Vren55's Summer Plugging Reviews: Gunsmoke by Wanderer D · 4:07am Jun 9th, 2016
My next summer review is for a fairly famous writer, but this particular story of his is one that I really think that people should read more.
Desert Mirage lives in a world full of guns, lasers, explosives and people competing to be the best of the best. There she excels at what she does: hunting. She started as a nobody, and yet became one of the most sought-after gunslingers.
Sunset Shimmer was practically born the best of the best. Selected by none other than Princess Celestia to be her prized student... until she ran away to another world in search of power. Through trials and suffering she was eventually taught humility and friendship.
At first blush, they don't have much in common. But their connection runs deep, and sooner or later it will change their worlds forever.
Vren's TL;DR (Too Long, Didn't Read) Verdict: "The author of Gunsmoke fires full metal jacket bullets of comedy, drama, feels, and crowning moments of awesome with writing skill akin to the precision of sniper rifle, even if, like a sniper rifle, it does take a moment to get set up."
Now, I'll make this clear, this is a crossover story with Sword Art Online's Gun Gale Online, one of the many anime that has a bunch of people trapped in a virtual reality MMORPG video game and end up having to literally fight their way out of it when it turns out that dying in the game is real. I can cite similar and better examples such as .hack//
The bottom line is, I don't like SAO. I haven't watched it, but I hate it simply due to what I know of the confusing plot...and the main character Kirito who is the Gary Stu of all Gary Stus. The greatest thing about this anime is frankly it's music, but hell it's composed by Yuki Kajiura, who is like the goddess of epic music. You can't NOT respect or like anything she composes. I mean, listen to it.
I really should make an iphone playlist dedicated to her music...
But the point is, when I started reading this story, it was basically because it was written by Wanderer D, fimfiction moderator extraordinaire, good writer, and a... I hesitate to say this because I'm not sure how to describe this, acquaintance/fellow author on fimfiction.net who I have chatted with on occasion and has always given me useful advice. I still need to do that Princess Celestia: The Changeling Queen and The Three Sisters crossover with him.... (seriously, read The Three Sisters series. READ IT!!!)
But I digress, Gunsmoke starts with Sunset Shimmer who is going to school with her friends sometime after the Friendship Games and working with Earth's Science Twilight on some research involving Gun Gale Online, an MMORPG, but except with swords and magic, with guns and abilites (with a slightly Borderlands feel to it, especially with weapon customization). Sunset is Science Twilight's test subject and is playing Gun Gale Online as Twilight monitors her vitals. In this game, Sunset takes the identity of Desert Mirage, a wisecracking gunslinger.
It is during this time that Wanderer starts to introduce the conflicts in the story. Without spoiling too much, he starts using the world of Gun Gale Online to introduce Sunset so some new friends, while providing a realistic and rather dramatic conflict between Sunset, and the Rainbooms, particularly Rainbow Dash. As Sunset settles in further with her new friends though, that's when Wanderer throws a curveball that kicks everything into high gear.
All of this Wanderer carries out with excellent exposition and spot on dialogue.
That's all and great vren55, but what's this story about?
The problem is, I'm not sure how to tell you all without spoiling the entire thing. It's essentially Sunset Shimmer having a dramatic adventure both in the world of Gun Gale Online and out of it with several subplots that all become very neatly wrapped up towards the end.
This is because reading Gunsmoke is like watching a gun fire in really slow motion. You don't quite understand how it's all going to come together at the beginning as the various, highly polished story components move toward its final result. However, kinda like when the hammer finally hits the striker and ignites the powder, you get to a point in the story when all the buildup really just pay off, the point when you're enthralled by how the bullet is charging down the gun barrel and flying towards the target and hit a bulls eye.
Unfortunately, that also means if I decide to just tell you what happens, I'll spoil the effect of Wanderer's decisions. He does a lot to build up the intrigue and mystery of why Sunset is participating in the Gun Gale Online game and the main conflict doesn't appear until the latter part of the story, though it is excellently set up through the subplots. Suffice it to say, Wanderer exploits the existence of Gun Gale Online in Equestria Girls to create a crossover that is in the best of words... natural. Instead of just dumping Gun Gale Online into the Equestria Girls Universe, Wanderer D integrates it with the characters backstories (Twilight's and Luna's in particular). Additionally, Wanderer also uses the canon personalities of Sunset, the Rainbooms, Principals Luna and Celestia, and the Equestrians to create good drama, and then creates supporting OCs that play off of the cast. All of these characters interact with each other very organically, in a manner that makes one feel they aren't reading a book, but actually watching the characters interact with each other right in front of them.
Moreover, he makes the world of Gun Gale Online fairly accessible and understandable to someone who hasn't watched SAO. As long as they have some experience on how MMORPG games work, they'd be fine and even then, Wanderer's focus on the characters interaction with the environment means that the reader doesn't have to watch SAO to get the danger the characters get into and the tension they feel.
What makes this fic into my "best stories" folder though, was how Wanderer hit the dramatic moments he needed to hit. It's not the kind of drama you get in my stories where it's complicated with complicated motivations and complicated resolutions... Wanderer makes the moments in his story rather simple, and they all really shine, the tense ones, the OH CRAP THIS HAPPENED ones, the teeth-gnashing ones... These moments are executed perfectly throughout the story and built up well beforehand.
Of course though, there are some weaknesses with Gunsmoke. It's first chapter is grabbing, but it is difficult for people to understand and get, and hence that was likely the was a reason why when it was initially published, it only got 15-7 rating in the first 24 hours, even when it was written by a famous author such as Wanderer D. There are also moments in the story too when basic MMORPG info might not be enough to enable the reader complete understanding of what is going on, or might lead to the reader having to to back and re-reading the same passage due to the density of the explanation. That being said, i for the most part, understood the importance of the discussions the characters were having and how they felt about it, which was the most important thing Wanderer had to accomplish as an author of such a crossover.
Additionally, while the summary is good for the story as it hides all its necessary secrets, it doesn't reveal much and the beginning of the story hooks the reader by intrigue and through the "i'm not quite sure what is happening and I want an explanation for this hook". I say this, because the reader later finds out the story starts in media res (Aka, in the middle), which helps to build its initial intrigue and hook the reader into the story, but also makes it a tad confusing and mystifying at the beginning until the explanatory chapters are reached.
This made getting into the story very difficult when it was in its beginning stages. Now, one could read up to the explanatory chapters and have everything click, but before, the intrigue and lack of info that drew people into the story also had the tendancy, at least for me, to wonder where this story was going to go. I still liked it, but I wasn't sure where I was going to be reading to at the very beginning and didn't really get invested into Sunset's participation in Gun Gale Online until toward the early-middle when the stakes increased and I started to get an idea of how things worked out and why the game was important to her.
All things said and done, the organic character interaction, strong storytelling and great plot of this rather difficult crossover with an anime I personally have a very low opinion of, leads me to strongly recommend this story to all those interested in wanting to read a good action/adventure fanfic backed by strong drama and great character interactions. The story does take time to build to the point where the reader becomes fully invested into it, but the payoff is really great and readers (such as I) will find themselves speechless with awe at the skill that Wanderer uses to write this story. Granted the story is not complete yet, but I'm 100% certain the ending is going to be FULL OF FEEEEELLLLS.
Yours sincerely,
vren55
Next review: King of Beggar's Twilight Sparkle of the Royal Guard series, two AU stories that shows what might have happened if Twilight had ended up becoming a Royal Guard.
While also including a hell of a lot of horrifying imagery and darkness....
Thanks for the review!
4010338 Your welcome and thanks for the bump on your blog :D