Fic recs, August 31st: Top Ten of 2022 edition! · 10:16pm Aug 31st, 2023
Haha, yeah, so 2022 c_c;; Turns out if I have not one but two stories in a blog that are over 100k, it takes me more than half the year to finish reading them now! That's no fun!
So hopefully I don't do this again next year. Considering there's now only four more months to read and review things before I start the next one of these. >_< Here's the layout for those who've forgotten:
Title of Top Ten fic
List of recommendations from Also Liked list, underlining those I’ve reviewed previously
Commentary on the selection
Title and author of fic selected from Also Liked, like usual
Genre like usual
Review like usual
Recommendation like usual
H: 6 R: 3 C: 1 V: 0 N: 0
Top Ten: All Teeth by Regidar
Who Would Leave Their Son Out in the Sun?; Options; Extending the Olive Branch; Bad Thoughts
Absolutely no connections between any of these that I can see! Great start!
(We Need) A Forest Fire by themoontonite
Genre: Poetry/Shipping
For once, I actually did what a story's description asked and read the Google Docs version first. And the best part about that is that it really reads much more like poetry, rather than just very poetic but short prose. The downside is I didn't realize both halves of it were there until I read the comments. <_< But that being said, the language use here is excellent. The thing I have a problem with is it's princest. I mean, it seems to me that they used to both be regular ponies, not related, who were in love, and then suddenly, boom, princesses. But that "not related" part is not clear, especially when they still use the word 'sister' to describe each other? And that really grosses me out, I'm sorry. Nothing quite like seeing something you dislike done well.
Recommended Only If You're Not Bothered by Incestuous Relationships
Top Ten: Carry Me Home by PropMaster
Number One Assistant; On Lonely Nights; Burn Out Our Innocence; Spike Snuggles Everypony; Spike's Little Sweet Hearts; Growing Down; Blonde Moments
Tons of Spike shipping! Most of it gross! Awesome.
Fisting Festival by Hivemind
Genre: Sexual Comedy
Twilight has some reservations about what Spike does in his free time.
So of course, I pick the one about fisting. >.> I've gotta say, though, this is exactly the kind of sex comedy I'm always trying to write, and it's probably better than anything I've ever done. Best of all, it involves Spike in precisely the right way: he's an innocent, while all the comedy comes from Twilight misunderstanding what's going on. Well, and also how each of her friends gets involved in trying to 'save' Spike from imminent fisting. Is it intensely juvenile? What do you think? Seriously, who do you think you're talking to right now? Love it. Highly Recommended If You Like Sex Comedies.
Recommended
Top Ten: Harpflank and Sweets by Arcainum
Harpflank and Sweets: Forced Introspection; Harpflank and Sweets: Season 1; Harpflank and Sweets: The Lost Episodes; Harpflank and Sweets: Interval; Sort of Harpflank and Sweets but Not Really: Tradition; Harpflank and Sweets: International Edition; Sweetflank and Harps
Zero surprise that it's all H&S sequels and sidefics.
Harpflank and Sweets: A Very Special Episode by Cold in Gardez
Genre: Comedy
It's time for Harpflank and Sweets to help us learn a few very important lessons.
You know exactly what you're getting into with this one, and it's great. :) The best part is, there are not one, but three lessons to be learned in this Very Special Episode! And none of them is taught well! The concept is further satirized by things just sort of happening to the characters that were not true before the episode aired. Great stuff.
Recommended
Top Ten: In Birdsong by themoontonite
A Stitch (Or Nine) Saves Thine; Written in Synthetic Blood; Blessed Void; Migraines; Everybody Knows; One Empty Desk; Love Is a Language
Lots of Dark fics, which look pretty artistic. Lots of those new(ish) guard, highly regarded authors, too.
Womb by mushroompone
Genre: Dark EQG
We must have shared a womb once.
So look at that title. The description. The spoiler. I figured this would be what I thought it was, and the execution would be the clincher. And I was right… until I found out it was a metaphor. This is goddamn fantastic.
Highly Recommended
Top Ten: Midnight Bloo by Impossible Numbers
Sorry (Seems to Be the Hardest Word); A Child of Kindness and Laughter; Not a Laughing Matter; How Luna Adopted a Hatchling (Against Her Will); Memoirs of a Guard; The Monster of Hearths Warming; In Amber Clad; Those Forty Years
Only one in the Also Liked, so I took Similar as well. Lots of things tagged Drama and Luna!
The Gentle Nights: Audience of One by PaulAsaran
Genre: Romance/Drama
Luna is haunted by a past she can't outrun. Octavia wants to live as a high-class pony in Canterlot. Circumstance will bring them together.
Hey, remember when I read a short story by PaulAsaran shipping Luna and Octavia? Yeah, it was to get the sneak-peek at this much more expanded version. And what a difference a hundred thousand words makes! The Gentle Nights was good, but Audience of One demonstrates how to develop not just a satisfying relationship but a deeper, more meaningful story with just, y'know, a bit more work. And it's really good.
Like, the romance springs naturally out of friendship and some shared trauma, but I feel like I've gone over that once already, so let's talk about the rest of this. Like, the characters are all great. Celestia and Vinyl Scratch (who has a phenomenal "real" name) really stand out as side characters, the latter in particular written in a way that runs counter to most fandom depictions while also lovingly appreciating them. And oh boy, this has some good Celestia angst. :D Octavia is a deep and nuanced character herself, her passel of would-be musician friends are all severely memorable, and even though her family shows up for but a couple of scenes near the end, her sister in particular is built up in a most remarkable way throughout the story, so that by the time we see her, we can really appreciate how much she's changed since they were kids.
I have to give some particular credit for the storyline involving Parish Nadermane (I think he's normally called Harpo in fanon? He's one of her troupe from the Gala.) He spends most of the story being a lovesick foal, constantly flirting with Octavia, who puts up with it even though she's not interested. And while they both seem to understand that at first, there's a sense as the banter continues that maybe he doesn't understand, and it's clearly annoying Octavia. And, remarkably for fanfiction, the narrative actually addresses this! Octavia confronts him, explosively, and while he runs off with his tail between his legs, that is enough for him to finally get the message. Should it have been necessary? Well, no, but it's just so rare to see a story where a woman confronts a man over unwanted advances and they're still able to mend their friendship afterward. It stuck in my mind!
Speaking of sticking in my mind, I want to talk about the one thing I took notes on: canon episodes. (It really does say something when I feel like I don't need to take notes on a long story!) This starts off right after Best Night Ever, and we're treated to Luna Eclipsed in great detail, not to mention Sweet and Elite, because Octavia appeared at the Canterlot Garden Party. While at first, I was a tad dismayed at how much "actual episode" we were presented with, there's a lot of effort put into not just setting the scene, but doing it in a way that you just generally don't see. PaulAsaran took stock of common fandom conceptions and assumptions and said, okay, let's try something different, and it all works incredibly well. Not to mention, any time the camera would have cut away from the main characters of this story, he uses the opportunity to have the conversation continue or shift topic to things that would have been outside the purview of the episode. Really good use of canon, is my point.
I'm not sure there's much more I can add without repeating myself! Technically, this is flawless: the writing, the pacing, you name it, it's great. This story uses "the Nightmare is separate from Luna" in a completely new and ultimately convincing way. The climax is kind of out of tone with the rest of the story, but it's epic and fully earned because it's built toward so holistically. By the time you get there, it's like, yeah, of course it's time to have a goofy battle with the villain, why not? (Thank goodness they didn't win by harnessing the power of love, y'know?) I just can't praise this story highly enough. Shame about using the T-word though. :V
Highly Recommended
Top Ten: Mythic Dawn by MagnetBolt
Second Sunrise; Advanced Preparations; A Letter for My Lover, and One for Myself; Transmission Spectrum; Three Dates and a Prune; The Life Aphotic; Sunset Shimmer in the Land of Enchantment
Quite a bit of RariTwi in there. I'm really miffed the sequel isn't done, though, I'd read that in a heartbeat!
Sleepless Knights by R5h
Genre: EQG Romance
Rarity has been having nightmares. Twilight isn't about to let her suffer alone.
Sometimes, it's really weird having tags on a story. It's often hard to create plot twists, or at least hide them, when a reader has a roadmap to the end. In this case, it really had me wondering at where the hell a romance was going to come from, given what Twilight does in the early parts. But that was addressed. And it was, in fact, addressed well. So that by the time the relationship was starting to show itself in the narrative, I was all for it. That's no small feat. And there's a whole ton of stuff to love in this piece, from what they get up to in their first dream together to the way the penultimate chapter deals with self-care and forgiveness. The longer I read this, the more thoroughly I was impressed. It's such a standout in the field of RariTwi's, not to mention fanfic as a whole.
Highly Recommended
Top Ten: The Needle by RamblingWriter
Cold Wind Blowing; Every Roadside Inn; Horror at Dusk; Seraphim; Passages; Urban Wilds; Not a Word
Lots of horror stories. And RamblingWriter's got himself a fairly loyal contingent of readers, to boot! :)
Pneuma by Flashgen
Genre: Epistolary Horror
The discovery of a journal written in a strange language begins a quest to discover the truth: Just what is Pneuma?
We've all likely seen stories like this before: A scholar with insatiable curiosity, writing a journal about their archaeological expedition to uncover some kind of eldritch horror based off the obscure ramblings of a mysterious translated tome. And yet, it's still possible to do well, and if there's anything Flashgen is good at, it's doing horror well. While I can't say this is the scariest story — at least in part because the horror really only happens right at the end — it still remains a solid concept, executed with panache and skill. Definitely read it!
Highly Recommended
Top Ten: The Only Tree in the Forest by Hap
A Whisper from the Void; The First Train Outta Here; Sister Solstice; I'm With You; Queen of Storms; The Immortal Dream; Baby, You're Out of Time
The site clearly has no idea what to make of this. They're all either dramas or romance. And a couple Flurry Heart stories, too.
Galley Alley by The Red Parade
Genre: Romance
Did you hear, there's a concert happening in the alley this weekend.
So this really surprised me. I was going to review it like an anthology, but the deeper in I got, the more I realized what, exactly, this is. It's right there in the title: These five pieces, written as independent works, tell the story of a particular location in one city, from the perspectives of various ponies who live, work and play in it. Interestingly, it was the third chapter, which arguably is the weakest stand-alone story, that really made me realize this, as it takes place at the same time as the second one. Damnably clever, but that's The Red Parade for you. The character work is stellar, too, and quite often, I was reminded of the best entries of the OC SlamJam. (I like how many are otherwise unnamed background ponies, too.) So if you're looking for pride — from shy lesbians to a polycule — and want it to be positive? You will find it here, wrapped around the story of an alley awaiting a concert.
Highly Recommended
Top Ten: Playing House by Krickis
Empty Sky; Piece by Piece; The Open Road; Acts of Love; In Pieces; Breaking the Ice; Finding Home
We all know how this one works.
Thicker Than Water by Krickis
Sequel to Playing House
Genre: EQG Drama/Tragic Romance
On tour with Bitchette as their manager, Fluttershy spends her days with alcohol and her nights with random women. Anything to keep herself busy.So this is a story about a shipper loudly self-flagellatingWhen last we left the human world of Who We Become, Sunset Shimmer had vanished through the mirror portal, leaving behind a distraught Fluttershy and a pissed-off Rainbow Dash. Naturally, they started a punk band. This piece picks up after a decent time skip, when Bitchette, while not 'big, per se, have definitely made it and are touring the country. And I have to say, the first quarter or so of this story really took me back to my days in college, when I was really naive and thought I wanted to be in a band.
But this isn't a story about mishaps and love on the punk road, ohhh no! This is about an older,.wiser, slightly more confident and way more broken Fluttershy trying desperately to avoid thinking about the mistakes and mishaps that have haunted her since Playing House. Like, it's clear that story traumatized the hell out of her, and she is coping with it in all the worst possible ways, whe being smothered by her self-appointed sister and protector, Rainbow Dash. Rainbow in this story is still as hot-headed and immature as one might expect, but she actually spends the time trying to grow as a person while wrestling with frontwoman stardom and trying not to smother her adoptive sister.
And that's just the tip of the character iceberg! This has a whole load of familiar faces, like Flash Sentry, and makes great use of a number of show antagonists, most especially Gilda. Good lord, is she written well! Not to mention Krickis put her in a great ship. :) On that note, yes, there's a lot of shipping in this piece, most of it centered around Fluttershy and her inability to let go of the past.
And that's where I need to state my one real criticism for Thicker Than Blood: it's far from my favorite installment of WWB, because while it hardly lacks for drama, I didn't 1uite feel satisfied with most of it. In fact, it wasn't till the penultimate (full) chapter that this really hits any sort of 'wow' factor, though that payoff was certainly worth it for me. But the thing many may find hard to deal with is that this is just really depressing, and even if all.of Fluttershy's problems aren't her own fault, she's still utterly adept at making them worse. It's grim, maybe even gritty, and quite realistic. I in fact cannot be fully objective about it because the final act hit so close to events taking place in my life while I was reading the story! Can't stress just how close to home this was.
And yet, in the end, this is really well put together. The first act sets up Fluttershy's downfalls in what follows, the characters grow and change change despite there being few twists or big reveals, and there's even a major driving event that seems to be dropped without fanfare only to return in a big way right at the very end. It never hits the lows of Finding Home, and even that was a good story despite its shortcomings. And there's honestly a ton more I want to talk about but won't because spoilers. Just be warned this consists of a lot of clouds and very few silver linings, until they're needed most.
Highly Recommended
Top Ten: Sunrise by DinkleDash
Twilight Sparkle Makes a Cup of Tea; The More Things Change; Bridging Words; A Different Breed; The Sun Shines High, and Alone; Miss Princess; Unrequited
This was another with no Also Liked. Lots of Sad Celestia fics, though!
Forbidden Melodies by Rego
Genre: Drama
Why would Celestia forbid playing of the national anthem?
I really, really adore stories where Equestrian history is explored through music. :) This is an excellent example thereof. We've got an old, familiar song, a central mystery based around Celestia's reaction to it, and… Octavia married to a random batpony? Okay, not usually part of the deal, but he was a pretty good character, and the story has the decency to use "nocturne" as the tribal name, so points for that. It could have used another pass for typos, but that's really the only knock against it. This is good musical drama, something a lot of authors have attempted over the years but few have pulled off!
Recommended
How many times must I edit that fic before the typos are all gone?!
I'm off to beg my current editor to look over it. I'm always so embarrassed when I get a review on it and folks are still finding errors that I just don't see.
Either way, thanks for saying it's one of your favorite reads from last year.Thanks for reading and recommending it. I'm vehemently against using "Thestral" as their species name, and that was before all of the JKR stuff went down. It's actually used an insult in another fic of mine. Bat ponies are cute fluffy ponies with bat wings, not half dragon zombie equines. Glad you enjoyed it!Interesting. "Thicker Than Water" is one of my favorite WWB fics, and the one I think is maybe the best put together of the stuff you've read. The only one I like more (and the only one better put together) is "Acts of Love". Different strokes and all that, but I'm curious as to why this felt unsatisfying to you. I could speculate that it's because of Shy's consistent inability to move on, but also like... idk if that's the reason, but I do have a lot of thoughts with that common complaint people have lmao
Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the story, despite not jiving with it perfectly. It is, ultimately, the type of story I want to tell more than any other story in the WWB series, for whatever that matters!
5744689
Typos just spontaneously appear once a month in stories.
Ah, the review is finally out! And it is immensely gratifying. I shall preen for a bit. It's funny, because I look back at that story and always think "Eh, it could have been better." But whenever I sit down and re-read it (which I'll have to do again before too long for the re-pub), then I can only think, "Man, I wrote this. Still could have been better, but I wrote this."
I was gonna read that Krickis review but then stopped because "Ack, no, I've spoiled myself enough on that series already!" I'll get to it eventually, of that I am certain.
Only one of these I've read aside from the obvious is Forbidden Melodies, which I actually reviewed twice on request. Definitely backing that recommendation.
5744697
It's still my top favorite on the site. I go back and reread it myself often. If I hadn't been lost in beating myself up with an imaginary stick after seeing I was still suffering from typos after PP's review, I would've remembered to mention it's an honor to be on the same list as you, Paul. Seeing simple editing fails sends me into a death spiral of self-loathing.
I'm not sure If I've said this yet publicly, but The Gentle Nights: Audience of One is one of the fics that helped me solidify getting back into the writing game after my five year hiatus. I reread it after I came back and then dove right into my current project.
So yeah, anyone seeing this? If you haven't read this masterpeice, I beg of you, read it. It is one of my main inspirations for writing on this site.
5744695
🎶99 typos are there in the fic,
99 typos are there.
Take one down,
Stamp it all down,
1,038 Typos are there in the fic!🎶
Hey, I've read and liked "Pneuma." Agreed, it's not Flashgen's best, but it's still good.
Seems like the ratings skewed a lot higher than they normally do for these best of columns. That's pretty impressive.
5744689
as everypony knows, the Stral is a horrific demon pony what comes to your house at night and steals your winegums :B
5744692
There's definitely an element of watching someone spiral around a drain long enough to get an idea. Like, this is the kind of story that induces a sort of cherophobia in me. Yeah, sure, Fluttershy's got a new special somehuman, but who cares, clearly something is going to fuck that up like the last two!
Mainly though, I feel like the previous WWB entries are a lot more bombastic when it comes to dropping drama and whipping up twist reveals. Outside of two chapters in this one, it was on a pretty even keel. And that's not a bad thing, because the continual close quarters the band were shacked up in might have turned major drama bombs into their own sort of "seen this already" drain-spiralling.
I dunno, I am hard to please. :B But it's not like I hated it or anything lol
5744703
lucky me, I've got half of this year's slate right here! XD
5744689
That's not quite what this is, but it's admittedly a little convoluted. PP has taken her top 10 faves of stories reviewed last year, then looked at the "also liked" feature to pick another story from each that she's never read before to review. So that's how she got to yours from "Sunrise." Still, a "Recommended" rating is a nice thing to get.
The only one I've read of these is Womb. Which is so short that if anyone hasn't read this then they should do so right now, before even writing their own comment here. It's that good.
5744706
Fixed it in the original reply. I need to stop checking Fimfiction immediately after waking up.
Thanks for clearing that up. I'm just making all sort of mistakes today.
5744714
good morning! :)
Wow, for some reason The Gentle Nights has never hit my radar. Adding it now, and moving it up the list! It sounds like something I'd really enjoy.
5744689
Fun fact: I thought MLP fandom had somehow come up with the name "thestral" because I never read that far in the HP series. I used it only once, in a draft of a chapter, and PP lost her shit while editing it.
So... Flederkleinespferd it is!
5744757
You owe it to yourself. Do eet.
5744758
I thought it was a mythological name and I looked it up when I read it. Saw the pictures and was repulsed immediately. Looked more like zombie hippogriffs to me. Now that HP is a no-go, I can more easily convince folks to avoid the name.
Thanks for the Highly Recommended status! I was certainly hoping you might review Sleepless Knights after the comments you left on it, and I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! I'm still quite fond of the story myself, and how well it turned out given the tight time constraints I wrote it in.
5744758
ah yes, the FKPs :V
5744761
yeah, sorry it took so long lol XD well done!
I am glad that you enjoyed Pneuma. It holds a special place to me because it was the first Quills and Sofas speedwriting fic where I did really well in the contest. It also has its own universe in QnS. Seer wrote a sequel to it for an Expanding Universe contest, Onkalo. Then mushroom wrote an expansion to Onkalo for another Expanding Universe contest, Narcissa. And then Seer wrote an expansion for another story of mine in an Expanding Universe contest, which also includes reference to Pneuma.
It makes me want to explore writing more stories that have a repeating antagonist and different protagonists. Comparative Mythology ends with that sort of being the case, but the framing lessens the impact I think.
I'm so glad you stumbled upon Womb! I'm always happy when it 'gets' another reader lol. It's funny to think that such a tiny, simple story has become one of my most well-known, but I'm certainly pleased it found its audience :) thank you for the recommendation, and I hope I didn't scare you off my other fics!
5744698
Yes, I totally waited 20+ hours to respond just so I would have a chance to make this video to do it.
5744709
I tried. I guess it was my turn to bounce off the fic everyone raved about.
5744861
Oh, yeah, that feeling. I had it with The Keepers of Discord, I think.