In Memoriam, a reimaging of Toaru Majutsu no Index that generally raises the competence of everyone involved. Significant changes; prior knowledge not required.
Overlady, Zero no Tsukaima as seen through the lens of the Overlord games. Guess who’s the new Overlady. Prior knowledge of ZnT definitely required; prior knowledge of Overlord positive but not required.
Halkeginia Online: Sword Art Online meets Zero no Tsukaima meets Island on the Sea of Time. In short, Louise summons Alfheim, as it turns out that AGI beats magic but AGI has odd priorities. Prior knowledge of ZnT and SAO required. Warning: TVTropes link.
Uchibi Sasuke: Naruto crackfic-with-plot. Highly amusing. Prior knowledge preferred, but fic is not to be taken seriously.
Game Theory: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, with a slightly saner and far more rational Precia Testarossa. Highly recommended, prior knowledge of Nanoha preferred but not required; it’s a rewrite. Complete, sequel in progress.
How would you rate the quality of these as compared to published fiction? I mean to ask how you’d compare time spent on the above with, say, some of the recommendations in the fiction section.
In Memoriam and Halkeginia Online are every bit as good as typical published fiction, if not better, and I’ve bought things that turned out to be significantly worse. I might add To The Stars (Puella Magica) to that list, but IIRC it was already recommended in a previous thread—I can’t check at the moment, my internet connection is like unto wet string.
Uchibi Sasuke is pretty much pure crack. Amusing, but if you’re asking that question you shouldn’t read it.
Game Theory and Overlady are harder to judge. They’re competently written, certainly, and I by no means regret spending time on them; however, my judgement is compromised by wanting to see more of the characters used. A lot of fanfiction is like that—you get attached to particular worlds, and want to expand on them. If that doesn’t happen to you, there are better options in ordinary fiction. Of the two, Overlady depends more on comedy; Game Theory is straight drama.
...You didn’t have to. Even now with this discussion in the results, you still could have found on-LW recommendations of “To The Stars” via hit #3:
Aug 1, 2012 - All in all, I would rather reread “Shinji and Warhammer 40k”, “To the Stars”, or other really good fanfiction than bother rereading HPMoR.
or hit #5
Mar 2, 2013 - To the Stars (Madoka fanfiction). Vote up; Vote down. Reply; Permalink. Comment author: paper-machine 01 March 2013 07:02:25PM 3 points …
or hit #7, where one of the replies to
Apr 4, 2013 - Fanfiction Thread. Vote up; Vote down ….. I finally watched Puella Magi Madoka Magica, its extremely good. It isn’t exactly rationalist fic, but is …
Ah! We are disagreeing on the definition of “recommendations.” I had in mind something a little meatier—a dedicated post, or at least a plot/concept summary.
So, I’ve been hitting the ponyfic pretty hard lately. Here’s the pick of the bunch.
Note: I’m assuming no-one here needs to be told about either the Optimalverse or Mortal.
Contraptionology!: Complete, Dark comedy. Everyone in Ponyville simultaneously becomes a mad scientist and steampunk apocalypse is initiated. Somehow manages to be deeply moving given this premise. Has the best Applejack. Read the prequel “Infernal Machines” first (in appendix C of the main fic).
Whom The Princesses Would Destroy… Complete, Comedy. Bickering and politics in the Equestrian Civil Service. Tastes like early Pratchett; has footnotes. No real Mane6 presence.
Naked Singularity Comedy. Twilight attempts to write a sensual romance novel. This goes about as well as one would expect. Edit to add: Warning, cringe comedy.
I Forgot I Was There Incomplete, Dark. Twilight accidentally creates a duplicate of herself. And then they both slowly go mad. Warning: Incomplete and stops in a sad place.
Parting Words, complete, and The Great Alicorn Hunt, incomplete. Munchkining and anti-deathism; not very good, narratively (not clear where the author’s going to get any real conflict, and it’s ranty) but the themes are unusual enough in FiM fic to point out.
Melt Complete, WAFF. Celestia looks after filly!Twilight, who has caught the most overcomplicated form of flu possible. Much d’aww.
Twice as Bright Complete, Romance, Pinkie Pie/Celestia. Yes, Celestia and Pinkie Pie can be successfully shipped. No, I didn’t believe it was possible either.
The Games We Play Complete, Romance, Rainbow Dash/Mare-Do-Well. One of Rainbow’s friends is stalking her. Set after S2E08.
Twilight Discovers Literary Analysis Complete. Twilight loses her perception of free will. Very meta; almost 500 milliNewsomes of meta. Warning: the author thinks it’s a comedy, but I found especially the third part to be viscerally horrifying. Edit to add: On reflection, I’m upping my warning on this. Leaving it here because it is still very good and my reaction seems atypical based on the reader comments.
MLP Loops Incomplete/Anachronic/Multiple Authors. The ultimate expression of the Peggy Sue lifestyle. Probably bad Fun Theory. Makes my model of Eliezer flee screaming into the night. Still kinda want it.
Fanfiction Thread
I guess it falls to me to fill this up.
In Memoriam, a reimaging of Toaru Majutsu no Index that generally raises the competence of everyone involved. Significant changes; prior knowledge not required.
Overlady, Zero no Tsukaima as seen through the lens of the Overlord games. Guess who’s the new Overlady. Prior knowledge of ZnT definitely required; prior knowledge of Overlord positive but not required.
Halkeginia Online: Sword Art Online meets Zero no Tsukaima meets Island on the Sea of Time. In short, Louise summons Alfheim, as it turns out that AGI beats magic but AGI has odd priorities. Prior knowledge of ZnT and SAO required. Warning: TVTropes link.
Uchibi Sasuke: Naruto crackfic-with-plot. Highly amusing. Prior knowledge preferred, but fic is not to be taken seriously.
Game Theory: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, with a slightly saner and far more rational Precia Testarossa. Highly recommended, prior knowledge of Nanoha preferred but not required; it’s a rewrite. Complete, sequel in progress.
Game Theory is really quite good. Thanks for the recommendation.
How would you rate the quality of these as compared to published fiction? I mean to ask how you’d compare time spent on the above with, say, some of the recommendations in the fiction section.
In Memoriam and Halkeginia Online are every bit as good as typical published fiction, if not better, and I’ve bought things that turned out to be significantly worse. I might add To The Stars (Puella Magica) to that list, but IIRC it was already recommended in a previous thread—I can’t check at the moment, my internet connection is like unto wet string.
Uchibi Sasuke is pretty much pure crack. Amusing, but if you’re asking that question you shouldn’t read it.
Game Theory and Overlady are harder to judge. They’re competently written, certainly, and I by no means regret spending time on them; however, my judgement is compromised by wanting to see more of the characters used. A lot of fanfiction is like that—you get attached to particular worlds, and want to expand on them. If that doesn’t happen to you, there are better options in ordinary fiction. Of the two, Overlady depends more on comedy; Game Theory is straight drama.
To the Stars hasn’t been recced yet, according to the site search.
Googling
"to the stars" OR (madoka fanfiction) site:lesswrong.commay help.First thing I checked, but then again I didn’t go past the first two pages or so.
...You didn’t have to. Even now with this discussion in the results, you still could have found on-LW recommendations of “To The Stars” via hit #3:
or hit #5
or hit #7, where one of the replies to
reads “Relevant fanfic, for those interested.”
Ah! We are disagreeing on the definition of “recommendations.” I had in mind something a little meatier—a dedicated post, or at least a plot/concept summary.
? I recall recommended it in May and think I’ve seen it recommended in a different media thread.
So, I’ve been hitting the ponyfic pretty hard lately. Here’s the pick of the bunch.
Note: I’m assuming no-one here needs to be told about either the Optimalverse or Mortal.
Contraptionology!: Complete, Dark comedy. Everyone in Ponyville simultaneously becomes a mad scientist and steampunk apocalypse is initiated. Somehow manages to be deeply moving given this premise. Has the best Applejack. Read the prequel “Infernal Machines” first (in appendix C of the main fic).
Whom The Princesses Would Destroy… Complete, Comedy. Bickering and politics in the Equestrian Civil Service. Tastes like early Pratchett; has footnotes. No real Mane6 presence.
Naked Singularity Comedy. Twilight attempts to write a sensual romance novel. This goes about as well as one would expect.
Edit to add: Warning, cringe comedy.
I Forgot I Was There Incomplete, Dark. Twilight accidentally creates a duplicate of herself. And then they both slowly go mad. Warning: Incomplete and stops in a sad place.
Parting Words, complete, and The Great Alicorn Hunt, incomplete. Munchkining and anti-deathism; not very good, narratively (not clear where the author’s going to get any real conflict, and it’s ranty) but the themes are unusual enough in FiM fic to point out.
Melt Complete, WAFF. Celestia looks after filly!Twilight, who has caught the most overcomplicated form of flu possible. Much d’aww.
Twice as Bright Complete, Romance, Pinkie Pie/Celestia. Yes, Celestia and Pinkie Pie can be successfully shipped. No, I didn’t believe it was possible either.
The Games We Play Complete, Romance, Rainbow Dash/Mare-Do-Well. One of Rainbow’s friends is stalking her. Set after S2E08.
Twilight Discovers Literary Analysis Complete. Twilight loses her perception of free will. Very meta; almost 500 milliNewsomes of meta. Warning: the author thinks it’s a comedy, but I found especially the third part to be viscerally horrifying.
Edit to add: On reflection, I’m upping my warning on this. Leaving it here because it is still very good and my reaction seems atypical based on the reader comments.
MLP Loops Incomplete/Anachronic/Multiple Authors. The ultimate expression of the Peggy Sue lifestyle. Probably bad Fun Theory. Makes my model of Eliezer flee screaming into the night. Still kinda want it.
Oh, this one. So much cringing. This is perfect if you enjoy the “so awkward it hurts” genre of comedy, but will be painful if you don’t.