What are you reading?

[Anastasia]

There's still a strong plot. It updates 1-2 times a month depending on the author's speed. If you don't mind spoilers:

Spoiler: ShowHide

Among other plot points, Ami's been forced off the Avatar Islands and managed to survive a direct encounter with a Dark God. So yeah, things are happening.

[Grahf]

Read both of the Eva crossovers, even though it's nowhere near over yet by the looks of it I'd have to say that I'm enjoying Cast in Gold more than I enjoyed Last Son of Krypton. I think that the pacing in Cast might be a bit slow, but not terrible.

I can't even remember how I wound up reading this, but I recently went through all of the Dragonball fanfic Honor Trip recently. I'm kind of torn on it, to be honest. The concept is quite original: namely Cell experiences a change of heart and becomes one of the good guys. It's obvious that the author has put a lot of thought into how some of the stuff in the Dragonball universe works, and it's nice to see some of the reasoning behind his decisions, even if they aren't canon.

On the other hand though, sometimes he goes completely overboard with those details. The amount of detail given to some of the discussions is mindbogglingly dense and doesn't really seem to have a point besides "Hey, look how much thought I put into this!". Also, some of the characters are wildly OoC, especially Goku, who was apparently some sort of savant all along and just choose to play the part of an idiot. The fact that everyone seems to come off as a warrior-philosopher makes it all the more jarring when dialogue you'd expect to hear from the characters actually does show up.

I'd still recommend it, but be prepared for what you're getting into.

[Dracos]

Well, admittingly, it's kind of a pity that Goku isn't more of a warrior-philosopher by adult-hood in canon.  As a child the idiocy worked nicely, and was adorable, but by the end of when he trained under the local Cosmic God King Kai in the underworld having studied under already the world's best martial artist, best sage, and planetary guardian, he really should've picked some stuff up. 

There's hints that he was meant to go that way, dying against Cell and providing a heroic lead in for Gohan as the new hero, but it never happened as Goku was way too popular.

[Arakawa]

Well, admittingly, it's kind of a pity that Goku isn't more of a warrior-philosopher by adult-hood in canon.

Oh, but Goku adheres to the incredibly deep philosophy... of non-philosophy!

*badum-tshh*

More seriously, I thought Goku's defining trait was that he retains much of his innocence and straightforward belief in good, even as he keeps battling increasingly insane and horrible enemies. That... kind of limits how much the character can develop, though, almost by definition, at least if you want to him retain that trait through 135,245341 episodes.

[alethiophile]

I tried to read that fic, but couldn't make it past the first chapter. Trying to redeem someone like Cell, whose entire motivation up until that point has been pretty much "destroy things and kill people for the lulz"...I can't get past my brain screaming THIS IS STUPID at me. Pity, since the writing is semi-decent, it seems.

[Ebiris]

I made it to the third chapter but the dialogue was so over-wrought it was very tiring to read and I gave up. The actual premise I don't have a great problem with - Goku made the exact same head-trauma based heel-face turn in his backstory when he was a baby.

I'm at least glad Shenron called Cell on his outrageous rules-lawyering of the wish to bring back all the dead people.

[Dracos]

Well, admittingly, it's kind of a pity that Goku isn't more of a warrior-philosopher by adult-hood in canon.

Oh, but Goku adheres to the incredibly deep philosophy... of non-philosophy!

*badum-tshh*

More seriously, I thought Goku's defining trait was that he retains much of his innocence and straightforward belief in good, even as he keeps battling increasingly insane and horrible enemies. That... kind of limits how much the character can develop, though, almost by definition, at least if you want to him retain that trait through 135,245341 episodes.

That's true.  He's supposed to be innocent and straightforward.  But that doesn't actually have to mean he's still an idiot, or that it isn't a reflective of a chosen way of living.  The whole "You don't have to live dog eat dog to be strong" is something he could reflect strongly.

[JonBob]

In Flight updated

[Dracos]

I read that last night and...

Well, I thought it might've been the most dull chapter that Gabriel has written.  I'm not sure what entirely was wrong with it, as saying there was no progress is kind of unfair, but it just really feels like it was one long scene that even at its climax lacked impact.

[Dracos]

Cast in Gold seems to not want to go on my favorites.  I blame FF.net.

Anyhow, did enjoy it so far and interested in continuing to follow it.  It is a bit flaky, and I think it sits in a bit of a weird state with Misato particularly with society both going "He's 14, stop being a flirt-monster" and "Well, she keeps doing it but not going anywhere with it".

I'm not sure where he's going with Asuka.  She doesn't believe that the glowing giant has magic powers?  Really?  I dunno, her chapters haven't been as interesting.

It's slightly more conservative than I'd hope given how SuperPowered Shinji already is.  Almost kinda shame.

Still, it's a good rec, worth reading.

[thepanda]

I read that last night and...

Well, I thought it might've been the most dull chapter that Gabriel has written.  I'm not sure what entirely was wrong with it, as saying there was no progress is kind of unfair, but it just really feels like it was one long scene that even at its climax lacked impact.

He still hasn't figured out a way to write information into the story without dumping it. Worse, little of what was said in the chapter needed to be said. It is the weakness of In Flight; we really don't need to know everything about the nasuverse. Hell, Nasu didn't try to put that much info into any single path.

[Dracos]

I think it suffered for how many people bitched at him apparently about how things worked in hill of swords.

Shame, as I think that had a better balance there.

[Rayearth]

Maybe a fight scene would break the monotony. I'm starting to feel like the last nice fight chapter (which really could have gone without the "You're a tsundere" line) was Tsukiumi's intro...which was more than a year and a half ago.

It's so strange. Back when the author was posting a new chapter every week I felt like I couldn't get enough of In Flight; now I'm just eh when the once-per-season updates occur. What happened?

[Anastasia]

I read a bunch of In Flight. The early stuff was good but it bogged down after awhile. It was one of those stories that couldn't survive under the strain of its own plot.

[Dracos]

Eh, I enjoyed the "Hey let's kidnap Uzume's Master and save her from death" part, especially given cannonically, uzume just dies lamely.

The last serious fight scene was actually the assassin mage girl versus Shirou and the group.  Like 4 chapters ago (or like 6 months).

The earlier chapters though were snappier, usually ending with a cliffhanger that you cared about.  This one ends with a cliffhanger (Shirou is summoned into the light of the game for the first time), but it doesn't deliver it well.  It is subtle and you could end the chapter without realizing it even happened.