Fic recs, February 22nd: Top Ten of 2014 edition! · 2:18am Feb 23rd, 2020
Yeah, I'm doing the thing, mostly because this took me quite some time to pull off and I don't want to sit on it anymore.
Welcome to 2014! I read some good stories back then, and here I've picked ten and used the Also Liked column to find ten more stories to review! The key for everyone because I expect no one to remember these things:
Title of Top Ten fic
List of other recommendations from Also Liked list, underlining those I’ve reviewed previously
Commentary on the selection
Title and author of fic selected from other recommendations, like usual
Genre like usual
Review like usual
Recommendation like usual
H: 3 R: 4 C: 3 V: 0 N: 0
As a Mother by The Descendant
The Railway Ponies: Highball; Empty Nest; On Pins and Needles; Our Gifts; The Father of My Children; The Silent Shore; Of the Fair and All After
They're all Descendant fics! Who knew? Time to read the only Descendant fic I have ever downvoted!
Bailout by The Descendant
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Epistolary Comedy
Applejack writes a letter of complaint to the mayor.
Strangely, I get the feeling my old downvote (which I have now reversed) came not from the writing, but from something else. I'm not sure what, but I was definitely a fool. To be sure, this is maybe Descendant's worst story. The writing is not particularly good, suffering from that classic bugaboo, Applejack's overwritten accent. It turns out by the end, this was intentional, but it still doesn't explain why "to" is always rendered as "tah`", with the accent-mark apostrophe. This therefore doesn't seem like much of a letter. There's also the plot, which while comedic, is something of a spaghetti-incident-in-the-making, spiralling out of control at a frankly exhausting pace. Barely a paragraph goes by before another escalation or visual gag is thrown into the milieu, and by the end, I just wanted a break, already. It was too much, and such a density of jokes meant that there were that many more which just didn't land. Finally, while I suspect she's meant as a stand-in for real-world governmental inaction, I can't see Mayor Mare standing idly by and responding with bureaucratic pablum while this incident unfolds. It just doesn't fit her at all. So somewhere in there, something came to "downvote this", but I've since read considerably worse.
Recommended If You Don't Mind Overwritten Accents
Bitter Harvest by Esle Ynopemos
Stubborn as Ponies; When They Found Common Ground; Spring Is Dumb; Taken for Granite; Authored for Adoration; Where Earth Meets Sky; Rolling With the Punches
Lots of ship fics, all of them by highly regarded authors. A few are personal favorites, even!
Good Ponies Don't… Do They? by bookplayer
Genre: Romance
Twilight, Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash talk about sex and relationships.
Moralizing about relationships in ways that mainstream media never discuss? Sign me the flap up! This is absolutely the kind of relationship drama I want to see. It's not preachy, it gives the four characters involved in the two sides of the debate it's focusing on a voice and motivation, and (not to spoil the end) it leaves us with a message of "Whatever you do, do it for the reasons that make sense to you and not because someone else wants you to." Absolutely fantastic, and everyone's fittingly in character, too. This might be a little off course for those not interested in inter-mane shipping, but I'll still call it Highly Recommended If You're in Need of Relationship Advice.
Recommended
Friendship Is Optimal: Always Say No by Defoloce
FiO: Firewall; FiO: Spiraling Upwards;FiO: All the President's Horses; FiO: All the Myriad Worlds; I Can't Decide!; Prophet of the Digital Horse; FiO: A Watchful Eye
Lots of FiO. Even the stories that don't carry the tag (which, interestingly, are sequels written by the same author) are FiO. Go figure!
Friendship Is Optimal: The Law Offices of Artemis, Stella & Beat by Eakin
Genre: Drama
Alex Meyer just got a job with a very special law firm, the only one that represents Princess Celestia in Equestria Online.
Good freaking god. In all the years I've been delving into FiO sidefics, I've yet to read one that's pure wish-fulfillment. Maybe it says something about the caliber of authorial company I keep, but they're always stories like this one, which takes a look at the Optimalverse and asks, okay, but how would it really work? Our main character, Alex, is a brand new lawyer, who as I said, ends up working to represent CelestAI in a world where uploading to Equestria is considered by most governments and many people to be assisted suicide. Ponies have no rights because they're considered dead, and Celestia is trying to get a law passed through Congress that would change that. It all comes off as exceptionally realistic, if one abides the gaffe of "Windows 9". XD The story itself is extremely good, as Alex goes through a major personal tragedy in the middle that ends up affecting everything going forward. The chapter after he gets the news is some of the best emotional writing I've encountered on this site; the chapter where Celestia addresses Congress includes a phenomenal speech that's also some of the best writing I've ever encountered. Which is not to say this isn't without a few flaws. The final chapter and the second half of the chapter I already mentioned include long stretches of very flat, explainy dialogue. Alex has something of the "guy who gets all the girls" trope about him, and the romance subplot between him and an uploaded pony is pretty thin. And — though this is more of a personal bugaboo that exists in every good FiO story — you're not going to find a satisfying ending here. You can't trust CelestAI for a hill of beans, and the finale is nothing but solid ambiguity and zero answers. And goddamn if that shit doesn't drive me up the wall. XD But yes, this is quite good, and should satisfy some values.
Recommended
If Memory Serves by Pascoite
The Good You Might Do; Only Skin Deep; Pilgrimage; Shoots and Roots; In Bloom; Cranky Doodle Donkey's Bad Asssssss Day; The Wrong Side of Tomorrow
Pascoite has a strong following! And also seems to attract high-caliber writers. As an aside, it's funny how much this year's top ten mirrors last year's: there's a Lucky Dreams story, there's Always Say No, which I referenced, and in this case, it is finally CiG's lucky day.
Love and Other Bandages by Cold in Gardez
Genre: Anthology
I don't have a punchy way to sum up this piece, at least in part because the six stories are kind of all over the place. They range from the Apples dealing with their recent loss to Rainbow Dash preparing for war and a very surprising funeral for Pinkie Pie. Each chapter focuses on an Element — which I didn't realize until after the Pinkie one — but does so in an intensely emotional way that differs greatly from what one might expect from a similar story. I don't know, I just thought this was really excellent writing, and it ranges surprisingly far to explore its themes.
Highly Recommended
In the Place the Wild Horses Sleep by Lucky Dreams
To Love the Sun; The Young Filly and the Sea; Wyrmlysan; A Brush With Beauty; Riverdream at Sunset: A Manuscript; The Sweetest Water
Wow. All stories I've reviewed before, including a number of my absolute favorite ponyfics. And once again, it's Cold in Gardez's lucky day!
The Instruments of Our Surrender by Cold in Gardez
Genre: Character Piece
A pair of ponies do their best to escape Dodge City during Tirek's assault on Equestria.
It's so weird: This is structured like a disaster flick, with Tirek more a force of nature than a character. You don't bargain with him or defeat him, you just try and avoid him and hope you escape his notice. And yet, after the first scene, this delves so deeply into our protagonists' backgrounds that I completely forgot Tirek was in our establishing shot. That's a testament to the power of CiG's character work, as he builds life in Dodge City (I don't know why Dodge City and Junction City exist as separate places in this, but it's not elaborated on), and develops meaning in small things. Everything wraps up in a nice package by the end, and of course we know how the finale goes. This was really good!
Highly Recommended
Queen of Queens by JawJoe
The War and What Came After; Life in the Wasteland; Wyrmlysan; Pride; Old Pony Tales for Hearth and Home: A Collection by the Quill Siblings; The Arbitrage of Moments; Dream
People who read JawJoe really like world building! (Also the first GaPJaxie story I ever read!) And is that the third time in a row Wyrmlysan has shown up? O.o
Carol by JawJoe
Genre: Character Piece
Princess Luna pays a visit on Hearth's Warming Eve.
This is a quiet study of a bitter old woman, the things which made her that way, and what she left behind. I was really taken by Carol, the wrongs perpetrated on her, and how she passed them on to others. The romance is mostly suggested, but nevertheless strong. And I love how Luna's role, despite her having a major cameo in the first chapter, is really all about subtlety and understanding her subjects. This was something else.
Highly Recommended
Que Sera, Sera by Ponydora Prancypants
The Longest Night; Just Words; My Two Most Faithful Students; The Lessons of Eternity; Myths and Birthrights; Princess Twilight Sparkle's 500th Birthday; Eternal
Lots of historical fics, and of course a lot of focus on Twilight and the Princesses. I'd have done that penultimate title, but it really deserves a vs. post.
A Tale of the Sun, Moon and Stars by DalTRS
Genre: Fable
Once, three sisters ruled the skies.
The amazing thing about this is that is hews so closely to canon — or at least, canon as we understood it back in season two — that the addition of the Stars as a character in the creation story makes perfect sense. Like, the ways that this explains certain intrinsic features of Equestria's history just makes perfect sense. How else would it have come about? That said, I wasn't like, super wowed or anything, and I think that's simply because it's been so long since this story was released, and I've read so many that are similar. Don't take that as any kind of pan, though; this is nevertheless a very solid piece, just a bit out of its time.
Recommended
RUN by Stereo_Sub
Twenty Minutes; Melt; Fifty Shades of Brad; Tiny Equine in Everfree; Let Them Eat Grass; Nothing Is Scarier; The Sweetest Water
I don't think I've seen a more diverse group. A couple really great fics, a couple really weird fics, all stuff I've reviewed. Shit, and the odd one out is incomplete!
The Unswaying Oak by AstralMouse
Genre: Dark/Mystery
What is it about the tree that's so unsettling?
Surprisingly, this single chapter is a fairly satisfying read, but I still hate incompletes. There's some strong characters here, good community-building, and just enough tension and atmosphere to make that tree really creepy without quite dipping into horror yet. It's just that promise of more to come being so tantalizing. Given how recently this was written, maybe it'll get finished?
Recommended
Thou Goddess by horizon
No Regrets; Philomeanie; Three Nights; Princess Luna Likes Coffee; Roaming; The Arbitrage of Moments; Don't Let the Princess Drive the Celestial Phaeton!
People who read horizon have really damn good taste in writers. Funnily, I was just thinking about Phaeton the other day, but it's incomplete! So I'm stuck reading something people wanted me to read. Guess I'm doing an anthology review!
Verse Averse: Tales of the Versebreakers by horizon, AugieDog, Sharp Spark, FanOfMostEverything, Orbiting Kettle, BlazzingInferno, Flink and Caliaponia
Partial Sequel to Fugue State
Genre: Anthology
Though this was written by a half dozen authors, I'm going to treat it as a single entity, because the various entries tell a pretty cohesive story. Said story's concept is deceptively simple: there is a group of ponies, the Versebreakers, whose job it is to interrupt songs. The reasons why they do this lead to my main problem with the concept. Take a look at the first three entries, for instance. AugieDog tells the story of a pony finding out she is a Versebreaker in the first place because she's really bad at singing. Sharp Spark gives us a hilarious bureaucratic comedy with multiple references to musicals and potshots taken at Twilight Sparkle. Then FanOfMostEverything writes a story about Sweetie Belle having a bad reaction to meeting a Versebreaker for the first time, which is more akin to existential horror. I wish there had been more agreement on the tone in this collection, because the Versebreaker idea fits comedy well, but it could also work as darkfic. (See BlazzingInferno's contribution.) Mixing the two produces a very unpleasant result, however, though if I'm being honest, I never quite got on board with the idea of Harmony being ultimately a bad thing if it happens in too large an amount. So if you like the idea of comedy, read Manehattan Takes Rarity and 4th District Court, Canterlot, 11:35 A.M. (horizon's original writeoff entry that's still as funny as it was all those years ago.) If you want to try the darker side, read Song and Seal. Everyone should read Heart of Silence, which is a ponification of Heart of Darkness and absolutely spectacular. This anthology features some excellent authors doing excellent work, but taken in any kind of order, it leaves something to be desired.
Recommended If the Idea Appeals to You
I like how that spoiler tag just ignores one of the letters inside of it, completely ruining the joke. :|
Looking back, that lack of tonal cohesion may be why the versebreaker concept never really took off.
Though I still hold by the idea that Sweetie Belle would not react well to them.
I liked the original versebreaker write-off entry, but my problem with the anthology of it is that half the fun of it was it catching you by surprise. When in every story you know it's coming, it loses some of its luster, like knowing the punchline before the joke has even begun.
I liked "Love and Other Bandages" a lot as well. My only issue with it, and it is a very minor issue, was the title. It suggests a unifying theme related to different kinds of bandages, yet it doesn't have such a theme. In any case, they're still all very enjoyable stories.
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I think the concept could have been taken in a more light-hearted direction. You're possibly right, though.
5208318
The writeoff entry is also good for being an excellent written song, something horizon's other anthology entry shares.
Oh. I saw your comment, and that did actually motivate me to start working on that story again. I think I have a decent idea for what to do with it, and the second chapter is mostly done. It should be a shortish 3 chapter story. I really didn't expect a review for it, especially with it being one of my most unnoticed stories (which was also why I lost interest in finishing it, as I figured nobody would care anyway).
I do hope the complete story doesn't disappoint, if you do read it.
That said, I very much appreciate the nice review and the motivation to actually write some more.
The format of the reviews confuses me. I can't figure out what the underlined stories are supposed to be.
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Check out the grey box at the top, it explains the format. (Since I don't know which underlined stories you mean...)
It is my lucky day!
Read all but one, and yes they're great stories. I was really surpised how good Instruments was. It doesn't sound like it would be anything special and does indeed read like a disaster fic but the ponyish optimism shines through.
4th District Court, Canterlot, 11:35 A.M is one of those perfect gems that I have to reread at least once a year. I think your overall recommendation is just about right; I found the whole versebreaker concept hilariously brilliant and… wrote a tiny darkfic about it somehow. Who knows how that happened.
I love the verse breakers.