Things I Have Been Reading: A Shower of Stars by Caerdwyn

So, I like talking about things I've been reading. I actually care a lot about pony-fiction. I like to talk about what works, what doesn't. I also like recommending other works that I feel are worthy of at least discussion. Despite being a successful author here from the get go by most sane standards, I know what it's like to publish a fic from the heart and have no one to give a crap. Hence the appeal of signal-boosting fics I like to my friends. The fact is though, very often I find I don't have much of an audience to really just talk about it with.

That is, until circumstance reminded me that, oh yeah, I have fans. Furthermore my fans (ostensibly) like fanfiction. Maybe they'll enjoy some discussion/recommendation of ponyfics I've found interesting.

So, yeah, I'm going to start doing that.

Note that this isn't a review; it's a discussion. I'm not here to judge a fic, and tell you if a fic is worth your time or not. I'm here to post my honest thoughts about them so you can be entertained, gain wisdom from my commentary, or decide to give the fic some love yourself.

So, that out of the way, let's begin with: A Shower of Stars by Caerdwyn.

So, for starters, I'm going to recommend you skip looking at the tags and the description. A couple people felt they made some of the emotional content down the line less effective, your's truly included. The basic premise is thus: a horrible disaster in on route to Equestria, and Rainbow Dash stands in a unique position to help stop it, and, in doing so, she ends up learning something very valuable about what it means to be a hero.

The primary draw of the story for me was really the atmosphere. When I let myself get in to it, the whole situation is written with a believable level of gravitas. You become there, in that moment, watching along with the characters as they face nothing short of doomsday with dignity and conviction. Despite the fact that I basically sabotaged my own ability to enjoy the fic in a couple ways I was still able to be moved by the final moments.

It really is just a well written piece all around in a lot of ways. He writes the characters very well. Writes the scenario very well. That said, I did find there were a couple places where the narrative just sort of treads water. The story took time to narrate a couple of sub-sequences that probably would have been better served just being dropped or summarized later in conversation on it's way to the next interesting moment. It didn't happen much, but when it did I found it slightly jarring. I also had some trouble following the action, but action is something I find really hard to follow in general, so you could possibly take that with a grain of salt.

The fic is also old, written between Seasons 1 and 2, but it seems to have aged remarkably well despite that if you assume it took place in that timeframe like the author suggests. Hell, I didn't realize it was so old until Twilight is described as a unicorn somewhere in chapter 2, although there were a couple other hints.

What does an Alicorn need with a sky chariot?

Anyway, so, yeah, despite it's age I think the fic has held up well enough and it's strong points are really strong. It manages to present an end of the world scenario with gravitas without being melodramatic or overwrought. If adventure on the edge of doomsday is your thing, by all means, it could use the love.

Anyway, thanks for listening to me ramble. I hope you all enjoyed it.

Also, I do plan on writing a sort of epilogue/retrospective on the Shelf Cleaning Intiative soon.

And edit up First Time to send it out to featuring groups.

And write another blog post I've been dragging my feet on.

And write those two OTHER fics I have on my plate, and hopefully those will get published before 2018.

Oi vey.

Cheerio, take care, and feel free to comment if/when you've read the fic yourself!

Later.