Merlin Recs

[marguerite_26]

Some of these are old fics that apparently I completely missed when they were first posted...

Call It Love by saramir Colin/Bradley [NC-17] (30k)
Summary:As filming wraps up for the final series, Bradley tries to sort out where his friendship with Colin stands and where it could progress. Pining, nostalgia, texting, and the banter of weirdos in love ensues.

Brilliant and fun Colin/Bradley fic that feels like all the old school fun of those early years, but with enough references to recent events that it still felt current. I just devoured this fic from beginning to end.

Something Yellow This Time by giselleslash Arthur/Merlin [PG] (3.8k)
Summary: Merlin owns a flower shop. Arthur is a frequent customer with a tragic love life.

OMG!!! So adorable. This fic is made of puppies and rainbows. Or just yellow flowers? Very sweet, feel good fic.

Blackbird (singing in the dead of night) by 40_miles Arthur/Merlin [NC-17] (16k)
Summary: A story about two men in London. One of them is tetchy. The other is quite hopeless. They're magic.

I found this a fascinating fic. It’s a magical modern AU and Merlin’s connection to/control of the weather was really interesting. This author is new to Merlin and I enjoyed the fresh pov.

That Time of Truth by hwc Arthur/Merlin, pre-slash [PG-13] (10k)
Prompt: Druids start to slowly come out of hiding, living their lives peacefully in the kingdom and even sending a diplomat or two to Camelot. After a close call or two, Merlin has to have a chat with them about not revealing Merlin's identity. While no one ever does reveal Merlin is Emrys, a lot of people start to talk about Emrys in Camelot.

This was written as a KMM fill. There are a few typos here and there that are more jarring on A03 than they would be on a kink-meme. Still, I loved the idea of this and have a huge soft spot of canon AUs that delve into the druids respect for Emrys.

ALSO, I wanted to share with you my favourite way to find new fics:
AO3 search on Arthur/Merlin + recent bookmarks + recs only
I’ve found tons of fic that are lovely reads that I would have otherwise missed. Its interesting to see which M/A fics readers have loved enough to ‘rec’ on A03.

Comments

[hobnailedboots.livejournal.com]

oooh, long recs! I know what I'm doing on Sunday! :)

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

:D Enjoy.

That c/b one was such a great read. :)

[frogspace.livejournal.com]

ALSO, I wanted to share with you my favourite way to find new fics

That's one of my favorite ways too! ^_^

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Isn't it awesome??? I love that it changes every night (when I head to bed with my tablet look for something to read). There's usually a fic I've never read just sitting there tempting me.

but this begs the question: what are your other favourite ways? ^_^

[frogspace.livejournal.com]

Rec lists, kinkme_merlin and checking out on pinboard who else bookmarked stories I've bookmarked and what tags they used, then I browse by tags.

However, in Merlin fandom I mostly check out everything Merlin/Arthur, Merlin&Arthur and Bradley/Colin that gets posted to the main comms and the AO3, so there is rarely a story I haven't seen before (except for those on FF.net; if it's good enough, someone will rec it somewhere). Sometimes I've skipped a fic if it didn't look like it would be to my taste and then someone's rec points me back in the right direction. *g* If there is a podfic for a story I haven't read before, I count that as a rec and either read the fic or listen to the podfic.

Currently I'm rereading some my favorites and seeing someone else rec them is as good a reason as any to revisit a story. :)

[kathyh]

ALSO, I wanted to share with you my favourite way to find new fics

Thank you! I didn't know about that. Off to give it a go now.

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Hope you find something! If not, check back, it,s always changing.

[mijeli.livejournal.com]

Hmm, that long rec might be what I'm going to read now 8) (Angina has condemned me to bed -> slash fiction is in order!)

And thanks for sharing that AO3 link.. I'm absolutely with you here, I mostly read fic other people have rec'd :)

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Hello there. :)

Hope you enjoy the b/c. It,s a lovely read if you,re stuck in bed.

[rotrude.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a great way to find fics. I'm pretty crap at searching the AO3. When I try, I go for all Merlin fics and get 50 pages of results. Except the oldest goes back to January, I think, which just isn't possible because ther archive's been there longer than that. :(

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I started outthat way. Or by sorting hits. Butthen pages and pages of classics i,d already read.

What i like about this is that it,s different everytime you look.

[wordflake.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reccing the Colin/Bradley fic! It was absolutely wonderful. It isn't a pairing I read that often, so I really enjoyed reading such a well-written story. I know I always can count on your rec-posts to find new fics ^^

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Yay! Glad you liked!

[asya-ana.livejournal.com]

You are an AO3 wizard! I can't for the life of me figure out which buttons you clicked to generate that search string; I was only successful when I clicked on the exact URL you gave. But this is very cool!

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

To be honest, i can,t remember what i clicked either. I found it and bookmarked the link.

I don,t know why the occational non merlin fic ends up in the list though.

[clawdine]

Oooh will take a look at that. My bookmarks aren't highlighted as recs though! Maybe I should do that to "promote" works/authors more :D

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Yup, that,s exactly what i,ve been doing. Something i really like, i bookmark then click rec because it pops them to the top of this list. Especially if it,s something that isn,t getting a lot of love. :)

[dracones.livejournal.com]

yay recs! :D I've actually read some of the fics on here and I loved them. :D Now I'm excited to read the RPS one :)

Thank you for rec-ing! ♥

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Hope you enjoy! :)