R4 (Reactions, Reviews, Reference, Redirection) #0055 · 10:36pm Jan 5th, 2015
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Here are five possibly edited old reviews:
Shadowtrotter: Arbitrary Batastrophic Constellations. by Blue Pen
A Lost Diamond in the Rough by Umi Chou
Common Misconceptions of the Equine Bat by Harric Mills
The Monster of Cane’s Hill by ArgonMatrix
Night guards origins by Wissle
Shadowtrotter: Arbitrary Batastrophic Constellations. by Blue Pen
[story link] [my original review]
Shadowrun and My Little Pony, two great tastes that go great together? Or maybe not. The story doesn’t blend the two source materials together as nicely as Fallout: Equestria did, but that is a impossible standard to measure up to. Wasn’t sure about this mix at first, but by the end I was enjoying it. The author needs more practice, I never really got immersed, but it had good ideas. This was mostly a Shadowrun story with just a sprinkle of pony in it. Will be checking to see if there are more stories set in this universe because I’d like to read more about, well, Shadowtrotters. Not really a batpony story, so it won’t be getting a vote for the contest.
A Lost Diamond in the Rough by Umi Chou
[story link] [my original review]
Ow. Couldn’t even get halfway through this. A combination of telling instead of showing, trying to tell the story like the show uses visual cues, and just plain bad writing. Didn’t even see a good story in there before I had to escape.
Common Misconceptions of the Equine Bat by Mills
[story link] [my original review]
Neat story. Reads more like the start of a story than being a complete one itself. It would be great as a lead-in to something more, but is only okay by itself. Gets major points for having a writing lesson/demonstration in the first part of the story, and the format of a journalist writing up an article was extremely well handled.
The Monster of Cane's Hill by ArgonMatrix
[story link] [my original review]
Interesting story. A bit of Lovecraft, a good chunk of Frankenstein, and a touch of MLP. Quite good, but could have been a little longer. Good story, but not enough batpony worldbuilding to make it one of my three votes. Still, it is going into the read again pile.
Night guards origins by Wissle
[story removed] [my original review]
Fairly typical, at least by this point of reading so many batpony stories. Princess Luna discovers batponies, makes them the Nightguard, then they swear to be loyal to the thrones when she gets exiled. It had some emotional impact in it, and it was written well, but still felt a bit flat overall. This story, I think, turns out to be a much more subtle lesson in writing, more precisely the idea of show, don’t tell. In this story (which is written as if it is being written down as a letter by the point of view character) we hear about the batponies swearing to serve Princess Celestia once Princess Luna is banished. In -Genealogy – (or the Mating Habits of Nocturnes Pegasi)- and associated stories we get to hear the specific oath the batponies swear when that happens. Which makes those stories much stronger because the wording of the oath says so much about the situation and the batponies themselves and their outlook on things. So this was a good story, but not a vote contender.
As always, The Big Master Review List is here: { THE MASTER LIST }
If you know of a text-format reviewer I'm not keeping track of, please let me know and I'll see if they meet the criteria to be assimilated into the list.
If you are an author who wants a more detailed review of a story I've covered feel free to message me. My reviews tend to be fairly light, mostly just reactions to a story right after reading it. I am happy to give a more careful read and reply to anyone who wants more precision and/or feedback. It might take a while, as more precision means I need to actually think about things instead of just doing stream of consciousness typing.
