Read it Later story count: 95 (-1)
Well, sort of. On 4th February, in the wake of the announcement that the Royal Canterlot Library was formally shutting up shop, FanOfMostEverything made this blog post. This listed five fics which FOME didn't get around to bringing up with his fellow RCL curators. One of them is 33k words long, so that will have to wait for a future PR. (I do intend to get to it eventually.) The other four, however, are reviewed here today, and they add up to a pretty decent week.
Heartless by Silent Whisper
The Mare in White by RockstarRaccoon
A Tale That Wasn't Right by Equimorto
Cutie Marks Under the Knife: A Special Report by Mica
★: 0 | ★★: 0 | ★★★: 3 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.
Cadance and Chrysalis
Drama/Mystery; 3k words; Jan 2021; Everyone
Chrysalis and Cadance have been engaged in a battle of wills against each other for longer than either can remember, but little do they know they're both fighting for the same reasons.
We know that the changeling queen and the pony princess have strong emotions about each other. What we didn't know, until this fic, was what they did about it. It's hard to go into detail without spoilers, but I really like the concept here. Remember, these are two highly magical beings who both share an intense affinity with love. They both love Flurry Heart, but how do their reasons differ – if indeed they do? This is a clever fic, especially in such a short space, and although you may not be convinced by the conceit at first I suspect most readers will be by the end. A strongly written little tale, and one I recommend. ★★★★
The Mare in White by RockstarRaccoon
Twilight, Spike, OC and Other
Horror/Mystery/Thriller; 11k words; Oct–Nov 2018; Teen (Death)
Twilight Sparkle travels to a remote town to prove, once and for all, that there is no such thing as Ghosts. She's about to learn that some secrets are better left covered... | Original Gothic Horror story in time for Nightmare Night
The distant settlement of Serenity Falls (which you'll quickly notice is without any falls...) is the setting for Twilight's in-the-field research. As you'd expect in a story like this, before long she's bitten off more than she can chew, and Spike isn't in a good way either. Although there are some quite morbid scenes once Twi meets the eponymous Mare, this is a chiller rather than a gory splatterfic, so expect to exercise your brain a little. I suspect the identity of a pony who appears late on may divide readers a bit, and what happens isn't very strongly foreshadowed. Maybe that's where this story being a speedfic (as mentioned in its long description) shows a little. There are also a few odd capitalisations (eg "My Hope is that others will...") that at first I thought might be a hidden clue, but I think they were just typos after all. If you're still confused after reading, this comment explains all. Maybe this fic could have been a little smoother with more time to work on it, but it's still got a nice "Twilight meets the Gothic" vibe to it. ★★★
A Tale That Wasn't Right by Equimorto
Sunset Shimmer, Celestia, Twilight and Other
Dark/Random/Tragedy/Alternative Universe; 8k words; Jul–Aug 2018; Teen
Sunset Shimmer. Celestia's student, element of magic, princess of friendship. From the outside, it was all perfect. From her point of view, it was quickly turning into hell.
A spin on the "What if Sunset hadn't abandoned her studies?" setup, here with her having ascended to alicornhood and Twilight still a reclusive student. However, Sunset's greatest foe turns out to be... herself. The battle of wits and magic that follows is very different from many, but just as gripping and frightening. Sunset's triumph (in this AU) is also her tragedy, and that's clearly reflected in the story. It's a shame things get rather too convoluted to easily follow in places, and the tale could do with slightly leaner prose as its wordiness detracts slightly from the taut horror at times. Don't expect to have all the loose ends neatly tied up at the close, either – for example, we never find out what one cryptic abbreviation means – but that's clearly deliberate. The ending will haunt you, though. ★★★
Cutie Marks Under the Knife: A Special Report by Mica
Toola Roola and OCs
Sad/Slice of Life; 5k words; Jan 2021; Teen
This year, more than 450,000 ponies and other creatures will undergo cutie mark cosmetic surgery. The Manehattan Times investigates, in this exclusive report.
Written in first person as a long-read feature article (it feels more magazine than newspaper), this is set 20 years after the show, in an Equestria much changed. Partly by the substantial non-pony immigration encouraged by Princess Twilight, but also by the ever more popular surgery which is the subject of this fic. Toola Roola is having her cutie mark changed as she feels it's "not me" any more, while other creatures (including one we know well) have marks now where they could not before. The surgery is controversial and its legality is shaky: in some places (including Ponyville, for reasons which are revealed) it remains outright banned. The narrative voice is good for what it's supposed to be, and you definitely empathise with both Toola Roola and her surgeon in the way effective journalism manages. I wasn't really convinced by a subplot about a kind of "trademark" on cutie marks (after all, background ponies have shared cutie marks in canon since S1), but it's not fatal to the story. There's also a slightly odd "exposé" of the School of Friendship late on. This fic is at its best when it stays away from that kind of thing and concentrates on its characters. It's a human pony interest story at heart. ★★★
Next time, I hope that stories reviewed will include Crystal Wishes' romantic comedy Lovey Dovey and the Business Pony.
Read and very much liked "Heartless." Definitely a solid story.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Equimorto's story, but I'm curious about your observation that the wordiness competed with the horror, as I read something else recently where I had the same reaction, and I was wondering if it was for the same reason. I could see people in general thinking horror should be more concise and visceral, and I'm on the fence as to whether that's more of a personal taste thing or a principle of good writing. Lovecraft, for instance, is wordy, but his horror is effective. However, I don't think he's the best example, as he also breaks the second part, which is that I think wordiness is probably a poor match in horror for a limited narrator, as the viewpoint character would have their mind racing and attention away from things like fancy word choice while scared, though in the quieter moments, it might fit. Lovecraft's narration tends toward limited, though, and I still found it effective, but maybe just because I can gloss over that style as typical of the time. Though that all might be moot if you didn't mean "horror" quite in this sense, as I see it isn't tagged as a horror story.
No, the lack of a [Horror] tag was interesting, given that most readers (including me) see it as being at least in part a horror story. I don't know whether that was a conscious decision or whether Equimorto just wanted to keep the number of genre tags down a bit.
DeleteBack to the main question, did the wordiness put you off a bit because you felt it undercut the mood, since that would tend to make things feel less sudden and startling? I often think so about horror stories, where the longer introspective stuff is better suited for the quieter moments when the character more reasonably has time for it.
DeleteYes, I think a tauter, tenser, sparer style would have felt more satisfying to me for this kind of chiller. Probably mostly personal preference.
DeleteI think liking a sparser style in omniscient narration could be more of a personal preference thing, but in a limited narration, I think it makes more sense that it should be that way. If you also like it better that way, then it's your inherent reviewer skill kicking in. :D
DeleteI read two of these off of FoME's blog, and have marked the other two and intend to get to them soon. I didn't read them right away because, well… horror and dark stories aren't the easiest to just jump into. The right mindset is ideal.
ReplyDeleteOn the two I did read: while it's perhaps not as much my speed as yours or Pascoite's, I definitely liked Heartless quite a bit, enough for a high ★★★ – basically for the same reasons as you, just marginally less intensely. Conversely, I list almost the same positives and negatives as you for Cutie Marks Under the Knife: A Special Report, but found the journalistic voice strong enough to overcome the odd choices late in the game (though I wasn't bothered by the "trademark" lore, largely because I never consider animation errors as anything more). Just enough for a ★★★★. Go figure.
But animation errors make fun fics! :P Though to be fair, I can't remember reading a Princess Erroria story... ;) Anyway, I think we can agree that we both enjoyed both the fics mentioned here, even if the order is swapped.
DeleteAlready added these to my (ever-growing) list from FOME's blog, except for The Mare in White (because of personal taste; I'm sure it's a fine story) and your reviews just reinforced that decision.
ReplyDeleteImagine not reading a story because of personal taste; what a strange idea! ;)
DeleteI miss out on so much vore porn because of that! XD
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