It's over to you today. Not permanently, I hasten to add! I do intend to do some work on this blog still. :P However, I have a medical appointment on Wednesday; it's a routine one, but it does mean Ponyfic Roundup will be on Friday again this week. So, in the meantime, here's a question for you:
If you were marooned on a desert island for one year without internet access, but you could take with you FOUR ponyfics, what would you choose?
You cannot choose stories you wrote or had a significant hand in bringing to completion. (I'll leave what counts as "significant" to your conscience.)
The stories you pick must also be currently and publicly available, so that readers can give them a shot if they like.
Other than that, no special rules. If you want to take four million-word unfinished behemoths, you can. If you want to take four perfectly crafted shortfics, you can. If you want to make all your fics crossovers with some weird anime I've never heard of, you can. Your move!
Fallout Equestria, Salvation, The Best Night Ever, Hard Reset.
ReplyDelete(And if you're wondering what unifies that list- character depth.)
I have still not read Salvation, but assuming you mean the Cold in Gardez story it is on my RiL list for when I have time for 155k words! All the other three I've read and enjoyed.
DeleteYes, that's exactly the one I mean. (I couldn't not take at least one CiG story to this island with me!)
DeleteAs far as the length is concerned I think on this hypothetical island having long stories to read would be an advantage.
Well! I'd have to pick Misunderstandings by The Rogue Wolf, just because it was the very first ponyfic I ever read; Mother of Invention by Zaponator I remember not being able to put down; University Days will always be one of my favourite things that exists; and to stay true to my username I'd want to pick something that starts off as fairly shameless clop before developing into an epic and fascinating story, and I think in that category Friendship is Mind Control would just about win over Applejinx' Trixieverse books.
ReplyDeleteMisunderstandings by The Rogue Wolf
DeleteI'd never even heard of that one, which is slightly surprising given it's got 44k views and is from an author with a four-figure follower count -- but looking it up now I'm afraid it doesn't seem likely to come up in PR in the foreseeable future!
Mother of Invention by Zaponator
I gave that a Spotlight review for PR 52 back in 2015 (though I used the term "Special Edition" in those days) and said it was "interesting but odd", which I think I'd stand by. I also remain undecided how I feel about the latish twist.
University Days
Not as much of a favourite for me as for you (and it seems much of the fandom). A low-end three when I reviewed it for PR 148.
Friendship is Mind Control
I vaguely know of that one, but it's another that's unlikely to appear here. I don't read many M-rated fics anyway, and a 281k-word story with a Non-con tag is, shall we say, not that likely to appear. :P
I'm going to cheat.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't take any stories I've already read with me. I would pick long stories just as a way to pass the time. Normally, I don't like long stories. I've probably read at most 20 stories that are over 200k, and a lot of those were just reading the first few chapters in detail and skimming the rest. There have only been 1 or 2 I read every word of. I guess I could grab a couple that have a reputation as being good, but then the fandom isn't great at picking quality, so I'd have to get recommendations from people I trust. The only one that pops to mind immediately is "The Enchanted Library." Might be willing to take on Fo:E or some skirts epics just because they're better than spending a week staring at the sand. At least I hope so.
Fo:E might not be.
I wouldn't take any stories I've already read with me.
DeleteThat's one hay of a handicap for you, of all people!
The Enchanted Library
That's on my "one day" list, as enough people I know more about than a username have said they've enjoyed it and it's by an author I generally at least like stories from. Mind you, I largely forgot about it until it won the RCL's "Ther Can Be Only One" thing last year.
Fo:E might not be.
If I had the time, the patience and the motivation, none of which is really the case, I'd be interested to read that again and see how well it's aged in the six years since I read it the first time. I suspect I'd find it patchier and rockier than I did in 2014, and it wasn't without its irritations even then. But, as I say, I'm not likely to re-read.
I'd definitely go with the longest classics I could find: The Chase, Life and Times of a Winning Pony, anything over a million words or more. I saw one the other day that was 2 million, I'd take that two. Enchanted Library is another good choice. Maybe End of Ponies and its finale blog.
ReplyDeleteAnd then, since I obviously have a laptop in this scenario to keep review notes on, I would start work on my own stuff once I was done reading all of those. :3
Life and Times of a Winning Pony is the only one of those I've read. Longer ago than I'd remembered, actually: it was Spotlighted in PR 68 all of five years ago. I liked it quite a bit, though I thought it dragged a bit in the middle and I didn't like some of the language choices, eg "Eepy(squeak)" and the IMO unsuccessful attempt to make "feather" an all-purpose swear word.
DeleteI obviously have a laptop in this scenario to keep review notes on
I did briefly consider being mean and saying you had to read everything on a first-generation Kindle... >:)
Hey, I have a Kindle. :)
DeleteThe best pegasus-based swear word I have ever seen was "loopty-looping", coined by the late Warren Hutch.
Warren Hutch passed away? I didn't know that. Now I'm going to finish reading "Earth & Sky" in his memory.
DeleteAlso, don't be making fun of my Kindle either. :)
I have a Nook. A similarly old-gen one (not even a backlight!) but it reads EPUB files out of the box and doesn't have any truck with that proprietary Amazon format. This is a huge advantage for Fimfiction.
DeleteAlso, here's a very brief obituary from someone (who I don't know) called inexactQuadrupling, who knew Warren Hutch in real life. It's on FurAffinity but is worksafe and rather moving:
Deletehttps://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8822234/#cid:56816565
Long ones, of course:
ReplyDeleteI would hope that Austreoughetc would count as one book, and that IC would finish the series before I was stranded on the island.
(I do get a solar recharger for my kindle, right?)
Then... The Education of Clover the Clever and The Crown of Night (assuming it would also be finished by then.)
If not, Silver Glow's Journal.
After that... I suppose I would have to make coconut fiber paper and use squid ink to write my own epic.
Hmn... on third thought, I might swap one out with The Immortal Game. It isn't a great work of literature, but it's long (1.5M) and it's an early fic in the fandom... lots of interesting nostalgia involved.
DeleteThe only one of those I've read is Austraeoh, and even then only the first two and a bit books.
DeleteI'm going to assume unlimited battery life for your Kindle, so either a solar recharger or a magical battery, whichever you prefer.
The Immortal Game. It isn't a great work of literature, but it's long (1.5M)
Are you sure that's the fic you mean? AestheticB's story is just under 300k words, and one of the few longfics I've read myself.
Huh. Maybe it only felt five times as long.
Delete