Read it Later story count: 98 (+1)
Another week goes by, and somehow I've blundered my way through it well enough to still be here to host another Ponyfic Roundup. This is the penultimate edition of the year, and the final conventional edition – see the footer for what awaits next week. Three stories as you've all come to expect by now, and here they are:
The Taste of Blood by Shrink Laureate
In the Shadow of the Stage Lights by Quicksear
"What Does Love Taste Like?" by Poison Claw
★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.
Twilight
Horror; 8k words; Oct 2016; Teen (Death)
Twilight Sparkle has nightmares.
Something of a "Chessmaster Celestia" fic here, in that Twilight finds herself having "victor's guilt" about what's happened to some of the foes Celestia has vanquished. (Discord in his stone prison, for example – the chronology of this fic is itself slightly wobbly and dreamlike, clearly by design.) I like the uncomfortable feel it has, although this is let down a bit by a rather dull ending. The story does have one of the greatest typos in ponyfic history: "...the fires of manga bubbling up from deep in the earth". There's occasional goriness (not explicit, but quite nasty) but the twist, when it comes, is matter-of-fact and works the better for it. Not a bad read, really, if a little short of greatness thanks to some inconsistency of tone. ★★★
In the Shadow of the Stage Lights by Quicksear
Lyra, Vinyl Scratch and Other
Slice of Life; 1k words; Feb 2014; Everyone
When Vinyl comes to Lyra with an odd request, the lyrist quickly finds out how out she only knows half the story.
A slightly odd fic now, in which we discover something about Vinyl's past that causes us to reassess her background. Unusually, Frederic Horseshoepin is a named character here, and indeed he proves to be rather important. The main problem with the story is that it's much too wordy; perhaps I could go with Octavia narrating it like that, but Lyra? It's a stretch. An irritating reference to "Beethoven's Fifth", too. One of those stories you skim through, remember one or two details of, but then are likely to leave behind. ★★
"What Does Love Taste Like?" by Poison Claw
Young Six
Slice of Life; 1k words; Nov 2019; Everyone
Ocellus should have expected this question to come up someday. She really should have...
The rest of the students ask Ocellus this question, and she tries to explain. I like the concept here, since the whole changeling love-feeding thing has endless story possibilities and this is one I don't think I'd seen before. On the other hand, this fic too is really wordy. While I don't mind fics that are just chat, especially in short scenes like this, it does fall down a bit on being so straightforwardly told. A little extra weirdness beyond telling someone their love tastes like cotton candy or whatever might have lifted this a notch. ★★
Next time, all being well, I'll be concentrating on a few stories that have been featured by the Royal Canterlot Library – including the very last fic to be inducted, MSPiper's Autumnfall Change.
No comments:
Post a Comment