A fannish half year in review: Jan-Jun 2025

So I’ve been doing the very enjoyable Fanfic Reading Challenge and, because of that, I have for the first time ever stats on what I read, and therefore, because I love a stat, I’m laying my half year’s reading out for posterity (what do you mean, 2 months late?).

In relation the the reading challenge by the end of June I had completed 211 of the 250 tasks and 7 out of 15 of the categories. 🥳 That means I’ve already completed Hard Mode (150 tasks) and will definitely get to Extreme Mode (220 tasks) for certain. Obviously I have picked the low hanging fruit here and completing tasks is becoming harder. Whether I’ll actually do the 250 to complete I’m not sure (although I rather suspect my love of ticking off lists might compel me to…)

Words
I read 10,088,759 words over 633 fics meaning an average length of 15,938 words per fic.

Fandoms
I read in 129 different fandoms! That stat shocked me, although I knew I’d read in more fandoms than I ever had before as one of the Fanfic Reading Challenge tasks is to read in 60 different fandoms (still got four to go because of the number of words requirement for the task, despite having read 129 fandoms!!).

I got into The Untamed/CQL/MDZS Fandom earlier this year and that dominated my reading. I read 3,850,762 words in The Untamed. Second was DC at less than a quarter of that at 815,559 words. Top 5 rounded out with Star Wars, Inception and Les Miserables, although a few really long fics in Les Mis doing a lot of the heavy lifting there.

If you go with numbers of fics instead of words, therefore, the change to the top five is only Les Mis swapped out for Stargate SGA. I read 154 The Untamed fics, 80 DCU, 69 Star Wars, 31 Inception and 23 Stargate

Caveat I suppose – the 129 fandoms looks impressive, but a lot of fandoms I just glanced over to get my Reading Challenge tick. Truthfully of the 129 fandoms, I only read more than 5 fics in 16 of them, and there’s a loooong tail of 79 (over half of the) fandoms I only read one fic in.

Pairing

As an OTP kind of a gal, you’d expect my pairings to pretty much mirror my fandoms, as I usually only really read one pairing in a fandom BUT! DCU has thrown in a curve ball because I primarily read in Batfam fics so the focus is spread out over a lot of different relationships and includes a lot of gen.

I read 212 different pairings. The challenge has a ‘100 Pairings’ task, which I totally smashed! 😉

So I read 3,288,915 words of Lan Zhan/Wei Ying, Obi-Wan/Anakin next at only 12% of that at 399,882 words. Third was Gen at 391,223 words (mostly thanks to DCU), fourth Arthur/Eames (380,896), fifth Enjrolas/Grantaire (313,037) and sixth MacKay/Sheppard (273,135).

By number of fics, I read 135 fics with Lan Zhan/Wei Ying as the main pairing, which is more than double the amount of Gen fics I read (63) and more than four times the amount of the next actual pairing of Arthur/Eames (31 fics).

Authors
I’ve only done Authors by number of fics rather than words because I think the words are meaningless, it’s whether I looked at a fic and went, ‘yes! that one!’ that really counts. I read 486 different authors this year, but very few I read more than 1 fic of (71).  The authors I read most fics of were:

Petra (15), astolat (9), Icannotthinkofapenname (7), Helenish (6), Graciously (5), Rosey_peach, Resonant, Shanastoryteller, and iliaquer (all 4)

Ratings
In news to no one, I read more explicit fics than any other rating. What can I say?

Fannish 50: #12

2 Recs: Directed BDSM verve

So I need to chuck out a couple more recs to tick off one of my fanfic reading challenge tasks, so here’s two fics I have read this year that I enjoyed a lot. They were, however, rereads (BTW about 17% of the fics I’ve read to far this year have been rereads, more than 100. If something’s good it’s good, right?)

I wouldn’t normally have reread so much, I don’t think, except I’ve had to look for things to tick off my tasks so when I’ve remembered fics that fit I’ve used them, of course.

These two fics go together because they are both in the BDSM ‘Directed’ verse, which was started by Helenish with ‘Take Clothes Off as Directed’ in Stargate: SGA. Not linking that fic because I can’t find it - possibly deleted? Anyway it works on the premise you have Doms and Subs and uses those to explore stereotypes and prejudice as an analogy of sexism. Very interesting.

I really like these two fics because one takes place in the armed forces where masculinity is an important and challenging concept, and one in the seventies, where sexism was rife. Really interesting reads (also, very sexy, not to bring the tone down too much!).

***

Fandom: Life on Mars (UK)
Pairings/Characters: Sam Tyler/Gene Hunt, Annie Cartwright/Sam Tyler
Rating: Explicit
Length: 23,930 words
Creator Links: petra at AO3
Theme: BDSM

Summary:

Sam hid his true nature from the world until he was hit by a car and woke up in 1973, where it became painfully obvious to him that everyone knew he was a submissive, particularly his new DCI.

Reccer’s Notes: Sam’s modern sensibilities clashing with 70s attitudes is the main theme of LoM as a programme. It’s particularly interesting to add the D/s dynamic into the mix. Warnings for dubious consent (coercion as the author terms it) as Sam is placed in situations both sexual, discipline and otherwise, he initially does not want to be in.

Fanwork links: Ease my worried mind

***

Fandom: Generation Kill
Pairings/Characters: Ray Person/Brad Colbert
Rating: Explicit
Length: 32,216 words
Creator Links: derryderrydown at AO3
Theme: BDSM

Summary:

Directed-verse Gen Kill.

Reccer’s Notes: Ray is the only sub in Bravo, and Brad claims him as a sun in Iraq. Just to make things easier, obviously. I have a bullet proof love for people who write BDSM and keep the players perfectly in character. This fic is a job exceptionally well done.

Fanwork links: Take MOPP off as directed

Fannish 50: #13