Some stuff I read and thought was good. Will organize this page more At Some Point. There’s so many things to add and so many thoughts to put down. I may not make this as comprehensive as my murder drones rec page.
Right now it’s my favorites plus a couple of random things from my bookmarks.
Webfics
Vigor Mortis
(Also on Royalroad)
Evocative and thrilling, cathartic and emotional resonant — this is my favorite story. My usual pitch for this one goes:
A starving orphan girl awakens dark magical powers and struggles to survive and find family.
Oh, and have I mentioned the world is but a single floating island among thousands, all orbiting a astronomically large eldritch god of tentacles and eyes? A being so mighty that an entire tradition of enforced rules exist to prevent the Mistwatcher from even perceiving you (for an errant swipe of its tentacles is a natural disaster)
The magic system is pretty good. I might call it great — without a doubt, it stands above so many others in terms of how much sense it makes and how deeply it gets explored — but I do think it ranks below the characters, the emotions, the themes in terms of reasons why we enjoy it so much
I suppose we should mention, in addition to systems and spells anyone can learn, a lucky minority are endowed with “talents” — essentially spells intrinsic to their soul. This is worth mentioning because Vita awakening her talent is the inciting incident of the story.
Specifically, at first she seems to be… (Not necessarily a spoiler — this is established in the first chapter — but the surprise may be pleasant.
As soon as we started reading this, we were obsessed, and spent about four or five days doing very little other than reading it.
While I wont contend it’s the best story, or even exceptional on literary merits… Over the years, across hundreds of books, we’ve definitely read millions and millions of words, some of them great
But I’m not sure anything has ever felt as written for us as this
(Some of the themes that crop up later on — asexuality, lesbianism, plurality, and other particular divergences and traumas of the characters — resonate quite strongly indeed.)
The rest of my all time favorites list goes:
- _9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9 — profoud, and deeply imaginative
- There is No Antimemetics Division (SCP wiki) — tightly plotted, very thoughtful, reread many times.
- Worth the Candle (Royalroadwtc-rr), a tour de force of worldbuilding, interwoven with a compelling introspection.
- [Worm][worm], a titan of webfic, its throne earned with its gripping plotting, impactful emotional beats, and visionary power system
I’m forgetting plenty — I might spend time recalling other things I’ve read over the years, but a couple that came to mind were:
- CORDYCEPS: Too clever for their own good, tight plotting, great twists
- The Northern Caves, a thoughtful and insightful story about stories
Published Books
Children of Time
Blindsight
Prince of Thorns
// what else am i forgetting? kings of the wyld?
Fanfics
// i am forgetting SO MANY
Fallout: Equestria - Project Horizons (My Little Pony), an epic saga of inspiring depth and scale, full of action and mystery
Antithesis (Harry Potter), a devastating tragedy
Kaleidoscope (Worm), thrilling wormfic. taylor gets the sharigan, creates uber for crime
If I Were Me (Naruto), sakura/ino yuri, memorably good inner sakura bits
The Metropolitan Man (Superman), neat superman fic
Unfinished:
The Black Parade (Naruto), a surreal and horrorific Uchiha SI. probably dead
A Finely Honed Blade (Worm), interesting power put to thrilling use, iirc
All Things Devoured (Worm), delightfully grotesque
Divergents (Worm)
wormfic where taylor’s power gives her bitch-style bug autism
it’s kind of cringe but in a way that works. dont read if you can’t stand social anxiety because it goes pretty hard the not getting social cues beat
but it’s also kind of just. satisfying to read a character who doesn’t get it? mostly bc im the type who masks a bunch so it’s cathartic to see a character who just starts screaming when people are being too much
it’s taylor/rachel btw, they’re cute
Portal Fanfics
Some Chell/GLaDOS fics I read this year and thought were neat.
Thawing by clefairytea. Great prose, excellent capture of GLaDOS’s voice, and fun interactions. Bittersweet, but so good.
DovK’s one-shots: “We Can Both Despise”, “An Associated Euphoric Response”, “Valentine’s Day, 2212” and “Surveillance”. Short and fun treats.
Old Reviews
I used to be an active member of WebFictionGuide back when that was a thing. (Remember all the people nagging about votes and reviews in the Worm comment section?) I wrote a couple of reviews for my fellow authors back then. Somewhat embarassing work, but perhaps they’re still of interest five years later.
- Advent
- Creep
- Fuji
- The New Humans
- Pyrebound
- The Star-Treader and Twig reviews were I believe written for high school english class?