Read it Later story count: 99 (nc)
Words read this week: 33,096
Well, would you look at that? Five fics again this week! Admittedly the total word count is a little lower this time around, but never mind. It's not just the new phone, from somewhere I've felt a boost in my levels of enthusiasm for ponyfic reading. I'm not entirely sure why, but I shan't complain! Let's move on to listing today's quintet to ponder over:
This is How a Unicorn Talks by Pineta
The Room of Stars by Word Worthy
Radiowaves by mushroompone
A Tale Told by Foehn
True Ascension by Rainedash
★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 3 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.
This is How a Unicorn Talks by Pineta
Hitch, Izzy, Sunny, Zipp and Alphabittle
G5; Comedy/Slice of Life; 5k words; Jan 2022; Everyone
About particle physics and philosophy.
Pineta specialises in science-based ponyfics, and this is another, jumping off the idea that the chat show we saw in the movie song was actually a debate on particle physics. Sunny, that great G5 student of friendship, sees something important and all her friends join her. The author is very open about using ponies to discuss our-world physics, which is fine but also where the fic falters a bit. For example, we get Zipp saying, "If we rake precise measurements of particle properties and show that [they] don't match the theory, that would also be a sign of New Physics." That doesn't sound all that much like canon Zipp to me, it sounds like the author speaking via Zipp. Contrastingly, Hitch has some fun scenes that are much more Pony and which work very well, Alphabittle has a good cameo and Izzy wraps things up nicely. The science is interestingly and accessibly presented (having the ponies do a Royal Institution Christmas Lecture might be fun) but the disconnect between lecture and ponyfic is just that bit too wide to make this a classic. It's science with ponies more than it is ponies doing science. ★★★
The Room of Stars by Word Worthy
Luna and Other
G4; Sci-Fi/Second Person; 5k words; Jun 2016; Everyone
On a mysterious and verdant planet brimming with magic, stunning archaeological discoveries are about to be made.Second-person sci-fi is not the easiest genre to make work, so props to Word Worthy for having a damn good go. "You" are in the team that has discovered Equestria. So far, so run-of-the-mill. But this is a post-Pony Equestria, with you picking through the ruins and making remarkable discoveries. There's a little of Cold in Gardez's Lost Cities (PR 76) about this part of the story. A couple of irritations, such as occasional mismatched tenses and a sentence that breaks off in the middle (seemingly not deliberately) but Luna's appearance later on is a highlight. I won't spoil how she appears. Quite a solid three, and definitely in the upper echelons of 2p fics. ★★★
Radiowaves by mushroompone
Night Glider and Clear Sky
G4; Romance/Drama/Mystery; 20k words; Mar 2022; Everyone
Night Glider spends the summer as a fire lookout in Smokey Mountains National Park.
Night Glider needs no introduction; Clear Sky is Quibble Pants' marefriend from S9. In this story, though, she's Night Glider's contact and... kind of immediate boss, I suppose, in the forest. Night is out there to forget, and it soon becomes clear that Sky is too. Exactly what is part of the multiple mysteries this tale poses. So, indeed, are the phantom radio conversations that Night starts hearing, that play an increasingly significant part in her and Sky's... well, I'll say "relationship", given that they too communicate via two-way. Not all the mysteries are fully answered by the tale's close, so this isn't a fic for those who must have all ends neatly tied up. The story is inspired by Firewatch, a game I've never played, but apart from having to accept the existence of radios in Equestria I didn't feel that impinged on my enjoyment. mushroompone has said that the story was maybe a bit too big for its container (it was written for, and won, a contest, with the restrictions that go with that) and I might agree: the rhythms and cadences of an extended summer might have felt even better with an extended word count. Still, what is there is always interesting and the descriptive writing satisfyingly evocative, so it nudges into the fours. ★★★★
A Tale Told by Foehn
Blueblood
G4; Slice of Life; 1k words; Feb 2015; Everyone
Sometimes, reality is best understood through fiction; other times, the two are harder to distinguish between. Family is often such a complicated matter.
A much shorter story now, though as an RCL inductee it promised good things. The narrator's father is a unicorn who racially abuses pegasi. It's more specific than that, but in a fic this short I can't risk too much spoiling. It's an interesting reflection on how far Canterlot nobles' attitudes really have changed since the days of the Windigoes, though it's too subtle a piece to say that out loud. Talking of which... note that [Blueblood] tag. Think about that while you're reading the fic, and then do so again afterwards. I think some of the referencing here is a bit above my head (I've never heard of the story Foehn references as inspiration in the RCL interview), and the end A/N explicitly says the fic didn't turn out the way the author wanted. So maybe others will get more from this than I did. Still very interesting, though, so a high three from me. ★★★
True Ascension by Rainedash
Twilight, Luna and Celestia
G4; Dark/Mystery; 2k words; Mar 2016; Teen
Twilight died today, and then she woke up.A little while after that death, apparently at the hands of a changeling, Twilight finds herself in a mysterious place. She comes across Luna, who shows her some things she would never have expected – and might not have wanted to know. This is a rather mysterious tale, which (as its Fimfiction comments suggest) confused quite a few people thanks to its vagueness. Not that you need to explain everything for a fic to work (see Radiowaves in this very PR) but I think there's a case for saying that this one explained so little as to turn it from a story into more of an experiment in mood and scene. It's good as that, but a little frustrating for the reasons I've set out – and because 2,000 words isn't enough to accommodate its big ideas. A high two only, therefore. ★★
Next time, it'll be a Spotlight edition. I'll be looking at Xepher's AU CMC adventure, Three Wishes: The Cutie Mark Crusaders Before They Changed The World. So definitely not another five-fic week! ;)
Another five-fic week and the third consecutive week with a higher word count then this ghost? And next week will be a spotlight (making it four weeks), only six weeks after the last one?
ReplyDeleteOkay, the jig is up, changeling. Where's Logan?!? :P
I read This Is How a Unicorn Talks when it was new, so I don't remember it much, but it not feeling like an organic vehicle for the science as much as some of Pineta's other vehicles sounds about right. That said, the style of his fics and a kind of relaxed "sure, why not?" anything goes vibe as long as it fuels the science makes them more digestible than most G5 fics. Even at 5K, it goes down plenty fine.
Another recommendation for mushroompone's Radiowaves… I guess I'm gonna have to read it soon myself! And that short RCL seems fine, I guess, though not quite for me.
I think Radiowaves is a fic that may completely miss some readers. It didn't hit me square-on, as it were, though it did enough. If you don't like the style, I doubt you'll like the fic -- I suspect that's why it has a (relatively) high downvote percentage. Still, if you do like the style, you may end up with the same lesser complaint as me: that it would have been even better had it been longer.
DeleteAlso, I've already read over a fifth of Three Wishes... -- so that may add to your suspicion that someone has quietly replaced me. ;)
I'll add another recommendation for Radiowaves. High-end ★★★ from me.
DeleteI am quickly becoming of the opinion that anything mushroompone writes is well worth the read.
DeleteI am of much the same opinion. Other than the sadly late Ninjadeadbeard, I'm not sure I've felt the same "I want to read lots more of this one's work!" feeling since The Cloptimist and Lets Do This. It's a good feeling. :)
DeleteThe Room of Stars sounds good to me, if only because I'm a total archeology geek. I'll even risk the dreaded second-person to give it a go.
ReplyDelete