What are you reading?

[Anastasia]

Read the latest BDSM today.  Pretty neat, Rei went Reimu and then set everyone on fire.  Usagi was awesome leader.  Kinda had a wonky ending though and still sort of is phrased 'Look, the bad guys are managing things so that they will be able to win in the end game'.

Gonna say again: totally fine with just the sailor moon crew kicking ass.  It doesn't need a "Just as Planned~".  Really~!

What I noticed over the last few chapters is that the shock value is going down in favor of telling a more comprehensive story. There's still insanity and amusement to be had, but the last few chapters have tuned down the overkill. I approve of this since it's a lot of fun and not just trying to get a rise out of the reader. We'll see how long it lasts.

Spoiler: ShowHide

They just skipped two filler episodes of the anime. Just as well, since the wedding dress episode and the park episode don't really fit into this story's narrative.  Just as well, since the first half of Nephrite had some decidedly filler episodes. I'm not sure who Goro is supposed to be, perhaps a new youma or something from supplementary material. A drummer doesn't mesh with any of the other Nephrite victims, wonder if it's going to be Yuuchiro?

[Dracos]

Love Note: That...is kind of fun so far. Good link.

[Dracos]

Read the latest BDSM today.  Pretty neat, Rei went Reimu and then set everyone on fire.  Usagi was awesome leader.  Kinda had a wonky ending though and still sort of is phrased 'Look, the bad guys are managing things so that they will be able to win in the end game'.

Gonna say again: totally fine with just the sailor moon crew kicking ass.  It doesn't need a "Just as Planned~".  Really~!

What I noticed over the last few chapters is that the shock value is going down in favor of telling a more comprehensive story. There's still insanity and amusement to be had, but the last few chapters have tuned down the overkill. I approve of this since it's a lot of fun and not just trying to get a rise out of the reader. We'll see how long it lasts.

Spoiler: ShowHide

They just skipped two filler episodes of the anime. Just as well, since the wedding dress episode and the park episode don't really fit into this story's narrative.  Just as well, since the first half of Nephrite had some decidedly filler episodes. I'm not sure who Goro is supposed to be, perhaps a new youma or something from supplementary material. A drummer doesn't mesh with any of the other Nephrite victims, wonder if it's going to be Yuuchiro?

That I definitely approve of.  I'm down with the less shock based setup.  Having Cutey Honey as part of the backstory is also fun.  But yeah, I did like 'Good Guys win' of the jadeite arc.

[thepanda]

Brian. I cannot believe you wrote a story based off that series and gave it that ending. You. Are. Awesome.

And so quotable! Don't check the spoiler tag if you haven't read it yet. Trust me.

Spoiler: ShowHide

"Truly," Koizumi said, shaking his head, "I fear the man who creates a plan that includes his own death before the final stages."

"Wow," Shion said, grinning. "The man stares at robots that can destroy realities without batting an eye, sets a plan in motion to destroy the masterminds behind the sadistic plot even after his own death, and this sends him over the edge?"

"This is it," he told her. "The point where the people behind this are most vulnerable. But we can't do this alone; we'll need everyone. Call them, Haruhi." <- I actually went back an read this whole section again with Sora Iro Days blasting. Goddamn friendship is awesome!


also, if there is a Ranma!harem fic in there I'd love to see that. >_>

[Brian]

Why thank you, Panda, master of the notlink. :p

This the story he was talking about:

http://pishoque.net/brian/fanfic/short/oif.htm

Which is (no joke) a fusion of Haruhi, Higurashi, and Bokurano (mostly used as a setting).  Take two clubs on summer beach vacation, add Bokurano plot, shake vigorously.

I'm surprisingly proud of that story; it actually uses a slightly more fleshed out version of the stylistic approach I used for Forging and Temperance.  As a warning, the html for that fic is a bit ugly because I let the script do it automagically.  I'll try and clean up the ToC/headers a bit when I get home tonight. :)

[thepanda]

Why thank you, Panda, master of the notlink. :p

I really need to work on that.

[Brian]

I'm biased, but I really enjoyed:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7358613/1/Till_the_End_of_Time

This is a Haruhi story, and it's Nagato/Kyon-centric, set after the author's previous work (The Shadow of Suzumiya Haruhi).  I incorrectly referred to that as 'shadows' for quite a while....

Anyway.  Found it very uplifting; not for everyone, probably, because it does go through some surprisingly intense emotional ups and downs.  But then, like I said, I really enjoyed it. :)

[Jason_Miao]

Not a fic, but a public domain story that is great so I'll post it anyway: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24035/24035-h/24035-h.htm




Also, a fic that I wish would be continued, although after three years since the last post, I have few hopes of it, so I'll post it here:

OACDYCSF  http://www.shadowchronicles.net/


So, it's a (literally) AU Ranma set in a (literally) AU Sailor Moon world.  Very OOC Ranma, for reasons which make sense if you've read the first set of fics (Cast a Long Shadow) in the series.  Very OOC Sailor Moon characters, because the writer admittedly hadn't read any Sailor Moon and was repurposing the caricatures of the characters to his own devices by adding more depth to them.  It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but I think it worked out quite well.  The writer builds and reveals the world he's created quite well in a story which has a fair helping of, in no particular order, adventure, post-apocalypse, Lovecraftian horror (no Cthulhu - the writer crafted his own layers of mythology), travelogue, and romance.  It would be nice if I had the skill to simultaneously construct a world and tell a story like that.

The only sticking point with starting this story is that if you jump straight into OACDYCSF, you're probably thinking "Who the hell is this guy and what has he done with Ranma?", and if you read CALS, you're reading a Ranma horror fic written in 1997, with all that entails.

[thepanda]

Wow, I think I stopped reading that around chapter 7 (when the author seemed to fall off the Earth). Did not realize he'd picked it up again (and dropped it again, apparently). I recall liking it, but I don't know if the me of today would.

[Muphrid]

I'm biased, but I really enjoyed:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7358613/1/Till_the_End_of_Time

This is a Haruhi story, and it's Nagato/Kyon-centric, set after the author's previous work (The Shadow of Suzumiya Haruhi).  I incorrectly referred to that as 'shadows' for quite a while....

Anyway.  Found it very uplifting; not for everyone, probably, because it does go through some surprisingly intense emotional ups and downs.  But then, like I said, I really enjoyed it. :)

You know, starting off I thought it was going to be a bit lacking, trying to get emotional impact out of stuff that's being told, but then Nagato imitated you-know-who (that for people who want a chance to read it themselves), and it worked.

I think this is the first love story I've read that's literally cosmic in proportions...

[Yuthirin]

So, I actually read this a while back, but it struck me last night that it might not have been posted.

Tabula Avatar, along with the rest of the series, is a Buffy/Baldur's Gate 2 crossover that I really thought was well done. The author seems to heally know his(her?) stuff and the story is enjoyable with various twists.

[Anastasia]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2699236/1/Out_of_Sight_Out_of_Mind

Nabiki wakes up one morning to find Ranma gone and no one remembers him. This sticks in her craw and she ends up going on a long, dangerous journey to figure out what happened.

[spoiler]

The problem with this fic is that I don't find his Nabiki to resonate true. There's a genuinely decent in story reason for it, one that's revealed late in the story. Still, when you're focusing on one character, changing them up without explaining why is rather jarring. On the flip side, having Nabiki wander around China and gather up a traveling group from various enemies Ranma has faced is pretty cute.

I also have trouble buying Ranma doing a cut and run, especially when he finally and truly connected with his mother once more. Plus he realizes that he sort of likes Nabiki? Eh. I'd have used a different approach as far as that goes, as I feel it's weak.

It's something like a 7/10? Entertaining but the premise has issues.

[Jason_Miao]

Wow, I think I stopped reading that around chapter 7 (when the author seemed to fall off the Earth). Did not realize he'd picked it up again (and dropped it again, apparently). I recall liking it, but I don't know if the me of today would.

He picked up and dropped many times.  He'd throw out a few long chapters, then you'd hear nothing for a year and a half.

This last spell has been 3 years running, though, so it feels rather permanent.  Hope not.

[Dracos]

http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=200935 Kind of a neat short Homura ficlet.  1 shot, very short.

[Jon]

Inviolate

What would you do if you discovered your personality, your entire existence, had been engineered, for the sole purpose of making you into a (relatively) harmless nuisance?

If you're Lex Luthor, you find the people responsible. And then you make them pay.