This week = the one that ends/ended right now, past seven days.
The reason for this thread's existence is the fact that both requests and suggestions can become kind of stale. It's supposed to bring out more fics that people are currently reading (or rereading), regardless of how old or new they are.
Also, not a rule or any kind of criticism, the more interesting part is not the list of the stuff you read, but your impressions of it.
Actually the set up in heart of iron is kind of unknown even for book readers because the context is from a video game spin off not the main series
What?
The asoiaf characters are taken from the Telltale videogame só even book readers wouldn't be familiar with them
Maybe not those exact characters, but knowing the setting and world fills in a lot of gaps.
Hearts of Iron has an interesting premise but at almost 50k words in Amy hasn't really done anything yet and half the story is from the perspective of and about ASOIAF characters I don't know why I should care about.
It feels like if it was a reverse crossover with, I dunno, Arya in Brockton Bay that the author wants me to be invested in Charlotte's family (and her random cousin in Australia) just because she happened to bump into those people first.
Yeah, at 47k in I was expecting somebody to get miracle-healed or body-horrored by now. So far Amy has built a treehouse, gassed some guards, and been abrasive at some of the natives. It hasn't really gotten out of its intro section, which isn't a great sign. A guy actually did just get miracle-healed, but not by Amy.
That's the problem with serial fiction. Authors seems to be unable to get to the point. But it makes reading classic fiction really refreshing.
I couldn't avoid noticing that you're a big Disco Elysium fan. I recently read this fanfic, and I was blow away by how good of a read it is. I think you may enjoy it too:
There's another really good Disco Elysium crossover (imo) with the Exalted TTRPG setting called Mare Internum.
https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/mare-internum-an-exalted-quest.96673/
I had no knowledge of Exalted before starting it, but the mc also starts amnesiac, so it felt pretty easy to get into.
edit: omg, the presentation of "THE FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR" is so good... (◕o◕)
Glad you enjoyed PMATS!
Hearts of Iron seemed interesting right up until she met the locals.
Butcher rendition of All Might
How did I only just realise that these 2 powers are incredibly similar. Wow.
Hey, thanks for the recommendation. Glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for Hearts of iron, really loving what I've read so far.
Also, Tetrarchy is a good premise and well written but I'm not too fussed on it, given that the author said that he used AI for the cover image in the comment you linked
If you don't mind my asking, what's the issue with the art? Not saying you aren't free to dislike AI art for any reason you might have, but I'm curious what specifically you object to in this case, to the point that it affects your enjoyment of the story?
Like, I'm also against AI personally when it's used to put real creatives out of work as a cost-saving measure, or when it's low quality in general, so if that were it, I'd kind of understand. But as I outlined in the thread, I'm broke and was never going to be able to afford commissioning a real artist for a non-profit project anyway (and it should go without saying, I have zero artistic talent of my own beyond stick figures). So, it wasn't ever really a choice between cover art from a real artist and cheap, lazy AI work. It was a choice between AI cover art or no cover art at all, and I thought it would be nicer for the readers to have something there than to not. Most at least seem to agree it looks good.
So, I guess what I'm asking is, is there something I actually could've done better in my situation, or do you just object to the existence of AI art on principle and would rather there be no cover than an AI one?
Either's fine. Just asking.
My problem with AI is not with the money or anything but entirely on how easy it makes production.
I believe that part of the value in anything lies in how much effort it took to create so I will pay much more attention to something that took many hours of work rather than something that took a few minutes.
In short, as others have said before me: "why would I care about something you didn't care to make".
That said, I understand that we live in a capitalist society so I don't blame you for using it, it just doesn't make me want to read it.
As for your question, I'd rather there be no cover rather than an AI one
That's understandable. I think most people do intrinsically value effort. Personally, I think I differ from most on this in certain regards. I do think that effort builds character, insofar that people who've never had to struggle to accomplish something will be generally lazier and less disciplined than those who do, and I think it is certainly more technically impressive to achieve something the harder way. But unless the impressiveness or the effort itself is the point, I think I tend to value the objective result over the method. Like replica paintings, for example. Whoever painted the original is clearly a more talented and creative artist than whoever made the copy, but I think that the copy would look equally nice as the original on my wall (assuming it's an accurate copy); I don't value it less aesthetically for not being the hand-painted original.
I don't use AI for writing, because my writing I do as a hobby, so using a machine to do it for me would defeat the point. But I think of my cover art in a more utilitarian way. As I said, I have no artistic talent of my own, and no interest in learning, so every cover art piece I've ever had was outsourced, either to a commissioned artist (back in better times) or to AI. So I don't really regard any of the cover art of any of my stories to be my own artistic accomplishments (or things that I cared to make, as you put it) because none of them were ever my own creations in the first place beyond the initial ideas. They were always something others made for me. And I suppose, because of that, how much effort they took to make or how technically impressive they are doesn't especially matter to me so long as the final results look like what I want (and so long as nobody was screwed over by the process). If that makes sense.
In any case, thank you for explaining your views. I'm sorry the cover art negatively impacted your experience.
AI is as much of a climate nightmare as NFTs. The energy consumption is insane. Just commission an artist instead of burning down a chunk of rainforest.
Every Generative AI model is trained on stolen art.
Outside of every other reason to be agaisnt it (energy consumption/making artists lose their jobs/creations w no soul), this is the main reason I wouldn't read anything involved with it.
There's also the kind of inherent problem of AI art being trained on datasets that in almost all cases were obtained without consent - in a moral sense, you could call it anything from a bit iffy to being some approximation of piracy or theft.
I don't care about piracy at all in terms of digital media like games/music/movies, especially where larger companies are involved. That media is infinitely reproducible, so if you can't afford it or can't be bothered to pay and it doesn't hurt anyone more than a company losing more than 0.000001% off it's weekly P&L, have at it. Niche art commissions though are generally where you see smaller artists get a chance to make something unique for that commission, and that's something that ought to be preserved. If for whatever reason you can't get that commission, I think you should just go without.
Yours at least looks better than other AI art I've seen, since it doesn't have that glossy unreality you see a lot of the time, but personally it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I do see why one would object to dataset training, and I don't consider it an invalid reason for complaint if that's your view of it, but speaking as a creative myself, it's not an argument I've ever agreed with.
Mostly because I'm against the modern concept of intellectual property in general. Before the invention of copyright laws, art used to be freely shared, and belonged more to human culture as a whole, and others would be free to take those ideas and build upon them. I understand that this is incompatible with the modern commodification of art, and I'm not saying we should get rid of copyright entirely, but I do strongly believe that once a work of art is made available to the public, that it's no longer in the creator's control what the public do with it.
Fanfiction itself is built on this principle. I'm a small independent creator myself, but I don't think I could ever reasonably demand an AI to not copy my writing style, when I'm out here stealing Wildbow's characters, setting, and concepts, and twisting them for my own amusement. What I put on the internet, I do with the full understanding that anyone else at any point could steal and twist what I've made just as hard, and I'm okay with that. And using publicly available art to train a machine may be a more cynical kind of theft and twisting than writing fanfiction is, but morally speaking, I don't personally see a difference.
Yeah the AI art is very much not to my taste at all, but not enough for me to be turned off the fic entirely. And for what it's worth, I am marginally impressed by how accurate Siberian is to her textual look. Probably the only time I've been somewhat impressed by an AI's work honestly.
Late - As usual, you know, an interesting concept, a budding story that abruptly ends and dies. In short, parahumans first appear in 2010, and Taylor joins an equivalent of the Triumvirate. That's it, the story doesn't go any further.
Teatime with Jane - Another interesting concept that abruptly ends. A major AU where the events take place in a distant galaxy. Instead of capes, we have spaceships equipped with devices that mimic their powers, piloted by our well-known heroes. This one died even faster than the previous fic.
It Starts With One - What if Taylor Hebert was one of the very first parahumans? This story answers that question. I enjoyed the tone and the sense of mystery, if you can call it that. And you know what's best? It's finished! Although I haven't read it yet, I have high expectations for this fic.
Trailblazer - I’ve read the first arc, and I think the fanfic hasn’t fully revealed itself yet. The PRT seems bad, but overall it's fine. The school is completely corrupt, all the teachers know about the bullying and just ignore it. Taylor instantly exposes Sophia, creates numerous things, Dragon immediately gains her sympathy, and her technologies partly surpass Dragon’s. The Protectorate looks worse than the villains, Danny is drunk and awful, and overall he’s a completely new character. And of course, in her first outing, she saves Dinah, who then joins her team. The second arc starts off well, so I’ll keep reading and wait for the incredible plot everyone talks about.
Trailblazer is one of those stories that has a little bit of a rough start, but it quickly picks up speed and the story generally feels like Worm, so if you didn’t like Worm you probably won’t like Trailblazer
I'm not sure if it can be compared to Worm. When I read Worm, I didn't have any expectations or anything to compare it to.
It makes me chuckle a bit, but I've often heard about many fanons over the years. Reading this fic, it feels like it's just a collection of all that. It's not bad—I actually like it as long as it doesn't go too far. I'm curious to see what happens next.
Trailblazer is probably the best Good Fic that the fandom has. There's too much getting in the way of it being a Great Fic (enough fanon gets dropped in every once in a while to break up your SOD, the SPAG is workmanlike but not consistent, there's enough plot that at least some of the author's choices are going to seem questionable to you), but if what you want is to shovel over a million words of a solidly above average fic into your brain, Trailblazer is your best bet.
Yea, I understand, it's a good fanfic, I really like its pace, it reminds me a lot of Worm in this aspect. I just find various things in it funny, like Armsmaster's perfect lab where everything is in its place.
Considering how much free time I have, I read quite fast, and the Armsmaster robot really bothers me. Will he stay like this for long?
New Reviews, stories I haven't mentioned before:
With a Word [Alt-Power] - Taylor comes out of The Locker with reality control based on spoken word poetry. The story flashes back and forward, and she only uses her power like 4 times. Frustrating, and OP. Thought experiment?
Taylor and the Multiverse [Gamer] - Taylor comes out of The Locker with Gamer powers. She works with Danny to start grinding, goes to Arcadia, and meets Vicky. Annoying grammar mistakes. Pretty standard plotline, though better pacing than usual. Cauldron getting involved, ugh. You ever notice how many fics endorse domestic / workplace abuse (Battery hitting Assault, Vista hitting Clockblocker)?
Taylor Hebert's Shittiest Alt-Power Ever [Crack] - Taylor comes out of The Locker with shit powers. There's a bit too much investment in each scene, following the stations of canon at first, and overplaying the jokes. Luckily, there are giggles each chapter, and the author is dedicated to a full Worm experience.
The Omega Protocols [AU] - Eidolon died instead of Hero, and that changed tons of stuff, like Taylor getting jailed on an empty world for 8 years. The author only uses canon characters, and so far it's just the setup. Too many stories finish setting the table and then disappear before the food arrives.
Powerless [AU] - Taylor comes out of The Locker with psychosis. It takes more than 2 years for her to snap completely and start killing, using realistic, DIY tools, following Simurgh-esque visions. A writing experiment with little dialog, mostly emotion, negative and sad. A slasher's descent. Same author as Mom Militia and Summoner.
A Devil Amongst Worms [Chainsaw Man] - Makima isekais to Brockton Bay for the Leviathan arc, and it's weird and stupid and I started skimming to see if it got better but it did not. Like, the writing is okay? But the personalities and plot are just all over the place. Should have realized when I saw it's the same author as She Who Wields the Holy Sword.
Fun-house Mirror [Alt-Power] - Taylor is a clone Tinker, like Blasto but for humans. She's also stupid af an absent-minded genius, lacking a concept of death. Everything goes off the rails thanks to resurrection tech. Half gross-out humor, half Worm-level stakes, it covers broad swaths of the setting in a few short chapters. Very punchy, and with an ongoing sequel, The Knock Off.
The Price of Neutrality [AU] - What if Taylor thought that hurting people was a bad thing? Rogue!Taylor tries to use her powers for good, but the Wormverse still pushes conflict, in the background and in her face. A well written exploration of a different choice. Waiting to see what ending they have in store.
absence for a stranger: Forgotten [Alt-Power] - Taylor gets a variant on Imp's power that makes people lose all memory of her. Typos and grammar issues, and the characters are all weird. Like, The Bank Job is throwing the Wards and Undersiders into a box and shaking it around while making WWE announcer sounds. I wanted to enjoy it due to Stranger!Taylor, but it's too 'off'.
Placeholder [Meta] - Lorem ipsum dolor set amet. At least 3 layers of meta, possibly more, as an author writes about an author writing about a fractured reality centered on Taylor Hebert, and this has happened before. Need 100% brain for this one.
Why Am I the Villainess: A Sophia Hess Transmigration Story [SI] - Shadow Stalker gets hit by Leet-tech and gains the memories of some lady who read Worm. Emotional and character focused, it explores how this knowledge and mentality impacts her relationships. This is a fun take, even if it's still early stages.
Update Reviews, commenting on recent chapters, mild spoilers:
A Daring Synthesis, Part 2 [Gamer, CF] - So much happens in each chapter, even if it's just a transition piece. I'm continuing to love the portrayal of Contessa, and all the original beats this story has to put down, like using Forge powers to make a Cauldron Vial, or explaining an alt-self to an SI.
Cybernetic Worm [Supreme Commander] - Lol, "Wardlord". Calvert is acting way too quickly. The "Amy and MC do drugs and mayhem ensues" chapter is (too?) silly.
Leaf [Stormlight Archives] - A short, silly, fun little chapter, back to the early days of the fic, before Bakuda wrecked it.
Strings [AU, Marvel, ShayneT] - LOL, Noelle's clone is hilarious. Murderhobo really is best when it's got a straight man to play against like Taylor's cousin. But with this many clones, the rest of the story is going to be in a constant state of "maybe it's Browbeat".
An Everdistant Horizon [Horizon Zero Dawn] - Time skips, and The Elite and Accord's Ambassadors get an early start on joining conflict in The Bay. That should shake up the Stations of Canon quite well.
Gaze [Naruto] - Background interlude. Reminds me of when everything stopped in canon so we could learn about the Travelers.
VICE: The World's Worst Harem [SI, CYOA, QQ] - Crack continues to seep in and then be clamped off. I wish the MC would stay focused on his goal instead of being rational and restrained.
Magic Maid Easy [CYOA, AO3] - Huh. After the final chapter, I'd say this is a well-contained story, overall a bit of fun laced with the hero's journey and the sense of more adventures to come. In that sense, a proper novel.
Ready Player Worm [Gamer] - Omakes show that this story has a lot of potential as a setting, people wanting to do their own "let's play". Meanwhile, the canon world remains focused on the horrific consequences of Silver's rampage.
Disclaimer: My opinions are weakly held. I read these stories for fun. I appreciate every author who's willing to put themselves out there and write stuff for us.
"Pinches the bridge of their nose" count for the week: 2 (total: 276). Popped 'p's: 1 (59).
Additional Reviews
Ethereal [XCOM] - Back after more than a year! ADVENT!Taylor consolidates her hold on Brockton Bay, the alien invasion building ever more bodies and attacking both Cauldron and Entity from the shadows. OP AF.
Heroes are made [Megamind] - Standard street level caping.
When Heroes Die [A Practical Guide to Evil] - Taylor steps fully into the world of Creation and gains a Name. A poignant chapter followed by more common fare. Calernia stuff, miracles and fate. Truly non-Worm. Author says we're at the 10% mark, meaning aspiration for a million words.
A Young Girl's Criminal Record [Youjo Senki] - More politics and religion and Lisa being a brat. I don't have Miss Militia's patience for that kind of crap. Pre-commit to backing out from brattiness and it disarms her!
Butcher of the Wards [Alt-Power, AU] - I didn't remember much of this story, and my notes say it's a malicious compliance fic with all the Butchers being best friends for Taylor, which makes me even more confused.
The Eldritch One [CF] - Still pretty 'meh' Undersiders plotline.
How Monstrous Is Your Heart [SI, CF] - Zira continues to collect all the teens. The author regresses their personalities from canon.
Just wanted to say that I really appreciate your reviews Engend. I look forward to reading them each week.
Thanks! I appreciate the kind words.
Engend reviews are best reviews!
You do good work! Thanks for the update on Ethereal; I thought for sure it was dead, so exciting to hear.
aspiration for a million words
Not sure if this is a joke about Taylor's name or not :D
I tried to think of a synonym, but my brain got stuck.
I want to ask does How Monstrous Is Your Heart's original F/F pairing work?
Also is the story any good considering the length?
I don't recall any pairings. The MC is a they/them who had a wife in 'reality' but lost her when they got isekaied to Worm, and has stayed single thus far.
Most of the story is taken up by her caring for her isekaid dog, Amy, Vicky, Taylor, and all of the summoned creatures she's gotten from the Forge, including pokemon, a Harry Potter elf, and the eels from Little Mermaid.
Overall, I give the story a 'meh', as there's no overarching plot or goal besides destruction of the Empire, and that's barely touched on. It's a 'domestic slice of life' fic.
To answer your question, Butcher of the Wards is an alternate version of Just a Phase, a malicious compliance fic where Breaker Taylor with an intangibility power that also has some Trump aspects gets forced into the Wards by Danny and shipped to Boston. The divergence for BotW is that she quickly runs into and accidentally kills the Butcher.
Yeah, I generally remembered that setup, I was just confused why 14 insane mass murderers wanted to be besties to a loser high school girl.
(Battery hitting Assault, Vista hitting Clockblocker)?
Tbf the former is at least canon to Worm and Assault really doesn't seem to mind it being a kinetic energy manipulator and someone who doesn't stop doing shit.
Vista and Clock in fics is a baffling expansion of Clock being flanderized as nothing but a jokester. In actuality they were a really good team and Clock is a pretty smart, serious and dedicated when it comes to heroism.
The handshake freeze never happened in canon and I'm actually curious to know which fic created it.
Too many stories finish setting the table and then disappear before the food arrives.
The author seems to be fairly active so hopefully that doesn't happen.
Small thing I liked in Implacable was that Clock purposely didn’t offer to shake people’s hands. He knows that as a striker that it’s similar to a blaster pointing at you.
Thing is, makima is actually a really hard character to write, like way more than your first expect. She’s got the whole “doesn’t actually understand humanity” thing going on, the way she NEEDS to be in control of every relationship, her whole thing of needing to be loved on top of that. It’s just a big old mess, that unless you’re a good writer (I’d trust ironypus to do it) her character kinda falls apart
I appreciate the vote of confidence
Anytime boss 🫡
Would Makima be stronger in Worm cause people would be wayyyy more fearful of being controlled or not being in control cause of Masters and the Simurgh
Doesn’t matter how THEY feel about it, so long as makima feels like she can control them she can. So she probably wouldn’t feel like she control an endbrjnger, but a normal cape is well within her purview imo
I was under the impression that Devils got their power from the fear of humans? That’s why the strongest devils are primal fears like Death, Darkness, Falling, Control, and even fears like Guns, etc are why those devils are insanely OP
Control is primal too, so I think she’d be roughly the same, maybe a little stronger. But I’d think someone like the war devil would get a huge boost in earth bet instead
Really? Surely people would less afraid of war cause Scion destroyed all the nukes and nations are either destroyed or too busy dealing with parahumans and endbringers to actually fight war
Ocean or Sea devil would be way stronger cause of Leviathan (if it exists)
Future devil might be stronger cause of precogs and Simurgh
Makima/Control devil would be stronger cause of Masters, Strangers, Heartbreaker, Simurgh, Mathers Clan etc
Gun devil would prolly be weaker cause guns aren’t as much of a threat compared to parahumans and people would prolly feel safer cause of guns (only a tiny amount weaker if at all)
Justice Devil?? Maybe depending on how the parahumans and normals feel about the terrible system in place, maybe the Birdcage helps there
Zombie devil might get a secret power boost cause of Nilbog and Bonesaw
In that way Pestilence, Famine, Plague, Sickness, Disease, devils etc etc would prolly all get stronger from biotinkers
The last big war in chainsaw man was World War One. And for a lot of these, how much fear is really felt on a daily basis? Most people aren’t actually thinking about zombies, they’ll be thinking “the slaughterhouse nine are apparently one state away from my town” so the violence devil would get a huge power up, but most people aren’t afraid of precogs, and if they’re afraid of the simurgh it’s probably because of the other stuff she does
You ever notice how many fics endorse domestic / workplace abuse
Yes and I fucking hate it. I've been reading fanfic for ██ years - one of the two fandoms I started in was Ranma ½ which almost feels like the ur-fandom of ✨Comedic Domestic Abuse✨ and it just sucks.
I have never understood why people think it's funny.
In the Ranma fics I've read, I've run into the opposite trouble of treating that ✨Comedic Domestic Abuse✨seriously, and turning every fic angsty... (I generally read Transfem Ranma)
I kinda wish it just wasn't in there at all, because I usually read fanfics hoping to get similar vibes to canon, except it generally always turns grim. 😔
Taylor and the multiverse: As for the domestic/workplace abuse, most fics write it off as comedy because it's a dude getting hit. Imagine a fic where a dude slaps a woman because she's being stupid or silly, the outrage would be so overwhelming.
As usual, fiction reflects reality.
Too many stories finish setting the table and then disappear before the food arrives.
With this story having four posts in a single day and none after that it makes me pessimistic about that story continuing.
Thanks for your reviews, I always enjoy reading them!
Not sure if this changes your analysis or not, but the first three chapters had been in Anothvortex's snippet thread for a while. It is only the 4th chapter that is new.
That's better than I was expecting, but I still am not optimistic about the story continuing very long. If I had a nickel for every fanfic I read that had 4-5 chapters establishing the cool and original premise and then just died...well, I'd be a lot of nickels.
In that sense, a proper novel.
Thank you. There is a sequel coming, once I find the mental fortitude to get back to editing it, but it's also a sequel in the way that you get some book series where different books follow different characters.
When heroes die (Taylor into PGtE) https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/when-heroes-die.1163547/ in last week: A demon confronts most accomplished warlock alive, who shall win? Lovely chapter, it was nice to see a Wandering Bard in action. I wonder if she decides to stick closer to Taylor&Roland, the same way she did for Swordsman and his group. Could be neat.
Young girl's criminal record (Tanya and hers into Worm) https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/a-young-girls-criminal-record-youjo-senki-worm-au.1017039/ I like this fic in general, though this Tanya is substantially different to the standard (much more unstable, too much even). Still, an enjoyable read.
The best part of the fic is watching Lisa try to juggle 5 different threads at the same time without enough info. Really well written, especially the myriad theories she comes up with about Tanya (since she immediately dissmisses any notion of the truth for being too unreasonable).
Hearts of Iron (Amy into aSoIaF) https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/hearts-of-iron.1165989/ in last week: we get an interlude happening in Volantis. It seems the Red God is as active as ever, and eager to send one of his own into Amy's way. It will be quite interesting to witness Amy meeting Moquroo, wonder how she will rationalise R'hloor (probably as some power granting master).
For today's not Worm recommendation: An Unmaking (Cultist Simulator) https://archiveofourown.org/works/55384057/chapters/140521390
Recommended for anyone that likes CS or lovecraftian climates in general. As title implies, it fallows one closely linked to the Wolf Divided.
Hearts of Iron (Worm/ASOIAF) https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/hearts-of-iron.1165989/ Amy plopped in Westeros. Amy is such an idiot yet thinks she's genuine. I definitely needed this.
The Long Way Out https://archiveofourown.org/works/55697506 a Taylor and Lisa runaway short fic, just completed! Hard not to spoil it.
So I'm a Glass Cannon, So What? https://archiveofourown.org/works/56645908 did you read Glass Cannon and think "hey, Taylor is too mentally stable and there's not enough reckless virtual violence?" Now the part of Taylor is played by Kumoko and she's nutters! Still a fun read.
Team Technicolor (Multi) https://archiveofourown.org/works/55519720 Taylor, Tanya, Edelgard, and Cat Foundling in a rwby team. Because why not. Everyone has problems and although it's early they still build on each other and partially balance out into a ruthlessly effective team.
Non Worm
War Machines (rwby) https://archiveofourown.org/works/54075940 Penny and Ruby get swapped. Kinda funny the efforts penny took to keep the secret even from teammates.
Save the world? Fuck that, I want to make money! (RWBY SI) https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/save-the-world-fuck-that-i-want-to-make-money-rwby-si.1165410/ this fic has been doing numbers lately. Might be the high update rate or the all-in commitment to absurd references from Helldivers 2 to John Brown pushing faunus rebellions against slavery.
Name: The alternate future predicted by Eden is fused with the system of Fate & Names of Practical Guide to Evil. Damn good writing and some tantalizing ideas with the characters and powers that are frankly surprising me. Latest chapter introduced Amy, and I was initially suspicious until I saw the fic tagged with Taylor shipped with Victoria. I am reading with profound interest.
Weaving Force: Characters from various points in canon are deposited into Star Wars between episodes I and II. Taylor and Vicky are trained by the Jedi, and Alexandria, Clockblocker, and Miss Militia are involved in Mandalorian politics and combatting the slave trade. The characters aren't quite right, and there's too much timeskipping for my taste, but the former is not too egregious and the latter is practical, so it's good fun overall. Latest updates have been having fun with wider plot and cosmic stuff and it's engaging and showing off some characters outside of their comfort zone.
The Long Way Home: After the events of No Way Home, instead of the memory wipe, Peter gets flung into the multiverse and lands on Earth Bet, a couple of months before story start, and starts derailing things. The author has a knack for showing off the dark sort of violence of Brockton has, and Peter, canon characters, and OCs are all really well written. This week, the Lung fight continues, and boy does it kick ass.
Only new thing I read this week was:
Let There Be War (Worm/LoL) which is complete and a fun read. It's a story much in the same vein as Whirlpool in that a crossover character comes in shortly before/druing the Leviathan fight and shows off what an out of context power can do. It's a staright up vs battle with good writing and fun character work around it.
Specifically, the character this time around is Atreus/Pantheon from League of Legends which apparently has some crazy lore I know nothing about.
It's a good read and I definitely recommend it (and whirlpool as well) as it's not too long and has its moments. The author really put in some work to make a character based on what is known from the franchise and the characters in this were all done justice.
Powers and Profits: Neo-Imperialism Under the Paraliberal Stage of Capitalism, 1987-2011 is a short (1.5K) tongue-in-cheek history of the rise of parahumans as it would have been written by a New Left author and published by New Left Books. The reference to Behemoth “killing the sitting Premier and two-thirds of the Presidium” is pure early 1960s, the last period when the top Soviet leader was also a “Premier” and the ruling Politburo was called “Presidium”. Amusing if you are familiar with the era.
Poison of Poisons by Vexin98 on QQ. OC JJK fans from our world with no meta-knowledge of Worm end up in Worm with the bodies of JJK characters. Very fast updates. Loving the MC gradually becoming more Sukuna-like as the story goes on.
When Heroes Die is a post-GM Taylor in PGTE. I read the guide when book 5 was being updated, so my knowledge of the series is spotty and I haven't read the last ~2.5 books. That said, PGTE seems to have very few fics, and I'm really enjoying this one. It has a consistent update schedule, which is nice.
Unbreakable (Worm/OC) I don't usually read OCs, but I'm glad I gave this one a chance. I like the power, and the MC joins Fautline's crew which isn't something I've seen that often.
I recently got a questionable questing account, and, honestly, I didn't expect as much high quality fics as there were.
The major one that sticks out to me was Tentacle Time. It's a smut fic about a pre-locker finding a hentai tentacle monster case 53 and basically adopting him. It was pretty good for what it was. Tim, the tentacle monster was surprisingly kinda adorable, and his relationship with Taylor felt real. And then it swerved out of left field with a surprisingly powerful story about surviving sexual assault and the difference between justice and revenge.
Idk, it stuck out to me as a surprisingly good story, considering its subject matter.
I cant remember where i saw the recomendation (i think it was in Mixed Feelings?), but boy is it a great fic! Currently reading chapter 3.6 and loving every moment of it.
Its a story about OC cape that tinkers with trash! Great mix of feel-good, action and sadness. Meadow (OC name) is a great character! Im not really good at expressing WHY i love certain stories, but here we go:
One thing i realized i love - canon happens, but it happens "not in focus", elsewhere. Undersiders are not shoved into the story.
I love how "dark" this story can get - Meadow's story is sad and dark, but not so horrible it takes effort to read.
Certain characters that fic authors tend to paint as great are shown from a different side, letting us see that they are not super nice
What i find this story lacking:
Power is interesting, but feels like it can be truly op. I would have loved to see OC struggle more with mitigating one of her drawbacks
Some assorted reviews of and thoughts on ongoing stories, because it's been a while and I desperately need to do something that isn't the Elden Ring DLC:
Sins of Pandora is a really neat AU starting in medias res that seems at first glance to be a Lab Rat altpower with multiple months of history left a mystery to uncover. Everything's going nuts and I'm deeply interested in how the hell we got here! Always happy to see Faultline's Crew as well; I feel like the general quality of stories with her and her group in a prominent place are significantly higher than most, which is kinda weird (but maybe not unexpected because she's a really cool character with a fun cast.)
Another week of When Heroes Die and this one immediately swung the story back on a fantastic path. I love the absolute clusterfuck that the big confrontation turned into, I love what's being done with Taylor, and the story absolutely nailed its tone. No complaints or critique this time, it was just really, really good.
Trinket: Tinker Trump is another fic by the impeccably funny author of Miss Understanding Fixes Her Life and a Tangled crossover I'm too lazy to look up the name of offhand. It's a bit unsteady right now, with much more crack than plot, but I'm expecting at least a smidge more coherence as it continues and I have faith in the author to get there. General idea is Taylor as a somewhat absentminded Trump Tinker.
Drift is an understated but outstanding AU. I think I've said before that Octobre is one of the few Worm authors I can think of who can turn an otherwise mundane (for my tastes) premise into gold through pure writing quality, and these recent chapters exploring Taylor fitting in better with the Protectorate are great.
Wish, the Taylor and Victoria time travel fic, has a chapter about Taylor befriending Amy. I don't like Amy and don't want to read about her, but it's well-written and reasonably solid. Unfortunately, I'm so utterly unenthused about her as a character and a rehabilitation project by this point that I can't help my instinctive reaction.
I have no idea what the heck Kingdom Death is and I get the sense from things like the story trying to explain away why all the women are wearing bikini armor that I'm not sure I want to, but the author of Ultimate One: TYPE Taylor wrote White Speaker, a crossover with said unknown media property, and the setting seems wonderfully eerie. Sort of a Conan meets Shadow of the Demon Lord vibe.
Gaze is a story that by all rights should be terrible because the premise is so clearly able to descend to the depths of bad fanon, but the author's a good writer, the events of the story are very fun, the characters are really neat, and I love the extended worldbuilding of parts of Brockton Bay you don't think of, like Protectorate duties outside patrolling, PR, paperwork, and confrontations (pugilism?) or—as in the most recent chapter—the nature of sex trafficking among the gangs. The author seems to have made a commitment to taking what Worm gives for settings and characterization and running with them in the understanding that Taylor's view of things is deeply parochial in canon.
Man, I couldn't get into Gaze at all. Maybe I was just far too tired when attempting to read it, but it felt like far too much of the story was dedicated to random school drama, then when something interesting comes up it gets resolved quickly or off screen so we can get back to more school drama.
It was like the narrative equivalent of those videos where something outrageous is happening in the background but the person recording is just pointing the camera at the sidewalk.
I don't think there's been anything resembling school drama for like...15 chapters?
The school drama thing was pretty small part of the story
Yeah, I too hate Amy chapters and involving Amy heavily in a fic. 'Plan? What plan?' lost my interest because of the MC making Amy his morality pet and all his motivations revolve around her.
Kingdom death is a board game (it's pretty expensive from what I know), you basically run a settlement in a dark fantasy world.
Here's a tvtropes page for kingdom death: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/KingdomDeath#:~:text=A%20horror%20universe%20created%20by,plain%20dead%20for%20other%20reasons.
'Plan? What plan?' lost my interest because of the MC making Amy his morality pet and all his motivations revolve around her.
I thought it was in line with what the author said at the start of the fic:
I am intentionally going to rehash some played out tropes common to both the Worm fandom and American media at large
New chapter of Janus is continuing the trend of being thoroughly enjoyable. I love how Ridtom balances Taylor and Victoria's perspectives so well, and the interactions with other heroes are superb.
I found a short fic called Nineveh where Emma accuses Shadow Stalker of murder. i can't really say more than that without spoiling it, but definitely give it a go if you like mysteries and lots of twists.
WALK has been fun, since I'm a huge fan of Hellsing Ultimate Abridged, but I've decided to drop it. I've just lost interest- maybe because the writing feels different, or because the pace has slowed down.
What I Recommend
Severed and Soliloquy - really well written but too depressing and put me in a mental state I'd rather not return to.
Why Am I The Villainess: A Sophia Hess Transmigration Story - Unique idea and good dialogue as well. I'm not usually interested in transmigration stories but having it still fundamentally be Sophia while she's being forced to come to terms with her actions makes it stand out. The characterization seems promising.
Kaiser’s New Clothes – best thing I found this week actually. Kaiser second triggers and survives Leviathan. Its comedy.
Doors to unknown –Taylor, some of the wards and some Undersiders get thrown into Eborra while a ultra powerful something mage visits Bet. I like the dynamics of the team a lot. I like the use of characters like Grue and Gallant who tend to get sidelined in fics.
I’m not a huge fan of the segments involving the Eborran mage in Bet. Some aspects of the chapters back on Bet are good but overall that part of the fic is just a stomp fic where someone who is very strong and cool and right all the time browbeats people.
A bit confused as to why there was a segment on him arguing with Velocity about how aristocracy is the ‘platinum standard in the multiverse’. Like if this was just a character from a fantasy setting clashing with the system here and having his own views it would be fine. However this is framed as something that is just correct not something that the mage considers correct.
The mage is always portrayed as being better and correct than everyone else. At most he admits to some of his character failings with his aspect and one minor thing in his argument with Velocity. There is no one or nothing in Bet that challenges his notions.
On the Bet side I do like how some of the characters were used like Armsmaster, Velocity and Myrddin.
What I do not recommend
Sand and Fury - neat concept and altpower. dropped after aura theory and continuous dumb!victoria
Hive Daughter - eh. Like its fine. I have nothing to say about it really.
Undaunted: AU where Dauntless triggered at a much younger age and started out in the wards. He's had more time to boost his gear so he's significantly stronger now. Not much other than a neat idea tho. Things just happen and there’s not much of canon Dauntless in there. There’s a bunch of weird fanon like everyone being weirdly comfortable and knowledgeable talking about trigger events online, villains having verified PHO accounts, Legend being involved in Cauldron meetings even tho canonically the guy knew jackshit. The story randomly turned into a DC crossover and died instantly which is honestly better than going through with that crossover.
I like Dauntless' power and the characterization we got about him in Ward was really good. Wish there were any fics that actually utilized that.
A bit confused as to why there was a segment on him arguing with Velocity about how aristocracy is the ‘platinum standard in the multiverse’. Like if this was just a character from a fantasy setting clashing with the system here and having his own views it would be fine. However this is framed as something that is just correct not something that the mage considers correct.
From a narrative perspective, the argument happened because he keeps shitting on democracy (from all the way sometime back in the first or second arc) and it would be unsatisfying if he just got away with this unchallenged the whole time, especially given how many Americans and other democracy-enjoyers he interacts with throughout the story.
As for his pro-nobility stance being framed as 'correct':
1) Despite being an arrogant, judgemental ass who thinks everything about his homeland is the best ever, Valigan does actually come away from the discussion with his viewpoint changed (e.g. "democracy had proven to be decisively economically and militarily superior to [socialist and communist governments], thus indirectly proving it superior to the local systems of nobility in those areas as well"). His takeaway from the argument is that, in the absence of gods who explicitly tilt things in the favor of nobility, democracy seems to be the 'most effective' form of government.
2) The author is explicitly pro-democracy in the comments and has flat-out said he wouldn't want to live in Valigan's homeland, so if the narrative is framing aristocracy as the best then it's almost certainly because of Valigan's biases shading the narrative. This is a guy who's so zealous about the superiority of his own people that he's spent the last twenty six or twenty seven millennia trying to resurrect his aristocratic homeland, and is three(?) different flavors of nobility besides - expecting him to have an open mind about an anti-aristocratic system like democracy would be like asking a devout Christian to have an open mind about Satanism. Despite that, he STILL comes away from his discussion with Velocity much more amenable to democracy and with some doubts about whether nobility would really be that effective absent the meddling of gods!
I guess we got two very different readings from that section.
He privately muses some concessions in his mind at best like here:
Although I was forced to admit, privately, that if the American system did rely more on its bureaucrats than on its ostensible leaders—and it certainly did love its bureaucracy, as I'd experienced firsthand with the PRT and then the State Department—then the harm done by a less-than-competent ruler could perhaps be mitigated and leave various sections of the government decently functional despite themselves.
But then he's pretty much like:
He'd described the American government structure and process in much more detail than my own cursory research had supplied—including, at my prompting, its many faults and foibles. I'd learned all manner of interesting new terms, such as lobbyist and gerrymandering and voter suppression and especially government shutdown, which only reinforced my belief that democracy was irretrievably flawed.
This is likely the only other concession I can think off
Smugness flooded his aura, and he grinned triumphantly. "In other words, you saw that normal systems of magic nobility where they hoarded all the magic powers for themselves were a terrible idea, so to make society better for everyone, you kicked them off their pedestals and democratized magic."
Like on its own its not an issue. I like characters I disagree with, wouldn't be a worm fan if I didn't. Some of my favorite works contain characters who are much worse people than Valigan morally but those characters have something or the other I find interesting.
I've never been predisposed to liking overpowered characters in general and it feels even more boring in fics. I know technically its not like that. He's faced loss before entering Bet that he's dealing with but for all intents and purposes he is running around stomping through all of Bet and he can do that fairly easily creating a complete lack of any tension for me. Like sure he's going to be challenged when dealing with Endbringers but even then its not as much as anyone else. In a situation like that all that's left are character interactions which are fine whenever he's not the one in focus. There's no interesting back and forth between him and any character for me to find interesting making him nothing other than a strong character who needs to just shut up.
I can only take him going 'aktually you're doing this wrong' so many times before I mentally zone out.
I think one of Valigan's biggest character flaws is that he's pretty self absorbed and doesn't always seem to realize it. Like, this dude was so worried about going off the rails that he copied his own conscious from earlier in his career to be an 'angel on his shoulder', and yet like half the time Valigan talks with it, he blatantly ignores it or says 'it's fine I thought this through'. He's figuring out a lot about Bet, but it constantly feels to me at least like he's constantly toeing a line he has no idea he's toeing.
Like, think about when he did all the crazy magic during the Leviathan fight and heard Scion was coming and it took Alexandia shouting at his ass for him to not go up to Scion and start casting spells at him or something, or in the recent chapter where Valigan is looking at the Far-realm energy thinking 'this is a perfect chance to do some real research. it won't affect me' and it takes his own past self basically screaming at him for him to half agree and it's clear he hasn't even backed off on trying to figure that out. Like, his whole 'invisible portal' thing at the start of the series is one such example of him being reckless and careless. It's absolutely clear that this guy is going to be the epicenter of some extreme fucking disaster and it's enough to hold my interest.
Why do you think/feel that the story is framing Valigan's view as objectively correct and not just subjectively correct?
He's often at least somewhat wrong about almost everything and is too arrogant to question his own conclusions until someone else forces him to. He assumed that because magic is currently available in some form, and the records of religious texts from thousands of years ago exist, and he's familiar with gods, that A) those events are all real, B) this world has had thousands of years to study magic, and C) that all people who don't have magic are simply lazy. He's objectively wrong about 2/3 of that so far and the Egypt investigation is pointing to it being 3/3. He got hung up on the behavior and properties of atoms largely due to him making a translation error and lacking the cultural context of why we still call them atoms even though we know about the parts that make an atom. That was after he went on a bit of a rant as to why trying to mass-read books without having any context was a bad idea. Yes the initial mistake of reading them was due to sleep deprivation but even after resting he never went back to question any of his conclusions; in part because he though of the people here as backwards and uneducated.
He's often at least somewhat wrong about almost everything and is too arrogant to question his own conclusions until someone else forces him to.
It was this combination of arrogance and wrongheadedness that made me set the fic aside after chapter 2.3.V. My notes read, in part:
I am all for “culturally based misunderstandings”, but it’s been 220K [words] and the characters are still talking past each other with the author making sure that they make as many mistakes as possible. I am just tired of it. The fact that the author, as he pointed out a while back, is “verbose” doesn’t help.
I know several people are reading only one half the story. Could just stick to Eberron - it's totally separate.
I'm going to first agree with Engend and maybe go a step further, I think you should read each half of the story independently of the other. I've only read the Valigan half of the story fully while leaving behind Taylor at 2.1. I realized that her half of the story was really good and had the same vibe as C'est la Vie but because I was currently invested in what was going on with Valigan I resented her chapters since they were interrupting what I was paying attention to.
You don't have to read his parts at all, but I'd recommend trying his part eventually. My favourite chapter is probably the one where he has a long talk with a physicist and it blows Valigan's mind.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Hey, thanks for recommending KNC. Glad you liked it.
new
brockton bay's pikachu: do not read this one it's horrible while it sounds an interesting premise the fact it's a greg protag fic and then proceeds to be even worse than you'd expect from that should tell you all you need to know. Although the problem isn't really what you'd expect just that the authour seems to hate him and is horrible to him down to making him spend 2 weeks acting like a wild animal while he was remembering his past life as a pikachu which also outs him to Coil and makes him a famous meme for such things as running around naked in public.
wish: gm Taylor peggy sue alright I suppose but not overly fond of it maybe I'm just overly sensitive when reading it after the above but I hate how it does a lot of things like have it rain during the bank robbery despite it occurring on the same day and time which has a greater effect on Taylor's swarm than Levi's torrential rain did. The prt also sucks doing things like agreeing to deals then changing the terms afterwards when they have what they want.
the enemy: gi joe cross Danny was Cobra Commander already didn't like the prt but then the locker happened worse than in canon and they played stupid games so he comes out of retirement determined to clean up the world.
a young girl's criminal record: saga of tanya the evil crossover with Tanya and a few of her men ending up in the post levi bay. It's a decentish read but again has issues with the author being overly harsh to the protag as pretty much everyone is scheming and doing horrible stuff plus the whole people misunderstand Tanya is played up not helped by Visha having been killed off right before the transfer for some reason.
updates
when heroes die: They arrive in Lissie only for the bard to lure them into the inn where the Arcadian Artist was who traps them within his painting and Max dies during their attempt to get through it which at least finalises Taylor's name of Aspirant which also has creation and the choir of compassion formally accept her. Taylor then slogs through his scenes only for warlock to interrupt their final confrontation because he's unhappy about all the leaked fire and even more so when the artist calls on Arcadia which drops the warring prince and princess of the winter and summer fae courts and some mooks into the air. The artist bails and they mutually focus on the larger threats managing to displace the fae and kill the artist's creations but warlock is just a lot stronger and hard counter her so he wins their clash and nearly enslaves her until the bard distracts him so Roland can counter his magic which rereleases the royals as a distraction only for Taylor to end up by herself in Arcadia so she hunts down and kills the artist before running the way providence nudges her. There's then a black interlude covering his view on their group across the time of the story.
project gamer anime adjacent: continued to update basically every day so a lot happened again. This mostly focuses on Al pulling off his big trap on the Nazis which manages to kill a lot of the ones who entered or were waiting outside putting a huge dent in their cape total tho he had to run from Hookwolf. That worked out to his advantage tho as it led to him also beating Miss Militia and Mouse Protector when they stupidly demanded he pull over then moved right behind his van which naturally led to them running into the back of it letting him lv gift and the regeneration he got off Alabaster and he managed to take Hookwolf out via big guns shortly after. There's then interludes of the prt which shows Rune surrenders to them and Theo featuring him putting out a missing persons on Kayden and then coming home to Al who talks over the situation and gives him advice. Al then drives to New York planning to pick up the powers to let him kill Cauldron because of how they tried to kill him just for being a source of growing thinker interference.
Plan? What Plan?: brief look at the protag after he returns from the Behemoth fight, he give Porygon the upgrade then goes to school and plans to spill all to Amy because the author really likes her.
A colourful life: very brief update of a tired protag after the fight relaxing.
hereafter: they defeat the books and explore the ruins before finding the library and search it which leads to the discoveries that Pythagoras was a magus and about grands only for chaldea to already know it then caster arrives outside with a lot of mooks.
New fanfiction!
Hearts of Iron is a ASOIAF crossover starring Amy Dallon getting plopped into Westeros via a (supposed) Bakuda bomb and attempting to find her footing while working through her personal issues in a somewhat unhealthy manner. Feels as if my lack of reading ASOIAF hampers some of the worldbuilding being set up (the most recent chapter is about 10k words worth of non-Amy focused setup that feels hard to read that I'd imagine wouldn't be if I read the source material) but Amy's characterization is great here, and it's a mixture of worrying and exhilarating to see Amy loosen up her restrictions sort of healthily without the pressure from her family and Earth Bet society. Has 8 chapters at 47k words.
Tetrarchy is a MHA cross with a Butcher rendition of All Might aiding the Triumvirate against the Siberian soon after Hero's death. Just a one shot at the moment but it's a damn exhilarating fight scene and it's supposedly getting continued in the future. Very much looking forward to it. Has 1 chapter at 3.7k words. (Also I'm aware this fic is technically not new in the truest sense, but it was just uploaded outside of FF.net and I'm fully blind to that site's machinations so yknow)
Not new but I wanna shout out Point Me At The Skyrim cause damn is it great. Ward-era Victoria getting sent into Skyrim and becoming the next Dragonborn with all that comes with it. Makes me wanna read Ward one of these days.