The chronicles of Project Horizons : chapter 8

Chapter 8 is quite the fun chapter and it even tried to prove me wrong about my previous claims that BJ would try to change herself only in the long run. It was nice to see an active decision on her part to try and make her trauma have a purpose. Let's try to keep up this effort and let me give praise where it is due.

Let's go.

If I have to give one thing to Project Horizons that it does have quite the ease in making the moment-to-moment action interesting and the fights therein, especially here, can be spectacular. We had here a fight against a dragon (yes, I'm completely aware of how similar those events are with FO:E but for now, it's not an issue) and it was one of the few time where the action was spectacular. Not tense at all, just spectacular. All tension went out of the window when BJ literally quote the A-team or when she goes full Starship Trooper inside the dragon's eyesocket. It was cool ! That and the team fighting together really was something we should see more of. It was a good highlight and it should remain that : a highlight. A punctuation in the story that makes it all the more grand when it finally happens.

I think it's a good time to mention one crucial weakness of the fiction, two actually : the overabundance of fights and the inevitable desensitization to the huge amount of gore and rape that the author seems to throw around at random. Looking at you BlackJack's nightmare. The first one is that we had a fight in all the chapters so far and they really start to get... dull. With the exception of the fight against the dragon, which I repeat was a damn cool fight, all fights are stakeless and only exists for spectacle, aside from perhaps the one altercation with Deus in Chapter 7 which was closer to a joke-fight than anything else. Why is it an issue ? Because without stakes, you have to rely on either the immediate danger or the spectacle and Project Horizons is definitely more a spectacle kind of fiction because of the tone it uses. Against the dragon, we were back into a corny movie where the hero could kill anything with a punchline and most of the time, raiders and slavers fall easily prey to BlackJack mastery of gun and close range combat.

As such, I don't fear for BlackJack she has the best armor, with the most versatile weapon and she always get healed somehow, the only time where she had to suffer an injury durably was when she had been radpoisoned by Silver Spoon. It's a pitfall FO:E fell into and PH is doing it too. BlackJack, as much as she can whine about it, is essentially unstoppable and I have to say that it's getting harder and harder to not see her as being a female Schwarzeneger. However, let's give where credit is due, Project Horizons does take care of giving meaningful interactions to the cast of character it has and as such, there is a sense of character progression even if... some just seem to do complete 180. More on that in a second.

The second aspect, desensitization to the gore comes from how aimless this part of the fiction is. Decapitated head, guts flying everywhere, pus and mucus covering people, brain turned into mush, the list goes on. It's become the norm and when something becomes the norm it is not thrilling or exciting. For some readers it could even be ridiculous to see so much meat per chapter but for me ? I only see it as rather dull and I don't even notice it half of the time, which I think isn't supposed to be the role of gore. Gore is supposed to have a purpose : to shock by its graphic nature and make us feel for the character for example. It is something that needs to be a highlight or it won't be when the author would like for it to be. A main characteristic turning into a weakness.

So back on characters now, I like how Morning Glory seems to be developped as this smart pony with some anxiety that she needs to deal with, her fear of being without a protection making her have some PTSD and such. I am less of a fan of her not-understanding simple jokes to a silly level. It didn't seem really in line with her character to be that oblivious. Then again, she wasn't much of a character before so any evolution is appreciated. As for P-21 finally deciding to be useful (after only 8 chapters and close to 100K words), I have to say that I'm a bit lost with his reasoning : using explosives is more deliberate and hard to do so... it's easier for him to use it than a gun ? Because a gun is less deliberate ? Okay ? Also, P-21 went from "Is killing your only answer to everything ?" to "KILL THEM ALL BLACKJACK, THEY FORFEITED THEIR RIGHT TO LIVE BY ATTACKING US !" I am not sure if I follow how he went from one to the next, especially since we don't interacted with him a lot.

Also, reading a magazine during a fight ? Really ? Are we that desperate to make a wink at the game now ?

So yeah, aside from P-21 making such a 180, he might have snapped his neck, the characters are quite well handled. Blackjack actively tries to avoid killing people and that's a plus. However, it makes me ask a question that unfortunately will forever be tied to the plot : Why is she a killer ? The fiction makes so that she tries to address her trauma but not the deep reason and it's mainly because the plot is now dragging its feet towards this makeshift goal of killing Sanguine. The bounty is interesting in a moment-to-moment aspect because it makes BJ a target but it doesn't exist as a way to further the plot. Actually, it delays it.

Why ? BJ still don't know who exactly is Sanguine, where they are and how to get access to them. By meandering with this main goal, BJ will forever be a killer without a deep reason above "I can do it." which can content some people, I personally find it very weak.

As for the memory orb, I won't talk about it, it's a Red Flag Central and nothing was learned aside from the fact that BJ still cries because people she doesn't know about except in books died tragically.

Closing thoughts : A very good grasp on moment to moment actions, interesting progression of most characters but the more general view of the fiction makes so that strong cracks are present even now. It really needs some patch quickly or yet I fear that it'll join FO:E in the beautiful pit of "We have no plot and the few things we have take ages."