Present Perfect vs. Project Horizons, book 3 · 1:10pm May 20th, 2016
BOOK 1: 1-16 || BOOK 2: 17-33 || BOOK 3: 34-49 || BOOK 4: 50-62 || BOOK 5: 63-77 || EPILOGUE
22 fucking pages of notes. That's what I had to work through to write this (14 page) review. If you wanna know why it took me so long to write up book 2, there's your answer. We are almost at the million-word mark (it comes halfway through chapter 50)! Also, while I was reading this, someone was making a Blackjack dakimakura, just thought I would share. :V
I think a lot of people are wanting me to tear Project Horizons a new asshole, the way I did with its predecessor. I would like to take this opportunity to remind those people that I am not proud of that review series and won't recreate it if I can ever help it. I will also take this opportunity to inform those people to stop holding their breaths. There's a lot of room in PH yet for things to go massively south — and Somber has done nothing to assuage my fears of potential shark-jumping, the jackass :V — but as of the end of book 3, I am in this for the long haul.
Book 3 represents a new pinnacle for Project Horizons. The envelope is being pushed in ways I wouldn't have thought possible. The narrative takes some wild turns that pay off heartily. I found myself liking characters I never thought I would and appreciating the new dynamics at play. If things go downhill from here, and some say they do, I'm glad I've read this far.
Before we get started with the bulk of the review, I would once again like to take the opportunity to thank VisualPony for all his hard work creating the audiobook, this time with help from Webshoter, Astro-Brony, Gina M, Ice Gaze and Illya Leonov. I'd also like to thank Icy Shake for not only being my reading buddy, but also pointing me to this spreadsheet (which I believe he created) that lists all the characters who appear in the story, along with pertinent info about each. It's full of spoilers (though most of them are covered), so be warned, but it's been priceless for those "Who the fuck is Crumpets?" moments. I wish other long fics had support like this. :V
Now, to the main event. I don't think I'm even trying to avoid spoilers at this point.
When last we left Blackjack, she was fucking dead. There were no bones about this. She wasn't mostly dead, she wasn't unconscious and everyone thought she was dead, she was no-eyes, no-legs, full of cancer and radiation and worse, spirit-broken-because-she-just-got-gang-raped, motherfucking, absolutely DEAD.
So of course that wasn't going to stop her. :V
Taken as chapters 34 through 49 (some quibble with the inclusion of that last chapter), book three is intriguingly bookended by differing views of the afterlife. In chapter 34, we're treated to more or less heaven, and it's gorgeous. Project Horizons is not a story about beautiful imagery — strong, visceral and often disgusting, sure, but not beautiful — but the scene of Blackjack's spirit drifting above Equestria, listening to stars-as-souls sing harmony into the cosmos is fucking fantastic, not to mention a wonderful respite from all the horrible shit that was just going on in the previous book. There's a strong sense of final belonging, she makes out with another dead mare and watching Blackjack experience peace at long last is very satisfying. Plus, there's a bunch of cool zebra lore, the creation of the world — far from just being pretty imagery, it turns out this scene is the backbone of the story's entire magic system — and foreshadowing about where the story is likely to go.
So much for my million-word treatise on grave dirt and headcanon that everything happening after chapter 33 takes place in Blackjack's own personal hell. :V
This is contrasted in chapter 49, when she dies once again from a curse that pulls her soul out of her body (these things are more ridiculous when you summarize them) and gets sucked into a well of souls scenario that's considerably more Pony Hell than not. This is where the creation headcanon pays off, as we see what I am expecting will be The Thing In The Core slowly devour the few souls it can trap in this place. It's horrifying, though thankfully easier to escape for our heroine. The point is, the two contrasting afterlives connect the ends of the book thematically, and that leads me to my first conclusion about book three: it's got the strongest themes of the first three books of this story.
Once Blackjack comes back to life, it's a cybernetic body that she wakes up in, and this starts a running theme of her not knowing who she really is. Large portions of her are still her (most importantly, her butt), but her eyes are artificial and plugged directly into her Pipbuck, her legs are obviously mechanical and the front ones have fingers, she's got no magic (which she sadly gets over), she has to eat scrap metal and gems to power her cyber parts, and even her skin is stretched over a synthetic mesh. It doesn't help that she finds out she's got Dr. Zodiac's organs, donated willingly to save her life, not to mention pieces of Deus inside her. Identity crises abound in book three, giving something of a background hum of narrative white noise to her ongoing struggles with morality and her own fuckups.
Speaking of which, we go directly from "yay, Blackjack's not dead anymore" directly into what I consider Project Horizons's biggest fuckup: the introduction of Littlepip and company from Fallout: Equestria.
Now, I cannot deny that the scene where they get drunk and kill ghouls together isn't fucking awesome and I kind of really needed it. Nor can I deny that them kissing for no good reason hasn't given me terrible ideas for terrible fanfics. And the sequence is cleverly inserted into that best of FoE moments, when LP has forcibly removed her own memories so that the Goddess can't read her mind and get wind of her plan. (This also helps ground PH in the overarching timeline.)
But look at what I just said. Kicking ass together? Making out? Doesn't this just smack a little of pandering? "Hey guys, you like Fallout: Equestria! Well guess, what? Iiiiiit's Littlepip!"
Yet that's not even the worst part. Nor is the fact that numerous FoE tropes that I detest (specifically public discussion of Littlepip's sex life for the sake of making her blush bright red) rear their ugly heads. The worst part is the way they're presented draws direct comparisons between the characters of the two stories. Littlepip's friends are pretty damned normal when compared to Blackjack's, for instance. There are scenes, like an outburst in the middle of a party, that I feel are too much to explain away not having happened in FoE. Most damningly, FoE's characters are critiqued openly. And this is just something you don't do; it's the same as having your OCs be better than the mane cast at what they're good at. It feels like dick-measuring, like circlejerking — though not enough to prevent the plot moving forward! — and like an extended "HEY GUYS, BLACKJACK IS SO WACKY!" (In case you wondered why I wrote this journal.)
And that brings us to the first issue I'm going to address from this journal: Project Horizons does too much one-upping of Fallout: Equestria.
I will heartily agree with this statement, and nowhere is it more apparent than in chapters 34 and 35, a perfectly horrible way to open an otherwise excellent portion of this story. (Though the nadir of my Project Horizons experience so far, it's worth noting that this is not a disembodied unicorn head rape moment, which I still await, breath bated.) I noticed early on that Blackjack's story was similar to Littlepip's, but more: more dark, more wacky, more frantic. Blackjack goes through worse hardships, suffers more crippling self-doubts, and encounters power-creepier villains. In three books' time, their stories have thankfully started drifting apart, but there's still an overwhelming sense that Project Horizons is trying to out-FoE FoE.
And in some ways, I can't blame it. I mean, my own sidefic opens with a scene of a filly being raped and brutalized in front of her friend. It's hard not to want to outdo Fallout: Equestria because it presents such a big target. But where I basically raised a middle finger, making a statement of "You can't have Fallout: Equestria without rape", I wasn't able to outdo FoE; PH is. And I won't deny it's kind of irritating.
With all that said, if there's any one thing Project Horizons does right, it's not allowing Fallout: Equestria to get away with treating anything shallowly. Its own characters, both those from the show and those who were original, are given considerably deeper motivations and histories. More depth is given to Fluttershy's decision to create megaspells and give them to the zebras, for instance, and a scene depicting Pinkie Pie's death is really great. There's also a lengthy discussion somewhere about Princess Celestia's decision to abdicate, how much she was responsible for, and why she would have just given up on Equestria (when, as it turns out, she really couldn't). And for all that I'm not a big fan of criticizing Celestia especially, I found myself entirely in agreement with the characters as they dissected her motivations from the original story and filled in the gaps to make Celestia more human. (More on that later.)
Plus, the whole bit with Littlepip gave us a great running gag in Blackjack not realizing she's the Stable Dweller, and still imagining her as a dashing unicorn mare made entirely of muscle.
I guess I can segue right into the second issue: Project Horizons's plot exists to kick Blackjack around.
I can't really deny that it does. BJ has gone through a lot by the start of book three, as I pointed out, and she goes through even more (though, thankfully, the story doesn't seem too intent on one-upping itself). To counter, I want to share a revelation I had near the end of book three.
Project Horizons is not a post-apocalypse story: it is a comic book.
Oh sure, it's got a post-apocalypse setting. But post-apoc stories are about scavenging to survive, of piecing together the sins of the past into some kind of lesson to avoid in the future. Fallout: Equestria was big on holding on to morals in a wasteland devoid of them, and Project Horizons has plenty of all of that.
But at its core, Project Horizons is the story of a mentally damaged young woman who becomes a superhero in a world where heroes are as necessary as they are unwanted.
And when you look at this story through the lens of superheroes, the way events take shape makes a lot more sense, especially in book three. I mean, I've called Pipbucks "get out of the Wasteland free cards" before, and Blackjack wakes up with one hotwired into her eyes, along with legs that don't tire, enervation immunity and the ability to eat inedible substances. Those are superpowers! Blackjack is building her legend, and now she's got the abilities to back it up. Her friends start having a hard time keeping up with her. She has to deal with having these powers (that aforementioned identity crisis) and relating to ponies who are considerably more mortal than she is. It's fitting that Rampage's idealization of Blackjack really comes to the forefront in this book: she's the only one who can match BJ's newfound superpowers.
Getting back to that expansion of motivations: Somber is hellbent on not letting any of his character be without sympathy. I think I may have mentioned this last book, but every villain has at least someone to mourn them. Deus's backstory continues to unfold and be amazingly tragic in book three, for instance. And if you'll remember back to book two, I mentioned an old antagonist of his, now a monster capable of controlling manticores. Remember how I said she unabashedly enjoyed being a monster? Well, even she gets some sympathy when she dies in this book. After the revelation that she likes fucking manticores, I was really not in the mood to sympathize with her. :|
Much as I praised this "no monsters" creed in book two, in book three it started irritating me, culminating with the death of Brass there, though I was at least appreciative when it was applied to Sanguine. The shadowy, mostly-background villain for two books now, he reaches his end about halfway through book three, after revealing why he was personally looking for EC-1101: to unseal a project that would save his family, kept preserved in stasis pods and slowly going insane for the last two centuries. He even teams up with Blackjack, as her friends urge her again and again to kill him, and this leads into another big book three events: party changes.
With the death of Sanguine — I wasn't sorry to see him go (watching him go feral was kind of awesome), but again, I liked the tragedy given to his backstory by the end — Psychoshy finds out that she wasn't as important to him as he was to her. Rather than leave her to die with him, Blackjack drags her along (and beats an unstoppable giant robot to death with an elevator; it's kind of amazing), and she eventually joins the party.
Now, given how much I rolled my eyes when she first appeared in the story, Psychoshy has grown on me. I can't believe I just wrote that sentence. But we find out her backstory — she is indeed the daughter of Fluttershy and OIA Director Goldenblood, her real name is "Whisper", and she was taken by Sanguine back when he was Doctor Trueblood and kept in stasis for two hundred years, which is why she's both alive and crazy — and she slowly goes through a character arc from "raving, homicidal psycho-bitch" to "honestly just kinda tsundere", with a lot of help from a new character…
The batpony. :/
:/
Stygius is a prince of the batpony race, long hidden away from the world, first after the fall of Nightmare Moon, and again after the death of Luna. Blackjack meets him after getting out of a mental hospital (more on this later) and decides he's really cute and she wants to jump him super-hard.
This should be raising a lot of questions in the reader. Instead of answering them, I'm going to address the third issue: Project Horizons has too many characters.
I can't deny this one, either. I mean, look at that motherfucking spreadsheet I linked above. Granted, it's everyone, important or barely mentioned, but that's still a lot of goddamn characters.
So more of an issue is something directly related to book three: without the main cast, the stakes aren't as high because the characters you really care about aren't in danger.
To catch you up, suffice to say there's a lot of splitting up. A jaunt to Hippocratic Research — an MAS (I think) organization run by the Flim-Flam Brothers — leads the party through a deadly forest and ultimately into some conveniently misplaced Killing Joke, which necessitates Glory, Lacunae and Scotch Tape teleporting to the Fluttershy Medical Center to the save the life of the latter. After the other three fight their way through, leading to Sanguine's death and Psychoshy's retrieval — oh yes, and let's not forget the addition of a "blank", i.e., soulless pony body created for organs, called Boo, who Blackjack basically treats like a loyal dog — they meet up back at Fluttershy and Blackjack decides she can't keep endangering everyone. So she sends them all back home to Chapel and takes off on her own.
At this point, she's being chased by the Harbingers, a cult of Core-worshipping nutjobs who want Blackjack's Pipbuck because what else would they want, honestly? They're a fun bunch, supported by the Thing In The Core, which can replicate objects; much like how Stable 99's raider-infected inhabitants were more of a threat than standard Wasteland raiders, the Harbingers' Seekers have brand-new firearms and armor, and are that much more deadly for it.
Blackjack holes up in an old factory and meets four gangers. Here, we get a lot more of that sympathetic backstory, learning, for instance, that the Flash Fillies are a refuge for rape victims, and all the gangs in general are sops for ponies who have suffered particular traumas. Blackjack charms them all into helping her fight off the Seekers — after nearly killing one for touching her ass; don't laugh, this is important later — one of them dies, and I got really attached to Bluebell, the Highlander (think The Hooffields and McColts, if they were a single gang). I mean, you can't not like someone who introduces herself with body slams.
Then Blackjack and Bluebell end up in an old prison called Yellow River, where a band of zebras is trying to keep a horde of Enclave out. Infiltrating the place, they run into a zebra technician named Xanthe who identifies Blackjack as the zebras' fabled "Star Maiden" and never shuts up about being cursed. (It was funny at first, but given how much Xanthe shows up in book three, it got old quickly.) They also run into Twister, from book one, who's not with the Enclave outside, and helps them find some stuff. Bluebell makes out with one of the Enclave soldiers and it's totes adorbs. :D (BoomBell OTP)
Telling Bluebell to take her message (and Taurus Zodiac's rifle, 'cuz he was her brother) back to her mother, Blackjack peels off and the mental hospital stuff happens, after which, batpony. So they go off, find Goldenblood's old house, fuck a lot, fight off Steel Rain (because he's not dead, of course and also not voiced by me yet D:), and then Rampage, Lacunae and Psychoshy show up. Psychoshy and Stygius make lots of blushy faces at each other; I was more okay with her wanting to fuck him than Blackjack wanting to.
After this, they all move on to another old prison called Hightower, which is where EC-1101 is directing Blackjack to next, the siege upon which takes up the final five or so chapters of the book. By the time we've gotten through a cool Ocean's 11 heist-planning sequence, our party consists of:
Blackjack
Rampage
Lacunae
Psychoshy
Stygius
a ghoul nurse named Graves (the planning stage takes place in a town populated by ghouls)
a ghoul griffon mercenary named Carrion
another ghoul named Mr. Shears, the one who knows how to get into Hightower
Silver Spoon, dredged up from book 1 for feral ghoul control purposes
Xanthe
and a Mr. Gutsy robot named Cerberus, who hates ghouls and zebras alike and can't do anything about either because of his combat inhibitor
I may have forgotten someone. And they get two more ghouls once they're in the prison. Now look back over those last few paragraphs and take in the scope of party changes Blackjack goes through. That's a lot of characters.
But while I see where the complainant is coming from, I honestly wasn't too bothered by this. Like I said, there was at least one character in each major party change I latched onto, whether the rough-and-tumble Bluebell or the enigmatic Mr. Shears. (I won't spoil his secret; suffice to say it's very satisfying puzzling out his identity.) And hey, there's characters we've always cared about there! I mean, sure, Rampage is never in any real danger (I did love her quipping "Am I still grown-up?" after getting hit by a particularly nasty attack), but she quickly goes a good deal crazier than usual. And, I mean, for a while there, Blackjack thinks Lacunae is dead, even though I had not the slightest fear that she was right. :B
Okay, well, all I can say is that I really enjoyed watching Blackjack interact with different characters, and different combinations of characters. I never got tired of the additions; Xanthe eventually grew on me with her moe zebraness, and Cerberus, for all that he's even more one-note than she is, is thankfully not around all that long. His departure, in fact, involves him falling off the top of Hightower while shouting "For Equestria!" and VisualPony did such a good job with the fadeout that I nearly died laughing. So there's that. :)
(If there's anything that lowers the stakes, it's knowing that the combination "one hour until balefire explosion" and "Blackjack's soul is going to leave her body soon" aren't actually going to matter at all. I mean, you know everyone's gonna get out, it's not that kind of story. :B)
Actually, I need to segue here. One thing I was disappointed in is that large parts of the Hightower sequence, especially the characters, are pulled directly from the games. Now, I've experienced both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas since reading FoE, so I understand them a little better, but I sure as hell don't know everything about them. And finding out that not only were Carrion and his master, "Ahuizotl" (I don't know why that name was used), are more-or-less similar to characters from one game or the other, but that Cerberus was ripped directly from their 'pages', if you will, was a tremendous disappointment. Project Horizons is a lot of things, but "derivative" has not generally been one of them.
But yes, there are quite a lot of 'main' characters in book three, and not all of them are equally important. But out of them, Stygius at least serves a very important, very unique role: helping Blackjack cope with her rape.
I was very pleased to see this become a thread — Blackjack dealing with rape, not Blackjack fucking batponies — because for a while there, it seems like BJ isn't really affected by it. She doesn't really bring it up, and whenever it is brought up, she just sort of matter-of-factly says "I was raped, I was trying to save Scotch" and toughs onward.
But coming face-to-face with the fact that she hasn't dealt with it, that she can't just leave that pain behind, is another on the long list of "heavy subjects well depicted" that Project Horizons and Somber can claim credit for. (Another very good thread is the revelation that P-21 is addicted to Med-X and has been since before he left Stable 99. It leads directly into him telling Scotch that he's her father, and the scene in chapter 49 where she calls him "Daddy" got me teary. ;_;) Even a journey through some leftover psychological equipment isn't enough for her to realize she has a problem; that, instead, is the attempted murder of the Burner Boy ganger I mentioned earlier. By the time she meets Stygius, she realizes she can't be around stallions other than P-21 without feeling on edge at the very least, and blindly murderous at the worst.
So she fucks the batpony. And it's important that she fucks the batpony, because it proves to her that she can control herself — she's very afraid during the act that she'll lash out and kill him, something it would be very easy to do, given her mechanical legs — that she can trust herself to be around males without lashing out. This comes with the added benefits of making her feel "like a real pony", as sex is one of the few non-filtered experiences she has left in her new body, and reaffirming her bisexuality.
Of course, what it does not affirm is her relationship with Glory. With Littlepip, her straying seemed like an "in the moment" kind of thing, presented mostly for shits and giggles (Homage and Glory get them back with revenge-makeouts, it was kind of awesome :V). But when Stygius rolls around (and it must be noted that he's really more of a plot device no pun intended than a character), it turns out that Blackjack has no concept of the idea of "monogamy", because of the way she was brought up. I found it a very intriguing notion, one that made perfect sense given her character and the fact that of course Glory wouldn't think to talk with her about something like that, because who doesn't understand monogamy? (Spoilers: it's Blackjack.) Sadly, by the end of book three, this plot thread has only reached a head, with Glory knocking BJ the fuck out and no actual resolution. :C It's gonna be a long wait.
Okay, I think it's time to wrap things up. Let me just consult my notes, the grand bulk of which I have been ignoring here…
One nice thing about book three is that Blackjack gets to see the positive results of all her crusading. While they're chasing Sanguine around, they head back to Flank and see that, while it's suffered losses, it was able to ultimately repel the attack thanks to the security upgrades Blackjack left behind. Then, at the end of the book, she returns to Riverside, which is quickly growing into a bustling community. "Trade will save the Wasteland" continues to be one of my favorite things about this story and getting to see it in action is really satisfying. :)
That reminds me of something that's been irking me: the timeline. I mentioned how this fits into FoE thanks to the scene with Littlepip. Fallout: Equestria takes place over the course of two months, as I recall. Project Horizons has so far spanned one, and every time I hear that it's only been days or weeks since such and such happened, I find myself unable to believe it. But there's a simple explanation: there's literally zero downtime between major events. Blackjack and company never rest, which is why them going back to Chapel while she tears off after the Seekers is such a prominent departure. Granted, it's also not a good thing.
I guess I should let that lead into what I've been dancing around: the mental hospital sequence. Quite honestly, chapters — I believe — 41 through 43 are the far and away best I've seen, at least as good as the "disremember two days" ploy from FoE. Blackjack checks herself into a still-functional, automated mental institution, hoping to deal with some recent trauma. We don't learn about that until afterward, however; instead, we're treated to an AU where Blackjack is a mental patient in a regular pre-war hospital, surrounded by various characters from PH's past as well as its present, being told by a non-ghoulified Dr. Trueblood that the "Wasteland" is a construct of her mind, where she can play the hero and avoid dealing with her problems.
(Hilariously, the mental hospital simulation is dreamed up by the medical equipment because every time it tried to show her nice scenes of a life with her friends or her mother, she'd smell a rat and kill everyone.)
This is brilliant for two reasons. First, it actually involves two characters in the middle of a post-apocalypse setting sitting down and discussing just what it is that makes post-apocalypse such a compelling genre. Once again, I had that "the narrative just made me its bitch" feeling, and I loved it.
Secondly, and more deviously, this chapter came after two things. The first is a 'dream' of some sort, where Blackjack sees herself as Psalm, assisting Goldenblood while he was teaching at Littlehorn. (The significance of that name should be plain to FoE fans.) Again, her friends make an appearance, this time as foals (and timid, nerdy filly Rampage is the best thing ever, just sayin'). But more importantly, about a chapter before that, Somber has an author's note, no doubt from the original posting on GDocs, wondering aloud if the story's getting too long and if he should start wrapping things up soon.
Imagine it: you're a Project Horizons fan, reading the last forty-odd chapters as they go up, sometimes rereading them again and again. The author has recently said something about wanting to wrap things up soon. And now here you are, with a chapter that starts us off with, "Oh, all that Wasteland stuff? It was all in your head, you're actually crazy."
Like I said, devious, and I love it. :3
On that note, issue number five: Project Horizons is too long.
Yup. :B
It sure as fuck is.
But to the person who brought that up, I say this: You don't know long. I am editing a story right now that is long. It contains stupid amounts of detail, dragging on and on and on, and I am doing my damnedest to convince the author to cut it waaaay the fuck down. Fallout: Equestria got long because Kkat was mimicking the games too closely and adding in tons of pointless sidequests. Project Horizons seems over its sidequesting days, and though it's still long, it is neither wordy nor pointless. Every divergence has been interesting in one way or another. I think I only yelled at book three to hurry up once, and that's pretty good, from where I sit. You do not know long. D:
Back to the notes. One thing I like is the fourth Horse of the Apocalypse (remember them?), the dragon-half filly named Precious. She ends up being besties with Scotch Tape and I love it. :D
I did not get my dander up over Sanguine until he shot Charity. YOU DO NOT HURT BEST FILLY. >:| Oh yeah, and he kills Priest, which I didn't bat an eye at. The moment that dude hooked up with P-21, I knew he was toast one way or another. But yeah, that sequence was a good way of making Sanguine's crimes really personal for me, the reader.
Remember when I mentioned they run into Killing Joke outside that research center? It causes Blackjack to start blowing shit up by touching it (worth noting, KJ apparently the only thing Rampage is honestly afraid of), and it turns Glory into Rainbow Dash. :| This is kind of dumb, and at the end of book three, still in effect. I'm ready for it to end now.
Ol' Hank is the real victim in this story. :(
As a character, Boo is really a non-issue for me. It seems like she's got the potential to be more than just a mascot, but right now, her main traits are adorably headbutting people (hoping to get snack cakes), pooping everywhere (at least it's funny), and burping loudly at inopportune moments. (From my notes: "she burps, she poops, she's a real pony! :V") Given where Rampage has gone in this story, I have hope she'll actually leave an impact on me in time.
Oh yeah, speaking of Rampage, we find out more or less the entirety of her backstory over the course of this book, including the identities of pretty much everyone inside her head. Suffice to say, I was most pleased, even if it kind of all gets shoved to the edges of "what's going on in the main plot". Also, she somehow becomes the party's moral center. I'm not sure how that happened.
There's a fifth Horse of the Apocalypse, I guess? The phoenix one, who explodes and reforms constantly. She gets Signals'd, in one of the story's few real letdown moments. :/ I mean, it made sense, it was just kind of dumb and anticlimactic.
I mentioned P-21's Med-X addiction earlier. It is, again, one of those issues the story deals well with… Except when the idea is first brought to Blackjack's attention. She, perhaps understandably, denies that P-21 is an addict, because she has a very whitewashed idea of what an "addict" is, e.g. a homeless junkie shivering in a backalley. This denial extends to ridiculous lengths during a scene where Rampage PSA's all over her, trying to convince her P-21 needs help. The addiction arc does eventually get dealt with in a way that lands it squarely on that "things done right" list (alongside and entangled with P-21's suicide attempt back at the arena), but that scene is one of the story's few real missteps when it comes to stuff like that.
How could I forget? Out of all the characters in this story, the one I least expected to ever surprise me was the one who got the biggest reveal in this chapter: The Dealer. We learn that he is not, in fact, part of Blackjack's subconscious, instead being a self-professed assistant to Goldenblood who was soulbound to EC-1101 for… reasons, I forget exactly. But knowing that he's got actual agency, and an agenda, recasts his appearances in the story so far. I honestly want to go back and reread all his scenes with that in mind and see if it changes anything. We still don't know who he is, of course (my money's on Garnet, though it seems ol' GB had a bunch of assistants), but I feel like the story is close to letting us know. Or it could stretch on till the very end, who knows. :B
In one of the other "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME" moments, they discover Discord in the basement of Hippocratic Research. It turns out that Flux (which I honestly cannot remember the purpose of, it just seems to be extra-Taint) is a substance extracted from his statue. Blackjack frees him, because why the fuck wouldn't she. Discord then helps them by trashing that aforementioned unstoppable robot with as many stupid references as possible. I was not happy about this. :| (At least Somber got "Discord doesn't kill" right.)
Oh yes, along with The Thing In The Core, there is also something trying to counteract it. I'm 100% certain that one or the other is Goldenblood, who we find out was ordered to be executed the day before the bombs dropped. Since he was never killed, that absolutely means he's still alive in one way or another. :V I wouldn't be surprised if the other thing was Horse, though at this point, it's more likely that Celestia's dad is the Thing and Goldenblood is fighting it.
Speaking of Goldenblood's assistant/rival/replacement Horse, he gets a big memory orb scene. In this scene, we find out that he's obsessed with Sweetie Belle, which of course means that he made a Sweetie Bot. As fandom references go, I was actually okay with this one, because it was presented in terms of Horse being a completely fucking creepy asshole. :D (His rapport with Goldenblood is fun, though.)
For all that I had no worries about Lacunae dying in Hightower, I was fully convinced that Somber was willing to off Scotch Tape after the Killing Joke incident. I'm not sure why; perhaps because losing track of Lacunae in the middle of a fight just meant that she could make a dramatic entrance at a narratively convenient moment later on. I'd hope I'm not just relying on tropes to fuel hunches. :/
Another really interesting thread running through book three is a question lingering in the back of all the backstory scenes: What if Equestria had won the war? No definitive answer has been given, but the survey says things wouldn't have gone back to sunshine and rainbows.
Blackjack gets a ringside seat shortly after Littlepip massacres the cannibals of Arbu. She then takes this to heart as a lesson in what to do, and kills a bunch of fuckers. I found this hilarious. :V
A really big arc, culminating in Blackjack going to the mental ward, is that Blackjack is afraid of sleep. As she puts it, "If I sleep, I'll die again". Once again, her dealing with her own trauma (poorly) helps make this story work. She starts acting more and more erratic as she goes without sleep — her body won't give out and make her sleep, it's something she has to monitor manually because she's playing on hardcore mode now — and despite the fact that she knows her fears are irrational, she can't make herself sleep because she's just that afraid of either dying or waking up as less of herself. (Pleasantly, there's no "one problem" for Blackjack in this book.)
And since I forgot to mention it, the event that leads her to finally seek help? She kills a filly. Well, cripples and nearly kills her, but doesn't find out about that until much later. And she finally gets some sleep after she meets Stygius. Goldenblood's place is protected by a force field, which is of course why it gets burnt to the ground. I was sad. :(
Along with Rampage getting a lot of backstory, Lacunae gets a ton of character growth in this book. It makes me realize that she wasn't so much lacking in character when introduced as she was understandably standoffish. (This, along with a lot of other revelations, could always be ass-covering, but if it is, it doesn't feel like ass-covering.) The two look similar up close, of course. But just like Rampage, she has a lot of respect and admiration for Blackjack, and her status as Goddess Emotion Dump keeps her as the emotionally grounded one, believe it or not.
If there's any one scene that truly endeared Psychoshy to me, it's right before Blackjack splits off from the group. They all kit BJ out with stuff, including decorating her armor, and Psychoshy spray-paints "SECURTY" on the back. I mean, that's just precious. :D
In one of the more ridiculous scenes in this story, Blackjack kills someone — a zebra, I think — by throwing up molten glass on their face, which instantly hardens.
One of the better philosophical tangents in this story deals with blame. The idea is that fault does not belie responsibility. In other words, a lot of things that have happened to Blackjack, even that she's done, are not her fault, but she's still responsible for them. I really dug this, and I wish I could remember the full nuance of the debate.
For all that I was mad at Somber for including batponies, for making them teleport (did I forget to mention that? It's dumb), and for making them talk at hypersonic frequencies, which is at least funny, thank god he never calls them anything besides that. :V
Another character getting too much sympathy is Goldenblood. <.< I mean, the 'death' of his daughter destroying him is one thing; it lets us see him as human. (Well, pony.) But if he turns out to be the thing countering The Thing In The Core, I'm gonna be majorly pissed off. Well, only if Blackjack lets him off the hook too much. There's lots of potential for him to completely flip from Devil in Pony Form to Savior of the Wasteland and that's Blackjack, I mean her karma's maxed out.
The Cake Twins show up in that Littlehorn flashback, and a few others besides. It bothers me that I'm not sure why. I mean, there seems to be more importance to their appearance than meets the eye, but I can't work out what.
It's hinted that Blackjack screwed around with Scotch Tape's mom once upon a time. This is weird. It's considerably less weird than Discord French-kissing her. Also, there's a Steel Ranger who tries to make out with her. Blackjack gets all the mares. :V
I was very touched by a pair of scenes where Blackjack turns her Pipbuck broadcaster on and talks as if she's addressing her friends, without knowing whether they or anyone else will hear what she's saying.
In one of the story's less agreeable fandom references, Velvet from the ask Tumblr of the same name shows up. It's completely baffling. <.< I mean, why her? I'm proud of myself for making the connection, though, considering I've never read that one.
A scene in Meatlocker, the ghoul town, involves Blackjack stumbling upon a dead ghoul. Right behind her is the town constable. Thankfully, said constable is actually a good detective and doesn't just immediately assume Blackjack killed this ghoul for the sake of excess drama. I was so thankful.
This story taught me that I will believe a villain whose motivation is greed, if they are upfront about that being their motivation. It also taught me not to drink detergent with booze. :V
Each book so far has had a traceable villain arc. In book 1, the villain was Deus; in book 2, it was the Steel Rangers, who she stopped by destroying their headquarters. In book 3, Sanguine nearly fits that role, except for the part where he starts helping Blackjack and then dies around the halfway point. So instead, we get a boss fight with the Warden of Hightower. And I'm not even kidding: it's the >videogamesest shit I have ever seen in this story. I was monumentally disappointed.
A much better referential joke was them fighting Smooze on the way up Hightower. :V Xanthe endeared herself to me by calling it by name.
I was very pleased that it took until right now for us to get a scene of Macintosh's Marauders meeting each other for the first time. On that note, I don't know why it never occurred to me before that Doof's name is "food" backwards, but it turns out his special talent is eating. :V
Oh yeah, that potential shark-jumping I mentioned earlier? Linked to Blackjack suddenly being able to contact Unity; this is why she thinks Lacunae dies in Hightower. I'm going to try really hard to forget that that happened, and maybe it will go away. :B
Blackjack being really good at playing Octavia's bass is thankfully lampshaded. Seriously, that's some ass-covering I will gratefully accept.
There's a good pair of contrasting monologues in chapter 49. The first is delivered by the filly Blackjack savaged in the tunnels before the mental hospital. She refuses to forgive Blackjack because she feels it would be worthless, and all Blackjack wants is to be able to feel good about herself. Forgiving her wouldn't mean shit against all the things this kid's been through. In her own words, ain't no such thing as good ponies. This is refuted later by Stygius, of all ponies, who gets a magical talking helmet when his people come looking for him and he… well, he basically says the opposite. :B I guess it wasn't as memorable as the filly's speech, but I appreciated the interplay there.
I mentioned that some would quibble with chapter 49 being included in book three. Aside from "Somber told me so" and "VisualPony's book bumper comes after it", my rationale is that it's the rest and catharsis needed after the trials of Hightower. It marks a real turning point, as all the various "new" party members go their separate ways — Psychoshy flies off to become a batpony princess which is all she deserves, the new ghouls move into Meatlocker, etc. — and Blackjack finally gets to go back to Chapel and see Glory (poorly though that may have turned out for her). She's also left with a decision as to where to head next, so it's very much the end of one chapter of the journey and the beginning of the next. On that note, I would be really keen to see the further adventures of Silver Spoon, since she teams up with a couple other characters to find Diamond Tiara. (Who, as I recall, is canonically dead. That wouldn't stop it from being a good story, though.)
So, to the final issue: comedy stifling action scenes. Honestly, not something that bothered me much. There aren't many examples of funny things happening in the middle of fights (the line referenced in that journal was Psycho complaining about wanting to talk to "a really hot guy" while beating some fuckers to death), and I'd rather have humor than not. I mean, if nothing else, Somber seems to be doing well with "for god's sake, tell a joke". And whether it's Blackjack thinking rubies come from coal, or asking the merc if he could have made his former owner put the gold down before dusting him, having a good joke at the end of a tense, dark scene is really cathartic, and a good way to end things. :)
Speaking of ending things, at the risk of dragging this out longer than necessary lol, I will leave you with some no-context excerpts from my notes:
>tfw Blackjack makes a better P-21 than P-21
aaaand poop joke :V
it's too bad P-21's gay, because now I want him to end up with Rampage <.<
[Goldenblood] was an artist, just like Hitler :V
SHE'S GONNA FUCK THE BATPONY D:
oh no why is he a virgin
oh god I don't want this D:
goddammit, Psychoshy, stop being racist
moving a balefire missile: never a good idea
NEVER A GOOD IDEA
>tfw shouting into Deus's toilet
>tfw you're an embarrassment even to the Goddess
Many thanks to the folks who contributed issues for me to discuss in this journal. :)
Book score: 4/5
Overall score: 2.5/5
Despite some big missteps, this is a high point of the story.
Let's hope it doesn't go too far downhill. :V The next journal will probably not come until next year. It's going to be around the end of the year before VisualPony gets book 4 uploaded, so I'll be waiting until right about then to start it up. I'm sure Somber can get one chapter per month in place no problem in the meantime. :B
Join the Dark Side; We have a wiki.
( and yes I ignored the rest of this journal because I haven't finished reading the original FO:E yet.)
3958319
Your comment about it being a comic book is telling. Maybe I should give this a chance...
3958394 I am confused as to where I mentioned comic books. Perhaps you did not mean to reply to me?
I've . . . run into this problem before.
Pretty much, or in similar territory (I've heard manga/anime too, and being more like Final Fantasy than Fallout).
Would you believe that Stygius was basically to (many) PH readers what
Brad (I'm seriously blanking on his real name right now)Flash Sentry would later be to (many) pony fans generally? The haaaaate directed there was intense, and at a guess he was almost certainly among the top three most hated characters along with Goldenblood and (obviously more among people who disliked or ended up disliking the story) Blackjack. I guess it's not that surprising, given that they can be perceived as filling similar roles.2525912
On a lighter note,
I've actually long been convinced Boo is really a cat.
3958492
No, I hit the wrong button. Sorry, I'm on my phone atm.
Thanks for the amazing review.
So a few replies and let me know if you have specific questions.
First, yeah, I do use FoE a bit. I could have simplified things immensely if I'd set it a year after the events of FoE. Just a year and I wouldn't have had to deal with stuff in FoE because it would be over. But I wanted it happening at the same time, and after half a million words, I wanted BJ to meet LP. Call it fanwank if you want, you wouldn't be wrong. I too have headcanon of the 4 way between all four mares. It's one of many things I've never written, but then I've got whole AU stories where BJ and LP were together in stable 2 so... yeah... >.> Sorry.
Batponies. I like batponies and I wish the show would give us a real batpony episode. If they're just glamoured pegasi, great! But if they're a fourth pony race, better! I have headcanon where Fluttershy was born one and transformed into a pegasi to give her a chance at a normal life, which failed miserably. Stygius was... awkward. I should have introduced him sooner or made him less of a prince charming. In the end, I really could tweak him. Sorry.
Why Velvet? I like her character. At this point I was getting a little burned out and so I put things in if I liked them because... well... why the fuck not! (There are MANY reasons why the fuck not to, but I wasn't listening at that point.)
Good call on it being a comic book. You are ABSOLUTELY right. The problem is that I'm not writing a survival narrative. I'd never played fallout when I started writing Horizons, and only played New Vegas before playing Fo3. The whole story scope is wrong for a fallout story. If I were rewriting it, things would be different. Focused more on mere survival rather than ratcheting the stakes up to eleven. It's more a final fantasy fallout (Hopefully one of the good FF games) than fallout. That was my failing, but it was the trajectory the story was planned towards from the beginning.
The length. Oh, the length. The problem is that there are three novels in Horizons: The Marauders, Lighthooves, and EC-1101. If I'd been smart, I would have made them all their own stories, or distinct trilogies. Instead, they're mashed together like a car wreck. It's a big fail on my part.
Yeah, I introduce a lot of characters in this arc and the next. I hope you love most of them. :)
Oh, the whole FlimFlam thing was essentially the OIA bridging the MAS with the MWT to make commercial goods for sale, with a kickback going to the OIA to fund projects. Really, it was me trying to explain how taint works. There was no need for me to do this. Taint is taint and it fucks you up and mutates you. Nuff said. But I was fixated on why, and so made Discord's own chaotic essence the key ingredient for IMP. Because Discord changes things, and IMP changes things, and wartime Twilight has no problem 'using' an enemy of Equestria to do what she has to do, even if its wrong.
If you don't like the Unity connection... sigh... yeah... It's a thing. There's a reason. There's a fuckton of consequences too.
Anyway, thanks again for all your hard work. Sorry that we won't hear the next one till much later, but that seems par for the course for this year. (2016 is pushing 2001 for shittiest year of my life.). Hope to hear more soon. Your notes are one of the bright points in my life. Take care.
You know, while there's been a break from PH updates here, I've taken some time on and off to go ahead and read ahead what happens.
Ooooooh Celestia are you in for one wild ride. The number of times I said "Oh my, NO WAI!" only to have the story say "Yes Wai!", it's really sort of funny and enjoyable. Plus, a lot of the mysteries and things start getting peeled back, to see how much bigger things are than they were. Sort of how the story expands from Book 1 to 2, and 2 to 3. Same happens in 3 to 4, and so on.
As for the 'superhero comic' line...
Huh. I never thought of it that way. It sounds about right, honestly.
Anyways, looking forward to seeing what you think of Book 4: The Search For A Chapter Where Blackjack Is Happy And Nothing Bad Happens (No, not really the name, but I don't know what I'd call Book 4, so I prefer something silly instead).
PS: Boo is awesome.
3958762
I kind of lost it when Armstrong showed up. Just so much facepalming on my part...
3958604
...Okay, I can see this. Heck, I even felt it a little bit. Also, this explains why Somber was so doom and gloom at me when I got to this book. :B
3958658
I thought you might have meant this at me. <.< I'll caution you, I don't think you'd like PH if you didn't like FoE. (Or do you? I can't remember.)
3958762
Never apologize for having headcanon that is equal parts awesome and dumb. :V
Huh. Okay. I guess I just don't know her is all. :B
I win. I win at everything forever. :D
And I am really looking forward to continuing. I just don't like doing things halfway, and I'm already coming at this story piecemeal as it is.
3959150
How is that not all the books?
3959245
Hey, if you're in the market for one... :V
3958319
Imagine all the things you could do with the hours and days of trashheap prose you would spend wading through the rest of FOE and then go do something more fun, like stapling your genitals to a rodent.
Seriously, both FOE and PH are poster children for one of the biggest issues of "epic" fanfiction : the inability of any fan author to be concise or find an editor to kick them until they manage it. These stories -sprawl-, and while PH is slightly less offensive about it, there are hundreds of thousands of words that could be cut without meaningfully changing the story.
3960047 yeeesh, bröotal assessment.
3960082
I'm harsher towards these stories than some. Mostly because it's got a good premise in a Fallout crossover, but a setting that absolutely wastes most of that potential on slavish imitation of Fallout 3, the weakest of the games. Kkat especially almost entirely misses the whole point of Fallout, which is that it is a satiric take on both cold war terror and Atomic Age futurism.
PH just caries over all the baked in problems of the setting, then adds a woobie for a main character and revolves every plot around traumatizing her to the point that it starts to suggest that the goal was more abuse porn than narrative.
3958762
you wouldn't happen to have put those stories somewhere around the internet for others to read, would you? :D
I'm sad that you didn't like the Discord reveal. As someone who was there when it was just released it was probably (and honestly might still be) the most hype I ever felt for a pony story. It's coming close to four years now and I can still remember exactly when and where I was when I was reading it. Ah, the days when Horizons had a new chapter every week. I believe Book 4 has a possibly more exciting reveal (it's too bad I was so far removed from the story when it ultimately happens) and I know you're going to hate it. But I'll be very happy if you prove me wrong.
One thing I liked about the Seekers/Harbingers is that it's a good in-universe explanation for why the enemies become stronger as your character improves. Maybe that's just me thinking as a video game player first and a fiction reader second though.
I wonder if I may have overemphasized the issues I mentioned in your other journal. I don't want to sound like I'm backtracking, but they weren't things that immediately came to mind when I thought about Project Horizons (granted, I'm not a very critical reader, so that doesn't mean much). Nor did they prevent me from enjoying this story in the slightest.
3960771
I actually thought the appearance of Discord was a good idea. I personally feel you can't do "new" canon (i.e., things introduced by happening in the show, versus things that would have existed before we knew about them, for instance, Pinkie's family) for FoE past season three; whether you consider Discord's reformation to come chronologically last in that season or not determines what all you can include. My point being, seeing authors work season two stuff in is appreciated. I just hated the fact that of course he got released, why wouldn't he, plus all the anime references made me want to die. D:
Good point on the Seekers, though. That's how to literature a video game progression without being >videogames!
3959920
Well, the second was going to be Book 2: The Search for More Money, but then they realized that's pretty much what half of Book 1 was. :V
3960834
Eh, arguably another breaking point was the end of Season Two with the introduction of Cadence and Shining Armor. But it's not like there has to be a cutoff; selective canonicity can be every AU author's best friend. As examples, you'd hardly have to change Rarity's Canterlot and Manehattan boutique arcs at all, the "Friendship Games" stuff (mostly just dropping Cadence being an alicorn, which has tended to matter very little other than in the S4 finale, and not that much even then), or stuff like "Tanks for the Memories" or Troubleshoes or the yaks. To say nothing of Starlight Glimmer and Our Town, and you might even be able to get most of the season opener/closer with her to still work with a bit of fudging. Having her as Twilight's student, less so. (It also lets you do fun stuff like assume "Bats!" never happened.)
On the releasing Discord thing, I get that. It's one of those cases where her idealism causes her to make highly dubious from a practical standpoint (and often unsatisfying from an emotional one!) decisions.
As far as the connection between PH and comics goes, there's actually one in particular that is strongest for me. I tend to see a lot in common between Blackjack and Wonder Woman, particularly aspects of their morality or ideals. Compassion plays a strong role for both, and not only does WW often put an emphasis on trying to give her antagonists a chance to change their ways (not as an afterthought, but as a core matter), often her role in leaving her home is to be an ambassador of peace to the world of man, to show them how to do better.
On which note, back to your "these things are more ridiculous when you summarize them," that's definitely a comic book thing, isn't it? :V
For example, actual dialog from the most recent issue of The Legend of Wonder Woman:
3959920
It's true.
Although, you know, something I find sort of interesting about PH is how much parts of its theme show up in Fallout 4. In my own head-canon, you might as well just let The Hoof be The Commonwealth. The only thing the Commonwealth doesn't have is Preston telling Blackjack that another settlement needs her help. I think that makes The Hoof the superior location. More dangerous, maybe, but MUCH less annoying.
I've read through each of these volume reviews up to this point, and I seem to have an echoing thought in my head after each one.
Post Book 1: Wow, if he hated that [story element], he is NOT going to like Book 5.
Post Book 2: Holy shit, Present is going to give Doug Walker a run for his money when he flips shit about Book 5.
Post Book 3: HAHAHAHAHAHA.
I wait with bated breath.~~
3965541
fuck D:
I'm saving this quote. Suffice to say, it's the one aspect of PH that I felt was a massive misstep.
I might comment more later, but suffice to say that it is great reading these reviews. They really make me remember why I loved reading PH so much.
I just realized book 4 ends in 6 more chapters from chapter 60. Fuuuuuuuuck.
I really enjoy reading these review blogs though. So helpful to remind me what happened in this book 4. That spreadsheet is going to be super helpful when I need it for recalling who is who on the side characters.
You mention something about a fandom reference to
Friendship is Witchcraft with Sweetie Botto Velvet from an ask Tumblr. Forgive me if I come off as clueless, but I literally need to look this one up.. who? And when? Nevermind, I'll make use of this spreadsheet with responsible browsing. Ah, Ch. 45 in Meatlocker she was the Clothier. I did not know that she was a fandom reference.I am quite new to the longer-story side of fanfiction. So you have struck my curiosity. What story would be bigger than Project Horizons in length?
So Somber himself says this is Fallout with Final Fantasy. Well, I'm game for this ride to the very end. In it for the long haul and the waiting.
3973372
There are actually a couple. The Chase is probably the most infamous, though Diaries of a Madman has, as far as I can tell, been updating consistently since 2012.
As for Velvet, she was one of the very first wave of Pony Ask Tumblrs way back in the birth of the fandom. I was never a fan, but I see her from time to time still.
3973598
Wow, 900+ chapters on the first one. Although the second one is going since 2012, that is crazy.
3964962
I'd for years thought that Hoofington could be a good fit for either Boston or San Francisco based on the high-tech, military-research orientation. Weather pushes more towards SF, as does the presence of mountains around, and the history as being in many ways being a more recently established boom town rather than one of the oldest cities in the country. The river and prevalence of biotech/health sciences stuff going on in Hoofington kind of push the other way, as does being in the east, as did Hoofington mostly not being a good fit with SF from Fallout 2, even if some similarities existed (existed the cult building the rocket, maybe the Remnant as similar to the Chinese in the sub at a big stretch, or the sub itself for the Celestia). Anyway, neat if that impression turned out to be more valid than just imposing patterns on noise and motivated reasoning.
3973372
Doesn't Four end with 62.2?
3973598
I find it a fun coincidence that both it and the story immediately above it on the list have one of their most recent published chapters titled "Turbulence."
i86.servimg.com/u/f86/19/20/85/73/untitl10.png
3979224
If book 4 ends with Chapter 62(.2) I would not know yet. I have not read past Ch. 60 as I prefer to wait for the fimfiction upload for unread chapters. It's just so much easier to read and estimate how long a chapter will take roughly.
3979519
Somber pegs it as 66. :B
3979988
He should really talk to whoever's in charge of the hub page (spoilers if you read the Volume descriptions, I guess), because both the 49/50 split and 66/67 (65/66?) aren't reflected on the table of contents/hub page. And in this instance, though there might be a specific moment that would justify a split at the later point rather than the currently marked 62.2/63 division thematically (which, incidentally would probably argue in favor of the currently marked 48/49 split for book 3 into book 4, while for some of the reasons you brought up including the reuniting of the party right at the end of 49 there's a structural argument in favor of the 49/50 split you've been talking about), I think there really is a much better structural case for book four to end at 62.2. There's a freaking three month time skip! And it starts with a chapter teasing the whole time the possibility Blackjack is dead if you don't pay close attention to the very beginning. And the Volume Five description (which contains the same info as the spoiler <= that-a-way) doesn't even make sense with the later split. Also, the logic that would put the break at 66 would probably call for a sixth volume only a few chapters long and Books One and Two to be merged.
TL;DR: I think 62.2 makes a much more natural end to Volume Four than anywhere else could. Ending 3 at 48 or 49 is squishier, but I'd think the later Volume 4/5 divide would significantly reinforce the case for the 3/4 split at 48 over 49.
All that said, if that's what Somber is saying, I guess that's how it is.
ETA: Looking at the Book Four description has me more ambivalent than ever about the appropriate location for its start; I think you could use it to justify either. But that description also works better with Four ending at 62.2, IMO.
3980651
Geez, that would make book 4 huge. D:
3980911
What? Book 4 = chapters 49 to (65 or 66) compared to 50 to (65 or 66)? I don't see one chapter making that much of a difference, even bearing in mind 49 is one of the longer chapters (especially since I'm pretty sure 65 is the longest chapter that wasn't split). And I'm the one supporting divisions that give a short book 4 here. :p
3981041
Uh
Yeah
I dunno, I'm retarded sometimes
3979224
Disregard my previous reply. I can confirm now from the Project Horizons Google docs Index page that Book/Volume 4 ends at Chapter 62 part 2. Which makes more lick of sense what you meant by Ch. 62.2 I was not expecting a two parter, where part 2 is 34,040 words.. oh well, more hours to expend, and to me it's well worth it.
I really loved Stygius in his introductory chapter, but he didn't really do anything important in Hightower, and then he cucked my favorite waifu in this story and had an awful departure that came out of nowhere and made no sense.
It occurred to me over the course of WCPC last weekend while discussing this story with some friends that I hadn't read your review of this arc yet. I've just finished, and well...
Welllll... <.<
Based on what I know of your opinions of the first three books at this point, I feel like I can already tell what you're going to love and hate for the rest of the story. And I don't think we have a word to describe the hate you'll feel for some book 5 events. >.>;; Hoooo boi (gigaloathe?)
All in all, it's great to be able to compare/contrast opinions on the depths PH goes, especially in its shifts with humor/drama/action. Looking forward to more, and totes open for discussions on the story in general. :P
4488080
It's funny, I was working on the book 4 review today, thought I'd lost it, found out I didn't, and kind of had a shitty day anyway. This has practically nothing to do with your comment. :B
How do you read the blacked out spoilers in that spreadsheet of characters?
Also "Shouting into deus's toilet" LMAO
4629541
Click the cell, and you'll be able to see the contents up above. There's a line that shows you the cell contents, regardless of what they look like.