A Walk in the Park, by Fai (PG)

Rec Category: Teamy goodness

Pairing: None
Category: Team, gen, Jack O'Neill, action/adventure, hurt/comfort, humor
Warning: team whumping
Author on LJ: unknown
Author's Website: Fai's Flights of Fancy
Link: A Walk in the Park

Why This Must Be Read: In this fun story, SG-1 gates to a planet that is supposed to be a "walk in the park." Surprise, surprise: it isn't.

 Bracketed with entertaining scenes of Jack trying to foist his culinary skills on his teammates, the main story takes place on the other side of the Stargate. It's late Season 4, and both Jack and Hammond are hoping that a quiet little mission will help get SG-1 back on track. The routine soil samples are interrupted when Jack allows the Wonder Twins to investigate some interesting… well, rocks and dirt. It's when they're on the way back that events take a drastic turn, and the struggle begins to simply stay alive and make it back to the Gate in safety. With Daniel reduced to one-word sentences, moving tunnels, and periodical whumping for the whole team, the surprising culprit adds an original twist before they can finally get back home.

 With a most engaging, natural-sounding Jack POV and solid team support throughout the story, A Walk in the Park is a fun read that is sure to make you smile… and, possibly, hanker after casserole.

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Boxing, by Lin (G)

Rec Category: Gen

Pairing: None
Category: Gen, humor, character study, Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, Samantha Carter
Warning: none
Author on LJ: unknown
Author's Website: Lin at StargateFan
Link: Boxing

Why This Must Be Read: This short little fic is a wonderful character study of early Sam and Daniel. Their relationship in the first and second season was one of my favorite aspects of those episodes, and in this story, Jack enjoys it as much as I do.

It's no surprise to anyone that Jack would think in sports metaphors. Here, Lin has Jack sitting back and watching Sam and Daniel argue, comparing them to boxers sparring in a ring. Lin gives the Wonder Twins realistic points of view, as each argues with the perspective that's natural to their fields of expertise.

Jack doesn't participate in the discussion, because it's a lot more fun to watch - both for him, and for us. Go ahead and join Jack in watching Sam and Daniel doing what they do best!

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Combinations, by Katie M. (G to PG-13)

Rec Category: Gen

Pairing: None
Category: Gen, character study, team, humor
Warning: innuendo, reference to Meridian
Author on LJ: katie_m
Author's Website: Katie's Stargate SG-1 Fanfic
Link: Combinations

Why This Must Be Read: Katie gives us ten little gems, each based on a defined word or partial word, which in turn are related to her LJ username. The warnings above are all-encompassing, as each ficlet stands alone and has its own theme or story.

Some of these are painfully intense: Teal'c and Daniel talking together in early S1, or Sam talking to one of the replacements for Daniel at the beginning of S6. Some of these are genuinely sweet: Jack contemplating his team as his legacy, or Teal'c's reflections on Sam and kittens. And some of them are wickedly funny: the team being cheerfully catty about Kinsey, or Teal'c verbally tripping up Jack with an utterly deadpan face.

I will caution, since this is the gen category, that one ficlet includes Sam thinking about the events of Divide and Conquer and reflecting bitterly, in the context of Heroes,  on the innuendo that will inevitably result from her presence on SG-1. I don't think that makes it non-gen, but I'm stating it here, for the record.

Ranging from sweet and sassy to poignant and powerful, Katie covers the gamut with these combinations. It won't take long to read through these, but give yourself time; you'll likely want to read them all over again. 

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Shen, by PeaceHeather (PG-13)

Rec Category: Gen

Pairing: None
Category: Gen, drama, action/adventure, hurt/comfort, Daniel Jackson, team
Warning: violence, torture, culture with slavery
Author on LJ: peaceheather
Author's Website: currently unavailable, but should be here
Link: Shen in text form


Why This Must Be Read: Travel through the Stargate is at its best when we're introduced to new, fresh environments. In this case, PeaceHeather has crafted a detailed, intricate society, complete with political machinations and caste classes. Even the turns of phrases, translated into "English," reflect an alien flavor if their own. And when SG-1 are introduced into this society – complete with some very obvious flaws that our team find deeply disturbing – things are bound to reach a confrontation.

No, this isn't a "Daniel is captured and enslaved" story; rather, it's Daniel, Jack, Sam, and Teal'c forced to deal with a culture that sees slavery as natural and automatic. The team, deeply unhappy at being compelled to treat with people that enslave others to the point where some have no free will of their own, are constrained by the need to make a treaty for naquadah. But when jealousy and prejudice puts the team in danger, and Sam is drugged and Daniel abducted, a chain of events begins that will ultimately shake up the Arkonan society.

As Jack wryly observes to Daniel, "You came, you saw, you turned their culture upside-down just by being… well, you."

Daniel plays a major role in this story, and the reader should be advised that there's a bit of Daniel-worship, especially when things get kinda metaphysical. There's an awful lot of tea-drinking, and all of SG-1 surprisingly bothers to eventually learn Arkona's language. But there's great teamy goodness, including some superb Jack-in-Black-Ops-mode, powerful Teal'c moments, Sam-as-scientist, and Janet making one of her long-distance house calls. And there's the surprising twist when the real reason for the ultimate slavery is revealed, and the happy ending of restoring freedom to innocents. Shen is a long, satisfying story with some great character moments and a world that you'll most likely want to revisit.

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