General Fanfiction Recommendations

[Gabriulio]

Waah, I had no idea something like this ever existed!
I'll try recommending one later, but for now I'm busy searching for an awesome scene to use as excerpt to it.

[ItsaRandomUsername]

Know what I like? Higurashi. Know what I also like? Great Higurashi fanfiction. If you're like me then do yourself a favor and read this one. Sure didn't disappoint me.

Category: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Title: Cicadas: Case of the End Dreamer
Author:The Azure Crow

Synopsis: Twelve years have passed since the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, which left no known survivors. But now seemingly innocent bystanders wander into the village again and again, like lamb to a slaughter. And all the while a great conspiracy looms over them...

Comments: The secrets are many, the twists plentiful, and the atmosphere is strong in this fanfic that just oozes with the good kind of 07th Expansion vibes that Higurashi/Umineko stories are supposed to have. While it's difficult to describe what its about without heavily spoiling what happens Cicadas is seemingly a post-Tatarigoroshi piece that deals with the ever-present curse on Hinamizawa Village and the poor OC schmucks who get themselves involved in that bloody mess. Except the story is a colossal mindscrew with lots of clever use of Unreliable Narration that constantly keeps the readers on edge and motivated to want to see how the mystery gets resolved. Intense storytelling with compelling intrigue, fluid action, and well-characterized characters of both the original and canon variety. If you like Higurashi fanfiction of this variety then be sure to stick with this one.

Notes: Complete. Rated M for violence and disturbing subject matter. Has a sequel by the name of Dirge of the Hollow Forest

[ILurkNoMoar]

Category: Mass Effect
Title: First Contact
By: Animus of Masada
Synopsis: An Asari exploration vessel discovers Earth in the 2030's...and the first contact scenario has incredible implications for both species. What does humanity look like through alien eyes? Where do they go from here?
Comments: It's nice to see a fic were first contact between humanity and the Council races doesn't end in war and while it is planned to be slow, Humanities integration into the larger galactic community seems like it will be completely peaceful. Starts off very light-hearted and comedic (humanity's first words to an alien species are pretty classic), slowly turning more serious as it continues, but never entirely losing the light-heartedness.
Excerpt: Best first contact message ever.

"This is Destiny 4, transmitting to whatever alien presence might be listening, if you're out there: Look, baby, this whole silent stalker thing is really creeping us out. When are you going to come out and play?"
There was a brief pause before the voice continued. "…I can't believe I just said that."

Category: Mass Effect
Title: Two to Tango
By: Hewhoislost
Synopsis: I heard a phrase once: It takes Two To Tango, and I got to thinking, behind every Great Man is a Great Woman, so why not in Mass Effect? Here's their story. Basically a "what if" story were both Shepards exist at the same time(though only one is actually called Shepard, while the other's Sir name is Wolfe).
Comments: This is the first fic I've seen that starts the story with Shepard going through boot camp to join the alliance military and doesn't use timeskips to get to the plot of ME1, in fact the current timeline has the two main characters just about finishing up their N7 training. Read this, it's amazingly well written in both plot and character interactions while maintaining the ability to switch between seriousness and humor in a heartbeat, plus the budding romance between Shepard and Wolfe is really moving and fluffy.

Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Title: I Do
By: Innortal
Synopsis: It's just a school assignment, pretend to live as a married couple, the standard stuff, learn how to prepare a budget, share chores that sort of thing. Unfortunately someone forgot how literally Rei takes everything and what would marriage be without a marriage certificate and a honeymoon. Oh, Shinji, you poor bastard.
Comments: Words fail me how to describe how funny this is, but I can say that my sides hurt whenever I read this.

Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Title: Chicks Dig Giant Robots'
By: Rorschach's Blot
Synopsis: Shinji as raised by Coop from Megas XLR.
Excerpt:
"A giant robot?" Shinji said in shock.

"Yes," Gendo said. "And you will Pilot it."

"If you think you can abandon me for ten years and then give me a giant robot and expect me to forgive you . . ." Shinji growled. "Then you're completely correct, thanks dad. You're the greatest."

Gendo stared, Gendo blinked, finally Gendo shrugged and decided to go along with it. "Fine, but are you sure you don't want me to wheel out an injured girl first?"

"And you're bringing me girls too?" Shinji looked like he was about to do the happy dance, "I take back everything I said about you. Man, when you wanna make up for something you go all out don't you? Yeah, bring her out pops." Shinji's face was impassive as he looked at the pathetic figure on the gurney. "You know . . . I'm not sure weather or not to feel insulted that you felt you had to break her legs so she couldn't get away from me."

"She was injured in an accident," Misato supplied. "We didn't break her legs so that she couldn't escape from you."

"Oh." Shinji looked like he was about to cry. "I'm sorry I ever doubted you dad."

And finally we get to the battle . . .

[Raven2785]

I'm familiar with both Evangelion fics and all I can say is yes, they made my side's hurt too, crack fics at their finest.

[ratstsrub]

The two Mass Effect fics:

Don't care.

The two Eva fic:

Classic Funny.

[Arashi_Leonhart]

All I can say about Chicks Dig Giant Robots is that any story in which Asuka calls Shinji "master" is a good story.

[The Geek]

Category: Fire Emblem
Title: Starchild
Author: Mark of the Asphodel
Synopsis: The main lords of each game in the Fire Emblem series as cosmonauts in a time with a war dividing men and beasts paralleling the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Stars Marth and Eirika predominantly.

Edit: Really, pretty much anything by MotA is good. She's pretty much the FE fandom's equivalent of Elf. Just with more drabbles and grimdark and less porn.

[Seika]

I'm gonna spam AO3 stuff, because people are a bit less likely to have seen it. Some/most of these recs are probably up on ff.net, but AO3's where I found them.

Let's start with the The Stone Griffin series. Chronicles of Narnia, written by rthstewart.

>300k words on the Pevensies' life in WWII, covering their difficulties with Earth's Christianity after having spoken to God on a semi-daily basis for decades, struggling to find purpose when their ages and interests diverge so vastly from what's expected from them, and the unexpected academic bonuses granted when you've conversed with animals about everything they do. And some pretty interesting meditations from the wider cast on religion, purpose, morality, race, euthanasia and so forth, without seeming forced.

The timeline chosen seems to be that of the movies (and this got confusing in places, since I've never seen them), but the author obviously knows the book canon too, enough to weave it in where it improves the series.

Side-stories include the deeply amusing By Royal Decree, and rthstewart's Narnia work in general is worth checking out.

[Arashi_Leonhart]

Ace of Spades, The Camping Trip, The First Watch, and more by Luna Manar. Final Fantasy VIII. Anything Luna does is good, though, and if anyone wants to see the fanfic author that has most inspired me, they should look here. Introspective and down-to-earth. Also the only person that I've sent a significant amount of my original work to for critique. In return, I shall whore her stuff out even though I doubt anybody cares about older FFs anymore.

Evangelion fics by Strike Fiss. He's got a wonderful mix of drama and humor. Characterizes the Eva cast more along their manga personas, so closer to the Rebuild series than the original anime. Some of what is downright silly somehow manages to become rather d'aww inspiring and I'm not really sure how he does it. Higher Learning was probably the first fanfiction I'd read where an OC does not make me want to punch babies.

Children of an Elder God by Biles and Rod M. Evangelion x Cthulhu mythos. Dark, disturbing, and dangerously sexy. The only fanfiction that I regularly checked over the period of an entire decade to see if it would get finished. It is seriously that good. Best not to read right before bed, and with plenty of tissues at hand later on. What the tissues will be used for I leave to you.

Love Will Strike You Down by Annwyd. D.Gray-man. This is basically how my head-canon goes as far as D.Gray-man, such that I've given up keeping up on the manga in favor of just maintaining this in my head. The apocalypse has happened, and now Allen pays the price: all the sins of the world will die with him just as certainly as they will kill him.

Forever Knight by DeliverMeFromEve. Harry Potter. Harry Potter with vampires aplenty, although less Twilight and more Underworld. And sex. Lots of sex. So you know, I ship H/Hr rather than canon pairings, so, yeah.

Magic Never Dies by Lynney. Harry Potter. Written prior to the release of DH and an award-winner amidst many seventh year fanfictions of the time. Also gotta be one of the best H/Hr stories out there that is absolutely nice and fair to Ron.

Restoring Hope by Paracelsus. Harry Potter. Years after the defeat of Voldemort and the death of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley's daughter Hope learns of her parentage while Ron deals with the remnants of Voldemort's cadre of Death Eaters.

Bleh, there's tons more I could go with, though a lot of the stuff I actually quite like is saved on my computer and I don't have quick links to it online anymore. And because some of it is so old, said links are often down anyway.

[Techlet]

Forever Knight by DeliverMeFromEve. Harry Potter. Harry Potter with vampires aplenty, although less Twilight and more Underworld. And sex. Lots of sex. So you know, I ship H/Hr rather than canon pairings, so, yeah.

I would second this tentatively. The technical aspect of this fic is impeccable and the characterization believable. But by god the lead up to the ending, and the ending itself, gave me the biggest case of literary blue balls out of any fanfic I've ever read.

Did I regret investing my time in this 500K+ fic? No.

Was I satisfied by it? Also no.

[Arashi_Leonhart]

lol, I'll report that one to the author. She's one of the few people I know outside of fanfic and likes hearing critique like that.

Her other long story, Hermione Full of Grace, has a better ending, but the pacing to that one is generally worse off. And her more recent Angelica has a literary blue balls moment in the middle rather than at the end, lol.

[Seika]

She's one of the few people I know outside of fanfic

It would amuse me to take this in the worst way possible and assume that you have virtually no friends IRL. Because, I dunno, schadenfreude? (I know it's not what you meant to say).

[Arashi_Leonhart]

Although that's probably closer to the truth than I'd like to admit.

[Techlet]

lol, I'll report that one to the author. She's one of the few people I know outside of fanfic and likes hearing critique like that.

Her other long story, Hermione Full of Grace, has a better ending, but the pacing to that one is generally worse off. And her more recent Angelica has a literary blue balls moment in the middle rather than at the end, lol.

Read them both, I adore her writing style. Liked Grace very much but had no idea what was going on in Angelica.

[Bloble]

Sleeping With the Girls

I don't feel confident that I can describe such an awesome fic in my own words, so I'll just copy paste the summary from TvTropes.

A Deconstruction of the Self Insert fic, Sleeping With The Girls is about a normal guy (albeit one who's been through boot camp) being thrust into various fictional worlds by an unusual mechanism: He 'jumps' to each world the moment he falls asleep, and he wakes up in the same bed as a female character. Naturally, Hilarity Ensues.

And before you ask, no. There has not been a single sex scene. The title is just like that.

In my opinion, this is the best Self Insert fic I've ever read, and it's the gold standard to which I compare other Self Insert fics.

[ratstsrub]

That fic is a piece of shit. It's a mediocre story whose only saving grace is that it hides behind the supposed deconstruction.

If it's the standard used to compare other SI fics, SI fics should just shoot themselves in the head.

Well, even moreso.

[NuitTombee]

I'm not quite as harsh but I also dislike SWtG. Several people over on SB encouraged me to read it and that it was one of the better SI fics along with Dreaming of Sunshine. I soldiered through twenty or so of the chapters before I finally gave up.

[eddyak]

Category: Code Geass
Title: Lelouch of Britannia
By: Cal Reflector

I just read this one today. This writer is amazing, and I love his Lloyd more than the canon one. Which is saying something.

[deviatesfish]

Yes, reading Sleeping with the Girls is like trudging through a swamp full of waste. It should be noted that SI is wish fulfillment anyway, so there is a limit on how good it could have been; especially further limited by the prodigious amount of tropes this author employes.

Yes, Cal Reflector is probably in the top 1% of best fic writers, if he'd only finish it. It should be noted that he has not updated in a while, so disappointment from a lack of updates just as things have escalated will be present.

[Raven2785]

I just read this one today. This writer is amazing, and I love his Lloyd more than the canon one. Which is saying something.

I have other Code Geass stuff to recommend, but I'll save that for some other time.