R4 (Reactions, Reviews, Reference, Redirection) #0069 · 7:52am Jan 29th, 2015
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Here are five possibly edited old reviews:
Dear Princess by Obselescence
Friendship is Optimal by Iceman
Twilight Sparkle: Night Shift by JawJoe
The Magician and the Detective by Bad Horse
The Life of Twilight by Just Horsing Around
Dear Princess by Obselescence
[story link] [my original review]
Something light and fluffy with a bit of slice-of-life humor. Another entry into the genre of Twilight Sparkle struggling with being a princess. In this case, being on the other end of the friendship letter process. This would actually make a wonderful episode of the show. Certainly a lot better than some of the season 4 episodes I’ve watched. Though, I suppose short stories in text form with no deadline or corporate oversight have a few advantages over, well, the opposite of all those things. Anyway, I’d recommend this one.
Re-read this one again recently, still heartwarming, silly, and enjoyable.
Friendship is Optimal by Iceman
[story link] [my original review]
So, final reaction? This was a excellent science fiction story. It had interesting ideas and played around with a lot of ideas all related to the central premise. It had a story and sequence of events, but they were just a basic framework to poke and prod at a central idea in various ways. It got me thinking about stuff, not that I ever need much prompting to think about post-singularity life, and had good chains of logic in most of the thought experiments
Tiny piece of a review that is around 4-5 times as long. This was good puzzle-logic scifi of the best kind. By this point I've read over a dozen, maybe two dozen, FiO stories by various authors and it remains one of the most interesting pony-based worlds to read about. It's one I would love to have in physical form for my bookshelf.
Twilight Sparkle: Night Shift by JawJoe
[story link] [my original review]
Didn’t even finish this one. Wasn’t bad, just dull and nonsensical. It was just a cliché urban fantasy story, with the nouns replaced with pony stuff. Even to the point of switching Twilight Sparkle in for a stereotypical ‘lost parents to evil’ urban fantasy protagonist. It doesn’t feel at all like Twilight Sparkle, just someone with her name and appearance
Another cut down review. I just don't think that secret world urban fantasy mixes all that well with cartoon ponies.
The Magician and the Detective by Bad Horse
[story link] [my original review]
Pretty good, not my kind of thing. Had a lot of Sherlock Holmes, not a whole lot of MLP. No mention of pegasus ponies for one, and a fairly lopsided version of pony magic. Sure, one can argue for or against earth ponies having their own type of magic, but even discounting that, surely pegasi have some bearing on the whole earth pony/unicorn class situation. Well-written story though. Bet a big Holmes fan would get a much bigger jolt from this.
The Life of Twilight by Just Horsing Around
[story link] [my original review]
Fun little bit. Reminded me a lot of the movie of Life Of Brian, at least the scene of the crowd shouting at him on the balcony. Which I’m guessing is probably a big inspiration for this story. This is almost the reverse of the previous story. Not quite as well written, but totally to my tastes so I really enjoyed it. Plus just a touch of fun worldbuilding in the opening paragraph pointing towards Twilight Sparkle having new Alicorn senses.
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.
