These are a few of my favourite fics - my 'keepers' . It's not so much a recs. page as a collection of fics. that have struck a chord with me over the years and stay in the memory. They're in no particular order - latest additions are at the bottom of the page - and it's not an exclusive selection. It's entirely subjective, based on wot I like.

Mostly, they're 'happy fics'. This doesn't mean they're wishy-washy but that they leave the reader feeling good come the end. They also tend to portray the team the way I see them:

I've decided to limit myself to only one fic. per author, but it's fairly safe to assume that where there's one 'goodie', there will very probably be more... Now read on:

31 recs so far
Updated 27 AUGUST 2009
with one new rec and new information about Imagine.

Lost and Found by Euphrosyne

Euph's a bit shy about this one because, so I understand, as it was her first, written before she developed her grittier edge. ..I like that too! This one is a delightful Jack/Daniel idyll. The guys are stranded off-world and there's a nice little twist at the end. I love it!

Center of the Universe by Eos

Eos, like Euph, is a Jack-gal. The writing of both exhibits excellent characterization. Would that da Boys at Bridge would take lessons from them! This Jack/Daniel fic. is very short, but it's a real gem. The ending brings tears to my eyes - in a good way. That doesn't happen often.

Maverick Incursion by Dangermouse

Part 1 of D.M.'s wonderful 'Mission Impossible' series and therefore probably the best place to start. The S.G.C. is faced with big - and detrimental - changes, so S.G.-1 leaves Earth and sets up home on Remoc. From there, the four have adventures that are better than 'the real thing'. And there are no regulations on Remoc... Jack/Daniel and Sam/Teal'c. Hot stuff!

Reveille by Shalott

This is a nice, at times humorous, team story which begins off-world. Jack and Daniel wake up in bed together, aghast, and with no clear memory of the night before. Although there's some evidence that they'd been having a good time... They also discover that they have a useful, but trying, connection. It was nominated for Overall Best J/D Slash Story in the 2002 Awards.

The Puck Stops Here by Wadjet

This is a W.I.P., but I feel it will eventually be finished and it's too damn good to leave out. It's an A.U. in which Jack is an ice hockey pro. - not a good profession if you're gay... His harpy of a wife, Lori, wants a divorce - and every cent she can get. Daniel meets him at a Stanley Cup match. There's foul play, and Daniel picks up the pieces.

The Grave Yields Back Her Robberies by Quercus

The first contact team arrives on a new world which has a Viking culture. They are taken aback when one of the locals recognizes Daniel by name. This is a rattling good yarn where Daniel is in his element and the team has fun in the sauna. There are no sexual hang-ups in Hylestad. This was also nominated for Overall Best J/D Slash Story of 2002.

Some Like It Hot - or - Confessions of a Curry Addict by Anaïs

Is there anyone who doesn't know 'Dr. Jackson's Diary'? A brilliant remedy for depression! (Tuesday 14th August is my favourite day.) Okay, so some people (with no sense od humour?) think it tends towards caricature, but it's good caricature - or parody, and it makes me laugh. Like a drain! Anyway, I'm going for the equally funny but much shorter 'Some Like It Hot'.

Temporary link to Anais' index page

Have just discovered that while the above link connects to an alternative site,
the link from there to Some Like It Hot is broken. 8-(
However I managed to winkle a way round it and found another way in. 8-)

Some Like It Hot

Trial Balance by Catspaw

I mostly go for the O.T.P., but when I don't, it has to be Jack/Harry, and this is a real gem in Cats' inimitable style. She's one of the best writers I know. This one is a tag for 'Paradise Lost' where Jack has to face the music, and we learn that Jack and Harry have a lot of history together. And Cats, if you're reading this, it's erotica not porn, because you always make your readers care about your characters.

A Thousand Words for Oops by Teand

Teand is another of my favourite writers and one of the funniest. Well, she tickles my funny bone anyway. This is a 'through the Stargate' adventure. "Okay, its basically a classical Greek dialect but evolved enough so that I'm missing about one word in ten. I don't think that's a problem..." But one of those missing words gets Jack into a whole lot of trouble: 'Great. He was going out to dinner in bondage gear and a dress.' Hot stuff, especially at the end. ;-)

Second Chances by Nicci

Although this one is very recent (this year), it's still managed to create a niche for itself in my mind. Perhaps this is because it's a tale that ought to be told - an outsider's rationalization of the whole time line from the movie to the present, skilfully told in under 7,500 words. The outsider, an engaging and kind-hearted Scotsman named Gus, works as a gardener for Jack and find his own explanations for Jack's absences - and Daniel's apparent death and reappearance.

The Other Half by Annie S

The team visits the Karnakians, a people who live in peaceful anarchy. The goa'uld had left their world after a plague that had affected only them. The Tau'ri want blood samples, but the Karnakians don't want to part with their 'life essence'. Daniel and Jack, the narator of the story, argue about it, so Mekhu, a teenage boy, gives him a gold necklace - 'a circle of peace' to heal the ill-feeling between them. But Jack discovers that it isn't just an item of jewellery...

When in Rome by Sylvia

The team finds itself in a Roman world at the time of Tiberius, where they have been split up. Three of them have been sold into slavery. Daniel and Sam have been fortunate in becoming household slaves of the future emperor, C-C-Claudius, who is both intelligent and kind. Jack is very much worse off. Teal'c has been left for dead... Sylvia has clearly researched that particular period of history to produce a rattling good read.

Reality in Reverse by Joy

If you want to know how a loving and sexual relationship between two strong guys should be written, Joy's site would be a very good place to start. She can also do plots. This one, set in a dystopic future, grabs the reader by the throat from the very beginning. Daniel is awakened one night by an intruder. From there, the paranoia builds, but it's clone Jack (now 23) that they're after. He comes to Daniel, the only person he can trust now that Jack, head of the S.G.C., has been subverted by outside agencies.

Truck Stop by Imagine
Link removed at the request of the author*

This is the first of a series of three action/adventure stories set in an A.U. which has no Stargate. It does still have Daniel and he's still an archaeologist. The story is set against a background of Mayan mythology - mythology really does it for me. Daniel's in trouble. He's being pursued by bad guys who're after an artefact he's found. Short of money, he hitches a lift in a Tomcat Freight Lines big rig driven by ex-pilot, Jack. The pair rapidly become good friends and later, lovers.

* This story is being revised for publication and to have it still
available on on the 'Net is in breach of her contractual obligations.

Imagine is now writing original gay romantic fiction under the pen name, Stevie Woods.
She has had several works published already and has a new website in that name
HERE

What You Already Know: Part 1 - Evolution by Maureen Thayer

This gen. novel length action/adventure story is effectively an A.U. It deals with the after-effects of Daniel's ascension, something which could have - and should have - been tackled on the show, though I doubt they would have made as good a job of it as Maureen. Following bio-feedback sessions, Daniel learns to access memories from his time as an ascended being. But this knowledge will change his life forever and he may lose his place in the Stargate programme and with it, that which he holds most dear.

This is the first of a series set in season 7. There is also a Daniel/Sam ship version.

The Nature of the Beast by Remma

As I said before, mythology really does it for me. This slash action/adventure story has a Cretan setting, complete with Labyrinth and Minataur. Remma's re-working is much scarier than the original with intriguing plot twists. She also tackles, and untangles, the Jack/Sam 'relationship' so unnecessarily set up in seasons 4 and 5. This story is quite a tear-jerker in relation to John, and also has a good dose of laughter too. Personally, I don't see Daniel as inexperienced with men, but Remma manages to pull it off with her entertaining humour.

The Knife's Edge of Madness by Strix varia

This is an alternative ending to 'Desperate Measures' in which Sam managed to escape on her own, but she regains consciousness as a Jane Doe in a Seattle hospital following traumatic brain injury. The fic. follows her fight to recover her mind as the TBI scrambles her speech preventing lucid communication. She has serious memory impairment with seemingly unconnected flashbacks. She also suffers hallucinations. They have to be hallucinations, don't they?: "I... rode... an... asteroid... through...the Earth," Jane said, and was proud that it came out mostly intelligibly."
It was nominated for Best Sam-focused A.U. Story in the 2005 Awards.

Creation Myth by Corby

This is a very gritty read, yet written in beautifully imaginative language. Off-world, Daniel is 'removed' from S.G.-1 and incarcerated in a small, lightless cell, where he suffers extreme sensory deprivation. The story follows the way he copes, or not, while waiting for his team to rescue him. It is a long wait... The second chapter describes his and Jack's responses to the abandonment and subsequent P.T.S.D. The last chapter shows how they finally deal with the issues involved. This fic was nominated for Overall Best Gen Story in 2002.

I Know Some...People by Jmas

This is a delightful little missing scene thread from season 4's 'The Curse.' The author notes that: After the museum curator died, Daniel was apparently suspected by the police...a suspicion he states Steven did nothing to dissuade, but fortunately "I know a few...people..." This is the story that fills in that ep.'s tantalizing omission and shows how highly esteemed Daniel really is.

All Debts Repaid by BadgerGater

Someone has it in for Jack. Set at the beginning of season 4, it follows up on the events of 'Shades of Grey.' That someone got his hands on Linea's drug from Vyus and now uses it to erase Jack's memory. The story chronicles Jack's experiences as he's committed to an institution of sorts where he's doped up because of his violent reactions and where his nemesis fucks with his mind. All he knows is that the name, Charlie, means something to him. Things don't get much better after he finally escapes, but as a down-and-out he finds a friend. It's a dark and gripping read.

Echoes of Autumn by Moonshayde

This long gen. fic. is an intense read. Between dreaming and waking, Jack sees Daniel, 'wet, dirty, and strangely pale,' in his bedroom, asking, "Why won’t you listen?" When Jack wakes properly, and glimpses himself in the bathroom mirror, he has a further shock. He seems to have aged ten years but has no memory of the intervening time. He subsequently finds that Daniel, witless, is in a mental institution and that he himself has been on medication to control his delusions and agggression. Sam and Teal'c seem to blame him for whatever happened. Jack figures it's up to him to sort out the mess, helped - or not - by vivid flashbacks from a mission gone wrong ten years ago.

A Rock and a Hard Place by Sam Walker

This is a first person story told in the present tense by Jack. While in the infirmary recovering from a knife attack he suspects, from an absence of visits from his team, that all is not well. As he observes, "Daniel attracts trouble like a dress uniform attracts pet hair." Sneaking away off-world, he finds that part of a plateau, including the ruins that Daniel and S.G.12 were working on, has given way. Daniels is on a ledge 20 feet from the top of the cliff, looking down on a dead colleague below. While Sam and Teal'c et al. struggle to effect a rescue, Jack has to keep Daniel calm and focussed by talking to him - not Jack's forte, but boy does he try!

Performance Reviews by Redbyrd

This, and its sequel, Training Exercises, really make a whole story so I'm treating them as one. It's a tag for Prometheus Unbound in which General O'Neill reviews the performances of Colonel Reynolds, S.G.3 and Daniel. "A Marine combat unit. And you were taken out by one attacker. Not once, but twice." O'Neill is not impresssed and schedules them for "five fun-filled days of training exercises, both armed and unarmed scenarios," along the lines of Proving Ground. Daniel certainly has fun, and the wannabes learn the hard way that the archeologist is not harmless. Great fun!

Far Away by Wonderland

This is a gen. short story post Fallen and Homecoming. It's not my usual fare, being very sweet, but it's such a nice change to find a good fic. in which Teal'c is a major player. Daniel is still minus a lot of memories. He is now the alien, the 'stranger in a strange land,' while the actual alien has 'gone native.' Teal'c fills in some of the blanks since Meridian. He also brings an invitation to a team dinner at Jack's. As Daniel is also minus civilian clothes, Teal'c takes Daniel shopping and is very much in his element. The team feel over dinner at the end is also excellent.

Bushido by lembas7

This was inspired by Michael Shanks' comment about ninja Daniel, and the author clearly knows her subject well. Set after Menace, Daniel feels that he no longer matters in the S.G.C. He plans to resign and join an archaeological dig in Israel. The last mission before he leaves goes horribly wrong because Jack ignores all Daniel's advice about that Japanese-style world. S.G.-1 are shocked and stunned when they learn about his resignation. Only then do they fully appreaciate his contribution and desperately want him back. The team at the dig wants to keep him. The N.I.D. want to get their hands on him too... This brilliant and angsty novel-length adventure story shows Daniel at his best.

In The Company Of Men by Tejas

What can I say? It's an mpreg... Yes, I know. It's not everybody's cup of tea, but now that you've come out from behind the sofa, why not give it a go? This is not some slushy romance in which the men have been horribly feminized. It's a case of needs must when the devil drives, the devil in question being Nirrti. Our Jack and Daniel meet their other selves via the Quantum Mirror and find them dealing with the fall-out from her meddling. This is a novel-length tale full of angst, drama and intense situations involving drug use, multiple partners and a sort of non-con. Go for it!

Strategic Differences by Jb

This is set immediately after Cor-Ai when S.G.-1 is still getting used to working together as a team - or not. Teal'c is injured and Jack is mega-pissed off with Daniel's stance during the 'trial,' and his later concerns about leaving the Byrsa. Angrily, he shoves Daniel away from the DHD, and assumes Daniel will follow the rest of the team home. But Jack's shove has resulted in a heavy fall and Daniel is seriously injured. Hanno takes over care of him as the Jaffa return. Gotta love the guy! His endless curiosity and desire to understand Tau'ri philosophy is a tour de force. Meanwhile, we have a very guilt-ridden Jack who belatedly realizes he's left a man behind - and in danger.

Vindication (or Paybacks are Hell) by Brenda Anders

I recently recced this to a friend, then realized that I hadn't recced it here. My bad! This is quite a short gen. fic. but very sastisfying in its team feel and focus on a close Daniel/Jack friendship. Daniel has been invited to give the eulogy at the memorial service of an old friend and mentor, Dr. Erickson. The trouble is that it's at the same place where he gave That Lecture and many of the same people will be there. He's not looking forward to it until Jack asks if he can go with. Surprised, Daniel agrees, but Jack is a man with a plan...

Not Quite so Young by MaureenT

This is a long (ten chapters) tag for Enigma. Colonel Maybourne, furious at having been thwarted in his attempt to take contol of the Tollans, contrives to get Daniel suspended from the Stargate Program - payback for Daniel's part in the Tollans escape. Daniel cannot go off-world but, being suspended not fired, he will still be available to work on translations if required. Or so Harry thinks. However, he reckons without the rest of the team, who are prepared to shift heaven and earth to get him back in S.G.-1, and the little 'get-out-of-jail-free' arrangement set up by a grateful Omoc. And then there are the big - very big - black cats...

Balancing Act by Mhalachai

This is slightly outside the usual Stargate stories. It's from the Twisting the Hellmouth archive and is a cross-over with Anita Blake. This is a show I'm unfamiliar with, so I Googled it and found enough information to get me up to speed and enjoy the fic. The principal Stargate character is Jack - not the big guy but 'Mini-me.' Jack's clone is at school in St. Louis where he's not fitting in too well. He's much more in his element trying to rescue a classmate who's been kidnapped by werewolves.

Portraits of Desire by Gateroller

The Queen of the A.U. strikes again. In this beautiful and fascinating story, Daniel is a struggling artist
and Jack is a struggling diplomat. Together they experience the history-making year of 1968 in Paris.
Gateroller conjures up a wonderful sense of time and place. It feels just like you're there with them.

Unfortunately, Gateroller's website is - hopefully only temporarily - unavailable. 8-(
(Yahoo playing Silly Buggers again by the sound of it.)

However, her fics are still accessible at:

Area 52 ~ Gateroller

Footnote: A friend - an excellent writer - recently told me that she'd come across a review of one of her fics. The reviewer had commented that she'd only read about half-way through as she didn't find it worth the effort of finishing it. Pur-lease! Why take the time and trouble of writing a review of something you haven't enjoyed? It couldn't even be said to be constructive criticism.

All reviews are necessarily subjective, and this nice person could very well dissuade someone from reading a fic. that he or she would think was absolutely wonderful. Granted, my list is subjective too, and you may not like what I rec., but at least I don't aim to put you off reading something.

As my late father used to say, "If you can't say anything pleasant, don't say anything at all." /rant.

Post Scriptum: It has since come to my attention that some fic.s do merit warnings to the reader. I don't have a problem with that provided reasons are given so that the reader can make an informed decision about whether to read or not.

This page was started on 30 JAN 2005; updated 31 AUGUST 2009