And then we get to Saya! Ah, Saya. She's...like, a pillar of the D.Gray-fandom in the context of yaoi and angst and etc. Her newer stuff is worlds better than her older stuff. She's kinda like Karen Miller in that respect, in that she starts off with ridiculously clichéd ideas but the power and quality of her growing writerly instincts and the inevitable tide of characters driving the story eventually redeems the work. I read all her longer fics, and have to say that I found myself enjoying much more of them than I thought possible.
A Black World Washed White was her first fic, and remains her longest project (176K words)--still ongoing, in fact. It has the most clichés and the wackiest characterisation and overall the most faults, but if you have the patience to wade through all 78 chapters the characters and causality are actually well-developed and realistic.
I recommend starting with a newer project that starts out more tolerably, like Less than Innocent, More than Like, which is another big project--128K words--but is instead quasi-origins!speculation!fic about Lavi and Kanda in their early days at the Order. It's got a lot of interesting ideas about the Bookman perspective, and is actually pretty good. Main pairing LaviKanda, if you don't mind that.
Opposites and its sequel, A Promise is Made to be Kept, are an older KandaAllen project placing the war between the Earl and the Order in modern times; they're not really worth going through unless you're obsessive-compulsive like me (the characterisation's atrocious).
As for her other, shorter stuff: Twisted Carnival and Phantoms Now (TykiAllen and "mystery"!KandaAllen, respectively) are eh and probably not your cup of tea; The Flower and Willow World and Death is in Love with Us are...I dunno, respectively they're a Lavi/geisha!Kanda fic with a lot of contextual detail and a LaviKanda-Lavi/shinigami!Allen fic set in modern day with Lavi having a month to live and, I dunno if they're up your alley or not. They're pretty pairing-centric, though TFaWW does have an interesting lens of the geisha world and all that.
As for Running From Sunrise, Chasing the Moon, frankly I was shocked when I found myself really enjoying it, especially considering the fact that it's a CrossAllen/TykiAllen fic (w/side CrossKomui, LaviKanda and flashback!CrossMaria) set in nineteenth-century London. It might have to do with the extended backstory she gives Komui and Kanda, and all the delicious delicious historical context. Maybe also the lulz.
That's all I have right now, hopefully there's a few in there you'll enjoy. ^^;
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ninetydegrees
recs!
on 2009-Apr-06, Monday 04:14 (UTC)And then we get to Saya! Ah, Saya. She's...like, a pillar of the D.Gray-fandom in the context of yaoi and angst and etc. Her newer stuff is worlds better than her older stuff. She's kinda like Karen Miller in that respect, in that she starts off with ridiculously clichéd ideas but the power and quality of her growing writerly instincts and the inevitable tide of characters driving the story eventually redeems the work. I read all her longer fics, and have to say that I found myself enjoying much more of them than I thought possible.
A Black World Washed White was her first fic, and remains her longest project (176K words)--still ongoing, in fact. It has the most clichés and the wackiest characterisation and overall the most faults, but if you have the patience to wade through all 78 chapters the characters and causality are actually well-developed and realistic.
I recommend starting with a newer project that starts out more tolerably, like Less than Innocent, More than Like, which is another big project--128K words--but is instead quasi-origins!speculation!fic about Lavi and Kanda in their early days at the Order. It's got a lot of interesting ideas about the Bookman perspective, and is actually pretty good. Main pairing LaviKanda, if you don't mind that.
Opposites and its sequel, A Promise is Made to be Kept, are an older KandaAllen project placing the war between the Earl and the Order in modern times; they're not really worth going through unless you're obsessive-compulsive like me (the characterisation's atrocious).
As for her other, shorter stuff: Twisted Carnival and Phantoms Now (TykiAllen and "mystery"!KandaAllen, respectively) are eh and probably not your cup of tea; The Flower and Willow World and Death is in Love with Us are...I dunno, respectively they're a Lavi/geisha!Kanda fic with a lot of contextual detail and a LaviKanda-Lavi/shinigami!Allen fic set in modern day with Lavi having a month to live and, I dunno if they're up your alley or not. They're pretty pairing-centric, though TFaWW does have an interesting lens of the geisha world and all that.
As for Running From Sunrise, Chasing the Moon, frankly I was shocked when I found myself really enjoying it, especially considering the fact that it's a CrossAllen/TykiAllen fic (w/side CrossKomui, LaviKanda and flashback!CrossMaria) set in nineteenth-century London. It might have to do with the extended backstory she gives Komui and Kanda, and all the delicious delicious historical context. Maybe also the lulz.
That's all I have right now, hopefully there's a few in there you'll enjoy. ^^;