Fic recs, August 7th: iisaw edition! · 2:39pm Aug 7th, 2020

Starting this blog off with sad news, I'm afraid: Warren Hutch, author of Windfall and the Screwball series, apparently passed away earlier this year. :( Thanks to Jake the Army Guy for figuring this out for us.

Hard to transition out of that kind of thing. :(

So this is not the author-based review blog I had hinted at in my previous review. iisaw has recently had some trouble and had been intimating he might have to take all his stuff down, so I thought, well, time to read it all. Yes, all four stories I haven't read yet. Yes, even the incomplete one. But it just so happens that he commissioned me for a review, so that was the perfect way to round this up to five.

Hopefully, this will lift your spirits a little.

H: 1 R: 2 C: 1 V: 0 N: 0 I: 1

Prejudicial Procedure Problem
Genre: Feghoot
Twilight begins interviewing for her castle staff.
Well, this feels unfortunately relevant to the current zeitgeist! Thankfully, it ends on a really stupid joke that will make you forget all the flipped-around politics, though, it's also an abject lesson in how well-meaning "colorblind" approaches to diversity fall short. Also it includes the word "Marearchy", which makes me regret having eyes.
Recommended for Laughs

Lunch With Fluttershy
Genre: Slice of Life
This one's what it says on the tin. What makes it work is that it's set well after the end of season 9, possibly as late as the final episode, and Twilight has to take a number of steps to enable her visit in the first place. Otherwise, this isn't exciting per se, but it is quite nice, and I can't say I've read anything like it yet.
Recommended

Trans-Lunar
Genre: Adventure
Clutterbuck meets a stranger at her usual table, one who's willing to pay a lot of money for the impossible.
Alternate description: Rainbow Dash makes another pony fly west. :V The title might suggest this is about space flight; instead it's about an endurance flight over the Lunar Sea (which I thought was the western ocean?), and also a ponification of a real-world person and her own transcontinental flight. Reading the Wikipedia page in the author's note really makes this, but on its own merits, this shows off iisaw's economical world-building, as he paints us a picture of East Zebrica and the people who live there. I was also highly amused by the bet going on that gets this flight started. As flight fics go, this is pretty great.
Recommended

This Time for Good
Read by Fimfiction
Genre: Adventure
Twilight is lured into a shifting maze with a strange occupant.
Yes, I'm reviewing an incomplete story again! That's never a good idea, because this is great and I want more. The setup makes me glad that, despite Star Swirl being alive in the present, we can still use him for time travel shenanigans if need be. The descriptions are all great, bringing to life the claustrophobia of being trapped in a bizarre, underground labyrinth that's always changing. Windfall is a great character, in some ways Tempest-Shadow-but-a-pegasus, but mostly an excellent foil for Twilight. And the plot has just ramped up in terms of stakes by the time the last chapter ends. So yeah, can't wait for the next one! :B
Incomplete: Review Finished 5/14/21

Through a Glass Darkly by SPark
Paid Review for iisaw
Genre: Adventure/Lovecraft Mythos Crossover
In a world of endless starry night, an old mare meets a unicorn named Luna, walking down a road.
Wow, can't say I've read too many stories like this. Someone in the comments compared this to a Dali painting, and they were right on the money. The imagery is the big draw here, both lush and dreamlike, crafting a world of eternal starry night ruled by the memories of old gods, and an endless road on which our characters walk. Nothing is familiar, and everything is wrong somehow. I will say I was a little miffed at the use of specifically Lovecraftian things (though I'd also not heard of many of them). Like, one can be Lovecraftian in style without actually using the monsters he and his followers created. Then again, this is balanced out by some imaginative reinterpretations of changelings as fae creatures, plus the presence of undead 'ghouls'. Ultimately, this is a mystery at heart — where are they, who are they, why can't they remember anything? — and the answers are bound to be exciting and compelling for you as they were for me. Definitely check this out.
Highly Recommended