Fic recs, April 3rd! · 8:52pm Apr 3rd, 2017
I'm gonna finish Book 4 of Project Horizons either today or tomorrow. (More likely, since I'm still listening to Hebrew music >.<) I finished PH book 4 today! Now, I'm gonna catch up with all the audiobooks that've been posted in the meantime. I'm also adding a bunch of new channels to the list, just to pad things out a bit. Here's the list of fics they've read that I've already reviewed!
Keyframe:
The Changeling Queen by Wanderer D (with DragonFirePrincess7, AnY Entertainment, Scribbler, Caitbug and Ribonchan)
Hazama Itsuru:
Bloomberg's Last Hurrah by Blueshift
I Couldn't Wake You, Because You Can Never Wake Up Again by AmberWings
DrWh0oves:
Reading Rainbow by Corejo
I Love You, Princess Luna by DontWannaKnow
Lost and Found by Cloudy Skies
The Contest by Cold in Gardez (with Daring Don't)
Nightfire5150:
Silent Ponyville by SamRose
Still a Better Love Story Than Twilight by meme-asaurus
Stuffed Animals by Kaj
lieilengy (Greenlitsky):
Past Sins by Pen Stroke
(funnily enough, he read one of the fics I reviewed for this blog!)
Sunny Skies All Day Long by PhantomFox
A Candle to the Sun by Moabite
Trouble Sleeping by Lurks-No-More
I Love You, Princess Luna by DontWannaKnow
Constellations by The RPGenius
Old Friends by RBDash47
Eternal by Device Heretic
Luna, There's a Sentient Race Inside Your Mane by boardgamebrony
A Simpler Time by DJLowrider
I added channels with the fewest new readings, which is why they have so many I've already done. <.< Also, I found out Ser Aaron took down all his pony content, in case anyone was waiting four yars for me to add him. c.c Hope you like lists!
Not long ago, I mentioned the SCP Foundation was holding their 3000 Contest, ushering a new slate of 1000 possible SCPs with a theme of 'horror'. If you like horror, I definitely recommend checking out the entries, though perhaps not mine. I mean, it's not very horror-y, and if you don't know a lot about SCP stuff, it's not going to have much of an effect. But if you consider yourself a horror fan, you might want to take a gander at some of my favorites:
The End of History, a planet full of bug-lovers who'd like you to join them.
Alone Together, a story of mysterious disappearances.
Depression. It's depression!
The More You Know, where the horror isn't in all the crazy, out-of-this-world stuff, but the very real core behind it.
Anantashesha, a big eel that makes you fear death.
I Am at the Centre of Everything That Happens to Me, which doesn't make a lick of sense and is one of the best pieces of experimental fiction I've ever read.
and A Light That Died. I dunno what it is, but it makes pink light. And five.
And yes, I timed this blog to right after posting my entry. :V Everything is happening today! Have the rest of my backlog, plus a bit more!
H: 2 R: 0 C: 3 V: 1 N: 0
The Best Job in Equestria by Mooncalf
Genre: Slice of Life
This is a weird fic. It starts off seeming like any heartwarming Derpy-based story; as things progressed, I even started feeling like maybe it was a bit tired. It's slightly unfocused, due to everything from gossip about Spike's crush on Rarity to a diabetes joke that fell really flat. But I figured the whole point of the 'job' was Derpy getting to go around town and keep tabs on everyone. Like, having the whole town for a family or, you know, some kind of life-affirming message of the sort. Then the final scene gives us the big reveal, and I couldn't help but feel like what Derpy does isn't exactly great. It's a bit of a rug-pull, tonally jarring, and left me with a strange taste, overall. I'm not sure if people who generally prefer Derpy fics will enjoy this.
Recommended Only for Slice of Life Fans
The Longest Night by Tundara
Reading by lieilengi
Genre: Historical
It is Celestia's longest night ever, and the stars are falling from the sky.
Stories like this make me sad that the show gave us any kind of look at Nightmare Moon's banishment. The real thing could never hope to stand up to the fandom's ideas, not if they were going to dedicate less than at least an entire episode to it. We could have had so much better, is what I'm saying. This, thankfully, is better, and yet, for a story dealing with Celestia's emotions directly after banishing her sister, it's remarkably lighthearted. This is thanks to what happens, which you will never guess, and I will definitely not spoil, save to say that, despite some consistent possessives errors, this is eminently worth the read.
Highly Recommended
Iron Wing and the Demolition Crew by KingMoriarty
Genre: War
They are the spear at the front of Celestia's forces, piercing Sombra's slaves.
Holy fuck is this story epic. The show suggested that Sombra AU Rainbow, Maud and Pinkie were badasses; this is the unequivocal confirmation. And the crazy thing is, this story doesn't take place in much time beyond that one scene we get to see of them. It just goes back over itself, once for each of them, and never ceases to be amazing. Okay, holy destroyer Pinkie Pie might be a tad hard to swallow, but given the buildup of the first two chapters, one should be well in the "this is not our Equestria" mindset by then. Admittedly, the third chapter is the weakest, being rather tone-breaking, but once the weird stuff is out of the way, it's no less epic. Not a story that glorifies war, but that revels in its characters' ability to dish out pain.
Highly Recommended
Teething Problems by Midnightshadow
Genre: Comedy
Twilight wakes up with a terrible case of horn rot, but she's not too keen on doctors…
This doesn't seem like a comedy at first, until the jig is finally up and everything gets goofy. That said, it's a little unbalanced; I mean, the first half or so is based around Twilight's increasing panic over her 'condition', and then there's some world-building just plunked in rather haphazardly near the end. Plus, the formatting is hella wonky. This isn't actually a sequel to Calling the Shots, but it's another classic comedy, and you can read it as Spike getting a little revenge for the events of that story. It's too bad the third one was never finished, I remember liking it a lot.
Recommended for Laughs
My Little Nyx With Cupcakes at the Rainbow Factory by Estee
Genre: Farce
She gets stuck in a box.
I'll say it again: goddammit, Estee. So, the problem with this story is that it's got that title and it's not the laugh-out-loud crackfic masterpiece of the summer. The second problem is that it's excruciatingly vague. Like, I put the box thing in the summary because I didn't realize that's what happened until halfway through the story, when it had already been an issue for two scenes. The language is overblown in a way that could be comedic, yet it's not used to any particular effect other than, well, obfuscation. That said, the core of this is a cute filly adorably failing at trying to do something, and I don't care if it's Nyx or Sweetie Belle, I always find that amusing. So, in all, a somewhat unbalanced story, and less funny than I have suggested by that otherwise accurate genre tag.
Recommended Only If You Like Cute Fillies Failing at Things
Alicorn Time by AlicornPriest
Reading by Agent0Fluffy
Genre: Immortality Angst
Twilight is worried she's starting to have memory problems.
I haven't read fanfic for two solid weeks, and this was maybe not the best way to get back into it. I had an extremely 'meh' reaction to this story, and I can't help but characterize it as needlessly sad alicorn headcanon crafted for feels. Worse, it's just Celestia and Twilight talking about said headcanon over tea. It's the most pat shortfic trope ever. You might like it if you're into sad alicorn headcanon, at least, but it did not leave an impression on me.
Vaguely Recommended
So, approximately two weeks of backlog.
Its clear now that the only way I can get you to read The Games We Play is by getting one of the dramatic readers to make it into an audiobook. :P
4482369
Like I told you, there is an audiobook, and it's stalled. :B And likely won't be finished. I do have a blog about readers you can commission for audiobooks, though! (Check my userpage.)
4482430
I'll do that! I'm gonnna comission the best dang audiobook of it (within my budget) and then I'll throw it at you!!!
4482430
err... where on your userpage are these links to readers i can comission?
was it a blog post?
As I was reading the nonsensical SCP-3000 entry, my iTunes was playing Penny Lane at the exact moment I reached the reference to it. I'm half-expecting a containment team to show up. Or Researcher Talloran to pop out of my eye socket. Possibly both.
4482436
It says "How can I get Present Perfect to review my fic?" Like, if I was going to link it to you here, I would just go click on that myself, which is why I'm making you do all the work. :B
4482487
Same thing happened to me when I was reading The Last Human. :D Trippy, isn't it?
I must go back and read that first Iron Wing story. I liked it, but that was all -- but then I read the sequels and liked the whole setup more and more.
4482487 Entirely irrelevant, but I used to live just down the road from the real Penny Lane. No containment teams that I remember, but I wouldn't know about these things.