Fic recs, November 22nd · 6:27pm Nov 22nd, 2014
Jeff Burgess, possibly our fandom’s best musician, has written a concept album based on Device Heretic’s story Eternal. (That’s the Youtube link, not the story link.) It’s a really great album, especially if you’re into indie and/or experimental music. Check it out!
If you thought the ride was over, well brother, you were wrong! (And whooooooa this one’s not Sonata!)
It's weird how much my reading schedule depends on me walking on the treadmill in the morning. c.c I haven't done that all week, but it's time for this dry spell to end! In the meantime, have a bunch of stuff Youtube picked out for me. :B Also, my 1500th review, and oh, what a story it happens to be!
H: 1 R: 3 C: 0 V: 0 N: 1
A Muddy Hole by PoweredByTea
Reading by DeftFunk
Genre: Comedy
A behind-the-scenes from Sisterhooves Social, answering the question: How did Applejack get Rarity into that mud pit? Applejack’s usual roles among her friends in fanfic are either straightmare or well-meaning antagonist. This story shows just how much comedic potential she has: more, I’d say, than even the show writers consider using. It’s wonderful watching her snark her way through helping Rarity, and I got a kick out of the schadenfreude. This is rather straightforward, but nevertheless some of the best AJ/Rarity interaction I’ve seen outside of shipping.
Recommended
Hearth’s Warming Eve by Admiral Biscuit
Reading by Hero541
Reading by ShadowOfCygnus
Genre: Holiday Special
Dinky and Sparkler try to make Hearth’s Warming Eve special for their hard-working mother. There really is not a lot to this story; it’s short, heartwarming fluff. But for once in my life, I actually like short, heartwarming fluff, because I have lived this story. My dad’s a mail carrier, and many are the Christmas Eves we stayed up watching the snow and hoping he would make it home. We’re lucky he carries in an affluent Cleveland suburb, because around Christmas, he could bring home hundreds of dollars in tips in a day, as well as fancy candies, cookies and other items we’d never have a prayer of affording on a regular basis. So remember to tip your letter carrier around this time of year, and your paper carrier too, if you get it delivered. You’ll help make someone’s holiday brighter.
Recommended
Treadmill Twilight by Derpator
Reading by Akash the Reader
Genre: Comedy
Twilight thinks Pinkie called her fat, so she’s burning calories on a treadmill. Part of me wonders if I would have liked this more had I been reading it while on the treadmill myself, but I think the answer is “no”. The characters are all good, but the writing is plain and fraught with errors. The narrative continually finds ways to repeat itself, like in the first few paragraphs, where both Pinkie and Twilight confirm that Twilight is wearing Pinkie’s workout clothes. (Something I really need to see, just sayin’.) Attempts to be descriptive stumble over themselves, we’re constantly reminded of what each character knows, and the telly narrative focuses on the oddest things. I can’t help but think this might be sweat fetish fuel. I laughed at a couple lines, but there’s not much point to this.
Not Recommended
The Best Present She Could Ask For by theswimminbrony
Reading by Dr. Wolf
Genre: Mother’s Day Special
Dinky wants to give her Mommy a card for Mommy’s Day, but Mommy is too tired to notice. It’s a very odd quirk of fate that I got two holiday-themed Derpy’s family fics in a row. Like Hearth’s Warming Eve, this one goes for the d’awws, and Dinky is so fucking precious that she flips the dial from “ugh” to “wait, I actually like this”. This doesn’t offer a whole lot more, story-wise, than that previous fic, but I found myself enjoying it from start to finish. It gets a little melodramatic in the middle, and it definitely seems to drag on past where it should have ended, while quoting numerous classic fan comics (I think), but honestly, if you’re looking for something cute and heartwarming, look no further.
Recommended
A Moment in the Sun by Chengar Qordath
Reading (part 1) by Goombasa
Review #1500!
Genre: Tragedy
The tragic downfall of Sunset Shimmer, student of Princess Celestia. This is, without a doubt, one of the best tragedies I have ever read. Despite knowing how it’s going to end (though, vague spoiler, it doesn’t quite butt up against Equestria Girls), watching Sunset slowly dig herself deeper and deeper was delicious. The things she says toward the end just took my breath away. This is a look at how compelling self-fulfilling prophecies can be, and how impossible it is to break oneself from the habits of delusional thinking. There’s also some very timely stuff in there about how we view our success versus that of others. On top of that, it’s a very compelling look at Sunset as a character. Her voicing is excellent, whether filly or adult, and she’s set up as a very believable anti-Twilight: she doesn’t see the value in friendship and steadfastly refuses to listen to any of Celestia’s attempts to push her in the right direction in that regard. She also has crippling mommy issues, which was one of my favorite things about this. And it’s not just her who has a tragic flaw: Celestia openly shares the blame for what happens to Sunset, and if she can be accused of anything, it’s underestimating the effect she has on other ponies. Cadence also shows up halfway through as an unexpected but perfect foil for Sunset (this plays heavily off Cadence’s backstory from the first novel, fyi). Missteps were few and easy to sum up: a few word choices in the first chapter didn’t fit a filly; there are a number of spots toward the end where characters repeat themselves, to no real effect; and use of the word ‘plot’. (I have a slight quibble with the very end, too.) In all, this is a marvelous, emotional, very intense piece and I am definitely looking forward to the sequel.
Highly Recommended
I've had A Moment in the Sun on my read-later list for a while now. I gotta get to that. Sunset Shimmer was a favorite of mine before she was cool.
2610132
For srs.
Also, I oddly had the sequel on my RIL, but not that story. <.< Silly me!
Isn't it a crime to tip federal employees? I think it's usually considered a bribe. You'd go to jail if you tipped a policeman or a councilman.
2610141 It's a fine to give them a gift in exchange for favours - in other words, giving them a bribe. Tipping a postman for doing their job doesn't really fall under that, though if the authorities wanted to get really picky they could probably find some spurious justification for calling it a bribe.
The USPS has a desire that its workers don't receive more than a small amount, but there's no law on the subject of tips. Just bribes.
UK law is about the same on the matter. There's the remote possibility of falling foul of anti-bribery legislation that was originally designed to prevent the sort of back-room dealings that megacorps engage in to get contracts - assuming you have a prosecutor vindictive enough to chase a postman for his christmas tips, which isn't outside the realms of possibility these days. The royal mail has expressed the opinion that its workers shouldn't receive more than £30 from any one household in tips, but there's no legal restriction on giving them tips.
I saw you adding my story to your bookshelf, so I thought I'd check it out. And I wanna say thanks.
Thanks for being the first person to speak the truth. The story doesn't have many comments as it currently stands, but none of the others are... well, what you said. I did take your idea into account, and I think I may go through with it. The fic itself was the result of a three-hour job at the most, and back then I did nothing but mash on the keyboard. After a nice editing job, it would probably be a much better read. As it stands, yeah, I'll agree with everything you said.
Kind of feels bad that the first of my stories you've reviewed (to my knowledge) turned out to be this one. Not Recommended from the get-go... ah well. I just hope I haven't left a bad mark. Still though, thanks for giving the fic what it deserves, and all I can do is hope you'll enjoy if you revisit once it's edited... whenever that'll be.
Ah, well, wish granted. At least, this is the closest to it I've ever been able to find:
derpicdn.net/img/2013/9/4/418770/large.jpeg
>Snarklejack with a "Recommended" tag
i.imgur.com/hqfDWww.gif
2610141
USPS workers exist in a bizarre classification limbo, where they are sometimes federal employees and sometimes not. I can't recall the specifics, but I know my dad's not eligible for certain things other federal workers get.
2610162
For that image, all is forgiven. :D And hey, not everyone can be amazing all the time. Three-hour fics aren't known for being excellent, on the whole. ;B
Looks like I need to bump A Moment in the Sun up a bit on the to-read queue. Plus you helped me find a empty spot on the big master review list, so double-plus good.
2610162
Hey, starting at not recommended means the only way to go is up.
Hah! I'm the same way, I get a hefty percentage of my reading done at the gym after work, and when I skip too many days my unread count starts to creep back north.
Good call on A Moment in the Sun. My initial thoughts on it was that is wasn't that tragic, but since then I realized I was probably letting the common misuse of the Tragedy tag on the site (as in, usually meaning every character suffers terrible lifes and deaths, usually at each other's hooves) influence my understanding of the term.
2610426
Whereas this literally centers on tragic flaws. It's the classic, oft-forgotten definition in the flesh! :D
2610141 I'm a federal employee, and we're allowed to accept gift worth under $20. In my position, that would most likely occur as a free lunch supplied by a contractor during a meeting, or maybe a plaque given to team members upon the completion of a job. Though it's never actually come up for me...
I'm seeing a lot of praise for A Moment in the Sun here, and it's all for things that recently occurred in my favourite Sunset fic, Sunset of Time. Like so:
This is all sounding incredibly familiar...
If you haven't read SoT, PP, you definitely should.
2610675
k :V
Hey, thanks for the review!
Out of curiosity, how'd you come across the story? It's buried in the way-back on my story list. . . .
2611106
I dunno, man. I just read it earlier today, and I've seen so many authors use that whole initial Cadance sequence that it actually bothered me at first. It ended up going in quite the interesting direction, so it was all okay in the end.