R4 (Reactions, Reviews, Reference, Redirection) #0150 · 3:47pm May 8th, 2015
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Here are five slightly edited old reviews:
No Storms In Canterlot by Esle Ynopemos
The Irony of Applejack by Mister Friendly
Therapist Visit: Princess Twilight Sparkle by ABagOVicodin
Literary Love, Literally by alexmagnet
Princess Trixie by alexmagnet
No Storms In Canterlot by Esle Ynopemos
[story link] [my original review]
This is not a short story collection, but figured I would tuck it in here. Read it because I vaguely remembered reading it and wanted to double-check. Turns out it is a slightly expanded version of one of the stories in the Rarity collection. Which is why the description seemed so familiar. It’s pretty good. It is only slightly expanded, but I would probably recommend this as a good introduction to this author if you weren’t sure about trying the collections.
The Irony of Applejack by Mister Friendly
[story link] [my original review]
I have to give this story points for ambition and for quite a bit of neat worldbuilding. It does have a lot of flaws as well. Mostly poor writing on a technical level. It isn’t a crime against literature of anything, but there were a lot of little problems. The villian is a one-note cliche that reacts the same way in every situation. Which gets really tiring. Every single scene the villain reacts in an almost identical fashion. Like you could switch around the villain’s dialogue and reactions to put them in different scenes and the story would be pretty much unchanged. The name six aren’t quite characterized all that well either. Biggest problem, however, was one of pacing. The story keeps upping the action and upping the stakes. To the point that I had fatigue at about the 2/3rds mark. A well paced story has moments of rest as well as moments of intensity. This story was pretty much just all intensity. The other side of this was I stopped having any investment in how things in any particular scene would turn out.
Still, in spite of all these annoyances I finished the story with a ‘that was really good’ feeling. Odd since I was also thinking of the problems of the story. Normally a story I find good is one that distracts me, or completely hides the problems in it.
About 1/3 or 1/2 of the review.
Therapist Visit: Princess Twilight Sparkle by ABagOVicodin
[story link] [my original review]
Simple and sincere. Which is a compliment I’ve been giving a lot of stories I like recently. Should probably try to use something else, but not today! I wish this had been a littler longer like the Luna one. Yet it was nice. Nothing that groundbreaking (Twilight Sparkle having trouble being a divine royalty and all that), but a good execution of the premise.
Literary Love, Literally by alexmagnet
[story link] [my original review]
A very silly story. Intentionally so. Some stories I’m not sure if the writing is bad on purpose or if it’s bad for sillyness, but I’m 100% sure that this one is very deliberate. I’d recommend this as a silly silly experience.
Princess Trixie by alexmagnet
[story link] [my original review]
Another light and silly one. Cotton candy story. If you like the idea of Celestia letting Trixie pull off a coup, this is your story. Just don’t expect too much depth.
As always, The Big Master Review List is here: { THE MASTER LIST }
If you know of a text-format reviewer I'm not keeping track of, please let me know and I'll see if they meet the criteria to be assimilated into the list.
If you are an author who wants a more detailed review of a story I've covered feel free to message me. My reviews tend to be fairly light, mostly just reactions to a story right after reading it. I am happy to give a more careful read and reply to anyone who wants more precision and/or feedback.
