InsaneJournal

Fic reviews: McShep Match Days 21 & 22
Day 21: Fish Out of Water

Grace, Too by perspi 3/5
1400 words. "One dance, and then we'll talk cease-fire," John promises, using his free hand to carefully slide Rodney's glasses off and fold them into his shirt pocket. "You'll be home in an hour."

This is very well-written and gets a lot across in a few words. I just wish it had explored the premise more than just ending the way it did. I wonder if it was a pinch hit. Anyway, I am not a big fan of semi-AUs like this, the sort of story that seems like a full AU but then ends by linking up to canon somehow. John as a fallen angel is cool, but canon!John as a reincarnated angel is much less so to me. (In fact, I really dislike the idea.)

Also it was a big switcheroo with the angel thing, at least to me. I thought for sure it was going to be a vampire AU from various things John says, so it was cool that it wasn't.

Day 22: Coup de Grâce

The Dread and Fear of Kings by valderys 2/5
8400 words. They were used to odd happenings and sudden danger, even on Atlantis itself. A woman's voice calling John to come away? That wasn't even a blip on the scanner - until John began to listen to it.

This is pretty well-written and I liked the mystery of it at first, but then it just kind of turned into Not My Thing when John was in some sort of mating frenzy or whatever and ended up fighting Rodney and eh. Just too many tropes I'm not fond of. The reveal is interesting, except the pacing is a bit off. I'm surprised this got so few comments (only fourteen!?) as it seems like something fandom would like a lot more? idk.

Twice Blessed by chellefic 3/5
10,800 words. Even when things are peaceful, John can't seem to keep from doing dangerous things.

I didn't look at the pairings in the headers, so I didn't know going in that it was going to be a threesome. But as soon as I realised, it put me on edge and I was so tense it was hard to really enjoy it. I was afraid Jennifer would be made the badguy or it would have Rodney realising he loves only John and not her or something, but it did manage to treat her respectfully throughout, which I really appreciated.

I still wasn't totally happy with the ending, because she was just written out in favor of the OTP...but at least it wasn't done in a really horrible way. Though I'm really getting tired of the "Jennifer wants to go back to Earth and Rodney doesn't" cliche.

Also once again I was annoyed with the WNG stuff. I really should not read so much SGA fic in one go because it is so common in this fandom compared to others I read, and I just can't take it, not one after another after another like this.