Examples

[indri]

My life is extremely hectic at the moment and I'm still reviewing the comments that people made on Descent. Two points raised concerned the emotionally distancing effect of the voice and tone used in the piece, and the lack of drama in the fight scenes.

So I'd be very grateful if people on my Flist would link to stories (fanfic or commercial fic) which

are extremely emotionally affecting (especially if it's not shipperfic), and/or

have exciting fight scenes.

I'll study them and see how I can improve.

My thanks again to everyone who took part in the Concritathon and for peasant_ for running it.

Comments

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

Just off the top of my head:

For intense but well-written emotion, I'd go for Herself's Where They Have to Take You In. Outside of fanfic . . um, the climax of Henry James' "The Beast in the Jungle" always gets me, despite the fact that James wrote some of the most maddening prose around, and Dorothy Dunnett's historical novels are really good at putting the emotional screws to characters and readers alike.

Good fight scenes . . . let's see. There's Dunnett again; there's either Njal's Saga or Egil's Saga in a good translation; there's Dumas' Three Musketeers, ditto; there's George Macdonald Fraser's Flashman novels.

[indri]

Thank you. I started Herself's fic a while back when it was still a WIP but lost track (as I do with WIPs). The SO has some Dunnetts around somewhere and I see that the James is easily available online (we don't seem to have any of his short stories in print at home).

Dumas! Of course! We don't have the Sagas, but after our recent trip around Scandinavia, I'd say we'd be keen.