Okay, I've read jbern's The Lie I've Lived and the rest of his stuff, I've read Renegade Cause, I've read the Innocence of Guilt, Forging the Sword, Ectomancer, and most of the 5 starred Indy-Harry fics from the library. I'm looking for any novel-length quality stories in the genre that have cropped up recently- at this point I'm willing to read straight-faced Harry/Dobby, if it's well written enough. I've been checking the Almost Recommended thread, and nothing has really been recced.

Is this genre being taken over by absolute crap?

 

You listed the greats that I can think of. It's not that it was a particularly novel genre anyway; the differences lie in what method Harry goes about being independant, which have sort of streamlined over the years due to popular opinion (fifth year, inheritence-based boosts, etc.).

The best chance of finding new stuff is probably by skimming a few pages a day of Harry-main stories on ffnet by length.

 

To be fair, interest in the fandom has been winding down as of late. And the genre's been done so much that it can feel stale now.

Only story that you haven't listed that I can recommend off the top of my head is Time, Mr. Potter? - not well-known, but I enjoyed it.

I'm almost tempted to take that as a challenge, now you've asked for it... :awesome

 

VINCET? Years of Rebellion? Err... belleradh's Keys to Summer and abandoned sequel (still fairly decent Indy!Harry with HP/NT).

All of kmfrank's stuff, I guess.

Uh.. What Lies Beneath, by Master Slytherin (highly overlooked).

BajaB's Fugitives of Azkaban (the only Azkaban story I've ever managed to read). The rest of his stuff is good too but not exactly what you're looking for.

Lady Salazar also has a bunch of good stuff. The Meaning of the Name and Unholy both come to mind, and though Steps Far From Paradise is my favorite work by her it doesn't exactly fit the genre you're looking for. Still, read all of it.

That's all I can think of for the moment.

 

Already read VINCET, Years of Rebellion, Keys to Summer + sequel, most of kmfrank's stories (I may have flamed Harry Potter and the Unlocked Knowledge under one of my burner names or it may have been a rip off of it), I know I've read BajaB's stuff (all of it- he's a phenomenal author), however Master Slytherin and Lady Salazar are names I haven't come across. I'll take a look at them, but I'm looking for more recent stuff.

 

Have you perchance read this:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4860491/1/Harry_Potter_Superhero

I found it quite good, as well as amusing.

 

I would also like to find a decent Indie!Harry story, especially one that doesn't use the shitty 'Manipulative!Dumbledore' cliche. Hell, a Supportive!Dumbledore would be fucking ace.

Hell, even a more proactive Harry in a complete, realistic canon rehash would be acceptable to me - I'm getting a tad desperate, as you can see.

 

I'm going to hesitantly recommend Other People's Magic. After 150k words the plot finally seems to get moving. Harry is definitely proactive.

Warning: the story seems to a sketchpad of ideas similar to MoR, though not as blatant about it. Also it's not "fixing" everything.

 

Proactive!Harry is pretty much what Indy!Harry is based on isn't it? The only difference is that Indy!Harry has more wangst and quippage, backed by plot armor.

I just finished What Lies Beneath- it was alright, but it really belongs in the Dark Arts section.

 

Maybe, yeah. And you seriously finished it in two hours? I thought at 25k words/hr I was a fairly fast reader, but... wow.

 

800 words a minute is my average. However, to be fair I did skim a lot of Voldemort's monologue at the end- probably somewhere in the realm of 2000 words of it or so. It was really poorly written.

Looking at it again, it managed to encapsulate pretty much every cliche of the Dark Arts genre that I find mildly distasteful, while avoiding the truly unforgivable ones. Slytherin Blank Slate #1 is the sudden new love interest, Harry begins acting like Voldemort because it's obviously the only way to beat him, Horcrux as a source of magical knowledge (This is so dated as a plot device, even Prefect Lionheart uses it!), Death Eater tactics against Death Eaters is A-OK, Hilariously unrealistic Dumbledore, "The Ministry must fall!", and how could I miss: Harry makes his own Death Eaters, but with a "better" name.

 

I think it's mean to be read as more of a mystery story than anything else, as that's what it does well. You're right in that everything else is.. generic. Well, I liked some of the scenes at the Gaunt house at the end, as well as the part at the DoM. Everything else was rather middling.

 

I will grant you that bit in the Hall of Prophecy, with Snape, was pretty epic. However, in Harry's position, I would have been all "Stupefy! Accio Polyjuice! Reducio Snape!"

 

The problem I had with this fic, besides some gripes about characterization (mostly Harry's), is the fact that there is pretty much no conflict; at least none that I could perceive. I read up to like chapter 12 and all it is is Harry learning magic and doing shit with his annoying friends. Not even the barest hint of conflict besides a passing mention or two about Harry feeling uneasy about Quirrel.

Also, it's 150k in length, and NOTHING has happened (as of ch. 12). It's still in Harry's first year and the plot gave no signs of moving forward.

Had to drop that one, despite the fact that some of the author's ideas are neat and semi original.

 

Darth Marrs picked up my Detention in Defense story and is making a go of it with his Detention for Two. It's not the highest quality bit of fiction out there, but it has its moments. At least there's no interminable shopping trip.

 

I'm following that, but the way that he had set up Harry and Ginny in a romantic sense? Makes me want to gag, badly! Also, the Luna thing?

 

Yeah, I've mentioned the ship setup in another thread, but it actually seems to be improving. I mean, as much as it can improve while using Manipulative!Dumbledore and RAEG!Snape.

Edit: @Demons: Yeah, the fact that it takes 120k words (approx) to get to conflict (with Snape, of all people) is irritating. That said, I've read this far and since it's finally gotten there, I might as well keep reading. The justification for Dumbledore's negligence is interesting if not particularly... strong. The whole thing with goblins is eh, whatever, but an almost rational extension of Flitwick's mentoring. Hopefully we get to the point where important things actually start happening.

 

Okay, I'm on chapter 10, and for a blatantly Super!Harry, with the lulzy SuperSpy!Lockhart, it's... almost readable. If I squint. Who the fuck am I kidding- this is pretty crappy. I'll read more in the vain hope that it gets better, but Pers, that was a pile of non-indy!Harry flavored shit you just fed me.

 

The quality of Darth Marrs' writing varies greatly. The Forever Mage is probably his best fic, though it's a sequel to a mediocre harem story. The Boy Who Fell is readable, if you can stand a Star Wars OC as the protagonist. Beyond that... eh.

 

I've put Darth Marrs on my loathing list. I despise this creepy old men pseudo romance style with paper thin characters in some plot running on trails. He's in well known company there with Radaslab and a certain club of self styled Harmony writers.:fire


Anyway, as a suggestion for a fresh story I'm surprised it's not in the reviews yet.

RedTideZero's prologue to his longer and still active Independent/Dark story. It has some raw fear feeling in a hard boiled style you can emphasize with. Something Renegard Cause and the Potter Conspiracy delivered in some scenes. Imho classical DLP material. It starts with the graveyard scene which ends really different and leads to Harry being put into Nurmengard by Fudge while some really bad ass Grindlewald starts his 2nd world conquest. If he could only write faster but maybe a few DLP reviews could help with the motivation.