I like the concept. Hoping for Harry to decide to rebel later on though. Probably not going to happen. 5/5 so far.

 

If Darth Marrs could actually pull it off like Warlocke described, it would be a 5/5 story. As it stands, though, it gets a tentative 4/5 from me. It's genuinely intriguing, and the fact that Darth Marrs has finally written something that can hold my attention is heartening, but I can't help worrying that he'll drag it down with his usual brand of bland harem bullshit. Hopefully this is proof he's progressing as a writer.

 

Thanks much... though I didn't really mention anything that I didn't already see (at least implied) on the page.


Oh, I'll add that it's likely the muggleborn witches, if anyone, who could get away with wandering off to bed a muggle man. The purebloods, on the other hand, would probably rather eat dirt.

This AU provides a built in reason for purebloods to hate the muggleborn, at least so far as the women are concerned. And, since they're more or less running the show, that's going to be the prevailing sentiment.

Here they are, short on men already; they know they'll likely have to share a husband with at least one other witch, and odds are pretty good that they won't like said witch or witches, those witches won't like them, and to top it all off, they might not even like the guy they're sharing, either (love potions, they aren't just for reluctant guys *chug-a-lug*); and then they have these ignorant muggleborn women showing up to compete for their wizards, which makes all of the other problems even worse!

They're placed in tight competition for husbands with these interlopers and, at the end of the day, they might just have to share a wizard with someone who barely knows their culture, with whom they only have magic and a desire for family in common, who probably neither knows nor cares about the pride one can have in one's own rich, millennia-spanning family history. Muggleborns, they can barely remember that they even had a great grandfather, and think that's what family history means...

I think we've all seen examples of how resentful and violent people can be when they think someone of a different race/nationality/fictional ship (lol) is stealing their women/men.

It's interesting to think about Dumbledore, so powerful in canon, but also so alone. Here, he almost undoubtedly has or had wives, plural, but does he retain the same gender preference he did in canon (well, word-of-god canon, at any rate)? Was the power he wielded in the books, to defeat Grindelwald and hold Voldemort at bay, divvied up between however many wives they could set upon him, like leeches, without killing him, when all he wanted was a wizard?

"Oh, if only I could find the gutter, much less enter it."

Kind of puts a poignant spin on that quote, if you consider that guy-on-guy interaction probably qualifies as being part of said 'gutter', as far as the witches are concerned.

Shit, Grindelwald's little war is probably held up as an example of what can go so very wrong when you don't properly 'settle' a wizard with a good wife, or two, or three.

Whether the story makes good on its promise or not, it certainly provokes thought... or, at least, aggravates my tendency to ramble on.

 

It just looks like Darth Marrs has a hard on for Witches by giving them all this power over Wizards. At the moment, there is basically nothing a Wizard can do to be independent, except for going the route of a Dark Lord. It's decently written but the premise is a real problem for me. I don't want to read on much further to find out if there might be a way out for Wizards. 3/5

 

I'd probably go the Voldemort route, too (assuming his motivations changed to reflect the society).

Dosers, first up against the wall.

 

For people who find the premise of this story interesting, you might want to read the published novel A Brother's Price by Wen Spencer. Same basic concept, minus magic and much better done.

There are so many similarities it's where I suspect Darth Marrs got the inspiration for this story from. Even the summaries are similar. Compare:

Firebird's Son snippet: "But will a world run by women, in which wizards are commodities to be controlled and threats to be contained..."

Line from A Brother's Price synopsis: "in a world where males are rarely born, they've become a commodity-traded and sold like property..."

Anyway, even the unique premise can't save Firebird's Son from mediocrity. Decent but not good writing, heavy handed exposition, and little subtlety when it comes to dialogue and characterization.

3/5

 

Why is his writing so lifeless? -_-

 

Read the chapters that are available, and I found that I enjoyed it. Certainly not something I would ever rate 5/5, as the author does display a sort of detached observation in all of the characters dialogues. I could understand if the majority of women in this world were simply socially trained to be as accepting and nonchalant about their situation, but it just seems so... impersonal and deranged.

I feel like there should be more controversy to it, but maybe that is coming up in later chapters when it actually matters.

I'm giving it a 4/5 right now. Has promise, and I took the effort to follow it.

 

Firebird's son is interesting. I've liked some Darth Marrs stuff before, but I usually end up giving up 8-10 chapters in as the character problems prevent me from enjoying the story. Still this one has an interesting premise, I wish we lost the abused-Harry bits, but other wise seems like it might be good 4/5 so far.

@T3t, I second the motion. In fact the only world building thing I can see missing is I'd think there would be a really strong prejudice/fear against/of Muggle-raised Wizards. I don't see how any boy who hasn't been spending the first 11 years of his life being indoctrinated wouldn't end up rebelling. Teenage boys are rebellious enough without facing the prospect of impending slavery.

That actually brings to mind my only world-building quibble (since we haven't really hit enough plot to start having those). I like that this story has (so far) avoided what I've seen in most 'women are the dominant social power' stories, that is making all the female characters behave like stereotypical boys and all the male characters behave like stereotypical girls (HP & The Distaff Side comes to mind).

The quibble (which is minor), is that I have to call bullshit on his whole fundamental justification for female dominant society:

If I (Voldemort) have pissed off a thousand witches, who are all trying to attack me, what stops me from going to their homes one by one and killing them each? It seems to me that to wizards, so long as their is a significant difference in magical skill/power, adding numbers to the side with less power/skill only increases the time it takes to defeat them, it doesn't make their defeat any less sure.

Also if in this world its still the boys who like to fight, what is to stop any wizard from just abusing the shit out his wives until they're afraid to do anything but what he says? The more I think about it the more it seems to me like the sex population differences in this story (started at 2:1 and has progressed to become 4:1) aren't nearly large enough to have prevented the wizarding world from becoming a dystopia the other way (think crazy-Mormon style abusive polygamy). Especially when it seems like you collect your wives one at a time.

@Cosmos The review of that I could find was this which didn't look as promising as you say.

 

He's got a good opportunity to go the anti-hero/anti-establishment route here, but I don't think that's where this is going.

Unfortunately.

 

Though it would be the most awesome plot twist no one would expect, Darth Mars writing an anti-harem fic.

 

Really like this story so far. 4/5 from me atm. Hoping Marrs finishes this.

 

I honestly dislike this story, it feels drab. The "muggleborns touch each other because they feel magical sensory overload," feels like bullshit being shoved down my throat. I did like the explanation of why there are so few males and why muggleborns are dangerous if untrained.

I feel in the end that while the scenario is interesting it feels more like a copout to justify a harem than an actual substantive problem in the magical world especially if you've got wizards like Dumbledore living 247 years. You'd think that they'd pump out more kids to try and increase the male population or spells for gender swapping, which has been mentioned in the fic.

Decent writing, 2/5.

 

I mean, it has potential as a dystopian story. Looking back on his other works he's either the perfect or worst person to go that way though. It's not Lords of Magic cool as an AU, but I'm hoping he does go for the "fight the power anti-harem."

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what the author will make of this AU, now that the infodumping hopefully is over. At the moment, it feels most of all like a teenage male fantasy turned into a nightmare, with the female dominated society, and the disturbingly casual remark about love potions (Which is actually a promising direction, ) but it will probably end up as just another story where Harry gains a devoted Harem.

 

I find myself reading his stuff from time to time mainly because I can't find much else, but his stories, even while being "AU," are so similar in their base that I want to cringe. Super!Harry & Harem FTW!

I'll say 3/5

 

I've just read the seventh chapter and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this one from Darth Marrs, so far it's heads above all his other fics. I'm assuming it's going to be completed like his other works so at this point in time I'll give it a 4/5.

 

I wasn't going to read this at all until I saw some of positive reviews for recent chapters. I've been pleasantly surprised by it, much better than some of his previous works if not exactly spectacular. The dialogue often feels wooden, but not enough to put me off the story; the AU is unique and Marrs has obviously put a lot of thought into it, and doesn't yet seem to me to just be a harem excuse. All in all, I give it 3.5, rounded up to 4/5.

 

Read it, liked the ideas about magic and the world that he's writing. Warlocke's right, it is thought provoking in a frustrating kind of way. Maybe because we know canon and already see the traps closing. I'm kind of hoping that Harry will take a more active stance later on, but maybe that's only a fools hope.
Still I'm looking forward to seeing where he will take it. His stories are always so... covered from all angles, so maybe he will surprise me.

 

This thing is going to get unjustly thrown into the recycling bin, when it is definitely good enough for the library.

It's a premise we haven't scene before, carried out without massive grammar and spelling errors, and some attention to the plot.

The isn't necessarily enough for 5/5 stars, but it is definitely good enough that people should check it out.