Fic recs, July 29th · 8:00pm Jul 29th, 2015
It seems Ursula K. LeGuin is offering writing advice. Thanks, Professor Oats!
HAHA LOOK AT THIS DUMBASS HE CAN’T EVEN FLY! (No link to the original, so have this as explanation! :D)
So I've been neglecting literally all my responsibilities these past few days in lieu of bingeing on Steven Universe. :B You can read my thoughts on season one here. (I'da made a NALGSAME ["Not All Little Girls' Shows Are Made Equal"] post about it, but quite frankly I don't think you can really call it a "little girls' show", mostly for the "little" part. <.< This shit ain't for kids, yo.)
H: 0 R: 2 C: 5 V: 0 N: 0
The Thoughts of Pet Alligators by RainEStar
Reading by Dr. Wolf
Genre: Episode Followup
Gummy becomes lost in thought as Pinkie goes about her day.
Pulling off a story like this requires getting Gummy’s voice down, which this story definitely does. That’s its greatest strength. Unfortunately, nothing is done with that voice. This is just a logical, believable continuance of what we saw in Slice of Life and nothing more. Quite honestly, after seeing that scene, I’m willing to believe Gummy is lost in thought like that all the time; because of that assumption, I didn’t really need to read this to have it confirmed. This doesn’t do anything surprising or go particularly deep into Gummy’s mind or philosophy. It just is.
Recommended If You Want More Gummy
Though the Present Is Never Perfect, She Bought the Perfect Present by Star Destroyer
Mature: Sex (Kinda)
Genre: Trollfic
So this story was written with the express reason of getting a Not Recommended from me, despite protestations to the contrary from certain individuals. This came about from the comments of some journal of mine (I’m not going to find out which), wherein Chris, among others, lamented never getting a coveted (???) N rating. (Chris, for the record, wrote something as well, but I refuse to read it until he’s willing to put his reputation on the line and actually publish it on Fimfiction.) I thought — for long enough to start doing something about it — that I should maybe make it a contest. Find everyone who’s never gotten an N from me and encourage them to… write terrible stories…
So, that wasn’t my brightest idea ever. But I’m going to rise to the bait and read this story anyway, which will likely be my second-least-bright idea ever ...Or not! COWER IN FEAR, STAR DESTROYER! YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD BEAT ME, BUT I RULE SUPREME! This is honestly a laundry-list of things I hate, with one big exception: OOC humor. From the outset, it’s obvious that this isn’t Celestia, so instead of getting incensed by her behavior, I laughed along as she creeped all over Twilight like kudzu up a phone pole. I enjoyed the continual digs at Luna (the explanation of her archaic speech is hysterical), I appreciated the batpony-fueled turn for the bizarre, and I even laughed at the mind-control. And this kind of thing would have been precisely the pitfall to avoid in a contest of this sort. (But we don’t need to encourage this kind of thing, now do we?) I win! :D
Recommended If You Like OOC Humor
Selling Out by Kaorin
Genre: Sad
What becomes of an immortal princess when she is no longer needed to rule?
The voicing is the draw here, old-fashioned without being overblown. I’d actually hoped that the references to “Sister” would be setup for a fakeout, but it soon becomes clear that this can be no one but Luna. It’s really heartbreaking seeing her have to live through this kind of thing. Because this is all about falling from grace, something Luna’s all too familiar with, and yet this particular fall has such a soft landing, it barely seems like such in comparison to the Nightmare. It’s not the ruin of pride, but a debasing of the self for material needs, and in that way, it is both less a defeat and more of one. Bitter Luna is a nice change from Sad Luna.
Recommended
A Final Choice by Overlord-Flinx
Reading by Emogak
Genre: Drama
After thirty moons, Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer will meet again.
Obviously, this is old enough to no longer be canon, but it presents an interesting scenario: Can two characters get emotional with each other and not kiss? Wait, no, I mean: What’s necessary for Sunset Shimmer’s redemption? How alike are she and Twilight? This builds to an emotional climax with some very deep and thoughtful dialogue, formatted in two columns that work a bit better in the reading. That said, once it turns to standard narration in the second half, the writing gets considerably shakier, and both narrative and dialogue are filled with odd turns of phrase and distracting word choices. Still, I really do like the way this unfolds, and if you can forgive some writing issues, this may be rewarding.
Recommended If You Value Function Over Form
My Little A.I. by teamidris
Reading by The Lost Narrator, et. al.
Genre: Sci-Fi
On a server farm in the middle of nowhere, an A.I. dreams itself to life as a little purple unicorn…
I hope you’ve read Friendship Is Optimal, because I’m gonna be referencing it a lot. The basic idea of this story can be summed up as “FiO with the mane six instead of Celestia”, but that misses so much of what’s going on here. Like FiO, this barely qualifies as fanfiction, being more a cyber-thriller where the rogue A.I.’s are pony-shaped because why not I guess? But where FiO is optimistic wish-fulfillment, setting up CelestAI to slowly draw a willing humanity into the digital paradise of Equestria, this story gives us A.I.’s who are truly alien. They see the problems of humanity and go about trying to solve them in the most myopic way possible. While it was said in FiO that there were pockets of resistance to CelestAI’s influence, in this story it’s made crystal clear that the ponies are not acting in humanity’s best interest, and that their actions are causing global catastrophe. (The entanglement with fanfic writers has so many implications, I’m not sure I’m done running through them yet; this is a part of the story that was really tantalizing.) So with that said, I’d like to reiterate that there are not the characters from the show. They’re based on similar archetypes, but their actions are not those of the mane six, helpfully reflected in their color-based names. The other turn-off for a potential reader might be some of the, shall we say, imprecisions in the writing, the handiest example of which I neglected to write down and can’t find. :( There are also some very shaky scene changes from the digital world to the real and vice-versa (this made the reading somewhat difficult to follow). But, this is a really worthwhile venture if you’re willing to take a risk. Granted, I love it because it’s like the living embodiment of everything I felt about Friendship Is Optimal, so take that as you will.
Recommended
Conquerors by JumpingShinyFrogs
Reading by Solar Pony and NeighratorPony
Genre: Warfic
A unit of soldiers looting a burned-out rebel town discover the price of their victory.
I didn’t start disliking this story until it decided to dole out some background on the war that led us to this point. The description is nice, and the tone and atmosphere really help with what the author’s trying to do. But having the Princess (in its defense, the story never says which one) send troops to kill “thousands” of rebels? Rebels against what? It’s precisely this kind of detail which turns me off most war fics, and I'd have been able to swallow the scenario much easier without it. I’m also not sure how effective this is. The revelations of who they were fighting and who the narrator is aren’t that amazing (granted, the reading makes the narrator’s identity easy to guess, but I still guessed it well before the reveal). The main point is “war is terrible”, but this is gotten across by having the narrator up and just say it. All that said, I was very touched by the narrator’s gesture at the end of the story, precisely because it’s completely symbolic. The author’s note says they wanted to capture the “melancholy atmosphere of war”, and that has definitely been accomplished, but as for the rest, I’m not so sure.
Recommended If You’re Okay With Warfics
Tiny Lesbian Stories: The Skype Chronicles by Fuzzy Furvert
Reading (part 1) by the author
This is Fuzzy’s first upload, and unfortunately he takes more than half the video’s runtime to inform us of this. :| Long intro aside, he’s a yes from me, with a good voice, good pacing and background noise that isn’t distracting. Now if only he’d edit his shit. :V
Genre: Crackfic
Okay, so I could characterize this as “mildly offensive” (the word “lesbian” is the punchline and is repeated ad nauseam because that’s the story this is), but damned if I didn’t laugh. I kind of wish it was a little longer, but I suspect there’s more down the line, and it does well with the hilarity. There’s fandom references, anime references and actual jokes that work, plus tons of stuff that makes no sense. I can’t wait to read part 2. :V
Troll Recommended (Full Review Here)
B-but... it not being on FiMFic was part of how it was supposed to annoy you!
Ah well, I suppose I could put it in with my minific collection... of course, then you won't see it for a couple more years at the rate you do those, unless you pop it to the head of the group
That picture was amazing. There should be more like it.
DID YOU NOT SEE ALL MY SWEET ANIMATION? DID YOU NOT ENJOY MY DULCET TONES AND RICH RECITATION? I SPENT, LIKE, 15-20 MINUTES ON THAT SHIT!
And yes, there is more. I'm recording part two on friday. I'll reserve my NON-FIC commentary to the end if it will assuage your tender ears.
If there's any statement I'd agree with more, I'd be hard-pressed to find it. Oh wait, I did, last week:
"Adam Sandler Has Never Ruined A Movie As Much As He Ruins Pixels"
Don't front like you enjoyed that story! You know that's N rated material! Now you go back into that blog and give that story the highly coveted rating that it deserves!
If N's are coveted would it be possible for me to donate one of mine to an author who wants one? Really, I'd be delighted to give... oh, it's not coveted, it's "coveted." Never mind.
That's the most beautiful phrase I've read today.
3280103
Not hatin' the animatin', that was fun. :B
3280272
I literally added it in while posting this. :B
A philoso-Gummy fic and a story about the pony portion of Internet becoming self-aware? Frabjous day!
Also, nice art. It's times like this that make me consider finalizing my OC's color scheme.
3280473 you have an OC that isn't derpy?
3280522
A unicorn named Thought Bubble, with a cutie mark of a pencil in a thought balloon that is drawing the outline of said thought balloon. Probably something in an orange-and-blue scheme, but I never decided which would work better where. Of course, given the existence of Flash Sentry, I may need to reevaluate that part...
3280554 nothing wrong with having more than one blue and orange county in this world.
always pleased to see a review post
3281366
always pleased to see a comment :D
Um... did you read the story?
3282022
Yeah, it's pure wish fulfillment. CelestAI is the perfect techno-goddess and most people are willing to convert or whatever it was called because Equestria is soooo much better than Earth. :B
3282093 ... so you read it like you read "Anonymous Dreams".
From its tvtropes page:
No, thank you! I really hope someone gets some use out of that link. I love the idea of her personally helping someone with their ponyfic