Random Enthusiasm · 6:17am Jun 22nd, 2013
Oh bloody heck kids, you've just got to check Siren Song. There's no excuse for this well-executed novel to have only a fifth as many views as something silly like My Little Pony's Little Ponies, even if the latter is nine months older.
If the phrase "Bioshock/MLP crossover" strikes you with a feeling of bleh -- and it's certainly excusable that it would -- try instead the phrase "brilliant character study of a deeply flawed yet deeply sympathetic protagonist, delivered by way of high-test action and suspense, capped with a climax that will dislocate your jaw". Then it ends with something that is one hell of a cliffhanger because there is another book to come, but could equally well have been a fully appropriate actual ending.
It also hits the most important goals for a crossover story: you don't need to know Bioshock to get the goodies here, but being familiar with the games lends extra depth and especially extra tension to the story. Nor does it arbitrarily wedge ponies into a darker setting; this legitimately wouldn't be the same story without the ponies and their cheerful cartoon source material as a conceptual background.
Anyway, if dark + ponies is a thing you do at all, give this one a shot. It's a hell of a ride.
I did read it. And to be honest, it's a well crafted story but it's not my thing. I found the characters to be abhorrent and I couldn't route for a singe one. Not even the main character.
I'm hesitant to get into the sequel when it starts being posted. The only reason I started the story in the first place and why I kept going to the end was because I wanted to see what would happen when Siren got to Trixie. And then the story stops before she gets there. Grumble, grumble.
I'm just not one for Dark stories, really. I like my happy-go-lucky ponies dammit!
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Fair 'nuff, matter of taste and all that. Heh, I suppose you can skip the sequel and I'll just let you know what happens with Trixie when it comes around.
One reason it caught my attention at this particular time is a certain relevance to Trixie as she appears in Trixie's Friendship is Clearly Superior -- specifically the way the protagonist is always watching others and 'staging' her outward behavior to manipulate them. Of course, Superior Trixie is nowhere near as much of a... well, a downright bad pony as Siren Song, and the story is vastly more lighthearted, so even though there likely will be traces of influence, hopefully you'll find Trixie a more enjoyable character.
As far as darkity-dark goes, it's a funny thing that I generally agree, and yet a lot of what I've tracked and liked on FiMFic has been pretty grim. I think that comes down to darker material being just plain easier to write well, or if not 'well' precisely, at least to write in an emotionally engaging way.
I do feel that we could use a higher percentage of happy-go-lucky hereabouts, but as with comedy, cheerful family fun is deceptively difficult to do well. And in all honesty I'm just a sucker for cheap emotional manipulation, which is much simpler to accomplish when less G-rated themes are on the table.
But yeah, different strokes. I figure Siren Song deserves more attention than it's gotten, but certainly don't expect it to float everyone's boat.