A few things to note:

1) I--I really like John Sheppard. I like basically everyone on this show, but the crush on John has reached proportions even I am managing to be slightly embarrassed about. Anyway--recs here are organized alphabetically from my syndicated recs feed, - 247 Recs as of 06.09.07. Everything goes up on the feed first, and added here when I feel like messing around with my website, so your best bet is to check there.

2) You'll see several repeat names on here, because a) a lot of these were instant recs on my journal, and I copied them over to this page, and b) we all have our favorite authors. I rec het, gen, and slash. Everything is pretty clearly marked, and if you're not sure, hey, just click on the link and check out the author's summary. Slash is separated into Sheppard/McKay and everything else grouped together.

3) *** denotes a story I am especially enamored of; a story that I consider an absolute *must* read in this fandom. The uh--crackpipe is explained HERE. Basically, a story warranted a crackpipe if it had unicorns or one of those *really inspired* plots. And to be honest, I didn't want to litter the page with crackpipes, so the ones that have them next to them are ones that I remember as being especially deserving. There are probably more, but with this fandom, I'd just suggest you....go with it.

4) I don't have the time I wish I had to write extensive recs, and you'll notice that I quote directly from the story in every rec. I prefer to have someone read passages actually from the story and see if anything calls rather than me do a rushed job of it. There might be passages that I actually like *better* than what appears here, but if I feel they'll somehow spoil the story for you I'm not putting them up.

5) I will blatantly admit that I like hearing from people who read my recs pages. I get giddier when people friend my recommendations blog on journal than when they friend *me*, sadly. (It's this weird thing with validation. Just go with it.) So if you want to offer input on how useful you're finding these pages, that'd be neat. I love hearing if there's anything I can do to improve them, or if you're liking how I've got it structured already.

New?

***

Atlantis In Tatters by Ekaterinn | McKay POV (School Challenge)

This story totally made my eyes well up. This sucker hurts. And wow, what a great close.

Rodney keeps expecting John to just show up, lounging prettily on a couch in the atrium, flirting with the math chicks, hanging around outside the lab. But he doesn't.

Comment Fic by Spike | Zelenka, Dex
Radek had not meant to find company.

Flying Blind by minnow1212 | Gen (Team)
"I'm Major John Sheppard from the city of Atlantis, and my team and I don't intend you any harm. In fact, I'm happy to chat with you and make friends, but how about you turn on the lights at least--"

Home Truth by Ltlj | Gen (Epiphany)

I just love her characterizations; she's become one of my favorite authors around and I think I've read like, three things of hers. Go figure. *g* And it's *gen*. I think I'd possibly have to make sure I had an inhaler nearby if she ever went full out slash. Which, hey, I am very willing to do.

Hunting Parties by Victoria Custer | Sheppard/OMC (Mostly Sheppard POV)
If we lose him, if he's already dead, it could all fall apart.

This starts out with John being kidnapped and having horrible things done to him and almost done to him and you want to cradle him to your chest and whisper into his hair, it's okay! It's okay!

Infinity by Wintertime | Gen (McKay, Sheppard, Zelenka)

An infinite number of possibilities emerge from an infinite number of actions, and Rodney sees every last one of them.

Eeeeeeee! Quantum mirror fic! *geeks out* Creepy, sad, traumatic quantum mirror fic, joy!

i woke up before you in the total darkness by Minervacat | Ronon POV, gen

A little trust is not a bad thing for McKay - for Ronon - to have.

Land Shark by Basingstoke | Gen

Things had devolved to the point where Zelenka was yelling in Czech and Rodney was yelling back in math and John had Saturday Night Live sketches running through his head.

This is just--so cute, so funny. John+Atlantis=OTP OTP OTP FOR THE AGES.

Luckenbach, Texas by Summerfling | (Multiple Character POVs)
But the most important thing Marie learns is that the necessity of holding on to one's spiritual beliefs isn't lessened even when one relocates to another galaxy: all personal feelings aside, the simple and inexplicable truth is that Dr. McKay produces more Hail Marys than anyone—anyone—has a right to.

Missing/Inaction by Crysothemis | Sheppard/Dex (Ronon POV)
When he'd first come to Atlantis, he'd kept looking around, expecting to see Sheppard's commander.

More Things In Heaven and Earth by mousewitchy | Gen (Atlantis)
This time, when they'd cried out, it had been in joy; and she'd basked in it. And, to her delight, they'd decided not to settle the mainland, choosing instead to keep her as their home.

My Soul From Out That Shadow by Frostfire | (Wraith POV)
Major Sheppard taunts, and teases, and paces around and around and around his blue-lit world until he thinks he will batter himself against the field until he is unconscious. So close.

Companion: Predatory by Frostfire
You try not to think about it too hard. The prisoner’s an alien and he’s hungry. You’re all just food to him. Moving, talking, meals on legs.

Nemesis by Moonmoth | (background slash)

Short fic, with a freaking awesome last punch.

That's what they all say, Dr. McKay. That's what they all say.

Nightmares by Annie | (Kid!Rodney)
"Not to burst your bubble, but you can barely protect yourself when you're an adult." John smiles and wills Rodney to look at him, to be reassured, to change his mind. "That's why I'm here."

Sequel-ish: Find Your Way by Reccea | Sheppard/McKay
In ten years Rodney has grown about a foot and a half (though he measures it in meters, thanks very much), three new doctorates, and a no-longer-provisional license.

Recovery by Martha Wilson | Gen (Sequel to Retrograde, SG-1 Crossover)

The sequel is just as amazing as the original story; and it's reading stuff like this that is going to make me buy S9 of SG-1 eventually because Cameron is just that cool.

Refraction by Ltlj | Gen
John had chuckled, the mirror had rippled and invitingly extended a crystalline keypad, and McKay had walked in behind them and screamed like a girl. Or a girl with a deep voice yelling, "Oh my God, it's a Quantum Mirror! Get the fuck away from it!"

Relative Positions by Merry | Sheppard, McKay (Rising)
It was all he could say; every other word he knew was bottled up in his chest, which was rapidly expanding. Sheppard wanted him on his team. Sheppard wanted him to be on his team.

Retrograde by Ltlj | Gen (Stargate SG-1/Atlantis crossover, AU)

Oh my God. This story is *so cool*. It's--it's AU, freaking awesome dialogue, great characterizations (especially good looks at O'Neill and Bates) A WICKEDLY NEAT PLOT with fighting and cliffhangers that make me shiver here in giddy glee.

Jack knew he was being sidelined away from Sheppard, but he had to warn the Daedalus about the Wraith, which fricking ate people and that was really all he needed at this point in his career. And his knees hurt on these damn stairs.

Series

Revelation Series by Bone | Sheppard/Dex

Sheppard fucks much the way he leads -- from the front and a little out of control.

Well, like I told her, she has basically single-handedly sold me on John/Ronon. (We've established how I'm basically not a huge OTP girl in SGA, right? How I'm all about John being happy even if stars are going nova and there is burning rain everywhere else, so long as John is happy, Madelyn is happy? We're starting to? Great!) These are just so *cool*, I love what she's doing with Ronon; I love what John himself gets out of the relationship.

Anyway--uh.
 

You'll find that the Pudding series is on that page as well. Good times to be had all over the place at Bone's site.

Revisionist by Arduinna | McKay/Other (2k)
In the darkness behind his eyelids, his hands were touching with want as much as need.

Rodney's Last Message by Speranza
"Hey, do me a favor, will you? Don't check your email for a while. I, uh--" He licked his lips. "I got pretty worked up in there, and I might have said some things that I--"

Rodney's Scrapbook of Death by Moonloon | Gen (Documentation Challenge)
"Wait... you've had death threats?"

Sans Peur Et Sans Reproche by Frostfire | John POV, Dark Side Challenge

He bets himself that he can make Rodney like it, though. He can blow up solar systems for a living.

Sea Change by Lanthano | John POV

"It's time you were done with this, don't you think?" she asked. It wasn't a question.

Seedlings by Livia | Ronon/Elizabeth

Some people you want to be tied to more than others.

Skirting the Issue and Skirting The Issue (Epilogue) by Bone | Sheppard/Dex (Missing Scene, Girl!John) Ronon shrugged. "I like you. I don't much care what you look like."

--Sequels to my "It Stops Being Funny at Skirts", linked in her posts.

Spirit of Adventure by Lenore | Elizabeth/John/Teyla (Threesome)

Elizabeth leans over him, smiling, and runs her nail down his chest. "How much are you up for, John?"

The Care and Feeding of a CO by Domenika Marzione | Lorne POV (Post-Conversion)
Here in Atlantis he was a St. Bernard or a pit bull, depending on the situation. Right now, however, it was bloodhound. Or maybe just Lassie.

Rising, as told from O'Neill's pov. I'm a sucker for a) stories where Jack or John are interacting in any way, shape or form and b) John sitting in the chair. Some really great, fun details, and just a really enjoyable read. I'm going to have to pick up a store copy of the Rising novelization because I didn't realize just how much I yearned for more backstory, *any* backstory on the pilot until I read this. Well. I knew I yearned--but there's yearning and there's yearning....yes. Anyway. (And then I shall have to see if I should be vexed on Miss Porcupine's behalf if the other one is not as good as this. *g*)

"You have been thinking about it," Jack retorted. "You probably stayed up half the night thinking about it. And I'm really failing to see where you're finding a downside."

To Serve A Queen by Tielan | Dex/Weir (Harlequin)

Ronan counted out the twenty-five lashes in tones of gritted pain and never lost count.

I have a small confession to make. I--have somehow become a Ronon/Elizabeth shipper. (In addition to the Ronon/John shipping. I'm--I'm easy. You give me a good story, I'll go for the pairing here.) I don't know how that happened either, but--wait, yeah, I do. It's Tielan's fault for writing this cracky, cracky story based on Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy. Ronon's the warrior purchased by Queen Elizabeth of Atlantis Territory. It's--fun! It's *entertaining*. I *bit my nails* reading it when it was a WiP, wondering ooooh, what the heck is going on with Teyla and Sora and OMG John and then I spend the rest of my time waiting for Elizabeth and Ronon to just have sex already.

I love stories like that. Don't you love stories like that?

Untitled Comment Snippet by Cecilia Regent | (Sheppard, McKay, The Lost Boys)
But then Rodney said “we have to go, come on, let’s - wait, wait up, you can’t, can you?

Your Cowboy Days Are Over (Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys) by M. | Sheppard POV, Sheppard OFC

He wants to concentrate on the mission. What he has, what he needs, what he's got to do.

sheppard/mckay

80 Proof by Lyra Sena | Sheppard/McKay (Sheppard POV, AU)
He was wearing an egregious floral print Hawaiian shirt and blue jeans (good Christ, blue jeans), a panama hat set crookedly over his sweat soaked hair.

Sequel: Pier 8 by Lyra Sena | Sheppard/McKay
“So I think your sunscreen works,” John said conversationally.

A Beautiful Lifetime Event by Shalott | Sheppard/McKay
John stared in horror: the thing was growing.

Mpreg, only not; this story made me fall in love with John Sheppard before I actually knew who he was.

Advantage by Resonant | Sheppard/McKay
So Sheppard left, but after half an hour he drifted back in to hand Rodney an antacid tablet. Rodney sighed. "Look. Tell me what you need to be doing and I'll order you to do it."

A Long Gold Sliding Into Dawn by Synecdochic | Sheppard/McKay
He drifts for a minute, for an hour, and only wakes up enough to process it, not enough to remember it, when Rodney kisses him lightly and says "you can't have post-traumatic stress when the trauma never really goes away" with a curious sense of regret.

Newer author to SGA, haven't read her other stories (story? Whatever), but am anticipating sitting down with those later. She has a highly interesting take on John's fucked in the head state and this is one of those stories that really beats you in the head with the: Dear SGA, Please give us some John backstory, hey, sometime before this series *ends*.

And Sometimes You Get Toasters by giddygeek
Ford watched Rodney stomp through the gate. "Well," he said, "he is kinda making progress. This time he didn't rant long enough for anyone to take a potshot at him."

Another Word for Optimism by Celli | Sheppard/McKay
It was a sad testament to Rodney's distraction that it took him whole three rounds of optimism and lack thereof before he made the connection. But mid-briefing, hit him.

A Not-So-Modest-Proposal by Reccea | Sheppard/McKay
Plus, while he'd never actually admit to it, flying the puddlejumper was really kind of better than sex.

Seriously wonderful writing, a great, great read, right here. Sometimes chat conversations properly convey what a story can make you feel:

svmadelyn: it is okay, I am reading this story.
svmadelyn: it is making me coo at high pitched levels.
svmadelyn: *is pleased*
seperis: YES COO!
svmadelyn: this is so seriously freaking adorable.
svmadelyn: I'm doing a running dialogue in my head
svmadelyn: ohmygodhe'sinhiswilliknewit.
seperis: I love this story
svmadelyn: oh my god there's a part two
svmadelyn: there is a god
svmadelyn: he has not forsaken me
svmadelyn: I don't want this to end eeeeeeeee.
seperis: ME EITHER
svmadelyn: i am making myself read this so, so slowly
svmadelyn: John. In only track pants. On their date.
svmadelyn: *makes the happy noises*
seperis: I want to marry this story.
seperis: have its babies.

Apoapsis by scribblesinsand | Sheppard/McKay
Also, Rodney's brand of flirting seemed to be the geek's version of the old caveman routine -- if I bludgeon you with my brain, can I have my way with you?

A Stirring Tale of Manly Fortitude by Kormantic | Sheppard/McKay
John took a step closer and brushed a dry kiss on the spot Rodney had just touched.

Quite simply, John kisses Rodney's bruises better. And we go guh.

Be Cool by Hth (Search and Seizure) | Sheppard/McKay
Then, like the emissary from the underworld that he clearly was, Sheppard turned sideways in his chair and held the freshly rolled joint out toward Rodney.

Bell Curve, or, Ladies Night at the Boom Boom Room by Pru | Sheppard/McKay

"Ladies and Gentlemen--adjust your pants and pull out your loose bills!"

Benched by Speranza | Sheppard/McKay

"All right," John said finally, clapping his hands together briskly to get their attention; he'd learned that brisk handclapping was a good four-fifths of the whole leadership thing.

Blindsided by Resonant | Sheppard/McKay
If the dandelions were going to make McKay temporarily blind, at least they could have had the decency to make John temporarily deaf.

Sequel:

All Brand New by Jenn

Rodney thinks that the entire Pegasus galaxy is after John's ass, which is usually funny and kind of weirdly cute, because this relationship thing is completely unexplored territory.

Coping Mechanisms by Amireal | Sheppard/McKay
John kept a mental tally of the hours and minutes he visited, the number of times in a day. Sometime on day three he had a small panic attack when he realized the numbers were too high.

Note: Seriously, hang in there for this one. This has--an odd start, but it goes to a place where it is *worth it*.

either.or by Isilya | Sheppard/McKay/OFC

He could feel McKay watching him but he kept his eyes firmly on the girl.

Empty (Te Deum) by Jenn | Sheppard/McKay

John's stretched out in bed, boxers and t-shirt, weirdly modest for a man alone in his room, but then again, he's never alone, not really.

Entanglement Theory by Jenn | Sheppard/McKay

Spoilery for The Return Part I, and so *adorable*, I melt. Featuring a very afraid John and Rodney--oh God, they're getting *respect*, and *things done for them*, and it's all just so wrong and traumatizing for their little heads.

Euler's Jewel by Basingstoke | Sheppard/McKay
"Because it's perfect," John said. "One! Zero! e! i! π! You can do anything with that. That's the foundation of math. It's--it's like *truth*.

Math porn! Math porn!

I'll go be a melty puddle of goo on my bedroom floor right now, thank you. *flicks lighter quietly in Basingstoke's honor*

Feeding Frenzy by Shalott | ...lots of "pairings". (Shark Challenge)
"Uh, something—I think something's wrong," except he wasn't sure he did, really, because right now he was feeling better than he could ever remember feeling in his entire life, except for the goddamn edgy crawling sensation.

Shalott has some impeccable timing--she always seems to post when I'm in the middle of something weird or traumatizing. The day I read this, it was just me half falling asleep writing a paper that's already two weeks late. John really, truly is the little black dress of this fandom, is all I'm going to say here. Also, yay for orgies! Everyone should have an orgy Ancient device!

Find Your Way by Reccea | Sheppard/McKay (Sequel-ish to 'Nightmares')
In ten years Rodney has grown about a foot and a half (though he measures it in meters, thanks very much), three new doctorates, and a no-longer-provisional license.

Pre-equel-ish: Nightmares by Annie

Freedom's Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose by Synedochic | Sheppard/McKay

SGC finally stops calling him by December.

Given a Choice, It Would Always Be Sunday by Chel | Sheppard/McKay (Lost Boys)

As Kurt Vonnegut would say: So it goes.

This story has one of the neatest structures I've seen in a good while. Just--this is a really cool, solid read. Vonnegut! Yay!

Grass Tatters by Giddygeek | Sheppard/McKay
There wasn't any music and Sheppard's lap dances weren't all that great.

Oh come on. Like you aren't going to read with that line.

Hands-On Science by Nindulgence | Sheppard, McKay (School Challenge, AU)

See John and Rodney meet in Canada at a science center years and years ago in high school. See John impress Rodney with his utterly brilliant, hot little self. See PEN PALS FOREVAAAA born. This story is Just. So. Cute. And I harbor a not-so-secret (well, now anyway), yearning for *more*.

"Oh please, I've never seen anyone look so uncomfortable as when Max started to ask you what you wanted to be when you grew up."

Sequel: He's Having His Baby! by Pru | Sheppard/McKay
Babies had better be totally fucking awesome, John thinks dismally, because not even sex is worth this shit.

So the first one, John's not really pregnant. The second one he is. If you're someone who just does not see the mpreg appeal, if these stories don't change your mind, absolutely nothing, nothing will. I couldn't say enough good things about these.

Hindsight by Pru | Sheppard/McKay
There's a note in the box that John doesn't find until after lunch, and it says, "Now are you that kind of girl?" and John nearly fucks up an interrogation trying not to laugh.

This (AU) story is just so engrossing. One of my favorite things she has ever, ever written. Hearts float, birds sing, you babble incoherently at the ending, this has it all. It makes my cheeks hurt, I smile that much. (Um. There are Bad Things happening in this story with a case John investigates but--but--as a John and Rodney story? Wow.)

Sequel: More Than

Okay, I'll confess, this story took me a bit to get into, despite it having Lorne turning into a woman. I just--hmm. I was sort of, huh, the point, what's the *point*, and up until the 3/4 mark, I was a tiny bit listless with it, but at the same time, I kept feeling like something should happen, but I wasn't certain if it....actually would. And then I got to the point where something DID HAPPEN and I totally screamed a little. Silently. Because I--okay, fine, it was slightly audible but I LOVE THIS STORY.

...do