Title: Summer Rains
Author: vballmania23
Rating: K+
Genre: General
DLP Category: General
Pairing: None
Words: 818
Published: August 21, 2008
Status: Oneshot
Summary: "A dark figure shuffles along the sidewalk. My first thought is that it is one of my old war buddies. It is in the way he walks, shoulders hunched and head bowed." Someone sees Harry walking in the rain and reflects. Set any summer post-GoF.
Link: Summer Rains

I read this a VERY long time ago, I almost forgot that it's still there. This probably isn't a DLP-material; no DarkHarry, no actions, even no Dialogue at all. But it's beautifully written, so visual and touching it made my heart ache, and even after long times, I still touched when I reading this.

No, I'm not into soppy sappy here. It's just the author wrote this in a very realistic and nice-fashioned way. The POV is great, the description is decent, the background is so realistic, the way he described Harry's condition is beautiful, and it's full of emotions.

Of course this is not Mind-blowing, Grand-Fantasy type of Oneshot fic. But it's good, decent, and touching, packed in short 818 words. Really worth your time.

And, finally, 4/5 from me.

Spoiler

I may be biased. Personally, I think I can understand the character’s thought. Maybe in fifty years I will be in his place, just staring outside the window and wondering where the strong body that carry me to battlefields and back gone, wondering what happened to the young man out there that made him looked like he had faced more battles than me.

Checked by Minion, July 29, 2013

 

Its well written, but of course very short.

I always feel weird about putting a number rating on a short one shot like this.

The author accomplished exactly what he meant to, and did it well. It's worth reading, but not totally satisfying in the way a longer story might be. 4/5.

 

Just too short, honestly. 750 words does not a story make. Could be an interesting one-shot material wise, but eh - partly seems like it's trying to hard.

 

Really liked it. It's just a very nice scene, not even a one shot really. It's the kind of thing that would get lost in a longer story as filler, but by itself it stands well.

It's charm is that it immerses you in such few words. Definitely library worthy.

 

What Zennith said. Too short, and comes off trying to hard to contain a lot of meaning in a small number of words. I simply didn't get into it.

 

I liked it. Technically it flowed very well from one sentence to the next, the language was aesthetically appealing (though the author could have used the word 'war' less) and I especially liked the last line. Very poetic.

A solid 4/5 for me, despite the low word count.

 

I thought it was a good idea, but it fell slightly short in its execution. Perhaps I'm picky, but in a stand-alone of this length, the author has the luxury of indulgence and can work the piece into something bordering on poetry, layered with imagery rich in symbolic resonance and metaphor that make you bolt awake at night, thinking. Compare with Lady Altair's Cauterize.

I guess I wanted it like the bit role in Wayne's World 2, where they get Charlton Heston in for a minor scene cameo. That the fragment here isn't quite so polished lends it the feel of a start of a novel, not its own universe.

I'm rating it 3/5 for an effort that I thought was good, but not quite great enough to be archived in the Library.

 

What Nuhuh said.

4/5

 

I'm sorry. I tried to read your post but all I could see was a zebra riding a motorbike.

 

Written in a no-nonsense way, fitting the subject matter and the character. Nice, but I didn't like the ending that much. Could've had a slightly better execution. It being brushed aside and presented in a non-essential way is alright, but I'd been waiting for it since the character was mentioned.

Meh, 3.5/5

 

Fixed (as of a rather large purchase I made today).

 

Jealous. That's pimp.

 

I'm with Persp, here. This feels like the beginning of something rather than a stand alone piece. It's well written and I like what's there, but I can't help feeling that there should be something following it.

3/5

 

Eh, utterly pointless and without impact.

An exercise to show some writing that takes itself too seriously. No oomph.

2/5 for what it is presented as. 3/5 as a technical piece.