Fic recs, September 25th! · 8:04pm Sep 25th, 2022
VisualPony has done readings of Lurks-no-More's Trouble Sleeping, Rambling Writer's One-Sided Conversation, and Skywriter's The Heart Is Where the Home Is!
Oh god, I have so much stuff to do today still. x.x This is a short blog featuring stories that are prequels to things coming up in the next reader-centric review blog. My audiobook list currently has over 300 videos in it. D: help
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Rainbow Dash Confesses Her Love to You by BradyBunch
Read by Fimfiction
Genre: 2P Shipping
Rainbow Dash makes your movie night one to remember.
I'm reading this one, however, because Scribbler did a reading of the story four down in the sequel stack, and you know I like to be thorough. That being said, you probably also know that I'm really not into these sorts of stories. Like, at least it's not HiE, but still, it just does nothing for me. I can at least appreciate this on artistic merit, though? Like, the writing's fine, this does the one-sided conversation thing well. The worst I can say is there were a couple non-pony words (offhanded, ungodly). And Rainbow's characterization is likewise good, though I'm not sure she's the kind of person who would refer to herself as "momma" when recounting her day. That's a lot of caveats. <.< Which is all to say, it's fine, it's just not for me, and I don't want to read any more.
Recommended Only If You Want to Be Shipped With Rainbow Dash
A Rainy Day's Date by Flutterpriest
Read by Fimfiction
Genre: AiE Romance
You really have no idea what to do on your date with Cadence.
I know what I just said, but if I skip this one, I won't have five stories in this blog. <.< Also, Flutterpriest is a good writer, as this story shows. I have to say, I even like the parameters the two set for their relationship, even though the whole time, I was wondering where the hell Shining Armor was. If only they weren't, y'know, a pony and a human. >.>
Recommended Only If You Like Human/Pony Romance
What Goes Around… by sbloom85
Reading by Lotus Moon
Genre: Dramedy
Thirsting for revenge against their tormentors, the Cutie Mark Crusaders approach Discord for help.
While there are some funny bits in the first part, this didn't quite warrant the Comedy tag in my opinion. That said, I have to agree with the author's note: I'm amazed I've never seen the CMCs dealing with Discord like this before. Like, why did they never do it in the show? It's so obvious in hindsight. Other than that, this gets kind of meandering in the middle, when it switches to Diamond Tiara's POV. I also wish it had been written post-Crusaders of the Lost Mark, because I really would have loved to see Spoiled Rich's reaction to the events of this story, rather than that of an unnamed but supportive mother for Diamond Tiara. Not bad, though.
Recommended for Fans of the CMCs and/or Their Bullies
The Care and Keeping of Hidden Castles by Ice Star
Read by Fimfiction
Genre: AU Romance
A goddess and a demon go on a date.
Some authors attach themselves to a ship and ride it off into the horizon. You know the ones. For Ice Star, that ship is Lumbra, and this is the third or fourth of his works about said ship that I've read. And I still have yet to have any questions answered, namely: 1) Why is Sombra alive? 2) Why is he hanging out with the princesses of Equestria? But now I at least know where to get those answers, because I have just got to read the story this is a companion to. After, y'know, reading its three prequels. <.< I mean, it's not just that, the cosmology detailed in the first scene is fascinating and lends an air of supernatural romance to this piece, plus I'd also like to know why Luna is the way she is? She has some very unkind thoughts about her sister, for one, plus she seems to have zero respect for Twilight, and I found all of that intriguing. Anyway, as for this story, it absolutely stands on its own, and is an excellent romance to boot. This is really about just exploring their relationship, demonstrating what makes them work, and especially showing us what Luna sees in Sombra. Her voice is well crafted, and the writing is overall effortlessly excellent. The juxtaposition between all this talk of them being gods and the fact that they're just mostly doing cute slice-of-life stuff is likewise a strong element that makes this story work. So yeah, while my primary takeaway is advertisement for the greater series, this is totally worth reading on its own merits. :)
Highly Recommended
Just a bat… a Bat on the Hunt for Headpats! by Tiki Bat
Genre: Random
A batpony sets off to show Ponyville she's not some horrible, scary monster.
I see a title like that and I just… save me. D: But this actually works a little better than I expected it would. Our protagonist comes off as exceedingly infantile at first, which was what I expected, but then it turns out she's the source of her own problem rather than some pre-existing prejudice, and that was at least different. Doesn't exactly end so much as stop, though.
Vaguely Recommended
I'm not really a fan of the comics, but one of the ones i liked - and i liked it a lot - was a Discord x CMC one-shot. If the dynamic works well in this story, too, i'll check it out.
5688489
it's been so long since I read any comics D: and I still have a few dozen sitting on my hard drive
Ye Ghods, what a pile of... Well, it's all from a place where almost everybody is a small horse, so I guess we have to expect that sort of thing.
Dodged a bullet this time, because not even an HR will get me to read a story where the characters are OOC and dumping on the author's fave hates.
You take BACK that I'm a good writer.
thank you bro
5688567
get rekt, scrub >:V
5688514
Have to agree. I was reading the piece on that one and thinking “okay, yeah, eye of the beholder and all, but all the quality in the world isn’t going to make characters being vessels for dumping on those the author hates remotely tolerable for this phantom”.
I am used to a fair shake of stories that get praised here being hard passes for me, granted. Usually it’s just for characters, genres, pairings or story types I don’t vibe with. This, though… this was something else.
5688608
You're lucky you weren't around for the flood of bitter Newly-Minted Alicorn Twilight Gets Her Wings Ripped Off or Commits Suicide stories.
BTW, this illustrates why PP is a such good reviewer.
You can't depend on a person who reviews fics to have the exact same tastes, so what's most important is that they're able to give a solid impression of what you'll experience when reading a particular story, no matter what your tastes. That's hard enough to do in the "real" world, but in fandoms like this one where the attitude of, "You should like what I like and dislike what I dislike or you're wrong," is so prevalent, well—it's vanishingly rare to find a reliable reviewer.
So that's another reason why I like his "adjusted" ratings.
e.g., Recommended If You Like Angry and Badly-written Fix-fics
5688639
Also lucky that I've very rarely come across them in the years I've been here; I guess they aged poorly in legacy views enough for the algorithm to not favour them. And when I have seen them, they're pretty fast Hard Nos. But I have seen enough to know the phenomenon you speak of, my friend.
For sure. I've been reading his blogs for a few years now anyway, and I've always liked that. This year, it's a principle I've tried to mimic myself over time. If not in modifying the rating keywords (leave that to the maestro!), then in the body of the review, typically in the conclusion paragraph. Sometimes via a "folks who like x will get the most out of this" statement, but usually just from being clear about what the fic is, what it's trying to do, and how well it succeeds at that.
5688640
Yep! You're good at it, and that's one of the reasons I follow you!
5688514
5688608
Really, my thoughts are, there's a reason why things are the way they are here, and likely the groundwork has been laid in the earlier stories. So I want to get to that and figure out just what's going on. :B
5688698
Well, even though I'm not interested in reading the story, I'm somewhat interested in what you find out about the background.
5688639
when the tide comes, we can swim freely above, and when the tide leaves, we can find beautiful shells and catch fish below.
now only the best few are left standing, the shallow ones got washed away. slowly they will find the pearls among the pebbles one day.
I ended up getting quite sick, so I was kept from seeing how I fared here.
It's a Certified Ice Star Moment™ as I'm sure we're all aware.
Yeah, that's what happens when you've learned how to work on certain parts of conveying things to readers better. It just took a lot of practice.
I do have that ability when it comes to the goth horses. (Thank you!)
My almost-23-year-old self is quite happy with my seventeen-year-old self to have earned that praise.
i.imgflip.com/6jcp2z.jpg
THIS IS ENTIRELY UNEXPECTED HOW DID I MANAGE TO DO THIS TWICE NOW HOLY SHIT
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5688608
The background is kind of summed up here. In short: I'm both younger (and not quite as young as someone would expect) than a lot of people on the site. A bulk of my stories were written in high school, and while I wasn't a bad writer, I had a harder time with working on various aspects of keeping stories standalone without shoving the reader 30,000 words of chunkiness all the time about why things might be different -- for some pretty obvious reasons, that not only wouldn't be fun, it'd be mistreating the reader too. So some parts that have yet to get some proper final touch-ups and smoothing-out for print still show in certain stories, while others have been edited.
(And honestly, it's not exactly new, even when Friendship is Magic was airing for people to have extremely distinct depictions of the setting and characters very far removed from canon without quite making an AU tag. Cynewulf's Songverse is easily one of my favorites there. Ether Echoes has written some amazing examples. There is an Alicorn Adventure series out there too. I can think of a lot more examples, but I think I've gotten the idea across.)
While I'm like basically every writer and do write the things I want to read about, the only time I've ever put no distinction between author and characters have been with the story Song of Myself because it was meant to be a personal story drawn from my own experiences (I talk about it very openly in the comments), the fact that ~90% of the humor I write is something I would laugh at myself, and my ability to be self-referential every now and again (minor on this account, more prominent on my alt where I am morally obligated to be able to have a laugh at myself). Not having me be distinct from the characters would be very boring and defeat the purpose of writing anything other than... my OC, I guess? If people really wanted to know my opinion about every little thing, pony-related or not, they can just relentlessly badger me in PMs for every bloody detail of my thought like a sane human being. I don't need to spend days, weeks, or more writing a story to contain that.
I 100% understand the critique of my ability to execute things in stories as a high schooler compared to how old I am now (my 20s, for reference). What I don't understand is the idea that I was that type of high schooler on here.
5688698
I have elaborate reasons for some of the most seemingly insignificant things in most of what I write. I can't exactly let all this autism go to waste, not when hyperfocus and special interests demand that I make the most elaborate schemes in horsewords possible.
As someone close to the author, I can confirm he did this.
5690405
yer gud, scrub :V
it's best in season
also I hope you're feeling better :c
5690410
I am now, for the most part! I'm just relieved I don't have tonsillitis again, since that was what it was looking like.
This is going on the quote wall. It's about time that got a new addition.