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Thursday, December 21, 2017

Mini-Reviews: Christmas Edition, Part Four of Five!

So, how about that new FiMFic update, eh?  We're one step closer to GenFic, now.

Though I have to say, I'm a little disappointed; the site post made it sound like we'd be able to tag any/all franchises contained in our stories, but when I went to update my fics, I found nothing for the Choose Your Own Adventure™ series, or for The Screwtape Letters (or even just a C.S. Lewis hub), or even for the collected legends of Taliesin!  So I guess all my stuff will be rocking the solo MLP:FIM tag until knighty gets his act together.

Now, on to some seasonal fiction.  Get your reviewage, below the break.


Hearth's Warming Cookies, by Everyday


Zero-ish spoiler summary:  It's traditional to leave cookies out on Hearth's Warming Eve.  Hearth's Warming cookies have been a tradition, in fact, for over a thousand years.

A few thoughts:  As an explanation for the origin of a holiday custom, this carries the much-vaunted "ring of truth;" it feels like the sort of thing that could be observed, imitated, and eventually spread, more-or-less divorced from its original intent, throughout a population.  The writing is a little too coy for my taste in places, and a few tense issues in the back half of the story nearly manage to obscure the... "reveal" isn't quite the right word for something that isn't really intended to surprise the reader, but anyway, a few unfortunately-placed tense slips nearly manage to obscure it.  Luckily, they fail, and the result it heartwarming, and if it seems to get too cute in spots, it nevertheless fully dodges the dreaded "glurge" descriptor.

Recommendation:  If you enjoy a mix of history and gut-punching (who doesn't love getting their gut punched?), this is a good seasonal choice.  If you're looking for a lot of detailed exploration or a great deal of narrative reserve, this might be a miss, though.

3 comments:

  1. Some of the missing franchise tags are really surprising, given the variety of crossovers out there. For example, way back, I wrote a parody of Batman V Superman that I went to tag, and I discovered that FimFic has a tag for Batman, but not for Superman, nor for the extended DC Universe, nor the Justice League. But they DO have a Young Justice tag. I don't get it.

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    Replies
    1. A lot of the tags are therebecause either knighty's noticed the need for them or someone has asked specifically. So if there's one you'd like to see added, ask, and it may happen.

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  2. I did find a Harry Potter tag for my crossover, but no Bolo. No Heralds of Valdemer, or X-COM.

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