Admin Post: Starter Pack Challenge

[justbreathe80.livejournal.com]

A year and a half ago, I was a new DS fangirl, poking around and trying to find the best fic, the seminal writing in the fandom. Over the course of three (glorious, jobless) months, I read almost everything in the fandom I could get my hands on.

Now, I'm sure most newbies don't have that much time on their hands. So, give them a Starter Pack! Three fics that are MUST READS in this fandom for a newbie. What fics do you think are essential for someone to read, if they have never ever read a single DS fic before? Get them started!

Because of the nature of this challenge, it would be great if recs could be in sets of three this week. Your THREE most essential fics.

The Starter Pack challenge will be open until late Sunday, November 5.

(and remember! the recs are a GREAT way to interact with other DS fangirls, and also a good excuse to go leave some feedback!)

Comments

[ponders-life.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for doing this rec challenge! I'm just starting on Season 4, and this is providing me with a wonderful list of stories to read once I've finished watching the whole series!

[ruthless1.livejournal.com]

*weeps with frustration* This is the best challenge yet and I have NO time right now to read anything! Why why why now? I have so much homework it's not even funny. Actually - I will just keep this in mind for when the holiday breaks start happening at work.
*starts crossing days off calendar til winter break happens*

[(Anonymous)]

I can't consider this a good "starter pack" for dS because it's probably 90 percent F/K slash. I realize that things may have changed since 2006, and fans may be more open to reading and liking other pairings than F/K. I wish this could be updated to have a greater mix of pairings. Not every fan likes F/K - I really hate most F/K stories because they treat Ray Vecchio so unfairly. I wish the "homophobic RayV" stories in this starter pack could be erased from the fandom. The authors who wrote them obviously have issues if they hate a beloved character so much.

[justbreathe80.livejournal.com]

I haven't modded this community in a while, but I will say that:
a) These recs are from 2006, and yes, the fandom did shift and change a lot around that time.
b) A good number of these recs are non-F/K pairings, actually, but most of what was being written in the fandom at that time was F/K.
c) I personally don't subscribe to that characterization of Ray Vecchio, but everyone is entitled to their own personal likes and dislikes when it comes to fanfic.
d) These are posts for each individual person, with the three fics that THEY thought should be essential for everyone who's starting out in the fandom.
e) I think the Vecchio hating of old was pretty much gone in 2006, honestly, in my own experience with the fandom.
f) I'm sorry that these didn't work for you, but to each their very own. You can go look at my own delicious for a wide variety of due South recs of all flavors (they're all pre-2007, though, since I'm not in the fandom anymore)