Weekly Fic Rec(s)
this is the part of the month where I get to proudly brag about the people who are slaying it on the ladder, part 1
26 years - by bluesidra
Blue has single-handedly reviewed almost 10% of the chapters read in Blitz this year and that's fucking bonkers because the amount of chapters read in Blitz this year is
896. If the math checks out, which it does, that means there's a 100% chance she deserves to hear back from us.
26 years is a really fascinating take on time travel and isekai, and at its core it gets to dig at questions about duty and purpose--who are you when those things are taken away? For everyone who likes protagonists who loudly claim everything is Fine (when, shhhhh, it's really not all that fine), this is here in spades, and also in retro 80's-themed track suits. Everything past chapter 5 is eligible, and the chapters are pretty short and breezy, so it's a great light read if you want to also be struck with thoughts about how the idea of constantly living/unliving/reliving/unliving all of your mistakes via the grandfather paradox is actually pretty close to just existing with anxiety.
Path of Valor - by Ambyssin
Ambyssin claimed that he was going to be too busy to do much in Review Blitz. Survey says this is a lie.
Path of Valor is widely-read on a lot of other sites, so I get why it's a little quieter on the reviews-side from users endemic to here, but I do think it's got a lot of things that authors here might appreciate. Pulling heavy inspiration from anime and featuring a colorful cast of side characters, this story centers around Yuna, dreepy princess who's an exchange student in the Fairy Kingdom. One part school drama and one part "oops the monsters are gonna end the world again", there's a lot of drama here that's very rooted and a lot that's very much larger than life. I'm also told that there's a lot of Final Fantasy references, which I can't really verify, but it's a lot of fun.
I believe chapters after 10 are eligible for the week, although Ambyssin would need to confirm.
A Porygon's Guide to Dungeon Items - by windskull
windskull and Pano are tied for the most authors reviewed during Blitz so far (23! 23 authors! that's so many!), so realistically if you're one of the 38 Blitz participants reading this there's basically a 1 in 2 chance you've received a review from windskull.
I compare this fic to playing Animal Crossing--I think the best word for it is "cozy"; it's a really fun flavor of fiction-nonfiction that gives a lot of realistic grounding to some of the more bonkers aspects of the pokemon universe (specifically the PMD one, although currently we're on berries, so there's a little something for everyone). This fic oozes charm and has some really, really loving gardening and horticulture descriptions--again, not really a thing I ever thought I was craving in fanfiction, but one that I realized I was once I started reading this story. GRRM is entirely wrong when he says that no one asks about Aragorn's tax policy; everyone needs to know how Kecleon enact policies to look out for Oren/Oran berries or that people make cute little wreaths out of mago leaves. There are a bajillion different flavors of delicious worldbuilding in here and you're sure to find something. Everything past the second chapter appears to be eligible.
(If you want something a little more traditional, wind also writes
Places We Call Home, a PMD fic about living with your mistakes).
The Long Road - by Panoramic Vacuum
Pano and windskull are literally destroying the ladder; it is terrifying; again, there is a 1 in 2 chance that you've received a review from Pano in the past 20 days and that's actually
bonkers.
The Long Road is a story about people who like rocks, and specifically details the origin story of Steven Stone. Everyone who wants fluff, fun times with humans just hanging out and having a good time vibing with pokemon, interesting backstories about gym leaders, anime-style fights where there's diligence paid to game mechanics but people are actually having to think through their actions, love letters to Hoenn--this is shit that's on pretty much everyone's fic bingo card, and it's also stuff that Pano lovingly writes about in her story. There's a lot of surface level memes I could make about ronks or general gushing about how there's AN ENORMOUS RHINOCEROUS THAT LOVES TO GARDEN, but at its core there's also a really compelling emotional story here that I think most people on TR would really love.
I think everything past chapter 3 is eligible.
-
(general note that since I am not the author here and I'm not quite as meticulous as tracking these as I would be if I were actually logging these for the ladder, I might have the chapter eligibilities off--feel free to message/lmk and I can update!)
club waiting for updates. There's some really rich language in here, some cool Johto religion/worldbuilding, and there's definitely something up with the narrator, too ...
