Read it Later story count: 181 (-1)
Three stories again today. Unfortunately the mid-length fic I was going to review was something I ran out of time to finish, so that will be part of next week's collection. Instead, I fired up the random number generator and read the first thing it found that was actually complete and not a crossover. Did it pay off? We'll see later on. The three fics are:
The Ship-Off by TheBrianJ
Six More Weeks by Cold in Gardez
The Memory Stealer by cherryfeather101
★: 1 | ★★: 0 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.
Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Mane Six
Comedy; 10k words; Aug 2012; Teen
Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash have a write-off. The subject? "Romance"
You can probably guess the generalities of what each pony's story is like, but it's the specifics that make this an amusing read. You do have to accept Rainbow Dash at her most emotionally dense, and Twilight at her most literarily obsessed, but a bit of stereotyping doesn't have to hurt a comedy. Rarity plays quite a fun supporting role, too. I was very uncomfortable with something Twilight asks Spike to read, something I considered entirely inappropriate for a baby dragon, and that hurt my enjoyment just a little. A moderate three overall, as it's generally entertaining but its sheer age makes it feel a bit unoriginal now. Besides, Cold in Gardez did "Twi writes a romance story" fantastically in Naked Singularity (PR 1). ★★★
Talk of the devil...
Six More Weeks by Cold in Gardez
[minific so not tagged, but Twilight and Mane Six]
[again not tagged, but Slice of Life/Comedy]; 1k words; Apr 2013; Everyone
I don't generally review minifics, but this was presented as a separate story in CiG's print ponyfic anthology Completely Safe Stories and so I'm making a very rare exception. Twilight is celebrating using her organisational skills to get WWU sorted out. Then Rainbow mentions something about a groundhog and a discussion ensues. Those celebrations may have been a touch premature... A silly little thing, this, but given the author it's no surprise to find it nicely crafted with excellent characterisation. Three stars (albeit a high three) is a bit low for a CiG story, I know, but it's a quick time-passer. Just a rather fine one. ★★★Written for prompt #308: How ponies spend the day after Winter Wrap-Up.
The Memory Stealer by cherryfeather101
Pinkie Pie and Applejack
Dark/Tragedy; 1k words; Jan 2014; Everyone
The RNG let me down this time. I like to have a positive comment about a fic early in my reviews, but all I can really say about this one is that the English is fairly good and that if you look really hard there's the ghost of an interesting idea there. But if your heart sank as you read the above short description, I'm afraid your heart was correct. There's a good deal of unpleasantness here, with the E rating wildly inappropriate – though given the way it's presented, a hardish T would probably have been enough. Still, the main problem is that this is a follow-on from Cupcakes, and the world doesn't need more of those. Not recommended, not even in a "so bad it's good" way. It isn't. ★Pinkie Pie is captured by a vengeful Applejack who is still nursing childhood wounds. This also includes the creepypasta cupcakes, so it has parts of that inside it.
Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include NaiadSagaIotaOar's Who We Are in the Dark. Yes, this was the story I didn't quite finish in time for this PR!
Big oof on that last one. :B
ReplyDeleteLet's face it, choosing a story randomly doesn't have a great hit rate. Excluding, as I did, all unfinished and M-rated fics made my chances a bit better, but this was still quite a likely outcome.
DeleteOh dear.
ReplyDeleteIf The Memory Stealer (thief! The word is thief!) contains parts of Cupcakes (which I've never read and know only by reputation, but whose creator I frequently cursed back when my children were asking me to search for the video of the song of that title from the actual show), and it's been sitting on an Everyone rating for the last seven years, it suggests a flaw in the moderation of the self-rating system.
How did it get onto your list in the first place, if you don't mind my asking? It doesn't seem like your cup of tea or suitable alternative just from the description.
I wasn't very clear, was I? This wasn't the RNG picking from my RiL list. It was the RNG picking from the full site search.
DeleteOh, OK, that makes more sense! Sorry, I misunderstood. Obviously.
DeleteWhat a coincidence - I just read The Ship-Off the other day, and my general reaction was largely the same. It's age definitely shows - among other things, it has the tired old fandom trope of Twilight's Mom being not just a novelist, but the author of Daring Do - but I found the mild stereotyping of the two leads worked well enough here. There were fun touches too, like Rarity's attempt to write a story of her own at the end, and the prose being just as cliched and problematic (okay, maybe not AS much as the other two's attempts. And as you said, the specifics within generally had me chuckling.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, it's generally good but not great, and in the wake of fandom megahit Naked Singularity, I'll put it as "Totally Worth Reading Once, But Not Again".
I suppose it was less of a tired old trope in 2012! Overtaken by canon since, of course.
Delete