R4 (Reactions, Reviews, Reference, Redirection) #0180 · 3:07pm Jun 30th, 2015

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Here are five slightly edited old reviews:
Through the Well of Pirene by Ether Echoes
Blessing by Estee
Lyra Beyond the Walls of Sleep by Cynewulf
Treehouse by PresentPerfect
Wild, Sweet & Cool by Kwakerjak

Through the Well of Pirene by Ether Echoes
[story link] [my original review]

This is decently written, but I stopped at the end of chapter two. The beginning is basically a longer version of the beginning of the movie Labyrinth. Except the movie doesn’t try to make us care about the characters, it was all about the fantastic elements. Well, not completely, but it was a archetypical character arc where the main character’s personality was fairly cliche. This story has the same really archetypical cliche main character, but spends time trying to make us connect with her. My main compliant, however, is that there was no pony in here. At least in the first two chapters. The bad guys are human thugs and a talking cat that seems like a faerie spirit more than anything high fantasy. Even when the main character gets turned into a pony, it’s pretty much random and then she goes back to interact with the human world. I had expected that the transformation would mean she woke up in Equestria and has to get help there, but nope. I don’t really want to read about a human turned pony trying to deal with the human world before going to Equestria. Especially when the villains so far have no real connection with MLP. I’m sure it gets better, but it’s a very long story and the opening chapters don’t fill me with confidence that I’ll enjoy the content in the rest of the story. Still, the writing was pretty good and if you don’t mind the lack of pony in the beginning I’d say give this a look.

Blessing by Estee
[story link] [my original review]

A story about Celestia’s divinity, or more specifically, the lack thereof. A fairly strong piece. Had a very strong emotional impact for me. A combination of good writing and it having subjects I like reading about. It has a scene at the end that is one of the better Celestia and Luna moments I’ve run across. So, highly recommended. Just be aware that the story does earn that Sad tag it’s got.

Lyra Beyond the Walls of Sleep by Cynewulf
[story link] [my original review]

I’d call this a proper lovecraftian story. Not quite as skillful language use, but the feeling of strangeness and disconnected meandering of perception is all there. Not to mention the horrible ending for the main character who tried to know what was not meant to be known. Recommended if you like lovecraftian type stories, and good enough that anyone else might want to give it a try as well.

Treehouse by PresentPerfect
[story link] [my original review]

This is a story where the words on the page are not the real story. If not for the emotional weight, I would call this a fluff piece. Pretty much nothing actually happens in what you read on the page. However, it’s got plenty of emotional weight to it. The real story is before the first line and a bit after the last line. This is a great example of a fanfic that’s just a snapshot of bigger events. A moment of transition between an ending and a beginning. I liked it quite a bit and would recommend this to just about anyone.

Wild, Sweet & Cool by Kwakerjak
[story link] [my original review]

This is one of those fanfics that has a bizarre premise, but if you accept it, the story itself is actually pretty good. The characters are all well-realized, even most of the little bit characters you only see once. It does have a lot of flight terms used as description, like simply naming each specific kind of turn and technique Rainbow Dash does while flying as a way of describing what she’s doing. I am not very good at spatial visualization, so I more or less just skimmed those parts after a while. If you like that sort of expert commentator type of prose, this is the story for you. Even when I was skimming it I didn’t feel like it pushed me out of immersion. Really, it was telling instead of showing, but in a way that highlighted how a professional would tell you what was going on and that helped keep me in the story.
Huh, just checked the story page to get the link above and saw that this is tagged comedy. Other than the silly premise I wouldn’t have tagged this a comedy.

About half of the original review.

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