33
Followers
23
Following
Reader's Discretion Advised
...this confuses me. So...it's like tumblr...for books?
Either way, I'm mainly on Goodreads. I do occasionally come here, and also do periodically import my shelves from GR here, but GR is a more sure bet for contacting me.
We interrupt our regularly scheduled program...
THIS FIC IS AMAZING. THIS FIC IS AN EPIC. THIS FIC IS FREE.
GO READ IT. NOW.
This work is a goddamn epic. Okay, parts are kind of rough, but it has a great plot and imo decent characterization and good dramatic timing and such.
I don't even have words anymore. I'm all ranted out. Yeesh. But yeah, moral of the story is, go read this amazing epic, and then look into some of the author's other works. Xe writes 616, which I think is great.
(On a side note, this is also a great one:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/2033628
It does magical things such as subvert the fanon Cap-is-technologically-illiterate trope AND doesn't overlook Captain Sassmaster. This one's shorter than the epic featured above, and is awesome fluff)
Stony Fics - Sorta Halloween edition (4/?)
...and by Halloween edition, I only mean "with some zombie-AU fics
http://archiveofourown.org/works/2525303 (Beach. Sandcastles. Floofity Floof Floof)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/1410883/ (more zombies. A more fleshed out fic, kind of confusing in its formatting [or maybe that was the 1AM and goddamn annoying downstairs neighbors who are still blasting music and smoking weed], but still interesting. It is a movie-based AU, so make of it what you will)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/1138051 (gorgeousness and gorgeosity. much amaze, such great, wow.)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/2531864 (even more zombie-fic. Guess it's a Halloween thing. This one's a bit harder to swallow for me [the whole "Me Tony" bit and Nat getting pregnant, etc], and the ending is kind of abrupt, but there's a mini coda in the end note)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/2033628 (This one is so much great fluff. Wordsplat is fast becoming one of my fave Marvel fic writers)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/2137497 (dark steve)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/674426 (hey, look, more Stony zombie stuff. Shit, this one's bleak, though. Okay, fuck, you know what, I just finished this, and it is really goddamn fucking bleak. Like NOOOOO HOW THE FUCK COULD YOU??? bleak. Shit, son. It's well-written, sure, but bleak as hell. I'm just going to sit here a while and think about how unacceptable this was.)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/381610 (a sorta zombie-verse/cannibal-AU mix. The only really stupid thing I see is the idea that Tony's labs are in the basement in the Tower. Okay, sure, maybe he ALSO has labs in the basement, but if his living quarters are way up at the top, why the shit would his lab be all the way at the bottom? Imagine the commute time! Far too long, even with superfast elevators)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/459176 (There is so much wtf in this series i don't even. but it's still amusing)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/420891 (more apocalypse stuff. ft superfamily, plus Avengers)
5
Stony fic rec (3/?)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/560016 (technically, Stark Spangled Banner [aka Tony/Bruce/Steve], but it had plot and I liked it)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/2508905 (cute non-power AU drabble)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/407687 (fluffity fluff fluff)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/539219 (an amazing take on wingfic. I love this one so much)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/507496/ (epic proportions. vaguely religiousy mythos flavored. I liked it, even if I don't ship Thorki or Clint/Phil at all)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/2522072 (I haven't actually seen In the Flesh so idk if this resembles that, but hey, zombies. It's Halloween month; why the fuck now.)
(I just realized that since I'm adding these one by one, I could format this better. You know, with a title and some of the tags and everything. Eh, but that's so much work. It's easier to put the link and then annotate in parentheses if I feel like I have anything to say)
All y'all Stony shippers need to come find me. I need (more) people to sob/squee/keyboard mash incoherently to when something happens that gives me Stony (or even just Tony) feels.
2
Even more Stony fics (2/?)
Part one can be found here.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/1607987 (the writing's okay, and the sex is nominal at best, but hey, tentacles)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/555039 (basically a tentacly fuck machine)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/777865 (also comes with some Hulk/Tony BroTP [kind of])
http://archiveofourown.org/works/778008/ (the psuedo-science seems off to me. The arc reactor is, well, a reactor. I'm not that sure what exactly the logic behind it is, but I'm pretty sure it's not a straight-up battery and generates power, not stores it [this is newer, though. i think some of the older ones have something more akin to a battery node in his chest]. As such, when issues arise such as "low power," I think it means more that the power usage is greater than the reactor's power output. I'm not entirely sure if there's some sort of energy storage mechanism in his chest reactor or not. Still, a not-bad fic, and definitely worth the read if you've read the first few and would like to see a deepening of the pre-slash [though some of the earlier ones seem to barely qualify for pre-slash])
http://archiveofourown.org/works/2477054 (omega-verse, but a slightly different take than a more traditional A/B/O fic. And yes, unlike Jaune_Chat's, this one does seem happier)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/777412 (EMH-verse. I read it once before watching EMH and some of the characters I didn't know, but I think the general gist still translated over. Still, it does make a lot more sense when you read it after getting past that part in EMH)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/2144967 (I don't think I included this before. This is barely slash, but it's hilarious and I love it)
1
Holy Bible (NASB - New American Standard Bible)
I wasn't going to review the Bible. I wasn't ever going to review the Bible. For one thing, it's a very politically charged move to make. For another, I've probably only technically read maybe less than 10% of the whole thing. A few verses here and there and the entire book of Esther does not a comprehensive reading make.But today, someone approached me to tell me the message of God the Mother, whose evidence of existence is in the fact that God refers to "us" in Genesis, creating God in "our" image, creating male and female from "our image." This, she says, shows evidence of God the Mother; it is a fallacy to believe that a female form might come from a male trinity.
Great. That sounds like a pretty decent idea, and is sufficiently counter-patriarchal tradition to keep me interested for a moment.
That's not the point I'm here to address, though.
She said something about how she can see why I might have become averse to religious institutions, given that there are XX denominations out there (I don't remember the exact number) and that each has their own dogmatic approach. She says something about how there is a definite truth, though, and that a lot of institutions make the mistake of introducing their opinions to the text - such as the idea of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit trinity being the "us" referred to.
It's this sort of fallacy that drives me away from organized religion. Even the group that seems a bit more liberal than others still persists in the "our idea is correct" idea. Sure, they don't frame it that way; they frame it in a "we're taking a formalist approach to this text, and are therefore free from bias" sort of way. She asked/explained the idea that there is one definite Truth, right, and the way you find it is through the text.
The problem is my cognition is fundamentally more post-modern than that. I explained my views on the fallacy of the idea of a definite truth, going so far as to illustrate my point by going into the background of the seeing is believing fallacy - our shift from primarily auditory processing to visual - and that even with photographic evidence, we fail to take into consideration the photographer's bias in taking the shot. I could see I'd left her confused, baffled by the concept that I might not think truth exists.
Religion itself is an interesting thing. In a further departure from the God the Mother concept, she now begins to try to introduce religion. At one point, she asked a rhetorical question about why people turn to religion. "So they have some sort of sense of self-comfort despite what logic or their senses might tell them," I say in my mind as she answers, "So they can have eternal life." It's not a bad idea. If the idea that there's some greater purpose out there is what you need, then go for it. But I'm sorry. I've grown too post-modern to work that simplistic sense of comfort into my existential psyche.
She reintroduces the God the Mother idea, does an awkward (for me, anyways) pedantic bit about how it's evidenced in nature, how everything is birthed through both a father and a mother. She asks if I'd ever go back to church, read the Bible, knowing this new "God the Mother" concept that I do now. I say no, probably not.
My issue with religion isn't really with the patriarchal emphasis of it. Sure, that contributes, but my inability to believe wholly in a God of any sort is more my inability to make that leap of faith. And I'm the sort who can't make myself pretend I believe in something I know I don't. I still say I'm agnostic because there obviously are forces beyond our comprehension, and maybe philosophically speaking, it's all right to refer to those forces collectively as "God." But whether or not there's a conscious will to these forces beyond our comprehension? Perhaps the will is beyond our comprehension, as Christians would say about the inscrutability of God. But then, is Nature being malevolent when it enacts an earthquake? Is it punishing us for something? Or is it just a force: action, reaction? This delves into realms on which I have not sufficient information, and thus, no opinion. And that's why I have such issues with the God concept. Sure, it's great to personify these collective forces, but as an artistic gesture. But then, if enough people believe one thing over another, does that then make it true? What if everyone on Earth only knew the concept of God as a conscious entity? Then that would be the truth, even if in a reality removed from comprehension, there is no will. And I've gotten away from myself a bit here, but I grow uncomfortable with dogma. I could never live in a world of cold logic, but the presumptuousness of Religion does give me pause. Perhaps I'm more suited to a measure of spirituality than actual religion, per se.
On a more flippant note, why is it I always end up getting roped in by the religious ppl for their religious 'splainin'? What is it about me that screams, "Preach to me!!!"? Jfc, maybe next time I should just tell them sorry, I'm a devout Satanist, and walk away.
Five Dates
I liked it. I liked the characters. Clearly, First Girl Wins was going to apply, but whatever. It was idly amusing to see them fumble through. And holy hell, author can write hot scenes.
Love and Betrayal
Free copy received from the author in exchange for an honest review.I'm torn. Very torn. On one hand, the world-building is interesting and the premise is intriguing. On the other hand, Elsdon's characterization is generic and bland and seems to change when it suits the author, and therfore makes no sense. But then again, maybe part of the point is the flux in his personality development. But what if it's just a "the curtains were fucking blue" moment and I'm reading too much into it/trying to give the author too much credit? I mean, the romance was pretty bad. Bad romcom bad. And not good bad-romcom bad; just bad-bad. Moments were cliche, lines were trite, Elsdon got borderline Edward Cullen a few times. Garrett was also kind of annoying. As in really goddamn annoying. He's like a less subtle and more bitter Laganja this'll give you an idea, but without seeing the rest of the show and the Untucked, then a lot of the moments in this video, taken on face value, really does seem like "oh, wow, why is everyone attacking her" when really, she's often the only one victimizing her own goddamn self. Yes, mama. Ohkaaay?, and he inspired that in Elsdon, which just increased the painfulness of reading.
So...I have no idea. I liked the concept, liked the background, didn't so much like the story itself. It had its moments, but then something would happen that would ruin it (for me, at least). I mean, there were peripheral characters I didn't mind, and maybe even rather liked, but thing is, they were more peripheral.
2 star overall, 4 for world concept, 1.5 for characters.
As with always, below are the comments I made as I was reading.
Semi-running Commentary:
It's...odd. There was no set-up for a romance at all in the first one, and yet, it's somehow a given that there'd be romance there.
The premise is different, so the entire feel is different. Whereas the first book had a sort of stark edginess about it, Bk 2 feels more...volatile. Fallible. Layle's sort of lost his implacable "Mr. Smith" aura. It's interesting because his last name is so interchangeable and generic, while his first name is quite singular, at least to me.
I guess maybe that's the point? Book one built this aura of mystery that is, in many ways necessary, but book 2 is about deconstructing that, demystifying the processes, seeing as Elsdon is now on the other side.
Still, I don't quite understand why Elsdon suddenly is crushing hard on Layle. Some measure of hero-worship, I can conceive, but just to suddenly have this "I have feelings-feelings for you" that's taken so for granted... It makes the telling ("He was very observant, and used his observation to good measure now") rather than showing a bit harder to swallow. It also renders the supposed show of emotion on Layle's part gimmicky and cheezy and really unbelievable. I cringed at the meal analogy, complete with an audible "ugh" and everything.
Because I had a hard time wrapping my mind around this supposedly budding romance, I found a large part of it hard to swallow. There's a major turning point at around 37% where Elsdon confronts Layle about his feelings for Layle, and supposedly Layle's feelings for him, that just didn't work for me because I, as I said, couldn't figure out the basis for the feelings. They just one day decided to exist. Or were decided would exist.
From there, it seemed to turn into a romcom. Heroine's gossiping with her bestie about omg I can't figure this guy out at ALL, and bestie's like, "well, I mean he seems to respect me because I don't fawn over him, so maybe he's looking for that," heroine's like "well, he does seem to like it when I'm assertive; maybe he wants me to assert myself more." They do this as the bestie sorts through her clothes. (Okay, fine it's probably for laundry in this one, but close enough.)
This whole "everyone else assuming MC has never had a hard life" trope is definitely not my thing. Any and every time I see a character speculating, "I wonder if MC has ever had to do a hard day's labor in his life," or "I have to do a whole bunch of chores; he's probably never had to do these sort of chores," it really irks me.
MC is the ingenue that isn't an ingenue; don't underestimate him, for all that he seems fluffy and harmless.
And oh, god, we have secretly vengeful bestie who's hell-bent on offing the LI so that, possibly, he'd have a chance with MC? Are we going to have a dramatic final death scene after the Big Reveal where the bestie apologizes with his dying breath and says something like "I only wanted you to love me"?
42%: only time will tell.
But yeah, after the turning point, I couldn't get into the rest of it. The peripheral intrigue stuff, sure, intrigued me a bit, but then you had odd romance parts that...just didn't work for me also because of their nature. You've got Layle resisting, and Elsdon insisting he's in love with Layle, so he'll get his way no matter what; Layle can't hold back forever. That is coercion, and considered romantic in prior generations, but after reading a really nicely fleshed out BDSM-verse fanfiction, I've come to realize it's part of the fallacy of the whole Twilight-esque romance stories, that stalker-ish persistence is not, in fact romantic, but, you know, stalker-ish.
BUT APPARENTLY THAT'S WHAT LAYLE WANTS, SO IT'S ALL OKAY. And I do get it; it's part of Elsdon's plot to Be More Assertive because Layle likes that, but...I dunno, the phrasing of it, and the implications...
I guess somewhere along the line, I felt like I had no idea who the characters were? I had no idea why Elsdon was so viscerally repulsed by seeing the racking. And so utterly betrayed. I guess it didn't help that I started identifying him with Bella by then. But really, what is his personality? We know he's more amazing than he perhaps gives himself credit for, like Bella, and seems to have drawn a dangerous LI, like Bella. Only difference is he's more the predator than Layle is.
Yet another moment that had me "Oh my god"ing and "ugh"ing out loud: "Why were you really ___?" *confession* "You monster. Stay away from me. I'll kill you if you ever come near me." So...what? True love wasn't true love? You only thought you loved him? You loved who you thought he was, not the monster he turned out to be? And then: *overly dramatic* "I should have known! I should have seen! Nevermind that that was the whole issue I had before with him, that he wouldn't show me anything abotu himself and that maybe in this case, I'm still missing a buttload of information. I should have known he was a monster! He lied to me! He tricked me! Never mind he tried to push me away and I insisted I'd make him confess his love for me. Clearly he's a horrible rogue!" And then omg, even more: "I should have made sure he'd never hurt me again, never hurt anyone else! I shouldn't have left! I should have protected those he was hurting! I took and oath to protect the prisoners, and that's what I should have done!
I guess bestie isn't lusting after MC.
There's this nonsensical part where some speaker - can't tell if it's Elsdon or Garrett - says something about turning the rack to nine and that it's horrible and shit, but wasn't there a part earlier where Smith showed Elsdon the rack and it barely stretched.
And then there's the stupidly cliche "D: they're just like everyone, just like humans, so evil." God it's a Laganja moment *shudders*
Also, wow, Garrett. Projecting much?
What, pray tell, is the point of this farce? To create some sort of drama?
*throws hand over forehead in fake swoon*
Ay, me. For aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth.
It's stupid. I can kind of see what the author's getting at, but I still think it's stupid. It does kind of come together, but that still doesn't excuse the stupid. It's sort of overly convenient. It does come together, sort of, and it got interesting again for a moment, but then this "It's all right, love. If you have to torture me or rape me or whatever...it's okay. I give you permission." It's so goddamn patronizing. From Elsdon? That doesn't make sense. He's on one hand ingenuous, then conniving when it suits? Okay, the "bindings upon a sadist" revelation was great, but then pushing the romance was like ending Captain America The First Avenger on the "it's just...I had a date note." It pushes the romance to the forefront as the main focus and essentially negates any sort of plotty stuff going down.
Still, ending with another "textbook" excerpt helps negate that effect a bit. Still, I don't quite know if I want to read on or not. On one hand, the character exploration is somewhat interesting (Layle, not Elsdon, yeesh), and the peripheral world-building and more plotty sort of stuff is also intriguing, but when this..."romance" is pushed to the forefront, it makes the entire thing hard to swallow.
Avengers/Stony AO3 fic rec dump list
OKAY, THIS TOOK GODDAMN FOREVER BECAUSE I'M LAZY WITH AO3 BOOKMARKS AND SHIT AND JUST DOWNLOAD THE FICS I LIKED ENOUGH TO WANT TO REREAD, SO I BASICALLY HAD TO GO THROUGH EACH FILE AND FIND THE URL.
Sorry, no titles or anything, and they're sorted roughly by alphabetical order of whatever title the file had (some of it is by title, some by series if there was one, some by author cuz I at least grouped all the AnonEhouse ones together, I think)
(show spoiler)There's going to be quite a vast representation, so read the tags. Links might or might not be active because I'm just copy/pasting whatever is in the file; I haven't checked. Some might have also been marked complete at the time, but are now WIP's.
Be also aware that since this is just a dump list, not all the fics here are ones I love and rave about. Some maybe I just liked, or I have issues with, but still thought was intriguing enough that I still kind of liked it, even if I choose to ignore the ending or something.
I stuck all the links in a spoiler because it was really damn long.
(show spoiler)
But also just browse the Stony tag on AO3. Great thing about AO3 is you can search additional tags, so if you're in the mood for fluff, stick that in. If you want some angst, look for that. If you have a particular kink and want to see if there are any fics for it, look it up. If there's not tag for it, stick it in "Search within results."
1
The Breaking
What a strangely singular piece. I loved the textbook excerpts the author created. Actually, I just love it when authors do that, create texts within their universe and show it to us. It gives more background on the universe, how the changes that make the AU affect that universe versus our own, and give great little oblique meta-analyses.This...is not a romance at all. There's absolutely no romantic interactions between the main characters at all. In fact, I think there being romance in the next one might turn out a bit weird and kitschy. Hopefully it transitions okay.
It's also not BDSM. It's, well, torture. Of the psychological sort, mostly, to be sure, but BDSM? Oh, hell no.
The content itself is fascinating. It definitely skirts the edge between psychoanalysis and questioning/torture really well. The whole concept of the "Eternal Dungeon" is fascinating, definitely very well-constructed.
Clipped
Hey, look. It's the cover stock for [bc:Idriel's Sin|13244889|Idriel's Sin|Jay Di Meo|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1324015612s/13244889.jpg|18445262]
Gift of the Raven
I feel like there's information missing, like this is part of a series, so there's some info the author didn't bother giving, since xe'd already given it before.Cory's backstory made sense, to a point, and then it seemed to backtrack, and ret-con, or something. Like it tried to elaborate, but ended up mixing things up and changing things weirdly and stuff. Very odd.
Electrical burning also was a weird phrase. Usually the smell you get when you turn on a heater after a long period of disuse is the dust burning. Maybe that's the "electrical burning"?
I dunno, this story is weird because it does have all these interesting elements, but the entire thing doesn't quite gel, and some of the motivations and whatnot didn't quite make sense.
And and the end, it says it's set in the same universe as a different series. Well, that explains a lot.
Hmm...Yeah, I liked it. It's a solid 3.5 stars. The whole thing is a bit rough, but it definitely had potential.
Brian's Domination
This...reads weirdly like one of those mind-control stories. Brian wasn't really into guys, but then he met this guy, and for some reason, was just really into guys, but especially that guy. Not entirely, but there is a bit of that vibe going on.Also, I guess I find dirty talk weird when it's not couched in some sort of a headgame thing or something? Or I dunno, that was a really terrible way of explaining it. Like...I dunno, if it's used in some sort of D/s sort of thing, then I just kind of fly by it...I dunno, maybe I just find dirty talk weird, period. But anyway, yeah, I found all of the "fuck my tight black ass with your young white cock" really weird. (maybe it's different because this brand of dirty talk is more elaboration upon the physical process of sex that's going on? I don't even really know.)
I think the main thing that makes it seem like a mind-control thing is I have absolutely no idea why Brian, who's "straight," is suddenly so desperate for cock. And for a straight guy, he sure had no compunctions about getting all freaky with dudes. Like wow, this guy don't got enough cishet white guy cred, man. Yeah, I dunno. Maybe it's elaborated upon more in the other installments. Or maybe it's just plain erotica and I shouldn't be searching for in-depth characterization and plot development here.
Waiting for snow
Very aggressively okay. It was deep in its own way, sure, but it wasn't quite technically sound. Definitely more telling than showing, and some of the motives were a bit too transparent to seem realistic, given the character's POV and context. Still, a solidly not-bad story, and despite the 2-star, I did sort of like it.
Imprisoned by Desire
No. Stupid ending is stupid. So, what? The Dark King just...dissipated into the nether? And why build all that up just for Tristan to end up with goody-goody Dareon? Also, why exactly is the prince so much better than the Dark King? No one else was complaining, right? There was a moment there where I actually thought they were going to explore this whole post-modern "maybe we're not the good guys" concept, but then it didn't happen and it just lapsed back into blah. The whole Stockholm element was so close, but not quite there for me. Still, it wasn't bad. It's just...the way it ended rendered the whole thing inexcusable.