Some Updates for the Rest of the Month

First thing's first: I'm about 90% sure I'll have my review of Summer Days and Evening Flames done by Friday.  Sorry about the unusually long wordcount/wait ratio, but it's nearly there!

For now though, I've got some news about where the site is going, both for the next month or so, and in the long term.  Click down below the break to see what's on the horizon.



Now then, after Summer etc. comes The Immortal Game, and then... well, that's it for completed 6-star fics (as far as I know--if I'm missing any finished ones, let me know).  So, what comes next?

Well, there are a few 6-stars that are still incomplete and haven't been abandoned; if any of those finish up, I'll go ahead and hit them up as well.  And I'll keep doing mini-reviews and the like.  But I really like the "breaking down fan favorites" dynamic that the 6-star reviews bring, so I'm going to move to something similar.

After The Immortal Game, I'll begin reviewing other highly-regarded stories.  I've already started putting together a list of popular and generally well-liked stories to continue with, but there's a problem.  See, the 6-star fics had the advantage of being a concrete, easily-accessible pre-made list (I picked them initially for pretty much that reason).  So, right now my list is pretty heavy with "things Chris has heard of that sounded okay enough that he either read them, or at least remembered them" bias, whereas I'd prefer to work from as unbiased a list of fics as possible.  Well, biased towards popular stories, but you know what I mean.

To that end, I'm looking for fanfic suggestions.  I'm looking for fics that meet the following criteria:

1) Are complete
2) Exist in a broadly available format (Equestria Daily, FiMFic, somewhere else, as long as there's an easy place to download it from and link to it)
3) Are reasonably well-known
4) Are positively regarded by the vast majority of readers

Note also that there's nothing on that list about it being your favorite story; by all means, send me a link to something you despise, and we'll see if I hate it as much as you!  I'm trying to put a list of well-known, mostly well-liked stories together: nothing more, nothing less.  In a week or so, I'll post a list, and from there on I'll add on to the back of it, so that those of you who like to read ahead will have something to consult and see what's on the horizon.  

So, that's it!  Feel free to send in one or two suggestions, or a list of a few dozen, to madethisjusttopostponies@gmail.com.  Then, I will continue my quixotic quest to agree with or contradict the fanfic-reading public, as I see fit.

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But, back to The Immortal Game for a moment.  That fic's really, really long, you know?

Lucky for me, I'm going on vacation with my family for the last two weeks of July, and should have plenty of reading time then.  So I'll plan to read it then.  Those of you who were around this time last year will remember that I did the same thing with Fallout: Equestria, and that seemed to work well enough.

Of course, being gone for weeks at a stretch means I'm going to need some guest columns.  I've already begun contacting authors to see who might be interested in writing reviews or fandom/fanfic/writing commentary, and I can tell you right now, there'll be some stuff you don't want to miss coming out during the back half of the month.

So anyway, that's the plan: a couple weeks of guest columns, The Immortal Game, and then off to uncharted waters.