Fic recs, June 7th! · 7:29pm Jun 7th, 2014
Just barely getting enough in for a 3-day journal. :B I've been reading Skin Game, the newest Dresden Files book, in spots where normally I might be reading other things. Almost done with Outside the Reaching Sky though!
Griffin from City of Doors just reminded me that he is, in fact, Singularity Dream here on Fimfiction (he needs watchers!), and he’s just posted his first two journals. The second links to his master review list, a ridiculously thorough accounting of stories, listed by author, that have been reviewed by people in the fandom: him, me, Chris, Seattle’s Angels, the RCL, TRG… This is a level of organization that is just incredible. Okay, maybe it’s just the amount of time needed to keep something like this updated, but still. Anyway, go recommend any reviewers he might have missed!
H: 0 R: 2 C: 2 V: 0 N: 1
Otherworldly Advice by Bookish Delight
Reading by Goombasa
Genre: Shipping
The way this story expands on Equestria Girls is a tad odd, I thought: Twilight ends up going to Rainbow Dash’s place after the scene where they’re all trying on dresses before the dance (I think; I really don’t have the movie committed to memory or anything). There, they talk about the differences and similarities between their two worlds, and Rainbow makes a move on Twilight. What really works in this, aside from the TwiDash with assertive Rainbow that really appealed to my shipping glands, is the way the author uses the two worlds. She really gets how the world of EQG works as a spinoff from MLP: look no farther than the name “Sky Castle Apartments” for the complex where human Rainbow lives. I kind of feel like this is how the concept overall ought to be used, Rainbow relaying her feelings to Twilight and then highly suggesting that pony-Rainbow feels the same way, given what Twilight’s said about her. That said, the shipping doesn’t overall feel necessary, the friendshipping and parallel-worlds concepts being strong on their own, but even without seeing the tags first, it was a pretty obvious setup. Also, I haven’t been this absorbed in a shipfic for shipping’s sake in quite a while; it’s a strange and enjoyable feeling. Non-shippers won’t get anything out of this.
Recommended for Shippers
Cold Feathers by slinkydoodle
Reading by… The Lost Narrator?
Genre: Character Death
This is not a story. It’s barely even a scene. The only reason it’s worth mention is because of the April Fool’s Day reading, which is at least amusing because it picks the story apart a little. The sentence structure is very basic, the pacing is too fast, it doesn’t ring true as hospital fics go, and the author apparently thinks that Fluttershy’s name is two words. If you’re into the Youtube fanfic reading community, go check out the video (though likely, you already have), otherwise skip this.
Not Recommended
Lone Black Train by Bronius Maximus
Reading by Intrapulation
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Character Sketch
The main problem with this story is that the whole plot is given away by a combination of the description and the first paragraph. Putting two and two together, it becomes blindingly transparent, though I have to say as views of the afterlife go, I rather like this one; it’s got a lot of classic trappings wrapped around a modern Equestrian setting. This ends up being enjoyable nevertheless, and knowing what’s going on helps contextualize a few small things toward the end that make it worth reading. It’s just that, had I merely listened to the reading instead of checking on the story, I probably would have been more rewarded. The other problem is that, as the narrative gets deeper and deeper into Applejack’s character, it’s revealed she’s illiterate. These things might have worked better when this was released, but not so much today. Still, I can’t help like it, and I wonder if it’s not based off some other story I read recently.
Recommended
Resurgence by UnlicensedBrony
Reading by Doctor Cobra
Genre: Sad Luna
I really hate getting a sense of deja vu when reading, especially when it turns out I haven’t actually read a story before: it just means I’ve seen the idea. In this story, the recently-returned Princess Luna’s issue is that her magic isn’t working (along with being stuck in tiny season 1 mode and thus very clumsy). I found myself generally irritated by the story, because Celestia gives her the solution to her problem very early on, and then the reader has to wait for Luna to draw the same conclusions they likely already have, which she seems too bent on being Sad to accomplish. That said, there is some really good sister bonding toward the end of this, with Celestia putting her trust in Luna and thus convincing Luna of her own worth, so it’s not without merit. Given the 5-digit story number, this would probably have been more interesting when it was released; nowadays, I’m not sure how much traction Sad Luna really has, especially S1 Sad Luna, but, well, I’ve definitely seen worse in the genre.
Recommended for Luna Fans
Until the Moon Rises by AdrianVesper
Reading by Goombasa
Genre: Philosophical
Twilight summons a genie and gets one wish; the process doesn’t quite go how she anticipates. This story plays on a lot of the old genie tropes, including mystical binding rules that prevent the genie from granting certain wishes or even answering certain questions. Not to mention it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that she’ll try to free him by the end if she's meant to be sympathetic or in any way in-character; Disney’s Aladdin was how many years ago? What really makes it stand out is that the story is told from the genie’s point of view. I’ve never seen that before, and it makes this far more engaging than it otherwise might have been. Also, Twilight, having been Twilight Sparkle and done a crapton of research before releasing the genie to try and get her wish, fills us in on a lot of the terrible things that have happened in the past as the result of genie wishes. It builds a nice sinister atmosphere behind what could possibly go wrong when she finally does make her wish. That said, Twilight felt somewhat lacking in the character department. There’s no real reason given for why she would summon a genie in the first place, and she doesn’t treat him terribly well during their short time together (admittedly, he does start off by wrecking some of her stuff, but I'm more talking about referring to him as "that thing" and generally treating him as a tool). Taking that as a gimme, well, this is still sort of a pat “what would I do with a wish?” kind of story, but if nothing else, the final line is absolutely perfect, and I can’t say I’ve seen another genie story in pony fic.
Recommended
Fuckin' spoiler tags are gonna be the death of me.
I came across that review list the other day, it's great. I keep begging Knighty for some sort of actual review system
I'd make some comment about you making it harder to maintain the list with all these reviews you keep doing, but that would be silly. Last time I was all caught up I decided to spend three days hunting down and linking your entire review backlist so it's my own dang fault.
Suuuure.
I think I'll give that TwiDash fic by Bookish a try.
I was going to look at that genie fic too, but based on it being marked read and having a fav and a thumbs up I must have read it at some point and don't remember. It was published just last October too, so apparently my memory has an outside limit of six months or so.
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You know I've got the document, right? Won't give you links, but you can at least get titles.
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I know that feel. :B
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Correct! Which is where I started. Finding and linking to your blogposts for all (most) those titles was tricky.
Skin Game has a very blunt MLP reference. Finding out which character is a MLP fan brought a smile to my lips
Even just treating the genie as a character, rather than a plot device, is unusual. It's not the first time I've seen a genie be the protagonist (I'm old enough to remember I Dream of Jeannie, though I caught it on reruns), but it's fairly rare, and rarer still to be well used.
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I've got the advantage, because I can check that, find the date, and then go to my blog dashboard and type it into the search. :B
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Oh snap. :O I'm not quite halfway through, I will have to keep an eye out for this.
I am proud to be Singularity Dream's 7th follower, now that I know who he is.