Paul's Thursday Reviews CCC · 8:56pm Jun 30th, 2022
Paul sits at his desk, playing a game. He's been at it for two hours. There's only one fight left before he reaches his goal for the day, and it’s an easy one. Just as he's starting the battle, it occurs to him:
Paul: “I’ve got a three-day weekend. Normally I’d take advantage of those to go visit Mom and Dad. But, y’know, I’ve visited them two weekends in a row now, and the last one was hectic. I think this Fourth of July weekend I’ll just stay at home and relax. Maybe I can devote more time to working on Bulletproof Mi—”
*Phone rings*
Paul: “Hello?”
Mom: “Hey, I’ve got some wonderful news! We’ve decided to have a big family gathering Saturday night. Everyone will be there. Aunts. Uncles. Cousins. Nephews and nieces. You know, everyone you only get to see once or twice a year!
You are coming… aren’t you?”
Paul: ………………….goddamnit.
Mom: “Hmm?”
Paul: “I mean, yes. Yes. Yes, I’m coming.”
Mom: “Wonderful! Now, I wanted to tell you about—” Proceeds to talk his ear off for forty five minutes.
Paul: Hangs up, then realizes the really easy fight got lost by the dumb-as-rocks AI while he was distracted, and he can’t try again for an hour.
“Goddamit.”
…
…
…
Realizes he’s scheduled to read 60,000+ words on Sunday.
“GODDAMIT.”
Le sigh. In cheerier news, welcome to the 300th’s Thursday review blog! Technically, this is my 332nd blog, because these things used to be on Mondays, but still, milestone! I decided to look at the numbers and discovered that I’ve released 2,325 reviews for 961 authors since I started these blogs back in February 2015 and read 69+ million words. Whew, no wonder I feel like taking it easy next year.
Can I keep going to 400? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Since I’m planning to reduce the frequency of these to once every two weeks next year, it may be a while.
So better to get started. Shall we?
Stories for This Week:
Urohringr by Imploding Colon
A Puppet To Her Fame by Kaidan
Total Word Count: 467,746
Rating System
Why Haven't You Read These Yet?: 1
Pretty Good: 1
Worth It: 0
Needs Work: 0
None: 0
Urohringr
438,033 Words
By Imploding Colon
Sequel to Odrsjot
Rainbow Dash and the crew of the Noble Jury suffered a huge, heart wrenching blow. They try to move on, but everypony can feel the tension in the air. They are broken. Despite that, they continue east.
It’s been forever since I read one of these Autraeoh stories; I reviewed Odrsjot back in January 2020! This is largely because of how incredibly packed my long-term schedule has been in the last couple years, something I’m finally getting around to fixing via strict self-limitations. The biggest downside here is that I’ve forgotten many of the specifics of the previous stories, which can be a bit problematic with a long-running franchise such as this.
Even so, I’m glad I got back into it. The Eternally Silent One of a Hundred Names continues a lot of the ridiculousness in this story regarding Rainbow Dash’s apparent imperviousness to death, but balances that out with an ever-interesting narrative voice, steady character evolution, and a firm grasp of dramatic effect. The end result is another wild adventure, more worldbuilding, bigger mysteries, and even a smattering of romance. We’ve got long lost ancient cities, the arrival of a staple MLP villain, actual pegasi other than the blue and rainbow-y variety and, perhaps most shocking of all, Best Pony Roarke Most Rare going soft.
Which brings me to another of the story’s (and entire series’s, really) greatest strengths: how the events are shown to have such profound effects on the characters who are not Rainbow Dash. We’ve got a cranky old stallion finally acknowledging and embracing his relationship to the crew’s most effeminate character. Said effeminate character forms a romantic relationship and a place to call home. A cook discovers something that redefines his entire life (plus gets some much needed background). Most of the characters are doing something other than merely following RD around, and this keeps the story interesting from scene to scene. Imploding Colon has a talent for making even the least pivotal moments feel valuable.
There are, of course, negatives. Such as Rainbow being invincible unless plot and dramatic effect insists otherwise, and that’s always a temporary arrangement. The shining example of this is how she keeps getting caught midair by creatures that can rip her to shreds in an instant – and indeed, have done exactly that to multiple NPCs already – and yet for some reason only ‘latch on’ to her in nondescript ways that are harmless at best and mildly annoying at worst. Apparently they stop thinking to use their regularly referenced razor sharp claws and teeth when the pony they’re targeting happens to be blue and/or rainbow maned.
Still, if you’re looking for something fun to read, this franchise is certainly worth a go. This may just be me forgetting a lot and coming back to it after so long, but this feels like one of the better entries in the overarching franchise. Just be prepared for the long haul; as of this story, I’ve read a whopping 1.5 million words of Rainbow’s east-bound journey, and there’s still four more stories to read (the last of which remains incomplete and, worse, may not actually be the last). As interesting as it is, the Austraeoh series is not for the fainthearted.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good!
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
Austraeoh — WHYRTY?
Eljunbyro — Pretty Good
Innavedr — Pretty Good
Odrsjot — Pretty Good
A Puppet To Her Fame
29,713 Words
By Kaidan
Octavia has committed the gravest sin imaginable: she is an earth pony born to unicorns. Despite this vile situation, her parents are determined to ensure that the family name is preserved and honored. To this end, they thrust a cello into a filly’s hooves and told her to be the best, or else. But it isn’t just any cello. It is something far more… demanding.
This is a great many things at once. It’s a romance. It’s a horror. It’s a tragedy. It’s a drama. More than anything, it is a Weird tale.
Told entirely from Octavia’s perspective, Puppet To Her Fame shows one mare’s desperate, vain fight for freedom against the parents who hate her. This isn’t your typical story of child abuse, but a depiction of vile, gleeful evil. Throughout all of it, there’s the underlying threat, the ever-present danger of the cello that refuses to let Octavia rest or have even a moment’s reprieve. In the wake of this gradually worsening disaster are the unanswered questions. Where did the cello come from? Are Octavia’s parents aware of its true nature? Why is it so demanding?
The worst part of all of this is the underlying hope that tantalizes Octavia in the form of her first ever friends in the Royal Canterlot Orchestra. Bon Bon, Lyra, and Vinyl mean well and do what they can, giving Octavia the sense that maybe, with their help, she can finally escape a lifetime of hell.
But the tragedy tag is there for a reason.
I suppose if I had to target anything as a negative, it would be the sheer speed at which Vinyl’s and Octavia’s relationship developed. It’s practically love at first sight and it feels a bit ridiculous. I get why Kaidan went with it in terms of the story’s development and the hooks that are getting stuck into Octy this way, so I’m willing to give it a pass, but it still bugged me.
As a horror fic and weird tale, this one wins big time. If you’re a fan of sad and/or dark stories, you can’t go wrong with this. Needless to say, the Happy Ending Crusaders should avoid it like the plague. Kaiden hits hard and aims where it hurts.
Bookshelf: Why Haven’t You Read These Yet?
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
Twilight's Dollhouse — Worth It
Stories for Next Week:
The Enchanted Kingdom by Monochromatic
The Endeavor Within by Mike Cartoon Pony
Radiowaves by mushroompone
Accidental Matchmaking by NaiadSagaIotaOar
Certain Advantages by The Descendant
A Recipe for Disaster by ThatOneWriter
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This happened to a friend of mine recently and for the first time ever, he just had to say no thanks to prior commitments. Though, the 4th I'd probably make sure to spend with family given the chance.
Good luck on your weekend and Happy Independence day.
The near-mandatory extended family commitment to meet up for Independence Day and/or Thanksgiving has always felt like a quintessentially American thing. Or maybe it differs between families. For this Irish chap, there was never a consistent holiday for such things outside of Christmas. And both those and the Christmas ones have been far, far rarer in the last decade, what with most of everyone grown, spread around the world, raising families of their own, the works.
But enough about me. Hope you can, eh, manage to squeeze in that 60K somewhere! Though congrats on reaching your 300th Thursday review blog. Also:
Mondays, you say? Well, perhaps it's a good thing I wasn't in this game back in 2016. Not that I'd even watched anything My Little Pony at that stage at all.
Anyway, still not diving into the Autraeoh series, not with that much in it, and the other horror fic doesn't seem quite my speed either. Next week though, that's quite a batch, been ages since you've had six in one of these! A monochromatic fic, one of The Descendant's classics, and a certain cartoon-loving chap's debut round these parts. Wonder how he'll fare?
Among three other fics. Looking forward to that!
300 of these (for Thursdays) considering how many words you read is a tremendous achievement. Congratulations!
I stopped with the Austraeoh series after two or three books, and given I didn't like even the first book as much as you did I can't see myself ever going back to it unless it's actually finished and maybe not even then, but it's a major achievement all the time. The second story? I've thought about it once or twice, but it's never (yet?) appealed enough for me to dive in.
As for next week's, I have read (and liked) Mike's fic, but I know him personally and I don't enjoy reviewing stories by friends. As such, I shall be fascinated to read an impartial third party's assessment! I read Certain Advantages in May and had mixed views, but I think that's all from the list. I really enjoyed a story of mushroompone's recently, though (Two-Player Game) so if the one you're reading gets a good write-up it may well go on the RiL list.
whoo 300! :D I like round numbers!
5668949
As an introvert and isolationist, I never actually want to go visit people or do the big family things. But I always make myself do it anyway because, once I'm actually there, I always enjoy it immensely. I always saw it as one of those "you know it's good for you" situations.
No, I don't want to go visit my parents every other weekend. I want to sit at home and do 'me' things, thank you very much. But damn it, they're my parents and I enjoy spending time with them, so I'll get off my ass, be a good son, and resist my instinctual desire to be an island.
5668961
It's an individual family thing, I think. For every family that's big on get-togethers, there's a family that isn't much for socializing with one another.
My family used to do the big gathers several times a year, pretty much for every major holiday or birthday. But back then, most of the family literally lived in the same neighborhood. Most of them were within a ten-minute walk from one another's homes, and the furthest of them all was about a thirty minute drive away. We could make the time.
Now all the kids have moved to another state (or in one case, another country), they've all got their own kids and jobs and lives, and let's not forget the in-laws who also want visits. It's a lot harder for them all to get together. So nowadays when an opportunity is discovered for most of us to gather, we tend to set our excuses aside and attend.
On Sunday, when I'll be starting the day at my parents' place and spending part of it driving between states? Not a chance, unless I discover some deep, forgotten well of willpower. Most likely I'll be spending a few days or a week behind and gradually catching up. It's what I usually do in these circumstances (they pop up a lot more frequently than you might think, and usually for family-related reasons).
5668985
Yeah, Austreoh's definitely not for everyone, and that's even before you consider the gargantuan wordcount of a series that isn't even complete yet (and given the latest story's lack of recent updates, may never be). I wouldn't blame anyone for noping out.
Considering Mike's pre-read a few stories of mine a few times as-is, I do consider him a friend. But I pride myself on being impartial, and based on our conversations I have doubts that my honest critique would be an issue.
5668997
And the round numbers like you, too.
5669025
As do I. This one's a re-read, as someone pointed out that I rated it but don't have a review for it listed anywhere in my archives. I could comb through the actual blogs hunting for it, but who has time for that nonsense?
5669134
In my case, I don't think I'd have a problem with writing an impartial review. I'm just the kind of person who'd feel rotten if I had to write a negative review for a friend. It's a cop-out to solve the issue by not doing reviews for friends at all, but it's my cop-out.
5669149
Me, on the day I have to publish a negative review:
"That's harsh. Isn't it? I think it's harsh. It's too harsh.
It's not harsh. It's honest.
But I didn't have to be mean about it.
I wasn't being mean! If they want to succeed as a writer, they need to suck it up.
Maybe I could tweak it? Just a little.
No! I wrote my opinion. It's final!
I haven't published yet.
I'm not taking it back! I have to give proper criticism.
But what if people think you're mocking them?
I'm not... I'm not mocking them!
It looks like you might be.
Stop it! No take backs! I'm publishing this thing!
...
...
...
Crap. Now I feel like an asshole.
I tried to warn—
Shut. Up."
5669161
Rarity, please.
I was scarred by reviewing long ago since there were a handful of people who didn't like it when I was honest or gave my real feelings. After a few times, I just chose the option of least resistance and gave those specific people Morbius reviews. "This is the story ever written." "I really like the part where they said, 'it's ponying time, and then they ponied all over those guys." and the like. It was painful, but I felt it wasn't worth the trouble having a whole group down my throat over it.
5669132
Yeah, I get the feeling. My extended family, maybe I don't care all that much. My siblings/nieces & nephews/parents though? every chance I get, and doubly so now that I'm on a timer.
5669133
Don't worry, that was clear!
I knew you'd have to catch it up over time, and that this wasn't a rare occurrence, given the mentions of family gatherings and the like in past blogs.
All this talk of family gatherings gets me thinking about mine. I too am an introvert and isolationist, but the difference I don't enjoy myself at such things more than mildly even when I make myself go. It's largely just the usual catching up with people's careers/families/kids, and while it's never awkward, a mixture of how easily I clam up, my own life being rather unexciting, and having minimal common ground with nearly all my relatives makes it awkward. I sometimes wonder, if and when I move out, how much I'll see any family members beyond the immediate lot then. Hm.
Logan's notes on negative reviews (5669149) and your dramatisation of such raise another interesting point. Now, as I tend to be selective in my reviews, going both for story types I like and shying away from those obviously lacking from the packaging alone, I haven't had to hand out many prominently negative ones - of 97 reviews thus far, only ten Weak and two Bad. I remain sure of my opinions in them and how I phrased them constructively, but I won't deny, it did sting when one author with two stories reviewed this way, Nailah, on the second one, said, and I quote, "Stop reviewing my stories" and deleted the linking comment on the story, despite it being fairly phrased. Obviously she thought better of those stories, but maybe she didn't think much of my reviewing style either. Who knows.
Anyway, your Rarity-like dialogue was funny, but me, my fallbacks to make negative criticism come across right, is to state why something isn't working and how it could have, and in cases where personal taste is a bigger factor then normal, to acknowledge that. Possibly that's weak sauce! But as one improves as this, sticking to your gut's important. Not that you need me to say that! Though KorenCZ11's (5669171) approach to the matter is one I understand too.
Congrats on the milestone!