What are you reading?

[Arakawa]

This blog may be apropos: https://bondwine.com/2017/05/03/narrative-fatigue/

For a competent fanfic writer, the most likely danger with a super long series is Type II narrative fatigue 'I care what happens to these people, but I've lost all faith that I will ever find out.'

[Dracos]

It truly is often a thing. 

Fanfic writers, in general, are not concise with their word usage.  Many stories get to 100k or more words, just to introduce the opening cast, or about a 400 page novel.  I re-read https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6942921/1/He-Who-Fights-Monsters this sunday.  93k words, start to finish.  Character introductions, several scenes, many violent murders, family scenes, and a conclusive ending setting the serial killer up as the only role he could fit: one who teaches monsters.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4339125/3/A_Time_Apart - another fic I enjoy, but basically in the same length barely even started, and effectively would need several books to ever have a chance at telling a complete story, since it really has basically just gotten the initial trio together in britain, with a promise to have to deal with a large extended set of comic cast members hanging around while trying to actually have relevant impact on Setsuna's big problem...  Plausibility to get finished?  Kinda zero.

Is time apart bad?  I wouldn't say so, but it isn't going anywhere since at its current style it would take massive amounts of effort for the author to get anywhere and by the time it does, it will be so long that it's hard for most folks.

I've certainly enjoyed million word works, but most 200k line ones can be sure they're never ending up anywhere.

[Dracos]

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/dresden-files-sg-1-gods-eye.232344/ was linked to this last night and ...consumed it.

It's Dresden Files / Stargate, with Dresden getting tossed deep into Goulak(sp?) territory during one of his big boss fights after getting lash.  How does he survive?  How does he get home?  It's Bob, Harry, and Lash and quite a distance to get home.

Also in the past 4 years.  So hey, breaking some magic laws and gotta worry about paradox with getting home too.

[Merc]

There's also a companion piece to that story thats ongoing:
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/sg-1-dresden-files-shattering-occams-razor-companion-piece-to-gods-eye.330889/

It starts off near the end of God's Eye, after Thor pops into the story.

[Dracos]

Yeah, saw that today.  Consumed.  Ran out.  It's ...less easy to follow than God's Eye.  God's eye was more consistent with one char versus it sometimes going 3 chapters to continue the same scene.

[Anastasia]

Things I've been reading:

https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/an-essence-of-silver-and-steel-worm-fate-stay-night.39043/ - A Fate/Worm crossover. Short version is that Taylor can summon and gain the abilities of Heroic Spirits. All of them, apparently. At full power. Yeah. It's not terrible off the bat, but it has all the hallmarks of an overpowered Taylor. Personally, I find that the least interesting type of Worm fanfic and it's a turn off for me.

The author has a note in the beginning that he won't reply to comments about power levels, so I don't feel critiquing the story is worthwhile. It's probably gonna be some flavor of stomp and I'm just not that interested, but other people might like it.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/ring-maker-worm-lord-of-the-rings-alt-power.517894/ - A Lord of the Rings/Worm crossover. So it turns out Taylor's the reincarnation (or heir somehow or whatever, it's not clear) of Sauron. Shenanigans ensue as she forges armor and rings of power for herself. Decently written by an up and coming new author, so it's certainly worth a look.

Spoiler: ShowHide

I admit I'm not that much into the fic anymore. It's not bad in any sense, but fundamentally, it wants you to buy into Taylor as this great, epic figure and I just can't. This is my own bias regarding Taylor more than anything else, I think. A lot of the stuff in this fic is decent, but I simply haven't been able to make that one key concession. If you don't think you can do that sort of thing, you probably won't be that fond of this fic, either.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/el-ahrairah-worm.372987/ - Arc 6 was posted a little while ago.

Spoiler: ShowHide

The weakest arc by a country mile, most of it was a slog that simply didn't interest me. I see this complaint echoed in the thread, so I don't think this is just me. The last chapter of it and the interlude's really good, which has stopped me from dropping it, but man. Vegas simply was so far from interesting that I have no words for it. I don't even know why, either.  It just didn't work for me in totality. [

It's still one of the better fics in the fandom, but it took a huge tumble in my eyes after that arc. Hopefully arc 7 fixes it.

[Merc]

I long lost interest in El Ahrairah.

It really was a great fic at the start, but it started dragging its feet a while back and Jack Slash in particular has been so boring I stopped following. I think it was chapter 6.2 or 6.3 where I finally just gave up on it.

If it does pick up, well, at least I know there's still one person following it to share such findings. =)

[Yuthirin]

Yeah El Ahrairah  just turned into what felt like an authority figure bash fic.  It made me feel like I was 13 again, and hating on Dumbledor for no reason.

[Dracos]

El Ahrairah's prison scene is its best moment.  I kind of scuttled into not being able to care during Jack's antics.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/worm-dc-comics-fear.537310/  - Ryuugi is doing broken Taylor/QA as yellow lantern in DC earth during two major catastrophes.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/stacked-deck-or-colin-wallis-vs-single-parenting-worm-persona.459689/ The tarot, telling Glory Girl all the truth she never wants to hear.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/playing-hooky-worm-au-alt-power.546865/ Somewhat disinterested got distracted again and played power shuffle a bit.

[Yuthirin]

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/worm-dc-comics-fear.537310/  - Ryuugi is doing broken Taylor/QA as yellow lantern in DC earth during two major catastrophes.

Ryuugi not writing The Lies We Tell makes me a sad fishman.

[Anastasia]

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/stacked-deck-or-colin-wallis-vs-single-parenting-worm-persona.459689/

Stacked Deck's been updating lately. It's solid enough, though I think the coming arc is going to settle if I get into it or not.

[spoiler]The crux of a crossover like this is trying to reconcile the deeply incompatible settings in a way that doesn't shaft either of them. I'm not convinced it can be done, but we'll see if the author can make a Persona/Worm cross make sense. It looks like we'll get an idea of that soon.

[Dracos]

I've been largely enjoying it.  Cactus is troublesome.

[Anastasia]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12513071/1/Try-Try-Again

Interesting little story, notable for being written sparsely and in a far different way than most fanfics. To be entirely honest I don't care for it, though it does some interesting things with the 13k words it uses.

[spoiler]The sense of futility about it, oppressive powers stacked against the protagonist and general difficulty fit the feel of Worm quite well, as does the epilogue with Contessa and Eidolon. I wonder if all of this is a statement about alternate power Taylors and no matter how they change things, Worm is a harsh setting without easy wins. Likewise, the protagonist has a considerably potent ability, yet it doesn't really solve his problems at all and instead draws him into more conflict.

The more I think about it and more I chew it over, I wonder if this was someone's throwaway account engaging in some deconstructionism or general commentary on Worm and Worm fanfics.

[Anastasia]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8162862/100/Bringer-of-Death

Bringer of Death finally returns to life with a new chapter and a promise of a faster update schedule.

It's a nice touch that Vegeta being a (sorta) good parent leads to what looks like the current arc's problems, though.

[Anastasia]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12286799/1/Lucky-Child

A decently written YYH crossover. It kept my interest for a time, though ultimately something about the character wore away my interest in the story. Call it philosophical differences, but there's a solid story there if you don't run into that.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7657235/1/Path-of-the-King

Path of the King has updated steadily the past few months. It's winding closer and closer to the Grail War, though hasn't quite hit it yet. It's buildup but it's enjoyable buildup, since the various relationships between the characters are entertaining.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/taylor-costa-brown-worm.560476/

Yet another Worm fic, I know, I know. This one takes the decidedly meh premise of Alexandria being Taylor's mother and runs with it, it's not what you'd expect and more interesting because of it. Worth a peek, it's promising so far if a bit of a curve ball. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much going in, but I've been pleasantly surprised.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/stacked-deck-or-colin-wallis-vs-single-parenting-worm-persona.459689/

Stacked Deck had another update, this one of the interlude variety. It's not quite a true interlude but close enough for our purposes.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/xander-quest-story-only-thread.322999/

I haven't recommended Xander Quest lately, have I? Go read it, it's fun and about the best quest I've ever seen by a large margin. The premise is that Ganondorf is reincarnated in the Hellmouth (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as Xander Harris. Hey, get back here, it's not another crappy Xander fic! Really, it isn't? Alex starts off different from the beginning, quickly becoming Xander in name only, but that's okay, since it's from birth and it begins to change the world in response. It's really worth reading, especially as more and more is revealed about why things are as they are, and why Alex and other crossover characters are in the BtVS world.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Shao Kahn is being a jerk, basically. It's lead to over a dozen franchises being jammed into one Earth as he tries to take over all of them in one fell swoop, with one final, looming Mortal Kombat. Not that it's stopping Dracula from manifesting Castlevania, the Mayor from trying to ascend, a Holy Grail war from revving up and more.

10/10, would recommend, updates daily and with a story only thread if you don't want to deal with quest thread stuff. Also has a separate thread for omakes, bonus interlude sand the like, some of which are important to the plot: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/xander-quest-omakes-and-specials-story-only-thread.340908/ (Only the ones written by Judge Mental are official, generally.)