I liked Dumbledore giving Harry the choice.

 

Thoughts on Journey Through the Dark:

That was, hands down, the best Manipulative!Dumbledore I've ever read. 'GreaterGood' scheming headmaster have, by almost universal law, flat out sucked. Stealing money, denying wills, etc...

This, though...genuinely doing what is best for all and very up-front about his machinations...or is he? Very well done.

The rest of the story is just as good and well written. If no one else does, I'm definitely putting it up for review after another chapter or two.

 

Yeah, that Dumbledore scene was pretty well done--not only did Dumbledore just open Harry's eyes to manipulation, even from people he trusts, he showed Harry how easily he can be manipulated. Maybe this Harry will work on that, somehow. I also like the other lesson Harry was taught, to question the motives behind people's actions. Just that one conversation is an amazing spot to begin some real character growth, especially if the author takes advantage.

 

Journey through the dark... it's an interesting story.

At first, I found the Harry/Susan interaction really painful, but it just kept getting better as time goes on. The H/S interaction is still a little painful, but starting to grow on me.

Dumbledore... pretty epic tbh. I think I need to restate my position of Dumbledore, I hate poorly characterized Dumbledore, but love well written Dumbledore. My hatred of Manipulative!Dumbledore just go killed with this fic.

I was engrossed by the end of the third chapter, and can't wait for the fourth.

 

Agreed with these sentiments. Could eventually be library worthy.

 

I just finished this trilogy for the second time ( first was last summer ) and I must say I enjoyed it just as much as the first read through. It is not a new story by any means, but combined it is nearly 1 million words.

The Ring of Gold
COMPLETED Instead of peace and harmony, Voldemort's fall has created a world of uncertainty and chaos. The Death Eaters are dwindling, waging a hopeless battle without the Dark Lord to lead them. A new conflict is coming, and Ginny finds herself caught

The Amulet of Stone
COMPLETED Sequel to 'The Ring of Gold' With the threat of the Brotherhood gone, Harry and his friends find that an even greater threat on the horizon. Now they must race to find out who is responsible and how they can stop them.

The Jewel of Darkness
COMPLETE Sequel to 'Amulet of Stone' A new darkness has been unleashed on the world and Harry doesn't know how to stop it or even what it truly is. They're only clues come from the strange string of circumstances that led to its escape.

The starts off with Harry disappearing after he kills Voldemort, and people trying to figure out where he went, or if hes even alive. Eventually Harry appears in the picture again and a massive plot arc is slowly revealed with twists within twists and just enough foreshadowing to figure some parts out yourself, but still being surprised by the solutions. It takes a feel similar to that of 'The DaVanci Code' and 'Angels and Demons'. Much of the story delves into lost secrets to uncover hidden knowledge, but one of the main elements of the story is the veil of death in the DOM, which is just one out of many.

That is a very brief summary, but I feel that this is probably the single best action/adventure/mystery/suspense story that I have ever read on here. Of course there are some downfalls, such as the massive word counts (average 300k words, and to put that into perspective, HP and the Philosophers stone is only ~90k words or so). The story gives a lot of detail, sometimes too much, but I did not feel like it detracted from the epicness of the story. The main thing everyone will complain about is the Harry/Ginny pairing. I dislike the pairing as much as the next person, but this story is not a romance. She does play an active role in the story, but the portrayal of all the characters is top notch, and is the very opposite of fangirl writing. I know some people will probably not even open the story, or not get past the first few chapters because of the pairing, but that is their choice. If you get into it with an open mind i think you will be surprised

The story is in the recycling bin, but it got next to no attention. In my opinion the only trilogy that comes close to this is the Hero trilogy by Joe6991. I personally give this story 5/5, even with the 'undesirable' pairing.

 

How long do I need to slog through a ginny-centric story? Around what point does Harry show up? The writing itself seems sound, but I'm not really interested in stories where Harry isn't the central character.

 

About a third of the way through the first story I think, maybe chapter 10 or 11. It took me the better parts of a week to finish the whole trilogy and I honestly forgot the first few chapters were mostly Ginny.

 

All right, I've read it constantly on this site, but this view is just stupid. Harry Potter may be the main character of the Harry Potter franchise, but limiting yourself to stories where he is the central character is willfully disregarding potentially good stories for the sake of... what, exactly? You should critique a Harry Potter story based on its plot, characterization, composition, etc., not on whether Harry is the main character or not.

 

It doesn't matter if they are good stories or not. I read Harry Potter fanfiction to read about Harry Potter, not some supporting character.

If I wanted to read Ron Weasley fanfiction, that is what I'd search for. If I wanted to read Snape fanfiction, that's what I'd search for. I want to read Harry Potter fanfiction, and so thats what I search for.

 

^ Exactly.

 

Harry is still the main character of that trilogy, with 850k+ out of the 900k plus words being with him as the focus. The early stuff is the other characters trying to figure out exactly where Harry disappeared to after he killed Voldemort, and he is eventually found. Its all part of the plot.

 

I'm interested in more comments for that trilogy before I give it a try.

A good big new read would be lovely, though.

 

Well, I would say an open mind is needed. Some parts of it might be considered cliche, but that probably wasn't so when it was written back in '06. There are some prominent OC's, but I think that is to be expected in a story this large.

It is an adventure/mystery novel first and foremost. It makes use of an 'illuminati' or 'free-mason' type secret society as well as an even more behind the scenes 'anti-illuminati.'

The story itself focus around defeating an evil greater than Voldemort could ever dream of being, but the evil is not really given a name for most of the story and is generally behind the scene the whole time. Pretty much Harry is part of the group that has dedicated its entire purpose to controlling that evil and maintaining balance in the world. But none of it is straight-forward as there is much betrayal, twists, foreshadow, embedded plot-arcs and pre-laid out secrets that are told early on but you don't learn the meanings until everything clicks into place at the end of the story.

I honestly think the only reason that people wouldn't want to read it is because Harry isn't seen until the 11th chapter, but it is all part of the story. I understand that some people like to read stuff with plot similarity to stuff they have already read, so they have an idea of what is coming up, but I am pretty sure that anyone who reads this would be thoroughly surprised if they read it without any predetermined hate.

Also, I am not a fan of the Harry/Ginny pairing, but I enjoyed this story very much. I like mysteries that don't go overboard, and I do enjoy extremely long stories. I guess that is enough advocating from me. Everyone else will probably have the exact opposite opinion of me and hate this story regardless.

 

Thanks for the recommendation, Lord Anarchy. While it doesn't appear to be the typical DLP story, this is exactly why we have a thread like this. Folks can read the description and decide whether to take a chance on the story.

As one who doesn't mind long, OC-laden, secret society stories (I even wrote one once upon a time), or even Harry/Ginny as a pairing, I'll take a look.

 

It's in the recycling bin. I knew I had already read it but I was not sure it was due to DLP.

http://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=9478

 

I just read the whole thing Sesc, you've pretty much convinced me on it now.

Will start reading it soon. Looking forward to it, as well.

 

My point was, why do you only want to read fanfiction about Harry Potter? You're willfully limiting yourself for no reason, and that make no sense. Please, clarify this for me.