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This You Gotta See

A blog by Oregonian in Fanfic Recs

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About this blog

Stories I've discovered that stand out from the ordinary.  Fresh, unusual in some way, not the same old same old.

Entries in this blog

Historical Fiction

The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Two authors, one white and one black, have teamed up to write the story of Belle da Costa Greene, born Belle Marion Greener, daughter of Richard Greener, who was the first black man to graduate from Harvard University but fair-skinned enough to be assumed to be white. Belle's mother, living in Washington DC, has determined to give her children every advantage in a world where she sees the civil rights of people of color being steadily eroded as the decades pass after the end of the Civil Wa
Oregonian

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This You Gotta See

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. By Stephen E. Ambrose.

History, non-fiction. How much do you really know about the Corps of Discovery, familiarly known as the Lewis & Clark Expedition?  Most of us Americans would probably say "not a lot," and our friends of other nationalities might say "nothing."  For most of us Americans, it has probably been years, even decades, since we last studied about this expedition, and even then, our textbooks did not devote 472 pages to it. In brief, it was an almost three-years expedition by Captains Meriw
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This You Gotta See

Love and Arithmancy by KJ Cartmell

Love and Arithmancy continues the Liam Wren series by KJ Cartmell starring Liam Wren, from his first year at Hogwarts, in about 2004, up to (as of this writing) his sixth year.  Surrounding our eminently likable hero Liam is a wide cast of other characters, students (new to us readers, of course) and professors (some of whom are also new).  I am reminded of the vast 'army' of life-size terra cotta soldiers unearthed by archaeologists at the tomb of China's first emperor -- each soldier statue is
Oregonian

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This You Gotta See

The Serpent's Tale, by Leo

This story of only 2,581 words is a stellar example of what can be achieved when for the first time we take the point of view of a character who we know exists but whose voice has never been heard.  It is said that every person is the hero of his own story, and in The Serpent's Tale the basilisk who was imprisoned by Salazar Slytherin gets her chance finally to speak for herself.  And she does have a tale to tell.  She's a completely sentient being, not a mindless monster.  And her point of view
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fanfic recommendation

Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

I have not finished this prize-winning book yet, (749 pages of text), but I cannot put it down.  So I veer from my usual custom of recommending good stories found here in these archives to tell you about one of the most significant and readable books that I have read in a very long time. The New York Times said of this book, "An elegant, incisive study of Lincoln and leading members of his cabinet that will appeal to experts as well as to those whose knowledge of Lincoln is an amalgam of hi
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fanfic recommendation

Tess Covenshire and the Highcross Scandal by KJ Cartmell

This is the second book in KJ Cartmell's Liam Wren series.  One can learn a lot by reading the books of this remarkable series. KJ Cartmell's stories are noteworthy for how well he handles a long list of characters, as one would reasonably expect to encounter in a story set in a boarding school.  And these characters are not just names, no, not at all.  Each one is a fully developed personality with his/her own unique style of speaking, acting and pursuing his/her own goals, stemming from b
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fanfic recommendation

Suffer For My Sins by inmyownlittlecorner

Suffer For My Sins is a refreshingly original story in which bits and pieces of an entirely different fictional work keep showing up in new guises, with new functions, in an alternate universe.  Something new is being created out of the pieces of something old. I am reminded of renaissance builders in England dismantling abandoned monasteries for the carved stone blocks to build their new houses, or classic columns from a 4th-century Romano-British villa now seen to flank the entryway of a
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This You Gotta See

A Short History of Magic by Mottsnave

If you have an urge to go beyond the always-available romantic fluff or angst and sink your teeth into how magic really works, you need to read this story, in which Professor Snape is confronted by Sarah Fawcett, a fifth-year Ravenclaw with some probing, basic questions about dark magic, light magic, and how it all fits together.  As you might have guessed, Professor Snape has all the answers, but he doles them out slowly, stingily, to this students who looks past his insults and scorn because o
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This You Gotta See

The Prophecy by Ameripuff

The Prophecy is the sequel to Drew's previous novel The Seventh Gate. This jewel of a story is a shining example of his unparalleled creativity, imagination, and writing skill.  This year at Magus Academy, and American school of magic somewhere in Pennsylvania, we focus on Sid Hooper, the pragmatic son of the West Virginia backwoods, and a more engaging protagonist could hardly be found.  With his fellow students in the Pathfinder team--Willow, Lola, Lex, and Incheon--he searches for the meaning
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This You Gotta See

The Seventh Gate by Ameripuff

The Seventh Gate  by Ameripuff   The Seventh Gate combines marvelous storytelling with a non-stop pace, full of wonderfully imaginative details.  It is set in an American school of magic (not the famous Ilvermorney) in Pennsylvania with its origins in the American colonial period (1720), and it bears little resemblance to the well-known school located in Scotland.  It is Drew's own elaborate and unique invention. We follow the experience of 13-year-old Willow Carter and four other
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This You Gotta See

Prisoner by Crimson Quill

Prisoner by Crimson Quill   This is the only story I've ever read that is told from the viewpoints of the several members of the Dumbledore family after the tragedy that ultimately tore the family apart.  In canon, Percival Dumbledore and his wife Kendra seem like faceless, grim people, and their daughter Ariana like an anonymous victim, but here Abbi shows them as they really lived, an initially happy, loving family until tragedy struck, and then just a group of people trying to hold
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This You Gotta See

Green With Envy by Bardic Magic

Green With Envy by Bardic Magic I stumbled across this little gem in a dusty corner of the archives, unvisited for about three years, during the Race Across the Galazy review drive, when I was searching for old stories to review as well as the most recent releases. Green With Envy is a 6881-word one-shot, a sequel to a series of two novels by Bardic Magic, but it can be easily read as a stand-alone, whimsical action/adventure story of Ron and Harry as Junior Aurors, trying to track dow
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fanfic recommendation

The New Skin by Mottsnave

The New Skin by Mottsnave   The New Skin is a chills-and-thrills vision of the life of survivor Severus Snape, who did not die at the end of Deathly Hallows but was saved by Aberforth Dumbledore and plunged into a desperate struggle to escape from, outwit, and defeat an undead nemesis sent by an unknown adversary bent on Snape's death in a horrible fashion. The story spans two continents, North and South America, as Snape endeavors to save his own neck and build a new life for him
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fanfic recommendation

Liam Wren and the Dragon Wand by KJCartmell

Liam Wren and the Dragon Wand by KJCartmell   If you're looking for something as captivating as the original series, check out KJ Cartmell's series about Liam Wren, set in the interlude between the Second Wizarding War and the arrival of the Next Generation at Hogwarts. You will fall in love with Muggleborn Liam -- young, naive about the magical world (and about girls), but nobody's fool.  Liam Wren and the Dragon Wand, the first book in the series, follows Liam during his first y
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