Site Post » Reviews: Round 1 · 3:18am Nov 1st, 2012
As we all know, Fimfiction.net is a huge repository of stories. So huge, in fact, that at over 60k stories, it is a true hurdle and almost impossible to really find the good stories that get lost in the long queues, and trash, that gets posted along with them.
In an effort to correct this, Seattle_Lite proposed the creation of a group of reviewers that would endeavor to fish these ‘lost treasures’ out of the archives and give an honest opinion about them, with the purpose of sharing them with all and giving them a fair chance. These reviewers were found to be as objective and professional as we could find. Individuals with the honest mission of searching for stories without our direction or influence. We call them: Seattle's Angels.
The stories themselves all have their home within Fimfiction.net, have NOT been on the Featured Box for at least the last 3 months, and have never been showcased in EqD.
The reason for this goes back to the ‘fair chance,’ since not all good stories make it there. A certain amount of quality-check is required, of course—all reviewers have to agree that each story deserves to be showcased in this manner, and will entertain you with their brief impressions on why each story deserves this spotlight.
Our only involvement, as staff members of Fimfiction.net, besides putting the team together, is to post the reviews on the front page. The reviewers have the first and last word on the fics chosen, and we trust their judgement and objectivity to show through and encourage people to give the stories a chance.
~WD
"THE REVIEW WARS"
Episode 4: A New Review
With Fimfiction in a state of disarray brought upon it by the rising of the Nofictoread Empire, it is left up to Seattle’s Angels to fight and bring forth the Hidden Gems that have eluded us all, in the hope that these inspiring stories can bring forth a new age of quality reads for the good of the galaxyfimfiction.net.
STORY 1
Pip, by Invictus
Pipsqueak gasped for breath, short legs pumping furiously. The massive, steam-powered machine was nearly through the turn, and he needed to be on it before it sped up again.
There are a litany of cutie mark acquisition stories out there, but few discuss something that is arguably just as important to ponies: their names. Lucky for you though, Pip[ does just that. Disillusioned and determined, Pip boards the Friendship Express to escape his meaningless existence—or being called names... whatever. When he hops into an empty car however, he finds something he wasn’t exactly looking for.
Pip is a delightful, heartwarming, and occasionally humorous little story. It may be on the short side of the spectrum, but what it lacks in length it makes up for in pure heart. It’s a bit like your grandmother’s chicken noodle soup. Sure, it’s probably not the greatest soup you’ll ever eat, and you’re pretty sure there’s at least one piece of uncooked chicken in there, but you know eating it that it was made with love. It tastes good going down, makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and it’ll probably help you get over a cold.
It’ll only take you half an hour to read, at most, so you’re really missing out if you skip over this. Give Pip a chance, you might be surprised at what you find.
Pip stows away on the Friendship Express to escape the constant teasing he faces at home and runs into Equestria’s two most well-known salesponies. What could go wrong?
This story maintains a fun, light-hearted tone while still addressing the serious and relevant topics of bullying and self-worth, and I thought this was a great way to approach the subject. The dialogue is entertaining and fast-paced, as one would expect from the world-famous Flim Flam brothers, while still moving the story along.
Short and sweet, much like the protagonist himself, Pip is an entertaining story with fun twists and a good lesson at the end without being overbearing or heavy-handed. Kind of like the show itself, right?
Pip is cotton candy: unsubstantial, but sweet. Here, you have a story that clocks in at about two thousand words. It comes in, does its thing, and gets out of the way.
The story isn’t much more than a single dialogue exchange, and the spot-on character voices are what you’ll remember about it. However, what I like best about Pip is how it maintains fidelity to the show's tone and characters without being overly dependent on the show for its plot. What happens in Pip is something new—not a rehash of ideas hinted at in canon, but a real expansion of Equestria. That is the kind of story from which new fanon is created, and that is what Pip is.
If you enjoy cute, show-style stories and snappy dialogue, I think you'll get a kick out of Pip.
Chrysalis bent her face close to his and blew gently against the hairs in his ear. He trembled.
“Now dream,” she whispered.
What’s that you say? You’ve seen a hundred fics about Chrysalis and changelings? Well, that may be true, but I doubt you’ve seen one that stars Time Turner and isn’t a Doctor Who crossover. It’s just your luck then that Chronomistress: Out of Time is here to deliver on that obscure need. When Time Turner discovers a dark secret about Ponyville, he and Minuette (Colgate) must work together to stop Chrysalis while dealing with existential questions about the validity of their reality.
With such a heavy-handed message to deliver, Chronomistress can sometimes get bogged down with details and its ending leaves something to be desired. However, like a road trip with your best friends, it’s more about the journey than it is the destination. And in that regard, Chronomistress delivers in spades. With gripping scenes and captivating imagery, D.G.D. Davidson has managed to craft a thought-provoking and interesting story that left me wanting more.
With a possible follow-up on the way, Chronomistress: Out of Time is well worth your, well, time.
Chronomasters, changelings, and clumsiness—an odd combination, but one that works extraordinarily well.
That’s what stands out to me—how incredibly well these elements come together to form an engaging, exciting story that left me wanting more. The characters are particularly well-developed in such a short amount of time, making them both believable and endearing in their own quirky ways. D.G.D. Davidson uses the situation to create doubt that drove me to read on, and though this is longer than most one-shots I’ve read, I could hardly believe it when I suddenly came to the admittedly abrupt end.
Overall, a great story with great characters in a thrilling situation. All I can say is, I hope there’s a part two.
Chronomistress is gold. Davidson's strong world-building skills are on full display here as he unveils and describes a hidden side of Equestria while maintaining an unsettling consistency with the canon. Lush descriptions surprise and enthrall the reader, and no line is a chore to read. Meanwhile, the storyline has more twists than a soap opera and as much suspense as a primetime television drama. And all that is to say nothing of the writing itself: the prose is some of the best I've seen this fandom produce. Davidson writes with professional aspirations, and it shows.
If you like action, if you like fantasy, if you like suspense—hell, if you like ponies—I suspect you'll find something to like about Chronomistress. It's not one of the best stories I've ever read, but of the stories I've read that aren't the best stories I've ever read, it's one of the best.
Fluttershy bent to pick up the bag of apples in her teeth, but hesitated. She looked past Applejack’s shoulder. “Maybe I’ll come and buy more apples tomorrow.”
Never a Rainbow is an interesting look at what might’ve happened, had Rainbow never performed the Sonic Rainboom. It may not be the first story to ever do this, and certainly won’t be the last. However, what makes it stand out, to me, is its ability to weave such a compelling and captivating story in such a short amount of time.
More than just making it stand out though, Never a Rainbow’s length is what makes it so enjoyable.
Think “My Little Pony” meets “It’s a Wonderful Life” as told by two of the latter’s side characters, and you have “Never a Rainbow.”
Rainbow Dash’s Sonic Rainboom was instrumental in bringing the Elements of Harmony together. So what if the Rainboom never happened? What if the intrepid speedster never existed? This story examines what the lives of two of our heroines would be like if not for the rainbow explosion that changed their fates. How will their destinies change without the Element of Loyalty? You might just be surprised at what stays the same—and what is different.
If you’re looking for a story both touching and bleak, I recommend giving this one a go.
Never A Rainbow, like Pip, is a two-thousand word short told almost entirely over the space of a single conversation; unlike Pip, it is tragic and thought-provoking, at times startlingly so.
It's difficult to say much about Never A Rainbow without spoiling some of its most rewarding surprises... but, we're trying it. The story concept strikes me as one that, while it may have been done before, is worth doing more than once. The conversation in the main scene flows with remarkable facility, and watching the play of the characters' words and thoughts is enjoyable. The story's main attraction, though, is the gradual unveiling of the actual events it describes. These events, both those made explicit in the text and those left to the reader's inference, are depressingly probable given the story's premise, and I feel I would enjoy reading a much longer story or two set in its version of Equestria. The feeling that persists upon finishing Never A Rainbow is one of having been shown a terrifying image—a single morbid, still-photograph from a much larger slideshow of suffering.
To anyone who enjoys thinking about the nature of Equestria, what-if questions, questions of identity, or alternate universes, I'd recommend this story as being well worth its reading time.
*** Please note: The reviews are done by a group of individuals whose only relation to fimfiction is that they have proven themselves to be dedicated and honest members of the community and are providing the reviews for the post—because that’s what this is about: the fimfiction community. None of the Fimfiction Staff members are endorsing or promoting the particular authors, reviewers, or the stories reviewed; we are just providing a means for others to find good stories they might have missed.
DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT PM the reviewers asking them to review your story. There are lots of them, so have faith in them and in your story, they'll get there.
In the meantime, you can find the Reviews in the Seattle's Angel's Group!
~WD & Seattle_lite
I see the name Nietzsche and immediately think of his Thus Spoke Zarathustra argument...
Show me some multi parters!
Woohoo, yeah! That is a GREAT idea I can get behind! Do great work, reviewers! Thanks for all of the time you have and will put into this! :3
Lol didn't read!
Wait, so are these guys going to go over every story on the site? Because if so, then well, dayum, that's a lot of time.
Will all future reviews be posted on your blog, or is there some other place where one could find them? I hadn't seen a link, so...
Update update update.
Where's the like button for this blog post???
Sounds like they'll be doing a good job, scraping through all this rubble of uselessness, finding jewels worth observing and showing to others. May their endeavors be respected and recognized.
Ah, so that's what this is about. Anyhow, Never a Rainbow was fantastic. I too strongly recommend it.
Pip is wonderful, so I'm glad to see if get some additional mention.
Haven't read the other two, will probably give Chronomistress a look at some point. Not really up for a Sad tagged fic at the moment, or I'd give the third a look too.
I doubt it'll be every story, but I imagine they'll look for stories with relatively high up/down ratios that have been published/ updated recently.
459092 I'll add a link to the "Menu" in my user page.
and have never been showcased in EqD.
Implying that everything that gets posted on EQD gets attention.
I have to say...this is a great idea. I am sure there are one shot stories out there who got a lot of praise but hasn't poped up in a long time and that is a problem with one-shot stories. They are either a hit or a miss to make it into the featured box because...they only post one chapter. To me this would be a great way to showcase these one shot stories that are really great but didn't get the praise they needed. This can go along with continuation stories that don't have frequent updates and help them get noticed as well. I look forward to what the Seattle's Angels have to say about these stories.
This is a good idea.
459112
How would you argue a story getting on EqD doesn't get attention? Whenever I've gotten things into Nightly Roundups, they invariably get 5-6k pageviews over the next 48 hours, and that's for stuff buried in newsposts. I have to think that a fic getting its own standalone post will certainly get attention from those that are interested in fanfic, if the title and description are anything approaching interesting...
459150
Answer me this. Have you ever heard of a fic called The Parliament of Dreams?
If you have heard of this fic before hand, then I'll shut up.
I love this idea. So much.
t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT4_eUK71VV5OLYgFej-HU6hxeC82z6Rs3f5mRUaROCTcGh7a0LYsOEfyRyTA
459169 I have!
I distinctly remember the pony with the Pip-Boy! (is that what they're called? I don't think it was 'Pipbuck' on that one.)
459192
Micro information processor or MIP.
I guess I've had my point defeated then.
I like this idea, but I do have one stupidly pessimistic question. How is this different then EQD?
459169
I haven't, though the singular of "data" is not "anecdote". I did take a peek and you have a reasonable number of comments both at EqD and here at FIMFic, over 400 faves, and over 6000 referrals from EqD, so I'm hard-pressed to see your point... getting posted to EqD got you, conservatively, 23 times more referrals than all other sources combined.
459200
We discussed including EqD fics and considered it for a while. It's really one of those "damned if you do, damned if you don't" dilemmas.
459219
Lower standards. Heheh.
But seriously, that's a standard objection to this sort of activity. The main difference is that people aren't submitting to us, we're just roving around on our own, looking for wheat among the chaff.
And of course there's the vacuous difference, that this is in fact entirely on FiMFiction, and has nothing to do with Equestria Daily.
459150
To help further Wheller's (459112) point, I give you these:
A Rose is a Rose
Resolution
Painless
All those made EqD. None of the have reached 1k views (as of last time I checked). So, there is that.
459225
On the first one yes. Take a look at the fics that take place afterwards though? (Which are also posted in the EQD post for Parliament of Dreams) and then you'll see what I'm talking about. Views, faves, ect. Drop significantly.
We have the TWE (Train Wreck Explorers) still.
i.imgur.com/3lZia.png?1
Couldn't resist slapping this on my comment.
459247, 459256 Sadly no system is perfect, but the reviewers will try to dig up what they can, and the idea is that it would be stuff that hasn't had time in the spotlight either here or EqD. There are a lot of stories that don't get enough attention, but some haven't received even the chance to get shine.
459219
I'll answer that question with another question: does it need to be?
EqD showcases lots of great fics, and guess what... so will we. However, rather than stories being submitted to us (seriously, don't send us suggestions) we'll be actively seeking out diamonds in the rough. Our goal is to shine the spotlight on fics that we feel haven't gotten the attention they deserved. If it's been on EqD then it pretty much already had its shot. Now, that's not to say that every fic on EqD has gotten its fair share of views, but most of them have.
Long story short:
You been on EqD, you ain't gettin' reviewed, as unfortunate as that is...
/ramble
459276
I know no system's perfect. I was merely mentioning that there are fics that get passed by on EqD and receive next to no attention.
459247
Really, we did consider including EqD fics, we thought about it hard because of cases exactly like those. But at a certain point, you have to let self-selection sort things out. Just because a story makes it onto Equestria Daily doesn't mean it necessarily deserves a thousand views. What we're doing is trying to highlight some, just some (because we could never do all), of the good stories that fall through fimfiction's cracks and never get read, whether due to being approved at 2 am, or having a goofy synopsis, or being posted at the same time as a new Pen Stroke fic, or what-have-you. Stories on Equestria Daily have already had a similar type of exposure as what we would be able to give them. Past a certain point, you have to lay the fault for a lack of views on the fic itself.
459107
Fantastic, thanks!
459295
I would argue that lots of people ignore fics on EqD just as much as they ignore fics here. Especially the older ones from back in the day. Sure, now if a fic gets posted to EqD, it's almost guaranteed to get 2-4k views, but 6 months ago? Not quite.
459256
Well, it looks like - as the kids say these days - you're doing it wrong. You're writing these big multi-chapter fics, but they're only hitting EqD once, I guess the first time you send it in? If each story had its own post on EqD, then you'd get the initial post, included in daily fic roundups whenever you updated with a new chapter, and then when the story completed you'd get the original post bumped again.
459247
I'd be curious to know how often those stories hit EqD's index. Also, a couple of them are approaching a year old, and EqD's readership would have been significantly smaller. Not that any of these things are necessarily a panacea; some of it must be random, or poor timing with regards to external events no one can control. I had actually heard of spacebrony's story, though I haven't read it yet.
459330
That's kinda what I said to Nietzsche up there. EqD fics from way back when aren't the same as fics now in terms of potential viewers.
Also, you may have heard of spacebrony's because DPV recommended it recently, making it clear it was his favorite fic of all time.
Neat idea. Hope more reviewers jump on board. Hope there are fewer summaries next time (a short one in the first review is a good idea, though).
I pray that, of all the blog post, at least this part gets through.
Still, this idea is interesting to a lot of people. Not for me though, as I seldom read what's "new" or "hot". I have a somewhat "if this pleases me, it fucking pleases me" mindset that made me favorite (in order to follow) even the dullest of stories sometimes. During my prospecting times, I have come across some gold nuggets and diamonds, but I also get a lot of rubble thrown my way. Still, even the "meh"-est of stories have some appeal to me. Even if they are very poorly written. I find myself, when reading a very bad fanfic, wondering what direction I'd take if I was the one writing it. Maybe it's just me? I don't know, but I do know that I digress.
To reiterate: Commendable effort. I just hope you guys don't get too drained from reading many fanfics.
To W.D. and the other fellow reviewers: I just know that doing so is probably going to generate "You're publishing his flaws for everyone to see! You guys are evil!" dramas. I suggest asking permission from the author before posting said reviews in order to avoid that. If I have missed such part in the blog, then slap me and tell me to shut the fuck up.
Hmmm... 3 stories, all with one chapter and completed...
*looks to own multichapter story, back to the three one-shots, back to own story, back to the one-shots*
Meh, must be a thing about being COMPLETE.
I'm guessing all the fics being reviewed must be finished, because I've got two that are ok. . .but not really finished yet
. . .
459384
459370
Stories do not technically need to be complete to be picked, but we kinda gravitate towards those that are. Make of that what you will.
459330
Yeah that's not how they do it. You just mention the word sequel and it gets lopped into your original post. When you finish the sequel, you don't get your original post bumped. It just gets lopped into a regular updates blog post. And if you happen to get unlucky and a Project Horizons or an Anthropology that updates alongside yours? It can be incredibly easy to get overlooked.
Case in point. Unless you got incredibly lucky on your first go through EQD when getting posted. It can actually be quite difficult to get a significant amount of attention. Tossing fics out of this just because they were posted to EQD still has the potential to ignore a good fic that got overlooked.
I don't care if anyone starts fawning over my own, but there are people who deserve attention a lot more than I do, they'll go to EQD seeing it as their only chance to get any kind of exposure, only to be crushed when it doesn't catch on. Happens more often then you might think. This is what we get for our pedestal.
459409
Well seeing as how I've only got one that's really somewhat close to being complete then I'll probably be waiting a while. . .
459370
459384
We are actually considering stories that are unfinished. However, it's tough to know an incomplete story is good enough to recommend... before it's finished. Also is the fact that what we're doing here is essentially more reader-centric than writer-centric, and readers tend to want to read completed stories.
ALSO is the sheer brute fact that longer stories take longer to read and hence are harder to screen. We're only human, so some bias towards shorter works is bound to happen. We try to mitigate it, but 100,000-word colossi take time to screen.
By the way, we've been concerning ourselves more with the lower end of the view spectrum as much as possible. I don't think any of the stories we picked this time has over about five hundred views. Viewcounts begin to look suspiciously high, for our purposes, at around a thousand. Just tossin' that out there.
Just remember, this isn't a contest. Stories we showcase are not automatically better than every other story. We can't showcase everything. If these review posts mean anything, it's that digging up underrated stories on your own can be worthwhile, and that you don't have to just follow the feature box or the view count.
459437
Nietzsche speaks the truth. Listen well children...
459437
I get that it's not a contest, but the idea of getting my story out there is quite enticing
459412
That's exactly why I don't send to EQD, there's no chance of mine even hitting the radar there it seems.
Alright, you made your point. We will sit back and enjoy the next reviews, maybe the one or another incomplete one will show up. Has to be one around here that's worth a review.
Now this is probably the only idea I've seen come up for the past few months that I actually support. It's a great idea, and I certainly hope many obscure writers get discovered and receive the attention they so deserve.
For some reason I'm nervous, and I can't say why...
The least I can do, I guess, is to put these on my Read Later list -- which, for me, means they'll be read by this weekend. (I've had one story sitting there for longer, but it's up there in the general vicinity of Epic Length.)
Awesome, this is a great idea, I think it will definitely encourage a lot of authors here
Homer approves of this idea. Old, underrated relics are always there, waiting to be discovered. Uncovering them brings only good things.
Confucius says there is great wisdom in the unknown.