Fic recs, May 21st! · 10:50pm May 21st, 2019
Krickis isn't opening a new Patreon, but a previous one!
The thing I'm finding about getting back into audiobooks is that I've come to spend two or three days a week listening to other things in the time I normally would be listening to stories. <.< Well, here's a bunch regardless.
H: 2 R: 3 C: 1 V: 0 N: 1
Lives' End by Arvaus
Reading by Scribbler, et. al.
Reading by CreepyPastaSalad
Genre: Changeling Fic
Lavender Breeze lost everything that mattered to her. Now, she has someone to blame.
Alternate deep-cut reference title: A Changeling in the Hooves of an Angry Mare. After countless changeling fics where a pony finds an injured changeling in the woods and either nurses it back to health or finds that their societies are incompatible and just gives it comfort while it dies, it was nice to see a pony willing to kick some ass for once. And I don't say that to be flippant. This is a story about grief and what it means to be a pony. If there's one thing I truly appreciate, it's that Lavender's loss isn't tied directly to the changeling invasion; her father dying in it would have been too simple. Grief is such a complex emotion, it should never be approached in such a trite fashion. I'm not sure if the logic behind the conversation at the core of this story will hold up to scrutiny, but that's not my forte; it worked in the moment. This was powerful and well written to boot.
Highly Recommended
The Rear End or the Headlights? by GravityDefyingCoffeeMug
Reading by Ichabod Creep
Genre: EQG Shipteasing
Discord never expected a question like that from the principal.
Point one: This is really well written, and if it's indicative of the author's output, I need to start reading everything they've written because they're great. Point two, I am a hot sucker for even the merest hint of Dislestia. And that's what I got from this: a literary story about a school principal teasing one of her co-workers. The only thing really objectionable about it is the amount of smoking, and I don't even know why that's there, vis the A/N at the end. But if you want solid, highly detailed writing, here it is.
Recommended
Twilight Sort-Of Kills Her Friends by MadHattie
Reading by Scribbler, et. al.
Genre: Dark Comedy
Twilight is not going to spend her immortal existence alone.
This story made me realize that the secret to a good pony dark comedy — possibly any dark comedy at all — is to have one or more characters completely nonplussed by the macabre goings-on. If you're going for more comedy than dark, anyway. This was a hoot from start to finish, with a load of funny reactions and tons of self-aware humor from the characters. Not to mention, it's a perfect sendup of alicorn immortality angst stories. Definitely seek it out if you need a respite from those.
Recommended
Luna vs. a Vending Machine by nyxOs
Reading by Ichabod Creep
Reading by Forrest McGilvray
Reading by Brian Random
Genre: Luna Vs.
Luna's chips get stuck.
Three things going for this story. One, a fic with this title I would expect to have been dashed off and posted in a single hour, but obvious care has been taken with it, and the writing is quite good. Two, rapid-fire horse pun candy bar names. Three, the running gag about pants was hilarious, far and away the best joke here. But none of that changes the fact that this is caffeine-free diet fanfic, just loads of unsatisfyingly empty calories. The punchline in particular was very "you went through all this trouble for that?" Which doesn't make it a bad story, but I likely won't remember it when I go to post this journal. Just don't come here expecting anything more than a quick dose of hahas.
Recommended If You Like This Stuff
A Lonely Blue Flower by Dusk-Spark
Reading by Scribbler, et. al.
Genre: Romance/Sad
The one thing Lillium can't do is tell Shining Armor how she feels.
From the moment you set out, the tags tell the story the description teases: this is not an AU, no, Lillium is not going to get with Shining Armor, we know the ending before this even begins. So there's got to be something else to the story, to justify its existence, right? Great writing, strong OCs, a twist at the end? Unfortunately, none of those come to pass. The writing's all right, not bad, but not outstanding. Lillium alternates between complete sadsack and creepy stalker, and her friend Grace is a total jerk and not really a great mirror to look at Lillium through. And it's not even like she didn't know Shining and Cadence were together; she got them together! I never had a reason to give a damn about her situation, and the story refused to give me anything but that situation.
Not Recommended
Now Hiring by miss-cyan
Genre: Sad
Little Apple Bloom has needs, and Rosemary is in just the right situation to provide them.
Wow. This is how you do sad. The writer took two losses and mashed them together into a story about family and mourning. The writing is a little shaky near the start, and I was never quite sure where the POV was, but I've never seen a story dealing with the Apple parents like this before. And while it's coy about Rosemary's situation, the details come through via omission; by the time she has her full breakdown, it feels like a solid catharsis. I very much want more like this.
Highly Recommended
First Contact Is Magic by Eakin
Read by Fimfiction
Genre: Sci-Fi
It would centuries for the aliens to reach Earth, but that was no reason we couldn't talk with them in the meantime.
This struck me as a very realistic look at how first contact with an extraterrestrial Equestria would go. It seems overly optimistic at first, but this is tempered toward the end by human greed and self-destruction, and it ends on a strangely melancholy note. That said, it is, in many ways, nothing I've seen before; the difference is, in other sci-fi fics, this would all be background, the "here's how we got here" before the real story with the actual ponies began. In this piece, world-building is the story. There are no characters, and an omniscient narrator, and that's the whole point: looking at humanity as a whole, reacting to the existence of aliens. The extensive time scale was a good choice for that, too.
Recommended
Man, Lives' End was such a good story.
I liked Now Hiring, but I ended up feeling like the pentultimate scene was the real peak of it, and then... it had another scene afterwards, which wasn't as strong, and didn't leave me with as much of a lingering emotional sense as I would have liked.
i just found this, aaaaa thank you so much! i'm really glad for this review, and thanks for reading of course.
and i appreciate the constructive criticism, and the stamp of "highly recommended". a lovely compliment c:
5062448
I dunno, I appreciated having the happy ending to show that they'd all progressed beyond stewing in despair.
Oh hey, thank you for the honest critique! That was the first time I'd dipped a hoof into short stories of that nature, and I still have tons of room for improvement. The top-rated comment on the story gave a short epilogue which I feel is actually a far superior punchline than the one I ended with:
5062513
I'm surprised I haven't seen that comment in Never the Final Word. :)
Love you lots. Cheers!