Fandom Snowflake Challenge #5
Jan. 10th, 2026 06:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
axaelFandom Snowflake Challenge — January 9th
❄ Challenge #5 on![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
snowflake_challenge.
Wishlist!
In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.
- So, I'm doing the little challenge for myself of attempting to read a book a week. Who knows if I will actually manage this, but I think I read maybe four or five books last year and three of them were in the same series, so literally anything will be an improvement on that, lol. To that end: scifi and fantasy book recommendations. Please rec to me your favorite books of the last...five years or so? I enjoy found family and books where the author clearly loves all the characters but that doesn't mean the characters can stand to be in the same room as one another. I also would love any recs for novels translated into English that you found particularly compelling. (Also preferably scifi/fantasy. :)) I developed a fondness for translated-from-Chinese ones, but I haven't poked around anything recently.
- Hi! Yes! Please rec me fanfiction. I will read any length, and my primary reading fandoms are: Star Wars, SVSSS, BBC Merlin, MDZS, Batfam, Teen Wolf, Stargate, Leverage, The Sentinel, ATLA, Murderbot, Witcher, Game of Thrones, and Fandom-inspired Original Works. I love outsider PoV and Original Characters, and longfic that is...internally consistent enough that I don't necessarily need to know canon. I adore fusions and crossovers and crack treated seriously. (May I direct your attention to my favorite Yuri on Ice+FMA fusion, seated alongside my beloved Dresden Files+Welcome to Nightvale Time Travel Epic.) Also, if you have any time travel fics, I would adore them. I have eaten through a huge chunk of the Star Wars and MDZS ones but I keep finding more and I love them immensely. I will at least attempt a canon I am canonblind for.
- I would love it if you dropped me your Ao3 or other fic site so I can poke around and maybe chat about your fanfiction that you're writing? Mine is
desiderii as an example of what I write/enjoy, though since I mostly write longfic and everything that's up is old and getting older, I'm not asking for comments (lol). Just. Share with me what you do! If you write fic, what's your current fandom and what's your favorite fandom you've written for?
❄
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Date: 2026-01-11 05:59 am (UTC)That is a very good description of a thing I also like! :)
Some of my favorites from recent years:
Novels:
- Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh -- POV is a character who grows up in, basically, a space fascist cult, gradually comes to some realizations by interacting with people she doesn't like very much and via some cool sci-fi effect
- Both of the the novels from Everina Maxwell, Winter's Orbit (which was originally an Original Work on AO3) and Ocean's Echo -- both are sci-fi, m/m, set in the same universe but unconnected. Both have pretty interesting planetary cultures and memorable characters. I prefer Winter's Orbit, which I found more fun, but both of the lead characters in Ocean's Echo are great, I just wish they had more time together at the end.
- Lady Eve's Last Con by Rebecca Fraimow -- a really fun f/f romp through a Conspicuous Consuption-flavored space frontier backdrop, really fun first person narrator running a con, great family feels
- The Unspoken Name by A.K.Larkwood (there's a sequel, but I haven't read it/didn't like the part I read as much) -- fantasy (orcs, elves, gods) with travel between worlds, the first thing I thought about in terms of found family composed of people who can't stand each other.
Novellas:
- The Iron Children by Rebecca Fraimow -- steampunky fantasy with interestingly complex worldbuilding, nuanced morality, and distinctive POVs
- Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky -- really neat novella of a subgenre that I'd describe as "seems like it might be fantasy but it's actually sci-fi", except that your get two POVs, one aware that it's a sci-fi story and another who thinks she inhabits a fantasy world -- probably the most 'found family' of these
- Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson -- sci-fi, time travel with a colorful, cantankerous cast, and some interesting POVs
As for SFF in translation -- I'm a Russian speaker, so I originally read these in Russian, but in one case I've also read the translation I'm recommending, and in another I know people who enjoyed the translation, so can also recommend it
- Monday Starts on Saturday by the Brothers Strugatsky (specifically the Bromfield translation) -- this is an old Soviet book, but thanks to a couple of layers of unreliable narrator, I think it still stands up pretty well for a modern audience. This is a "normal guy stumbles into a magical university" story, so urban fantasy, and very cute. (The modern Chinese sci-fi I've read reminds me a lot of Soviet sci-fi, so if you enjoy that, this might be a fit. Strugatsky have a lot of other worthwhile work, Definitely Maybe in particular is I think a better take on Three Body Problem, and Roadside Picnic is a classic.)
- Vita Nostra by Dyachenko -- a friend-of-a-friend recently described this as "dark polytechnic" as opposed to "dark academia", and that's a great description. This is dark and rather depressing, but also a neat work, and felt very connected to the Soviet/post-Soviet roots of its setting, if that makes sense.
I hope some of these will prove interesting if you check them out!
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Date: 2026-01-11 08:05 am (UTC)Fantasy
Voyage of the Damned by Frances White
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chanderasekera
Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland
Sci-Fi
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune
And my favorite of all time that I'm just re-reading for the 100th time right now:
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
I'm always up to talk about writing. My stuff can be found here.
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Date: 2026-01-11 08:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-12 07:49 am (UTC)I have not read any of those, which is awesome. They all sound fantastic. I'm also especially...startled? Pleased? By the novella recommendations, because I have always enjoyed novellas, but I hadn't realized that more were starting to find their way to readers. Heh, plus I have several Tchaikovsky books on my list to read, too, but novel-length.
The Russian translations sound very interesting, and I'm going to have to take a peek!
Thank you. :D
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Date: 2026-01-12 08:00 am (UTC)Poking your list--do you do a lot of yuletide/small fandom fests? And I honestly love how many crossovers and polyam you've got in there. Do you have a favorite crossover you've done? Or a favorite fic that you've written?
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Date: 2026-01-12 08:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-12 08:44 pm (UTC)because I have always enjoyed novellas, but I hadn't realized that more were starting to find their way to readers.
SFF novellas are having a HUGE renaissance, I think! (to the point where I think some things are getting published as novellas that may have been better off being something else, either shorter or longer...) But, yeah, Tor.com/Reactor has been publishing a lot, and I think other publishers are starting to do so as well. (The frustrating thing to me about novellas is that often they're priced similarly to full-length novels, and, like, even if I'm really fond of an author, I'm not going to pay $10 for a 100 page book...)
plus I have several Tchaikovsky books on my list to read, too, but novel-length.
I have started and run out of steam on several Tchaikovsky novels -- I was enjoying them, they were just quite long! -- but Elder Race is my favorite of his things I've come across, by quite a margin.
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Date: 2026-01-16 07:55 pm (UTC)also i would love to take a look at this YOI+FMA fusion you mentioned, if you don't mind 👀 that sounds incredible!
If you write fic, what's your current fandom and what's your favorite fandom you've written for? i had to pause and think about this for a second, because i would say that my main current fandom is kpop rpf, but perhaps that's many fandoms in a trench coat. i think maybe some of my favorite fandoms i've written for are the smallest ones (Coppelion, White Christmas)? very quiet, but it's nice to feel like i'm contributing and exploring new ground from a fic angle. my ao3 account is here.
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Date: 2026-01-19 07:14 pm (UTC)>.>
Original character fandom blind longfic, you say? May I humbly present a (Batfam-adjacent if you squint) fic of mine for your consideration? Feel free to disregard if the tags are not your thing, but either way you are also welcome to peruse my other works if you feel so inclined. The longfic is not all posted yet but I finished writing the last chapter literally yesterday and will be upping my posting schedule soon :)
I admit I've been pretty siloed in the 80s/90s DC Comics corner of fandom in terms of writing, but I really respect the breadth of works you've got! I will try to check those out when I have more time. This was a great wishlist for this challenge!
Wish Granted!
Date: 2026-01-21 06:12 pm (UTC)Some books that I have enjoyed:
Turns of Fate by Anne Bishop
A Change of Tactics: A Sime~Gen Novel: Clear Spring Chronicles #1 by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Mary Lou Mendum, Jean Lorrah
The Founding of Valdemar Series by Mercedes Lackey
For additional recommendations, [Bad username or unknown identity: duckprintspress"] both publishes and posts rec reading lists of speculative queerlit.
>> Please rec me fanfiction. <<
Here is my list of best fanworks found in 2025.
>> I would love it if you dropped me your Ao3 or other fic site so I can poke around and maybe chat about your fanfiction that you're writing? <<
I can't use AO3 anymore, but my biggest fanseries Love Is For Children (The Avengers) is here on Dreamwidth. My author site is PenUltimate Productions, of which the most fiction is linked on Schrodinger's Heroes: Crossover Content, and both fanwork and original poetry on the Serial Poetry page.
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Date: 2026-01-21 09:47 pm (UTC)I haven't shared my AO3 with anyone in the longest longest time, but as I'm making a concerted effort to start writing again I will have to get used to sharing it! I don't know that I can recommend my fic per se as it's aging and I've learned a lot since I wrote most of it, but we have fandoms in common so you can find mine here. I have added yours to my reading list, as I have to manage my screen time quite tightly, but I will take the time to have a good look through *g*
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Date: 2026-01-22 02:54 am (UTC)Just Another Saturday by Alyjude
https://archiveofourown.org/works/37544245
Return to Sender by Alyjude This one is serious.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/39012120
Guide for Sale by ALyjude Another serious one.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/39012909
If you would like anymore of hers, just let me know. She has a ton of them.
Pinecrest by Rentgirl2
https://archiveofourown.org/works/571525
no subject
Date: 2026-01-22 05:46 am (UTC)