So basically any of Rowling's books?

 

Yup. It is very similar in that way to Rowling. And just like Rowling, it's pretty enjoyable to read, full of interesting ideas. It's just that one ends up wishing that it had been more fleshed out, deeper. Frustration is the usual result of this wishing.

 

Damn, that is a backhanded compliment if I ever heard one.

Yeah, I found the new chapter... interesting, but nothing great.

 

Ug, I just can't win. It's good that people pick up on little things, cuz it means they're paying attention, but I don't think I can handle the wildly swinging opinions from one chapter to the next. Is this normal? To have such strong reactions over small things? Is anybody reading the story to enjoy what it is, rather than picking out everything that it's not?

I haven't even gotten to the meat of the story, and already I feel like giving it up as a lost cause. Shit.

 

Nah don't do that, the fact that you are receiving comments shows that people are still reading and are interested. They are also taking the time to comment and try and improve it. If you weren't getting any comments their either you
a) have no readers
b) your readers are mindless with no ideas for improvement

You may think that some comments are harsh, but it is all meant to improve the story

 

IMO, Harry's mercy can be a little overstated. JKR was writing childrens books where she couldn't have her hero murdering people left and right, and he still dropped a crucio on someone just for getting mouthy, and he was never too broken up over Quirrell's death. I just think that if you put Harry in the type of situation that JKR didn't -- where he's been starring in Spartacus and is about to get his eyes gouged out for Lucy's amusement -- it's not super-OOC to have him respond in a more murderous, less pussy forgiveness way (like just leaving him to die).

Hopefully, the point of bringing Malfoy to the alterna-world is that Harry is going to have to feed him to the dementors there to save himself and thus takes another step on the path of being less gay.

And yeah, the story's good. Maybe some people object to making wands out of blood or whatever, but I'm quite enjoying reading it.

 

It's bullshit that you can't conjure food. Someone can conjure up a live chicken, but can't conjure a dead and cooked one. Bologna. Giving it life should be the more impossible one.

The story's great. Don't let people discourage you.

 

Ah, thanks guys. I guess as long as people are still interested enough to talk about it, then it's all good. I just hope that people are actually enjoying the story.

About conjuration and whatnot... the way I see it is that you can't create something permanent out of nothing. So in the case of say Dumbledore's infamous chairs; those are essentially illusions, which will go away once he drops the illusion. He holds it together himself.

A transfiguration or a conjuration (and this is just my interpretation as it'll happen in the story) requires you to have the right base materials available. So maybe you could conjure a chicken if you had a bag full of dirt and a bunch of water (it's a rearrangement of the right sorts of elements) but not if you just had a rock (which wouldn't have the necessary inorganic components).

Same for the water spells--if there's no water around you, where's it coming from? I think magic is absurdly convenient enough without being able to literally pull stuff out of thin air, and it makes things more difficult for the characters, too. Which is always good. Maybe I'm too literal-minded. Meh.

 

All matter is made out of the same stuff at the basic level. So, couldn't you conjure anything just out of pure energy? I'd be willing to believe that you couldn't conjure out of nothing but where in the universe are you going to find nothing? Even space has crap in it; energy or otherwise.

 

Hm, I guess that depends on how much a wizard is capable of manipulating matter, eh? Let's say that it would be possible to make a chicken out of atmospheric particles, but much more difficult than if you had the right ones in the right quantity already. It's just one less step in the process. Maybe a very skilled wizard could do it, but it would take more energy to accomplish an atmospheric chicken than what you would gain from eating said... atmospheric chicken.

I'm pretty sure I'm definitely taking too much of a non-fantasy view point on this, but I kind of have this pleasant picture of master conjurers carrying around bags of dirt.

 

Didn't McGonagall conjure food for HP and Ron in CoS after they had crashed the car and were in the meeting with her and Snape? Or was it house elfs?

 

The idea that a wizard with less experience / skil would have to base his conjuring / transfiguration on existing materials rather than pulling it out of thin air as a transfiguration master would be able to do has quite some appeal.

And since Harry has pretty much no experience with conjuring water from air, and probably no idea how it is supposed to work, the magic responds to his wish of having water spray from the tip of his wand - to the best of his abilities.

The amount of votes/ratings the story has received shows that there are more people out there reading/enjoying the story than there are people reviewing it. Since we are a civilisation of critics, it's far easier to say something if you have found a fault than simply saying something good.

 

Oh fuck off with your magical theories and objections and all that bullshit. Everyone's tired of you bleating on about it.

Rusty, I enjoyed the chapter at the very least.

 

this is thread is gonna go this way it seem.

I enjoyed it enough to read and recheck for new chapters.

 

You seem to have missed my point, so I'll explain it again for you in small words.

It is not a matter of enjoyment. I enjoyed the chapter. I said that I enjoyed the chapter. It's a matter of what quality I consider the story to be, which is a very different thing to how much I enjoyed it. And when considering quality, you have to take into account all the little details: is the world plausible? Would these events actually happen, or do I have to suspend my disbelief in order to continue?

This fic, for me, passes the enjoyment test but fails the quality test (though it's still of good enough quality for 3/5, I think).

So shut the fuck up and crawl back into whatever hole you came from.

 

You suspend your disbelief every time you read a piece of Harry Potter fanfiction.