After much rushing, more frantic reading than I can shake a stick at, several sleep-deprived nights, and one sacrifice to the Dark Lord, Sombra, I have finally done it! I have finished reading and reviewing The Dusk Guard: Rise!

And WOW was it everything I thought it could be! Let’s just dive right into the meat and potatoes of this story. Be aware of spoilers as always, though I will try to go light on them and cover over the really big ones that must make an appearance.

In short, The Dusk Guard: Rise is the story of how a new specialist branch of the Royal Guard was formed, the ponies who were a part of that group, and their first call to action. That premise alone is something to take note of due to the general scarcity of other fics in that vein.

In said guard unit, we have an ensemble cast of OC characters. More on them later, but for the collective track record of OC-centric stories, most tend to be poorly received. For this fic to have an upvote/downvote ratio of currently 473/8, that is quite unprecedented and also gives a hint at the quality of the story held within.

I won’t go into a straight-up breakdown of the plot line, but heres my thoughts on the way the story progressed:

Perfectly. The plot was a quick hook, even with the general lack of fast-paced action in the first, well, nearly half of the book. There are so many scenes that I would love to dote on that it is impossible to choose one, and they all sent the plot forward to a very dramatic and satisfying conclusion.

I must mention one other thing. The entire story is a mystery in disguise. We don’t know anything that the characters don’t know, and must be left to our own devices to figure out a lot of things. Personally, I enjoy things like this. I like stories that make me think, not just spoon feed me all of the facts about everything, leaving nothing to imagination.

All in all, the plot line was enthralling and kept my full attention to the end of the story. Flawless work.

No, not talking about Sky Bolt here. In this section we focus on some more technical aspects of this story; grammar, pacing, etc.

I’ll start with the only thing I could find wrong with literally the entire story. Typos. Seriously, I noticed a minor error about every fifth paragraph on average. Had I been reading in Gdocs and been able to comment on specific points, I would have left dozens of little nitpicky corrections. That said, there was never a point that there was bad grammar because of poor work on the author’s part. Word choice was also nice, as it gave plenty of description without abusing purple prose. So even with the large number of little slips, I still assign a Grammar Rating of A-.

Pacing was, as with most of the rest of the story, flawless. Each scene blended seamlessly into the next, detailing exactly what we needed to see and leaving the unimportant filler scenes told rather than shown. What more could you expect from a guy who dispenses quality advice on so many different aspects of storytelling?

The worldbuilding was another fantastic treat. Every aspect of the universe was so vividly fleshed out in all the right places and left to the imagination where it needed to be. Effective, clean, and even with such a complete world built, it still dances gracefully above bogging down in details and purple prose.

All in all, if the only problem I can see with mechanical aspects of the story is typos, you have done something incredibly right.

And now for the portion of the review that I was so desperate to write about! If I could name only one thing about The Dusk Guard: Rise that I loved the most, it was the characters. This time, I will go into a somewhat lengthy breakdown. Characters like these deserve closer examination.

Now let’s take a look at the dynamic between this ensemble cast. In a lot of ways, it shares some similarities with the Mane 6 that we all know and love.

Good characters in an ensemble cast have a tendency to bounce off of one another and show their strengths and weaknesses through the interactions between them. The cast of The Dusk Guard: Rise is no exception, and we bear witness to some exceptionally strong moments of characterization. Moments such as, for example, when Dawn finds Nova waltzing in the empty workshop. Two characters that are complete polar opposites coming together and finding some common ground is a prime example of characterizing through contrast.

And I’m not done there! From the onset of the story, you can tell how much effort was put forth into creating the characters. Each of them have their own little quirks, their own values, some so well fleshed out (e.g. Hunter) that you can’t help but hear their voice in your head as you read their dialogue.

Not only that, but another thing I love about these characters is the way they each solve problems in their own way. Whether it be Steel Song solving a problem (in the form of the golems) by force or Nova by cunning, this story is a great piece about characters reacting to a problem, not being forced through a predetermined plot line and molded to fit.

I believe that the characters are this story’s strongest aspect. Easily the best characterization I have read in years,

Now that I have pretty well exhausted my vocabulary of positive adjectives in that huge gush of a review above, I suppose I should quit before I make Viking blush.

In summary, I absolutely loved every aspect of The Dusk Guard: Rise. The plot was imaginative and enthralling, and the incredibly well crafted characters added together to make a story that should be at the forefront of our fandom’s writing scene. Maybe someday it will be.

With that in mind, I must come to my rating. With the backing of the admins, I am proud to assign The Dusk Guard: Rise the rating of…

Reading this story was an experience. Something to cherish. I thank you for the wonderful ride, Viking ZX. You can count on me being there when the sequel drops in May.

With that, I bid you all adieu! Till the next review, this is Jack_mahoff, signing off.

BOO-YAH!!! Thank you!

And I swear, one day I will finish fixing up those typos.

Seriously though, it warms me quite a bit to hear such praise for my work. Especially as—you mentioned this—the long-awaited sequel is dropping at last in May.

Glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for the praise! I shall continue to do my best to deliver more that is worthy of such!

4298226 Just remembered that there's 8 side stories I still need to read. Looks like I will have a little more to sate me until the next book arrives!

4298226

the long-awaited sequel is dropping at last in May.

Looking forward to it.

4298315
Although I know it will take a streak of submission moments to get them all done, I'll be putting the first of those in the folder next time it's open. So we're good for ... 8 submission openings, not counting Beyond the Borderlands.