Serpentine Squiggles

Recommended Fiction 

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.

If you want a glimpse of what’s on my radar to be read next, I try to keep my schedule updated.

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:

  1. _9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9‍ ‍—‍ profoud, and deeply imaginative
  2. There is No Antimemetics Division (SCP wiki)‍ ‍—‍ tightly plotted, very thoughtful, reread many times.
  3. Worth the Candle (Royalroadwtc‍-​rr), a tour de force of worldbuilding, interwoven with a compelling introspection.
  4. CORDYCEPS: Too clever for their own good, tight plotting, great twists
  5. The Northern Caves, a thoughtful and insightful story about stories

Published Books 

Children of Time

Blindsight

Prince of Thorns

// what else am i forgetting?

Fanfics 

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 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.