What are you reading?

[lolipettanko]

Spent the last month reading the Muv Luv Trilogy. I have to say,  it's one of the greatest stories I've ever experienced. The whole story's founded on the gamble that you're patient enough to make it through Extra, which I admit was a bit of a challenge. Unlimited and Alternative though were phenomenal, with Alternative in particular leaving the deepest mark on me.

It's thought-provoking, heart breaking, and well worth the time you need to invest in reading it. I recc it to anyone who has the time. If you do plan to read it, just don't do any preliminary research on it apart from route order, some of the biggest twists in the later games just wouldn't be the same with prior knowledge.

It's the type of thing that leaves this gaping hole in your chest upon completion.

[Jason_Miao]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7347955/96/Dreaming-of-Sunshine
Spoiler: "Lightning Style," I shouted, because volume meant something. "Super Beam Cannon!"


After sleeping on it, I think I better understand my discontent with Twig. 

As far as I can think of it, what drives interest individual interest a story is largely a function of plot, characterization, and setting.

There's no sense of underlying plot to tie the chapters together.  There is an underlying plot.  There is an enemy.  It's just not clear what the enemy is driving towards.  Without that, the story feels like a enemy-of-the-week story, with no clear reasons for sending the enemy.  By comparison, as ridiculous as the goal in Sailor Moon is(We're going to revive an evil goddess by individually stealing energy from humans), it's still a purpose.  I don't see that goal here.

The characters are well defined and different.  I don't think Wildbow has ever had a problem with that.  Wildbow explicitly sets forth that they're a team, and they're actually a team.  By the same token, there isn't much meaningful inter-group deep conflict.  And what conflict there is, is explicitly narrated by the main character ("We're pre-teens.  I'm worried about group unity when we become teenagers.")  So, basically, not much tension here.

Setting, as I've mentioned earlier, is a dystopia of genetic engineering.  Mainly for weapons, so I'm not even sure that dystopia is the right word, since there isn't even a pretense that it's for the betterment of society.  This isn't a setting of high-tech in general.  The characters take trains, not jet-packs or rocketships.  Fights are performed with fists, monsters, or cunning, not firearms (although they exist). 


So when putting it all together, Wildbow appears to have created a dystopian-government-backed low-powered sentai story.  And as of yet, I can't say there's anything more to it than that.

[thepanda]

Read it. Lots of indistinguishable characters.

[Pensive Rumination]

First of all, thanks for the new reading material.  I've been having trouble finding some recently.  The last four pages worth of recommendations should tide me over for a while.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11187030/1/Kantai-Collection-The-Greatest-Generation
A Kantai Collection fic by sasahara17, in my opinion, one of the best writers on the net.  Never was into Kancolle or naval history when I started reading this.  Still not really into Kancolle or naval history, but damn is this is a GREAT story.  It helps to keep the Kancolle wiki open so you can look up character images, but other than that, background knowledge isn't really needed as the intro provides a solid summary of the setting. 

sasahara was also working on an SAO/X-COM crossover in the form of little snippets which was eventually abandoned for The Greatest Generation.  What does exist is golden, but only exists on the forums: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/sao-xcom-xcom-online.3396/

There's talk of making it a public project since it proved to be so popular.

EDIT: Also, sasahara's update rate has it's ups and downs, especially since he requests that the mod's temporarily ban his forum accounts for months at a time when he has other commitments to take care of.

[Jason_Miao]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4034451/37/The-Best-Laid-Plans updated!

It ends up being a Wall-o-Political-Philosophy after the 1/3 mark, and more of what I'd expect if Starship Troopers fused with Li Ching answering the Emperor, but that's not important, right?  The fic updated!

sasahara was also working on an SAO/X-COM crossover in the form of little snippets which was eventually abandoned for The Greatest Generation.  What does exist is golden, but only exists on the forums: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/sao-xcom-xcom-online.3396/

There's talk of making it a public project since it proved to be so popular.

That is a horrible game idea (as if that FPS reboot wasn't a poor enough idea), but sounds like a brilliant xover fic.

And, of course, if there's an SAO/xcom over, the natural next question is if one could put together a Jagged Alliance xover.  (Ranma as a merc in Jagged Alliance?  JA mercs in Black Lagoon?  JA/Gundam?  Hmm...)

[Empyrean]

Most JA mercs would fit into Black Lagoon without causing so much as a ripple.

I just caught up to current on Dreaming of Sunshine. The fic starts out on the bright side of average and gets better. I like it a lot.

Unfortunately, now I need something else to read. I've started reading Child of the Emperor again. Really good story; adds some more depth to the 40k setting than you usually see, and a repentant Chaos marine vigilante is a fantastic character to throw into the bureaucratic shitfest that is the Imperium of Man.

[Jason_Miao]

Which is probably why the xover should never be written.  What's the point if no conflict arises?

Weren't you the one who'd posted about that reborn-as-a-slime manga?  If you haven't been following it already, you may be interestsed in http://circustranslations.com/chapter-list/ which translates the web novel.

It looks like Ozzallos updated https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8426142/4/The-Bad-Cut.  Since I was not a fan of where this was going when Ozzallos posted drafts, I haven't bothered to read the latest chapter, but others who weren't as discouraged may want to take a look.

Also, https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10336591/8/The-Senshi-Files-Silver-Warden updated two months ago.

[Dracos]

So merc said he might link some of what he was reading.

*starts clicking over what he missed* :)

[Merc]

Righto, so as discussed in the Gathering, I have been reading Worm fanfics recently.

Anything from Ack is entertaining, though generally not super fleshed out, and a lot of them have low chapter counts. He's basically an idea machine more than a fanfic writer. Still found his works generally entertaining though.

Amelia is a massive 429 chapters fanfic where Amy Dallon has a breakdown during Slaughterhouse 9 arc leading to a third trigger. Her powers have a lot of synergy with Taylor's, and together they form a group called Pantheon and try to save the world. Things go well sometimes. Things go batshit horribly sometimes.

Meh! I can take them all! is a One Punch Man crossover. Said crossover character doesn't realize he's a parahuman.

Atonement has Madison triggering from guilt after Taylor dies in the locker.

Heels Over Head has Taylor gaining a trump instead of master power. She can copy people's powers, however it's not an -exact- copy.

Manager has another Trump Taylor. This time she steals powers rather than copies them. As above though, they're typically not exact copies.

Cenotaph has a Taylor that joined the Wards after triggering. This has the unfortunate result of Bakuda discovering her identity and murdering her father. Has a sequel.

THE TECHNO QUEEN has a tinker Taylor that goes for the ham and cheese villain route. She's purposely very ineffective, helps improve Brockton Bay's situation, and generally gives everyone a headache. Except Clockblocker. He's in love.

A Cloudy Path also has a tinker Taylor in technically a crossover. Doesn't seem like you need to know anything about Supreme Commander though, and the fanfic has a Brockton Bay that was hit really hard by Leviathan and isn't even close to recovering, with refugee camps and gang groups all around.

Working As Intended is a unique story written almost entirely as a series of forum posts (in the in-verse PHO), with Taylor having the power to take/add/modify other capes' powers. As with Techno Queen, not remotely serious.

Finding the Path has Taylor with the Path to Victory shard/power. Of course it starts off by telling her the path to victory, to stop all the bullying...is to jump off a building's ledge. Oh well.

Faraday has Taylor with a power to invade others' dreams. She uses this to try and figure out just why Emma had turned against her and maybe, just maybe, figure out how to get her friend back. She does so, admittedly by traumatizing Emma. But hey, she got her friend back, right? So what if Emma's still unbalanced, just more focused on Taylor instead of Sophia now?

No Evil Shall Escape My Sight is a Green Lantern x-over where after the Black Lanterns show up in the DC universe, the Guardians did not go insane, and instead they are exiled to the wormverse, along with the Lantern Corps. Of course, now they have to figure out if its a smart idea to restart the corps in this new universe, and the lucky test case turns out to be Taylor.

Troubles With Me has a powerless Taylor encounter a girl getting jumped and she has to do something. Turns out the girl was Aisha (Grue's sister) and they become friends. And then vigilantes. Things will probably start going wrong for Taylor soon (they haven't yet at the point where this fic is at) given she hasn't triggered yet and might never in this story.

[Anastasia]

Righto, so as discussed in the Gathering, I have been reading Worm fanfics recently.

Anything from Ack is entertaining, though generally not super fleshed out, and a lot of them have low chapter counts. He's basically an idea machine more than a fanfic writer. Still found his works generally entertaining though.

Ack's hit and miss. His good stuff is really good, though. I personally like Security!, as long as you accept it's an SI. His main problem is that he drifts towards fix fics and the same tendencies over and over.

Amelia is a massive 429 chapters fanfic where Amy Dallon has a breakdown during Slaughterhouse 9 arc leading to a third trigger. Her powers have a lot of synergy with Taylor's, and together they form a group called Pantheon and try to save the world. Things go well sometimes. Things go batshit horribly sometimes.

I personally don't care for this one. The author's writing doesn't do it for me. <nitpick> I forget if Amy actually has a third trigger, but I know that canon is that second triggers are as far as they go, and they're extremely rare.</nitpick>

Atonement has Madison triggering from guilt after Taylor dies in the locker.

This one's good and improves rapidly once it finds its stride. It's more comic book flavored than Worm and has a lot of fun with the characters. There's a few arcs that aren't so good, but overall it's worth reading.

Manager has another Trump Taylor. This time she steals powers rather than copies them. As above though, they're typically not exact copies.

This one's neat and tries to do something good with a really overpowered Taylor. It's a lot of fun to read and see her juggle multiple identities and plans, no to mention who she rips off for a cape identity.

Cenotaph has a Taylor that joined the Wards after triggering. This has the unfortunate result of Bakuda discovering her identity and murdering her father. Has a sequel.

Excellent writing and storytelling, though it hews quite closely to Worm's original flavor. I like it but don't read t much since I got enough of the Worm feel from Worm. It's up to a second sequel as well, though I haven't followed that one.

THE TECHNO QUEEN has a tinker Taylor that goes for the ham and cheese villain route. She's purposely very ineffective, helps improve Brockton Bay's situation, and generally gives everyone a headache. Except Clockblocker. He's in love.

This is one of those fics that has a few good ideas, but the basic premise is a complete turn off for me. I'm not a fan of camp nor of her approach here. Some people gobble it up, but I find it insufferable and tiresome.

A Cloudy Path also has a tinker Taylor in technically a crossover. Doesn't seem like you need to know anything about Supreme Commander though, and the fanfic has a Brockton Bay that was hit really hard by Leviathan and isn't even close to recovering, with refugee camps and gang groups all around.

Awesome story, 10/10, read away and read read read it. It's very much its own style of fic with a certain level of introspection and the character work is good.

No Evil Shall Escape My Sight is a Green Lantern x-over where after the Black Lanterns show up in the DC universe, the Guardians did not go insane, and instead they are exiled to the wormverse, along with the Lantern Corps. Of course, now they have to figure out if its a smart idea to restart the corps in this new universe, and the lucky test case turns out to be Taylor.

Well written and interesting, though I wasn't a fan of some of the GL worldbuilding so far or the way it got started

Spoiler: ShowHide

by dragging her off after Leviathan.

[Merc]

Amelia does actually have third triggers, which as you said, aren't a canon thing.

First and second triggers work as normal. Third triggers let you ignore the taboo effect they have in that fanfic, where finding information about how powers work, synergies, and scion in general can cause short term memory loss. Again, not a canon thing.

I haven't finished it (I tend to read it in doses), but as far as I know, the only two characters to have a third trigger are Amelia and Lisa.

[Dracos]

I've read Meh I can Take them all before.  It's got the trait of being presently the only decent One Punch fanfic out there at the moment to my awareness.

[Merc]

Grind is another Trump Taylor (worm) fanfic. In this one, when she reads/watches a fictional work she gets sucked inside, lives through a character's life in that book/game/show, and gains a related power. It's got 33 chapters though its mostly set-up/character development.

[Arakawa]

Decided to re-read Project Sunflower on a whim. That was where Earth is being slowly eaten by Gray Nanotech Goo from Space, so in desperation the humans start ripping over portals to random other dimensions in search of a place to evacuate six billion people to. Eventually, the research team stumble over Equestria, and

Spoiler: ShowHide

use reverse-engineered alien nanotech to turn an expendable intern into a pony, to infiltrate Equestrian society and observe how it works. Luckily said intern manages to befriend the Elements of Harmony before the charade is exposed

. Implausible amounts of d'aww ensue amid the interdimensional chaos and panicked diplomacy.

Was in for a pleasant surprise:

Project Sunflower: the sequel. With some weird stuff involving changelings and yet a third dimension of aliens, that is too early to summarize!

These are also an outstandingly good example of how you deploy filler to make a story more interesting to read. (Exactly the opposite of The Worst-Paced Fanfiction in the History of History that I ranted about previously.)

[Dracos]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3557725/13/Forging-the-Sword noticed this updated last month.  *puts it on next to read*