A Brane of Extraordinary Women
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | A Brane of Extraordinary Women |
| Author(s): | Diane Castle |
| Date(s): | 2011- |
| Length: | Over 1.5 million words |
| Genre: | gen |
| Fandom: | Harry Potter, Stargate SG-1, Buffy,Batman, The Bionic Woman, The Secret World of Alex Mack |
| External Links: | Series Overview and Stories on Twisting the Hellmouth, |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
A Brane of Extraordinary Women is a massive action-orientated multi-fandom crossover series by Diane Castle, published on Twisting the Hellmouth, which has now extended to seven stories with a total length over three million words.[1] It has its own fandom with fanfic, fan art, etc.
The ratings of the stories range from FR13 to FR15 (minor sexual content); relationships shown are either canon for the different series in the crossover or het.
Summary
In the first story, The League of Extraordinary Women (2011–12), demonic invaders start to open dimensional portals and attack several worlds, most notably the post-series Harry Potter and Buffy universes. A prophecy leads Hermione Granger to visit the other worlds of the story and recruit a team of women who will be able to end the threat; herself, Samantha Carter (Stargate SG-1), Buffy Summers and Willow Rosenberg (Buffy), Selina Kyle[2] (Catwoman), Jamie Somers (The Bionic Woman), and Alex Mack (The Secret World of Alex Mack). A complication is that the different universes have different natural laws, to some extent; most notably, magic will only work in some of the worlds once the dimensional invasion ends. Working together and with some support from other characters from their universes such as Xander Harris, Batman, and Faith Lehane they are eventually able to overcome the threat, and the team members eventually return to their own universes.
The second story, Cross Purposes (2012–16), sees the members of the team looking for their world's versions of their other teammates. Usually they seem to have similar histories, but there are often surprises. For example, Hermione finds that her world's Willow is a magical drop-out, the Stargate world's Buffy is a ruthless secret agent, the Batman universe Buffy appears to be a gold-digger but has a secret agenda. It's essentially several separate narratives covering most of the universes and characters, with a few exceptions; most notably the "Alex Mack" universe is omitted since it's covered by the next story.
The third story and by far the longest is The Secret Return of Alex Mack (2012–14). On returning to her own world teenage superheroine Alex sets out to make the best possible use of her relatively low level powers (most notably flight, lightning, and telekinesis) and becomes a globally known superheroine, adopting the pseudonym Terawatt. She tracks down the contacts she's made in the first story and finds her world's equivalents - some useful, others not - and in the process of developing her potential uncovers a global threat, a conspiracy to destroy most of the human race, using mutants and bioengineered and chemically triggered monsters. This takes in dozens of additional fandoms, mostly providing additional characters and/or monsters and enemies, and is more than a million words in its own right. A majority of the works by other authors derive from this story, and it has its own TV Tropes page.
The fourth is a prequel, Hermione Granger and the Boy Who Lived (2014–16), a "mundane" version of the Harry Potter story set in the "Alex Mack" universe where there is no magic. "Harworts School" is secretly run by factions of British Intelligence, and its students are taught spycraft and have to unravel the remnants of old conspiracies dating back to the Second World War.
The fifth is The Secret Collocation of Alex Mack (2016-2018), which introduces parallel world versions of Alex and makes occasional references to characters etc. introduced to this universe by other authors.
The sixth is Cross Purposes 2 (2018- WIP) which continues events in all of these universes after the events of Secret Collocation, again mentioning characters and events introduced by other authors.
The seventh is Hermione Granger and the Swiss Tournament (2019-WIP), a sequel to Hermione Granger and the Boy Who Lived and The Secret Return of Alex Mack
Reactions and Reviews
The series has been very positively received on Twisting the Hellmouth, with 724 recommendations and more than twelve thousand reviews; The Secret Return of Alex Mack has 55 spin-off stories by eleven authors plus art work etc. This shared universe setting was referred to as The Teraverse by fans and authors, and went on to inspire a score of authors to create over a hundred stories.[3]
I'd like to recommend the series A Brane of Extraordinary Women by DianeCastle over on Twisting the Hellmouth (no links due to the site having NSFW stories on it):The League of Extraordinary Women: multicross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, Batman, The Secret World of Alex Mack, and Bionic Woman. Done in the same vein as League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, pretty well done. 134k
Cross Purposes: continuation of the stories of the various women from the fic above, except Alex Mack. 177k
The Secret Return of Alex Mack: the main reason for this recommendation. It is one of the best fics over on TtH. No need to have seen the source material, a quick wiki check was plenty for me. Nearly 1.2 million words
Hermione Granger and the Boy Who Lived: the story of the Harry Potter cast's dimensional analogues in Alex Mack's world. Most recent story, ongoing. 193k
Also of note is all of the recursive fanfiction TSRoAM has spawned. Last count was 22 fanfics of TSRoAM on TtH by other authors. Many of them are also quite good.[4]
There is also what is known as the "Teraverse" on TTH which is an entire genre of fanfiction based on the fanfic series A Brane of Extraordinary Women. Some of these are really good and have retroactively been considered "canon" for the original fanfic series.[5]
The series is often recced and the DianeCastel tag on Ao3 includes external bookmarks created by several bookmakers. (The author herself does not post on this site.) One bookmarker's note on The Secret Return of Alex Mack states:
Even knowing nothing about the series "The Secret World of Alex Mack" I found this story riveting, very re-readable, and richly detailed. It's a LONG one, but so worth it![6]
A Brane of Extraordinary Women is rated the third highest story on the site by number of recommendations, and first for number of reviews (all as of September 2016).
The series has its own TV Tropes page and an ongoing discussion thread on Spacebattles Forums.
Links
- Series Introduction and links to spin-off stories on Twisting the Hellmouth
- The League of Extraordinary Women on Twisting the Hellmouth
- Cross Purposes on Twisting the Hellmouth
- The Secret Return of Alex Mack on Twisting the Hellmouth
- Hermione Granger and the Boy Who Lived on Twisting the Hellmouth
- The Secret Collocation of Alex Mack on Twisting the Hellmouth
- Cross Purposes 2 on Twisting the Hellmouth
- Hermione Granger and the Swiss Tournament on Twisting the Hellmouth
- The Secret Return of Alex Mack on TV Tropes.
- Teraverse discussion thread on Spacebattles Forums.
References
- ^ As of February 2019
- ^ Based on the version seen in Chris Dee's Cat Tales fanfic series.
- ^ DianeCastle's author page at Twisting the Hellmouth, accessed 2/12/2020
- ^ Really Long Fics for @Materia-Blade, a discussion thread at spacebattes.com, June 2015
- ^ Random question has there ever been a fanfic of a fanfic? posted at /r/fanfiction, May 2020.
- ^ DianeCastel tag on Ao3. Accessed 2/12/20