AU Recs

[rabecka.livejournal.com]

Well, this has been fun. I love the what-if variety of AU, and this has given me a chance to go back and reread lots of them. This is my rec list...
WARNING: Some of these stories are very dark. I don't warn here, so if you don't want to be surprised, check out the author's warnings before reading.

AU for Cyberwoman. These stories take things in an amazing number of different directions, some back to events in POTW (Canary Wharf). Some are very dark. Others aren't...
We held gold dust in our hands by amand-r
Permutations by aeshna-uk
Retcon by misswinterhill
Afore the Dawning of the Day by aeshna-uk
A Man of Goodwill by soera
Five Stages by shadowfiction
Made This Bed by valderysTake It Like a Man? Well Fuck That by paperclipbitch
Long Game by adina-atl
Hunting Song by neifile7
Love's Labour's Lost by demotu

The first story isn't AU, but it's the setup for the subsequent End of Days story where Gwen was killed by Abbadon, and what follows on that.
Disambiguation by invisible-lift
Disambiguation - In These Stones by invisible-lift

Other S1/S2 recs. Stories that work off events in S1/S2. I've put them roughly in order, but since some range over time or are quite AU, that's iffy...
Try Your Best (Think About It Later) by out-there
Counting Stars by soera
The Waters and the Wild by soera
Random Gloves by dune-drd
The Slow Path by stolendreams
The Velocity of a Kebab by robling_t
But He'll Get Me by paperclipbitch
Flyboy (10 Flights) by blue-fjords
A Year Out of Time by the-silver-sun
Left Unsaid by dune-drd
Inversion by ceefax-the-same
Baron Saturday Visits Cardiff by thaddeusfavour
Happy Endings by ceefax-the-sane
Overwritten by edibleflowers
Make A Beginning by dsudis

These 3 are a series. Post S2
Ghost of a Kiss by lilithbint
You Are Here by lilithbint
Coda by lilithbint

Post S2. Mostly, they continue TW in various ways, any of which I'd prefer to what we got...
Recruitment Policy by palmface
Miss Osterhagen Regrets by paperclipbitch (Post Journey's End)
Lie Back and Think of Cardiff by laligin
Price by sam-storyteller

Vitual Season 3 -----
These are post S2, but are entire series of stories that include building a new team, and episode-like, long, plotty stories. I've you've missed these, I envy you the discovery.

1. A full AU Season Three, written by some of the best writers in TW fandom. It starts with a Captain's Blog for the radio play Lost Souls and goes on from there, with episodes, blogs, memos... It's brilliant.
You should absolutely read these in order, so I linked to the oldest page - scroll to the bottom to start.
Torchwood Virtual Series 3

2. beesandbrews New Team TW stories. This link brings you to a masterlist - just start at the top...
New Team Torchwood Series by beesandbrews
---------------------

These are AU because the Doctor is involved, and we know from Journey's End that Ianto and Gwen never met him. Other than that, they could have happened. Mostly.
Autumn by elfin
Worse Than the Disease by Autumnburn
All the Dishes Rattle In the Cupboards When the Elephants Arrive by out-there
Flowers Series by DameRuth I'm hesitant to tag this one because the series is largely Jack/Doctor centric. However... there's a fair amount of TW crossover (esp with Ianto) in some stories, and it features a Jack who wants to be there, not one who's pining after the Doctor.

Unclassified. AU stories that don't fit amy particular category. Most of these go very AU, in various ways.
The Day the Dragons Came by nancybrown
Changing Times by darthneko
The Road Back Home Again
Masks by libraryofsol
Made My Own Pretty Hate Machine by paperclipbitch
Get Loved, Make More, Try to Stay Alive by dsudis
Postcards From the Other Side by joking
Time Doesn't Stop for the World's Ending by black-eyedgirl
It Will Bleed You Dry by paperclipbitch
Last One Out by joonscribble
And yeah, there are lots more I've missed. But I have to stop sometime... Enjoy.

Comments

[jo02]

OMG what a fantastic list! Some of the old, long-gone names made me feel nostalgic (sigh). Even though I've read most of them already over the years, I may just indulge myself and work my way through all of them again.
Thank you for cheering up my day :)

[fide-et-spe.livejournal.com]

It's funny you say that because I've looked at a couple, and not only did the author make me feel nostalgic, but the comments! From people who were so active and have since left. It's sad. Still I've found a couple of gems I'd never seen before...

[jo02]

Oh, that is true too, about reading the comments on these old stories. Even though I was around and reading those stories and comments when they first came out, I look at them now and it's like I'm looking at something that happened in a different life (which is not so strange considering how much TW has dramatically changed in just 5 years).

Really makes you appreciate that famous quote about the past being a foreign country.

The one that really made me go 'Oh' with nostalgia was palmface - they weren't in the top group of writers of the time, but their stories had a style and charm I really liked.
.

[fide-et-spe.livejournal.com]

Oh yes me too, I loved those stories. I think they (pretty sure it was a she) moved to study or something and left the fandom. For some reason I get palmface confused with Chritine tw_fan, sort of similar stories, both really good, and one is a professional writer who hasn't done much for ages due to professional work being busy...

[jo02]

Funny how serendipity works. I was going to answer this a while ago, saying that I also used to get palmface mixed up with another writer, but I couldn't remember who, beyond knowing it was a 2-part name. Then just now I was going through some very old comments looking for something completely unrelated, and came across ... cherry_soup888 - that was the one!
They also dropped off the face of LJ in 2009 - but before CoE - I'm still on a nostalgia trip and have added their name to my list of people to go back and reread ... soon ... very soon :)
.

[fide-et-spe.livejournal.com]

I remember cherrysoup, kind of cute little stories. I think some people drop out but if you do ever bother to check their journals, which I've done if I'm reading a story of theirs, then sometimes they have just moved on to another fandom, but sometimes they literally have left. I think if I made an active decision to leave I would delete my journal, but then I suppose some people may like to leave it there in case anyone wants to re read. IDK. I suppose it depends on your reasons, if it's a work or professional thing I get why people delete. My fear would be not looking at my journal and Russian porn gets put on there or whatever!!

[rabecka.livejournal.com]

It's been a trip back thru memory lane for me also. And yes, getting nostalgic for those days, seeing all the names that are gone from the fandom now. (Hey, maybe if folks start reading them now and leaving brand new comments, it will lure them back. Not likely I guess, but nice to let author's know they're still appreciated anyway.)

I'm going to tackle some of the other rec request posts from this site the same way, but it's really slow for me because I download stories, and don't have any sort of tagging system. On the other hand, I've run into several authors who've deleted or locked their sites, so I'm glad to have them and not just the link.