Crossover recs

[swordage]

Crossovers have a bad reputation. You think "crossover" and you think "badly written drivel that has nothing to do with either series" and no one wants to read that crap. I am here to tell you that crossovers need love, too. Crossovers can be just as well-written as any epic, any AU, any other genre at all. A good crossover doesn't require you to be intimate with both (or all) of the series used. A good crossover is just plain good.

My recs may contain slash and incest but are equally likely to be gen; if that's not your cup of tea, please read the author's warnings for each link.

Dust in the Wind by lyra_wing is an achingly gorgeous mix of Supernatural and American Gods. It brings in the general mythology and tone of American Gods (magical realism, anyone?) and gives the Winchesters the exact ending I have longed for. It couldn't be more perfect. They are the gods of the open road and the hunt, of classic rock and stupid luck, of truck stops and greasy diners, of dollar beers and pool halls.

And All the World Beneath by seperis is difficult to describe as anything but horror, although that label fits poorly. It's apocalyptic, it's magical realism, it's epic, it's adventure, it's angst, it's horror. It's Stargate Atlantis and it's Supernatural and it's mind-blowing. Think Lovecraft if Lovecraft could write worth a damn. "I'm--looking for antibiotics." Dean eases his finger off the trigger, keeping an eye on the guy's gun hand--starved or not, Sheppard's got the same disciplined movements that he remembers from Dad, the same too-easy space in his skin despite the jerky movements of his hands.

You can't rec crossovers without reccing astolat's Old Country, which involves Supernatural and Harry Potter - oh, don't make that face, it's incredible. I can't even - it's fun and then it's terrible (in the good way) and then it's amazing and hot. Too late: Sam had slid up the window and the owl burst into the room, hooting angrily, and started circling around their heads. It took almost half an hour to get the thing to land on the TV set and get the note off—it wouldn't let Sam take it at all, and Dean didn't really want to get anywhere near the freaky-ass thing. "I still think it's got salmonella or something," he muttered, unrolling it, and then he stared at the front of the envelope.

I'm not sure how many Dark Tower fans are out there, but Listening Into the Darker World by shaenie wraps it into Stargate Atlantis in the best possible way. It does require familiarity with Dark Tower canon, I think, at least inasmuch as understanding what happened to Jake and the intense dynamics between him and Roland. John isn't surprised when someone circles into his line of sight, isn't surprised at the huge-ass revolver (it's the size of Ronon's energy pistol; the bore looks like a fucking tunnel) that's trained on him, isn't surprised at the careful grace and competence with which he moves; what surprises him are the jeans the guy is wearing, familiar and foreign at the same time, and doubly incongruous because of the deerskin shirt they're topped off with. The guy – a kid, really, maybe twenty five or so, tops -- is smiling, at ease, not exactly friendly, but not unfriendly either. He says, "Hey, that's a cool gun."

Where Did All the Physics Go? by amireal is the classic Stargate Atlantis crossover with - well, it gives away too much to say, but if you really must know, she conveniently made a page just to tell you. This story works improbably well and is just - utterly adorable and ridiculous and somehow serious as well. The doctor gave them a withering look and had just opened his mouth to answer when the wall-- no make that the door-- whooshed open and really, Rodney should be used to that from Atlantis. Still, the noise made him jump.

More Than Meets The Eye by astolat is basically everything you'd want from a Supernatural/Transformers crossover. It puts a huge grin on my face just thinking about it - and since my default reading face is an intense frown, that says a lot. Dean had them heading towards Golden Valley on US-93 when the semi and the fighter jet went screaming by, blasting at each other with what looked like laserbeams. That was crazy enough, even before both of them smashed into the overpass and stopped long enough to unfold into giant robots.

Take a Long Line by derryere is delicious, delicious Numb3rs/Supernatural. Damn do I love seeing the Winchesters from the other side of the law. This one gives me a solid dose of that, plus it's casefic. I feel like the ending's a little bit of a copout, but it's still excellent. Don has read through the file and knows that Winchester isn't stupid. Dangerous, unpredictable and often reckless. But definitely not stupid. So there has to be a good reason that, knowing full well that he's on the FBI's radar, Dean Winchester brazenly walked into the Federal Building on Wilshire Boulevard to collect a passport under the pseudonym of Ronald Belford Scott.