I'm not feeling well at the moment, but I'm damned if I'm going to have another blank Wednesday when I should be reviewing, so here's what I'll do. Today I'll post the non-spoilery summary of this fic, complete with star rating. When I feel better, perhaps at the weekend, I'll add the waffly, spoilery discussion and finish off with next week's slate. Not ideal, but better than nothing! Here we go:
Nine Days Down by JoeShogun
Twilight and Celestia
G4; Dark/Adventure; 143k words; Mar–Apr 2023 [but see below]; Teen (Violence)
A routine rescue from a no-name villain goes wildly awry as Celestia is flung into the lethal, living nightmare that is Tartarus. No great problem for an immortal, but to Celestia's absolute horror, Twilight has followed her in.
This RCL-inducted fic is not a 2023 story. It was published nearly a decade earlier – though Twilight is an alicorn – but then nuked when JoeShogun deleted his old account. Now it's back, and I'm very pleased as this is a great adventure story. We knew very little about Tartarus when this was written, which gave the author lots of freedom. It's used excitingly and variedly; indeed, the world-building is the fic's greatest joy. That's not to say the characterisation is of low quality – it's anything but. I really felt what happened to them, and I suspect you will too, even little spiders. Especially little spiders. This feels like a truly populated... "world", for want of a better phrase, though as you'll find out that's too simple a term for what Tartarus is. I suppose if I were being ultra-critical I could say that one character I was invested in got a slightly underwhelming ending, but I'm having to reach here. I think there's enough for a five. It's that rich a story. ★★★★★
