What are you reading?

[JonBob]

God Slaying Blade Works updated.

It's the big battle! Shirou vs everyone! Honestly, I thought Shirou was holding back a bit. But maybe he's just building up to the big guns.

[Jason_Miao]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4502785/1/Scordatura

An Ah Megamisama fic.  Involves gaming, zombies, and hello kitty to a minor degree.

[Dracos]

It's been such a quiet new year, I've gone back to the books on my shelves.

[Yuthirin]

It really has.

[Anastasia]

Yeah. The only thing that's updating right now is Worm fanfics. I don't post those here since no one follows them.

[Yuthirin]

I've noticed a disturbing trend of those on SB and I'm not sure I like it

[Anastasia]

It's a good setting to play around in. I like most stories written in it much better than the source material. So I'm okay with it.

[Ergoemos]

While its not fanfiction at all, I've finally got around to reading the Intrigues and Dissociation (and eventually Surprise) of Haruhi Suzumiya, and man are they kind of a slog to get through. I can kind of see why they decided not to continue the anime past the Disappearance.

[Jason_Miao]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9740933/1/Fate-Revelation-Online a Fate/SAO xover.

I still haven't played FSN, so my perspective on this fic might be skewed as someone who has only read the SAO novel translations.  Follows the events that stem from the rebooted series (where they go from the first floor onward) rather than the original series which started on seventy-fifth floor.

Although I find the occasional "Dojo" chapters amusing in themselves, I'm not sure how I feel about them as part of the fic as a whole.

It's been such a quiet new year, I've gone back to the books on my shelves.

Anything interesting stand out?  I find myself reading more technical books or survey papers these days, and feel like I'm in a rut in finding something new to read.

[Muphrid]

While its not fanfiction at all, I've finally got around to reading the Intrigues and Dissociation (and eventually Surprise) of Haruhi Suzumiya, and man are they kind of a slog to get through. I can kind of see why they decided not to continue the anime past the Disappearance.

Stuff like this really makes me wonder if Haruhi was ever that good in the first place.  Were the first and second books fun because the character and the world were so new to us? Or are the later novels less fun because Haruhi herself is out of focus, and these novel-long (or 3-novel-long) arcs are only distantly related to her?

Or maybe, you know, they're just not that well written.  I mean, Intrigues has Asahina has a major character of plot importance, and yet despite that, it seems to go out of its way to avoid developing her.  It's almost the antithesis of Disappearance, which gave Nagato some compelling emotional development.

[Ergoemos]

Stuff like this really makes me wonder if Haruhi was ever that good in the first place.  Were the first and second books fun because the character and the world were so new to us? Or are the later novels less fun because Haruhi herself is out of focus, and these novel-long (or 3-novel-long) arcs are only distantly related to her?

Or maybe, you know, they're just not that well written.  I mean, Intrigues has Asahina has a major character of plot importance, and yet despite that, it seems to go out of its way to avoid developing her.  It's almost the antithesis of Disappearance, which gave Nagato some compelling emotional development.

I'm honestly leaning towards the "not well written" end of things. I don't think they are poorly written, but either something got lost in the translation (not sure what the Japanese think of the series) or there was just general authorial quality decay over time. I think there is something to be said about the animated feature being better paced than the books (not necessarily excluding Endless Eight either).

I think the biggest problem is that the concept of the story and the idea behind all the characters is more compelling than the actual portrayal of them. Its all well and good to have your reluctant deapan snarker hero be reluctant, but for Gods' sake, can't he have fun every once in a while? I am thinking back and can't remember a single time he said "this was fun" since that one time in the club room where it was quiet and he and Koizumi were playing a board game and Haruhi was brooding sadly (I think in the Sigh of?).

Anything interesting stand out?  I find myself reading more technical books or survey papers these days, and feel like I'm in a rut in finding something new to read.

Speaking of reluctant heroes written in first-person train-of-thought, my number one favorite book in times between finding new material is Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. Its about an ordinary coffee house baker who gets dragged into the company of vampires in a post-Great-War-vs-Paranormal-Creatures world. The vampires are much closer to Bram Stoker's than anything more modern, and the world is pretty well developed all around.

If I had to ascribe a more high-minded descriptor, I'd say it is a pretty apt deconstruction of most of the modern fantasy genre as it exists today, but it is more fun than that premise sounds, I promise. I've been listening to it on audiobook lately (because I can do that while I stare at charts and graphs at work) but its a good read too.

[Brian]

Kyon relates that he enjoys his time in the club quite a few times.  Intrigues specifically comes to mind.

[Ebiris]

Been reading World in Pieces, which is a decent take on the 'Harry is summoned to another universe to defeat their Voldemort' thing. Most of the others I've seen have featured AU Harrys that've fought a long war, or have picked up some amazing powers early on, but this just has plain old regular canon Harry from just a few hours after the Battle of Hogwarts. The world he's pulled into was the home of a Slytherin Harry who recently killed himself, as well as a couple of other Slytherin Harrys that had also been summoned and then gotten killed. Really seems like they shouldn't have sent a Slytherin to do a Gryffindor's job. There's references to Harry/Draco if that bothers you, but luckily the summoned Harry isn't interested in any of that.

Speaking of Gryffindors, and on a far lighter note, there's Harry Potter: Overboard Gryffindor where Harry proves to be a better superhero than Shirou ever was. Short, silly, but very fun.

[Dracos]

I read over Overboard Gryffindor last night and found it quite amusing.

[Empyrean]

I read over Overboard Gryffindor last night and found it quite amusing.

Harry is kind of like Iron Hands McAwesome crossed with The Tick.