Yuletide recs

[luzula]

So, here are my favorites from Yuletide so far.

Ex Machina, mathematician RPF, PG.

Being a mathematician, of course I couldn't resist this one. It's a sweet and wistful story of Alan Turing as a schoolboy, all geeky and in love with one of his classmates. But his classmate is ill, and the story really is heartbreaking. (If you didn't know, Turing was gay and probably died because of it.)

Other Kinds of Men for Ursula le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, PG-13

Gorgeous backstory for Therem Harth rem ir Estraven. The first paragraph totally hooked me, and after that I was reading it slowly, to savor it. I love the sense it gives of an alien culture, and how he's bound by different kinds of duty. This story really moved me.

One Thousand and One and Counting, for Arabian Nights, PG (I'd rate it higher, though, for sexual violence)

This is a modern day version, about the stories people tell to survive and what happens when they don't. Also, very interesting examination of various aspects of the Middle East. My god, it really ends on a bleak note, though.

Comments

[akamine_chan]

I really want to read Ex Machina but when I think of Turing I get very upset - such a brilliant mind, who did so much to advance the field of cryptoanalysis and who literally created the field of computing, someone who served his country above and beyond the call of duty, who in the end was convicted of the crime of homosexuality and subjected to humiliation and persecution...

See, it upsets me a lot.

[luzula]

I was thinking you'd be interested in this one. And yeah, I get you about being upset. I think you'll like this one, though--it's very sweet, and he's just a boy here. No persecution yet (but it's still angsty for other reasons).

[akamine_chan]

I went and read it and left a comment for the author. It was a sweet little story...thanks for the rec, m'dear.