Speranza's Written by the Victors is not only a cracking story, but it's also the most interesting use of form and structure I've happened across in a good long while. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

(Given the dearth of opportunities to discuss fanfic in depth offline, it's a pity that the slash panel at Dragon Con apparently wasn't more interested in discussing slash fic. It's such a rich and varied subject in such a host of ways. I mean, not trying to distance myself from the porn, because - yay porn, and the above story certainly has the hot boysex aplenty. But still - it's a cracking piece of writing, and it does interesting and clever things with the source text and with the storytelling process. I'm going to assume that there are slash panels at Cons where the participants have already got over the whole heady rush of being OMG So Naughty, and where they get their teeth into talking fic.)

To those who had previously said they would beta for me, insent.

I was reading a dragon*con panel reports at my Flist and apparently some crazy woman got up in the Stargate panel and asked Paul McGillion and Jason Momoa about whether they were looking forward to killing off Sam Carter in the next season. To which the cast, rightly, responded with flabbergasted distaste.

Honestly, some parts of the fandom make me want to hide in my cave and never come out.

apparently some crazy woman got up in the Stargate panel and asked Paul McGillion and Jason Momoa about whether they were looking forward to killing off Sam Carter in the next season. To which the cast, rightly, responded with flabbergasted distaste.

She actually said something like, "I know this will get me in trouble with the audience, but is there any chance either of your characters will kill off Carter next season?"

Much of the audience booed, including us. And yeah, Momoa and McGillion's resopnse was generally "WTF?"

Also, it's gonna be tough for Beckett to, you know, come back from the dead, so that he could kill off Sam.

I'm pretty sure Momoa mentioned that, though the panels are starting to blur together. He did delight in reminding McGillion that his character was dead.

the above story certainly has the hot boysex aplenty. But still - it's a cracking piece of writing

I think I would have liked the story better if it had been gen. There was something about the structuring that managed to imply "I stole a city for my hot boyfriend," which tended to trivialize the otherwise deadly-serious plot.

Actually there are a couple of things I'd criticize in the story, in the deep structure and in the assumptions, but mostly what I want of the story is for it to be more ambitious. Which says good things about the story overall, you know? It engaged me enough that I wanted it to be even better. (I haven't figured out a polite way to write that in feedback format.)

I think I would have liked the story better if it had been gen. There was something about the structuring that managed to imply "I stole a city for my hot boyfriend," which tended to trivialize the otherwise deadly-serious plot.

I think I see where you're coming from, even though I totally and utterly disagree. (But by way of disclaimer, the list of stories I find to be improved by being gen is... um... I had one or two written down somewhere in case the question ever came up.)

Anyway, for me, the hot boysex didn't distract from the story, because of the way it felt like the whole plot was really kicked into motion by the way Sheppard's emotional loyalties run so much deeper than the attitudinal flyboy the Air Force and SGC take him for. Which applies to the team, not just the pairing, and ultimately to the way the city is reborn. And because it all unfolds out of that core, the hot boysex is TOTALLY NOT GRATUITOUS LALALALA.

I think I would be more willing to subscribe to your newsletter if, e.g., any of the other characters (i.e. the 124 other people) had been given agency or action. Like, a whole bunch of brilliant weirdoes were all satisfied to transition to what amounts to a monarchy, without argument? There were never any policy disagreements?

The lesson of Fletcher Christian, to pick one famous mutineer, is the lesson that once you've had one mutiny, it's not too hard to have more. You don't just automatically make a City upon a Hill, not without a lot of caucusing and rancor and hardship in addition to luck.

I think I must be a glass-half-full kind of ficreader, then. I followed a link with no particular expectations (hadn't even registered it was Speranza until I got to the end) and was just delighted with all the historical 'quotations' and citations and bibliography and all that jazz. But I can see the validity of your criticisms.