Hours Gone By

Fandoms are in alphabetical order. Ratings and summaries are per the authors.

Fanfic Recs

The Blue Castle, by L.M. Montgomery - 4 recs

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - 1 rec

The Doctrine of Labyrinths - 6 recs (fanfic), 1 rec (art)

The Goblin Emperor - 6 recs

The Kingkiller Chronicles - 2 recs

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn - 2 recs

Tolkien's Works: The Lord of the Rings; The Silmarillion - 3 recs

Other Fanworks

Misc. fanworks recs - 2 recs

Day 9

In your own space, rec at least 3 fanworks you thought you wouldn't like (because they weren't your fandom or they pushed against your boundaries or you thought you just wouldn't be interested) but you ended up loving. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Oh, good, this is so much easier than yesterday's! My psyche needs a break from all that extroversion.

Dark Prince ~ The Darkness Has Its Own Light by Spiced Wine.
"A half-elven OC who's the son of Sauron, and has purple eyes. Really." That was my first, doubtful, thought when I encountered a description of Vanimórë, the protagonist of Spiced Wine's Dark Prince series and 'verse. I didn't read it the first few times I saw it referenced, because I've just seen so many OCs of this type and generally don't find them to be interesting or unique. Then one night I had a few minutes to kill before bed and thought 'why not?'.

I ended up going to work the next day on about three hours sleep. It was nothing like I'd expected, and I'm so very pleased to have been wrong! You can get started at the link up there, but please do heed the chapter warnings.

Nightfall in Middle Earth by Blind Guardian
A power metal concept album based on The Silmarillion that just blew me away the first time I heard it. I had some doubts about reccing it since it's done professionally and commercially available, but then realized that was silly because those things don't mean it's not a fannish labour of love. I first learned about it when I was surfing through TVTropes (can't remember which trope) and found a link to the song 'Time Stands Still (At the Iron HIll)', about Fingolfin's duel with Morgoth. Metal, concept albums, and Tolkien are certainly all things I enjoy, but...Tolkien's work explored through power metal? Well...why not? So I listened to it.

Then I listened to the rest of the album.

Then I bought it. (OK, I listened to the rest of the band's work, and bought a box set containing Blind Guardian's entire discography up to they changed labels. And I have not regretted it.)

The Call of Cthulu
A short film based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. Now, films based on Lovecraft's work range from just bad, to entertainingly schlocky at best. Lovecraft's stories rarely describe the entirety of what the characters are seeing, and when they do it's something that would be difficult and/or expensive to include. His work is largely monologue, with very little dialogue making it hard to adapt to a modern film without lots and lots of rewriting - more, I think, than a major studio would be willing to put in to something they wouldn't expect to have much of an audience. With this in mind, I was not expecting great things.

BUT. It turns out that making a silent film eliminates a lot of the problems above! You watch the characters act and react, and what explanations and dialogue is needed goes on a title card. Adding to the feel that you're really watching an old silent movie are the scratches in the film, and a subtle hiss and pop to the soundtrack. It's surprisingly gripping, and does not feel like it's only 46 minutes long.

Nightfall in Middle Earth by Blind Guardian
A power metal concept album based on The Silmarillion that just blew me away the first time I heard it. I had some doubts about reccing it since it's done professionally and commercially available, but then realized that was silly because those things don't mean it's not a fannish labour of love!

The Call of Cthulu (Link is to the IMDB page, film is available on DVD and at least US Netflix)
A short film based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. Now, films based on Lovecraft's work range from just bad, to entertainingly schlocky at best. Lovecraft's stories rarely describe the entirety of what the characters are seeing, and when they do it's something that would be difficult and/or expensive to include. His work is largely monologue, with very little dialogue making it hard to adapt to a modern film without lots and lots of rewriting - more, I think, than a major studio would be willing to put in to something they wouldn't expect to have much of an audience. With this in mind, I was not expecting great things.

BUT. It turns out that making a silent film eliminates a lot of the problems above! You watch the characters act and react, and what explanations and dialogue is needed goes on a title card. Adding to the feel that you're really watching an old silent movie are the scratches in the film, and a subtle hiss and pop to the soundtrack. It's surprisingly gripping, and does not feel like it's only 46 minutes long.