Fic recs, April 22nd: Jordan179 edition · 12:20am April 23rd
Once again, though a good bit late, I bring it upon myself to memorialize an author via reviews of their stories. Though this time, it's different, as I had no connection to Jordan179 and only learned of his passing (three years ago this month, coincidentally), from this post from last October. Thanks to alarajrogers for letting us know, and sorry it took me so long to get to it.
H: 1 R: 2 C: 2 V: 0 N: 0
The Nativity of Diamond Bell
Genre: Slice of Life
Rarity gives birth to her son.
Okay, this was not a good place to start, but then again, I really cannot tell what would be. Jordan's stories are confusingly laid out in terms of chronology; a list of stories of the "Shadowverse" on his homepage give us at least two before any are complete, while the first story he uploaded to the site is likewise incomplete. And this one doesn't even appear on the list? Reading through the comments, it's clear that there is a lot going on around all of this, and I fear I'm not going to be able to do any of it justice. I mean, something about this moment is clearly momentous enough to document, but I really couldn't tell you what. So, taken on its own merits, what do we have? A somewhat graphic depiction of a successful live birth with strong world-building elements and cameos sprinkled on top of it. And I guess a lot of the decisions, like renaming Rarity's parents, are fine for what they are. Really, my reaction is mostly one of disgust, because live birth, and also — even if you account for pony precociousness taking the "having a child at 14" element out of its real-world context — I really do not want to hear a single word about teenaged Rarity's teats! :') I don't think this is a story I could ascribe fetishism to, however, I think this is all done with earnest interest in how events play out. At least the writing is good?
Recommend Only If You Like AUs and Ponies Giving birth
I Guess It Doesn't Matter Any More
Genre: EQG Fantasy Horror
A trucker's nighttime run is interrupted by the sight of a strange girl with glowing eyes, out by herself in the rain.
Well! This went nowhere I expected. Which is to say it goes somewhere, and once we got there, I was somewhat disappointed to have recognized it. But I needn't have worried; Jordan had the sense to merely use the setting as trappings for a much deeper lore. What this story gives us is three things. First, a solid character in salt-of-the-earth protagonist Long Haul, who's just trying to do his trucking thing and also be a good person, goshdarnit. Second, extreme world-building. I'm talking a whole other US history for the EQG-verse. And though it's maybe a tad heavy-handed with the history, it's also a part of US history, fictional or otherwise, that's worth being heavy-handed about. (Though sillier is the equally heavy-handed moral at the end of chapter four.) Last but not least, we get a surprisingly intense life-or-death struggle that will spring upon you when you least expect it. Now, all of this was pretty great, but it is marred somewhat by frequent editing mistakes, which I was sorry to see. Still, I'm quite glad I took the opportunity to read this, whether it's connected to his other stories or not. Highly Recommended If You Don't Mind Editing Mistakes.
Recommended
Before Nightfall: Barely Rescued
Genre: Drama
With his parents gone, his grandparents aging, and one sister away in the big city, Big Macintosh is the only thing standing between his family and a bear.
So at first, I was disinclined to enjoy this story. It's very clearly one of those fics about Many Men Doing Manly Things, and while that's all well and good, I definitely did not need page after page detailing the honor and exploits of Big Mac's grandfather's crossbow in The War. But then something strange happened: the author showed his hand, at the end, and made me realize this story wasn't written for me, but perhaps for the sort of reader who wants to know the make, model and history of every firearm mentioned in a story. By the end, I felt like I had seen this author for who he really was, both as a writer and a person. He had, for instance, a very clear idea for just who and what Fluttershy is, not to spoil anything. His approach to world-building, to Ponyville and its inhabitants, was simply unique, driven, and very well considered. And even some things that I might disagree with -- say, perhaps, Cheerilee as Mac's foalhood crush -- are balanced out by other aspects that work quite well, like her full name. It's just little details like that that made this work. Well, and big ones, like the characterization of Big Mac's grandfather, whose story you can see concluding sometime in the near future without any further word. For all that I felt this maybe dragged a bit in the middle — and, yes, again it's riddled with editing mistakes, plus if you hate the Apple Family dialect being written phonetically, yew ain't gonna wanna touch this — but I think this might be one of the truest works I've ever read on this site, if that makes any sense. And that really means something to me.
Highly Recommended
Teacher Zero
Genre: World-Building/Episode Followup
Celestia reflects on what led her to almost losing her most faithful student to darkness.
At this point in the reviews, I have to say that the thing I admire most about Jordan is that he shipped Dislestia. :) Possibly also Twiluna! But his second-most admirable quality as a writer was his drive to world-build at any cost, which thus far has been represented nowhere better than in this story. Though I will admit that is perhaps to its detriment. This is a long inner monologue of Celestia dealing with the events of Lesson Zero, which ultimately leads to her thinking back over the plans and machinations she set in motion that led to this place. And, I'll be honest, as interesting as this all is, I wouldn't blame anyone for finding it dry. The mental dialogue especially suffers a bit from the aforementioned world-build-at-any-cost drive, and yet it's that very dedication that I find so fascinating. He didn't need to go this hard on the cosmic-scale stuff, but here we are! There likely aren't a whole lot of ideas here you haven't seen in some form or another before, but putting all of them together like this, making it fit and work and flow so naturally, is rather incredible. No, it doesn't make for the most riveting Celestiangst, but I don't regret reading this for a second. Not when every sentence feels steeped in the lore of a dozen longfics or more, and very well could be, and despite me never having read them, I'm following along with no issue. :) It's just so wonderfully indulgent.
Recommended
30 Seconds Over To-ki-rin
Genre: Historical Crossover/Military Action
I gotta be honest, this really isn't my kind of fiction, such that I had basically no idea what was going on at any point. The slang and jargon and technical stuff was all just way more than I could follow. That said, I was actually interested in what was going on, mostly just wanting to find out how this was related to any of his other stories. The main character, for instance, was heavily name-dropped in the previous story, but it was made clear that he lived over a thousand years ago. Why ponies got airplanes then? c_c For that matter, I have no idea how they would even fly them; I assumed this was an anthro AU until the mention of a "left hind" that came really late in the story. Ultimately, there's an explanation, and it makes sense, but it also comes entirely in the author's note. Not great, but also better than trying to mash it into the story itself. So, not the highest note to go out of this review on, but I'm still definitely interested in reading more of his work in the future.
Recommended for Fans of Military Fiction
Death is just going to change so hard in our generation. It's such a strange feeling to learn of it months or years after the fact.
I wasn't personally familiar with Jordan, but I think I knew of their works. They just seem so vaguely familiar that I'm certain I've read something of theirs, I'm just not sure what.
I deeply miss Jordan. The SWSV was an incredible world with deep history and plenty more waiting in the wings, which he was happy to divulge in comments and world-building blogs alike. I had been planning on doing a crossover with Oversaturated!Ditzy running afoul of Pinkie's twin sister (not Marble; I mean the friendly equivalent of the Dunwich Horror.) Alas, he passed before I developed much beyond the outline.
He is so very missed.
... And I'm learning of it right now.
(I had Covid last October, hence I wasn't keeping up with stuff on here.) I never knew Jordan very well, but we did interact a little bit both on LiveJournal (where I found him interesting but his political views too distant for me to really engage with) and on here. I didn't read a lot of his fiction, partly for reasons you outline in this post -- I'm just not keen on some of the stuff he went hard on -- but the world-building was fascinating. FWIW my own favourite of his fics was Fluttershy is Free, which I think of occasionally even now, years and years later. I'm very sorry he's no longer with us, and I'm glad you've helped his name live on here.
5777925
I went through his gallery and added fics to my RIL, and I was really saddened to see that he only ever finished maybe half the stories he posted. :( It sounds like he had a ton of work behind everything, too.