Fic reviews, December 2nd! · 6:17pm Dec 2nd, 2018
Freewave has released a remastered album of fanfic-inspired pony songs! I'll let the artist give you the details.
Scribbler's newest reading is Honey Mead's A Morning Ritual, with Goombasa!
Here's something different: Alexstrazsa randomly popped back up with a list of things he never finished. You can find some hilarious stuff in there. :D
More new writers this time around. I'm trying really hard to get Sunset Shipping done this week, because my friend from Baltimore comes up next week, and then I won't have time for anything. Possibly ever again. :/ This is kind of my final time to do things for myself, and I'm not enjoying any of it.
H: 0 R: 0 C: 4 V: 1 N: 0
Timeless by Dusk Melody
Genre: Doctor Who Crossover/Shipping
Whenever Oodlz daydreamed, it was always the blue box.
I can't take this story as much beyond "Hey guys, I really like Doctor Who" in fic form. And as I rather do not like Doctor Who, and most specifically the shoehorned romance aspect of the modern show, there was no I was going to like this. Thankfully, it wasn't written for me, and the person for whom it was enjoyed it, so that's all that really needs to be said.
Vaguely Recommended
Bottom of the Bottle by Crystal Wishes
Genre: Character Piece/Sad
Berry Punch is not an alcoholic. But she could be.
So this is a first: I have an opportunity to praise a story for good scene breaks. Seriously, every one is unique and obviously crafted from careful coding, and the effect is actually really noticeable, to say nothing of being appreciated. As to the story itself, this is a bold take on the idea of Berry Punch, which was not something I thought could be done anymore. I wish this were a little longer, because it rushes through what it's got to say and finishes up with a gut-punch almost before it's begun. Still, not a bad piece, chock full of emotion in spite of its length.
Recommended for Sadfic Fans
A Fowl Turn of Events by RenaissanceBrony
Genre: Comedy
Pinkie's latest delve into genealogy takes… sigh… a fowl turn.
So this is a light-hearted piece set directly after Pinky Apple Pie, based around Pinkie just being Pinkie. Taking something not the way it's meant to be taken, being silly for a bit, and then everyone learns a lesson in the end. Or something. I don't mean to be ambivalent, it was pretty funny and didn't go anywhere I expected.
Recommended for Laughs
Self-Reflection by Waxworks
Genre: Horror
Travelling alone through the desert, Trixie finds a town full of mirrors in a place no town should have been.
Horror, as a genre, lives or dies by its execution, and this story is a little closer to the 'dead' side of that spectrum than is desirable. That said, for all that it takes its sweet time stumbling through editing mistakes while building scant atmosphere, I got a real thrill out of seeing the monsters. Any horror story that can actually make its monster reveal scary instead of a mistake is doing something right in my book. This piece also gets inside Trixie's head pretty well, a mixture of self-importance and bluff guiding her through the abandoned desert town, and there's even some time for her pulling herself out from Twilight's shadow. In all, it's unabalanced, but it felt worth the read.
Recommended If You Like Monster Stories
The Person in the Mirror by Quicksear
Genre: Humanized ScratchTavia
So this gets off to a bad start with overblown prose and a distinct overabundance of "what the hell is going on here" after two scene breaks in quick succession. What slowly becomes apparent, though, is that this is a story in which Octavia has somehow wound up in the human world, living a new life as a human, into which human Vinyl Scratch appears. It seems very strange that I can boil down this story into just the two words in the genre tag; it seems desperate to avoid any and all simplifications. Hell, without the context of website, tags or description, you'd be hard pressed to know this was about ponies at all. And while the opacity of the language honestly fits Octavia, since this is all from her POV, it did leave me frequently feeling lost regarding her motivations for, well, anything. And the explanation for what the hell happened was kind of a shock. It all works out in the end, so for all that this won't be for anyone, it does have some merit.
Recommended for ScratchTavia Fans
Wow when was the last time you didn’t have any recommended or highly recommended?
This is an oddly 'meh' level collection of fics.
4975607
It's been a while, honestly.
4975620
Yeah, I realized that only as I was posting. :/ Can't control for everything, I guess. The four C's are at least worth reading, if they sound at all interesting.
Hey! I’m glad you enjoyed the scene breaks. I obsessed over them because I had a very specific imagery in my head, and it was a lot of trial and error to capture it in text. So I feel vindicated in that struggle!
To be totally honest, this was a vent fic. At the time of writing, my grandfather was in a coma after falling down the stairs drunk. Berry’s characterization is established in our stories off-handedly, and I’d wanted an opportunity to explore it further. Unfortunately, it got muddled up in my volatile emotions, which made it hard to write more than what’s there. That’s the problem with getting too personal with one’s writing, eh?
4975642
That makes sense, though. I hope writing it helped you!
4975642
I hope he is doing better now!
4975766
Oh, gosh, thank you! I appreciate the sentiment.
It was very stressful for a while, but he recovered as well as can be hoped given the circumstances if not miraculously better than expected.
Thank you for caring enough to comment
Ayyy, thanks for the shoutout.
4975812
It's just good to know you haven't fled this place, never to return. :)
4975950
I'm like a wandering spirit who just won't leave the mortal world behind.
4975971
Something something Dark Souls?