Keep this space linked and see what might come up!
Always Music in the Air, 2008
(Contains spoilers to the canon)
An excerpt from the time spent in the black lodge, towards and in the finale of season two.
Agent Dale Cooper finds himself pondering the hows and whys of the lodge, and finding no answers is perturbed by the lack of assistance from his long time friend his brain.
There is a great feeling captured in this FF, much as when watching the initial Black Lodge scenes the first time round.
This is only a short piece of FF, and in response to a request made on the yuletidetreasure site (which I have found to have an abundance of beautiful pieces published) yet captures exactly the feeling of mystery and confusion that the canon did so well.
A very hard task indeed.
Paragraph four uses repetition of the verb "to think" in describing the confusion felt, and although simple words, comes across as something more than, perhaps even mystical in translation considering the context.
I believe my enjoyment of this FF was completely reliant on having watched and adored the canon, which is the main purpose of FF, making this piece a success.
Roland Weary's Realization, 28th June 2009
An insight on the final weeks/days/moments of Roland Weary, one of the 'Three Musketeers' who form an odd trio destined to venture through some of Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut.
As per Vonnegut's humor, the author of this Fanfic uses humor well, and in the tone of the canon; "she was either unconscious from the amount of energy she had used trying to ask the question, or she just shook her head disbelievingly before becoming unconscious from the amount of effort she had used to ask the question and shake her head.", playful and repetative.
The author also does a great job of characterizing Roland, and delivers a slightly unexpected finale, with Weary showing some regret and finally, feels some empathy with his peers.
The short works very well, imitates Vonnegut's brilliant if informal style of prose, and keeps the reader with Roland (who in the original is rather detestable) until his demise.
Right to left: Sloane Peterson (Ferris' Girlfriend), Ferris Buller, Cameron Frye.
Skip, 2004
An odd take on the character's relationships from the film Ferris Buller's Day off 1986.Entitled "Skip" due to the nature of the timeline, which skips backwards and forwards through times, scenes, and characters. Written (mostly) from the supporting character Cameron's perspective, which is rather fresh considering the amount of time committed to Ferris through the film.
Not entirely unenjoyable as a brief read, with some humor, and lament: "It was the first time in years that his father looked at him. It was... it wasn't worth it, exactly, but it was a clean break." This particular lament refers to the scene towards the end of the film, where Cameron is confronted by his father about the use and subsequent destruction of his prize vehicle. In the original, the scene noted none of this emotion, it was left a little more playful in the style of the rest of the film.
The story becomes a little more interesting, or odd, with the introduction of slash. In particular the homo-erotic relationship that Cameron and Ferris have developed. While written in the verbal style the character's used in the film, this notion is somewhat absurd, even a stretch.
Both Sloane and Ferris are depicted as two of five men and women Cameron has been with. Had this been introduced into the original storyline, it would have made no sense. The canon was a very light-hearted, happy-go-lucky film with a little bit of teen tom-foolery, with very little, yet the required amount of hetrosexual tension for a teen flick as this.
All up it is an interesting piece, however without any substance. There is a to and fro style of writing, which is pre-empted by the title Skip; this does not allow for a consistent, nor coherent storyline to develop.
The tangential nature of the relationships introduced spoil the canon's tone, and for these reasons, I would not recommend to the writer to continue to develop this.
No More a Savage Life, 24th June 2011
A continuation of the Hannibal series by Thomas Harris, down an alternate reality that begins at approximately where the second novel, The Silence of the Lambs takes place.
The story explores some of the feelings that Lecter has aroused in Clarice, her internal conflict trying to resolve them, and the external pressures on her from the other detectives to hate the man.
As there are some Ten chapters in an impressive work of 40,000 plus words, I have delved only three chapters into this fan fiction, and am thus far pleasantly surprised.
There is plenty of action happening, with the first chapter opening with a memory of a recent interaction where Hannibal escaped Starling's capture.
A number of assumptions are made by the rest of the detectives, and Clarice is somewhat perturbed: "No, Dee, I'm mortified. They want to take a rape kit.".
Moving seamlessly through scenes, the author has managed to capture the characters of the books/films in exquisite detail, especially the character of Calrice Starling, who as always is in emotional turmoil for reasons of her past (Father who passed away and was also a police officer), or present (feeling empathy for Doctor Hannibal).
This is proving to be a great read, and not having read the originals but only seen the cinematic versions, in this reviewer's opinion, Thomas Harris would be proud.
Agonizing Screams, 2010
Loosely based on Philip K. Dick's 1962 novel, The Man in the High Castle, this short piece of fanfic portrays the countries involved in the war as lead characters directly after the war's end.
I felt although the idea was interesting, it was a dry piece of work with nothing to contribute to the original premise (Life post WWII where the Nazis won). Basically a gimmicky idea that started and ended as just that. A gimmick.
As a fan of PKD's original, this was a sore disappointment, albeit a predictable one.
The author has attempted to personify each Nation as an individual, which failed to evoke empathy from the reader, but rather sterilized the situation thus distancing the reader from the subject- World War Two. Although the original and this share the alternate reality that the Nazi's won, there is nothing comparable to the vividness of PKD's storytelling. Could I be slightly biased in this belief? Quite possibly!
If Agonizing Screams had somehow magically whisked me away into believing the storyline, it would have all been due to crash down in a marvelous heap of: it was all a dream. Yuck.
Surprisingly enough, of all the six comments from readers around the world, not one shared my opinions on the story. Perhaps the Fanfiction.net site's readers tend to approach commentary with a smidgeon of caution as to not be labelled as 'flamer' when providing 'FB'.
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