plotty slash recs

[hradzka]

OK, continuing the gen meta: one reason I prefer gen and am grumpied by the ever-increasing amount of slash is that I want more from my story than most slash stories give me. I have a lot of least favorite kind of stories, but one of them is the story in which characters have issues that are caused/summed up by the fact that they are not fucking, and then there is a lot of YEARNING and FEELINGS, and then there is fucking and everyone is happy. Too often, the answer to the question, "why didn't they just get to the fucking earlier?" is "because then we couldn't have the YEARNING and FEELINGS."

So give me some recs of slash that doesn't do that! Plotty slash, in particular.

Comments

[lian]

Heh. I don't actually mean to be contrary by reccing Captive Prince (original slash) because I like to think of it as plot porn. Sure, it does have yearning and feelings, but those are resulting from politics and only marginally from the fact that they're not fucking. (I'd say. It's popular enough others can weigh in and dispute that.) It's nice that there's a lot of actual *action* in there too.

[laurajv]

Despite beta'ing this story, I cannot remember if it is actually slash or not. I am 99% sure there is slash in it, but it's background to the main story.

basingstoke, The Waters of Life And Death. About 40,000 words including all the little end pieces. Highlander/XF crossover.

[elanya]

Before I slap down any recs - are you using 'slash' to refer to specifically same-sex stuff or just in reference to anything shippy/not gen? And are you looking for recs of things you might theoretically like or *just* of things that don't fit that pattern? Because there is all kinds of stuff out there where there are FEELINGS (if not yearnings) on either side of the sex, and I am under the impression these are not things you would care for, either way!

[elanya]

Well I found some that are suitable regardless, but I can probably turn up others, depending on what you are looking for:

Bakcheios (9755 words) by emilyenrose
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Bacchae - Euripides
Rating: Explicit
Warning: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Relationships: Pentheus/Dionysus, Pentheus/Actaeon
Characters: Pentheus, Dionysus, Actaeon, Cadmus, Agave, Autonoe, Ino
Summary:

When I was a very small child my Aunt Semele was struck by lightning and died.

--Horror mythology slash. Plotty (as follows the myth)

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The Diplomat (14376 words) by earis
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Classical Greece and Rome History & Literature RPF
Rating: Explicit
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Alexander the Great/Hephaistion
Characters: Alexander the Great, Hephaistion
Summary:

Hephaistion builds a bridge across the Euphrates. For Yuletide 2011.

--Totally plotty and political, opens with gay sex and the relationship is the driving force behind the plot.

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Akratophoros (9243 words) by Sineala
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Classical Greece and Rome History & Literature RPF, Highlander: The Series
Rating: Explicit
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Julius Caesar/Methos
Characters: Julius Caesar, Methos
Summary:

What does it take to cross the Rubicon?

--I suppose this miiiight fall more in line with the pattern you were describing, but it is definitely more plotty, and the resolution is really not about the sex.


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Two of Swords (3168 words) by Loligo
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser - Fritz Leiber
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Fafhrd/The Grey Mouser
Summary:

In which idols are stolen, monsters are slain, and the more things change, they more they stay the same.

--I'm throwing this one in here just to see where you stand on it. First of all - its tagged rated Gen, but it is definitely shippy. You might argue that it fit the above pattern... but at the same time, it is a plotty adventure friendship fic. I'd be curious to see what you think!

[basingstoke]

I wrote the story and can't remember if it's slash. I think it must be because I pretty much ship Methos/Duncan (and former and concurrent Duncan/Amanda; he's a slut).

[naraht]

If self-recs are acceptable, then I think that one of my Yulefics might be plotty enough for you...

Að fara til Íslands (8455 words) by Naraht
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Charioteer - Mary Renault, Literary RPF, 20th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Ralph Lanyon/Original Male Character, Ralph Lanyon/W. H. Auden
Characters: Ralph Lanyon, Hugh Treviss, W.H. Auden
Summary:

"He had spent last year's summer holidays working his passage to Iceland and back in a trawler."

[laurajv]

I am re-reading it now; it does have slash in it, but yeah, not what it is _about_. (and I found a ...very belated beta comment. Check yr email.)

[saraht]

Too often, the answer to the question, "why didn't they just get to the fucking earlier?"

...'Cause that is totally how it works in real life, of course. God knows that for me it's about half a minute between my finding a guy attractive and our jumping into bed together.

[brownbetty]

I assume you've already read AJ Hall's Lust over Pendle and Torch's Ghosts, but if you haven't, I can look up links.

[ivorygates]

Life Just Is: Art Has To Convince.

[jamethiel]

... dude, I gotta say, the talking about how fandom should Do Things The Way You Want Them To is coming across as increasingly arse-hattish and privileged, especially as you are a man telling (largely) women what to produce.

Fandom quite often fails to cater for people, and so by dint of enthusiasm and contribution we try to promote the kind of environment we want.

[laurajv]

Well, but there that whole genre of Relationship Story that I think of as having a plot that could be resolved in thirty whole seconds if anyone in it acted like an adult and had a conversation. A huge number of slash stories fall into this genre. Often you see them labeled "angst" when what they should be labeled is "for some reason the adults in this story act like 13 yr olds for 50,000 words"

[saraht]

Well, of course, but there's also the plotty-story equivalent of that ("why didn't they just...?!!?"). Dumb crosses all genres. I refuse to concede the implication that the only worthy obstacles to the establishment of a relationship must be external.

[laurajv]

No, I agree, but I think most of the time the internal obstacles are very poorly done. (in fact, the only example of well-done that I'm coming up with is Merry's "A Quiet War". I'm sure there are others but compared to the dumb ones they are hard to find.)

[basingstoke]

The thing is that most slash stories are romance stories or pornography. So the trick is to find the ones that aren't.

I find myself wanting to rec the Donald Strachey novels, but that's not really fair, since those are pro novels, not fanfic.

Here are a few I have read recently: Life During (Cold) War Time, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (the recent movie version).

Droit de Seigneur. Sherlock.

Art of the Reasoner. In which Sherlock is an artist, not a detective, but still solves crimes.

[morineko]

Too often, the answer to the question, "why didn't they just get to the fucking earlier?" is "because then we couldn't have the YEARNING and FEELINGS."

That kind of UST is pretty standard for the non-fanfic, non-m/m romance genre. So it looks to me that you are not looking for fics that slot neatly into the romance genre and instead are looking for fics that would slot into other genres if they were books. (And all books can contain sex scenes, but containing sex doesn't make it a romance.)

[morineko]

I probably owe you a Coke for not reading your post first re slash being subset of romance genre for most part.

I have seen the Strachey novels reviewed on goodreads as "m/m" which is...they're not romances, they're mysteries by a gay man about gay characters in which there are gay sex scenes. Bzuh?

[bliumchik]

I second Lust Over Pendle, although the sequel is my favourite. (this is only a tiiiny bit because it has a hilarious warnings list that begins "Vegetarians may be offended by the black pudding incident" and gains new heights of ridiculosity from there xD)

[bliumchik]

Actually what I've always loved about fandom (and a large part of my fandom has always been slash) is that it periodically produces something like Written By The Victors or Transfigurations or Transcendental - fics with significantly better plots than the average book/episode of the original. Your problem is a pretty standard variation on "90% of everything is kind of crap", which I have always got around primarily by being rec'd a good fic every so often and then reading everything else its author wrote rather than trawling through fandom communities.

Also, and this is actually more properly gen containing sex, but I got a great Ursula Le Guin fic for Yuletide. It's not plotty in the same way the others are, with an overarching goal or problem the characters have throughout - it's more of a worldbuilding fic, so may not be as good if you haven't read Left Hand of Darkness.

[bliumchik]

(you might also have some luck identifying AO3 tags related to plot types you enjoy and narrowing down on them)

[hradzka]

I will check it out! Thanks.

[hradzka]

Thanks! Should've gone through more of Bas's stuff -- there are a couple of stories I kind of want to do reviews or commentary on, because they either work for me or don't quite work for me in ways that I find interesting. I didn't even look at this one before because I basically hate THE X-FILES like the plague. But I will check it out!

[hradzka]

I'm an old-school type, so I think slash has a pretty specific same-sex meaning. And yeah, there is a LOT of stuff out there that is about FEELINGS.

[hradzka]

Thanks for the recs!

[hradzka]

Link me!