Fic recs, October 16th: Project Get! #2 · 9:20pm Oct 16th, 2014
We just passed story #222222. I was disappointed to find out that it was both unpublished (it’s under the word limit, so it must be) and pretty poorly written. :/ Ah well.
Anyway, I'm in the middle of a longish audiobook and the middle of a definitely-long follower get, so have some more Project Get!
H: 0 R: 0 C: 3 V: 3 N: 4
O Fortuna by Gabriel LaVedier
Mature: Gore
Genre: Philosphical
A band of gypsy ponies make their way into Canterlot, to their detriment. This bills itself a “loose, unofficial prequel to 120 Days of Blueblood”, which I have not yet read, and, after looking at the description, do not think I ever shall. I really don’t see how “Nightmare Moon never happened” leads us to “Blueblood is a debauched monster ruling bloodthirsty ponies.” Unfortunately, that’s not gone into in this piece, so we’re left with fanatical priests, gypsies from nowhere, and the aforementioned Prince and ponies who are about as far removed from the show as you can possibly get. This piece, I feel, is a wasted opportunity on the author’s part. I want to know where these gypsies came from, and why their traditions are so different from those of ponies who are already different from what we know. Unfortunately, they’re just plopped into the middle of this AU and then executed so that one of them can have a lengthy conversation with Blueblood about the nature of fate. (On that note, the gore really isn’t that bad; the pony is tortured and killed, but he doesn’t really react to it because he’s in the throes of religious ecstasy or something, which makes it amazingly easy to stomach.) I found myself often lost thanks to having skipped a word or two, this could use some editing, and most of all, I wondered why Blueblood let this guy get in two words edgewise, considering the way he seems to be characterized. All in all, this isn’t as horrible a piece as relation to its apparently infamous predecessor might suggest, I’m just not sure what the point was.
Vaguely Recommended
The Accordion by RealmOfMereShadows
Genre: Warfic
A pony on a train hurtles toward certain doom. This gets off to a bad start by using “waked me up” in the first sentence; unfortunately, nonstandard constructions like that abound in this piece, making the narrative extremely bumpy and serving as bizarre counterpoint to some of the more image-heavy stretches. The main problem with this, though, is that it’s not very pony. Until the final scene — which is a problem in and of itself, as it's pretty maudlin — there’s really no indication of what, exactly, our protagonist or any of his comrades are. Given the war framing story, nothing about this feels Equestrian. I think this is a piece that everyone can skip.
Not Recommended
Squirrel Attack by Art Inspired and Flanagan
Genre: Dark
Fluttershy misinterprets squirrel talk and gets a thrashing. Beyond the thought of a squirrel beating up Fluttershy being amusing, the comedy is pretty lacking here. The writing is likewise bad and feels like a first draft. The chapter with Rarity doesn’t do much, the ending is rushed, and overall, this seems to be a quick idea dashed off in a hurry.
Not Recommended
These Trying Times by DegeTheMighty
Genre: Historical
An unnamed pony shepherds two very special fillies over rough seas toward a brighter tomorrow. The writing needs some touching up, but overall I liked this. Despite the low word count, we get a good feel for both the main character’s awe of Celestia and Luna even existing and just what, exactly, is riding on this trip. Plus, since the character isn’t identified, it could totally be Star Swirl, which is cool.
Recommended If You Like Historical Pieces
Unavoidable Unification by Protopony350
Genre: Apocalypse
The Void comes to Equestria, and with it the end of days. This has some stuff going for it, namely that the Void isn’t described much and the question of its origin is left unanswered. Unfortunately, the rest is a very surface-level look at a coming apocalypse. However interesting the images at play may be, they would have been more effective coming from a character-level perspective rather than told matter-of-factly by the narrator. Overall, it’s not an effective horror story. (Addendum: Apparently my comment on the story made the author take it down, so, uh, I guess maybe it’ll be better in the future? :B)
Not Recommended
The Dawn of Equestria by Templar22
Genre: Creation Story
It’s a creation story, framed as a familial affair among creation gods. You’ve seen this kind of thing before, no doubt, but though this has some good things going for it that help it stand out from that crowd, the writing lets it down. It starts off well enough, but soon typos and close repetitions crop up, and by the end, they’re everywhere. That said, as creation fics go, it’s got some interesting ideas and lots of tense fights, because what’s a creation story without an epic battle between gods? Those into creation stories will get the most out of this.
Vaguely Recommended
The Game for a Pony by stanku
Genre: High-Society
I’m somewhat at a loss to sum this up. It involves Rarity at some kind of societal function, bouncing off a couple of the other attendees, but I’m not quite sure what the point was. The main reason for this is that stanku, while a good writer, is not a native English speaker, and this doesn’t appear to have been edited. Some passages are nigh-unreadable. It doesn’t help that the characters’ names aren’t particularly ponyish (and one of them changes halfway through). I wasn’t too fond of the “what just happened” summation at the end, either. Honestly, I’m not sure who would want to read this.
Not Recommended
A Spot of Chocolate Tea by Night_Shine
Genre: Vignette
This has the odd position of being a side-story to a cancelled story. I’m not about to read that one now, but does this stand by itself? ...I’m gonna go with ‘no’. I have a feeling there’s some kind of subtext lost in the references to the other story, preventing this from seeming like anything more than a disconnected scene from something larger. That said, I did enjoy Discord’s antics, brief as they were, though the writing could use a bit of touching up. At its core, it’s just some OC getting mad at Discord, because Discord keeps fucking with him, and that’s worth a thousand-word trip, wouldn’t you say?
Vaguely Recommended
My Night by Zeck
Genre: Dark
After being upstaged by a backwoods yokel named Fiddlesticks, Symphony takes some revenge when an opportunity presents itself. Despite getting hysterical and dramatic toward the end, Symphony ends up being a pretty compelling character. The second half of this ends up being a decent look at how a poor attitude can create a self-fulfilling prophecy, right up until she kills herself. Really, my only other complaint about this story is that the plethora of music-themed background ponies pulled into the penultimate scene includes Vinyl Scratch. The writing could be better, but is altogether decent. It’s just the ending that’s a letdown.
Recommended If You Don’t Mind Pointless Melodrama
A Not So Typical Changeling Goes to Equestria and Enters Into a Quickscoping Match With Rainbow Dash by TheBigStallowski
Genre: Crackfic
With a title like that, how could this be anything but? If you like laughing at fedora-wearing MRAs and people who play Call of Duty, this’ll be right up your alley. (Also, the main character’s name is hilarious.) There’s not much more to be said about this, save that caps lock is indeed cruise control for cool.
Recommended If You Get Your Kicks on Tumblr
That H:0,R:0 number made me feel bad for enjoying reading this set of reviews and having a couple giggles. At least there were a few Cs and one or two Vs that tickled my fancy.
You've got endurance, Present. More than I have, for sure. Thank you for finding little things for me to read later.
For the record with O Fortuna (and by proxy 120 Days of Blueblood), it's all referencing the film '120 Days of Sodom', which is where most of the horrifying shit stems from.
Hope that helps.
Wow, no recommendeds, eh? That stinks... though my "To Read Later" bookshelf is probably grateful.
Where the heck do you find these stories, anyway?
I know RoMS somewhat intimately. He does that a lot, not being a native English speaker (he's French). I was editing for The Wish Machine but gave up eventually when personal shit got kinda rough.
y u no plug anything of mine :raricry:
Ehh, at least I don't have to pad my unread count as a result of this post. I went ahead and added that filly Celestia and Luna fic to the graveyard that is my RIL list.
Nom nom. Linked and listed.
Also, I'm starting to dislike crackfics. They have titles that are much too long! Makes the big master review list look ugly and about two-thirds of the long title stories are silly crackfic type stuff. Shorter titles people!
I'll have you know I get my kicks from orphans. Wait, no, it's the other way around. And also puppies!
I didn't take it down because I was angry or anything, but because holy crap I butchered it. You're the only one who pointed any of the grammar mistakes out, and man I don't know how I badly I had written the thing. I'm actually going back through my other stories and checking the quality. Thank you for helping me here.
2536986
I'm starting to wonder if Project Get! isn't going to be a lot of Cs, Vs and Ns. And thus if it's worth it. :/ Oh well, gotta read 'em at some point!
2537013
Not familiar with that, either. :B
2537037
Almost all the stories showing up on Project Get! are from people I follow. Anytime I follow an author, I add all their stories to my RIL, which is why it's so huge. :B
2537045
Yeah, I got the non-native speaker feel off that story. :B
2537056
That one's probably the best of this group, along with Zeck's if you don't mind what happens at the end.
2537067
There is one further down my Project Get! list that, I kid you not, has a title about twice that length.
2537116
How do you get orphans from kicks? O.o
2537158
Yeah, I kinda figured. :B Lemme know if you need any help!
2537232
Good Goddess! I'm glad I don't follow that particular policy!
2537232
That's what I meant by other way around. They get kicks from me!
...
In hindsight that joke was pretty lame. :V
2537232 Most of RoMS writing comes across as very confusing.
Nooooooo! The poor title field on the list.
2537067 I have three seperate stories which max out the Fimfiction title length. One gets cut off mid-word.
2537731
Yeah, I know. One of those stories is one of the 10-15 or so that are longer than the title field box on the list. Grrr.
2537796
Yeah, one of his is the one I'm talking about. :B
2537796 wait, one of those ones got reviewed? Which one? You're sure you're not thinking "super trampoline the bat pony's day as...blah blah"? Cause that ain't that long.
2537916
Long enough that the last two words go outside the title field of the list. A box that most titles could get lost in.
Then again, I'll take silly long titles over another 'Happily Ever After' title.
There is no explanation that could be given without reading "120 Days of Blueblood." Even with Bronystories' talent it's not worth it. The gypsies are barely explained in that fic, except that Pinkie is one of them. They're different because they are not devotees of the Princesses, hence the hatred for them, much like the hatred in our own world. Plus this group is itself even more altered because their prophet/soothsayer is in (seemingly) direct contact with a goddess of great power, but also some measure of chaos. It would be like getting visions from Eris or all three of the Norns at once.
2545421
Dang. I don't think that's enough to make me want to read that story. <.<
2545471
It's... tough. Let me put it this way: Foalcon. I think that would stop most potential readers. And I can add: the Foalcon isn't the worst part. So there you go.
2545497
Yeah, that's what I figured. D: