Signal boost: The Rose · 4:17pm Jul 25th, 2014
Hello my readers jocular and jolly!
Quick note: Bradel wrote a new story—no, he isn't dead, he was just... um... pining for the fjords—called The Rose which I think you may want to look at. I'll take the gross liberty of quoting my own comment on the story:
Normally I stay away from those tags like they are made of bees and on fire. And the fire is also made of bees. But it is Bradel.
Now, what I'm about to say will spoil the story, so unless you've read it go away and read it. It's worth your time. No. Really. Go away.
Right.
So.
[REDACTED]
So, if you feel up for a bit of [sad] and [tragedy]—and mind, this is absolutely not a sadfic—you can hardly do better than Bradel's latest.
Signal boosting a story by quoting your own comment on the story that contains spoilers for the story?
Ghost, I don't think you've thought this through.
2315036
I told you not to read the spoilers nicely. I covered them in spoiler tags. What more should I do?
2315036
Oh, fine, I'll see about removing them.
Normally I stay away from those tags like they are made of bees and on fire. And the fire is also made of bees.
But it is Bradel.
This signal boost convinced me to read a story that I wouldn't otherwise have touched. Mostly the persuasive bit was the sentence fragment, "But it is Bradel."
2315075
Then my blog post was worth it a thousand times over.
I hope the recommendation proved to be a good one.
2315131
It was a good one! Thank you for making this recommendation.
The Rose is tagged in the exact manner to prevent me from even considering reading it. The "But it is Bradel." comment cuts no ice with me. The finest chef in the world can prepare the most magnificent moose turd pie ever created and I will still refrain from eating it.
But...
...just this once....
Oh dear. Sorry Ghost, I was only joking.
Oh dear.
I am in a bit of a pickle.
You see, it is Bradel. And that means it going to be a great story.
The problem is, it is Bradel. And that means he will be wielding those sad and Tragedy tags with a grim effectiveness. Well, no, more like a terrific effectiveness. Grim is more Bad Horse...
Point is it's a good author writing something that will make me feel awful. Which means I now have to either feel awful, or miss a great story.
Well, the signal boost is enough to get it to my read later list, but not for me to actually start reading it.
You see, I had two bad experiences here with stories from good writers that utterly and completely burned me to those writers' fics. I know they are good writers, I had read fics from each of them that I rather enjoyed, each has well received fics that I still want to read, I even follow both and read their blogs... but whenever I start to read any other story from them, I remember the bad experience I had with a fic tagged either [sad] or [tragedy] from them and lose all will to continue.
Thus, I will read this fic if (or when) I find some spoilery comment that proves me it won't drive me off. It's my little ironclad rule here for [sad] and [tragedy] fics, at least if I like the author enough that I want to read further works from him or her (as is certainly the case with Bradel).
2316270
Spoilery comment? I can do that:
It feels more like a psychological thriller to me with a slight touch of horror. There's no gore, there's no Equestria getting ruined, there's no major characters dying or being evil or anything of the sort. It absolutely isn't a sadfic in the traditional mold. You are in risk of being disturbed only if you get attached to OC and basically OC characters really quickly.
Does that help?
And, also, I hope I wasn't one of the authors who burned you with a sad story.
2316309
Yeah, it helps. I guess I will move it up in my list. Thanks
And no, you aren't one of those authors. One is Esle Ynopemos, who at the time had a Cupcakes-like fic misrated Teen (the rating has since been fixed); the other is SS&E, thanks to how much I absolutely hated the ending of Background Pony (I still think it should be tagged [Tragedy]). I'm giving it a few more months before attempting to get back to reading the rest of their stories, perhaps with time I can get over my current block.
I would not have read that story without your recommendation. Like you said, it is Bradel, but I am apparently even more wary of the [sad] [tragedy] combination than you. If you regard it as being made of fire and bees, then I regard it as being made of fire and Vespa mandarinia.
I'm glad I listened to you. That was definitely not the sort of story that drove me to stop reading things tagged with that combination.
The interesting thing is that there are two layers of misdirection in this story, and the second is fully revealed only in the very last line. It's a very neat bit of structuring.
2316373 Oh gods, the ending to Background Pony. Talk about a slog with no payoff. I was impressed by the concept of Lyra's curse and the background behind it, in a worldbuildery way, but I was not impressed as much with the plot.