472 replies to this topic

[Flying Penguin]

Skylar522 was wondering in the Shipper Thread:

Would you point us to these delicious fanfics you've loved so much? What website do you find them on? Who writes them?

Especially the delicious ones! I'm always looking for good writing.

This is as good a time as any to start back up the ol' FanFic thread!

Of course, you can find all the fanfic under the sun over at good ol' fanfiction.net but if you're looking for quality, head on over to GeekFiction. You shall not be disappointed. And use the "Easy Search" function at the top to find the pairing your heart desires.

If you're jonesin' for GSR, the fine folks at Your Tax Dollars At Work can point you in the right direction.

[curtainonfloor]

If anyone's after any quality Nick/Greg fiction, visit What Makes the Desert Beautiful, a Nick/Greg haven.

[wlk68]

A great site for Gil/Nick slash is Fingerprints:
www.fictionresource.com/csi/index.php

[Leevee]

The best place, I find, is LiveJournal. My favorite community is Lab Rats, for fic/icons/discussions of Bobby, Archie, Jacqui, Hodges, and the rest of the lab rats.

For Hodges himself, there's The Full David Hodges Experience and David Hodges (most of the fic at both is either Hodges/Greg or Hodges/Nick).

For Bobby fics, there's The Ballistics Lab (mostly Bobby/Nick).

For Grissom/Greg, there's Gil Loves Greg.

Nick/Greg can be found at http://community.liv....com/nickngreg/

And for general slash fics, there's always http://community.liv....com/csi_slash/

Off LJ, there's Unsung Heroes, a lab rat archive.

Edited by Leevee, Mar 29, 2006 @ 6:48 PM.

[noahsotherwife]

For all things Nicky, there's Oh No, Nicky!

[Flying Penguin]

For anyone doubtful about even giving fanfic a chance should start with Wintertime's fics (at ff.net, her own site, or CSI Forensics). Even my friend who won't read any fanfic (because it's just mindless fun) admits Wintertime is pretty damn good. My favourites: Teacher's Pet (long, AU) and How to Have a Social Life Without Really Trying (short)-- GSR but they don't beat you over the head with it. These two fics are just the perfect mix of humour and creativity.

[gloosmoos]

Anyone know of any good Brass fics? I've read a great many but I'm hoping someone might recommend one or two that I missed.

[PrincessArtemis]

I heartily recommend Wintertime's fics. Zen Garden is good, too, but beware of unrelenting darkness if you venture into All Fall Down. Spike Speigel1 is also excellent (GSR mainly), as is Bicoastal (actually Cincoflex and VR Trakowski as co-writers--both excellent together or seperate). Bicoastal writes Brass/Lady Heather, good stuff.

Edited by PrincessArtemis, Apr 2, 2006 @ 9:19 PM.

[SCChemE]

I second that on Bicoastal - excellent Lady Heather / Brass stories. I prefer that series to the Pirates of the Third Reich anyday!

[Flying Penguin]

I'm very scared about trying Wintertime's All Fall Down. I know, so pathetic of me. I feel exhausted enough just from reading that fic's reviews.

[sab85]

Even my friend who won't read any fanfic (because it's just mindless fun) admits Wintertime is pretty damn good. My favourites: Teacher's Pet (long, AU) and How to Have a Social Life Without Really Trying (short)-- GSR but they don't beat you over the head with it. These two fics are just the perfect mix of humour and creativity.

I second this (or third it or whatever). Wintertime is amazing, to the point that I think Teacher's Pet is my favorite of any fanfiction. Greg is just so perfect in it.

Another good one at FF is SLynn (the 'Happy' series, Sara/Greg and Nick/OC , with lots of angsty Greg)

Edited by sab85, Apr 5, 2006 @ 5:06 PM.

[PrincessArtemis]

I'm very scared about trying Wintertime's All Fall Down. I know, so pathetic of me. I feel exhausted enough just from reading that fic's reviews.

If you have reservations, don't. It really is dark with dark frosting, a dark center with angst sprinkles served on a dark plate. It's good, I'll be straight with you, but it is dark!

But DO read Teacher's Pet. It's witty, hilarious, a perfect send up of all Highschool fic. Words can't describe how wonderfully written it is.

Seconding SLynn. The Body rocks. She does good Greg/Grissom friendship fics.

Edited by PrincessArtemis, Apr 6, 2006 @ 10:33 PM.

[Merreh]

Have to agree about everything that's been said about Wintertime. I didn't see "Blood in the Water" mentioned, which is a fantastic examination of the relationships between the team members in a time of tragedy.

Although, beware All Fall Down if you've got a weak heart. Absolutely amazing story, but it breaks my heart every time. You can tell its amazing if it upsets me so yet every once in awhile I have to go back and scan a few chapters.

I think Wintertime might be out of fic writing (it's been awhile since any updates), but I hope she has a change of heart and comes back to finish her WIP.

I would also recommend Kristen999 for Nicky fic.

I also have to recommend Iboneki's fics on fanfiction.net, especially Requital and for some well-written humor, Napoleon's Battle Plan.

[noahsotherwife]

THANK YOU noahsotherwife for recommending Oh! No! Nicky! I absolutely LOVE that journal. I'm checking it every day.

You're very welcome! I just can't believe how much it's grown over the past year. I remember when it was just 20 of us repeatedly counting down the days until Grave Danger.

[CicadaNymph]

Can anyone tell me the author or title of the "alternate universe" story that has Grissom into domination and Sara going under cover as his "slave" in an investigation in San Francisco (I think)? (Sir and Zara ultimately). I discovered it some time last year, and had it bookmarked, but when I tried to find it again a while back, it seems the website had moved, or the links have disapeared, and I can't find it anymore, try as I might. There are so many fanfic sites out there and they all blur together in my head. When I try to remember which author it might have been from which specific website - I just can't figure it out.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? My apologies to the author for being so negligent as to forget their name - it is no reflection on the fic, believe me! The writing was superb!

[PrincessArtemis]

That sounds like a fic (forget the title, think it might be "Power Exchange") by Cincoflex. Unfortunately, I don't know where to find it, since the only place I'd seen it is her site which seems to have gone poof. You could try hunting her up at FF.net and YTDaW (I don't know how active she is there, but she ought to be at least findable--you might have to register to contact her at either site, though) and asking if she has it stored elsewhere or if she could send it to you. I hope that helps.

She's an excellent author and has several steamy stories as well as some very interesting ones with unique styles. I have no idea if she's on Adult Fan Fiction or CSI-Forensics, if nothing else, Google should turn something up.

Edited by PrincessArtemis, May 6, 2006 @ 11:16 AM.

[Banana Tooth]

This is a roundabout way to find Power Exchange, but it's how I found it: go to the YTDaW link at the beginning of this thread, go to the Top 10 thread, and someone there has it listed in their top 10 favorites.

[PrincessArtemis]

Bah, I misremembered her correct URL. Like that's never happened before. I guess her site didn't go poof :)

[CicadaNymph]

Got it, thanks Skylar522! and to everyone else too, who made suggestions! :-)

[zero2aries]

I haven't seen any recommendations for femslash fanfic yet. I wasn't sure if one would be welcome especially now TPTB have decided to make one 'ship canon (bad writers - no biscuit!!) and since most of the comments seem to be from m/m fans.

Still. I can't be the only femslash fan here surely? *g*

The best multi-author femslash site I've seen is Passion and Perfection - most of the pairings are Sara/Cath - though the number of Sara/Sofia fics is on the rise and could soon surpass it as the OTP.

There are a few other minor pairings.

Obviously the quality varies from the oh-god-pass-the-bucket-this-is-dire, through the indifferent not quite true to character, bad pwps and so on, to the really good.

I can recommend the Cath/Sara fics Crash and Yearn and Long River in Egypt by Nique Bartok and also the CSI/SVU Cath/Sara Alex/Olivia crossover Cold Feet, Cold Case by ncruuk.

There's an excellent but unfinished Sara/Olivia Benson CSI/SVU crossover too Between Love and Hate

And anything by Ralst the site owner is worth a read.

[wlk68]

Something I've been thinking about for quite some time now....Mary Sues.

Personally, I can't stand them. I'm not quite sure why but, to me, it comes off as rather arrogant to insert yourself into a story and be the one to crack the case or be the one true love of your favorite character. It also seems like a rather "junior high" thing to do...it lacks a certain level of sophistication that I like to have in my fanfic.

So, I'm curious how everyone else feels about them.

Am I alone in my thinking or am I in the majority? Where do you stand on the subject of Mary Sues?

[PrincessArtemis]

Mary Sues aren't inherently self-inserts, although they can be. Personally, Mary Sues drive me crazy, including when I have to read them in high school because some famous writer worte a famous book that really was all about Mary Sue.

Self inserts only work for me if they're written with tongue firmly in cheek.

[zero2aries]

William Petersen - executive director. Presumably has some say in how his character is developed.

Gets to play Gil Grissom - who can treat an attractive younger colleague like crap for years and still keep her devoted to him and ultmately reward her with a relationship with him.

The ultimate Mary Sue??

Discuss.

Seriously though. Doesn't it depend on the nature and quality of the character? Don't all writers (published or not, famous or a nonentity like me) put something of themselves (or how they'd like to be) into every book they write?

I write femslash. Some fandoms are packed full of slashable charaters. CSI has Sara, Sofia, Catherine, Mia, Wendy (etc), crossovers with NY & Miami. L&O:SVU had Alex & Olivia. Xena had any number of slashable women.

There's no way on God's green earth I'd consider putting any original character into one of these fandoms except as villain. Let alone a Mary-Sue.

But Cagney & Lacey. Now there's a fandom hard to write femslash for. Slashing nice, housewifey Lacey never sat quite right with me. So I have to slash Cagney with an OC. And it's almost impossible not to put some of my ideal-world self in.

If the Mary-Sue isn't totally self-sacrificing; dying for their love-object; super-intelligent; solving all the cases; getting everyone (male or female) in the lab to fall in love with them; and the writer manages to make them human, believable, flawed and well written, is it such a problem??

(I'd stay well clear of fanfiction dot net btw - because I've yet to find a fic there that had a M-S that fitted that description. And I'd go as far as to say 80% of all fics there suck.)

[wlk68]

(I'd stay well clear of fanfiction dot net btw - because I've yet to find a fic there that had a M-S that fitted that description. And I'd go as far as to say 80% of all fics there suck.)

...and that's exactly where I was right before I went off on my little rant about Mary Sues. Sometimes, I don't know why I even go to that site.

That one-out-of-a-100, really well written CSI story, that gets posted there is sandwiched in between tons of poorly written drivel. Many of which are...you guessed it: Mary Sues.

[PrincessArtemis]

If the Mary-Sue isn't totally self-sacrificing; dying for their love-object; super-intelligent; solving all the cases; getting everyone (male or female) in the lab to fall in love with them; and the writer manages to make them human, believable, flawed and well written, is it such a problem??

But that would be an OC, not a Mary Sue. Mary Sue =/= Self Insert =/= Original Character. Now all three can occur at once, but they don't have to.

Think about it this way--for Zuiker, Nick Stokes is an OC. Is Nick a Gary Stu or a self insert? No.

Of course every character, canon or otherwise, anyone ever writes will have some of themselves in them, but that does not an SI make. That's just unavoidable. SIs happen when a writer either can't write an OC without writing themselves or chooses to put themself in the story (if well done, it can make for some hilarious results.)

Mary Sues are often thinly veiled SIs, but not always. Still, there they are. I did write a story once with an OC that probably could have passed a Gary Stu/SI litmus test, except that he was written in a way that he wasn't the focus of the story and served more as a foil to get the canon characters to think about each other in a different way. I've never been told that he was a Gary Stu or an SI; I have been told that he toed the line, but it was OK because of how he was used in the story.

FF.net isn't...that bad. It does take a lot of digging to find them, but there is much gold and many gemstones in that sludge pit.