Series: Normal-verse Series
Stories: 2 Completed (over 400k words) + a new one.
Genre: Action/Adventure. First 2 crossed over with Stargate. The latest with Star Trek.

Rating:R
Summery:

(Book 1) Buffy did not survive her confrontation with the First. Fortunately, Buffy has never been one to let death stand in her way...

(Book 2) Buffy wants another shot at the First. Not everyone thinks this is a good idea. Especially since the First knows she's coming.

5/5.

An epic in almost every sense. While I'm dodgy about the new one, I'm still looking forward to reading it.

edit: Okay, I take that back. The 3rd book is already pretty awesome.

I usually divide my appraisal of fanfiction into two discrete compartments: one, dealing with style and grammar and mode of writing in other words how it's written, while the other, deals with plot, characters, dialog, and essentially, what is written.

This story falls a bit short in the first criteria. Grammar is, pretty much impeccable, adequate vocabulary and all that, but the style is rather boring at times, and he does tend to quite a bit of tell. Despite that, the reason for this to be rated 5/5 from is how well it makes up on the second.

I knew nothing of Stargate before I began, and now, most of all that I know has been garnered from this and a couple of other Stargate/Buffy crossovers that I've happened across. The one thing that I can unequivocally state is that the mingling of the two mythologies, or the PtB's and the Ascendent, and the mythos that the author has created to explain the nature and function of the the first, the key, higher powers...these systems are nothing short of exemplary. There is quite a bit of politics here, moral, social, wartime, and a quite a bit of introspection as Buffy tries to find a place in a new world. (at parts, kinda like a Stranger in a Strange Land HP fic, only epicer.) And...

Well, that's it. All I'll end with is try it.

 

There's a new one out?!

/bolts to go read it.

Also, that picture is great. Goes really well with the series.

Edit;

Read the available chapters. They were good, but I'm a little confused.

The author says that this is going to be crossing over to the Star Trek verse. I haven't seen Star Trek, so could someone give me some back story on that universe?

Spoiler

When Buffy comes back to life, she has all this extra stuff with her. I think she had them cremated with her.... that is just stupid.

 

How about a bit of a more in-depth review/summary?

I recall coming across this a few times and I think I tried to read it once and didn't like it, so you gotta convince me.

Edit: I'm on chapter 13 of the first one and am remembering why I stopped reading this last time... there's so much filler, and so little plot. Not decent filler either, but constant angst and preaching on the topic of terrorism, torture, etc.

It's not so much as story as it is a dissertation on libertarian ideals.

What little plot there is is good, but the story could easily be 10 times shorter and be better for it.

Also, if I remember the story correctly, she ends up back in contact with her old world, which is a big crossover faux pas in my books.

I give this 3/5 and that's fairly generous.

 

I really hate this fic, and only the good writing gives it a 2/5 in my book.

Why? It just doesn't feel like BtVS, not in the least. One of the awesome things about BtVS is that everyone gets to be cool. The four original Scoobies are an outcast, a dork, a nerd, and a librarian, and they're all really cool. Marcie Ross was ignored by everyone and a school pariah, but she got to turn invisible and eventually become a paid assassin! Jonathan Levinson was just a pathetic extra for a couple years, but he got to be both a Superhero AND a Supervillian before being betrayed to meet an untimely end! The heroes are cool! The villians are cool! Even the extras get to be cool! And nobody's really that ugly, just because (unless they're supposed to be ugly, and then theyre usually scary). In spite of it being a universe where it's really easy and arbitary to get dead, it's also a universe where you really get a chance to shine in spite of any character shortcomings you may have. It's a universe where people die a lot, but people are rarely crippled or power drained (heck, dying sometimes lets the character be a Vampire, and then they can still be sorta cool, even if they have to be evil).

In this fic, we have the torture angst, the omnipresent nerd hate, the creation of an Ugly Slayer OC just to give Andrew a pairing that isn't "cooler than he deserves", the Body Theft angst. Many cases of character bashing, one of them aggrevated in the extreme. Cases of permanent crippling just for the angsts. The list of crimes goes on. Being cool in this fic is a privilege, not a right (Didn't you hate when teachers said that?). It's like a Season Six of Season Six, without Sexy!Evil!Willow.

It's like JaKL turned BtVS into a Vampire. The series' soul is gone.

 

I remember linking this in another thread ages ago. I like it a lot, fB.

Aha, here it is. April '08.

I've re-read it all since then, and in retrospect some of the flaws from the first story stood out more, but I was able to enjoy Book 2 a lot more this time around. I'll reserve judgement on Book 3 for now, but I'm reading every chapter as it's released.

Redefining Normal (Buffy/SG1 - After being killed by the First, Buffy wakes up in SG1'verse and fights against an attempted alien takeover of Earth)
Return to Normal (Buffy/SG1 - Buffy and SG1 et al fight the First Evil (who's posessing Buffy's body) with the help of the Key and the Quantum Mirror)
Far Beyond Normal (Buffy/Startrek - Buffy is resurrected in a post-acopalyptic Earth where we can see evidence of early StarTrek lore - in progress)

 

1. Far Beyond Normal
Buffy did not survive her confrontation with the First. Fortunately, Buffy has never been one to let death stand in her way...
Stargate > Buffy-Centered > Chapters [25] > Completed [Yes]

Buffy awakens in the Stargate universe after dying in the Hellmouth.

2. Return To Normal
Buffy wants another shot at the First. Not everyone thinks this is a good idea. Especially since the First knows she's coming.
Stargate > Buffy-Centered > Chapters [28] > Completed [Yes]

Buffy and the SG1 team try to find a way into the Buffyverse to kill the First. Meanwhile in the Buffyverse the First controls thousands of Slayers all around the world... the remaining Scoobies, excuding a few key members, attempt to fight back.

3. Redefining Normal
Buffy has been brought back to life in a world radically transformed. Powerful forces are attempting to force Humanity on the 'correct' path. Unfortunately for them, Buffy has her own ideas about destiny...
Star Trek > Multiple Series > Chapters [12] > Updated [13 Oct 09] > Completed [No]

I haven't read this one yet so.. Buffy is resurrected in a post-acopalyptic Earth.

 

I'm halfway through the second story now, but I'm strongly considering to stop reading, even though I only read it on the 2nd monitor while I wait for things to happen on the 1st. (loading times, etc.)

The long discussions and all the introspection is really boring and annoying. I also never know which parts are just author tract and which parts are just supposed to be the way the specific character sees the world.
The author shouldn't tell us what the characters' strengths and flaws are, he should just show it through actual interactions and stuff happening. By that I don't mean chapter long discussions between characters that don't progress the story at all.
I wouldn't even really have anything against that if they were actually discussing interesting things and good points are made, but it feels more like beating a dead horse most of the time.
Torture is bad. Oh really? Golly thanks, I didn't know that yet!


Also: some of the bad things that happen seemed just a bit too bad to be believable.
Spoiler Alert here.

At the beginning of the story Buffy and her parents are attacked. Not just by a mugger, by a whole gang, by a whole gang who also beat them up... and want to rape them.
One of these things would have been more than enough to get the sympathy of the reader. By making it the worst possible thing that could happen, it challenges my willing suspension of disbelief.
Then of course the whole Dr. Mengele act where they torture her just to see how she works and try to 'reprogram' her... really???
Later when she gets Faith, Faith is not just abused by her father, no she is actually raped, with multiple people including her father looking on AND filmed. Why not put her in a cage too and a donkey in the room?
It just seemed a bit much at times.