Does anybody know fanfics where the MC transforms a sort of medieval setting into Industrial Age? Even if they're shitty?

 

I thought this was gonna be about cheerful fics that just make you smile and let me tell you I am very disappointed.

 

tbf I thought the same as Nazgus,

I got a few, but to be honest, calling them decent is a stretch, something of a modified scale since most are awful.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/asoiaf-greyjoy-alla-breve-si.352019/

SI in Westeros, decent, but overall pretty meh, the writing is fairly bad.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/asoiaf-si-no-promises.610762/

Another fairly meh one, SI into ASOIAF.

https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/but-i-dont-speak-german-an-isot.336921/

This one is less medieval and more Weimar Republic Germany, but still fits to a degree. Its pretty bad but might be what you are looking for.

https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/son-of-man-nis-an-asoiaf-si.466801/

Another big ole meh, with a Westerosi SI, as a son of Stannis.

 

I've read a lot of these. I don't think I'd recommend them under normal circumstances, but you're looking for any. Though I guess a few of these aren't strictly uplifting fics? Not instantaneously, at least. It's an endless search to find a good one that actually goes somewhere.

A Song of Ice and Fires that Weren't All My Fault. (by Puzzle). asoiaf/dresden files. One of my first forays into this genre, 5 years ago. Been abandoned for awhile. Author seemed to pick a select few inventions to introduce to the world. IIRC, compasses and steam engines (for boats) were some of the first? This is a polarizing fic for me, as the stuff I like, I really like, but the stuff I hate, I really hate. I guess it's personal taste, since I can't stand the later Dresden books, and this pulls a Dresden from post-Changes I beleive.

A Farmers Tale. SI (in Westeros) with a bunch of arbitrary and unrelated knowledge, slowly elevates his community. Honestly, don't read this. I know a few of us in IRC have read large parts of this (I personally made it to the second arc, which feels like an accomplishment, but I don't think that's even half way.)

Dawn Comes on the Sunset Sea (asoiaf/civ beyond earth). Is it telling that every story on this list all takes place in Westeros? This one promises to be an actual tech uplift, but doesn't actually go anywhere. It shares some things in common with some of the other stories, in that it has a pretty promising start, but fizzles out. When I read this, chapter 13 was the most recent chapter. Anyways, features a Civ landing on Planetos instead of Alpha Centauri (I think?). Obviously they land in the north, and ally with the Starks. The thing is, they're there for months, and do pretty much nothing with the Starks except show off all their tech and a 15 minute lesson on germs. They even give them rides and such in their vehicles but barely give them any new tech. The only major tech that is shared is actually from the westoros side of things as they find a random magical panacea gel that hints at some dimensional shenanigans, but I ultimately found to be the worst plot device in the whole story. There's also a lot of needless POV changes, as to be expected from a Spacebattles story.

King in the Long Night (stellaris/asoiaf). The first chapter in this story is really good, convincing you that the rest will be as well, but it's not. Actual uplifting happens in this story, or is in the process of happening, and it focus on the known characters living and adapting through it. Just sort of fails to meet my expectations. Actually looks like I have to catch up on this, though it looks to have been abandoned over a year ago. When I read it there was only like 5 chapters.

 

You know, on retrospect, I realize how shitty my taste is, these are all fucking bad.

 

It is incredibly difficult to find a decent Uplift story of any sort that wasn't written by a respected Sci Fi author half a century ago, and I say this as someone who has read a lot of them because I too have trash taste. I almost consider it the Western equivalent to Isekai.

Okay, maybe not that bad. Maybe the equivalent of LitRPG schlock masquerading as a story. Either way, it's a very derivative genre that typically fizzles out after the well trodden first act fun bits end and they have to actually make a compelling narrative. Throw in the fact that, due to most of them being written on Space Battles, the main character is usually a nearly asexual robot that is definitely on a spectrum, you don't usually have a lot to hook you in.

I've read dozens of fics with this premise. I have no recommendations.

That being said, you might find some decent options in the self publishing space rather than fanfiction. Yeah, it's not a setting we know already, but dirt side primitives are the same all around the galaxy. I've been having decent success finding Sci Fi stuff with niche premises there that is, at the very least, a fun time waster. Will report back if I find anything for this.

 

Frankly the whole genre is shit from the start check put a Comneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court to truly see how bad it is.

That's a tech lift that was written by Mark Twain. It's good but I've always felt the premise is inherently flawed.

 

I'm inclined to say that no idea is inherently shit, although some are harder to get right than others. Maybe one day we could take a run at it here, and see what DLP could make of it.

 

The problem with uplift stories is that they either make the main character so intelligent, knowledgeable and competent that it breaks suspension of disbelief or make the people in the setting extremely stupid, incompetent and unable to figure out obvious stuf. Most often it's a mixture of both.

I think the best case where I have seen something like that is in the Anime Log Horizon, where thr uplift makes sense considering just how many people Isekai into that world and the recourses they have access to.

 

How about this: the main character is one of the people being uplifted. The ones doing the uplifting are aliens. Our hero is convinced they have an ulterior motive.

And it later turns out this is true, as the aliens are doing it... out of boredom. They have colonized most of the galaxy and are uplifting various races for shits and giggles. It's all a game for them, just a hobby.

If we later nuke ourselves into oblivion they won't give a shit, or maybe they'll find it funny.

 

im not wild about uplift stories (fics or books) but I will say they tend to work better imo when its not an individual uplifting but like multiple people transported. For example "Island on the Sea of Time". Just because at least its more believable (I find the idea of one person uplifting asoiaf westeros ridiculous for instance).