What are you reading?

[Anastasia]

http://gisho.livejournal.com/67699.html - Went Forth Unconquered, a Chronicles of Narnia fanfic. It's a Problem of Susan fic and the best one I've ever read.

Spoiler: ShowHide

It's beautifully written and I love how he portrays Susan. Her comments on churches are right on, even if she's missing the point of what Aslan told her. I could really write a ream about this entire thing, but I'm just going to say it's a fantastic story. A comment to the story said she could become the next Jadis, and that sounds about right.

[Dracos]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6725240/1/Amorously_Minded

This isn't my normal cup of tea: It's Marvel vs Capcom 3. It's what if Iron Man and Morrigan got together, and a kid came of it? It's lighthearted fun that's written well, nothing less and nothing more. I like it.

Instead of being serious, I'll say: interesting teaser.  Do you think the author will ever bother to write a chapter?

One can only dream. [derail]I've read a lot of good authors lately who think a chapter is somewhere between 500 and 3000 words long. What the fuck? I can understand it's hard to write a full chapter and tine consuming, but c'mon. Give us something we can get into with a lot of meat to it.[/derail]

I can actually observe how that happened in this case (and sometimes in others).  The version of this fic I was linked to was likely its original forum posting, where this went up as a series of short vignettes that the other got praised on into continuing.  Basically forum teasers that got aggregated, rather than something that was written to be a story from the get go.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a real difference there.  Five hundred words in a forum posts feels/appears longwinded.  In a word processing program, it is a page or two and says so.

[Brian]

I can actually observe how that happened in this case (and sometimes in others).  The version of this fic I was linked to was likely its original forum posting, where this went up as a series of short vignettes that the other got praised on into continuing.  Basically forum teasers that got aggregated, rather than something that was written to be a story from the get go.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a real difference there.  Five hundred words in a forum posts feels/appears longwinded.  In a word processing program, it is a page or two and says so.

Fair point in this case, but I think Ana and I both have some small amount of rage for short chapters in general.  I've read quite a few stories where the chapter lengths make me think, "Are you giving yourself constant, 'write a chapter a day' challenges, or something?"  Drac linked some semi-readable fics from ... what's his name ... Lord of the Land of Fire, I think?  I was whining for some Naruto/Hinata, and he linked it to me.  It was something like 74 chapters, and only barely hit 100k words.

Most ffnet chapters seem to me to be 3-4 page-downs on my monitor, at best.  I'll admit, brevity has its place, but most of what I read?  Could really stand to be inflated by 40% with genuine description, or attempts at evoking real emotions.  At least.

...I'd probably just get 40% more crap, tho.

Num.  Spent a bit more time on Into Nightmare, skipping ahead to Into Dreams on the advice here, but it lacks holding power.

Bastid.  Fine, then; have a smuttier harem matchup, instead (NSFW goggles, kiddies):

Spoiler: ShowHide

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5235165/1/Here_In_My_Arms

Reread Hill of Swords and read a bit further into Breath of Fire 1 Novelization.  Have I linked those here?  I should if I haven't.

I don't see any problem with linking something again, if it was worth linking in the first place.  Especially if you don't remember and no one can bother to check. :)

[Dracos]

Yeah, agreed.

Alright.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6615342/1/Breath_Of_Fire_II_War_Of_The_Demons : Still ongoing.  Takes the angle of Ryu setting up his own merc org.  It's a little rough in areas, but not bad.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2051403/1/Breath_Of_Fire_War_Of_The_Dragons : Complete.  There's some carry over from this in number 2, but it didn't block me from reading number 2 without reading this first.

and since I'm linking game fics:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/717531/1/Mega_Man_X_Whispers_In_Time  Still good.  Post Megaman series done from the perspective of everyone as it approaches the question of "What happened between the (then) last game and the X series", covering perspective from pre-series through to a 3-4 day closeout period.

[thepanda]

Whispers in Time created so much MM fanon back in the day.

[Anastasia]

Really good fics tend to do that, especially back in the day. Look at what the Bitter End did.

[Jon]

Ami: "There's definitely a very slim chance we'll survive."
Usagi: "...I love this plan! I'm excited to be a part of it!"

I may be reading Shadowjack's In Which I Watch Sailor Moon. Maybe.

[Anastasia]

Awesome if you are.

[Jason_Miao]

Scene transitions in the first few parts are not so great, but I rather liked this one as a whole.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/916018/1/Akane_the_Suicidal

[Brian]

This ... amused the hell out of me:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6473185/1/The_Log

[Yuthirin]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5511855/1/Delenda_Est

Good story, time travel well done, I think. Well-written in my opinion.

[Anastasia]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6612198/1/An_Aquatransexuals_Best_Friend

This is an example of trying to be charming with your writing and failing.

[Dracos]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6612198/1/An_Aquatransexuals_Best_Friend

This is an example of trying to be charming with your writing and failing.

What's charming? o_O

[Brian]

Oh, man.  Yeah, that's Ranma/Ukyou, so it popped up in my monthly check, but then it....

Really, it's just all around bad writing.

Read Nemo Blank's Chaos Factor instead:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2741704/1/Chaos_Factor

Abandoned, but still entertaining.

[Brian]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6995765/1/The_Deconstruction_of_Haruhi_Suzumiya

Complete, enjoyable, and for reasons I don't understand, it depresses me.

Damnit.