Story Reviews » SA Round 134 · 2:24am Aug 13th, 2018
Seattle's Angels is a group that promotes good stories with low views. You can find us here.
Matthew trotted around the compound, very very lost. He was looking for a specific room, Room 4476. There was no 4476. There was Room 4475, a stairway to Tartarus, and then Room 4477.
This was an issue. Room 4476 was where he had to turn in reviews. Where if he didn’t… well, he didn’t even want to think about that outcome.
It was at this moment that Cynewulf came around the corner. And when Matthew decided to stop poorly narrating everything, and swap into dialogue.
“Hey, hey Cyne!” he shouted to her.
“Yeah? What’s up?” she asked.
“Any idea where Room 4476 is?”
“Uhh… yeah. It’s eight floors down. Didn’t you pay attention to the directions?”
“Well… no… but I thought I could just follow the numbering!” Matthew cried.
“Well, you better get down there. And soon. Ferret looks about ready to start choppin’ heads.”
ROUND 134
To some ponies, I’m a normal archaeologist who spends her days playing in the dirt. To others, I’m a daring adventurer. When new access to yak territories yields a list of archaeological gold mines and one of them is in the Dragonlands? I have to be both.
Daring Do stories are very hit and miss. It’s just hard to craft a good narrative with the character that doesn’t trod over well worn ground. I blame Indiana Jones for so capturing the pulp-concept that anything vaguely similar must strive by default against its legacy (or eagerly jump in and ride the momentum!)
This story is a bit of both. Daring Do is an adventurer, but she’s also an archaeologist. A real archaeologist, one who does the actual hard work of archaeology. That sort of thing, if you’re curious, doesn’t really involve a lot of high speed chases. But adventuring and book-writing pays for expeditions, and at a dig in the dragon-owned badlands, Daring Do finds that her quest for a lost Yak outpost unveils something startling. I was pleasantly surprised by the twist to this story, and I’m hoping you will be as well.
What happens when Daring Do isn’t blowing up ancient temples, or stopping world-ending, doomsday-weapon using baddies? Well, she digs like an actual archaeologist. The only difference, however, is that she doesn’t need to grovel for grants, she can fund it herself due to her book series.
And so, she’s in the Dragonlands, digging for a lost outpost. Meanwhile, the translators are hammering away at ancient tablets. Like a normal archaeologist. And that’s quite a bit of what makes this so good. It’s not forced into an adventure, it’s not the same old Indiana Jones movie with a new skin, it’s actual work. The twist at the end? Well, all I can say is it was masterfully done.
Equestria was not always the land of peace and plenty that it is today. Once, long ago, the land was filled with dangerous beasts and terrible monsters. But you’d be hard pressed to realize this from the history books, for records from those times are few and far between. In fact Equestria’s historical records are littered with gaps and spaces. Entire eras and civilizations lost to history, known of by only a few ponies.
Daring Do is one of those few.
She has learned that lies in those historical gaps; dead empires, extinct species, and monsters of immense power. More than that, she has learned that not all of those ancient monsters are dead and buried.
Some persist even to this day.
And some hide in plain sight.
Are you noticing a theme? There’s a theme here. Daring Do!
A cursory glance at our own history will reveal to you very shortly that historical patterns both 1.) repeat, and 2.) are generally characterized by their unpleasantness. Look into your own local history, and you’ll find that much of it leaves you feeling glum at best. The story we’ve written over and over differs only in the words; the theme’s the same.
To that end, this is a story about Daring Do’s very personal relationship to history. While at first I suspected it would be merely a story about her reflections on the gaps that crop up in our records (peek beneath the hood and we know precious little about some whole eras), this story quickly sets itself on a collision course with some raw truths about how societies rise and fall.
Ever heard the term ‘History is written by the victors?’ I don’t know who first came up with it, but they had the right idea.
Honestly, I was expecting a story about discovering lost cultures, and a plethora of world building. A story that filled in the time before the Unification, before Equestria. And, in a twisted way, that’s what I got.
This story is about Daring discovering some truths, truths that were buried with their cultures long ago. Truths about why they were buried, and why Equestria wasn’t.
When the Bearers go forth on missions, somepony has to cover for their day jobs. In Twilight's case, this means the palace assigns a temporary to the tree, and that pony keeps the library running to government standards. The usual problems come in when Twilight gets back and finds the results aren't up to hers.
The disaster starts when she learns the latest hire has Standards of her own.
There's nothing a compulsive reorganizer hates so much as being compulsively reorganized.
Confronting oneself is always a tricky affair. We’re made up mostly of foibles and failures, and beyond that we can be rather annoying. But having all of your absolute worst characteristics reflected back at you can be almost literally maddening. Pray you never encounter it.
Unfortunately, in this story Twilight will have to. When she’s off on an adventure or errand of some sort, someone has to take care of the library--and it can’t always be Spike! The archivist sent from Canterlot to look after her library for days at a time is ambitious to say the least, which apparently no idea who usually runs Golden Oaks and even less desire to know. What she does know, however, is that whoever lives in this government-supplied tree is a terrible librarian and that their system needs to be completely redone.
Twilight is not exactly thrilled. And, along the way, she almost learns something.
You ever have that thing, where if it’s any different you need to change it. It has to be your way. Basically, OCD. You’d be lying if you said no. For me it’s a certain light switch. For Twilight? Her library.
Twilight has a day job, a librarian. But sometimes, she can’t always be there, she’s off on some world-saving adventure with her friends... and Spike. So somepony else has to take care of the library.
Too bad said somepony doesn’t understand true library perfection. Said somepony doesn’t how to organize anything. How the library operates. And said somepony… needs replacing.
STORY 4
Death of the Author, by RB_
Twilight Velvet is ready to retire, with her last book due to hit shelves in just a couple of days. Unfortunately, not everypony is as happy with the ending as she is.
Especially not the main character.
A conceit that I find interesting, perhaps arrogantly, because it’s “about me”, is that of a writer’s writing being real, or at least influencing the material world in some way. It’s a worn trope by now, but there’s a reason why its worn. For someone who writes, the idea can be alternatively appealing or horrifying. For those who read or consume media in a variety of forms, the reaction is almost as intimate.
If the characters we loved were born fresh into our world, wouldn’t that be grand? Maybe. But wouldn’t that also be a bit… well, daunting? Think about what else might come through from that book or show you like. Think about it.
I’ll also say that this story is, beneath the horror, truly a conceit in the Talking-about-Donne-way. It is a metaphor spun out into an entire story, and when you look back afterwards and view it in that light, it works rather well as one. When something leaves the printing press, it’s over. It exists independently from you now, and anyone who has published anything on this site knows the post-partum-like feeling of incompleteness and fear that accompanies even the most successful story’s publication.
The first thing I thought of was the ‘Death of the Author’ trope. It’s not that. At least, not really.
Something of this genre is incredibly hard to pull off effectively. It seems to either drag on forever, or be over too fast. Too obvious, or never quite get you there. But this handles the balance wonderfully. So wonderfully, in fact, it gets me thinking… What would it be like to meet our fictional characters? Probably horrifying, honestly. To know that what you write has the power to change destiny, change everything that makes them them]. I’d be terrified. But what if they want a change? What if, say, Rainbow Dash from Austraeoh wanted to stay with Gold Petals? Well, insert the story-wide metaphor here.
And that line of thinking? That’s what makes this story so very special.
Matthew burst into the room, panting from his long trip, a stack of paper in his outstretched hand.
“You’re late,” Ferret said. “I don’t like it when you’re late.” She leaned in. “There are consequences for being late.”
“I’m not late! I swear!” Matthew squeaked out. “I had another 2 seconds!”
“Hmph. At least you did it. I guess we can let it slide this time-” She pointed her claw at his face. “but no telling what will happen if you pull this again. Now take a seat while we wait for Cynewulf.”
“O-okay...”
Feel free to visit our group for more information and events, and to offer some recommendations for future rounds. See you all next time!
The Review Must Go On- Seattle Edition plays.
And now I can suspect that the Seattle's Angels has an approximately 2-month pipeline, because Matthew's comment on my story appeared about that long ago. For some reason, I'm not very surprised that my story got featured after that.
Hilariously, in a sad sort of way, the story formed around that premise of the ending (guided by the two prompts I had (big props to FanOfMostEverything for writing the inspiring story)), but I almost didn't remember to integrate that last bit properly. I suppose that suggests that the wrapper might stand on its own.
4919355
Heehee.
So, secretly, there’s no pipeline or anything. It’s all based on volunteering for positions, then suggestions of what to feature. Though it is true I like to wait at least 2 months. And if anyone asks, particularly Ferret, just run away, I didn’t tell you this!
Some very interesting choices this time around.