Rec Category: Daniel Jackson
Pairing: none
Categories: Daniel Jackson, gen, AU, kidfic, episode related, Jack and Daniel friendship, Teal'c and Daniel friendship, team
Warnings: WIP, minor character deaths
Author on LJ: night_spear1287
Author's Website: unknown
Link: Translations on LJ; later chapters available on FF.net

Why This Must Be Read: This is only the second kidfic I've ever recced, and it's certainly the first WIP I've ever recced. But Translations impresses me, and I think I can be optimistic that the story will continue to be as well-plotted and written as it has begun.

The premise of this AU is simple: move the events of the movie back to 1982. Captain Jack O'Neill is a member of the team that goes to Abydos - with Doctors Claire and Melburn Jackson. And when the Gate abruptly reopens in 1997 and Colonel Jack O'Neill leads the team to find out what happens, he meets a fourteen-year-old Daniel Jackson among the native Abydons. And when crisis strikes, and Daniel ends up back on Earth, with the Abydon Gate buried for a year... well, what happens next?

The answer to that is fascinating. This is no little kidfic; Daniel may be only fourteen, but he's nearly seventeen by Abydon standards, and he's been raised in a culture that confers adulthood at an early age. He's an intriguing mix of alien - he's more comfortable on the floor than a chair, for example, and his grasp of Ancient Egyptian is much better than his command of English - and the intelligent, determined Daniel we know and love. His encounters with Sam and Robert Rothman are a blend of unconscious arrogance of his abilities and his uncertainties and fears at the alienness of the SGC; his meetings with Teal'c ring especially true, as Daniel is fascinated and repulsed in turns at who Teal'c is and what he represents. And Jack - Jack is the man who knew his parents, the legend Daniel grew up knowing, and the only link Daniel still has to the world that's been torn away. Then there's Hammond, Janet, Ferretti... the gang's all here, and it's all well done.

The story is following the events of Seasons One and Two; so far, Night Spear is through The Enemy Within. I don't know where events will go from here,  but I'm certainly eager to read along and find out!

ETA: The story is finished, and one of my favorite AUs ever. Go read this one now.

( snippet of fic... )

I'm your devoted Daniel reccer this month! Let's start with an absolute gem, shall we?

Rec Category: Daniel Jackson

Pairing: see below

Categories: Daniel Jackson, Samantha Carter, Jack O’Neill, Teal’c, gen, Sam and Daniel friendship, AU, drama, episode related, angst

Warnings: some language, spoilers through Season Six, one apocafic, spoilers for Moebius, AU major character deaths

Author on LJ: abyssinia4077

Author's Website: Masterlist of fanfiction

Link: Please Hang Up and Try Again

Why This Must Be Read: This beautifully rendered story will unquestionably break your heart.

Abyssis gives us two times five telephone conversations Daniel never had: five because they never existed - each takes place in a different AU - and five that were left on his voice mail during the year that he was Ascended, but were subsequently erased before he ever heard them.

The erased voice mails are poignant and heartbreaking and wistful in turns, left by Sam, Jack, Jonas, and Janet, echoing events of Season Six until Sam finally erases them. And the AUs cover the gamut from hope to anguish and back again - the embittered, exhausted Daniel from Moebius, a Daniel on the run from Kinsey, a Daniel who finally achieves public recognition, a Daniel who loses his SG-1... and a Daniel who gets back Sha’re, which brings tears to my eyes every time.

You will be blown away by the sheer power of this fic and its scope of if-onlys and might-have-beens. Go and read this one right now.

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Rec Category: Gen

Pairing: none

Categories: gen, George Hammond, Teal’c, character study

Warnings: none

Author on LJ: troyswann

Author's Website: Outside the Box

Link: Penmanship

Why This Must Be Read: rydra_wong recced this amazing story in the Teal’c category several months ago, and I fell in love with it the moment I read it. This is George Hammond, personified, and Teal’c, walking clear-eyed into his future, one careful step at a time.

Salieri gives us very early S1 Hammond, looking through SG-1’s reports of their latest mission. There is the light humor of how perfectly the reports mirror their authors: Sam’s is nearly mathematical in its precision, Jack’s is delightful succinctful, Daniel’s is desperately crammed with all the details he longs to tell the world, but never can. But then Teal’c comes into the office, and the reader is blown away by the power of what happens next: Teal’c’s triumph, Hammond’s understanding, and the satisfying snick of the team together as one.

This one is tenderly beautiful. Go and read!

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Greetings! I'm pleased to rec the Gen category this month, starting with a rec I've been waiting for ages to make!

Rec Category: Gen

Pairing: none

Categories: gen, original character, episode related, team, Janet Frasier, Jonas Quinn, Daniel Jackson, character study, angst

Warnings: spoilers through S9, including references to canonical character deaths

Author on LJ: minervacat

Author's Website: when the floods roll back

Link: Look to the Heavens and Number the Stars, parts one and two, and The Silent Language of the Star (a companion fic)

Why This Must Be Read: I read this fic – and later, its companion story – and they completely blew me away.

…That’s not enough? :)

Minervacat introduces us to a superbly-realized original character, Claire, who is recruited to the SGC by Jack at Daniel’s behest. Claire slowly takes over the staggeringly difficult task of cataloging the artifacts that accumulate over the years. With time, she befriends the characters we know and love – especially Janet, her main source of gossip, and Daniel, who never returns her books. Yet Minervacat cleverly evades the Mary-Sue trap for Claire; this original character remains quietly on the sidelines, interacting only enough to be a part of the story without interfering in the events as we know them, or knowing more than she should.

Covering some seven years of SG-1 history – including a fascinating side-trip into the AU of Moebius – these two fics are elegantly written, with just the right touches of humor and distress to make Claire amazingly real.

A librarian at the SGC, with all that entails. Both these stories are too wonderful to be missed!

(Reccer's note: The author posted the fic with a rating of R; when I asked her why, she said she didn't remember. :) Since there's nothing to warrant that rating, I'm reccing it here as PG-13.)

Rec Category: Teal'c and Daniel friendship

Pairing: none

Categories: Teal'c and Daniel friendship, Teal'c, Daniel Jackson, gen, character study, drama

Warnings: none

Author on LJ: randomfreshink

Author's Website: Random’s stories at AllDanielfic

Link: Only Misplaced or as one file

Why This Must Be Read: Full disclaimer: not only did I get to serve as a beta for this absolute gem, but Random has called this a belated birthday present for me.

If you want to skip the rest of the rec, this should be enough: SQUEEE!

Oh, this fic is wonderful. Forget, for the moment, the intriguing puzzle Teal’c and Daniel need to solve, the sudden tension at the potentially fatal stacking of the deck against them, the drama of a frantic Daniel trying to save Teal’c’s life after Teal’c has saved his life, the sober realization of how Pandora’s Box can never, ever be closed... No, what makes this story incredible is that it’s early, early S1 Teal’c and Daniel, struggling with preconceptions and the weight of the baggage they already carry between them. There are fascinating references to their “training” and the meaning of the word “guide”; a lovingly detailed look into both their heads, as they consider one another; the slow journey to acceptance, and to what we know will be an astonishing friendship.

Sam and Jack, the disembodied voices over the radio, serve as a sort of grounding backdrop to the drama in characterization that unfolds before us. But this fantastic story is all Teal’c’s and Daniel’s, and it goes on my top-ten favorites list. Read this one right now!

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Rec Category: Teal'c and Daniel friendship

Pairing: none

Categories: Teal'c and Daniel friendship, Teal'c, Daniel Jackson, gen, futurefic, team

Warnings: none

Author on LJ: niamaea

Author's Website: All the Fic

Link: Ithaca

Why This Must Be Read: At first glimpse, this short story seems to open with an almost prosaic scene: Teal’c and SG-1 coming through the Gate, with Daniel there to welcome them. Then, slowly, it dawns on you: who Daniel is, now, at the SGC. What Teal’c is doing. The years of friendship that allows for a shorthand of even brief sentences to carry a wealth of meaning.

There’s gentle humor and the enchanting prospect of a beautiful future. There’s the inherent promise of a marvelous backstory, and the satisfaction of seeing these characters we love at peace. Sam and Jack aren’t physically present for this one, but they’re solidly part of Teal’c and Daniel’s lives – and it’s a life that I still hope Niamea will continue to create for us, because this is one happy ending I would love to see for SG-1!

ETA: Whee! Niamea wrote an additional pre-Ithaca snippet over here!

Categories: original character, Daniel Jackson, Jack O’Neill, episode related, character study

Warnings: spoilers through Homecoming

Author on LJ: rydra_wong

Author's Website: Fics here.

Link: Son of Endless Sky

Why This Must Be Read: Rydra Wong gives us one of the most beautifully rendered original characters I’ve ever read in Son of Endless Sky.

Shortly after Daniel’s decension, the team meets a group of native traders who recognize that he has died and come back to life. They maintain that he is dangerous, belonging to neither earth nor sky; and they insist that Daniel allows them to provide him with a literal grounding, to keep his spirit safely within his unmarked body that was once nothing more than light.

You will be charmed by the one-paragraph complete story of little Bao, and Daniel’s quiet, gracious acceptance of what the natives ask. You will be moved by the profundity of the artist’s insights into SG-1, and the inherent beauty and pain in what he senses about Daniel’s past and how he writes that essence on Daniel’s body. Most of all, you will come away from this enchanting, haunting story with a sense of conviction that the traders are right – and that ephemeral Daniel does, indeed, require tangibility to keep himself anchored in our world.

(Regarding pairings: The fic is essentially gen; although the unnamed narrator observes the close relationship between Jack and Daniel and wonders about its nature, subtext is left up to the reader. The fic is a remix of brainofck’s Pervasive Local Obsidian, though, which is Jack/Daniel, so the fic is officially labeled as “Jack/Daniel implied/UST.”)

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Rec Category: Sam and Daniel friendship

Pairing: none
Categories: Sam and Daniel friendship, Samantha Carter, Daniel Jackson, gen, episode related, humor, character study
Warnings: very image heavy
Author on LJ: linnet_101 
Author's Website: unknown
Link: Scraps and Scribbles, parts one and two

Why This Must Be Read: Here is another special fic that I’ve been waiting a long time to rec. It’s not an actual story; rather, as the title suggests, it’s scraps and scribbles from Sam and Daniel’s life, showing their evolving friendship over the first five seasons of SG-1. The links are image heavy; keep that in mind if you’re on dial-up.

Rigel offers us a wide range of carefully designed glimpses – their doodles during briefings, the note Sam wrote after Sha’re’s death, the tally of their running competition during Upgrades. Many of these are taken directly from canon, like the increasingly-silly exchange of Post-It notes about Cassie and the certificate of merit (in Ancient!) that Daniel creates for Sam. Others simply reflect their characters, including Sam’s dozens of “while-you-were-out” notes and the stuffed toy Daniel leaves for Sam in a cardboard box. You will find these funny and warming and poignant and heartbreaking in turns – especially when you get to Sam’s final, crumpled note, written at the end of S5.

This tribute to Sam and Daniel’s friendship is beautifully unique and an absolute joy!

Rec Category: Daniel Jackson

Pairing: Daniel/Sha’re
Categories: Daniel Jackson, Daniel/Sha’re, Skaara, Kasuf, character study, humor
Warnings: none
Author on LJ: grav_ity
Author's Website: Gravity Not Included
Link: Paper, Scissors, Yak [LJ entry currently locked; also available here]

Why This Must Be Read: I have been waiting for a long time for the opportunity to rec this delightful Abydos story! Set some time between the movie and COTG, this charming fic gives us beautiful snapshots into life on Abydos – the freedom from Ra’s tyranny that impoverished them for so long, the eagerness of the Abydon people to have Daniel teach them of their lost heritage, the humor of Daniel’s not-so-successful attempts to follow the culture’s traditions. It’s written with deftness and warmth and love, and it will make you fall in love with Abydos – and Daniel! – all over again.

Rec Category: Sha’re

Pairing: none
Categories: Sha’re, Samantha Carter, AU, gen, angst, drama
Warnings: none
Author on LJ: rydra_wong
Author's Website: Fic list
Link: Scotoma

Why This Must Be Read: In this powerful AU, Amaunet is captured by SG-1 and Sha’re is freed. But the triumph can only be bittersweet… because this takes place in Season Six, and Daniel isn’t there.

This is the amazing story of Sha’re’s journey to emotional recovery and equilibrium. Follow in her steps as she mourns her husband’s absence, moving among his things to try and taste his presence; develops a beautifully real friendship with Sam, whose experience with Jolinar allows for a special empathy; handles Mackenzie and other irrating facets of life in the SGC with aplomb; and finds her own place, her own strength, and her own heart.

There are fantastic cameos from Janet and Teal’c – and even Jonas! – but this story is mostly Sha’re’s, and Sam’s. Rydra Wong gives us the Sha’re that Daniel fell in love with, and makes us fall in love with her all over again.

…And look! Here’s an extra treat! isabeau has just posted a beautifully evocative remix of Scotoma for this year's gateverse_remix : Whispers of the Gods.

Rec Category: Gen

Pairing: none
Categories: gen, Teal’c, character study, team
Warnings: none
Author on LJ: paian
Author's Website: Enkomion
Link: Teal'c's Five Favorite Board Games

Why This Must Be Read: This amazing Five Things is my personal definitive Teal’c fic. Despite the seemingly lightness of its premise – Teal’c’s favorite board games on Earth – it is filled with rich characterization and a deeply moving insight into Teal’c and his history, both before and after he joins the SGC.

Teal’c sees satisfying metaphor in checkers and Go and Chutes and Ladders – or, as Daniel points out, Snakes and Ladders, with an extra nod to canon in Fire and Water. He slowly and patiently collects bits and pieces of facts, until he is undisputed king of Trivial Pursuit, even when they play with Daniel Rules and use the Jaffa Edition. And he finds bemused escapism in the innocence and charm of the simplicity of Life, with its airy assumptions of easy success.

This story is poignant and humorous and thought-provoking in turns. We get some lovely glimpses of various team members, and they all ring clear and true. But most of all, we get Teal’c – in his entirety, and wonderfully, beautifully real.
 

Rec Category: Teamy goodness

Pairing: see below
Categories: team, friendship, futurefic, Samantha Carter, Daniel Jackson, Teal’c, Jack O’Neill, Vala, Cameron Mitchell, Cassie
Warnings: canon character deaths (mostly off-screen, and of old age)
Author on LJ: niamaea
Author's Website: unknown
Link: A Million Years Into the Sky

Why This Must Be Read: Full disclaimer: I got to beta this. Lucky, lucky me. :)

Niamaea is one of the founders of sg1_ever_after, a relatively new community about giving SG-1 happy endings. This amazing fic offers a heartbreakingly beautiful look at that happy ending, as Niamaea provides us with a universe that cares for her children and the long, gentle journey that the members of SG-1 take, one by one, to get there.

The first part of the story is told from Sam’s POV; the second, from Teal’c’s, in one of the most stunning characterizations I’ve ever seen for our beloved Jaffa. The entire fic is chock-full of fantastic insights: Sam’s epiphany into how Jack and Daniel’s personalities complete one another. The team’s careful manipulations to ensure that Daniel is “remembered to history for his life,” and not how he died, because that’s what he would have wanted most. Teal’c watching, from the perspective of his longer lifespan, as one by one, his teammates slip away – complete, and in peace. (And Teal’c’s choice for his third grandchild’s name brought tears to my eyes.) 

While I would strongly call this fic gen, I didn’t add that to the categories, because it does include some mention of pairings peripherally – Ry’ac and Ka’ryn, for example. And Sam’s marriage to a teammate. But while the pairings are there, they are not the main import of the story – the quiet future, and the universe’s kindness, are what really matter. 

“Shal’kek nem’ron,” he says.

Daniel shakes his head and corrects him. “You lived free, Teal’c.”

It was difficult to choose a snippet for this, as much of the story is snapshots of events that span decades of time. I know this rec is longer than usual, but this story richly deserves it. Go read it, slowly, and savor.
 

Rec Category: Daniel Jackson

Pairing: none
Categories: Daniel Jackson, gen, team, Jack O'Neill, Samantha Carter, Teal'c, angst, drama, hurt/comfort
Warnings: Teal'c- and Daniel-whumping
Author on LJ: randomfreshink
Author's Website: Random's fics at AllDanielFic
Link: Angels and Vagabonds

Why This Must Be Read: Angels and Vagabonds comes awfully close to topping Numerology as my favorite Random fic. I was lucky enough to read this as a beta reader, but it seems to get better every time I look it over again.

Daniel and Teal'c accidently spring a trap off-world, leaving Daniel stuck behind a seemingly impenetrable force-field. What follows is pure teamy goodness at its best, as SG-1 tries its shining hardest – despite the S4 political rumblings that cruelly cut their options short – to try and get him out before he dies of thirst… or "gives himself" to the temple.

We get amazingly good Jack POV and characterization, as always for Random. Sam aglow with scientific brilliance and her determination to get Daniel released – "she made science look good," Daniel muses at one point. Teal'c's amazing speech is so perfectly him that it only never took place on the show because they would never give him so many lines of dialogue. And Daniel… Daniel's beautiful thoughts that pay tribute to his love for his teammates, and wanting it to mean something, even in the end, for those who didn't make it.

The epilogue is one of my favorite bits, as Jack and Hammond turn those political rumblings on their heads to get a little payback. That, and the SGC's strenuous efforts to help one of their own, even in the face of the need to appear to be following orders. Hammond and Siler, in particular, are wonderful.

Really, this whole fic is fantastic. Go read it, and savor.

Rec Category: Teamy goodness

Pairing: none
Categories: team, gen, Samantha Carter, Jack and Daniel friendship, Jacob Carter, hurt/comfort, angst, horror
Warnings: references to canon minor character deaths, team whumping, language
Author on LJ: juliefortune
Author's Website: Fanfic for the Fearless
Link: The Undefended Territory 

Why This Must Be Read: Julie Fortune's fics always carry a heavy impact. This one blew me away.

SG-1 gate to an ice planet and plunge, quite literally, into disaster. When what ought to be a routine rescue fails, Sam and Teal'c are forced to retreat to the Gate for help while Jack and Daniel struggle with injuries and hypothermia. With the SGC in lockdown and something deadly waking up beneath the ice, how can Sam and Teal'c get to Jack and Daniel in time?

Tok'ra cold-blooded pragmatism goes head-to-head with SG-1 loyalty and loses miserably; Jack and Daniel make the ultimate emotional sacrifice and give up their most cherished pasts for each other's lives; and the reader comes away from this amazing story with the mental shakes and a burning need to read everything else Julie has ever written.

Rec Category: Teamy goodness

Pairing: none
Categories: team, gen, Samantha Carter, Daniel Jackson, Sam and Daniel friendship, Jack and Daniel friendship, drama, action/adventure, episode related
Warnings: violence, team whumping
Author on LJ: sef1029
Author's Website: SEF
Link: Meeting of Minds

Why This Must Be Read: This wonderful teamy fic, set shortly after Daniel's return at the beginning of S7, is a real favorite of mine. It's got a great Sam POV, written at a time when good Sam gen fics were all too few and far between; it creates an excellent backstory for an intriguing alien race that we only glimpsed on the show; it challenges our characters with thorny moral dilemmas, a staple of the show at its best; it offers the hint of skeletons in the Asgard closet, which is one of my favorite fic twists for some odd reason; and it's got solid gold teamy goodness, with all four characters working together and displaying true friendship and support under the most trying circumstances. 

Meeting of Minds practically defines teamy goodness. :)

Off-world exploration, the possibility of major cultural impact on Earth, breathtaking firefights, dramatic and emotional affirmation of SG-1's close bond – what more could you ask for?

…Did I mention that it's one of the best gen Sam fics, ever?

Rec Category: AU

Pairing: Daniel/Sha're
Categories: AU, Daniel Jackson, Daniel/Sha're, team, Janet Frasier, episode related, angst
Warnings: canon character death, language, religious allusions
Author on LJ: unknown
Author's Website: Meredith at FF.net
Link: If I Could Go On Sleeping

Why This Must Be Read: In the past, I recced a wonderfully feel-good story about Sha're surviving FIAD, and Daniel and Sha're getting their happily-ever-after ending. In this powerful fic, Sha're survives FIAD – and then she and Daniel discover that happily-ever-after isn't all that easy. And as the events surrounding Shifu play themselves out, and Sha're is denied her son through Oma's and Daniel's actions... well.

All this slowly unfolds as background to the actual story, which essentially retells Meridian with the inclusion of a rather estranged Sha're. While she and Daniel still love each other, there's also a great deal of strain between them. Sha're sees Oma as the being that stole her son, and now she wants to take her husband, too? And will Daniel's feelings of guilt, and reluctance to - as he sees it - betray Sha're yet again, force him to refuse Oma's offer, even if it means his final death?

Strongly written with beautifully rendered emotions and reactions, If I Could Go On Sleeping offers us a bleakly realistic picture of two people, scarred and confused, trying to find their way towards acceptance. There's wonderful support from the other members of the SGC – and, in particular, an amazing confrontation between Sha're and Teal'c that speaks of deep understanding. Great Jack moments, and Sam moments, and Janet moments… Add a terrific altercation between Sha're and Jonas Quinn, and a clearly warm friendship between Sha're and Sam and Janet, and a final line with parallels that will leave you gasping, and you've got a rewrite of Meridian that you'll remember for a long, long time.