What are you reading?

[thepanda]

On A Clear Day You Can See Forever

Hadn't read it since chapter 7 was new. I admit, I still really like it. Too bad it hasn't updated since 2008. The Oh, My Goddess stuff feels a bit extraneous, though.

The only bad side to reading this is that I'm tempted go back and read a certain Jim Bader fic. I know this to be a bad idea. And yet!

[Jason_Miao]

On A Clear Day You Can See Forever

Hadn't read it since chapter 7 was new. I admit, I still really like it. Too bad it hasn't updated since 2008. The Oh, My Goddess stuff feels a bit extraneous, though.

The OMG stuff never bothered me, but that's probably because I was reading chapters within a month of them being written.  Although, frankly, if he was already making up his own gods (assuming Dasma et al. aren't from series/pantehons that I just haven't heard of), I'm not sure why he didn't just continue doing that.  He'd certainly done well enough crafting his own mythos.

The only bad side to reading this is that I'm tempted go back and read a certain Jim Bader fic. I know this to be a bad idea. And yet!

I'm going to regret asking this...which fic?

[thepanda]

That one where Happosai's wish killed off all the menfolk. And now that reminds me I never did finish Most Unlikely of Friends or Hearts of Ice. Of course, the fact that both of those fics stalled in a place where I did NOT care for where the fic was going might have something to do with that. >_>

[Kt3]

Read that entire sailor stripper thing.  I got what the author was going for, but effectively, too much padding.  It was supposed to be funny, I think, but it just fell short by getting caught up in trying to explain itself.

Which is really not what a crackfic is supposed to do.  Internal consistency is good, pages of justification/explanation with no action, not so much.

No WTFs, just a bit of a, "Well, this isn't very good."

Haven't read it myself, personally.  What you're describing sounds to me like satire, though, rather than a crackfic.  Maybe that's what it was going for?

[Jason_Miao]

That one where Happosai's wish killed off all the menfolk.

Oh, yes, the one where it was Ranma's duty to continue the human race, but he preferred joining in on the widespread lesbian sex instead?  I don't think I went past the first or second chapter.

Why would OACDYCSF remind you of Bader?  Sure, there's lesbianism in that fic, but I seem to recall Chris Davies as the writer with the rampant-lesbian-sex-as-a-writing-goal.

And now that reminds me I never did finish Most Unlikely of Friends or Hearts of Ice.

I think HoI was Krista Perry.  Who was such a nice person on IRC that I never had the heart to tell her that I wasn't reading HoI whenever she had eagerly let me know that she'd updated it with a new chapter.

I don't remember anything particularly bad about it, but just wasn't my kind of story.

[Brian]

Never understood why HoI was given such acclaim, myself.  To be perfectly honest, pre-rewrite (I haven't gone back; just don't care), her writing was technically good, but her structure and pacing were awful.  The 'no one but Ranma remembers Akane' chapter came across as extremely, "I'm making this up as I go along!  I have no plan!"

[Dracos]

Hum.  It's been a long time, but I thought she was patterning it from the beginning around an old bit of european folklore.  It's long enough that I don't remember the name but I stopped paying attention because so many early plot points were recognizable to me as coming from that.

[Jason_Miao]

Never understood why HoI was given such acclaim, myself.

I think its a "right place, right time" deal. 

HoI was started when the FFML was becoming or already "the big thing" for writing anime fanfics, it was one of the earlier epic length fics that was wasn't abandoned after six decent-length chapters, it involved a series which was one of the few first officially translated manga, and the writer didn't suck.  This was also the time when most people didn't have access to most of the Ranma story, cartoons were for grade schoolers so the only people who watched anime did so on VHS fansubs - but Oh My God(dess), a Real Company like Viz was publishing Ranma for the mass market, and people honestly thought that whomever Ranma was going to be eventually paired up with was SIRRUS BUSNESS.

So you have a fic for an "ongoing" story (althought I think it was finished in Japan by that point) with newly-minted self-described "otaku" who only really knew about Ranma (or Tenchi, or Sailor Moon), and it's THE epic Ranma fic of 1997.


Edit:
Just to keep this post slightly less off-topic, let it be stated that HoI is not HoI or HoiHoi

[thepanda]

Why would OACDYCSF remind you of Bader?  Sure, there's lesbianism in that fic, but I seem to recall Chris Davies as the writer with the rampant-lesbian-sex-as-a-writing-goal.

More like a nostalgia trigger. It got me thinking about the kinds of stories I was reading back in the day that I never finished (or were never finished). And all the overt kink made me think Bader.

I don't remember anything particularly bad about it, but just wasn't my kind of story.

There wasn't anything particularly bad about it. Just, where I left off, the people in Nerima part of the story felt tacked on. The conflict there was stilted and with the time dilation between there and where Akane was meant they really couldn't do much, storywise.

MUoF pissed me off with the whole 'author's world >> canon world' stuff.

[Arakawa]

Hum.  It's been a long time, but I thought she was patterning it from the beginning around an old bit of european folklore.  It's long enough that I don't remember the name but I stopped paying attention because so many early plot points were recognizable to me as coming from that.

Off the cuff, could it possibly be 'The Snow Queen'?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snow_Queen

EDIT: reading the beginning, it seems I'm somewhat off in that guess, even if it gets referenced. Oh well.

[Dracos]

I think that was it.  Of course with gender roles reversed.

Nyu.

Anyhow, Read Tempered in Water again today.  A nice fic, shame it got abandoned. 

Also that Bowser hero fic.  Such a cute short story.  Bowser saves the day repeatedly.

You know, I think Time Braid and A Few Angry Words might be the only good finished Naruto fics I'm aware of.

[thepanda]

A Few Angry Words?

[alethiophile]

I believe that's the one by lord of the land of fire, which centers around Naruto making a rather...unwise bet with Hyuuga Hiashi.

Dracos: If you liked Few Angry Words, what did you think of Mother's Love?

[thepanda]

I believe that's the one by lord of the land of fire

Not a fan, sadly. He's written quite a bit, but I have trouble getting into any of it.

[Jason_Miao]

thePanda asking for a link from Dracos-- an unexpected role reversal.

I believe that's the one by lord of the land of fire

I remember that one, now that you mention the writer.  As a straight up story, I thought it was okay, but nothing particularly special.  But as I've said before, I couldn't get into Naruto itself; maybe there's some nuance that's only apparent if one is familiar with the source.

OTOH, Time Braid was what started me reading other Naruto fics.  I was hoping to find another story as interesting as that one.  I'm still hoping to, really.