Fic recs, October 9th! · 12:49am Oct 10th, 2016
I somehow missed that Captain Sand did a reading of Rinnaul's No One Goes There! Scribbler and a whole slew of folks have done a reading of Horse Voice's Johnny Never Knew What Hit Him!
Today, I was supposed to do laundry and read a bunch of shit. Instead, I helped a friend move (FloydienSlip can confirm this), played some Sentinels with friends and then burned stuff. :B Oh well, maybe tomorrow. At least I have audiobooks!
H: 0 R: 1 C: 4 V: 1 N: 1
Cloudy Skies and Cherry Pies by Zaphod
Reading by Scribbler, Caitbug and Emogak
Genre: Crackshipping
Pinkie invites Spitfire to a private picnic for two.
Crackshipping usually revolves around how the characters involved met and fell in love. In this case, the falling part is kind of the main focus, and I approve. What this is missing is how they know each other, or rather, how Pinkie figured she knew Spitfire well enough to ask her to a picnic. But even without that, this is cute, though it does take a turn for the innuendo-laden near the end. If you're looking for something sweet and silly, this is pretty fun.
Recommended for Shippers
For Cranky by The Lunar Samurai
Reading by Scarlett Blade
Genre: Changeling Fic
A lone changeling enters Ponyville to attend a wedding.
For a hot minute last year, Kevin was the only non-bloodthirsty changeling from canon. Granted, we never knew as much about him as we do Thorax, but whatever. Point is, this story turned him into a severe wooby. He scares a filly just by being present, he's accosted by the town watch (because that's a thing), absolutely nopony in Ponyville has anything but scorn and derision for him and he's just so sad because he's only trying to be there for a friend's joyous time spare me. And did we really have to hear the Mayor's entire speech?
Not Recommended
Bugs in a Blanket by somatic
Reading by ChaoticSevens
Genre: Changeling Fic
Chrysalis is leading her army through frostbitten mountains, trying to evade pony search parties. The last thing she wants to do is read anyone a bedtime story.
When I read Hellpiercer, I said I'd be willing to read more in the same 'verse, and here I am! I'll admit to being really salty because this comes right after the previous story, but with that in mind, here are the issues: 1) If not for the note in the description, this would have literally nothing to do with the other story. 2) Wooby abounds. 3) You can pretty much glean the entire plot by looking at the cover image. 4) I've seen Momsalis stories, reluctant or otherwise, before, and this one's no different. Now, with all that said, I can't honestly hate this. Chrysalis remains a bedrock of good taste throughout, but being able to identify with her meant that his has merit, goshdarnit. And yes, it's just an attempt to have changelings be cute instead of the horrendous monsters they actually are, with Chrysalis rolling her eyes as hard as she can the entire time. It's cute and fluffy, which is amazing, since it starts out with a whole hive of changelings struggling against icy starvation. Won't appeal equally to everyone, but I'd rather see this than that up there.
Recommended If You Like Cute Things and/or Changelings
Twilight Sparkle Rents a Bulldozer by Quantum107
Reading by Scarlett Blade
Genre: Random/Slice of Life
Because she's not giving up on Winter Wrap Up.
I have to say I'm disappointed. With a title like that, I was expecting laugh-out-loud crackfic. Instead, it's literally just random slice of life. Sure, the actual situation is amusing, and there are one or two good jokes at AJ's expense, but there's no Comedy tag, and this only succeeds at being what it's tagged. I won't say it's bad, but I'm left wondering what I should have expected.
Vaguely Recommended
The Unbearable Lightness of Bucking by Loganberry
Reading by the Author
Genre: Philosophical
Applejack and Twilight discuss philosophy.
I'll admit, this one more or less went over my head. I've never been one for people standing around, talking about things, so the only draws for me were Twilight geeking out about the concept of having someone to talk philosophy with (more than the philosophy itself) and a few of the philosopher name puns, especially the big joke in the middle. Given the comedy tag, that may have been the whole point. At least I can say this is well written, and it let me look back on an incident I otherwise would have liked to forget and laugh about it. (Also, I helped!)
Recommended If You Like Philosophy
The Immortal's Midlife Crisis by Enigmatic Otaku
Reading by Scarlett Blade
Genre: Random Comedy
Celestia realizes it's been too long since she let loose and had fun.
The intro of this is a little too long (and has a pony swearing by Faust), but by the end, it devolves into the kind of absurdist comedy I was expecting, given the title and premise. Highlights include the description of Luna's rule and the way Celestia treats Twilight.
Recommended If You Like OOC Humor
Permanent Record by Estee
Reading by FanOfMostEverything
Genre: Comedy
The CMCs have quite the rap sheet.
Another good alternate-format fic. :) This one takes the form of numerous police reports, centered around the various shenanigans perpetrated by the Cutie Mark Crusaders, with copious somewhat unhinged notes from Ponyville's juvie officer. And while the latter may be a tad overwrought, I had a good time watching this poor pony slowly lose their freaking mind. Honestly, it's a really funny story that makes good use of non-prose storytelling techniques.
Recommended
Can confirm.
Wow. It's more than a little surreal to see me mentioned as a fic reader.
Oh man. Pony does X often turns out to be crap, but this . . .
No matter how it turns out, it's gonna be gold.
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Thanks for the review, and indeed that advice! I am, as you doubtless realised, no philosopher myself, so the stuff I chose to reference (in an apply way) largely came from reading a few online articles about existentialism and thinking, "Hey, that could work in the fic". I wanted some connection between the philosophies referenced and real-world ones, but I was never going to make the parallels more than very broad. Also, glad to hear that it helped you a little, too.
In so far as there was a point, yes. But that wasn't very far -- if John Perry hadn't made his "existentialist fruit story" comment I'd never have thought of writing this. I just wanted to see if I could.
Yeah, it probably wasn't going to be the ideal story for you in that case. One of my favourite comedies of all time is Yes, Minister, many episodes of which consist almost entirely of people standing (or sitting) around, talking about things. Still, I'll take "well written" any day!
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I actually forgot I had already reviewed you as a reader! It's weird! XD