Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves (Stargate story)
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves |
| Publisher: | AWIT |
| Editor: | Sian |
| Author(s): | Auburn |
| Cover Artist(s): | |
| Illustrator(s): | |
| Date(s): | 28 March 2009 - 22 March 2010 (online) 2011 (print) |
| Medium: | online, print |
| Size: | 180,299 words |
| Genre: | action adventure |
| Fandom: | Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1 |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves (Dreamwidth) Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves (Allusions) Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves (Wraithbait) Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves (AO3) Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves (podfic on the Audiofic Archive) |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves is an SGA/SG1 crossover AU slash, femslash and het novel written by Auburn. It was originally posted online and then released in printed format. The first part was posted in March 2009 and the novel premiered in print format at MediaWest 2011.
Author's summary: "Vala Mal Doran and her partners, renegades Jehan abd-Ba'al and Meredith McKay, hijack the Tau'ri ship Prometheus and leave the Milky Way behind in search of the Lost City of the Ancients, Atlantis."
The author has also written a coda to the story, Killdeer, and a short sequel, everybody knows.
FayJay recorded a podfic for the story that is just under twenty hours long.
Reactions and Reviews
This is simply an awesome space pirates epic mixing both SGA and SG-1 characters, and what's even better is that it reveals us their backstory so that it makes sense that the familiar characters end up this way. It has a great action-adventure plot and I loved the whole atmosphere. [1]
The One That Suggests to Me That If Vala Mal Doran and Captain Jack Sparrow Ever Teamed up, Nowhere in the Multiverse Would Be Rich. Sexier, Sure, but Not Rich. Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves. Stargate universe, John Sheppard/Rodney Meredith McKay (plus other pairings).
As it happens, one of the things I like in a story - canon, fan fiction, whatever - is dinged and dented characters. I like people who have that dull patina that trouble leaves behind when you survive it. And Auburn, in this story, has given me a whole dings-and-dents universe. Yeah, sure, most of the main characters go well beyond mere dings and dents, into the broken-and-put-back-together-with-Elmer's-glue-and-a-couple-pieces-from-the-train-set territory, but everyone is less shiny than in canon. And while I would probably not enjoy a story about how everyone got that way, I really love seeing them deal with it, and live with it, and move beyond it, and get better from it. And live happily ever after. (Happily ever after is not optional.)
Plus, there can be no bad when there are space pirates. I firmly believe that every fandom in the world needs a pirate AU (yes, even pirate fandoms), and when you combine pirates with spaceships, I am very likely to need to run around in circles barking joyfully until I have to go lie down for an hour.
It's also nice - I think nice is the word I'm looking for here - when a story confirms my strongly-felt suspicions about a fictional race. (Any story that disses the Ancients, for example, and I am there. Those people - well, let's just say they pioneered new and exciting advances in ethics-free science, medicine, and government, shall we?) I have always been sort of narrow-eyed and tight-lipped about the Tok'ra, even though I've read some incredible stories that have even made me like them. I just, when it comes down to it, do not trust mind-controlling parasites. It's a personal prejudice of mine! Even if they are supposedly choosing not to mind control right then, you have to ask yourself if it's one of those choices like keeping kosher, or if it's more one of those choices like promising yourself this will be the last chip you eat tonight. And there's no way to tell until it's much too late. I just - I cannot get behind that, no matter how many declarations of mutual non-loathing occur between the Tok'ra and the good guys.
So, you know, I feel good about this story, which in addition to punching my dings and dents button, and my space pirates button, and my plot is awesome button, also lets me rest smugly satisfied in the knowledge that I was right all along, and mind-controlling parasites are not to be trusted. [2]
Holy SHIT! Okay, 'Fighting Gravity' was great, but 'Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves' was OMFG!!!!WinWinWinWinWin!!!! I stayed up until 5.30am reading it, ffs! It was THE BEST STARGATE THING I HAVE EVER READ!!
I &hearts the whole PotC-in-space vibe BIGTIME, and the care and depth and integrity of her world-building and characterisation, and the fact that this is a fabulous, plotty, exciting alternative version of SGA Season 1 which is BRIMMING with a wide range of very different but brilliantly-rendered women and LGBT characters and characters of varied races and species! It is SO MUCH BETTER than the shows!
&hearts &hearts &hearts &hearts &hearts [3]
References
- ^ Alternate Universe Recs for Stargate: Atlantis, Rat Creature
- ^ 208: A Long and Winding Road, thefourthvine, August , 2010
- ^ 208: A Long and Winding Road, comment by pandarus, August 18, 2010