Prosfic Reading Challenge - The Discovered in a Congo Prison Affair and A Purple Cow

[tinturtle]

It's me again.

Another fic I read during the past week--I knew I'd forgotten something important in my other post--was The Discovered in a Congo Prison Affair by jj_minerva, which is a crossover between Pros and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. I'm generally skeptical of crossovers, because it can be very hard to blend fictional universes convincingly. Though I love them both, Pros and MFU, in particular, don't fit easily together. Their tones are too different. This fic does the trick of combining them quite well, though, with compelling results. (To avoid spoilers, I won't elaborate on how the trick is done.)

Also, since making my other post, I read A Purple Cow, a whimsical story by The Hag (hagsrus) that byslantedlight linked me to. It is really delightful, and I will certainly read it again. One of its charms is that the characters manage to sound like themselves despite the nonsense universe they are living in.

Comments

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Ooo - I've just thought of another one where the title is what it says on the tin: The Waiting Room Affair.

It's part of an UNCLE / Pros crossover series (https://archiveofourown.org/series/7916) by DebraHicks (https://archiveofourown.org/users/DebraHicks/pseuds/DebraHicks).

[tinturtle]

I just reread the first two of those fics today, actually. I will probably be tackling the third one later. (I don't think I've read it in its entirety in the past, for some reason.)

Placing the UNCLE agents in the CI5 agents' world is the natural way to merge the two universes, I think. Doyle and Bodie battling silly Thrush plans for world domination would be harder to sell than Illya and Napoleon against real-world threats. (Though the latter does still need to be sold, at least to me.)

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

The ones that work for me best are the ones where the timelines are concurrent - so an older Napoleon and Illya (circa The Return) with the lads at their canon ages.

I think there's some similarity between Cowley and Alexander Waverly - but it is probably stretching credibiity to have them both in the field at the same time.

Agree with you on THRUSH - although MFU season 4 probably has some potential.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Have you read The Hag's other stories? DIscovered in a Furball (http://www.thecircuitarchive.com/tca/archive/8/discoveredin.html) is another of my favourites. *g* And the blissful Gift of the Moggy (http://www.thecircuitarchive.com/tca/archive/8/thegift.html). And Discovered in a Hatstand (http://www.thecircuitarchive.com/tca/archive/13/discoveredin.html). For starters... *vbg

[tinturtle]

I read A Purple Cow to my mom tonight while she was washing dishes. It was her third foray into fan fiction, I think.