Fic recs, October 20th · 1:13pm Oct 20th, 2014
Bad news first: Hero541 has hung up the fic-reading towel. :( And here I’d only just gotten into his channel!
There's no good news. :B Well, not yet, I suppose.
H: 1 R: 0 C: 5 V: 1 N: 1
Wonderful by obabscribbler
Reading by GutiuSerenade and GloryoftheRainWings
I guess I’ll just comment on these guys quickly. The reading’s on Scribbler’s channel, but she’s not in it. Gutiu is a good narrator, and I’d go for more readings by him, but all he does is creepypastas, not ponyfic. And Rarity has all of one line, so I didn’t get a good feeling for Glory. (Actually, she plays a couple parts in the Truth Be Told radioplay, and she's quite good at them.) She seems to be more of a singer anyway. Okay then!
Genre: Alternative Narrator
One of Rarity’s mannequins has a few opinions on her. Y’know, length aside, this could’ve been a decent Outside Insight entry. Okay, maybe it’s not so much about ponies, but it has the same sort of setup. It’s pretty easy to tell who’s speaking after a bit (I thought it was Spike at first), and otherwise it’s a solid little vignette. I can think of one or two ways to expand on it, but for what it is, it’s a decent read. (And, I should note, the second entry of Scribbler’s Dancing on a Looking Glass that I’ve read. Interesting.)
Recommened as Light Reading
Dream by Cascadejackal
Reading by Illya Leonov
Genre: Big Ideas
A clockmaker, feeling his hopes and dreams have left him, finds the strength to dream anew. This is a marvelous piece of prose, lyrical and flawless, fairy tale-like in the first part and philosophical in the second. It’s so dense and rich, I was shocked to find out how short it was after hearing the reading. It raises a lot of big questions, mostly about the pursuit of beauty, and has a naturally emotional end. Plus, it's got a clockwork pony. It’s pretty much a perfect story, and high-minded on top of that.
Highly Recommended
Twilight Eats Sonata’s Taco by Admiral Biscuit
Reading by ShadowOfCygnus
Genre: Silly
It’s pretty obvious, once you click the link and discover a lack of a Sex tag, that this exists primarily to have a sex-joke title. I can get behind it, however, as the author mentions he hasn’t actually seen the movie and was going off the Wikipedia article, which explains why the plot doesn’t make a damned bit of sense. This spends a little too much time setting itself up, but I’ll say that if you like stupid comedies like this, the ending definitely pays off. If not, well, this is not high comedy and can be skipped. (Also, not enough Sonata.)
Vaguely Recommended
Quills and Sofas by Just Horsing Around
Genre: Silly Comedy
Twilight’s dad is visiting, helping her answer fanmail, when he learns of Ponyville’s local eccentric, quill supplier. What follows is Night Light goading Davenport in the most hilarious way possible while trying to get to the bottom of the mystery: why quills and sofas? (He never finds out, spoilers.) While this has the trappings of a crackfic — goofy premise, opening narration full of terrible puns — it really comes off as more of a classic comedy. Davenport knows a lot about weird things, Night Light is kind of a jerk (though I was amused at how well he handles the strange situations his children get into). They butt heads, the result is amusing. That said, I’ve read funnier, and I don’t think this is one I’ll remember for long. It’s still worth a quick read, though.
Recommended for Laughs
Let’s Find You a Date! by soundslikeponies
Reading by Hero541
Genre: Shipping
After Rarity brings up the topic of Twilight’s love life, she decides to help Twilight figure out this whole ‘dating’ thing. But Twilight has her eyes set on one mare in particular. This story does a lot of things right, and a few major things, if not wrong, then not-right enough that I felt uncomfortable about them by the end. What I particularly liked was the first chapter’s exploration of sexuality. Twilight’s never considered it before, and though it’s resolved in the first few thousand words, the way they go about figuring out that she likes mares is natural. Not to mention, Rarity puts up with a lot for her sake, despite professing to be bi-curious at best, so she gets a Good Friend award. With that said, let’s talk about character. Rarity I had some qualms about, in regards to her romance-novel approach to dating and her seeming lack of social awareness, but that second part at least is recontextualized nicely in the final chapter. Twilight was a bit more problematic. I’m okay with the fact that she makes mistakes in the pursuit of something she doesn’t know anything about (honestly, if anyone makes an unreasonable mistake in this story, it’s Rarity for letting Twilight off on her own too early, though even that’s cleared up by the ending), but she acts altogether childish throughout a lot of this story. Granted, that didn’t include when she was acting adorable as hell, because this story has a lot of adorable moments, but she still seemed oddly petulant more often than not. The one character who really stands out is May Flower, an OC, a model who acts as something of a sexual antagonist for most of the story. Out of the three mares Twilight ends up entangled with in the course of this piece, May is the one who not only wants her, but knows how to get her. I think the only reason she doesn’t is that A) she had at least a few morals, and B) she’s charmed somewhat by Twilight’s naivete. On that note, Carrot Top. I felt SO BAD for this girl. It’s obvious from the moment Twilight first talks to her that she’s even more naive than Twilight, and the fact that the story makes no bones about being a Twility vehicle makes this revelation even harder to stomach. I was waiting and waiting for Twilight to give up on Rarity and realize she had something good going on with Carrot, but I’m sorry to say it never happens. There’s what I want as a reader and what the story needs narratively, but all distaste for using a pony to get two others together aside, darned if I can’t really figure out what this was about. There’s a passing-of-the-torch thing going on with Twilight and Carrot’s relationship at the end, from what she and Rarity do at the beginning, but that’s about it, and it’s a bittersweet end for CT regardless. Overall, no one who’s not interested in shipping is going to want to read this, and even if you are, well, be warned, you need to be going in with the right expectations.
Recommended for Shippers Only
Peachocalypse Now by Justice4243
Genre: Peachfic
This one slipped through my peachfic-finding attempts, so I thought I’d remedy the oversight. The Peachening is upon us and everypony has gone insane, except Pinkie Pie and Spike. This is about as silly as you’d expect, though I like that Pinkie ends up being the straight man. The story doesn’t appear to have been proofread and the ending doesn’t really work, but I have to say, this is the rare story that would have been improved by the addition of more references. This is totally a Wickerman scenario and I was on the edge of my seat waiting for Pinkie to shout, “No, not the peaches! Ahh, they’re in my eyes! My eyes!” (Though there is one pretty phenomenal reference joke in this that more or less makes up for the lack of Nicolas Cage.) In all, it’s a pretty fun crackfic, if you like that kind of thing!
Recommended If You Like Silly Things
Twilight’s Play by Twi-Guy
Reading by Akash the Reader
Genre: Comedy
Twilight’s stuck inside without anything to do because reasons, so she gathers up some books and brings them to life. I am thoroughly baffled as to what the point of this story was. The comedy is not terribly strong and is almost entirely centered around some very poorly-titled books (they’re not even puns, just synonyms for actual titles; I mean, “Hook-22”? That doesn’t even make sense!) coming to life and acting like pastiches of their plots: Jurassic Park talks about chaos theory, Fahrenheit 451 is a pyromaniac, The Shining is homicidal. In all, it suggests little more than a passing understanding of any of the books featured. The only one I found actually funny was the untitled self-help book, which seems in need of a dose of its own medicine. More comedic inversions like that might have helped this along. Oh, and this is the punchline, verbatim. Lastly, looking at the text, it’s pretty poorly written. You can safely pass this one up.
Not Recommended
Lone Princess by InkRose
Reading by DrWolf001
Genre: Psychological
A lone princess, trapped in an empty world, sees snatches of what she truly desires. This is a strange case, because the reading linked above only covers first part; there isn’t another, yet the story is two chapters and an epilogue. And unfortunately, while the first chapter is pretty great on its own, the other two don’t add anything to it. The second chapter is just a rehash of the first, and the epilogue puts a needless period on the end of everything. But let me talk about that first chapter for a moment. It does a really great job of showing what’s going on. At first, it seems like this might be after some apocalypse causes the sun to go out, given all the ice on everything. Then, it seems like it might be Luna trapped on the moon. The actual answer is a lot cleverer, and it ends up being a great character study of Luna, in the way that the second chapter is not particularly enlightening about Celestia. Also, given the timeframe of when it takes place, the ending is beautifully tragic. It does suffer a bit from word choice issues, weak words keeping the prose from being as evocative as it could be. But if you like Luna, and you want to see a Sad Luna piece that actually works, do check out the first part of this. The rest you can take or leave.
Recommended for the First Chapter
Fuck yes. So glad you approve. It really is quite beautiful.
Just read the mannequin story since it was so short, not bad. I'll have to give Dream a read.
I'm pretty sure I remember finding Quills and Sofas pretty entertaining.
>Quills and Sofas
>Sofa, So Good
The chapter title still gets me. I think I'm gonna go kill JHA. Or tell him to write more. I can't decide.
Well, looks like there's at least one story to add to my RiL.
2545145
For sure. I recommend it frequently because it pains me to see it languishing with so few views.
2545153
There's a company called Sofa King. Their slogan used to be "Sofa King Good" until some spoilsport complained about it.
2545162
Do it.
2545165
*nods vigorously*
2545153
There's also a whole story somewhere called Sofa, So Good. I even reviewed it.
2545217
...
I have no words.
2545168 there's a restaurant in town called "Pho King," and so far it's still there even thoug there's no way that was an accident.
2545740
But then you won't write anything new. What will I do then?
2545780
That doesn't solve the problem of you not writing anything, though.
2545847
Yeah, but if you're dead, the nonzero chance of you writing something becomes a zero chance. I can't have that.
Man, Illya's reading of Dream was a masterpiece. I used to find his drawl off-putting, but wow. I think I've found my first man-crush.
2545861
what the fuck you can't just use my avatar with an xmas hat
IT IS NOT EVEN AFTER SPOOPTOBER YET
2546119
I'm pretty sure Nietzsche beat both of us to the avatar.
And do you even pay attention? All of my avatars have had Santa hats for nearly two straight years now
2546135
fiend
2546142
2546142 2546144
Present Perfect's Fic Recs: Come for the reviews, stay for the unending string of avatar pics of my waifu.
2545217
> (Also, not enough Sonata.)
Are you following pjabrony's My Girlfriend Is A Siren? It's Sonatashipping and it's not terrible (which doesn't sound like a glowing recommendation except in contrast to every other Sonatafic out there). Chapter 2 seriously revved up the engine, so stick with it past the weak first chapter.
2546248
I gotchu
I found a couple decent ones.
2546248
More like,
>need more sunset shipping
2546253
I figured that was a given.
2546117
Too late, I saw him first. :V
2546248
Wait, it's not terrible? horizon is telling me this? c.c Okay, I passed that one by because it sounded like your standard horrible OC x everyone's waifu story, but since horizon told me it's not terrible, into track it goes! :V (Tomorrow.)