FanficRecs Mai's review
AU fiction sometimes brings to mind the old saying that the more things change, the more they stay the same. But, tropes are not bad; I had to start somewhere after having my mind blown by this piece. Though staying up until dawn to finish it instead of reading about the Dutch economy in the 17th century probably isn't helping. Anyway. It is hard to describe what exactly makes this author something of a humble genius but... I suppose I should start being helpful by describing the characterisation; it's good. It is very, very good and, this being a shipfic after all, that firm and intimate grasp of who and what the characters are expressed through decent and error-free dialogue is what sold this for me. And thank goodness this is an author who knows had to handle and produce 'tasteful' limey goodness; there's many a thirteen year old female virgin out there with a reasonable grasp of who Shinji, Misato and Rei are and how they might interact, but exceeding few among their ranks really appreciate physical intimacy and can portray it properly, if you know what I mean 'wink wink nudge nudge'. And by phsyical intimacy I mean sex. And lots of it, naturally. (oh how terrible, I explained a terrible joke born of sleeplessness, sue me).
A couple of things did bug me however, it's not all rainbows, sunshine and sweet, sweet orphan tear gumdrops. Kaji is a little OOC from the outset; one pictures him a more mature man. Only, this makes sense. 2I never happened, a lot of bad shight never went down and he never had to raise a borderline-narcissistic girl with a precocious crush on him. Also, what the hell it is exactly going on behind the scenes is never properly explained... suffice to say it sounds vaguely (and from our AU informed perspective, all-too-specifically) ominous and doesn't really come into it except to provide a source of conflict, and finally resolution, in the final chapters.
FanFicRecs Quite good, definitely worth looking into
Don't worry, there's no shotacon here. The AU set up in this fic is an interesting twist on the Eva universe where Gendo is a hunted fugitive, most of the canon NERV staff are JSSDF agents, and Shinji is in his early 20s and caught between a rock and a hard place. I haven't read many Shinji/Misato fics, but this is really, really good. Characterizations are very true to canon while still meshing with the new setting (with two major exceptions, one being Mana, and the other I won't spoil) and the flow of Shinji's interactions with Misato feels very realistic. It's also the only NGE fic I've come across where Kaji is a complete dick, but it's justified by the setup of this AU. Of course, you can't have an Adam Kadmon fic without some darkness, and this is no exception.
FanficRecs True Love Waits
Having been on a sabbatical from reading fanfiction, this is my first story coming back to Evangelion. To be honest while I like the series I'm not terribly familiar with it. That I've stuck with lengthy fanfics is a testament to how certain authors can craft characters and settings that stand on their own as quality literature.
While I can't call this a masterpiece, it is a wonderful example of an AU done correctly. The changes are modest, the characters change but don't lose what made them interesting to begin with. It's still in an EVA-ish realm and aspects of the original plot do show up. So it straddles between being too dedicated to replicating the series, and avoids indulging in the sort of "what if everyone in EVA was in a band?" variety of fluff.
The shift of making Shinji seven years older while keeping Rei and Asuka fourteen works well, and helps set up the three main characters of Misato, Shinji, and Rei as being at three different stations in life. Adam Kadmon creates a dynamic Rei, mixing her maturity and intelligence with coldness and teenage ignorance. Her relationship with Shinji is the single best thing about the story, and produces the most powerful moments. It's not romantic, but it works. The sense of awkwardness that permeates the dialogue and internal monologues is refreshing. Most of the time, the characters aren't throwing out badass one-liners and trying to show they're smarter or tougher than everyone else. It's a show of restraint.
I'll bet money that you won't like the ending, at least on initially. At just shy of 90k words, it could have been longer but kept things tight.