The fourth chapter is up, and I found it good, even though it was still setting up. Harry is getting used to his new time, and the different people that he knew from before.
All in all pretty good.
Stephenie

 

I liked the first part, but this is just too confusing. Harry has like 7 kids, 13 grand-kids, 67 great grand-kids, 175 cousins of all ages and a truckload or two of new/old friends he's trying to reacquaint. And they ALL get to have screen-time and appear important for some reason. It's maddening, like trying to cut into some Spanish telenovella half-way through. I can't wait for this new dark lord to step in and kill a score or two of them. Clear up the field a bit.

 

As for chap. 3; I fucking hate prophecies. That one even more so.

 

The problem with all fanfiction prophecies is that there's no subtlety or elegance. At least JKR's prophecy had some leg room and meter...

 

Yeah, "extra prophesies" suck a bit, and are the tool of a person who can't figure out a way to make their plot work without getting supernatural powers involved.

Speaking of supernatural powers, the idea of a semi-sentient "Time" that is trying to reverse the changes Harry made sucks major donkey balls, and is an ultimate cop out.

 

Presuming that the 'All powerful' time is what's trying to correct it. I seem to recall that in the potterverse (that we know of) a dark lord crops up every 15-20 years. personally I'd say it's just the rise of the next one rather than some Uber!Fate mechanism.

I'd also like to point out that the river theory (mentioned above) was only mentioned in conjunction with the Chaos theory. Basically it was characters speculating on why the author has introduced a new evil, and really, what did you expect? without Voldimort Harry needs some evil to fight (other than boredom) or else there's no reason to write a sequel.

 

Also, the river theory points out that like a river, you can build concrete walls along the sides to control the flow of the river (both depth and direction), but where the wall stops, the river will do as it pleases again.

Luna mentions that while the prophesy might come true no matter what they do, HOW it comes true is up to them. A ticking timebomb might explode, if you can't disarm it, but you can move it into a secure space where its explosion won't hurt anyone.

 

In the story, the author mentiones that the river will try to get back to the way it had been before, i.e. correcting itself.

Which is bullshit, really.

 

Right, but the point I'm trying to make is that the river theory isn't necessarly what's going on, it's simply one of the two theorys put forth in an 'in story' discussion about the potential effect of timetravel on the reality of the story.

 

The river stuff was just stupid.

Water goes the path of least resistance, it doesn't fight (this is what Eastern philosophies based their ideas off of) or try to correct itself, it just lets gravity do its thing.

I've read a couple stories with time wanting to "correct itself" which isn't such a bad idea – just the fact that it was revealed so early on in the story... again, subtley is key in writing. Giving away the nature of time in a story is pretty crucial and anticlimactic. Especially when revealing this fact only served to tell us that bad guys would be showing up because of said deus ex.

He may as well have said, "God did it," because then we could all atleast laugh.

 

I'd laugh if you got struck down by a lightning bolt from the heavens ^.^

or did you mean in the fic? :-/

 

It's been updated.

New chapter was okay. Still suffering from way to many people and to much extended family stuff, even the scene at the end with Katie the healer felt weird because she isn't a real character for the reader. All the family members are like brand new OC's even the ones who appeared in AD because of the time jump. The author has abandoned fleshing out the adult characters though, and can't seem to really explore Harry and his children.

Duel was neat although we need much more action, and all the step up for Harry's Unspeakable posse could have been replaced with them actually doing stuff, going places, and blowing shit up.

Oh well, still has potential and I am loath the neglect any strong Harry/Not-a-pussy which is even reasonably well written.

A qualified 4/5 based on potential. Subject to change.

 

About history... I think it was said best in Legacy of Kane...

History abhors a paradox.

 

Yeah, DEL is a great writer. Yes, Altered Destinies was epic and fairly legendary as being the one of the greatest "redo"s ever. Probably the best I've ever read, certainly the best that comes to mind right now.

Balancing Destinies, so far, has the capability to be good, but the plot so far hasn't really had the chance to be introduced. Not necessarily a bad thing, as this indicates a story of some length like Altered was. Right now, the only real "plot" we can see is that Harry's gathering allies and training them. I think its still premature to rate it on what it is, but based on the author's history, the good writing, and what will likely develop into an interesting plot.

Of course, the entire premise of this suffers from the characteristic problem of when Harry goes back and fixes things. When he gets back, things are fixed! No more canonical problems for Harry to deal with, so invent new problems. I think DEL is good enough to make some good new challenges, though, so I always look forward to an update from him.

By the way, yes, there are a bunch of new characters - its almost like reading a real book, I think - but it looks like he'll be focusing on the important couple of Harry's grandkids or whatever as he takes some to train and leaves the rest in the background.

Kevin

 

Just updated.

 

I've always been a fan of DEL's work, frankly because he takes the time to build a story in all it's elements. He doesn't focus just on romance, action, and he doesn't stay confined to the cliches that can be found among other work of the 'time travel' or 'redo' genre.

I've enjoyed Balancing Destines a great deal so far. Firstly the first few chapters didn't focus on any extreme action. And I think that is good because essentially this world is very different from the original 'canon' world that Harry came from. I think we as readers needed time to adjust to new characters, new situations, as well as some fun similarities.

Some commented on the Time travel theory being used here. And quite honestly I like it, if only because it is different that the most common ideas out there. Most either tend to go with a 'Back to the Future' approach where you have the power to change things and create a shift in the time line, or they stick with JKR's the past is immutable, you can't change anything because it has already happened approach. At the very least this idea is new and different. (Not perhaps as a time travel theory but different in most fanfic circles. To my knowledge) And I think DEL has done and decent job not making this 'correction' into a god-like figure but more as a natural counter measure to Harry's meddling.

Also, I have no doubt that there will be enough Action to come. When I first started read Altered Destines I had no idea I was venturing into perhaps one of the best stories about WWII and Grindlewald's influence.

Harry's character is also first rate. I love that he looks eighteen but is really a grandfather and great-grandfather. Little things pop up from time to time and make me laugh. DEL does a great job of interconnecting a lot of different aspects of his story. Having Viktor Krum and Hermione Granger be distantly related...smiles, that was interesting. Poor Viktor.

But perhaps what I enjoy the most in this work is the subtle developing that is occurring. Plot isn't thrown at you, you can trace the movements back to where it started. I expect a very interesting plot to occur, after all DEL created an excellent history for a magical WWII based on very few indicators.

 

The problem with this is that, because Harry fixed things, there is pretty much no realistic way that he can fall from such a position of power to losing. Any plot that contains any kind of loss for Harry's side will feel contrived. Any plot that doesn't contain peril will be dull. DEL has written himself into a corner.

 

I have a feeling that some of the big "obstacles" will be political, as DEL has focused a lot on the upcoming MoM campaigns, particularly Crouch Sr.

Since Harry is mostly untouchable in terms of magical power, and with Tom on his side even more so, I think that's the only arena where they can "lose". Not all action has to be AK's a-flyin'.

 

I don't think it is necessary impossible for realistic conflict to happen. For instance, I think it would be particularly dramatic for the enemy in this fic to pull a cannon Voldemort and engage in a campaign of terrorism.

Although the author has to be ballsy enough to really start killing off a lot of Harry's extended family. In effect this fic would then be the mirror image of the last one, whereas in AD Harry has (with few exceptions) nothing to lose, in this fic he has everything to lose. I think that actually might work as a dramatic element, because in many ways the OC's really don't have much of a point as there are just to many of them. In fact one of the only good uses of so many of them is just to kill them all off.

A terrorism campaign, where like 50-80% of Harry's new family dies, would be quite interesting as it returns Harry psychologically to where he was at the start of the other fic and forces him to confront his battles alone. And terrorism, unlike the war of the other fic, is not stopped by the presence of the power imbalance, as the enemy strikes with killing curses and ambushes (no pussy footing kidnapping). The bottom line is that the only way this fic can realistically work is with lots of death on the side of the good guys.

Either that or Harry goes of the reservation killing his own family. Which would be awesome.

 

The problem with that is that the wizarding world is in a much stronger position than it was when Voldemort started his campaign. If Voldemort appeared now, he shouldn't be successful.

The bottom line is that this fic will only work if many of the good guys were dead, but the only way that the good guys would be in a position of weakness enough that they could be killed off would be if they were already dead...