Title: HIs Twenty-Eighth Life
Author: Lomonaaeren
Rating: M
Genre: Alternates
Status: WIP
Library Category:
Summary:
Harry Potter has been reborn again and again into new bodies as the Master of Death, some of them not human, none of them exactly like his old one—but he has always helped to defeat Voldemort in each new world. Now he's Harry Potter again, but his slightly older brother is the target of the prophecy, and Harry assumes his role is going to be to support Jonathan in his defeat of Voldemort. At least, that's what he thinks until Voldemort comes that Halloween night, discovers what Harry is, and kidnaps him. The story of a long fight between Voldemort's sadism and Harry's generosity
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12597395/1/His-Twenty-Eighth-Life

The premise is intriguing and the writing itself is technically and thematically done well. There's a lot of it already written (78 chapters/250 words) and it was last updated this month, so I'm reasonably confident it'll be finished.

The writer manages to deliver on the premise and actually takes it further than that, with themes of alternate dimensions and magical lore, including some elemental stuff as well as Master-of-Death themed necromancy, paired with some interesting spell concepts. The characters are well written, and Harry's character especially is interesting. The author took the idea of a harry living for a cumulative 1000+ years and wrote the effects of that pretty well, so there are occasional philosophical bits. Really doubles down in the love is the most powerful magic thing, thankfully not in a literal sense.

There are some disclaimers; there is a Bad Dumbledore element, although that's explained in the premise of multiple worlds always with some subtle differences with far reaching consequences. And even then he doesn't actually go evil. Then there's the harry/voldemort relationship, which is a central theme to the story. It's not romantic, but it is angsty at times. I would compare it to potdk in that respect.

 

Just noting that the author's profile states that "this will eventually be HPLV slash", so it would appear that the homosexual romance will be coming.

 

It says the same in the FF.net summary. That will be a no from me.

 

Imagine my surprise when seeing someone daring to recommend Lomonaaeren on DLP.

Lomonaaeren is a solid prose writer with an inflexible characterisation of a very particular brand of fanon Harry Potter. She is terrifyingly good at finishing her WIPs, but she is a very prolific writer of m/m pairings; every about 5/6 fics she's written has been m/m. As such, while her non-romance plots are sometimes intriguing, her romance plots are very... cookie cutter, at least once you've read more than three of her stories. As such, her characterisation of the love interests of her stories tend also to be eerily reminiscent of each other. She is a great abuser of the Pureblood Politics™ trope, as well as certain other DLP triggers like Magical Core™ and similar. Even without the obvious signature of rigid slash romances, her stories tend to write character emotions and interactions in the way that many slash stories like to write: overly upfront, naively simple, and unrealistic.

Now, coming from someone who has read and enjoyed her stories, I must say: none of them are worthy of any more than a 3/5 from DLP, and that's if I disregard the community's bias against m/m pairings. Her prose is solid enough to be a 4, but her stories overall don't show corresponding promise. I won't vote on this thread considering I haven't read more than a chapter of the fic in question, but the fact that I had trouble continuing after already reading a chapter is quite telling.

Either way, why I'm replying to this thread at all is actually just to make the following quip: recommending as prolific a slash writer as Lomonaaeren to this community is brave indeed; OP is to be commended.

 

I was willing to give this one a go and read all the way through to chapter 25 and this was the exact moment I dropped this shitpile:

It's Dumbledore-bashing, nothing more than that. It's always been like that, almost from the get go, but you didn't really see it properly because he didn't really have enough screen-time, but there you go.

In the author's ever increasing need to show off a reasonable Voldemort, they make Dumbledore more unreasonable as it goes on.

Because of this, it's a 1/5.

 

This echoes my thoughts! There’s something to be said for an author with 600+ fics on A03. If they started writing in 2008, they’ve written a minimum 40+ stories each year. That said, a majority of those fics are well-written, easily digestible and some are even thought provoking.

I have struggled to read this particular story but can see how it echoes many of the themes that DLP readers enjoy. Again, following what @mercuryandglass glass said this is a brave choice given this community.