Fic recs, August 2nd: New Character Tags, Comics/Other edition! · 8:50pm Aug 2nd, 2018
I recently ran into a reading of ocalhoun's Unicorn Horns Are Made of Candy by newcomer Star1412s. Her voice is adorable, her reading style is solid, I only needed a few seconds to determine that she's a good choice. That said, this is her first and so far only MLP reading; she seems to be multi-fandom, so time will tell if she'll do another.
Yes indeed, I can post review blogs three days apart! :D This continues the edition trend I was doing in April, with the leftover bits from the post that started it all. This isn't the end of these, however; there are two more updates to that post that I will be diving into in the future. In the meantime, enjoy!
H: 0 R: 1 C: 1 V: 1 N: 3
Nightmare Rarity:
My Nightmarish Heroine by Quillamore
Genre: AU/Shipping
Yaknow, this uses the dreaded T-word, but I'd still rather read that than the story that's actually the highest rated Nightmarity fic. That said, this does have issues, specifically in the narration. It just doesn't come off as sounding like Coco Pommel, and even if this were an effect of being infected by whatever the Nightmare does to ponies, the whole thing is talky, expository and dry, with zero dialogue. Plus, I can't really see anyone in this situation actually using the name "Nightmarity" in earnest. Yet for all that, I wanted more backstory to this? Granted, I wanted to experience it rather than just be told, but there's a lot assumed about this AU that never comes across quite right. Everything just happens offscreen. This would be a good idea if not for the execution.
Not Recommended
Tiberius:
Princess Luna's Extravagant Plethora of Undefeatable Hostiles by Skylarking the Stargazer
Genre: Random
This is one of those "trying too hard to be weird" kinds of random fics. Also, fails the Luna Test. Also, just not great at writing. :/ There are a lot of extraneous words, phrases that don't make any sense, unnatural dialogue and just really bad pony names. I'm not sure what happened here, but it didn't leave a good impression.
Not Recommended
Princess Amore:
Just an arbiter. by Jlargent
Genre: Death Parade Crossover
King Sombra and Princess Amore find themselves in a strange bar.
I have no idea what Death Parade is, and I still don't. I did not understand a single thing going on in this story, and if not for the poor writing, I would just have passed it by with a shrug. But the writing is flat and occasionally stilted, not to mention fast paced. Plus, watching a blow-by-blow of people playing chess is never interesting. I don't know if anyone who knows this game or whatever will get anything out of this, either.
Not Recommended
Radiant Hope:
The Sombra Experiment by Manaphy
Genre: Drama
If you don't know who Radiant Hope is, you can get a taste from my review of the first Fiends Forever comic, I guess. :B I dunno, it wasn't too helpful to me, either, but I think she was Sombra's old girlfriend before he turned evil or something. Anyway, this story… needs some work. Hope obsessively researching the Umbrum while not realizing a thousand years have passed is a neat idea, except for the part where she mentions being a thousand years old. The writing is awkward and often confusing, the dialogue filled with pointless back and forths. I'm not sure the concept outweighs the execution.
Vaguely Recommended
Anon:
Performance Review by getmeouttahere
Genre: Slice of Life
There's a reason why Derpy's been slipping on her mail route lately...
The main problem with this is that it's very telly, but it's also got some good comedic timing and is a pretty good look into Derpy's character, even if it gets a little pity-poor-Derpy now and then. I mean, even the Romance tag isn't an issue: it's all one-sided, and Derpy's inevitable attraction to the weird monkey-thing is actually based on something incredibly precious. I guess what I'm saying is, you could do far worse than read this story.
Recommended If You Like AiEs
Self-Insert:
Always Here by anonpencil
Reading by Nante
He's got a bit of an accent, and, more pertinently, a strange cadence to how he speaks, which meant I needed to expend a bit more focus. I might have also had the volume down too low, but he's actually got good projection. I'd put him on the list for sure, but this is his only reading, and he hasn't done anything in the last year, so who knows what's going on there.
Genre: 2P/PoE/Psychological
The outside world can be frightening, but at least you have Twilight Sparkle to make you feel safe.
I will always, always, always support good depictions of mental illness. As it turns out, that's all you need to turn the typical "coming home to a pony" setup into something actually worth reading. Like, I'm not even sure Twilight Sparkle is actually present in this story; I've written similar things myself. But yeah, this is pretty great, absolutely worth it for the experience of agoraphobia, second-person or not. (I think it qualifies as a self-insert by virtue of turning all the "I"s into "you"s, but I'm not evaluating these on how well the tags are used.) Do check it out.
Recommended
Wow, mostly not recommendeds. Are you turning into Titanium Dragon?!
Nightmarish Heroine did not age well, and I say this as the actual author. I wrote it just barely a year into my college's writing program, when I still hadn't figured out Coco as a character and had a severe exposition problem on top of that. (Plus, I wrote it when "Nightmarity" was in vogue as a fandom term.) I thought the concept alone could solve these problems, but I feel I've grown past that as an author--just having a "clever idea" doesn't automatically make something a good story. So seeing it in the "Not Recommended" pile just reminds me how far I've come in four years.
Absolutely wonderful choices for aie and self inserts. Getmeouttahere is easily a pinnacle when it comes to anon based writing. And anonpencil is one of the best writers that I know. You could do way worse in the anon genre just like you said. For example you could read flutterp-. I mean uh
4912888
Sometimes, stuff sucks. :B Sometimes, stuff sucks so much that the only good stories are AiEs and second-person self-inserts. Life is strange.
4912900
That's actually good to hear. :)
Always Here is 100% a self-insert, to be honest. And you hit spot on with what I was doing with Twilight. I still find it interesting that, in that story, people see her as a positive influence. I would... disagree.
4913207
Comfort is important, but falling into continual cycles of pure safety is not helpful. :)