TM Fanfics Index: Recommendations & Discussion. Updates never

[Kyte]

No.

- - - Updated - - -

For purposes of the index, at least.

[Rafflesiac]

Welp, you straight-up can't I guess.

[keeper13]

Title: Fragments of Chaldea
Author: GhostXavier
Summary: Between singularities, there was plenty of downtime for the summoned servants and their master. Even with humanity's fate in constant risk, they manage to form a small semblance of a new life within Chaldea. Here they were family. An unusual and often dysfunctional one, but a family.
Review: FGO's Collection of Slice of Life One-Shots. Really go read to see the how the Heroic Spirits along with FGO's main characters and Chaldea's surviving employees are doing within Chadea Security Organization. Some were awesome, some were heartwarming, some will make you laugh, and some will make you cry. Highly recommended. Do expect weekly updates.
Link: FFN

[Imperial]

I don't have anything new to add, so I apologize for the people who clicked on this seeing a new post.

But I will strongly re-rec Leo-Novum's The Laughing Master, which puts John Constantine of DC's Hellblazer series in Fate/Zero. If you haven't tried it yet, please give it a try. It was only half-finished when I dropped my initial plus one on it, and I just recently circled back around to read it all at once. Clocking in at just 18 chapters, it's really not such a feat.

I love the story to death for how quickly it takes things off the rails, skipping almost every familiar plot point of FZ. Nothing plays out the way I expected, as new alliances are made and broken, certain doomed characters die earlier or in different ways while others amount to far more or far less than FZ, etc. It's a perfect example of changing one thing in fanfiction and changing everything. That Constantine manages to be such a funny, interesting and repulsive character in this mad romp through uncharted territory only makes it better. You quickly get the sense that he's out to fool the world and everyone in it, himself included. Novum also gets points for alluding to certain things from the Hellblazer side of the crossover in such a way that you absorb just enough to see what's relevant and not get lost in a Google search for Hellblazer minutiae. I get the distinct impression I would enjoy the little touches if I had read the comic, though.

Sure, Leo-Novum has a tendency to put his stories on fast forward. I get the feeling he's rushing through a collection of story flags to reach the end, hardly ever letting anything sit and sink in. There's also the problem, particularly toward the end of the story, where Novum's jaunts into different POVs and nonlinear storytelling make it hard to follow. It crops up throughout the story, but he really ramps it up in the home stretch. There are times it works beautifully, as a Saber POV chapter mentions Constantine's seven hour absence and another installment shows us what he was up to.

But toward the end, it turns into a car crash of plans and counter-plans that seemingly appear out of thin air before the story suddenly jumps back in the next chapter to explain how Characters X, Y and Z created the alliance that showed up without warning. It's disorienting and gives the sense that it's all being hastily thrown together. Then again, that may not be a mark against it. The story emphasizes Constantine's dumb luck and knack for the con as his real strengths, not being the best magus or strongest Master by any means. The switching, limited POV leaves the reader in the dark about what most of the cast is doing at any given time, so maybe it's not such a hard pill to swallow that we are ignorant of another character's strategies until we see them spring their traps.

So while it can be a frustrating work, it is ultimately rewarding. The story is far less about power levels and more about who's conning who in an elaborate game of cat and mouse not often seen in Fate fiction. That alone makes it worth a look.

[Imperial]

It's double posting time, but I'm actually contributing something of substance this time. I'd like to recommend a new story.

Title: What Rough Beast
Author: Oblivion Correction
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1203928...at-Rough-Beast
Summary: During the Third Holy Grail War, Avenger and his Master slouch toward Fuyuki.
Recommendation: Though sadly a one shot, this nasty little number does a lot in not much time. It's really more of a character piece than anything else, focusing on Avenger's mocking, manipulative personality and dark sense of humor as he and his Master travel from Europe to Japan. A scheming Servant isn't anything new, but Avenger is a character who doesn't get much attention in fanfiction circles. And when he does, he's almost always a Sauron-like figure glaring down at the heroes from the magical artifact everyone is chasing. So kudos to Oblivion for letting him be an unsettling, fascinating character instead of the generic doomsday threat stuck in a cup.

I was especially surprised to see no other Servants popping up, not even in the last paragraph. This is a story where the journey is truly more important than the destination.

I was a bit skeptical to see that Avenger's Master is a Jewish woman here instead of an Einzbern, but it's a forgivable deviation from canon that works well in the long run. I particularly enjoyed Avenger throwing her own holy book back at her to taunt her and writing off a man he kills as a Nazi collaborator. She should be happy he's dead, right? It's a pretty bleak affair, all in all, and it touches on ideas of ethnic cleansing, which suits the time and place, and the logistics of getting halfway across the world, which you don't see too often in Fate stories either.

While mostly the Avenger show, his Master's character really capitalizes on the unique time and place of the setting.

[SeiKeo]

+1, actually.

[Strife ❤️]

Nice name.

[TheInfamousMan]

I don't have anything new to add, so I apologize for the people who clicked on this seeing a new post.

But I will strongly re-rec Leo-Novum's The Laughing Master, which puts John Constantine of DC's Hellblazer series in Fate/Zero. If you haven't tried it yet, please give it a try. It was only half-finished when I dropped my initial plus one on it, and I just recently circled back around to read it all at once. Clocking in at just 18 chapters, it's really not such a feat.

I love the story to death for how quickly it takes things off the rails, skipping almost every familiar plot point of FZ. Nothing plays out the way I expected, as new alliances are made and broken, certain doomed characters die earlier or in different ways while others amount to far more or far less than FZ, etc. It's a perfect example of changing one thing in fanfiction and changing everything. That Constantine manages to be such a funny, interesting and repulsive character in this mad romp through uncharted territory only makes it better. You quickly get the sense that he's out to fool the world and everyone in it, himself included. Novum also gets points for alluding to certain things from the Hellblazer side of the crossover in such a way that you absorb just enough to see what's relevant and not get lost in a Google search for Hellblazer minutiae. I get the distinct impression I would enjoy the little touches if I had read the comic, though.

Sure, Leo-Novum has a tendency to put his stories on fast forward. I get the feeling he's rushing through a collection of story flags to reach the end, hardly ever letting anything sit and sink in. There's also the problem, particularly toward the end of the story, where Novum's jaunts into different POVs and nonlinear storytelling make it hard to follow. It crops up throughout the story, but he really ramps it up in the home stretch. There are times it works beautifully, as a Saber POV chapter mentions Constantine's seven hour absence and another installment shows us what he was up to.

But toward the end, it turns into a car crash of plans and counter-plans that seemingly appear out of thin air before the story suddenly jumps back in the next chapter to explain how Characters X, Y and Z created the alliance that showed up without warning. It's disorienting and gives the sense that it's all being hastily thrown together. Then again, that may not be a mark against it. The story emphasizes Constantine's dumb luck and knack for the con as his real strengths, not being the best magus or strongest Master by any means. The switching, limited POV leaves the reader in the dark about what most of the cast is doing at any given time, so maybe it's not such a hard pill to swallow that we are ignorant of another character's strategies until we see them spring their traps.

So while it can be a frustrating work, it is ultimately rewarding. The story is far less about power levels and more about who's conning who in an elaborate game of cat and mouse not often seen in Fate fiction. That alone makes it worth a look.

The fault the fic had would be setting up for a sequel. I think it would've been better if he just ended things there, rather than setting up a sequel (and a sequel after that) which has no guarantee of being completed.

Also, having Constantine not flip off AM at the end like he did with the First of the Fallen was a missed opportunity.

[Imperial]

The fault the fic had would be setting up for a sequel. I think it would've been better if he just ended things there, rather than setting up a sequel (and a sequel after that) which has no guarantee of being completed.

Sure, stuff like the curse, the promise and the cameo in the final chapter are all sequel bait, but it's fine as it is. It feels very much like the ending of one comic book story arc before Constantine starts on another.

Constantine averted one disaster, but there will always be more fires for him to put out. It suits the character.

[Kilich]

Not sure if this the right place for this kind of question, but did anyone read my fanfics? Are any of them worth continuing?

Asking this because its been 6+ years since I wrote anything and not sure if I should continue either of them, or try something new.

[Bloble]

Post up some links, friend.

[Kilich]

My ff.net page is the home page in my profile. http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1722745/Kilich

Witness me in my much younger days.

Also, I think I tried to expand the oneshot fanfic into a CYOA here, but it failed. No links, just for the sake of completion.

[Fan_Fic_Reader]

+1 to The Artist and the Faker By Agitated Animator

• Shirou/Nero shipping
• Arthuria and Illya friendship
• Lancer Arthuria confirmed before Fate Grand Order happened
• Events are different from the rehashed events
• Kirei with Caster and Fake Assassin as his Servants
• Beserker Cu

[You]

My ff.net page is the home page in my profile. http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1722745/Kilich

Witness me in my much younger days.

Emilia Shirella

[Draconic]

Okay, I don't even like Harry Potter fics, even if they are crossovers. But I would give Crosswinds of Fate +7 if I had the capacity. Sadly, I am both lousy at astral projection and I am only one person, so…
a very big +1 to Crosswinds of Fate.

[solopy567]

Well, just got to finish reading up A Soul of Fire. Didn't think it would ever be finished to be perfectly honest, but I am glad that it was.

Despite being a self-proclaimed spin-off, it managed to stop being one as the story continued, and definitely managed to fix some of the problems In Flight had made.

Will give it a definite +1.

[Prix with a Silent X]

Title: Diaulodromia
Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/7941538
Synopsis: (by author, Megkips) Sakura and Shirou test the bounds of their friendship as Shirou slowly but surely becomes the Heroic Spirit he was always meant to be. Archer has a different perspective.

Review: I received this story in one of those initially-anonymous gift exchanges I write posts to advertise sometimes. This author is an excellent writer, overall, and has a considerable command of things Seika would probably like. This author prefers to write gen and responded to a prompt I wrote for this gen-focused exchange for fic which involved Archer and Sakura interacting, since it has been pointed out that this is a deficit in primary canon. What I received was more than I had hoped for and incorporates some considerable meditation on the dichotomy between Archer and his formerly-Shirou self. It also has an interesting take on Archer-Shirou's journey to becoming an Heroic Spirit that takes place largely from an outside perspective and how others (Sakura and Rin) react to the decisions that lead him in this direction. As a bonus, there is some ambiguous Rin/Shirou background stuff that seems to indicate a fairly popular understanding of Rin/Shirou that it doesn't quite work but happened in a way that reads as bittersweet but not the focal point to the story. This story also features Sakura in a largely positive light and actually lets her do a few things in the narrative. Then, at last, there is a scene that ties everything together and it is, in my opinion, very beautiful.

[Orange]

+1 to Diaulodromia.
It was really good. Can't remember the last time I enjoyed a one shot that much that wasn't comedy.

[Prix with a Silent X]

Hooray my recommendation was successful.

[ItsaRandomUsername]

This time on Chaos Theory: contract making, the Realta Nua version.