R4 (Reactions, Reviews, Reference, Redirection) #0059 · 5:41pm Jan 9th, 2015
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Here are five possibly edited old reviews:
Power Surge - Rejection by Kapuchu
Wise Beyond Her Years by Pen Stroke
B.B.B.F.F.B.R. by 8686
Cloud Stories by Bob From Bottles
An Earth Pony Orphan In The Unicorn Court by Benman
Power Surge - Rejection by Kapuchu
[story link] [my original review]
This was disappointing. Was hoping for a continuation of the story Power Surge. Something that explores Twilight Sparkle’s training in combat magic, or expands on the author’s concept of unicorn/alicorn magical power levels, or explains the apparently alternate personality Twilight had when she was overchanneling in the previous story. Nope, none of those. Well, it brushes up against magical power levels a tiny bit, but not very well. This story is just a mediocre to average quality fight scene using generic (and practically meaningless) terms, then a out of left field deus ex machina.
Wise Beyond Her Years by Pen Stroke
[story link] [my original review]
By the same person who wrote Past Sins, which is apparently one of the most popular pieces of fanfic in the entire pony fandom. I was underwhelmed, but it was good enough that I wanted to read something else by the author. This one seemed like a interesting premise and I do enjoy immortal conspiracy stories on occasion. This was a small novel in length, about 70k words, but it really felt like it had as much content as a story a third that size. Not padding, just the author writes in a spread out manner. I’m reminded of the writing advice I read once that each chapter, each paragraph, each sentence if possible, should accomplish two things. Such as advancing the plot, developing a character, or worldbuilding. This author seems content with simply doing one thing at a time with each bit of the story.
B.B.B.F.F.B.R. by 8686
[story link] [my original review]
This was a fun one. A light-hearted slice of life that nails all the characters pretty much perfectly. Another interesting look at Big Mac’s character, what he might be like when you get past the running joke the show uses him for. Great look at the family relationships involved, character studies on both Big Mac and Shining Armor. Would point nearly all the authors I was reading during the batpony contest at this story as an example of how to do slice of life right. Not that is was perfect. Even this had a few moments of clumsy telling instead of showing, but even then it was handled well enough that it wasn’t jarring.
I've read this a couple of times since the first one and liked it each time. Lots of good stuff about how to be good family in there.
Cloud Stories by Bob From Bottles
[story link] [my original review]
Fun story. Nice comedic slice of life, sort of. Might be better to call it just light comedy? Anyway, this was fun to read. The pegasi controlling the weather is still one of the best worldbuilding bits in MLP. Manual control of weather and seasons just has so much potential to mess around with in a story both for humor and for serious drama. This story has none of the latter in it.
An Earth Pony Orphan In The Unicorn Court by Benman
[story link] [my original review]
This was much too short. Just as the story was getting good it ended. Wanted more. So, good story. Good exploration of a world far before the show, before even the three types of ponies joined together as one kingdom. Good stuff. Really wish this was a novel length story. It would make a awesome start to a proper epic fantasy story set in pre-Equestria MLP. Ah well. Better this than a huge story that needs to be cut to about a third of its length.
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.
Whoop! I was wondering if I'd be seeing a review from you when I saw No Moon New Moon favorited. Thanks for that!
That story was the first pony story I wrote. It was written before season 2 had finished airing, so the concept of changelings wasn't a thing yet. I've had plenty of writing criticism since then, so I'm hoping those problems you encountered have been ironed out by now in my newest stuff.
Glad you enjoyed it!
2711506
I get 'em eventually. I do a lazy review of every story I read these days. Just read faster than I've been posting them, so there's some delay. I did enjoy reading it.