Fic recs, April 25th! · 2:03pm Apr 25th, 2021
Scribbler's newest reading is KenSES64's AK Yearling Tries to Write a Sex Scene, with Agent0Fluffy, Neighrator Pony, Quill N Lead and Animelodie!
Hey, did you know SPark has made some zines? Go check them out!
Local coolguy funguy Coyote de la Mancha now has a patreon! Go support it!
HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS jakkid166's first ponyfic is currently being animated! Team Fortress SFM is the perfect medium to depict it in. :D Oh god, it's great, go watch it.
Aquaman has written an excellent blog that everyone should read if they haven't already.
Wow, that was a lot of news all at once! :O Haven't had that much to promote in a while! Anyway, this is just the standard audiobook catchup blog, next one's gonna be prequels to stories in the next edition I'm doing. :B
H: 1 R: 3 C: 4 V: 1 N: 1
Ponyville Downhill Derby by Seral
Reading by Sphere Heart
Good volume, excellent mic quality, solid pacing and a strong delivery! I had a fantastic first impression here, even if there were a bit more intro than I liked. I will say, they have vocal tics similar to BigAsh, and don't always edit out retakes, but "like BigAsh but better" is honestly a really good spot to be in. To the list!
Genre: Racing Action/Tragedy
It was supposed to be my last race before I moved to the finals.
I don't know that I've ever seen a fic based on the derby racing episode before. Possibly it was too boring to spawn any good ideas. But I got the sense that the author maybe has done derby races themselves. A lot of the detail and jargon used seems like it would only come from first-hand experience. That said, the bulk of the story is long descriptions of racing, which hit me about as well as flight fics do, for the same reasons. I mean, the author's good at it, I'm just not that into it. Then we finish with a crash — like the reader, I found the tags on this story incongruous with its subject and thus intriguing, though there's only one direction they can point in — and our narrator surviving it, mostly, kind of. And that's basically it? So I wonder what the point was, outside of perhaps showing off the author's knowledge of the subject, since that episode would have given them a reason they otherwise wouldn't have had. It's okay.
Recommended If You Like Reading About Racing
One Tenth-Bit by Estee
Reading by Scribbler, et. al.
Genre: Drama
It's all been a misunderstanding. Surely the officer will recognize that once Rarity explains everything to him.
This reading actually made me appreciate Estee's writing ability more. There's a cadence to the words that becomes much more apparent when read by someone like Scribbler, who's so good at it. And this is from 2013! Estee's never lost it. Nor been so timely with something that's always been true. This story knows exactly what it is about, for all that it often dances around the subject of abuse of power, much as mainstream discourse always has. It knows where the tragedy lies. It knows why people never change. It knows that, once a police officer gets it in their mind that you have committed a crime, they will see, hear and believe only through a lens that tells them you are a criminal, and there will be nothing you can do to dissuade them of the idea. Above all else, this story knows that the real tragedy is left for regular people who don't have princess friends to protect them.
Highly Recommended
Forgive and Forget by Mr. Grimm
Reading by Clever Hooves and Maybe Hawthorn
Ooh, he's got a really deep, smooth voice. :D And he was impressively good as both Snips and Snails! I have to say, he's actually a little quiet when reading placidly, but there's no way I'm going to pass him up, he's too good.
Genre: Episode Followup
After everything Trixie did, there's no way ponies will ever want to see her again.
I recall, after Magic Duel aired, a lot of fans seemed not to get it. I've seen tons of "why didn't she just X?" stories and posts that completely miss the part where she's clearly losing her damn mind due to the amulet's corruption. This story actually addresses those misconceptions head-on, using the lack of logic in Trixie's actions as the basis for her own self-loathing. Because, y'know, self-doubts are rarely ever logical. This somehow, inexplicably, ends up being the one "poor, pathetic Trixie" fic where I was actually like, "Aww, poor Trixie :(" Heartwarming by the end, it's a really good read. :)
Recommended
Page Two by Trick Question
Reading by Scribbler, VladiVoices and Shelly Kitten
Genre: Dark/Historical
In the midst of a losing war against Tirek, Princess Celestia sends her sister a strange missive.
This is a very short, very strange story whose strangeness pays off big at the end. I just found myself in baffled wonderment at the "Luna Really Cares About Paper Comedy Half-Hour" that takes up most of the piece. She gives us every detail imaginable about this scroll she's just gotten, such that it actually dampens the tension. The ominous "wait for the second page" produces even more questions when it finally shows up with significantly less information to impart. But then the reveal comes, and it all makes sense. This almost needs a Horror tag, but it's more just a visceral reaction to the circumstances and what Celestia's been driven to. Really unusual fic!
Recommended
Better than art by Killbles
Reading (part 1) by Khaos Sparkz
He's a little quiet, but he has good pacing and a pleasant accent. I'll probably keep going with him.
Genre: Romantic Comedy?
And Soarin had thought Surprise was going to be the only unpleasant mare at the art show...
Did you ever just… not want to read a story? The reading is in two parts where the story itself is not, but even still, I DNF'd the fuck out of there when the Holocaust was mentioned. c.c The fucking Holocaust! Point is, I think this is SoarinDash, and y'all know how I feel about that. (I had really been hoping it would be Soarin/Surprise shipping. That would have been original!) But more to the point, the humor is very crass and heteronormative "Men are from Mars" bullshit, if the above Holocaust reference wasn't an indicator all by itself. The plot seems to revolve around Rainbow Dash not wanting to get into a relationship or do anything sexual, and literally everyone around her flirting with her, hitting on her, asking her out, and getting punched for it. Surprise being a terrible thorn in Soarin's side was the only part that was actually funny. But there's nothing to recommend, and certainly nothing that made me want to keep reading.
Not Recommended
Princess Luna's First Night Home by naturalbornderpy
Reading by VisualPony
Genre: Comedy
She just wants to sleep. Celestia has other plans.
I don't know why this isn't tagged Comedy, it's quite funny. :D Just some Best Sister action, Celestia being overwhelmingly doting and Luna just trying to enjoy being back from exile because it means real sleep in a real bed. There are a couple spots where time is not really taken into account, but overall, I liked it.
Recommended for Fans of Best Sisters
Lavender Sheets by TAW
Mature: Sex
Reading by Limey reads
A little mumbly, and the intro is way louder than the reading, but otherwise good. That said, they've read either stories I already have read or clopfics, so I'm probably going to give them a pass.
Genre: Shippy Clop
Rarity has been looking for the right pony for ages, never realizing she was much closer than originally thought.
Wow, I thought TAW DFE'd ages ago. o.O I guess it was just a QTF misremembered on my part. Anyway, there's not much to say about this. The writing is excellent. The ending is unexpectedly hilarious. But it's just about two horses having sex. :/ So you'll know ahead of time if you want to read it or not.
Recommended for Clop Fans
Dramatic License by MythrilMoth
Reading by Scribbler, et. al.
Genre: Slice of Life
Daring Do drops by Rainbow Dash's place for a visit.
Unfortunately, this is basically just a couple ideas thrown onto the page together in a way that doesn't really gel into a story. Which, admittedly, wouldn't be necessarily a bad thing by itself, but I for one was far more interested in the opening bit where Daring reports on what's going on in Griffonstone than in the eventual moral of… "don't be sad because your favorite author embellishes her books that are accounts of her real-life adventures"? Is there even a takeaway to this that's applicable to everyday life? I'm just not sure what Moth was going for, and we'll never know for sure. :/
Vaguely Recommended
A Marriage of Inconvenience by Baal Bunny
Reading by VisualPony
Genre: Immortality Angst/Not Shipping!
Discord prepares for his marriage to Twilight. Kind of.
This makes a big splash at the outset by having Discord getting ready to be married to Twilight, only for her to come in and be like, "Why is there wedding?" After that, well, it turns into your average story where Discord is sad because Fluttershy died. If you've not read that kind of story before, you could do far worse than read this one, but if you have? It doesn't offer much that's new to the formula.
Recommended for Fans of Sad Discord Fics
Diary of a Time Looper by Kodeake
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Dark Epistolary Time Loop
Trapped in a single never-ending repeating day, the only things keeping Twilight sane are a journal preserved outside of time and… her friends…
It blows my mind that, with as many time loop fics as I've read, especially within recent memory, there are still ways to do the concept well. Even though it's almost always Twilight, even though they tend to go to the same places, you can still do a premise well if you're good enough. And admittedly, I don't know how much of this is good writing and how much is Scribbler's good reading/embellishments, but damn. If nothing else, this story demonstrates how not reveling in gore is far more effective for provoking horror! And it doesn't have a good ending — just check the content tags to see how dark it gets — but what an ending it does have! I should've been watching Kodeake a loooong time ago. Highly Recommended for Fans of Darkfics
Recommended
It's so nice to see Diary of a Time Looper getting attention again, given I wrote it two years ago now. It's gotten almost double the views since Scribbler's reading than it did the first month I published it. I also can't deny it feels good to get a provisional highly recommended from you, given the first fic of mine you reviewed got a not recommended. A nice marker of my progress.
The heat's on to get a non-provisional Highly Recommended now that you're following me.
Thank you for the fic reading review! I was so tickled to find out that one of my readings was reviewed. I also agree, that particular Trixie fic is the one that ends up where you do feel for Trixie. Maybe Hawthorne did an epic performance as the great and woeful Trixie and I couldn't have breathed life into Mr. Grimm's wonderful story without her. It is extremely gratifying to know that folks are listening...and they are listening with a critical ear (otherwise all that agonizing and editing are for naught).
5535694
I look forward to getting to the rest of your readings someday. :D