What makes you think that? It's not like he doesn't realize that the world he created is a pretty terrible place, considering that's one of the main points of the story. In the review responses he even agrees that at this point in the story Voldemort seems like the good guy.

 

Well the story took another interesting turn, this time for the better.

Spoiler

Quirrell/Voldemort imperios Charity and proceded to emotionally blackmail Harry into accepting them as his surrogate parents.

 

Could take this in an interesting direction. Hilarious author's note though. The story could have been a lot more interesting if he'd actually taken it in the direction he said he wouldn't.

 

That author's note really worries me as to the direction the story will take, but it's an interesting tale.

 

It's actually quite a bit worse than that.

Spoiler

Quirrell bonded with her.

Then, because you can't deliberately torture or kill someone you're bonded to, Voldemort took control of his body - a loophole that basically lets them do whatever the hell they want with her.

He may or may not have also obliviated her of the knowledge that someone else was in the driver's seat, before stunning her, and subsequently placing her under the Imperius curse.

Presumably Voldemort is trying to use Harry's aether abilities to get a body or something... or worse, possibly followed by killing Harry.

The fact that they had Quirrell bond with her, first, is pretty repugnant. It was rape by deception, followed by a sort of rape of the soul.

Whatever happens, I somehow doubt Harry's favorite teacher (indeed, his favorite person), is going to survive the ordeal. Either she'll be killed by Voldemort, once she's no longer needed, or she'll die from the consequences of Quirrell dying.

Unless special-little-snowflake!Harry pulls some sort of Aether power hoodoo out of his ass.

 

For all of this story's unique attributes, the concept upon which the entire fic is built is soul bondage.

That alone warrants a 3/5 but with Harry characterized the way he is (read: fucking awful) and the general empty feel of just about every other character that's been shown so far I'd be stretching it quite thin to keep the aforementioned average rating.

That's only based on the chapters posted and going by the authors notes, general trend of plot progression, and the god fucking awful set up of the HP/LL pairing I can only expect this fic to further plummet into unreadable territory.

 

That more or less sums up my thoughts, as well.
I get it, it's unique. But why would I want to read it? Why?

 

I like this a lot.

Recent chapters have explored a "Junior World Quidditch Cup" invented in lieu of The Triwizard Tournament. Darth Marrs uses this as an excuse to invent a bunch of magical schools for Hogwarts to travel to. It's a novel take on the events of fourth year.

There is also a bit of romantic development with

Spoiler

Hermione and the prophecy.

I find this fic a hoot-- it's a fun take on the HP universe. It IS a soul bond/harem fic, but at least it's not just plopping a random harem in the existing HP-verse with some bullshit marriage contract. I find the reimagining quite likable and interesting.

Harry's characterization is a bit of an issue-- he is whinier and more overwhelmed by everything, but I think it makes sense given the universe. His character is being developed especially with

Spoiler

Dumbledore shutting him down on his issues.

Anyways, all in I, I enjoy it and look forward to it coming out. It gets a 5/5 from me.

 

I genuinely like the story, but the Quidditch Tournament plotline has been grating the last few chapters. There's a reason Rowling only does a couple a book, and I'm having a hard time with each chapter having 1/3 real plot or character development and 2/3 being "play quidditch and have a press conference, rinse and repeat." It's just been a slew of teams of characters and a new places we will never see again.

 

Fucking vaginas, man. Shit's dangerous.

 

I'm enjoying it well enough, so far as mechanics go, it's excellently written, however it's gotten to the point where I want something to happen, especially considering that the damned thing is over a 100,000 words in length. He's been hinting at so many turning points and changes in not only Harry but perhaps the overall dynamic of the world, and he's simply not getting to one of those all encompassing pivotal moments.

 

Yeah, it's got a cool dystopia world but he hasn't really done anything with it. Sure, Harry is still young but I'm waiting for some actual action; SCHOOL LIFE IN 1984 isn't that interesting.

 

As much as I like Luna/Harry as a 'pairing', authors never characterize her right. Does the author here do her justice, or should I not waste my effort reading this? The rest of the story doesn't necessarily appeal, at least from the summary and the comments so far that I've read.

 

There's been virtually no Harry/Luna interaction yet, so we don't know. We know she's an eccentric from a family that's forbidden fruit (for their obscene monogamy), that she's an aether like Harry, and that she's picked on incessantly by her classmates. And that Harry is obsessed with her for some reason.

For what it's worth, the author is well known for penning "Luna flakes" stories--take a pairing, Harry/Ginny, Harry/Hermione, Harry/Susan, whatever, and then add Luna for a bit of extra spice and wish fulfillment. Probably his best Luna was in his first HP/SW crossover The Boy Who Fell (which I still reread every now and again), where she was paired with Luke's son. Most of his attempts at writing her after that have been two-dimensional, with her playing bit role, not star.

 

Thanks for the reply. It's frustrating that nobody can do Luna justice (and that I'm pretty much inept at writing HP fanfiction myself). But maybe I'll still give this a shot, at least so I can come up with a good scathing review for the author. The premise, at least, stinks. You'd think someone with so many stories under their belt would be sick of harems by now. edit: lol I shouldn't have even asked if this protrays Luna well, first AN says "Seer!Luna" which automatically implies the author has as much subtlety as a loaded gun.

 

The author is certainly building up tension. Harry and Luna have been kept apart. He gets glimpses of her, sees her on the Marauders Map, has a vision of her and hears about her from third party sources - but never has properly met her. His interest is obviously growing and as mentioned above, she's the Forbidden Fruit everyone is telling him to stay away from.

This build up is quite good, if it ends with an appropriately climatic "first meeting" between the two of them, this could end up being really awesome. Pairings have bored me lately, but this has me really intrigued - I've never seen romance done like this. Building up the romantic tension by barely featuring the character at all.

Of course from what other people are saying about the authors inability to write a good Luna based on other fics, maybe I shouldn't get my hopes up...

 

That DM has shown an ability to write her well in the past gives me hope for how he handles her in this story. For all its faults, this is still arguably the best HP story he's done to date. I just hope he doesn't make her unlikeable and overly weird, as he did in Unspeakable Things.

 

Between the balancing-on-thin-ice nature of this setting, Darth Mars' writing habits, and the amount of tension building up in the Harry/Luna vs. Dames+Dumbledore conflict, I have a feeling that once the ball starts rolling, shit's going to escalate extremely quickly. It'll be quidditch+press conference one chapter, and then three chapters later Harry will be taking McGonagal hostage in the common room or something.

 

I had to stop at Homo Magi.

 

Recent chapter (ICW ball of all things) was brilliant, there are signs and confirmation from author that after 30 chapter of exposition plot starts. But it is rather something for "Almost recommendable" thread, rather than library.

I rate it 3,5, resulting in 4 as I am fan of properly done magical/non-magicals conflict and I have unreasonable hope for this story. There is (as always with this author) the harem thing but it is handled (at least for now) as bad, evil, stupid, creepy and unnatural.

Why? It seems obvious consequence of "Muggles are animals/subhuman" even from Canon!Purebloods.