Ponyfic Roundup 222: The Hooded Fang

Title explanation: Mordechai Richler children's book

Read it Later story count: 298 (nc)

Thanks to one story I was going to review being deleted before I got here, together with me being pretty much out of commission for a couple of days with a horrible cold, I have only four fics on the reviewing table today rather than the five I was hoping for. Oh well, still better than some weeks of PR! Without further ado, here's today's quartet:

Chuckling Over my Cheery-O's by chrumsum
I Didn't Sign Up For This by Cillerenda
The Royal Proposal by Everyday
Dance by Martian

★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

Episode review: S8E24: "Father Knows Beast"

"Books! The answer is always books! Spike's real dad? A book!"

I have a rather nasty cold at the moment, so this is going to be another of my rather short reviews. Oh well, better to have the cold now than during a convention weekend. Maybe it's a sort of pre-emptive con crud! Back on-topic, the last Josh Haber episode was the fantastically fun "On the Road to Friendship", so I was hoping for something of a similar standard from "Father Knows Beast". In the event...

Episode review will be on Tuesday this coming week

I've been out for most of the weekend and I'm very tired, so my review of episode 24 has been pushed back a day and will now appear on Tuesday. Thanks to UK PonyCon being next weekend, the S8 finale review will also be a bit late, though right now I'm not going to commit to a specific date.

Hiatus plans: Back to 2011!

I've been wondering what to do on this blog during the S8/S9 hiatus, and I think I have the answer. A while back, somewhere in the dark and nasty regions where nobody goes – ie DeviantArt – I discovered a zip archive containing all the tracks that made Everfree Radio's Top 100 for that year. I wish I could remember exactly where on DeviantArt I found it, but oh well.

Anyway, I plan to count down from 100 to 1 on that and write a little something about each track. And, when I can, point to where you can get them.* That might be tricky in some cases: while some of the songs are classics to this day (for example, "Nightmare Night" and "Flutterwonder"), others have been hit hard by the ravages of time and are now very hard or impossible to find online.

Still, that will make it a fun adventure! (At least, I hope so.) I'll continue with this blog's usual ramblings as well, so consider this countdown something to fill in the gaps on days when I'm not posting Ponyfic Roundup or the like. Since I wasn't in the fandom until 2012, I'm really looking forward to discovering some of the music that was popular before my time!

* Note: I won't be uploading anything myself. If they really have disappeared entirely from the web, then I'll respect their creators' wishes.

UK PonyCon questionnaire thingy, 2018 edition!

I did one of these last year, so I thought I might as well do one again. I've made one or two slight tweaks, but the basic format is very similar. So...

What do I call you? Logan. Everyone else does. I mean, I don't mind the full "Loganberry", but Logan is the easiest option all round.

What will you look like? Even older than I did last year. :D I'll have a pony shirt of some description, probably Fluttershy on Saturday morning. I always wear glasses. I never wear jeans. For some ludicrous reason I bought a VIP ticket this year, so inside the con venue I'll have a VIP lanyard.

Who will you be with? A bunch of like-minded silly pony people. Some of whom will have plushies, in all probability. Other than that, whoever can stand me!

What will you be doing? Ponying. But specifically: there'll be music involved somewhere, whether karaoke or Crystal Ball or both. I'd like to do at least a little non-G4 stuff. Naturally I'll be attending the Charity Auction. I don't play the CCG, so I won't be doing that.

Can I talk to you? Of course you can! I mean, don't go on about exactly the same thing every time you speak to me and please don't fill up my precious pony weekend with hours of chat about non-pony stuff. I like cricket and trains and weather and so on, but for the most part those subjects can wait. But otherwise, by all means say hi!

What can I talk to you about? I'm not desperately fussy, and I'm happy to talk both FiM and EqG stuff, or even other gens to the limited extent I know them – but I would be delighted if anyone wanted to talk ponyfic. It's my favourite part of the creative fandom, so if you get me started on the subject, you may have trouble stopping me!

Can I take your photo? Not sure why you'd want to given that I don't cosplay. But as long as you ask first, I'm unlikely to object. If you've taken a photo/video and I'm in it only incidentally (eg in the audience) then there's no need to ask. If you take a video of me doing karaoke, though, please let me see a copy afterwards!

Can I hug you? If you really want to, then I don't see why not. Please do ask first, though, in case I'm carrying something breakable.

Can I buy you food or drink? If you must! I really don't expect anyone to buy me muffins or cider, though.

How long are you staying? Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, so the whole convention with a little bit either side.

Where are you staying? Travelodge Nottingham Central. Convenient and fairly cheap.

How are you travelling? By train, on Friday. I'll wear the UKPC 2017 T-shirt on the journey, so feel free to say hello if you see me around – I'll be at Birmingham New Street station at lunchtime, and I aim to reach Nottingham a little after 3pm.

Favourite characters? Fluttershy, Scootaloo, Celestia, Silverstream, Starlight, Derpy.

Anything else I should know? Yes. If you find out what it is, please tell me.

Them's Writin' Words

A few months ago, Scribbler uploaded the first edition of a new podcast, Them's Writin' Words, to her YouTube channel. In this, she was joined by Goombasa, Neighrator Pony, Thornquill and Luna Farrowes to discuss billymorph's fic A World Without Kindness. They went into a lot of detail, enough that this 17k-word story was discussed for well over an hour – and, unlike in many long podcasts, this didn't mean 2% discussion and 98% pub banter. Also, because these are high quality readers, you can actually hear what they're saying.

I must admit that I didn't listen to the entire podcast: while I have read A World Without Kindness (PR 54), I neither loved it nor hated it enough to want to listen to over 100 minutes of discussion of it. However, earlier this month, Scribbler released episode 2 of the podcast, and I thought I'd listen to it right through. Same cast, but minus Luna Farrowes. The subject this time was TheGreyPotter's Body of Work, which I knew nothing about, so I wanted to see whether the podcast could hold my attention.

And yes. Yes, it could. It helped that the reviewers didn't all have the same opinion: Scribbler didn't really like it, and she wasn't shy about saying so. As I mentioned above, once again the banter didn't overwhelm the actual discussion. Nor was it full of swearing: unsurprisingly Scribbler's language in particular wasn't entirely TV-Y but it was hardly unreasonable for a podcast like this. I'm not sure I personally want to listen to an hour-plus of talk about a single story very often, but for those who do want that level of detail, I think the series could fill a niche nicely.

Text Review Roundup: "Sounds of Silence"

Time for some kirin-tinged opinions of episode 23. This episode got a pretty good reception, though few reviewers got quite as obsessive about the kirin as Seth over on Equestria Daily. (If anyone ever creates a kirin/batpony hybrid, I fear he may actually explode.) Cuddlepug is back this week, and there's a clear split this time between reviewers who loved the ep and those who were underwhelmed. Nobody hated it, at least.

Cuddlepug – very positive (graded A; "a fantastic return to form in terms of providing audiences with an episode that puts the 'magic' back [...] a triumphant episode that oozes with charm")

Derpy News – extremely positive (graded A+; "The show went back to some of the basics with this episode and it paid off magnificently [...] a great lesson")

The Dragon Warlock – mixed (graded C; "I do love the world building, the song is great, and Autumn Blaze is a good new character, but the pacing, characterization issues (mostly Fluttershy), and the weak story [drag it down]")

DrakeyC – mixed ("Autumn Blaze is a great character [but] I knew this was a celebrity guest voice [...] The concept of the Kirin was very creative and interesting, and the Kirin had great designs. But the execution was lacking.")

JDPrime22 – very positive (rated 9/10; "just a fun ol' episode. The song, especially, is one of the best of the season.")

Lightening McQueen – very positive ("Autumn Blaze [was] such an amazing character; Rachel Bloom is just perfect for her voice")

Louder Yay – very positive (rated 4/5; "[Autumn Blaze] was a fun character [and though it felt] more like an AJ-with-Flutters episode than a true double act [...] snappy dialogue [meant it] continued late S8's strong run of episodes.")

Mega Sean 45 – positive ("We have a new writer here, and he's already nailing this! [... The kirin] were cute [but] that old man with the end of the line part [...] wasn't even that funny.")

MLEEP Reviews – generally positive (rated 8/10; "despite having a weak story, 'Sounds Of Silence' [was a] pretty decent episode full of beautiful animation and plenty of laughs")

The Railfan Brony – mixed (rated Okay; "Autumn Blaze was... fine, I suppose [...] the plot is very thin on the ground [though] the characters and theme do their best to make up for that")

ShutterflyEQD – positive ("These friendship quests are moderately predictable [but the silent kirin were] very adorable[, and Autumn Blaze's design is] just over the top beautiful)