I've now exceeded a third of a thousand Ponyfic Roundup posts. That kind of blows my mind, especially given all the more useful things I could have done with that time. :D Anyway, not the greatest week I've ever had in terms of ratings, but it could certainly have been worse. At least all three of these fics have something positive to say about them, even if I didn't love any of them overall. They are:
Windfall by Warren Hutch
A Rare Rain by Michael Hudson
You Can't Extinguish the Sun! by Twilight Glimmer
★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.
Mane Six, Big Mac, Granny Smith and Zecora
Comedy/Slice of Life; 18k words; Jun 2012; Everyone
Timeskip foalbirth friends gathering to celebrate
Some years after the events of FiM (as things stood in mid-2012!) Fluttershy is having her first foal with her husband, Big Mac. We follow the events leading up to the birth and how it brings her friends together for a rare reunion. There's some fun stuff regarding how the future works out, such as CaramelPie shipping and a rather unusual destiny for one of the Crusaders. I also enjoyed Zecora and Redheart clashing over midwifery but... well, you'll see. The biggest drawbacks are that it's not really funny for the most part, just pleasant; and that the author is almost unbearably LUS'd up even by 2012 standards. We get "butter colored pegasus", "fashionable alabaster mare", "lavender unicorn" itself, you name it. Also a small but irritating collection of clunky meta moments, eg Twilight literally saying, "And magic makes it all complete." Those gripes apart, there's little badly wrong with this – but it doesn't do anything to make you smile at its cleverness and setup aside isn't particularly distinctive either. Might have verged on a three without all the LUS. ★★
A Rare Rain by Michael Hudson
Rarity
Sad/Tragedy; 1k words; Aug 2015; Everyone
An author with over 200 stories and almost 1,500 followers, yet this seems to be the first review of a fic of his, at least by a long-term reviewer. Anyway, it's a scene, really, rather than a full-length story. A sad and dishevelled Rarity is on her way back, and as the tale progresses we gradually learn of the tragedy that has befallen her. It's quite atmospheric and the lack of frills suits it, but nothing really happens once you've worked out what's gone on. I originally thought this was a top-end two-star fic, but after further thought I'm going to give it three for the quiet, restrained way it depicts Rarity's world just then. ★★★Rarity goes home.
You Can't Extinguish the Sun! by Twilight Glimmer
Celestia, Twilight and OC
Comedy/Random/Slice of Life; 1k words; Mar 2019; Everyone
The OC's name is Knit Wit, which amused me more than it should have done. He asks Celestia to turn out the sun for a bit so he can avoid sunburn at the beach. She manages (mostly) to maintain her composure in the face of such idiocy. This is the kind of fic that only really works if the stupid and the humour consistently coincide and make you laugh near-constantly. This one doesn't quite hit the mark enough, though it does manage it sometimes. As an aside, I was startled to see this was a 2019 fic, given it contains both "prayed to Faust" and "their lazy plots". ★★The day that Celestia realized her subjects weren't as smart as she thought they were.
Next time on Ponyfic Roundup, stories reviewed should include Bad_Seed_72's AU FlashLight romance The Order.
Congratulations on the Big, um, 334! I always appreciate the thoughtful nature of these roundups, for their lack of needless nastiness as well as the insights. Thank you! Here's to many more!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, and thank you!
DeleteI think it was Pascoite, many years ago, who mentioned two excellent pieces of advice for any reviewer:
1) Don't make someone think they should give up on writing. You're reviewing the story, not the author.
2) Try to ensure the first opinion you give is a positive one, even if you need to be negative about the story as a whole.
I've always tried to bear those two points in mind, and I'm very pleased if that comes through in my posts.
Yes, Faust references are unfortunately still a thing in ponyfic. I encounter one every couple months or so.
ReplyDeleteThat surprises me. Maybe it's just luck, maybe it's the types of story/author I choose, but I hardly ever run across them in anything written after about 2014. Of course, having said this, I will doubtless now see them cropping up everywhere!
Delete"more useful things"? I recognize these are all English words, yet I cannot make sense of them strung together in this fashion. :V
ReplyDelete