Fic recs, March 13th · 2:32pm Mar 13th, 2016
DROP WHAT YOU ARE DOING, KITS IS DOING A THIRD PRINT RUN OF TWILIGHT’S LIST! If you need a reason to get in on this, check out my review!
Also, Dr. Wolf has started a reading of the infamous Yes, It Matters by RealityCheck (now RHJunior)!
Go another big one today, though not as big as one might think! I've suddenly gotten into a bunch of one-shot audiobooks that are nevertheless over a half hour, which means decreased output. :B Huh. Read ahead for lots of shipping, some laughs, and an example of how to do Human in Equestria stories right!
H: 1 R: 2 C: 2 V: 0 N: 3
Tuna by Admiral Biscuit
Reading by ShadowOfCygnus
Sequel to Twirek
Genre: Crackshipping
Tirek dumps Twilight for a different Princess.
I accidentally read this one first, having somehow missed the reading for Twirek. (It turns out SOC has a whole bunch of readings not available on his channel because they’re age-locked or something. Still doesn’t explain this one though!) Oddly, it wasn’t too hard to follow, once I knew it was the sequel to a story with that name. I have to admit, I liked it more. Luna is perfectly dopey, and everyone else is just out of character enough to be really funny. Plus, there’s nothing more objectionable in the humor than a Faust reference. Good stuff for crackshippers.
Recommended If You Like Sexual Humor
Stay the Night by Crysis Commander (formerly DancesWithBaglez)
Reading by Agent0Fluffy
Genre: ScratchTavia, kinda
Even after they called it off, Vinyl still looks to Octavia for support.
So this kinda does that thing where a character is shat on to make them shippable, except that no actual shipping occurs (they were only dating previously), so it’s actually not so bad. Really, I was struck by the tragedy of this situation: Octavia dumped Vinyl, which sent her into this cycle of not-so-healthy relationships, and she keeps coming back for succor. I suppose I could say this doesn’t do much with its premise, but that’s only because there’s a lot of potential here for more. As it stands, I enjoyed it. And hey, it’s based on a good song. :)
Recommended for Shippers
No Matter What! by Cupcakes
Reading by TheLostNarrator, et. al.
Genre: Romance
Rainbow Dash can run, and she can hide, but Pinkie won’t stop until she says it.
Not only did I really like this story because OTP, not only did I find out I’d read it and enjoyed it previously, but I found myself connecting with this on a deep level. I have been Rainbow Dash in this story. Of course, reading the comments, Cupcakes was apparently going to thank me for something, and I have no idea what, so I wonder if it’s not me reacting to my own forgotten influence. c.c Well, whatever. There are a few writing slips, like the occasional LUS, but this one’s pretty old, and I’m willing to forgive. Definitely worth it if you like PinkieDash; non-shippers likely won’t get much out of it.
Recommended
This Side of the Mirror by Baal Bunny
Genre: Character Piece
After learning of Principal Abacus Cinch, Princess Cadence decides to seek out the Abacus Cinch in the Crystal Empire.
There’s not a lot to this piece, merely the exploration of an idea compounded with a twist that makes it considerably more tense, but darned if I don’t like it. The real story is Cadence and Shining Armor (here puzzlingly referred to as “Armor”) working to clean the Crystal Empire of Sombra’s influence. The fact that this is still going on so long after she’s taken the throne is, I think, very realistic. This feels like a scene in a larger story, to its benefit. The Empire is alive around this little tea party, and it’s surprisingly thrilling.
Recommended
Trixie’s Magic Report by TittySparkles and RainbowBob
Reading by Captain Sand
Genre: SpongeBob
Partway into this story, I started thinking, “Haven’t I read this before, but with Discord?” The answer was yes, the story in question was RainbowBob’s What I Learned About Friendship Today Is…, and the SpongeBob scene they ponify is exactly the same. Frankly, I don’t know what to make of this. The fact that RainbowBob was involved in both stories smacks of a lack of ideas, yet not only did his solo effort come later, it’s better, for all that I only gave it a V. This one just interprets the scene and ends on a single joke, doing nothing beyond that. Honestly, I felt like my time had been wasted.
Not Recommended
Soarin for Your Heart by TheFineBrony
Reading by BlackIrisBalloon, et. al.
Genre: Shipping
Last night, someone showed me a story I deemed “a masterpiece of failure”, a fic written by someone with far more enthusiasm and ideas than mastery of the English language, the thing of thing you see multiple excerpts of on WTFFanfiction. It is with that in mind that I say this piece is very poorly written. Though generally, if not always, coherent, it suffers from just about everything you could think of: POV shifts, telling, flat writing, LUS, and copious editing mistakes. (I ended up reading this myself because volume. Apparently, the reading is an ‘edited’ version of the story, but honestly it didn’t help much.) There are lengthy flashbacks -- removed in the reading -- which are thoroughly dull. This isn’t even breaking the surface of the story: not only are Rainbow and Soarin together, not only did have they a kid, not only is she back to practicing with the Wonderbolts mere weeks after childbirth, but they aren’t married and this doesn’t seem to be of any particular concern to anyone. Well, aside from him proposing being the main plot. Oh yeah, and their kid is named Rainbow Blitz. Given the fact that I wasn’t predisposed to like the ship, and even ignoring that I didn’t care much about what was going on, this is just not a good fanfic. Never once was I invested in the characters; the only thing I can say in its favor is that this was written for personal gratification.
Not Recommended
Love Letters by MysteriousStranger
Reading by Captain Sand
Genre: Shipping
Fluttershy’s been getting letters from a secret admirer.
It’s unfortunate that this story draws so many comparisons to Ribbons and Lace, because it really suffers for all of them. It opens with a weather report, there’s not as much build-up, and I can’t help but feel that Fluttershy’s reaction isn’t realistic because R&L did it better. There’s really nothing mitigating this criticism, either, since R&L came out a full year before this story. I always say there’s nothing wrong with pursuing the same idea as another author, but it’s not worth doing if you can’t either take it in a different direction or do it better; at least add something to the idea that wasn’t there before. This does none of that. Instead, it’s a fairly standard shipfic that feels like a chaptered story compressed into two thousand words.
Not Recommended
A Sleeping Rose by Admiral Biscuit
Reading by ShadowOfCygnus
Genre: HiE
It was raining, so Sam stayed the night at Rose’s.
Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of stories set in genres well-known and reviled for containing lots of poor fic; stories that make me go “This is how it should be done!” This is one of those stories. But I have to wonder if, in praising such stories, I’m not making too much of them; exalting over their triumph where others have failed, making a completely comparative observation rather than detailing what makes the story itself good. In this case, well, if more HiE’s were written like this, I’d be a fan of the genre. What does it do right? World-building. It’s plain to see that careful thought has been put into not only the world of Equestria, but how to approach and describe that world through the eyes of our human. While most of the focus is on clothing and cutie marks, everything from the role of temporality in everyday life to the necessity of eating utensils and dietary complications is touched on in a perfectly natural way that gives us this real character who’s lived among ponies for over half a year now. Said character is, admittedly, a little bland, having no real obvious goals beyond just getting along, but if there’s anything the author did right, it was in giving no clues about sex. (This doesn’t continue in the sequels.) This is not your average “Guy goes to Equestria and sleeps with a pony so the reader can experience that first-hand”. This is a story about two people getting maybe a little closer than they wanted — and given the lack of mention of anything untoward having happened, I can only assume that it didn’t — written the way a recent blog post (and I forget whose it was, I’m sorry) about humans in Equestria called for. This is what HiE’s should be like.
Highly Recommended
And stay tuned next week: My 3000th story reviewed is coming! The chances of it being written by Admiral Biscuit are very high. :B
Hmm, with one exception it's just maybe the H-rated one from AB to add to the RiL list, then... ah, what the hay, it's short. I've had enough shipping for a while, which rules many of these out, and there are quite a few Ns. I will read Love Letters, though, as I still haven't got round to Ribbons and Lace and this might conceivably nudge me into doing so. And I only quite liked Twilight's List, so that isn't a "drop everything" thing for me. Which really leaves the one exception: Baal Bunny's story sounds great and I can't wait to read it. :)
3805845
I'll second the rec for the Baal Bunny story. It's a gem!
3805845
I'll be interested to see what you make of Love Letters, without Ribbons and Lace to compare it to.
3806429 I'll bump it up the queue and try to get it read before the summer. Maybe even Ribbons and Lace as well.
Good HiE, you say? This oughta be interesting
How do you choose which stories to review again? Just surprised to see no matter what
Aww, you went and got my hopes up.
3806869
Well, that one came across my audiobooks, but for a more general answer, check out this blog.
3806903
You guys do everything together, you may as well be the same person. :B
Just a note:
On why I call him "Armor" in the story.
When I'm writing in close 3rd person, I always like to refer to the main character the way I think that character would refer to him or her self. When I'm writing close 3rd person Rainbow Dash, for instance, I never have the narrative refer to her as "Rainbow" but always as "Dash" because I'm guessing that that's the name she uses when she thinks about herself. In the same way, in a close 3rd person story about Twilight, I would never have the narrative refer to her as "Twi". That's a nickname others use but not one she uses herself.
With Shining Armor, I just can't imagine that character thinking of himself as "Shining." His whole self-image in my mind is that of the protector, the guy who puts himself between his loved ones and the villains as a shield. He's quite literal armor in his inner thoughts, so that's the name I use.
Also? I'm firmly convinced that Cadance's pet name for him is "Armie".
Mike
3807423
That's really weird. :V But it at least makes internal sense.
3807430
Y'know:
I could adopt that as my personal motto. It reminds me of what the skin doctor said about this mole of mine she cut off and examined a couple weeks ago: "It exhibits a mild atypia" was the report. I like to think I do that in most of my daily endeavors.
Mike Again