Fic recs, August 11th! · 2:02pm Aug 11th, 2017
I released my first reading in like two years! horizon's The Slow Fall of an Unfamiliar Star!
There's also now an ongoing audiobook of Through the Well of Pirene, read by Luna Farrowe and Illya Leonov!
princeps needs your help! He's selling some stuff for funds, so go check it out! Also, Super Trampoline is doing crappy art commissions! And I'm still doing paid reviews, some of which you'll find in this blog! Everyone needs help these days. :(
I dunno how many of you watch/care about my Youtube channel, but I'm thinking of adding in gaming vids and could use some feedback. Answer my survey!
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On the Line by TheBigBob
Reading (part 1) by lieilengi
Genre: Drama
Princess Luna finds herself in the dreams of a lonely filly. But something's wrong. What's that beeping?
I believe in the adage "you can fix bad writing, but not bad ideas", and this story rather exemplifies it. The premise is fantastic; Luna ending up in the dreams of a dying pony is an excellent twist on her dream-walking abilities. But oh brother, is the writing bad: telly, explainy, repetitive, simplistic, and overall just uninspiring. Characterization is a problem; Celestia is overbearing and condescending, while Luna is often forgetful of things she ought to know, just because the plot needs her to be. Plot convenience crops up again and again, from dream magic not happening while Luna is asleep (granted, that seems to be how it works in the show) to Celestia setting an artificial time limit for Luna to help her new friend. However, the sharp-eyed will notice some foreshadowing about halfway through. What kept me reading this whole story was the promise of a twist reveal at the end, and though I saw it coming, I enjoyed watching the pieces fall into place before the final "I was right!" The twist itself is even more impressive than the premise, and I won't spoil it. Suffice to say, if you've ever wanted to write a story about an OC, this is a good example of how to do so without resorting to your usual storyline, because Novella becomes quite compelling by the end. Just know that if you demand style with your substance, you won't find any here.
Recommended for the Forgiving
Rapid Blink by michaelb958
Reading by Scribbler
Reading by Plagen Shiki
Sequel to Blink
Genre: Blinkfic
Y'know, Blink is like Cupcakes: a grimdark idea that can be interesting to consider, but whose initial execution really wasn't good enough to justify the reams and reams of fanfiction spent delving further into the idea, if not also refuting or repairing it. "What if Pinkie Pie was a serial killer?" doesn't necessarily have to lead us to Cupcakes, but it did, and the fandom just can't get over that. The same goes with Blink and its central thesis of "what if teleporting had grimdark consequences". I do mean that rather condescendingly because it's something of a philosophical black hole. Teleporting is bad in this scenario solely because the author wills it; there's no canon one way or another regarding how teleportation works, so all we're left with is a desire to explore the concept as horror fuel. And that's really all it should have been; we didn't need these dozens and dozens of sequels and what-have-you wrestling with the same concept. All that being said, this story is okay. It goes further into the Blink idea, it's written decently, it undercuts itself at the end. Though the writing has a certain intensity to it, it was good… except for the few scenes when it was being too economical and I couldn't quite follow what was going on. The main problem is the ending. The first one goes on for too long; I kept waiting for the report to cut off at a solid punchline, and it never did. The second one is more there for the horror, but it's one of those cases where Twilight never had a chance to find out what was going to happen; again, darkness because the author wills it. I don't know if anyone still cares about these fics, but this one's okay, I guess?
Vaguely Recommended
Bound to Happen by Letterhead
Reading by Captain Sand
Mature: Sex
Genre: BDSM
Dash and Twilight have some fun.
Sometimes, I think I should stop reading clopfics. I'm generally uninterested in them; half the time they're bad, the other half, they're just funny. But very occasionally, you'll find one that's very good. In this case, I mean the writing is solid, and it's got about 1k of stuff I actually cared about before the unending sex scene begins. Seriously, the romantic scene at the start is great. The rest? Well, I'm kind of salty about BDSM right now, after finding out that apparently everything I know about it is wrong, despite having learned from practitioners. :B Point being, I didn't really care about most of it. I also questioned a few spots. "Camping with your brother" is not exactly what you should be thinking when headed to the bedroom with your marefriend, for one; I had to wonder about the effectiveness of hot wax on fur, for another. I zoned out through a lot; the futa spell at the end was kind of an overreach. But otherwise, if you're up for some horse fucking, you could do way, way worse than this. Now I have to wonder whose alt this is…
Recommended If You Like Clop
Hungry by Super Trampoline
Paid Review for Super Trampoline
Genre: Dark
This actually turns out to be a lot of fun by the end. I start by saying this because, up until that point, it comes off as kind of your standard "super-confident, evil forces invading Equestria" fic. I mean, the voicing is perfectly sinister, but you see these kinds of things now and again, the ultra-powerful, super-grimdark villain coming to Equestria and standing against all opposition while spouting philosophical nonsense. But the final line puts it all in a whole new light. Recasting [SPOILERS] as an eldritch force of entropy and despair is great. :D
Recommended
The Lessons Left Unlearned by Donnys Boy
Reading by Scribbler, et. al.
Genre: Episode Followup
Pinkie Pie apologizes to Fluttershy. But what is she actually apologizing for?
When it comes to things like how Pinkie acted in Filli Vanilli, my usual go-to for fixfics is just to ignore that it ever happened. It's easy for me, since I hate that episode; but this is Donnys Boy, and reading Donnys Boy is always the right choice. This story takes us headfirst, unflinching, into the conflict of "can Pinkie figure out why she was wrong?" To do this, Pinkie is portrayed as something of a social idiot-savant: insightful enough to have a mental categorization of smiles, but autistic enough to not really understand how other people think. Then again, she'd have to be, if her depiction in canon is fully correct. I would call this story a must-read for anyone who has poor social skills; the awkwardness of trying to apologize, to talk about serious stuff, when you're someone who really prefers laughing at things, hit home really hard for me. For the rest of you, this is a great example of how to deal with those times in the show when the characters are acting out of sorts.
Recommended
Somepony Needs the Boundaries Talk by Majin Syeekoh
Reading by SpinoTheSaiyanHog and Scribbler
Oh boy. The annotation reads "Turn on captions if you can't understand what Spike is saying". Not a good sign. To the point, this guy has a major speech impediment that makes him hard to understand. I couldn't make out what he was saying over the water. And I feel like a heel for pointing this out, but on the upside, I've passed over plenty of readers who sounded perfectly fine but were too quiet for my needs, so he's in good company. His pacing is actually pretty good, too. He could stand to tone down the background music a bit, but he uses sound effects well, and though his Spike voice is really bad, mine's no better, so glass stones and all. :B Suffice to say, he's got potential, but I can't go with him.
Genre: Comedy
Twilight regrets having peeked into Starlight's room.
This is an incredibly silly story that was sadly overshadowed in my head by my analysis of the reader. It does do a good job of wringing comedy out of a situation that's so awkward, it's downright creepy. Not a lot of substance, but amusing nonetheless.
Recommended for Laughs
Thanks for the review. When I wrote this, season seven seemed a long way away. Check the description again now. ;)
Lessons... that was a good story, but I have a much better canon friendly reason for why Pinkie blurted out what she did during Filli Vanilli. It has nothing to do with autism and everything to do with another extremely shy girl that Pinkie Pie knows. One whose problem is so extreme that Pinkie often has to help her voice her fears, quite literally.
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The resemblance is uncanny in a lot of ways.
This theory goes all the way back to season one. Pinkie always seems to have a special place for Fluttershy in her heart.
"Your auntie Pinkie Pie's got it all taken care of. "
"Nononononono, we can't prank Fluttershy, I mean, she's so sensitive. It'll hurt her feelings, even our most harmless prank."
It's not hard to see the transference going on here. So yeah, that's not Pinkie being mean, she's literally trying to help her friend in the same way she's used to helping her sister.
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Oooooh I like it
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Okay, that's funny now. XD
4630603
Now someone just needs to work that into a story.
Holy shit, thanks a ton for the signal boost!
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One question: is the Bandcamp account owned by you, or Ether Echoes? I like to get these things precise.
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I run the Bandcamp.
It's also going up on Youtube (resurrected!) under Illya's channel. We're looking at weekly chapter releases
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Okay. I usually list the Youtube channels in my spreadsheet, so I'll make that change once it's up. :) Thanks!
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All righty!
I imagine Ether Echoes will be keeping us updated on when instalments come out as well. :)
I'm really excited to hear your thoughts on it.
* I should note - when it says "name your price" on Bandcamp, that just means it's free but you can pay if you want :) All the money will go to Ether Echoes. It also means if you create a Bandcamp account and "pay" for it, you will be able to download it whenever/wherever you want and get email updates to the audiobook.
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Oh trust me, I know. :B I have about $300 worth of wishlist right now and no way to buy it. D:
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Ew, I hate when that happens.