Yes and no, in that order. The author has asked that ebooks and PDFs not be made available, as he’s working on a partial-rewrite with the aim of selling ebook versions for money.
I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s recently completed and hence bears bringing up again:
Embers, an Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfiction, is one of the best works I’ve read, fanfic or otherwise. At 750k words, it’ll keep you entertained for a while. It features characters who are generally smart (at least some of them, and in ways generally more age- and culturally-appropriate than eg HJPEV) and significant fleshing out of the world, with the latter drawing heavily on the author’s sometimes-cited research: see eg the author’s notes at the end of chapter 30 (warning, slight spoilers, though nothing that will make sense out of context) or at the end of chapter 47 (somewhat more significant spoilers).
You don’t need to have seen the show to know what’s going on, but it’ll help, and the show is worth a quick watch if you’ve got time on your hands anyway. Don’t skip this work just because you don’t have time for the show right now, though. Also, there’s a prequel of sorts called “Theft Absolute”, which is three orders of magnitude shorter and will not make much sense without the show; it’s not necessary for Embers.
I enjoyed ember for 20 or so chapters while it did a great job of developing characters and justifying oddities about the fire nation in canon with new effects on bending and had a great novel perspective on Aang but then it really went off the rails in terms of adding too much non-avatar universe content.
Saruman of Many Devices takes Saruman’s gunpowder weapons and Industrial Revolution angle from Lord of the Rings and runs with it for some military SF style fun.
Okay, I’m going to have to plug The Last Ringbearer. See download link for an english translation (which cannot be sold for money for legal reasons but can be downloaded for free).
Originally written in Russian, which pretty much explains the tone. The hobbits and the ring never existed and the Lord of the Rings is the long-after-the-fact mythologized retelling of a war as told by the victors. Aragorn was a power-hungry opportunist who stole the throne. Sauron was a ruling dynasty of the rich nation of Mordor, invaded by the barbarian hordes at its borders. Its trolls and orcs were human ethnicities, with the retelling of the war warping their portrayal into monsters. Saruman quit the council of wizards in disgust when he learned that they sided with the barbarians in their genocide of Mordor because of the fearsome power that Mordor’s new industrial revolution could bring. And we get a glimpse at an ‘industrialized’ middle-earth 3,000 years into the future where, among other things, aerospace companies try and fail to replicate the ancient lost materials science of mithril.
I enjoyed both “Saruman of Many Devices” and The Last Ringbearer.
Although I should caution people that for the former, it does a good job of mimicking both the good and bad parts of David Weber’s military SF fiction, and don’t read TLR expecting Tolkien, read it expecting John le Carré.
It’s Mary Gentle’s Grunts! with more of a techno-thriller bent and a more sympathetic protagonist faction, basically. If you liked Grunts!, how you feel about this one will probably depend on how you weigh gun porn against psychopath jokes.
Fanfiction Thread
Cenotaph, a finished Worm fanfic. Taylor doesn’t get too upset with Armsmaster, doesn’t join the Undersiders.
It might be featured in today’s author note since Eliezer has expressed approval of the fic in the comments.
Reading Cenotaph now. It’s excellent. If you enjoyed Worm, you’ll enjoy this.
Is “Worm” finished and is there a pdf/epub/text file somewhere convenient for one behind the Great Firewall? I have heard Good Things about it.
Yes and no, in that order. The author has asked that ebooks and PDFs not be made available, as he’s working on a partial-rewrite with the aim of selling ebook versions for money.
Cenotaph is great.
I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s recently completed and hence bears bringing up again:
Embers, an Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfiction, is one of the best works I’ve read, fanfic or otherwise. At 750k words, it’ll keep you entertained for a while. It features characters who are generally smart (at least some of them, and in ways generally more age- and culturally-appropriate than eg HJPEV) and significant fleshing out of the world, with the latter drawing heavily on the author’s sometimes-cited research: see eg the author’s notes at the end of chapter 30 (warning, slight spoilers, though nothing that will make sense out of context) or at the end of chapter 47 (somewhat more significant spoilers).
You don’t need to have seen the show to know what’s going on, but it’ll help, and the show is worth a quick watch if you’ve got time on your hands anyway. Don’t skip this work just because you don’t have time for the show right now, though. Also, there’s a prequel of sorts called “Theft Absolute”, which is three orders of magnitude shorter and will not make much sense without the show; it’s not necessary for Embers.
I enjoyed ember for 20 or so chapters while it did a great job of developing characters and justifying oddities about the fire nation in canon with new effects on bending and had a great novel perspective on Aang but then it really went off the rails in terms of adding too much non-avatar universe content.
Saruman of Many Devices takes Saruman’s gunpowder weapons and Industrial Revolution angle from Lord of the Rings and runs with it for some military SF style fun.
Okay, I’m going to have to plug The Last Ringbearer. See download link for an english translation (which cannot be sold for money for legal reasons but can be downloaded for free).
Originally written in Russian, which pretty much explains the tone. The hobbits and the ring never existed and the Lord of the Rings is the long-after-the-fact mythologized retelling of a war as told by the victors. Aragorn was a power-hungry opportunist who stole the throne. Sauron was a ruling dynasty of the rich nation of Mordor, invaded by the barbarian hordes at its borders. Its trolls and orcs were human ethnicities, with the retelling of the war warping their portrayal into monsters. Saruman quit the council of wizards in disgust when he learned that they sided with the barbarians in their genocide of Mordor because of the fearsome power that Mordor’s new industrial revolution could bring. And we get a glimpse at an ‘industrialized’ middle-earth 3,000 years into the future where, among other things, aerospace companies try and fail to replicate the ancient lost materials science of mithril.
I enjoyed both “Saruman of Many Devices” and The Last Ringbearer.
Although I should caution people that for the former, it does a good job of mimicking both the good and bad parts of David Weber’s military SF fiction, and don’t read TLR expecting Tolkien, read it expecting John le Carré.
Also good. Previously discussed here.
Enjoying it so far (just finished chapter 4). Slightly worried that Saruman’s forces are too competent though. Reminds me a bit of “The Salvation War”
It’s Mary Gentle’s Grunts! with more of a techno-thriller bent and a more sympathetic protagonist faction, basically. If you liked Grunts!, how you feel about this one will probably depend on how you weigh gun porn against psychopath jokes.
I’m finding it readable but not exceptional.
I’ve been writing a Captain Planet fanfic for a while. The premise is that the original members have grown old and a new team is needed:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8642760/