the best idea ever, carry on. Yep. Keep right on going.

and you take me the way I am by londondrowning.
Oh god, I love this. Jim is just so totally fail, girl!McCoy is the hottest thing ever, it's fabulous.

Four Times Jim Kirk and Lenore McCoy Didn't Fuck by telesilla
Like I said: hottest thing ever.

Aaaaand, gen.

Ten Sessions, by dsudis.
Ahahah. McCoy decides he probably needs some help, seeing as he joined Starfleet and he has a phobia of flying, and he can't be worse than the guy who needed twenty-four sessions for his rampant xenophobia. Very nice and very funny.

Four Consequences of the Unexpected and Unlikely Friendship Between James T. Kirk and Nyota Uhura by trisfic.
The author's summary is "Boys. Girls. Clothes. Pon Farr." Yeah. One of those solid gold win things.

Only the Good Die Young by _seven_crows.
Five things Chekhov doesn't like about being seventeen on the Enterprise. So cute, such a lovely Chekhov voice, it's cracky and awesome.

It Takes a Village by chaletian.
This is the first of a series the author calls Village!verse, which are all ensemble gen pieces, all hilarious, all worth reading, but my favourites are You Can Choose Your Friends, in which Scotty makes a very insightful observation indeed, and Telenovela, in which life on the Enterprise isn't exciting enough for Chekhov, who grew up on a diet of Russian-language soap opera. It all rocks.

To The Enterprise: of Warp Barriers, Captains, and Other Scary Things by karanguni.
Chekhov and Scotty could take over the universe, they really could. This is a perfect taste of that.

The Word For World Is- by laurajv.
"Vulcans did no such thing; they named the planet Vik: the well in the desert. They named the continents Ashv'cezh, Laktra, and Vrekasht: Revenge, Grief, and Outcast." This is... god, tragic, and beautiful, and really gets at what it means to have a planet, an entire world, destroyed.

There are also the wonderful drabble memes: Journey to Drabble, Drabble On The Edge of Forever and Where No Drabble Has Gone Before.

(I have not read all of these, but I liked: Gaila finding her independence, Kirk having a surprise party, McCoy and Joanna, Chekhov admitting something he probably shouldn't, Uhura playing poker, a bit on Chekhov's family, McCoy hungover, the one redeeming feature of Delta Vega, Spock and Uhura being the last word in cute, Uhura doing Chekhov a favour, and Sulu's no-good terrible day.)

Also, you know what I want? Scotty fic. Come on, internets. It must be there somewhere. Please tell me if you find any, I'm coming up empty-handed.

And, finally! A brief moment of bitchery. You know what is great, in fandom? New people. I don't care you've been writing Kirk/Spock for forty years, it doesn't make you a better writer than one who's been writing it for forty hours, and you don't get a free pass on crappy writing just 'cause you used to write for zines. How nice, how hardcore, shut up.

...I am done. I am going to Bristol tomorrow, so may not be around for a bit. Someone write me Scotty fic while I'm gone, I'm not at all demanding.