Fic recs, November 14th! · 9:03pm Nov 14th, 2019
A quick note to mention that I have upgraded Strawberry Sunrise's Sunset Shipping story The End from an N to a C. Go look at the last review blog to see why! (The story's worth checking out, you may just need a reminder for the punchline.)
Nothing special today, though with a recent edition pushing the posting date forward, it was a good time to clear a handful of longer stories off my RIN. :)
H: 2 R: 3 C: 0 V: 1 N: 0
Just Girls Talking About Pizza by MythrilMoth
Reading by Mr. Snarky
This was a good reading! He's energetic, and he did a good job with the voices. Even the intro music made me laugh. The intro itself I could do without; I appreciate the tribute, that's understandable, but the rest of it is not useful to someone who isn't following the channel. (And I still don't know what "Infinity Era" is after seeing it mentioned all over the description and comments. Also, complaining about four chapters coming out as an hour? Git gud.) My only real complaint is that he didn't include a link to the story. Well, and he decided to pick something from an unfinished anthology as a tribute. >.<
Genre: EQG
The Rainbooms teach Twilight about eating pizza in the human world.
Weird anymore to see EQG fics without Sci-Twi. So the really marvelous thing about this story is that it perfectly captures the joys of eating pizza, a topic near and dear to my heart. I mean, of all the emotions fanfiction has engendered in me over the years, "hungry" is not one of them, and I'm probably going to go get a pizza for lunch. c.c (I miss Pizza Fire, they were literally a five minute walk from my house. EDIT: I actually walked a half hour to get Pizza Hut. It tasted like nostalgia.) This covers a lot of ground, from Twilight eating meat to the complexities of actually ordering pizza in the modern world, but it's a good conversation with strong characters and even a little humor.
Recommended
Unknown Architecture by Not_A_Hat
Reading by Illya Leonov
Genre: Lost Cities Inversion
Here, it is always autumn.
Oh dammit, not another collection! D: Well, at least this is a good story. For something touting itself as a Lost Cities inversion, I expected more along the lines of focusing on the people and not the place. Instead, we get a place where no one has ever been. And it is tantalizing. The prose is lush and the imagery beautiful, and I have so many ideas about just what's going on here. Not to mention the whole "city stuck between seasons" motif is really original. I'd definitely like to hear what people make of this one!
Highly Recommended
The Things We Leave Behind by theswimminbrony
Read by Fimfiction
Genre: Sad
Twilight has one day to attend the party her friends are throwing for her.
What a trip it is to read pre-Twilicorn stories where she ends up with a pair of wings just like that. I like how it takes a little while for the story to let you know what's going on rather than just out and telling you about Twilight's situation. The back and forth between what she's doing now and how she got there was likewise a good narrative choice, though I fear the flashbacks were the less interesting story. This is what I would term a "really season two fic", in that it's constantly reminding us of things that had happened in canon prior to it being written, while also not allowing the characters to grow any, CMCs aside. And, I mean… Twilight dies from casting a spell too much. That might actually be a cool way for her to go, if it had resulted from some epic mage battle, but she's just fighting an Ursa Major by herself, and it's just one not-particularly-epic spell. The rest of the story is her watching as her friends memorialize her, and it goes about how you'd expect, with sections for each of her friends to say their piece in turn, for added melodrama. Writing left something to be desired, but it's old. Also, background Twidash.
Vaguely Recommended
Gardening With Rose by Admiral Biscuit
Read by Fimfiction
Sequel to Breakfast With Rose
Genre: Slice of Life HiE
Sam may stand out in Ponyville life, but she's not the only one who doesn't quite fit in.
We're back with Sam and Rose, in the sliciest slice of life I've ever read that managed to remain interesting. Oddly, this is about four different stories. First we get the direct followup off the previous story, with Sam giving a presentation about herself to Cheerilee's class. Then she gets a new job with a pony who doesn't often get a lot of help. Then there's the title sequence, which is mostly about her ability to go around naked, and which is kind of what the story's ultimately about? And that's also tied into Lily having some kind of issue with Sam, which is never fully worked out by the end of the story. So this ends up being slicey in more ways than one. Along the way, you'll learn a lot about Canada and how not to wax your skin. This series remains good.
Recommended
The Birth of Harmony by AugieDog
Read by Fimfiction
Genre: Historical
Ravaged by Discord's chaos, the newfound nation of Equestria turns to its saviors in the hopes they can once again save everypony.
This is quite a good story, the tale of the alicorns' creation, with a fittingly epic battle toward the end. Cadence is among those so created (this was written back when we knew about her, but not really what she did or who she was), and you'll flip when you find out what her role in Equestria is. There are a lot of cool ideas, many of them quickly undone by canon, so they're the sort you won't see anymore. And the major seeming contradiction in the alicorn's birth is even addressed in-text. So, yeah, this was cool and unexpected.
Recommended
Shining Together by Bookish Delight
Genre: EQG Friendshipping
In need of a vacation, Starlight visits the human world.
23,000 words, 30 chapters: I have no idea why this story was written this way. It makes for a breezy read, but it's also the reason there's no "Read by Fimfiction" up there. :P Structure aside, this was good. Surprisingly, not a whole lot happens; beyond some interesting headcanon exploration, the initiating event, and a really good cameo (seriously, Zecora's role is great in this), there's no big, exciting, eye-opening moments. And that's fine. Because what this is is a long conversation between Sunset and Starlight, wherein they talk about the things they have in common as reformed villains and we delve the depths of their characters. It's just really fantastic character work, as one would expect from Bookish Delight. So if strong characterization is what draws you to stories, make sure you don't pass this one up.
Highly Recommended
I maintain that "Just Girls Talking About Pizza" is a stealth horror story. Alfredo sauce on pizza is unnatural and wrong.
5155628
Man, you gotta broaden your horizons. Food is dope, and trying new things is neat. Stuff that's good with pasta probably works with pizza as well.
5155628
Okay, I dunno about alfredo specifically, but white sauce pizzas are next level, man!
5155628
You silly East Coast pizza elitists, first it’s claiming only New York style is real pizza and then it’s dictating what you can and cannot put on pizza. Pizza is a broad concept, rather than a specific thing, and one can do with it what they will.
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Someday I’ll tell you about Deluca’s pizza, Chicago style that’s so deep-dish, the waitress has arms like Popeye, and I can’t finish more than a few slices in a sitting . . . and you’ve seen me, I’m a big guy.
5155804
That sounds amazing. c.c
I've only had real deep-dish pizza once, and then the place closed up. D:
5155808
Come up to Michigan, and I’ll hook you up.
Their pizza’s got so much street cred, their restaurant is next to a scrapyard.