Read it Later story count: 96 (+1)
Words read this week: 24,736
Today the focus falls on someone who has been a big part of Fimfiction almost since the start, having joined in September 2011: FanOfMostEverything. If you've been around ponyfic more than ten minutes and haven't encountered FoME,¹ you're probably not looking very hard. He's a huge asset to Fimf, reading and commenting on ridiculous amounts of stories, but also – today's key point – writing a lot of them as well, with no fewer than 159 listed as I type this.
¹ The original post used "FOME" throughout, but since the writer uses "FoME" consistently about himself, I've gone back and changed each instance.
Other than stories I've already read, the main type of fics I didn't review here were the many based on Oversaturation (PR 395). Since I enjoyed that, I may well read other stories in the universe at some point, but today I wanted to focus on fics that didn't need particular background knowledge. Passing homages and references, fine (FoME would be a hard author to review without those!) but not out-and-out Magic: The Gathering crossovers, since unlike my subject I'm not much into that.
All right then. Let's get to it!
Go South, Young Mare by FanOfMostEverything
Shoeshine and the Khaki Maniac by FanOfMostEverything
The Glaring Gaffes of Gabby Gums by FanOfMostEverything
Time Enough for Friendship by FanOfMostEverything
A Mad Glimmer by FanOfMostEverything
★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 3 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.
Go South, Young Mare by FanOfMostEverything
Derpy, Daring Do and Cherry Berry
G4; Adventure/Comedy; 4k words; Aug 2017; Everyone
Ditzy Doo tries to get the southern birds. Again. Fourth time's the charm, right?
This time around, Ditzy (as FoME prefers to call her) has been helped along a bit by Twilight – though, pleasingly, not in some "here's a super-powerful spell" way but with something a bit more prosaic. She and Ditzy have some excellent dialogue, too. What the author does with Cherry Berry, though, is both ridiculous and ridiculously amusing. Perhaps the middle section goes on slightly too long, but it really is a minor thing. The end picks up: I doubt many people will guess the revelation about Ditzy's special talent, but it makes perfect sense to me. This is one of those FoME stories that is a real joy to read, smooth and light and just plain fun. Plus Ditzy is how I prefer her, a bit odd but absolutely not stupid. The end A/N is shortish and worth a read. A fine start to this week's slate. Recommended. ★★★★
Shoeshine and the Khaki Maniac by FanOfMostEverything
Other [Shoeshine], Cherry Berry, Trixie, Daring Do and Ahuizotl
G4; Adventure/Comedy; 9k words; Mar 2019; Everyone
This is why you don't complain about what Princess Twilight does in her spare time.
By pure chance, this is another comedy adventure featuring Daring Do and Cherry Berry. That turns out to be a good thing, since if anything this fic is even more fun than Go South, Young Mare was. It won the Season 9 Bingo Contest, which constrained its setup. What we have here, narrated by town farrier Shoeshine, is a wonderful buddy action romp, one which I suspect may appeal most to those – like me – who really liked the S6 finale. A little G1 knowledge, though not at all necessary, may also enhance the enjoyment. It's full of background world-building (the EqG portal, Starlight and time travel, Ahuizotl's mythology...) but all of that never gets in the way of a rollicking good read. A pretty high four and an easy recommendation. ★★★★
The Glaring Gaffes of Gabby Gums by FanOfMostEverything
Other [Featherweight]
G4; Comedy/Random; 1k words; Apr 2012; Everyone
A very special edition of the Foal Free Press
I chose this because it's FoME's earliest fic without the [Crossover] tag. It's simply a series of subheaded paragraphs in which Featherweight addresses Gabby Gums' various stories, both canon and original. They're variably amusing – it's worth waiting for a Pinkie-related one late on – but in truth the format gets pretty repetitive by the end, even at 1,370 words, and the sprinkling of old-fandom references may not make much sense to newcomers.¹ Spike has a second name which I found quite hard to fit into Equestria, even after discovering it was an Elder Scrolls reference. This isn't anything terrible, but it's fair to say FoME's writing has progressed quite a bit since 2012. ★★
¹ One, about milk, I didn't even realise was a fandom reference, and I'm ancient!
Time Enough for Friendship by FanOfMostEverything
Star Swirl, Discord, Tirek, Twilight and Other
G4; Adventure/Drama; 7k words; Apr 2016; Teen
Twilight's curiosity about her new castle leads her to stumbling upon one of the greatest secrets of all time.
FoME doesn't only write light-hearted comedies, as can be seen here. By chance, I selected an entry into the same "A Matter of Perspective" Writeoff as Bachiavellian's An Old Coot from last week. This is quite a complex story for the word count, and I definitely had to concentrate quite hard. You see, that word "Time" is really important here. Star Swirl is, without giving away too much, trying to arrange timelines so that something happens at exactly the right time, since earlier or later would be catastrophic. There are lots and lots of hints of things we don't fully see on-screen, not least just how dark not just Discord's behaviour, but Equestria in general, can be, could have been, might yet be. I'm deliberately withholding the reason FoME wrote this fic, mentioned in the A/N at the very end, because it's just so perfect and I don't want to spoil it. I thought this would be a three-star fic, but I just kept thinking about it and finding new things to appreciate. As such, bumping it up. This isn't just a quick bit of light-hearted fun, but it is fascinating. ★★★★
A Mad Glimmer by FanOfMostEverything
Starlight and Discord
G4; Dark; 3k words; Apr 2015; Teen
A most disagreeable person interrupts Starlight Glimmer's dreams of revenge.
"Story does not contain Nikita Khrushchev or shoes." So ends the longdesc, but we must all learn to bear disappointment. This is one of that smallish class of fics written during S5, with all that that implies for how Starlight is written. Deep in those caverns she escaped into at the end of the S5 premiere, Starlight encountered Discord, who has some home truths for her. Again, FoME writes Discord satisfyingly dark and dangerous, which goes some way to make up for the unavoidable strangeness in Starlight's characterisation when looking from 2024. This fic hasn't, though, dated as badly as some of its contemporaries. Maybe Discord's moralising to Glimmy gets a touch too unsubtle on occasion, but I do like the use (which we see surprisingly little in ponyfic) of the fact that the Mane Six have very powerful friends. One day I'll read the sequel. High three. ★★★
Well, that was a pretty entertaining week! My thanks to FanOfMostEverything for writing such an interesting selection. Next time here it will be PR 499, which means I'm almost at the big five-oh-oh. With that in mind, all of next week's fics will have – at least in their titles – some sense of things being almost, nearly, not quite, etc.
Almost Famous by sporksalasagna
This Nearly Was Mine by BillyColt
Not Quite a Mare by Sky Melody
On the Edge by Roxxi
Filthy Rich Gets Divorced! (Almost) by deadpansnarker
Very solid selection! Setting aside his immense contributions to the community and his affable personality (if sometimes in an overly-wry way that makes him rather hard to read and get a bead on where you stand with him), he's no less prolific and important as an author.
ReplyDeleteIf I am being critical, the same inclination for witty asides, references and in-jokes that pervades both his Friendship is Card Games blogs (and, to all appearances, just how how writes and talks) does sometimes undermine fics that would be stronger without such elements. Certainly, more than one fic of his I've read stumbled on putting across its business in the right tone, handling a switch from a semi-serious setup to a joke conclusion, or the endings in general. He's certainly the kind of author where a lot of fics are high Pretty Goods that miss the next rating up due to these elements.
Still, hitting a high-tier Pretty Good (or a high ★★★) regularly is no small feat, especially when he's averaged a little over a fic a month across nearly thirteen years. And that so many of his fics are quick-n-dirty one-shots, with little pretension to be anything than amusing little ditties, makes their stumbles easily to swallow in light in the affable comfort. There's a reason that, both before I started reviewing and now I am, they often made for splashable reads in small time gaps.
Still an author I have to be rather selective what I read (possibly off having absorbed so much of it in analysing it across thousands of cards, he favours a lot of late series canon, often present where it has no right to be), but within those parameters? It's very rare I'm ever less than satisfied with his works. Doesn't negate his writing shortcomings, but it counts for a lot.
As for today's fics, only read Go South, Young Mare. Similar rating and thoughts, down to a soft middle that rebounds by the end. Otherwise, I've certainly seen Shoeshine around, maybe time to finally read it. I also read A Mad Glimmer ages ago, though I doubt I'd like it as much as you now, given the elements and tone therein.
Very fitting theme for next week! Looking forward to it.
I picked this week's stories quite carefully, more so than I might have done had it just been a single FOME tale in an ordinary mixed edition. With the exception of the Gabby Gums fic, which of course was chosen to see what early FOMEfic was, they were all stories that seemed to appeal to my tastes. I'm sure that didn't harm the overall rating!
DeleteThe Shoeshine fic avoids your reservation about late-series canon by being S9 anyway, of course, while in Time Enough for Friendship playing with canon timelines is a key plot point in itself. FOMEfic doesn't always click perfectly for me -- I only gave two stars to his highest-rated fic, The Drop of Ambrosia -- but similarly to you, I generally find I enjoy the ride even if there's the odd wobble along the way.
Mind you, I barely read those "Friendship is Card Games" blogs beyond the intros, since the meat of them means almost nothing to me. I've probably missed all kinds of nuggets as a result!
I picked this week's stories quite carefully
DeleteAs you well should! I didn't mention the reason for you picking that Gabby Gums fic, but I approved, having done similar things for past author spotlights myself.
By late-series canon I didn't just mean the show's epilogue episode, though using/setting fics there when they really shouldn't be is for sure something enough of FoME's fic are rather victim to. I meant more broadly "the last four series of the show", though more the last two (I can usually live and let live with S6/7 elements). It's basically my way of referring to when fics do what the show did in the School seasons, and shove in references to it for a full detriment with no gain. Not new for Ponyfic, given how many fics in 2013 and '14 did the same with Princess Twilight/her castle, sometimes to the point of editing a fic after the fact. But it sticks out all the same.
To be clear: I am objecting to these elements mostly when a fic puts them in when it would be better off without them, or as background details/gags that don't do anything but tell us the author did their homework. Obviously any fic properly constructed around said elements can work, concept and execution depending.
Mind you, I barely read those "Friendship is Card Games" blogs beyond the intros
Oh, neither do I, the MtG stuff is totally lost on me, and bless it, I've tried. I did mean purely the play-by-play of the given episode/media he's discussing. Which tends to be more than merely "an intro", usually more than half the blog, except for fandom material where not much analysis can take place.
Goodness, when you went for my early work, you didn't go halfway...
ReplyDeleteIn any case, incredibly flattered to get a spotlight, and more so that the majority were rated so highly. Thank you for your own long-running contributions to ponyfic, and for the focus!
(Side note: Blogspot won't let me log in, but this is indeed FoME. I can make a few Magic cards if you don't believe me. ;) )
You're very welcome, and thank you for the kind words. It was a lot of fun to read your stories. As for Blogspot, it seems to be a law unto itself where logging in is concerned. I've tried and tried to understand its logic, but no.
Deleteman, I don't get the milk thing either c_c that was a thing?
ReplyDeleteI do have a very vague memory that there was some meme about the problematic nature of keeping cows for milking when said cows were talking and sapient...
DeleteNot any I've read, but a very deserving author to be featured. And I also have no idea about the milk thing...
ReplyDeleteDeserving indeed. One of those people, like The Descendant long ago, who really adds to Fimfiction.
DeleteFoME has a very engaging way of writing that makes him a pleasure to read, no matter what he writes. I have absolutely no knowledge of or interest in MtG, but I always look forward to his Friendship is Card Games blogs, for the pithy little reactions to what he's read/watched as a basis.
ReplyDeleteI probably haven't read nearly as much of his stuff as I should, and I've certainly added more to my list because of this blog!
"Engaging" is the perfect word. I remember Trade of the Trix was like that for me: it just slipped down so smoothly. Even some authors I hugely admire can't consistently manage that.
Delete