yuletide_coal | The rest of the exchange year...

It's probably a little early for this but I'm short on canons and need some motivation for noms.

Whether you're thinking of requesting or offering, suggest some new canons for coalies to consume, or tell us what you're looking for!

I'll start: I'm looking for audiobooks and podcasts. I have a long commute and could get through some before sign-ups for sure. Anything spooky or weird especially. Any recs?

I’m currently listening to Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe, which is the first in a fantasy series of the LitRPG style. The book has strong family bonds, political intrigue, deities and boons, and involves a puzzle-filled tower. The POV character is a 16-year old boy who is touch averse and a-spec, and his dungeon party includes his powerhouse sister and a handsome mysterious transfer student who asks him to prom. The second in the series has been published in kindle and paperback but the Audible edition hasn’t been released yet. It’s narrated by Nick Podehl and feels a lot like the Percy Jackson books. Not so much surreal horror, though.

I have just finished Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone, which I quite liked for a YA epic fantasy about the horrors of war in a world with Yoruba-inspired magic— this one features mind links and soulbonding and blood magic and the spirits of the dead, with a delightfully twisty plot. Book two won’t be out til next year. The het romances in the narrative are interesting and complicated, and there’s good femslash potential throughout. The narrator for the audible edition wrestles with the cadence of the Yoruba language, but her acting is effective so it may not pull you out of the story unless you’re familiar with Yoruba pronunciation.

In podcasts, I can’t get enough of Sayer— a sci-fi horror narrative that places the listener as property/employee of a futuristic company, told in the form of soothing (yet disturbing) announcements and instructions.

Oh shit Sayer sounds like just my jam. I'll definitely check it out. Would you say it's Nightvale-ish?

Blood and Bone has been on my radar so I'm glad to hear the plot holds up. Would love to get some femslash this year, too.

Thanks for the recs!!

Re: Rec me a canon

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-09 22:48 (UTC) - Expand

Horror podcasts are my jam! Here’s a handful of my favorites:

- Mabel (haunted houses, fae and lesbians)
- The Magnus Archives (eldritch horrors and librarians)
- What’s The Frequency (post modern horror)
- Uncanny County (midwestern horror anthology)
- The White Vault (international team stuck in a blizzard in the arctic)
- Darkest Night (first person recovered memories of murders)
- SPINES (weird cult rituals and strange people with strange powers— the first season is more horror and the others are trying to stop the end of the world)
- The Bridge (eldritch monsters, a mysterious bridge and people with A Lot of secrets)
- Deadly Manners (murderous dinner party starting Kristen Bell, with LeVar Burton as the narrator)

Uh oh these all sound really interesting, especially the cosmic horror stuff. Thanks for so many recs!

If you like detective stories, John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series is weird supernatural thriller. It’s sort of like hard pulp detectives plus Stephen King plus creepy as fuck history. There’s a prominent gay couple (one of whom is a hit man) too!

Oooh yes! Gay hitman is music to my ears, I'll put it on the list. Thank you!

Podcasts:

The later seasons of the NoSleep podcast have some fantastic stories with great voice actors. They've branched out from only recording stories from the NoSleep reddit, and some of the new stories are amazing. Highly recommend s10e18 "500 Yards," S11e8 "Tales of the Backroads" and "Reel to Reel," and s10e25 "Return to a Seaside British Pub" (with the bonus episode right before it of the first story).

Nightlight does performances of horror stories written by black authors. Highly recommend s1e7 "The Nasty at Bellua" and s1e5 "Gray Wolf's Ha'nt."

Lake Clarity season one is a creepy, fun story about friends who go camping in the woods and find terrible things. Season two wasn't as interesting and I stopped listening, but I loved season one.

The White Vault season one is about a group of scientists who end up trapped in the Arctic Circle dealing with something monstrous as well as the danger of the weather.

Red me your kids’ media that lends itself to darkfic... if you have this kind of animanga especially, I want to get into it.

Literally all of Digimon, tbh.

It's a book series, but Lockwood & Co is an older middle-grade series that goes some really nightmare-fuel-y places and has some definite darkfic potential. It's set in a world where something went wrong and ghosts started coming back and hurting the living. Only kids and teens can see them, so they end up fighting the ghosts, but there's some messed up stuff with the adults who run the companies the kids work for.

The manga series Totsukuni no Shoujo (The Girl From The Other Side) might be relevant to your interests. Here's the summary (c&p'd from Amazon):

In a world split between the Inside and the Outside, those living in both realms are told never to cross over to the other side, lest they be cursed. A young girl named Shiva lives on the other side, in a vacant village with a demonic guardian known only as “Teacher.” Although the two are forbidden to touch, they seem to share a bond that transcends their disparate appearances. But when Shiva leaves Teacher’s care to seek out her grandmother, the secret behind her mysterious living arrangement comes to light.

if you're into comics, Gotham Academy has a lot of untapped potential for darkness! it's one of those weird canons that see-saws between cutesy "friends forever!!!" and DARK HORRIFIC BACKSTORY.

Re: Rec me a canon

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-31 05:00 (UTC) - Expand

Rec fandoms: video game (console, computer, or mobile) or let’s play edition!

I'm nomming Super Mario Odyssesy and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Eyes Over Heaven.

I'll be nominating Vampyr! Like the title suggests, it's about vampires in 1800s England. In addition to the protagonist there are lots of side characters to choose from and prominent het and slash options.

There are a few Let's Plays but the game has lots of side quests and optional stories, so if you don't have access to the game itself you might be better off with the cutscene compilation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lb5cmlHids

Re: Rec me a canon - Games and LPs

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-14 19:06 (UTC) - Expand

I'm nomming Night in the Woods! Adventure game with anthropomorphic cats/foxes/bears etc in their 20s trying to survive in a dying mining town and uncovering some supernatural horrors.

Yes, this is EXTREMELY BROAD. If you're requesting a book this year, rec it to me. If it helps inspire people, I especially like female characters, horror, and rural/wilderness settings, but don't let that stop you from trying to sell me on a book that has none of those things if it's something you really want fic for.

Some books I'm thinking about requesting that have at least one of those things: An Enchantment of Ravens, Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge, the Bone Witch trilogy, River of Teeth, and the Arc of a Scythe trilogy! Happy to provide more details on any of 'em.

Re: Rec me a canon - books

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-26 17:53 (UTC) - Expand

I especially like female characters, horror, and rural/wilderness settings

I'm still deciding what to request this year, but I would love recs for books that hit these things. (Especially if you're requesting any and there is a chance I will love the book and then immediately have a chance to write Yuletide fic for it.)

Re: Rec me a canon - books

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-26 17:46 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Rec me a canon - books

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-27 15:54 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Rec me a canon - books

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-28 05:08 (UTC) - Expand

Have you read LMM's The Blue Castle? No horror, it is in fact a very lovely and uplifting story about a woman living in a dull and oppressive situation who finds out she's going to die and so decides she will have to make the most of the time she has left. There is a lot of exploration/appreciation/descriptions of Canadian wilderness and snowy landscapes and also a really charming love story.

Re: Rec me a canon - books

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-28 05:04 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2018-08-28 09:31 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Rec me a canon - books

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-28 11:15 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Rec me a canon - books

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-31 05:01 (UTC) - Expand

You've probably already read Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. If not, run don't walk - it's about a young girl who gets lost in the wilderness, and there's elements of horror though it doesn't totally fit in that genre. It's also just a really great book.

Rosemary Kirstein's "Steerswoman" series (4 books so far) has female main characters and unusual rural and wilderness settings, and book 3 has strong horror elements. It's about a world where a guild of proto-scientists called Steerswomen are bound to honestly answer any question they're asked, and anyone who meets them must honestly answer any question they ask or no Steerswoman will ever speak to them again. I don't think the first book is that great but the next three are phenomenal. It's best read unspoiled which is why I'm not describing the plot.

Re: Rec me a canon - books

(Anonymous) - 2018-09-01 07:07 (UTC) - Expand

Something very slashy and high fantasy like Frodo/Sam.

If you're okay with xianxia danmei (it's not conventional Western high fantasy, but there's a decent amount of worldbuilding, secondary characters, and cultivation politics/conflict), Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation is really good. The m/m is canon.

An anon did a good job summarizing it on FFA:

https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/330615.html?thread=1903911543#cmt1903911543