Pony Stories 347

Posting before the last minute? Hopefully I’ve been replaced by a more productive pod person. Just finished up spending far too long messing around with the big master review list. Sliding around all the review links in the under 100 columns to see if I can’t get them to fit better. Nope. Hopefully I didn’t mess anything up. I don’t think anyone looked in while I was doing it, but if you did and you follow this blog, sorry for any confusion it might have caused.

Hitting that point of lacking motivation, so decided to once again sabotage my efforts to cut down on my read later list by reading a story off someone else’s read later list! One of my followers on fimfiction, selected semi randomly that I can find a read later library for, will be providing my next story to read. Next time I believe I will scan follower libraries for stories that are also in mine. Two bookshelves with one blow. Just call me John Carter of Fimfiction. No, wait, that’s probably one of the good writers. Anyway, I don’t even remember whose bookshelf I got it from, but if you have Without A Hive on your read later pile there is a review of it below.

• The Good, the Bad, and the Ponies by Sharp Spark
• Without a Hive by Phoenix_Dragon
• Fragments by Phoenix_Dragon

 

Watching Episodes #08

Today is the episode where Applejack and Rarity argue a lot! Wait, that doesn’t narrow it down much. Ahem. This is the sleepover episode. We begin even before the episode starts!

Netflix and Amazon have different pictures for this episode. Amazon is the three of them in the dark around the lantern looking scared. Netflix has the three of them smiling side by side with rarity in curls. Checked two previous episodes, Trixie and Dragonshy. Amazon seems to have the more in your face images. Trixie has her looking at camera with one scornful eyebrow raised, and Dragonshy has big red dragon coming at the camera. On Netflix Trixie has her and twilight looking at each other and then fluttershy staring at cowed dragon.

I should get to actually watching the episode now.

 

Pony Stories 346

Voosh. Just under the wire with 15 minutes until midnight. Well, probably closer to 10 minutes by the time I actually finish it up and post this. Another successful day of posting. Well, semi-successful. I really need to start doing these ahead of time and scheduling them again. Hopefully I’ll have a episode watching post up sometime tomorrow.

Heart of the Mountain by The Descendant

Huh. Going to this after a bunch of plainly written stories was a bit mind twisty. This fix is anything but plainly written. Not sure if I dislike the style, or more likely, the difference is just throwing me off. I don’t remember his other stories being this stylistic, but its been awhile. Spike came off as much younger than most write him. I suspect that is mostly lack of skill on most author’s parts.Brief break to read wealth from generosity.

Heart of the mountain pt 2
Hm. Continues to have very flowery language, though does settle down a bit. A good story, but more of a foreshadowing than complete in itself. This is act two of a five act epic fantasy tale. So to speak. After the characters have all been established, but before the big reveal in the middle that shows just how big the stakes really are and what the villains are capable of. Spike here is a bit younger than I normally picture him, but it remains one of the strongest realized Spike’s I’ve read. The author certainly has a very clear mental image of the little dragon guy.

Wealth Granted from Generosity by whateverdudezb

Not quite as good as the previous two. Mostly was missing that mythic element I enjoyed so much. The Rarity here could have easily been just a older and more successful version of her. Plus it kind of side stepped the moral issue. Was basically just her being generous. Seemed as if most of the story was busy worldbuilding instead of storytelling. Which I normally enjoy, but this time I was looking forward to the character building instead. Still, very good story. I think one of my major problems is that the main character didn’t seek Rarity out, but was led to her by some outside force.

Areas of Expertise by Cyanide

Fun little short bit. Could easily be a sub plot of an episode, or fleshed out into a primary plot fairly easily. Nothing groundbreaking, almost cliche in places though it gets a bit of a pass since I’m pretty sure its an older fic. Recommended if you want a short fluffy dose of average show quality slice of life. Though you won’t be missing much if you never get around to reading it.

 

Pony Stories 345

A fun number 3, 4, 5. I’ve always had a soft spot for counting multi-digit numbers like that. But enough about random thoughts in my head, onto the ponyfic reviews. Tomorrow I’ll get back to updating the list with my reviews. Soooo far behind on that.

Rainbow Reflections by Bookish Delight

A rewrite of another story. I actually liked the original a bit more. It had a conciseness that made it work. This one stretched things out a bit but didn’t quite have enough new content for the extra space. Still?, some good new stuff. An interesting idea on more of the EQ world. So, if you really liked the original you should give this a try to see what changed and what was added. If you haven’t read the original, not sure which I’d recommend. Probably the original, but this would be fine too I guess.

Having a Ball by Cereal Velocity

Not exactly what I was expecting. Enjoyed it a lot though. A story about a young Rarity just after getting her cutie mark. Well, a flashback of that time. I like the idea that some ponies have to figure out what their cutie mark means.

Basking by Pascoite

Neat concept, but the writing is a bit off. Not rough, maybe a little florid? Not sure exactly what word to use. Just is a bit distracting. How many ways can an author describe Princess Luna’s smile? This story had most of them. Still, good characters and interesting concept. I enjoyed it, but the language use kept me from loving it.

 

Non-pony Review Tuesday

Today’s intro bit is something I’m sure you are all dying to hear about. The weird dream I had last night! Or at least a summary. It was so weird that in the dream I had a moment where I went “this doesn’t make sense”. Apparently I was simultaneously Rainbow Dash and Tom Cruise, as a fighter pilot based on a submarine during world war 2. Guh. What they heck was my brain doing last night? Anyway, here are two non-ponyfic reviews of scifi stories I stumbled across on Amazon. I only read the sample of each one, so it’s hardly comprehensive, but figured why not.

The Lost Starship by Vaughn Heppner

The story with a premise from a twenty year old computer game. Eh, better than the last but still has problems with exposition. Stuff actually happens though, which is a big improvement. Sadly, still generic and uninspired. Biggest problem I had was all the assumptions being made but the characters, without even any thought they might be wrong. Makes me think the author didn’t put too much thought into things.

Warship (Black Fleet Trilogy, Book 1) by Joshua Dalzelle

A textbook case of how to do exposition wrong. The entire start is just telling the reader one thing after another. Then we get to a ship (a spaceship) that is flattened to reduce the side profile. What? Even if you want to write broadside exchanges in space you have to give some reason. And of course all the references and main character viewpoint is 20th century American. Mostly generic ideas, but a good author could do something interesting with them. The sample of the eBook literally just got through the ship leaving dock. So very much not interested in getting the full book.