Printed Ponyfic Reviews, Part the Second · 1:23am Aug 27th, 2019
Find the first blog here!
Hi, first week of university is the most fast-paced shit. Since I couldn't hammer out any horsewords, or really any non-academic ones until just now, here's a blog about pony books. With all the hype around the printed horse books floating around in blogs from pre-con and post-con stuff, you might have been on the fence about buying some, especially with so many titles and options. Me, being me, I decided to buy a modest amount of printed ponyfic for myself. I'll be showing off some of the titles and quality here.
For context: all pictures are of stories I haven't read but intrigued me well enough to buy them or from stories I will re-re-read the hell out of. Others are anthologies with a mix of the two. Authors and titles will be tagged and listed below the pictures. As for the sauces of these sales, it ranges from @RBDash47's Ponyfeather Publishing for some, non-PFP affiliated Lulu entries for others, and a set from Russia's Ministry of Image.
Read below the break for the images, and be aware that as I'm taking pictures from random pages in the books, some stories might be spoiled through illustrations and the like.
Next up to look at are another slew of pony novels. First up is Oroboro's Fractured Sunlight. This one was not from Ponyfeather Publishing, but was still published from Lulu, and the purchase options are linked in the story's description. I picked up a color copy, so I can't speak for the black and white one. Unlike most of the ponyfic books I picked up, Fractured Sunlight is an illustrated novel, hence the color option. Like the edition of Background Pony in the previous blog, some very lovely artwork was commissioned to accompany the story. However, unlike BP, these illustrations are also something that any reader can view if they prefer the non-dead tree version.
The novel came out very well, especially with the cover art! There's something intriguing about how non-pony the cover can appear unless you look closely at the hair colors and designs of Sunny and Twi.
While flipping through the book (something I had to do to all the books to check for page bleeds and the like) I did notice something that wasn't as put together as the rest of the book. For anyone who is a hardcore stickler when it comes to formatting, they might not be inclined to get this book. Really, if you can consider yourself the type to damn near have a stroke at peculiar typography, I'm not sure Fractured Sunlight's print copy will suit you. Some of the extra-neat bits like the lists and pictures are arranged in the book in a way that can come across as awkward. They're not bad by any means, but they don't look like normal novel (even compared to the rest of my Lulu books) formatting, and some of the illustrations look like they barely didn't merge with the text. Their corners also stand out in a way that I can only describe as odd, though that's likely just due to the picture shape.
Various examples from inside Fractured Sunlight to highlight how the pictures are printed throughout the book. Also, the nice cover!
Up next is one of the longer books I was able to get, and this one also happens to be another color edition of a Sunset Shimmer story, and it's one that is every bit as excellent as tales like Fractured Sunlight, but has not garnered as much attention as it should've. It's Krickis' Looking Glass, and yes, it is certainly worth your time. (Print copies are also linked on the story's page.) Various bits of fan art and well-illustrated commissions were worked into the book, and neat formatting for in-story songs and many other parts of the narrative. All in all, I was extremely impressed!
That is, until I realized that this book was damaged. As of typing this, I am awaiting a response from Lulu, but seeing how right smack in the middle of my book were a dozen or so corrupted pages completely scrambling the story added a few clouds of rain to my horseword parade.
Above are examples of the cover, interior art, and damage within the book. Another image shows off just how long this one is.
Here's some more Lulu (but not Ponyfeather) books I ordered. Each is well-formatted and without error, so compared to other titles, their interiors aren't as noteworthy as others. Some things I noted in a few have their photos below.
Lulu can be an ass when it comes to bar code placement.
The previous version of the cover for Into the Dark makes an interesting and ghostly interior image.
Here's one last image from Fractured Sunlight and the promise for the last two installments of this little series, the next time featuring titles that are primarily published by Ponyfeather, and the last one with a terribly terrific trilogy. Oh, and eventual horsewords. And a blog celebrating 650 of y'all thinking I'm worth following. For some reason. Thanks a million!
Where do I get Looking Glass?
Also do you have my book too? :D
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Your blog didn’t come out until after I had ordered my stash. I’ll have to pick up a copy when my college student ass has some money because I totally regret not having it.
Looking Glass has its print copy linked in the description of the story!
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I asked the author and they pointed me there. Thanks!
I was confused by the Looking Glass formatting at first, too, but it's actually supposed to be "corrupted" like that. Go to the author's note for Chapter 22 here on the site, click the Google Docs link, and scroll down.
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I took a peek at it; my copy still looks a bit different from the Docs version, so I’ll be double checking this.
Yeah, the Looking Glass formatting isn't an error, it's intentional and should make sense within the context of anyone reading it
On another note, I'm extremely flattered you like my story enough to get the color version
And thank you for the review! It means a lot to me 
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You're very welcome!