R4 (Reactions, Reviews, Reference, Redirection) #0051 · 6:29pm Jan 1st, 2015
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Here are five slightly edited old reviews:
The Princess of Books by anowack
Paper Tigers by MidnightDancer
Bad Moon Rising by ThunderTempest
Ghosts by Ponydora Prancypants
Choosing of the Guard by Random_User
The Princess of Books by anowack
[story link] [my original review]
Another story about Princess Luna not used to modern times. Though done a lot better than a lot of stories like this. It’s all the results of that situation and only lightly comments on the fact that the situation is because of Luna not having been around for a thousand years. Given the matter at hand, a book that Princess Luna doesn’t like, it neatly avoids being at all preachy. The focus of the story is all about Princess Twilight Sparkle dealing with being a newly ascended Alicorn Princess. It was a fun romp that hit all the characters perfectly and I wish it had been longer. Would love to read more slice of life stuff about Twilight dealing with being a princess. Mostly because I know that when the next season of the MLP show starts, it won’t have much of that. Sure there will probably be one or more episodes about various ‘I am a princess now’ situations, but fan fiction does rambling slice of life stories a lot better than a single episode of a half-hour television show.
Paper Tigers by MidnightDancer
[story link] [my original review]
Great story. Pretty short, even shorter than a lot of the fanfics I’ve been reading. This had just a opening scene, and a main scene, both just brief vignettes. It covers something in MLP that I’ve thought about off and on. Why does a seemingly immortal, probably powerful, alicorn ruler-goddess need guards for? Or why does she send other ponies to deal with problems that she could easily handle herself? This story addresses that subject in a way that I’ve been assuming. Celestia sums it up neatly to Twilight Sparkle in this story: ‘When gods fight, it is mortals who suffer’.
Bad Moon Rising by ThunderTempest
[story link] [my original review]
Batpony story for the contest. This is a short story by the same author who did a tiny flash fiction piece I really liked titled Singles Awareness Day, which I’m not sure I actually added to my list of read books since it was like four paragraphs long. With a second data point I can say he is a very good writer. The two stories have nothing in common except that I liked them and they were of very high quality. Which means he has quite a range on the type of story he can write well.
This is another story about what happens to Lightning Dust after the wonderbolts academy episode of the show (I forget the proper title). It takes the same path that ‘Gloomy Everyday’ did, though thankfully not nearly to that extreme. The idea that being kicked out of the academy is a huge deal for Lightning Dust. Oh, also the story ‘A Cause Worth Dying For’. It isn’t the main focus for this story, so not going to go into it. It is just a nice example of how to add nuance to a character even outside a character study.
Ghosts by Ponydora Prancypants
[story link] [my original review]
Batpony story for the contest. This was another good one. This might get put into my personal headcanon for the batponies. It is completely original, as in it doesn’t use anything from the show except for Luna and the physical apperance of the batponies. Yet it still felt a lot like MLP to me. At least enough that I accepted it easily as MLP fanfic while I was reading it. I suspect this might be one of the three I finally pick for voting when I get done with all the reading.
Choosing of the Guard by Random_User
[story link] [my original review]
Batpony story of the contest. First batpony story by an author I haven’t read before. This author really needs to work on show, don’t tell. Once scene we have the main character telling his life story and all we get is ‘He tells her his life story’ and that’s it. He misses a perfect chance to explore the main character’s past, personality, family, or anything else. This had a good story inside it somewhere, but I would use it as a perfect example of a story told very very poorly. I wanted a good story. This is some guy summarizing a good story he kinda remembers hearing about once, but has forgotten the details. Which sucks because the premise and basic story seems really cool. In addition, spelling ma’am as mam really bugged me. I would’ve accepted the British-style mum, which would have been a cool detail if the night guard had that difference, but using mam was like getting poked with a sharp stick while I was trying to read. I will say that the problems in this story are indicative of a amateur author, not a terrible author. He just needs lots of practice and to read a book or two on writing.
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