Fic recs, June 5th! · 2:00am Jun 6th, 2022
PhycoKrusk's dog still needs help.
Rune Soldier Dan is doing minific commissions for Ukraine!
And local funperson Amber Spark could use some help as well.
Oh geez, it's been a while, hasn't it? D: I apologize for taking so long to get this out. It's not like this is my job or anything, but I do take my ability to signal boost folks in need quite seriously, and the choice I made for how to do this one kept me from getting anything out sooner. :/ To wit, I had a longfic to listen to, and was picking things to read based on half the wordcount I had left. Good idea for later, when I've run out of RIN and RIL, not so much for right now, when I'd prefer having the flexibility of working on two review blogs at a time. Next one will be audiobooks. Speaking of...
VisualPony's newest readings include Blueshift's My Brother, the Tooth, as well as PoweredByTea's The Wrong Fork, The fic man's Cuddling Ensues, Agent Bookfort's Twilight Sparkle Goes to Bed, and Daemon of Decay's What's in the Box?!
Sparrow9642 has done themoontonite's In Birdsong!
Scribbler's newest reading is Trick Question's Motherly, with Illya Leonov, VladiVoices, Agent0Fluffy and Mindscape!
okay, geez, let's do this already ._.
H: 2 R: 3 C: 1 V: 0 N: 1
The Random Royal Funeral by Darth Link 22
Genre: Comedy
Celestia and Luna invite Twilight to come have her funeral with them.
In hindsight, a random comedy about the princesses holding their own funerals was maybe not the best story to include in a review blog about an author who had just recently passed away, so I've moved this review forward in time. c.c; In my defense, I did not know what I was getting into, and also this is really funny. Darth Link came up with a bizarre idea, rode it to its logical conclusion, and filled in the spaces with a whole ton of hilarious jokes, many of them about shipping. I had a really fun time with this from start to finish!
Recommended
Saving Princess Skyla by Between Lines
200th Review of 2022!
Genre: AU Adventure/Action/Comedy
All Pandora wanted to do was maybe ruin her perfect cousin's perfect wedding a little.
Well, hello, Pandoraverse, it's been a while. After finishing this story, I went back and read through my previous blog on the subject and surprised to find that I frequently said I didn't like Pandora. Well, I think the problem is that no one can write her well, at least no one besides Between Lines, because she was a real hoot here. The character interactions in this story are what make it, from Pandora and Skyla sniping at each other to Cupcake's placid Marcy routine. That said, the plot is complete bubblegum nonsense, and I frequently just had no idea what was going on. This does sort of fit a story about a draconequus, but as I said in my comment, it felt like a crossover with something I'd never seen before.
Recommended for Fans of the 'Verse
The Art of the Duel by Undome Tinwe
Genre: AU Action/Romance
I thought I knew what kind of story this was going to be from the start: Twilight's a roguish knave, Rarity's a disaffected noble, they have a swordfight because that's high-class romance, baby. And while the latter half is true, my expectations for the first part were in fact completely upended by the actual story. This is really cool, really fun, and really flashy, and makes a good addition to the notable realm of AU Rarilight fics written by good authors.
Highly Recommended
At the Mountains of Discord by Glimmervoid
Genre: Lovecraft Crossover/Adventure/Dark/Sci-Fi/HiE
A chronicle of Canterlot University's disastrous expedition to the Uncharted North, as recorded by Twilight Sparkle.
Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos remain one of those general nerdosphere things that I have only learned of through osmosis. I have no direct knowledge of any of the stories, and in this manner, I have no idea how closely this hews to the plot of the original Mountains of Madness. That said, knowing that it's a Lovecraft crossover helps to explain why it works the way it does, because taken as MLP fic? It's really weird. Why does Twilight sound like this? It's Lovecraft. Why does the story feel like your standard dark adventure, only to have Twilight occasionally stop and opine about some twisted lore she read in the Necronomicon? Again, Lovecraft. And actually, as weird as that second point makes it, that was a good way to approach this combination. This is about Twilight discovering eldritch horrors on Equestria, but also it's about a Twilight who was at least primed to face them. This is all new and yet not new to her, which I've never seen anyone else do with a crossover before. And as for the adventure, it's quite excellent, the forbidding tone of the writing doing a lot of heavy lifting in making sure you understand just how terrible everything she encounters is. I will mention there are a lot of typos, which get worse both as each chapter and the story itself progresses. Not enough to really mar the full experience, but you know. All in all, this is solid crossover fic and will appeal to anyone who's either into the mythos or who enjoys watching ponies encounter horrors beyond imagination.
Highly Recommended
Secret of Andalantis by Fizzy Orange
Genre: Lunaverse Adventure
A relaxing oceanside vacation turns into a tense adventure when Ditzy Doo disappears under the waves.
Well, this was quite the romp! The thing with Lunaverse is always to see what episode was reinterpreted to give us the individual stories. And while this could certainly be compared to Over a Barrel, in that some members of the Elements of Harmony stumble into both sides of an ongoing race war, I also think that would be doing it a disservice. (And not just because that episode was kinda bad.) This has quite the expansive lore when it comes to seaponies, and of course you all know I am all about the seaponies. It's a rousing adventure with a bit of mystery inside it, with lots of humor, twists and some really excellent character writing, especially when it comes to Ditzy and Bon-Bon. That said, the writing has some problems, and they sort of get worse as the story goes. Lots of scattered typos for one, plus the mystery is almost a footnote resolved by the end through happenstance. Plus, the ending just sort of goes on and on, as the bad guy is defeated, after which circumstances contrive to put our heroes into what's basically a JRPG-style "this isn't even my final form" boss fight. And then there are even more complications after that! But overall, I feel like the good here well outweighs the bad, and this was worth my time, certainly. As always though, it can't be read separate from the rest of the Lunaverse, and if you're a fan thereof, that probably means you've already read it!
Recommended
Under the Moonlight by Cmdr Cutie
Genre: Shipping
Tempest Shadow has been working hard at her redemption, but thoughts of the mare who saved her continue to plague her mind.
In the A/N, the author says they've only "just started out writing", and indeed, this is the first of their fics published to Fimfiction, in a career that spanned less than a year, even. The point is, it shows. The writing is fast-paced, everything brief and to the point. I can get Tempest being nervous about asking Twilight out, but she's nervous about it in a basic bitch way, not a Tempest Shadow way. And ultimately, this is a very standard shipfic: overcome nerves, ask out, set up date for sequel. There's almost nothing to it. I picked this one out because its threequel just came out as an audiobook, but I think I'll be skipping that one.
Not Recommended
The Great Moose Census of 1001 by shortskirtsandexplosions
Sequel to Dying to Get There
Genre: What?
Okay, I'm gonna be honest: I do not know how to feel about this story. The writing is actually some of skirts's best, it's just that the contents are complete nonsense. Why are moose? Why do they turn into ponies? What's the point of counting them when they're openly hostile? Like, why is that apparently the solution? Why are they Canadian What is the point of this story? But for all that I could very easily just be all "lol that's skirts for you" and chalk it up as a crazy piece of surrealist foofaraw, I cannot merely sit back and enjoy the craziness for what it is. Because the first chapter of this supposed comedy details a pony SWAT team, armed with shotguns, breaking into a suburban home, threatening a couple, and bringing said shotguns up to their child's room. And there are other scenes in later chapters that made me exceedingly uncomfortable for similar reasons. Admittedly, five-plus years after the fact, but still. It was never funny to begin with. Like I said, I just don't know what to make of it.
No Recommendation
Finding Home by Krickis
Sequel to Inner Strength and Playing House
Read by Fimfiction
Genre: Romance/Drama
After a bad breakup, Sunset returns home to Equestria and is taken in by the pony she has a crush on and the one who reminds her of who she lost. They're both engaged to be married, of course. Surely nothing can go wrong.
So here's the big centerpiece of this blog, the next major installment of Who We Become, or at least the one I was most interested in since it follows Sunset into Equestria after Playing House. And, uh, I'll get this off my chest right up front, this is the most disappointing entry into the series. Hopefully the only one I can say that about. Hardly a bad story, but definitely the most "standard shipfic" that I think WWB will ever become. So let's talk about that!
The primary story here involves Sunset dealing with lingering feelings for various ponies around her, and then actually not causing drama because of them, which was pretty surprising. Spoilers for a six year old story, this is a shipfic where Sunset ends up in a triad with Twilight and Fluttershy as they plan their wedding. Time for crazy poly angst and figuring out just how to romance with three pones! And also like, Fluttershy dealing with the thought of becoming a princess and Sunset dealing with alcoholism (glad that thread was followed up on!) and Twilight just dealing with being Twilight. They all get POV scenes. :B
And while the story does a very good job of portraying the subject for anyone who might not be fully versed in its nuances, it also suffers from basically being the same story as Inner Strength? Fluttershy and Twilight discover something about themselves that changes their relationship, they come out first to their friends, then to their families, then to Equestria with varying levels of acceptance and pushback, they weather the storm and end up together by the end. It really is just the exact same broad strokes, only in this case, there's also next to no conflict. The first third or so of the story is honestly pretty drama-free, at least for a Krickis story, and once we hit the first bout of drama, involving a Sunlight kiss, we go from "I am very disappointed in you" to "let's just all date" in literally one chapter. And this is the main issue I have with the story: everything is resolved far too easily. There are reasons for this discussed in various comments on the story, I'll let the author's own words speak for her in that regard.
But like I said, none of this makes this a bad story. For a third fic on the site, this is quite excellent, showcasing Krickis's mastery of all the characters, especially in ensemble scenes. Seriously, the best bits are when the Mane Six get together to do anything, it happens far too infrequently, and they're all written perfectly and have such great camaraderie. Sunset's of course her usual sassy self, she's great. Luna remains great, as does her paramour Amber Glow. Even side characters have a tendency to shine, from major ones like Twilight's parents to Discord and the Cake Twins, who only appear in the final chapter but steal their respective scenes but good.
And like, the story may have resolved easily but it does still set up a whole bunch of really interesting stuff. I'm planning to read the two mini-sequels before going back to Humania with the next big story, whenever that is, and there's just so much to look forward to, from the successful adaptation of human technology to Equestria to a certain excellent side ship that just so happened in the final chapter. :3
So it's not like I have any regrets from reading this. It maybe took me a bit longer to get sucked into it than other WWB stories, but that's fine, it got better as it went. It's just the most high-quality fluffy shipfic I've ever read is all, for better or worse.
Recommended
A very fair assessment of Finding Home, and one I think I only disagree with in that my own thoughts on it are harsher than yours hahaha. What I particularly love here is:
Because gosh darn that is exactly what the story should have been and what I had originally planned on it being before I got cold feet. I'm glad you found other elements likable, but yeah, this story is to me a lot of potential that mostly gets wasted
Hope you enjoy the rest of WWB a lot more. I will say there is one more fic in the series that I feel strongly isn't up to par, but I'll keep mum about that. It has the benefit of not being a freaking 178k word novel at least hahaha
5662633
A WWB that's not 178k? Be still my beating heart. :V
5662669
Lol you've made it most of the way through the series now! Playing House is like a quarter of the series by itself, and Finding Home is the last novel of this length. The remaining novels are more reasonable lengths haha
I remember The Art of the Duel very fondly. Great story!
The other HR story... I'm just not fond of Lovecraftian "horror." It seems to be nothing but, "The universe is cold and uncaring, and we are all mere insects under the feet of insane gods!" So... pretty much daily life in the 21st century?
Maybe I'm missing something.
5662920
I don't find it particularly horrifying myself, it's more about the atmosphere and overall feeling for me. Because you're absolutely right!