EFNW Goodfic Bin Contributions! · 10:47am Apr 7th, 2015
I've read a good few EFNW entries, and whilst I don't feel I can bring myself to read much more than thirteen, I would like to take the time to both give a quick review for and add these stories to the Goodfic bin, especially considering that some of these could use some extra popularity.
Just to clarify, all the stories I've actually read from the contest are here. I'm only doing this for stories that I think meet my conditions for getting into the bin.
Fluttershy's Sick Day
This is a story about the most diabolical villain in the show finally making friends. Oh, and Discord is in there too. Angel Bunny and Discord team up to help get Fluttershy better, and whilst I am not a fan of 'character gets sick' stories, the focus is entirely on the other two characters. It's entertaining, fun, and quite reminiscent of the show itself, which I always love. There's a time for awesome backstories and high-flying adventure, and then there's a time to stay true to the Slice of Life feel of the original episodes. MLP can accomodate both, and I love seeing this aspect in particular get tackled.
Boulders
Eesh. Well, if there's one thing in this contest that scared my socks off, it was this one. The writing is very nice (so nice a lot of the tricks in there went completely over my head) and Maud is presented in a way that's genuinely interesting and fun to read, which other stories in here failed to do. For all her popularity and how fun she is visually, Maud is often a very dull character to read, in my experience. Not so here, and whilst I think it maybe dragged on about rocks too much (as is to be expected in a story about Maud) it is a very nice story, and well deserving of getting in. I can't say it's a personal favourite of mine, though, as it comes off as perhaps a bit underwhelming, but for what it is, I can recognize a good story when I see one.
A Little Filly's Day Off
I found this story to be rather underappreciated, and I'm not entirely sure why. It presented a very nice look at young Twilight trying to make friends. I have to admit, I remember the writing to be a bit lacking at times, with some odd pacing in there too (especially when she scares away the other fillies) but besides presenting a nice headcannon and showing us some very adorable young Twilight, it was also a nice heartwarming story. I'd definitely give it a read.
The Untimely Revenge of King Hoofenkhamun
A very entertaining story about Spitfire and Daring Do, it not only provides a fun adventure in a contest mostly filled with Slice of Life stories, but it also provided an entertaining headcannon about Daring Do and her past. Whilst I think the pacing went fast at times and it does detract from the story, and really could stand to be around 5K words, not 3K, I think the fun from both the adventure and the headcannon shown really makes up for it.
A Dog's Best Friend
This was a singularly nice story giving an origin story for Winoa. What I liked best about this story was, interestingly, not the dog at all, but how the Apple Family worked. It felt incredibly natural, and I really enjoyed seeing Granny Smith interract with a younger Applejack, Applejack interract with Applebloom, Big Mac... it was all nice. Writing was good, too, and moved quite well between past and present without it being jarring.
There are a few others that came close, but they all had something that bugged me, and not enough of stuff I think compensated. Two honourable mentions I won't be adding are:
Between a Rock and an Odd Place
This story felt awfully one sided, like Discord was the only one there. Whilst he was enjoyable, it felt a lot of the time like he was talking to a wall... something I wish had been done better, even though it is Maud, and she's hardly the most expressive of ponies. It was enjoyable, but not enough to overcome Maud's boring character here.
Sail to the Moon
This was a very well written story by Regidar that I found boring for content reasons. I'm already well-versed in all things Luna and Celestia related, especially when it comes to one being an overbearing sister. It was well written, but I pretty much knew every line before I even read them, and I don't feel any risks were taken whatsoever. But I can't fault it for it's writing, and I have to admit I think that a lot of the skill in writing went completely over my head, so I can't even comment properly on how nice the prose is, so it gets an honourable mention.
Well, I'm very late to the party here, but thanks to Singularity Dream's 'Master Review List', I discovered that you had reviewed my story.
So, although it's late, thank you very much for your thoughts, and I'm glad you enjoyed the story! :)
I have only discovered this review of my story now. I did fear that maybe it was just the same old same old when I wrote the story—but it made me feel the feels as I read it so I pushed through all the same. One thing lingers:
I'm not sure what you mean by this. Explain?
3303330 By 'went over my head', I mean there's details in how the words 'come together' that I don't quite grasp. This happens sometimes.
I've never actually studied or learned a lot of literature and writing (since I spend far more time studying engineering and sciences), so when it comes to explaining why some word choices are better than others, I often find myself unable to properly understand those kinds of tiny details, or justify them. When reading, I felt there were some degree of effort that went into areas I couldn't quite comment on that made the act of reading the story more pleasant than I'd have expected.
It's hard to explain. Mostly because it does, in fact, go over my head.
3303658 Oh, alright. I'm somewhat honored that even though you didn't enjoy the content, you still felt like I had written it on such a level.
3303856 I didn't think there was anything wrong with the content, just that I had read it in other places that had the benefit of being longer.
With hindsight, the most interesting thing about it was where it was. Finding a story about sisters in a contest about new friends is a spin that I haven't seen that often. Mostly it's either 'friends' or 'family' but rarely both at the same time.
3303879 yeah, I had a few ideas for the contest bouncing around in my head, and I thought to myself "well, a Luna and Celestia one could be perfect if I do it in a way that shows them as being family, but not exactly FRIENDS... not until now, anyway"
it was a nice challenge and even if it wasn't the most original stuff, at least I liked what came of it
3303998 I agree. Although I confess I hadn't thought of that particular aspect when I read it the first time around. Sometimes these things only come to me later.
I ended up having three ideas for the contest. Wrote 'em all, for some reason. I enjoyed writing them too, which strikes me as the most important bit.