Story: Practical Solutions
Author: Aurette
Fandom: Harry Potter
Stats: 4 Chapters, 18,341 words, Published in 2011, Pairing HG/SS
Summary: Now I feel a bit bad for selecting this one, the lovely Jennifer Mabe gave me a quite a nice list of rec's from Harry Potter and Twilight and she gave me a strong recommendation for the author and suggested the fic Of Muggles and Magic. So I followed the link and clicked to the authors page so I could read what the synopsis was for the story and realised that it was a Regency HG/SS fic that was 192k long. Now weirdly, although I am proud to sail aboard the great ship Dramione, I have a bit of a soft spot for HG/SS fics, their authors tend to be a little older and therefore the stories are often really quite good and usually have more plot to them than just snogging in a cupboard. That being said, I'm not a huge fan of Regency fics and though I'm supposed to be using this to branch out and read stuff I wouldn't normally read, a 192k Regency fic might not quite be the right place for me to start. So, instead I selected the next one of this author's list, which is Practical Solutions and for the Regency, there was another one on the list which was a Dramione, so I'll probably give that one a go instead as it's also a bit shorter.... only 155k... *gulp*
"Hermione doesn't have time for a relationship. Snape doesn't have the patience. It's a good thing they are not having one..." Is the summary for this fic. It also contains a warning that it's shameless, smutty, fluff. Ah smutty fan fiction, the internet's female equivalent to tentacle porn. This fic is indeed shameless, smutty, fluff, utterly shameless. Snape and Hermione are quite out of character, but I really didn't mind as this fic is quite hilarious.
About 3 paragraphs I began copy/pasting all my favourite quotes so I could share at least one, then the entire thing became far too long and I spent ages going over the list trying to decide what my favourite line was. Eventually I settled on this:
""Why? Did I excite you?"
"You? No. Little PVC skirts sans knickers? I'm a simple man, Granger. Umbridge would excite me in that get-up.""
The basic story is that Hermione and Snape hook up due to mutual horniness and disinterest in relationships, it's a nice, little, fluffy, smut piece, which should capture the attention of any Hermione/Snape fan. It's funny and well written and I think I feel safe in recommending it to all.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Number Two - Wanted
Story: Wanted
Author: Amberdreams
Fandom: Supernatural
Stats: One shot, 12,041 words, Published in 2011
Summary: I've never read a Supernatural fan fiction before, but wanting to come up for air out of the Potter fandom for the purposes of this reading challenge I thought I had better branch out. I wouldn't say I'm a big fan of Supernatural, I've watched every single episode, but all my favourite characters have been killed off over the course of time and I think I now watch it out of habit rather than pure indulgence. I found this by doing a general search in the Western genre, because I'd never read a Western fanfic and to my understanding, they are in fact, quite rare. (Well, they are in Potter anyhow.)
There are some grammar problems, but nothing major, I think they are perhaps more due to tired eyes not catching the odd slip-up than genuine error on the authors part. At 12k, believe it or not, it's not the longest one shot I've ever read. I have a bit of a soft spot for long one-shots, stories that would otherwise be poorer for being split into smaller sections. The story takes place around season 3 of the show and diverges from the canon in order to tell the story.
The Winchesters are in 1874 and they are hunting evil, but get caught by a lawman who is sure that the boys demon hunting activities are just a series of spree murders, rather than helping people. I felt that the writing overall was quite good and some of the dialogue is peppered with little character moments that help to encapsulate the feeling of the show and how the characters are portrayed in the canon.
I feel quite bad for saying this, I mean there's nothing really wrong with the writing and it was written for a challenge and I know how challenge fics can sometimes end up a little odd due to the nature of how they are written, but, it's little on the boring side. Nothing really happens. Well, things happen, but those things aren't really all that interesting and I found my rebellious forefinger kept reaching for the downwards arrow key, but I persisted in reading it.
I kinda wish I could give it a higher rating, as I said there's nothing wrong with it, it's just not my personal taste and so it's probably a bit lower than completely unbiased reviewer would mark it. Saying that however, I have seen some of the supposed 'unbiased' reviewers kicking around fanfiction.net and some of them have a tendency to be rather cruel and seem to forget that fan fiction writers put just as much hard work into their writing as published authors, but these guys aren't being paid for it.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Author: Amberdreams
Fandom: Supernatural
Stats: One shot, 12,041 words, Published in 2011
Summary: I've never read a Supernatural fan fiction before, but wanting to come up for air out of the Potter fandom for the purposes of this reading challenge I thought I had better branch out. I wouldn't say I'm a big fan of Supernatural, I've watched every single episode, but all my favourite characters have been killed off over the course of time and I think I now watch it out of habit rather than pure indulgence. I found this by doing a general search in the Western genre, because I'd never read a Western fanfic and to my understanding, they are in fact, quite rare. (Well, they are in Potter anyhow.)
There are some grammar problems, but nothing major, I think they are perhaps more due to tired eyes not catching the odd slip-up than genuine error on the authors part. At 12k, believe it or not, it's not the longest one shot I've ever read. I have a bit of a soft spot for long one-shots, stories that would otherwise be poorer for being split into smaller sections. The story takes place around season 3 of the show and diverges from the canon in order to tell the story.
The Winchesters are in 1874 and they are hunting evil, but get caught by a lawman who is sure that the boys demon hunting activities are just a series of spree murders, rather than helping people. I felt that the writing overall was quite good and some of the dialogue is peppered with little character moments that help to encapsulate the feeling of the show and how the characters are portrayed in the canon.
I feel quite bad for saying this, I mean there's nothing really wrong with the writing and it was written for a challenge and I know how challenge fics can sometimes end up a little odd due to the nature of how they are written, but, it's little on the boring side. Nothing really happens. Well, things happen, but those things aren't really all that interesting and I found my rebellious forefinger kept reaching for the downwards arrow key, but I persisted in reading it.
I kinda wish I could give it a higher rating, as I said there's nothing wrong with it, it's just not my personal taste and so it's probably a bit lower than completely unbiased reviewer would mark it. Saying that however, I have seen some of the supposed 'unbiased' reviewers kicking around fanfiction.net and some of them have a tendency to be rather cruel and seem to forget that fan fiction writers put just as much hard work into their writing as published authors, but these guys aren't being paid for it.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Saturday, 7 January 2012
Number One to Five
(I have changed this from one to ten, to one to five, as I didn't realise how long it was getting.)
Number One - A Sarcastic Git's Golden Rules at Hogwarts
Story: A Sarcastic Git's Golden Rules at Hogwarts
Author: Twisted Biscuit
Fandom: Harry Potter
Stats: 29 Chapters, 38,500+ words, Published in 2007
Summary: A humour story to get us started, someone in Hogwarts has been placing notices around the school, they are dripping with sarcasm and we are seeing the results. It covers topics from teachers to Gryffindors to Muggle lovers to people with flower namesakes and takes a bash at almost every character in the book with it's tongue firmly stuck inside it's cheek. Not so much of a story as it is a highly amusing collection of lists, poking fun at the plot holes and clichés of the Potter series, Potter fans however, should get a good kick out of it. Some chapters are stronger than others, but all in all, totally enjoyable.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Author: Twisted Biscuit
Fandom: Harry Potter
Stats: 29 Chapters, 38,500+ words, Published in 2007
Summary: A humour story to get us started, someone in Hogwarts has been placing notices around the school, they are dripping with sarcasm and we are seeing the results. It covers topics from teachers to Gryffindors to Muggle lovers to people with flower namesakes and takes a bash at almost every character in the book with it's tongue firmly stuck inside it's cheek. Not so much of a story as it is a highly amusing collection of lists, poking fun at the plot holes and clichés of the Potter series, Potter fans however, should get a good kick out of it. Some chapters are stronger than others, but all in all, totally enjoyable.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Friday, 6 January 2012
Okay, forget books, how about One Year 200 Fanfics?
So I had a sort of epiphany whilst eating toast and trying not to trip over the cat. Knowing that I am, Mr Lazy incarnate and any good intentions I have at the start of the year to read 100 books will likely be thwarted by issues of money and not wanting to get off my bum to go to the town centre and buy more books - I couldn't make such an excuse with fan fiction.
Fanfic is readily available all over the internet, which is where I'm living these days, it's free and it comes for just about every fandom you could think of from Archie comics to the Vampire Chronicles - (that's a little fandom joke, people.)
While some stories might struggle to hit 5k, I've read a good few 300k+ in my day and some of them, regardless of length have been a lot better than books I've spent hard earned money on. A lot of them have not. That's the beauty of fan fiction though.
So here are the rules, and I'm asking (read: begging) for recs, because whilst I could just sift my way through the first 200 fanfics I find, I'd much rather read ones which have come recommended.
1. No fanfics from authors who have banned fan fiction, list here.
2. The story must be complete, no exceptions.
3. I must not have already read it, to count it on the list. (If you recommend something I've read, I'll start making a little list at the bottom of the post.)
4. It must be a minimum of 1000 words, longer stories are better, but I don't want to discount a truly excellent story just because it might be only 3000 words long.
5. It must be in English.
Guidelines for recommendations
* I'm operating on an honour system that you don't recommend a fan fiction that you've written yourself, it's kind of tacky to do that.
* My main fandom is Harry Potter, but I have quite a wide range of interests so I will accept recommendations for pretty much any fandom I at least have a base knowledge of. If I don't have a clue about it, I will start compiling a little list at the bottom on this post, because it will do me no good to get 200 recs for the Digimon fandom, when I've never watched an episode in my life and don't plan to start now.
And that's it! No need to get too bogged down in rules, I think. Let the reading begin!
Fanfic is readily available all over the internet, which is where I'm living these days, it's free and it comes for just about every fandom you could think of from Archie comics to the Vampire Chronicles - (that's a little fandom joke, people.)
While some stories might struggle to hit 5k, I've read a good few 300k+ in my day and some of them, regardless of length have been a lot better than books I've spent hard earned money on. A lot of them have not. That's the beauty of fan fiction though.
So here are the rules, and I'm asking (read: begging) for recs, because whilst I could just sift my way through the first 200 fanfics I find, I'd much rather read ones which have come recommended.
1. No fanfics from authors who have banned fan fiction, list here.
2. The story must be complete, no exceptions.
3. I must not have already read it, to count it on the list. (If you recommend something I've read, I'll start making a little list at the bottom of the post.)
4. It must be a minimum of 1000 words, longer stories are better, but I don't want to discount a truly excellent story just because it might be only 3000 words long.
5. It must be in English.
Guidelines for recommendations
* I'm operating on an honour system that you don't recommend a fan fiction that you've written yourself, it's kind of tacky to do that.
* My main fandom is Harry Potter, but I have quite a wide range of interests so I will accept recommendations for pretty much any fandom I at least have a base knowledge of. If I don't have a clue about it, I will start compiling a little list at the bottom on this post, because it will do me no good to get 200 recs for the Digimon fandom, when I've never watched an episode in my life and don't plan to start now.
And that's it! No need to get too bogged down in rules, I think. Let the reading begin!
One Year, 100 books
I read an interesting post, here, about reading 100 books in a year. What occurred to me is that in some years I will have read hundreds of books and some years maybe less than 20.
So instead of setting myself up for a large fall I thought what if I used this blog to track exactly what it is I'm reading. Even if I give up I could do a write up of why I gave up and it could spur me on to pick up the next book on my pile.
So instead of setting myself up for a large fall I thought what if I used this blog to track exactly what it is I'm reading. Even if I give up I could do a write up of why I gave up and it could spur me on to pick up the next book on my pile.
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
What do to with this blog now that I've realised I'm too lazy to review books?
When I first decided to make a blog spot account I created this blog and a personal blog, I had loads of free time and fairly good intentions. I hide my personal blog after realisation that I had posted far too many rants about people I knew in real life and they were likely to stumble across it at some point.
I also created a movie review blog, which I quickly discovered was far easier to screencap and writing a movie review or doing a top ten list typically takes about four hours, but a full book review can take days to weeks, depending on how fast I read the book and, arguably, how good it is. (Bad books take longer, because generally you're angrier about it and have a lot more to say.)
So what to do?
One of my online hobbies is reading up on old fandom controversies and, indeed, new controversies. The Rob Granito stuff had me entertained for weeks and the recent shoving match between Penny Arcade and @OceanMarketting [sic] had me in heaps of chuckles.
The thing is that other people, more talented people, people who were there at the time, have gone over and over this stuff and a lot of it is old news. At one point I thought about going through Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments trilogy and trying to figure out how much of it she'd genuinely made up and how much I could identify as scenes from Harry Potter and Buffy, but then I realised I'd be more or less typing up her entire book and quite frankly I couldn't be bothered.
Then I thought about going through the Draco Trilogy and trying to identify all the stolen material and figuring out just how much she actually wrote herself, because my suspicions have been that if you took out all the stolen material you'd be left with about 3000 words and some author's notes. At this point though, 2012, the Draco Trilogy is largely forgotten about and it's online availability is very small and who would really care? Those who know that she stole massive chunks of text are well aware that there's probably a lot that isn't discovered and those who like to live in blissful ignorance and like to pretend that she didn't steal on such a massive scale wouldn't want to read it anyway.
I did find a few old files that I'd transferred from an old laptop that were labelled 'Draco D' and 'Draco S' respectively that I'd been keeping whilst reading those fanfics and were full of unattributed quotes. I never did finish reading Draco Veritas as by that point I was full of rage by the sheer number of stolen Babylon 5 quotes. One day I might actually do something like that, but I doubt it.
One thing I do have is a stack of books shoved under the bed that I had started reading, then subsequently stopped reading for various reasons. Life's too short to read shit books and a lot of them I'd given up on for having crappy plots or terrible POV transitions.
So I'm still debating what to do with this blog. I'll have a think.
I also created a movie review blog, which I quickly discovered was far easier to screencap and writing a movie review or doing a top ten list typically takes about four hours, but a full book review can take days to weeks, depending on how fast I read the book and, arguably, how good it is. (Bad books take longer, because generally you're angrier about it and have a lot more to say.)
So what to do?
One of my online hobbies is reading up on old fandom controversies and, indeed, new controversies. The Rob Granito stuff had me entertained for weeks and the recent shoving match between Penny Arcade and @OceanMarketting [sic] had me in heaps of chuckles.
The thing is that other people, more talented people, people who were there at the time, have gone over and over this stuff and a lot of it is old news. At one point I thought about going through Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments trilogy and trying to figure out how much of it she'd genuinely made up and how much I could identify as scenes from Harry Potter and Buffy, but then I realised I'd be more or less typing up her entire book and quite frankly I couldn't be bothered.
Then I thought about going through the Draco Trilogy and trying to identify all the stolen material and figuring out just how much she actually wrote herself, because my suspicions have been that if you took out all the stolen material you'd be left with about 3000 words and some author's notes. At this point though, 2012, the Draco Trilogy is largely forgotten about and it's online availability is very small and who would really care? Those who know that she stole massive chunks of text are well aware that there's probably a lot that isn't discovered and those who like to live in blissful ignorance and like to pretend that she didn't steal on such a massive scale wouldn't want to read it anyway.
I did find a few old files that I'd transferred from an old laptop that were labelled 'Draco D' and 'Draco S' respectively that I'd been keeping whilst reading those fanfics and were full of unattributed quotes. I never did finish reading Draco Veritas as by that point I was full of rage by the sheer number of stolen Babylon 5 quotes. One day I might actually do something like that, but I doubt it.
One thing I do have is a stack of books shoved under the bed that I had started reading, then subsequently stopped reading for various reasons. Life's too short to read shit books and a lot of them I'd given up on for having crappy plots or terrible POV transitions.
So I'm still debating what to do with this blog. I'll have a think.
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