You're lost in a vast virtual space - not a warp bubble, but the Internet. Fanfic is everywhere around you, but it's not all created equal. Jemima's Trek itself hosts Jemima's, Jade's and MJB's stories, but that's just the tip of the fanfic iceberg.
So many electrons have been spilled in the cause of getting Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant, or at least making the crew's lives more pleasant on their long journey, that it's hard to know where to start. The archives are huge and difficult to navigate, the newsgroups are riddled with erotica, the mailing lists can fill your inbox in half a day, and it's impossible even to scratch the surface of the ever-growing tangle of web sites devoted to Trek fanfic.
So to help out readers, Jemima has provided some recommended reading below, in the form of meaningless awards. Cheesy gold statues will not be provided upon request.
There are two other classes of awards: Drama and Humor.
The best piece of fan fiction ever written has to be The Best of Both Girls: A Captain Janeway Adventure by world-renowned Voyager reviewer and JetCer-in-denial Jim Wright. It has it all: the Borg, a return to the Alpha Quadrant, cameos from your Next Generation favorites and a dash of J/C. Don't forget to hit the next button at the bottom of each installment.
Although it's tempting to give this award to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, these awards are for fan fiction. The ultimate fan homage to Star Trek is the movie GalaxyQuest.
The best alien fanfic writer is Kelis the playwright, from the sixth-season Voyager episode "Muse". Some say that episode was a dig at fanfic. All I can say is, keep on diggin'!
The award for most prolific goes to Suz. It is my personal belief that Suz is not a human being but a top-secret government artificial intelligence program designed to flood the net with misinformation, which is currently being tested on fan fiction.
The so-called 'Suz' wrote one of my favorite vignettes, It Takes Real Guts To Love A Cactus! - J/C from Tom and B'Elanna's point of view. I've also enjoyed countless lighthearted Suz stories like Fun And Frolics In Astrometrics.
A drabble is a vignette of exactly 100 words. My favorite drabble is Chakotay's entry in The Drabble Contest, by Laura Jo. I also enjoyed B'Elanna's entry - go ahead, read them all. If you understand Harry's, please explain it to me.
Here 'drama' is defined as crew stories and serious romances.
This award goes to Michael Ben-Zvi's K/7 Saga ("I Only Have Eyes For You", "The Hierarchy of Needs", "First Comes Love", "A Bright Shining Thing Called Hope", "One Perfect Moment" and "The Way Of All Things"). In a genre (K/7) plagued by poor characterization and unlikely plots, Michael Ben-Zvi has written not one, but five convincing novellas and a moving, novel-length finale that puts "Endgame" to shame.
Well, that's what Jake Sisko thought, anyway. Revisionist History by E. J. Andrews (Penny Proctor) tells it like it really was.
I love the angry Maquis of Revolution and Revolution II: Road to Restoration by mjb, both serialized in countless parts on alt.startrek.creative and hosted right here at Jemima's Trek!
This award goes to To Kathryn, Somewhere in my Heart (Part 1) (Part 2) by Magida, which was the inspiration behind my own Q story, The Unity of the Multiverse.
Most fan fiction is humorous, if only unintentionally. The following stories, however, are ROTFL-humorous from beginning to end, unless otherwise noted.
Believe it or not, there is more than one Shakespeare parody in the annals of Star Trek fanfic. The best of the lot is (Java) As You Like It by kneipho.
The most underappreciated entry in ALM_Voyager's first Voyages Home Fan Fiction Contest was Much Ado About Something: a Drabble Squared by Clare009. It's hilarious, it's exactly 10,000 words long, and it deserved every vote it didn't get.
Ho, ho, ho! The hands-down winner is How the Borg Stole Prixin by monkee.
A Mary Sue is a story featuring a non-canonical cast member who bears an eery resemblance to the fanfic author herself. And the winner is... The Ultimate Mary Sue by Yvonne Harrison (also available at Trekiverse).
Passed on a PADD by Kerry is a comic masterpiece on the email of the future. Be sure to read the To: and From: lines.
The following story is not recommended for intentional humor, but for a plot straight out of the X-Files: Regression by Karma.