Story: Dancing in the Dark
Author: DamageCtrl
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender/Avatar: The Legend of Aang
Stats: 7 Chapters, 64,000+ words, Published in 2006, Pairing Zutara/Blutara (Zuko/Katara Blue Spirit)
Summary: Before the rumours begin that I selected this one because I am a closeted Zutaraian, I would like to quosh this rumour here and now. I am in fact an out and proud Zutaraian, I just arrived to the fandom a little late... that's all. Actually it was one day late, the day I discovered it was the after the last episode had aired, so I missed the shipping wars. One of my favourite clichés for this pairing is the use of Katara's Painted Lady meeting Zuko's Blue Spirit, but it's not seen often and rarely seen done well, so if someone sees one of these, point it my way.
Alright let's get this out of the way with while we're at number 4 instead of number 74, when it comes to fandom, I become a right girl's blouse. That's not an insult to the lovely ladies who may be reading this blog, if you're unfamiliar with the term. What I mean is that I always, and not intentionally mind, end up shipping the doomed ships, but get caught up in all the fever and romance of it all, trust me this is not an easy thing for a guy to admit. I have known of more than one young man who has created for himself a fanfiction.net account with a female sounding name so they can get away with reading the more smooshy, romantic, fluff. Over the years I ship and have shipped, Draco/Hermione, Zuko/Katara, Eric/Sookie, Buffy/Spike and yes, I know that last one happened in canon, but they cocked it all up in the comics, so much so that I doubt I will read anymore Buffy comics again.... Xander/Dawn in season 8 comics.... not even kidding about that... *shudders*
But you didn't come hear to read the ramblings of my shipping history, you want to hear what this story's about! Probably.
Fun fact! The author of this story is called DamageCtrl, I once had a friend in real life, whose name was Damage Control, no joke, that was his name, he's no longer with us, but he was crazy and awesome.
So the basic story of this one is that it's set at the point where the gAang are in Ba Sing Sei and the girls happen to discover the tea shop where Iroh and Zuko are working while they are posing as refugees. Katara meets Zuko while he's in disguise as the Blue Spirit and of course, doesn't know who he is and they end up falling for each other through the medium of dance.
It doesn't really get going until Chapter 2, but it maintains a nice speed once the two characters are actually thrust together and the scenario that's set up does feel like one that actually could happen to these characters within this context.
The characters, aren't all that in character, they do more or less act in character for most point, but seeing that this is one of the author's earliest fics, I'm guessing they just hadn't got the hAang (<- see what I did there?) of the characters yet, and at times while they do seem like their show counterparts, others they do not. Katara is probably the least in character, she doesn't do anything that Katara would never do in a million years, she's just not very Katara-like at points. I think the problem is that the show is very comedic and relies on visual humour, being anime style, and this fic, while having some jokes and some very funny ones at that, is a more serious story so it's missing some of the more defining character moments that you would maybe see in a typical episode.
There are some problems with the writing that I think could have been helped by an experienced beta reader, some mistakes which are common enough, even in published novels, but still end up jumping out at you. For example:
""No, I don't," she hissed. "Now do you mind? You're being quite rude." Katara narrowed her eyes. "
This line isn't actually said by Katara, it's a woman Katara is speaking to. It's just a few little awkward mistakes like that, but these really aren't huge glowing errors.
It's your standard, fluffy romance fic, there's a rather amusing subplot involving Iroh and some of the old guys who visit the tea shop betting on who Zuko will end up going out with and there's some nice Toph moments, though a few feel a little forced. I enjoyed it quite a lot and I think most Zutara shippers would probably enjoy it, but it's definitely one that Kataang fans should avoid.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Thoughts so far
While it may appear to the untrained eye, that I am merely three fics in, I am in fact only three fics in. (Silence!) I've kind of worked out a list of fics I've got lined up to read next. Some I've read the summaries of and I'm looking forward to getting to them.
What I've been doing so far when I've read a story, is leaving a short note instead of a full review, because I don't think it's too fair to leave all my ramblings in the poor author's inbox, I've also been favouriting each story so I've got an easy way to find it again and I figure that it's the least I can do to improve their stats while I waffle on about the ins and outs of their hard work.
Their hard work is really what I wanted to talk about. It's ok to hate a book and post a scathing review online because you've spent hard earned money on it and the author got paid and will probably never stumble across your review. Fan fiction authors work just as hard as published authors and they aren't being paid for their hard work. I think really, even if you disliked a story, the least you can do for a fan fic author, is at least leave a comment. I know that people tend not to do that unless they either really loved or really hated it and that isn't very helpful for people who genuinely want to know how they can improve or what bits might have been good or bad.
I admit though that I was nervous about posting a note on these stories letting the authors know I'd posted an off-site review, because there's a real person at the end of that username and sometimes we tend to forget that on the internet. Posting film reviews is one thing, I expect that film makers have thick enough skins to accept criticism and probably don't care about the opinions of a small-time blogger like myself, the same goes for published authors.
Fandom though, is another fish entirely and while I try to be honest and fair about the fic I'm reviewing, I'm aware that people are doing this for fun and walking in and crapping all over someones hard work for the sake of being a harsh critic is not really going to be helpful to anyone.
What I've been doing so far when I've read a story, is leaving a short note instead of a full review, because I don't think it's too fair to leave all my ramblings in the poor author's inbox, I've also been favouriting each story so I've got an easy way to find it again and I figure that it's the least I can do to improve their stats while I waffle on about the ins and outs of their hard work.
Their hard work is really what I wanted to talk about. It's ok to hate a book and post a scathing review online because you've spent hard earned money on it and the author got paid and will probably never stumble across your review. Fan fiction authors work just as hard as published authors and they aren't being paid for their hard work. I think really, even if you disliked a story, the least you can do for a fan fic author, is at least leave a comment. I know that people tend not to do that unless they either really loved or really hated it and that isn't very helpful for people who genuinely want to know how they can improve or what bits might have been good or bad.
I admit though that I was nervous about posting a note on these stories letting the authors know I'd posted an off-site review, because there's a real person at the end of that username and sometimes we tend to forget that on the internet. Posting film reviews is one thing, I expect that film makers have thick enough skins to accept criticism and probably don't care about the opinions of a small-time blogger like myself, the same goes for published authors.
Fandom though, is another fish entirely and while I try to be honest and fair about the fic I'm reviewing, I'm aware that people are doing this for fun and walking in and crapping all over someones hard work for the sake of being a harsh critic is not really going to be helpful to anyone.
Number Three - Practical Solutions
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
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
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!
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