Read It Later Reviews #67 – Sanctity of Life; Hay-oh, Welcome to Hayburger; Customer Service; Princess Luna’s School for Gifted Young Alicorns; What Cats Know · 9:16pm Feb 1st, 2017
It has been a long time since I managed to get multiple review sets done in advance, and yet, here I find myself with two Read It Later review sets that I got done before I had posted either of them.
The last set’s epilogue ended with me noting I should read stories off my high priority bookshelf… so naturally, I immediately disregarded that advice and just read some stories on a whim.
Let’s see how it goes, shall we?
Today’s stories:
Sanctity of Life by SilverSolstice
Hay-oh, Welcome to Hayburger by MyHobby
Customer Service by Petrichord
Princess Luna’s School for Gifted Young Alicorns by Tigerhorse
What Cats Know by Daedalus Aegle
Sanctity of Life
by SilverSolstice
Sad, Slice of Life
4,346 wordsWhen Scootaloo learns what the Ancient Pegasi did to their foals that couldn't fly, she's afraid the same fate awaits her. A trip to Cloudsdale with her idol Rainbow Dash teaches Scootaloo what her life is really worth.
Why I added it: Softy8088 mentioned it was right next to Rainbow Dash Gets an Abortion in their favorites list, and the juxtaposition was just too delicious to pass up.
Review
Scootaloo is going to visit Cloudsdale with Rainbow Dash, so she has to learn how to fly. Because if she doesn’t learn how to fly, she’s going to get thrown into the Pegasus Device and get ground up into rainbows.
Okay, that isn’t what’s going to happen, but kids are kids, right?
This story is a reaction fic to Rainbow Factory. I think that the core idea of this story – the idea that Scootaloo and the CMCs somehow got convinced that pegasi grind up foals into rainbows – is actually a kind of amusing one, and seems like the sort of thing some overimaginative children might believe, doubly so when they hear stories about ancient ponies doing so. Unfortunately, the story feels like it is trying so hard to be a reaction fic to Rainbow Factory that it forgets that this idea is actually genuinely interesting, so instead of telling the story, it ends up feeling like it moralizes – and it ultimately feels like a bit of a letdown.
I didn’t feel the peaks and troughs here nearly as strongly as I should have – Scootaloo’s despair at her fate being to be thrown into a machine to die, and Rainbow Dash’s speech, both felt kind of too canned. They didn’t really feel genuine, and instead just sort of felt a bit by-the-numbers – like they were things put in so that the author could write about them, instead of because they were natural outgrowths of the characters and their characterization. That’s not to say that they couldn’t be – but they didn’t feel like it here. The characters just felt like puppets on strings, being worked by the author to say what the author wanted to say, but putting it in the mouth of Rainbow Dash.
The real tragedy here is that the author does know how to write – the ending bit, where Scootaloo goes back to Twilight’s library at the end, and writes a letter to Princess Celestia, is the strongest part of the story. Rainbow Dash and Twilight have some solid back-and-forth dialogue that is in-character and amusing, and then the ending makes a Cupcakes reference which feels only fitting after a story about the Rainbow Factory.
Alas, while it was cute, the rest of the story didn’t really hold up so well, so much as I liked the core idea…
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Hay-oh, Welcome to Hayburger
by MyHobby
Slice of Life
6,162 wordsRarity works at Hayburger. Not necessarily by choice, mind you. It's just temporary. Very, very temporary. But not the least bit temporary enough.
Pinkie Pie is searching for something. She stops at Ponyville on a whim, or maybe that's the tingly feeling in her tail talking. She decides to meet some ponies. What better place to begin her quest than at Hayburger?
Why I added it: After reading Hyperportentia, MyHobby recommended this story to me to read next.
Review
Rarity has a job at the local Hayburger, where she is trying to earn enough money while living with her parents to save up for a shop in Manehattan.
One day, a strange pink pony rolls into the shop and decides that Rarity is her new friend…
This is a story about the first time Rarity and Pinkie Pie met, but it is really about how Rarity came to own a boutique in a town of ponies who don’t wear clothes. This is one of those friendly little heartwarming pieces where someone makes a friendly gesture out of the blue that helps someone else see straight. Pinkie Pie sets Rarity on the right path just with a smile and a nudge, while Rarity struggles to make it on her own without recognizing that friendship (and help from your parents) can make you stronger and set you off on the right foot hoof.
It is a sweet little piece, but it doesn’t feel particularly high stakes; after all, we know how it has to end, the real question is the road taken to get there. Still, if you like the idea of a few moments between Pinkie Pie and Rarity that set them on the road to friendship and Rarity on her long road to being a fashionista, this is likely to appeal to you.
Recommendation: Worth Reading.
Customer Service
by Petrichord
Dark, Slice of Life
2,111 wordsThe work of a businesspony is to provide goods or services to other ponies in exchange for the abstracted representation of the worth of said goods or services (i.e. bits), typically to obtain said abstracted worth in greater proportion than what said goods or services would normally be worth in an economic vacuum. Typically, this entails finding a good or service in high enough demand that ponies will pay disproportionate amounts of wealth to obtain it.
Take, for example, Dextromethamphetamine.
Because sometimes, a guy just gets sick of trying to sell apple cider, y'know?
Why I added it: Present Perfect recommended it, and Petrichord is a good writer.
Review
After one too many schemes and scams, Flim has decided to settle down onto a nice, steady, safe business… of dealing drugs in the Crystal Empire.
This is a kind of dark story of the interplay between Sunburst and Flim – Sunburst the perpetually insecure, and Flim, who sells him security in the form of an illicit little boost, while keeping Sunburst in his orbit and keeping him from seeking out any sort of help by playing both ends against the middle.
This is a kind of nasty story, and a different kind of racket, but is interesting in its own sort of way. That being said, there’s nothing nice about this story – it is a pretty bleak view of Sunburt’s psyche, as well as the sort of people who might prey on such fears.
If I had a complaint, it would be that Flim’s voice didn’t come through very strongly here – while his longing for the days of his old scams worked well, and he notes his deliberate dropping of the carnival barker routine, he feels a little bit indistinct compared to his usual vivacious self.
Recommendation: Worth Reading
Princess Luna’s School for Gifted Young Alicorns
by Tigerhorse
Comedy
2,706 wordsShocking, how Celestia never taught Cadance the Royal Canterlot Voice. And Twilight will need to learn it as well. What can a Princess of the Night do but hold a class to teach this essential art for princesses? Hopefully she knows how to maintain classroom discipline....
Why I added it: I blame Present Perfect.
Review
I really do blame PP for aiming me at this story, because, as it turns out, it is entirely not my cup of tea.
Princess Cadance and Princess Twilight are being given a lesson in the Royal Canterlot Voice by Princess Luna, but Princess Cadance acts like a teenaged brat, while Twilight seems to act quite young as well (as well as being a smarmy know-it-all, but let’s face it, we all knew that already). Eventually Princess Celestia drops by to further escalate things.
PP has a name for stories like this, but it escapes me at the moment (character destruction comedy?). This is the sort of comedy where characters act pretty wildly out of character and a lot of the humor revolves around their out of character actions. Alas, such stories have never really worked for me, and this one is no exception; the characters are heavily exaggerated (or in Cadance’s case, simply completely rewritten for the sake of the story) and there’s really not a whole lot here that grabbed me. It is a fairly standard “character mouths off to the teacher and doesn’t pay attention and Twilight thinks Celestia is perfect all evidence to the contrary” story (okay, each half is standard, the combination is not), and while I suppose people being brats in class can be funny, as is always the case with stories like this, it ended up feeling contrived.
I know some people find these stories funny, but I rarely do, and this was no exception.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
What Cats Know
by Daedalus Aegle
Mystery, Sad
9,157 wordsIt's autumn in Ponyville, and Nightmare Night is approaching, when Sweetie Belle stumbles on a mystery.
Cats are adorable, and playful, and aloof, and they know more than ponies realize. Once they were revered as gods.
But have you ever tried to get a straight answer from a cat?
Why I added it: Xepher recommended it, and Daedalus Aegle is a good writer.
Review
I have to say, I guessed where this story was going very early on, and unfortunately, it rather undermined it for me.
This story is set many years in the future. Sweetie Belle now lives in Carousel Boutique, and looks after Opal. The story starts out with Sweetie Belle musing about her own grandmother’s cat, and how it died shortly after her grandmother did, being put down by some relative due to its great age. Sweetie Belle noticed after that happened that all of the cats in town came out to watch them pass by, and wondered if they all knew, and were paying their respects, or were simply not afraid to come out anymore.
It is Nightmare Night in the present, and Sweetie Belle is curious about cats, and what magic they might possess – as well as what knowledge they possess. And after visiting a few people, she finally comes back around to an answer of sorts.
Alas, I feel like this story did a great deal of wandering without much purpose behind it. Ultimately, I think the purpose of the story is to make us feel the loss that Sweetie Belle is feeling, but while there was a melancholy air around the story, I just was left feeling like the story was quite long for what it was. Sweetie Belle visits three people, but while there’s quite a bit of dialogue that happens, in the end it feels like only the third one really did anything to advance the plot all that much, with the other two adding some flavor but ultimately feeling a bit pointless.
The result was, in the end, that I wasn’t really sure what to make of this story. I picked up on what was going on quite early on – pretty much from the moment “cat” and “death” were mentioned – and consequently I was waiting the whole story for some big emotional moment. But in the end, the final scene failed to really feel like it elevated the emotionality – I didn’t get choked up, I didn’t cry. There was no great sense of release, nor did I even really truly understand what Sweetie Belle was trying to get out of the whole venture beyond, perhaps, a bit of closure that I didn’t really end up feeling at the end.
I wanted to like this – the writing was quite pretty – but in the end, while it worked to make me feel melancholy, and there was a twinge of that, I didn’t really grok its purpose beyond the passing of a torch of sorts which didn’t really affect me. There was a lot of world-building that went into this piece, and a lot of pretty language, but it didn’t really go anywhere with most of it in the end.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
Summary
Sanctity of Life by SilverSolstice
Not Recommended
Hay-oh, Welcome to Hayburger by MyHobby
Worth Reading
Customer Service by Petrichord
Worth Reading
Princess Luna’s School for Gifted Young Alicorns by Tigerhorse
Not Recommended
What Cats Know by Daedalus Aegle
Not Recommended
This tells me a lesson I perhaps should have already known – my bookshelves exist for a reason. I’m apparently reasonably talented at promoting things from bookshelf to bookshelf, and simply reading stuff on a whim does not lead to as good of outcomes. A couple of these were decent enough, but I just couldn’t muster the same enthusiasm for this set as I did for the last one.
Though, admittedly, staying awake for 32 hours straight can likely sap the enthusiasm from anyone. Still, I think I shall try to hew closer to my high priority bookshelf. I mean, what’s the point of having a shelf labelled “read it sooner” if I don’t do so?
Number of stories still listed as Read It Sooner: 164
Number of stories still listed as Read It Later: 585
Number of stories listed as Read It Eventually: 2099
Ha, you know, it's funny reading 'Hay-oh, Welcome to Hayburger', because if I distill it down to the basic plot premise of 'Rarity and Pinkie meet for the first time, and the origin story of Carousel Boutique', I'm reminded of Carousel, except that story is almost as far as you can get from Hayburger.
Ah, but with 150+ stores in "Read It Sooner", what's the point to "Read It Later" when you won't ever read it later?
I will say this: I prefer the "Read It Later" reviews over the "Read It Sooner" ones. This is primarily due to what tends to make up the "Read It Sooner" reviews. The biggest weakness to it for me is the "because it was featured" stories. They were just featured, if they aren't still featured, which means they got lots of attention, and I already looked at them and decided if they were worth reading or not. Adding to that, they have a tendency to include a lot of stories by a relatively limited selection of authors, because "X is a good writer", where X is almost always one of the big names. You know, the people with lots of followers, who are frequently featured, so again, not something that adds much of value to me, as I've already formed my opinion as to whether I like their style or not.
So basically, because the "Read It Later" mostly avoids the big names and the current feature box, I find it more interesting. Not that the "Read It Sooner" list doesn't have stories like that as well, but those tend not to be the ones getting reviewed =/
4406051
Heh. My "Read It Sooner" shelf actually has nothing to do with "Read It Now" reviews. The Read It Now reviews are all recent stories (and often feature recently featured stuff), while Read It Later are drawn from across the epochs of FIMFiction. The Read It Now reviews are always of recent stories, and consequently, are much more likely to be read because they're featured, though I sometimes will read stuff even before it is featured.
Almost all such stories are going to be featured or from good writers because those are the people whose stories I'm most likely to read within a month of coming out.
Conversely, Read It Later reviews are drawn from a lot more sources, so are less likely to be "because it was featured".
"Read It Now" reviews:
Highly Recommended: 1.2%
Recommended: 7.6%
Worth Reading: 30.5%
Not Recommended: 59.7%
Versus my "Read It Later" reviews:
Highly Recommended: 5.1%
Recommended: 4.8%
Worth Reading: 35.3%
Not Recommended: 54.2%
I'm surprised they're as close as they are, honestly.
That said, stories which come off my higher priority bookshelves are much more likely to be good. Stuff off my (misleadingly named, though it was supposed to be that way, dang it!) "You're Next" shelf have, historically, had more Recommended and Highly Recommended than Not Recommended, which suggests that my filtering on that shelf is fairly good. The downside is that it is mostly stories that I have put off reading for a long time - right now, it contains Background Pony, Salvation, Infernal Machines, Mark of Appeal, and similar stories.
The problem is, good writers are more likely to write good stories, and I mostly try to read good stories. And ultimately, reading random stories is often a bad idea, because most of them are bad (I have tried doing this before, and it lead to poor outcomes). Consequently, the main way I find stories is by looking for recommendations, asking people for them, ect.
Which means that I'm much less likely to review a story from a non-established writer, and the ones I'm most likely to review are from people who have somehow come to my attention - which also means they're more likely to have come to other folks' attention.
If there was a reliable way of finding good, underappreciated stories, I'd use it, but there really isn't. After all, the most likely reason for a story to not be read by many people is that it isn't very good in the first place... and by definition, an underappreciated story is harder to hear about.
HA! Take that, PP! Blaming me for stuff! Now you know the intense suffering you've caused! Well, sharp suffering. Well, actually, kinda negligible suffering. Actually, it's sort of funny, but you feel it keenly now!
Oh, how you feel it!
I saw that first story and immediately thought of Rainbow Dash Gets an Abortion. We seem to have ruined each other! :V
But yeah, character destruction comedy is, I think, what I call those (and I wasn't aware I had coined the phrase :O). If there's anything I like about that story, it's that Twilight is spouting off direct accusations generally flung at Celestia by detractors and treating them as if they're the greatest thing ever. While Celestia roundly denies all of them to her face. I mean, how is that not funny? XD
4406102
You hush :V
4406075 Guess I just mixed up the Read It Nows with the Soon. Okay, then those are the ones I don't care for as much. Just tend to be a bit too recent.
Do you read them in order of addition, or do you go through the list until something perks your interest? If the latter, that might well explain it. Sure, something about "Sooner" grabbed your attention to get them on that list rather than "Later", but "Later" has a lot more choices, so if you scan through more of those before picking one to read...
Well, I do think there are a decent number of stories that just got buried in the deluge. So many stories, and if you didn't make the popular list/feature box, you were pretty much doomed. And such stories that were more niche but still quality were really hurt by the idiotic 10 like/dislike policy the devs implemented. But yeah, for most stories, lack of quality is a big hindrance. And you'd have to pan through a lot of muck to find the few nuggets of gold.
I wouldn't expect you to just read random stories, because yeah, most would wind up not recommended. But looking down the "sooner" list, there are a lot of authors there that are not that well known. Sure, some big names with 1k+ followers as well, but still, a lot of names that are not as well known.
It could be that my perception is somewhat biased due to the "Recommended" reviews. Those, obviously enough, tend to feature a higher number of stories from a select group of the writers, the cream of the crop, as it were. And that makes sense. But then those same authors turn up in the Sooners. So the end result is that those few authors turn up a lot, while other choices on the list don't. Given that those authors and their stories already get a lot of exposure, coupled with the sheer quantity of stories in the backlog, perhaps an option is to not review them in the "Sooner" category, instead focusing on stories by other authors.
Of course, I wouldn't expect you to not read what you want to read, so I guess part of that comes down to how much more time you invest in a "review" story versus a "just reading it" story. If reviewing adds significant time beyond the reading, then maybe choosing to not review certain stories would allow for more time for reading/reviewing others. But if it doesn't, well, then it really doesn't matter.
And of course, this is just my particular thoughts on the matter. I'm not you, nor do I make up a majority by myself, so perhaps my thoughts on the matter ought to be ignored
Anyway, the point of it all is this: I like the "Later" reviews because they're more likely to reveal something passed over and interesting. So don't stop doing them, even if it doesn't make logical sense to do them when the "Sooner" list has stories on it.
4406128
Yeah! Yeah! What he said! :P
No worries. Sorry it didn't work for you, but thanks for giving it a chance, TD.