Paul's Thursday Reviews CCLXXXVI · 9:10pm Mar 3rd, 2022
Break time! No reviews next week, folks.
As of today, my 2022 Long Story schedule (read: stories longer than 70k words) is completely booked. This means a few things, not least of which is that I finally have to come to a real decision on how I want to handle 2023. Fortunately, I have the solution already.
I have set up my 2023 Long Story schedule. It includes 26 weeks. In other words, I will only be reading/reviewing 26 Long Stories that year, which is one every two weeks. This may also mean cutting down on actual review blogs to one every two weeks, but I’m not sure yet. Strictly limiting the number of long stories I read is likely to have a big impact on my reading responsibilities that year, which may leave room for a lot more smaller stories.
2023’s a long ways away, at least for now. This isn’t going to affect me at all in the short term. But it does mean one good thing for some of you. For starters, I can now undo that strict wordcount limit for requested stories. That’s right, if you want to request a story that’s 500k words long, I’m open to that again. I figure once 2023’s roster is, oh, say, 2/3rds full I’ll impose the limit again.
I feel obligated to note that one of the slots is already taken up, so I’ve actually only got 25 available. I should also point out that this isn’t limited to review requests; anything I decide I want to read or which is a sequel to a story I liked is fair game and will take up those slots. Point being, don’t think “25 slots open” means “25 review requests”.
Let’s get to the reviews, shall we?
Stories for This Week:
just cozy glow. by Mica
Fallout: Equestria - Duck and Cover! by hahatimeforponies
Raison d'Etre by Rose Quill
Total Word Count: 87,581
Rating System
Why Haven't You Read These Yet?: 1
Pretty Good: 1
Worth It: 1
Needs Work: 0
None: 0
just cozy glow.
3,158 Words
By Mica
It’s been a year since the show ended. Cozy Glow is gone. Or she was, until she hacks into a random FIMFiction user’s story to make contact with us.
Anyone who has played or is at least vaguely familiar with Doki Doki Literature Club will recognize the cover art and the reference that is the description. The good news for the majority of you: no knowledge of DDLC is necessary to enjoy this story. This is a crossover in only the thematic sense, and even then it’s quite the thin layer.
That being said, those of us who know DDLC? We’ve met Monika. That leads a reader to regard the character of Cozy in this story with a certain… lack of faith.
This is one of those experimental types of stories, the kind that’s interested in being weird and attempting to evoke an atmosphere through that weirdness. It’s a story about Cozy and her peculiar situation. It’s not an ARG, although it certainly pretends to be and I approached it with the suspicion in mind (it seems the author didn’t even know what an ARG is at the time of writing).
Would I trust this rendition of Cozy Glow? Absolutely not. Yet that doesn’t take away from the tragedy of the existence she is describing for herself. The end result is a neat story in execution. I like the idea behind it, even if it’s a little derivative by virtue of being a thematic crossover with DDLC. I applaud the author for going all-in with it as they did.
An interesting story that has fun toying with the concept. It’s a little creepy, a little dark, and certainly worth a look.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
New Author!
Fallout: Equestria - Duck and Cover!
78,055 Words
By hahatimeforponies
Alternative Title: Pragmatisch, ja?
Meet Atom Smasher of Stable 512. She hates puns, likes dogs, and her special talent is blowing things up. She fights with nerf guns, is insanely talented at improv acting, and prefers the path of least resistance. She just left her stable because it’s more dull than watching paint dry, and it turns out she has a lot of skills that ponies on the surface find admirable. Unfortunately for them, Atom Smasher bores easily, has no moral compass and exactly zero fucks to give.
If we were to treat the stories of Fallout Equestria and Project Horizons as playthroughs, then Littlepip and Blackjack are avatars of players who take the wasteland seriously. They see problems and want to help, they meet characters and worry about them, and they only want the best for ponykind in general, even if their playstyles are radically different.
Atom Smasher is not that player. Atom Smasher knows it’s all a game, to the point of breaking the fourth wall. She doesn’t give two fucks about making the “right” choice or following storylines. All she cares about is having fun and blowing shit up, preferably at the same time. Looting corpses, killing her allies (or simply letting them die because who cares?), and shooting a stranger because he won’t shut up are all perfectly sound and reasonable choices for her.
We’ve all had those playthroughs, right?
This is a satirical piece, and it handles that role beautifully. Atom Smasher isn’t just going around wreaking havoc, she’s constantly spouting meta commentary about the stupidity of the world around her. Ever felt like the NPCs are idiots with no concept of this thing called “stealth”? Ever wonder exactly how the wasteland economy is supposed to function? Why is the pre-war food not a blatant health hazard? Why does everypony fear these big bad villains who go down just as easily, if not easier, than themselves? Make no mistake, Atom Smasher knows she’s in a nonsensical world and is more than willing to comment on it.
No lessons will be learned. A lot of ponies, many of them innocents, will be slaughtered. That Vault Boy morality avatar is going to grow some horns. And yet, by some miracle, everything will work out in a way that might be deemed “worth it”. Because, inexplicably, anything that comes out of a Stable winds up being good for the Wasteland.
I’ve barely scratched the surface of what this story has to offer, which is on purpose because it’s something better experienced for oneself. If I were to go into spoiler territories then there’s all sorts of great things to talk about with this one. Interesting characters, an unexpected but welcome setting, a witty narrative, and a lead character that makes wanton destruction look like child’s play. As long as you don’t take anything seriously and acknowledge that this is a satire for fun’s sake, you’ll be okay. I for one had a blast (pun not intended, please don’t point that nerf gun at my head!).
I can assure you, I will be reading that sequel.
Bookshelf: Why Haven’t You Read These Yet?
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
New Author!
Raison d'Etre
6,368 Words
By Rose Quill
Sequel to Mission of Mercy
The sirens have lost their song. An eternal hunger lingers within them, gnawing and demanding and impossible to satiate. They know they have to persevere. Why is another matter entirely.
This was a nice one. It focuses on each of the sirens one at a time as they struggle to get over their individual agonies as a result of their defeat. The story acts as a metaphor for recovery, with each siren finding a reason and purpose to go on rather than continuing to suffer. I liked Adagio’s the most, but Sonata’s wasn’t bad.
Aria’s threw me off. Not the content, which is thick with self-harm, depression, and potentially suicidal thoughts. Really, Aria’s story could have – should have, and I think was intended to be – the best of the three. The problem is the why. There is a solution. It is readily available. Adagio found it. She told Sonata, and it worked for her as well. So what’s going on with Aria? Why does she not get told the solution for so long? Yes, she’s depressed and seems intent on not listening to her siblings, but that’s no excuse. You can’t tell me Adagio and Sonata saw her on one of her more lucid days and didn’t just tell her, outright, “this is what we did.” You can’t, because to not do that is to show a horrifying and inhumane lack of care for her. And yet when Aria finally tries it, she treats it as though they’d not bothered to tell her about it, possibly for months.
And there’s no excuse given.
I get it. Rose Quill was using the story in a metaphorical manner. Aria had to want to help herself or it wouldn’t have worked (at least I think that’s what the author is going for). Having Aria do what she had to right away wouldn’t have achieved the story’s goal. But at least give us a solid, clear reason other than “her sisters don’t care enough to tell her about the solution they found ages ago”.
If you can ignore that rather nasty hiccup, you may just enjoy this one. It was a nice look at each of the sirens in a time of desperation. I find myself interested in reading more of this “Homecoming” AU, just to see what all I’m missing. Because, as the ending clearly demonstrates, there’s definitely more.
Bookshelf: Worth It
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
Tactics — Worth It
Walk in the Darkness — Worth It
Got a Minute? — Worth It
Succor — Worth It
Something That Needed to be Done — Worth It
Stories for Next Week:
154 Days Without a Crisis by jkbrony
Frenefits by Perfectly Insane
My World Is Empty Without You by McPoodle
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I read through Duck and Cover back when it was still just the first few chapters, and had a much dimmer opinion of it. My biggest issue with it was that I thought its satire didn't really commentate on some of the biggest defects of Fallout: Equestria so much as it just kind of laid jokes overtop of them, and also played straight elements that made the story less enjoyable (like its long, ponderous scenery-porn bits). I thought the humor was hit-and-miss, with some clever elements interspersed with LOLRANDOM and LOLAWESOME style material that I thought was kind of tedious (once again, the story is longer and slower than I think its content merits, just like the original FoE). Finally, I think it didn't quite synthesize the "dark" and "comedy" parts of dark comedy together, and instead ended up with a kind of dissonant tone that trivializes the genuinely dark material while making the comedic elements seem awkward.
I dunno, maybe the author watched some Freeman's Mind and improved the story since then. I might reread it, now that it's finished. And I definitely liked it better than vanilla FoE.
Mica has a lot of nice stuff. You won't be disappointed if you read more.
Hee hee, I had a feeling you would enjoy Duck and Cover!
I might've mentioned this before, but one thing to bear in mind is that the sequel is significantly less satirical.
Atom Smasher still pokes fun at the world here and there, but I believe the author stated at some point that they started liking her as a character rather than a literary device, so much so that they decided to give her a more serious playthrough of Fallout. The sequel is pretty much the product of that sentiment, for better or worse, depending on who you ask.
Personally, I enjoyed the sequel more. Atom Smasher actually grows as a character!
The Duck and Cover sequel is much more entertaining I'd say, in that it decides to be an actual story instead of being a bunch of 'Take that' nonsense.
As to large requests? Well, I'll still recommend the Iron Hearts series by SFaccountant, as many in the set as you feel up to. It remains perhaps the strangest crossover that still works on the site.
Also really enjoyed Duck and Cover, not just as a satire/comedy riffing on Fallout but also because I found it really interesting to see a Fallout UK, hooligans, weather and all.
I second that the sequel is, while still comedic, more of a conventional story and not something that rockets past with a ton of humour like the original does- I do think that doing exactly the same thing again in the sequel would not have been as unique though as the original.
5641247
Good on you acknowledging that you have no taste. The first step to solving any problem is admitting you have a problem.
Getting back to being serious: Ever since I started reading/reviewing the Extended Edition series, it has become quite clear that what you and I focus on and think makes for a "good" story are very different. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but it stands to reason that what we're each going to enjoy won't line up half the time. For me, Duck and Cover! was a silly and fun story and I saw no need to look beyond that and its roots, both literary and gamey. Heck, I think the part poking fun at the games were more amusing to me than the parts poking fun at FoE. Then again, the one time I read (and thoroughly enjoyed, might I add) FoE was many years ago, and I played Fallout 4 much more recently.
5641309
And this is the point where I remind everyone that I'm still free to reject requests. Not that I have anything against the Winningverse, but I'm under the impression it's big, and I seriously doubt I'll ever finish any long series again.
5641325
5641400
You know, that makes me want to read the sequel even more. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing Atom Smasher treated a little more seriously.
5641334
Consider that I only add sequels of stories to my schedule after I've completely read and posted a review for what came before. This means it can be months in between readings, and that assumes an open slot in the schedule is actually available. Right now the Iron Hearts series is twelve stories long, and I only have 26 slots per year.
Long story short: I'd be lucky if I got through two in a year.
To be honest, the Warhammer universe has never interested me much. If I was to actually read anything in that series, it would only be with the assurance that the stories are standalone sequels, meaning that each one completes its own material and I can stop reading at any time. If every single story throws a giant "To be continued!" in my face, I'm not going to be eager to jump in.