Paul's Thursday Reviews CCXCIII · 8:35pm May 5th, 2022
My mother likes to go to concerts. Unfortunately, she’s married to a man who has zero appreciation for live music. The last time she brought my dad to a concert (Journey, I think it was), he was more interested in the architecture of the auditorium than the actual music. She thus vowed never to bring him along on one of her musical excursions again, which I’m sure was a huge relief to him. But that left Mom with limited options regarding who might go with her to concerts. These days her available choices are usually either myself or my aunt.
This time the singer was Garth Brooks. We bought the tickets six months in advance. I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy at the time, but decided to go for Mom’s sake.
It ended up being the best concert I’ve ever attended. I’ll grant that I’ve only been to, say, seven or eight concerts in my life, so that’s probably not saying much, but for me it was quite the experience. It helps that I practically grew up on Garth Brooks’ music. I hadn’t listened to him in more than a decade, but I remembered quick once he got started.
Oh, there’s also the fact that it was in LSU Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, and there were 102,000 people in attendance:
And damn, what a crowd it was. I’ve never been a part of anything so big. When Garth started singing Callin’ Baton Rouge, the excitement got so intense that local seismographs registered it as a minor earthquake. It was awesome. Totally worth the five-hour drive.
So, that was my weekend. Good music, lots of noise, and a surprising number of Applejacks. Time well spent, if I do say so myself.
Now let’s get to what we’re all really here for: the reviews.
Stories for This Week:
Mortal Shell by AShadowOfCygnus
Outside the Reaching Sky by Karazor
Dungeons and Dazzles by Eyeswirl the Weirded
Total Word Count: 141,004
Rating System
Why Haven't You Read These Yet?: 0
Pretty Good: 3
Worth It: 0
Needs Work: 0
None: 0
Mortal Shell
1,855 Words
By AShadowOfCygnus
The life of a changeling, written in purple.
This is description porn, intended to be decadent in nature and only for those willing to slow down, think about everything being said, and maybe re-read the story a few times. Fortunately I got a pretty good roll for my Reading Skill Check and was able to understand most of what was going on, at least after the first few hundred words. The story tells of a changeling born into the world under a queen (no indication it’s Chrysalis) and then sent with a massive horde of its peers to annihilate an Equestrian village, culminating in the interference of the Royal Sisters.
AShadowofCygnus does away with directness in favor of flowery prose that strains as hard as it can to describe things from an alien perspective. It’s hard to say if this was merely a stylistic choice or intended to show that changelings themselves are so vastly different (perhaps both). The nature of the story suggests that the changelings are downright animalistic, lacking the complex thought processes required to do anything beyond swarm and feed.
A curious experiment in modified awareness and perspective that tells a straightforward story in a non-straightforward manner. I rather liked it, but I imagine its audience is going to be limited. The wordsmiths among us will find it a treat, but the casual reader? They’re mileage may vary.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
Hang — Pretty Good
Twilight Sparkle Gets Stabbed in the Back — Pretty Good
Outside the Reaching Sky
106,310 Words
Karazor failed to provide cover art.
Sequel to The Dread Chitin
Requested by archonix
Eighty years ago Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash got stuck in an alternate reality and alien world, where they met a human named Duran Thirk. They escaped back to Equestria and brought Duran back with them. With his help, ponies then reverse-engineered Duran’s technology and combined it with magic, soon exploring and colonizing their solar system. Just when they’re on the verge of exploring the stars, however, they encounter an alien ship. A hostile alien ship.
Outside the Reaching Sky sees the Mane 6 lead Equestria’s very first interstellar mission, their goal being to find and enter formal communication with the beings that inexplicably fired upon Equestrian forces. It’s important to remember when this story was written, as it creates a branching AU where Twilight never became an alicorn and yet the Mane 6, as bearers of the Elements, are either long-lived or immortal (I don’t think Karazor specified which). Heck, the story is so old that Celestia and Luna are identified not as alicorns but as “winged unicorns”.
Karazor did a great job with re-imagining a space-age Equestria, especially in regards to how our favorite fillies came out. Fluttershy as a powerful and capable diplomat and pacifist, Pinkie as a media maven and social influencer, Rarity as a genius roboticist, and Applejack and Rainbow as the mutual leaders of a defensive military force. Naturally, Twilight is the scientist and leader and, with the start of this new mission, commander of the ship.
Not all the characters get equal attention. Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie don’t have a significant presence, although when they do appear they make the best of what limelight they’re given. Despite Twilight serving as the protagonist, the most attention goes to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, who have spent the past few decades in a bitter feud, mostly due to disagreement over the definition of ‘necessary force’. Their inner conflict leads to big mistakes on both their parts, with poor Twilight struggling to correct for both and mend their fractured relationship.
All that is just me saying that the character/relationship growth is strong with this one. Really, it’s one of the story’s highlights.
But Karazor never lets us forget that the whole purpose of this story is to find these dangerous aliens, figure out why they attacked, and somehow make peace. ‘Peace’ proves hard to come by, and the story is rife with both ground and space battles as the crew of the Dauntless wind up getting thrown into one conflict after another. One of the nice elements of the writing is how Karazor made the Dauntless an imposing ship vastly superior to all others and yet still has it slam up against situations equal to or above its limitations.
I’ll throw in that the author has a strong grasp of scene setting. When the shit hits the fan, the readers will feel it. It’s very rare for me to actually share the characters’ relief at a battle hard-won, but the big climactic showdown pulled that off for me.
If I had to pick any one thing to criticize, it would probably be the cartoonish nature of the villains. Not “cartoon” as in “funny”, but “cartoon” as in “so over the top it’s hard to comprehend”. It amounts to a splinter cell that sets itself above and apart from the massive intergalactic government it purports to be a member of that attempts outright genocide over internal politics. Even some of the characters in the story acknowledge how beyond the realm of rationality the villains are. Seriously, they’re afraid they’ll have been caught committing a crime, and their solution is to wipe out the population of an entire spacefaring world in the hopes that will also get rid of the evidence. And somehow they expect the attacking space force consisting of hundreds of warships to not have even a single crewmember who will blow the whistle on this act of wanton evil?
Well, I suppose it’s more original than the go-to Evil Empire scenario.
Despite the nonsensical nature of the villains, I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It’s got action, it’s got character and relationship growth, it’s got a fascinating blend of magic and technology. As far as space-faring adventures go, it’s about as good as I could hope for. I’d say it’s a big improvement over The Dread Chitin. Best of all, there’s no obligation to read its predecessor; certain things from the past, particularly involving the late Duran, will crop up, but readers should be able to get the gist well enough.
If you’re interested in ponies in a science fiction, space-faring setting, this will probably do it for you.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good!
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
The Dread Chitin — Pretty Good
Dungeons and Dazzles
32,839 Words
By Eyeswirl the Weirded
Sequel to Fluffy Fever
Sunset Shimmer is determined to befriend the Dazzlings. To this end she has done quite a few things, including assist in a city-wide search for a missing siren, do battle against murderous animatronics, and help beta test a virtual reality bank robbing game. That last one was extremely lucrative for all involved, so when the gaming company informs them of a new game ready for testing, she’s all in. This time? It’s a dungeon crawler.
If Eyeswirl were still around, I’d ask him “Why Bend Will?”
Anyway, this is essentially the story of Sunset’s and the Sirens’ virtual reality adventure in a traditional fantasy dungeon crawler RPG. Sunset is (secretly) a gamer whereas the Sirens are completely new to this particular kind of game, so she gets the joy of guiding them along the familiar tropes. Such tropes include how all female characters (except white mages, to Sonata’s consternation) must be scantily clad, nonsensically slow enemy waves, zombies, unrealistic block mechanics, and healing allies by shattering full glass bottles against their skulls. The Sirens are confused, but like Sunset they eventually get into the swing of things.
The author combined two things in this story to great effect: first, poking fun at nonsensical gaming elements most of us take for granted, and second, Sundagio Friendshipping and Siren antics. I specifically say “friendshipping” because while Sunset has made it abundantly clear (at least to us readers) that she thinks Adagio is hot, there isn’t a single moment that could be interpreted as these two going beyond that. Maybe if Eyeswirl had continued the series then we’d get there, but alas, this is the last entry the author wrote before abandoning the site. Which is too bad, because I really enjoy Eyeswirl’s interpretation of the Sirens.
The only annoying bit is that there comes a point not long after the adventure starts where Adagio and Sunset take a different path than Aria and Sonata so as to maximize their loot. Sonata and Aria don’t rejoin them until the story’s practically over. Which is unfortunate, because they’re every bit as fun to watch as Adagio and Sunset.
The only other caveat is that this is the last story in a series of five, and it does make some references to its predecessors. That shouldn’t be a big issue considering the other stories are just as fun as this one (although the first one is the most nonsensical of the bunch by a long shot).
At any rate, this is an amusing and fun story in which Sunset gets a little closer to the Sirens by sharing in the joy of virtual reality gaming (and earning some nice loot in the process). If that sounds like fun to you, jump in.
Phooey. Now I have to find something else from Eyeswirl’s library to entertain me.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
Sucker for a Cute Face — WHYRTY?
Dazzle's Poor Career Choice — Pretty Good
Fluff and Kidnapping — Pretty Good
Fluffy Fever — Pretty Good
Blueblood Takes Over Equestria — Worth It
Stories for Next Week:
Fiddling Around At The Hootenanny by Alicia Van Hammer
Her Knight in Sunlit Armor by AliceLiz
Griffon The Brush-Off - Extended Cut by AdmiralSakai
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Ah wow, Outside the Reaching Sky, it has been a while. :)
Sound like you had a rocking (
) time at the concert. I'm really not a concert person myself either, but sometimes circumstances like yours above can really do wonders, can't they?
Nothing much to say about these three, though that sequel to The Dread Chitin does remind me I've yet to read the original. Frankly, I don't think I want to. But the content of your review here read like a WHYRTY for most of it – the eventual rating came as a surprise.
And another Extended Cut fic next week, eh? Still don't plan to read them until the series has reached its end goal, or more likely, finished prematurely, ideally by intention rather than just stopping. But I continue to enjoy your evaluation of them, so I'll look forward to that.
Garth is always incredible in concert. Definitely the best live music performance I have ever experienced.
5655636
I'm sure you know how it is. Or if not, you will in time. You get to the end of a story and you're not sure how to rate it. Sometimes the only thing separating a story from a PG! and a WHYRTY? is a gut feeling or your mood. I don't know how many stories I get to the end of and suddenly find myself waffling on the rating, and sometimes I look back at an old review and wonder why I chose the rating I did.
We want to be objective, but sometimes feelings refuse to be ignored.
5655668 5655697
The Red Strokes? Never heard of it. Had to look it up. No, he didn't sing it, but he had so many good songs he couldn't get to all of them. I recall he also didn't sing Life's a Dance, which I consider one of his better ones, but how can I complain when I got to hear The Thunder Rolls, Rodeo, Papa Loved Mama, and so on. Guy performed for nearly three hours.
I always liked his music, but had no idea he was such a cultural/musical phenomenon. I did some research on him after the concert and, whew, he's a much bigger deal than I realized.
5655750
Oh, for sure. Not even 100 reviews into this game, and I have had a fair share of stories where I have it as a split between two ratings, and only make the final decision when pulling the review in question from the workfile into that week’s blog. Art’s never fully objective, after all, despite our best efforts.
As far as changing opinions go: While I stand by every review rating I’d done thus far (I’m sure that will change), there are plenty of stories in my “just put them in a bookshelf” phase (May 2021-January 2022) where I no longer stand by said rating. But except for personal interest cases, I’m not going to redo them. Better to focus efforts of fics I haven’t read or appraised before! As one does.
5655636
I'd recommend giving Stare Master EC a brief look. It's our shortest story, and it'll give you a good idea for whether you enjoy our writing style. If anything, our glacial pace will give you plenty of time to read it before we publish anything else, we're aiming for quality over quantity.
I'm glad my shilling finally paid off. Outside The Reaching Sky is a nearly perfect fic. IMO, obviously.