Wandless magic, obviously.

But seriously, I'll start reading it soon and edit this post with my impression once I'm done.

 

You had me at Harry/Fleur.

 

The melodramatic tone makes this story at least twice as bad as it would be without it.
I can deal with the regular growing pains that most angsty stories dish out, but this story takes the self righteous teenage fury and shoves it so far down your throat you end up farting the chorus of a My Chemical Romance song.
But even if the author toned down the post-hardcore influences, we'd just be left with a poor man's Bungle in the Jungle.
Also the way the author handles Fleur's character is so hilariously bad it borders on parody.

 

The author of The Merging has to win this month's "unintentionally hilarious" award with the author's note to their latest chapter.

He announces that he's gone back and edited many clichés out of the earlier chapters... in the very same chapter that he has Dan and Emily Granger, a letter to Harry from his parents, and Harry finding his parents' journals. And just a couple of chapters before, Harry finding the portrait of Salazar Slytherin in a hidden part of the Chamber of Secrets. None of which actually seem to have done much to affect the story's main plotlines, which are a) Harry's weird magic and b) Harry's many potential romantic partners.

 

I laughed as well. With that being said the update rate, chapter length, writing, and initial idea are all interesting enough to keep me reading. With that said it's gone from "has potential" to "guilty pleasure."

 

In fairness, I quite like the merging. I'll go back and reread it in a bit and will consider putting it up into the library. It's good enough to make it.

 

It really isn't. The Merging has always been decidedly average. Every time it shows a glimmer of real potential it gets stifled by a horde of tired cliche's or is forgotten.

 

It's a guilty pleasure. If you begin to think about the inner meaning of the plot you get real problems.

 

In all fairness, he admitted himself that he picked their names from the fandom, and also from the same AN Salazar's portrait bit has been edited out.

Actually, I found the part with Godric's Hollow done well, and not in the least bit annoying or a overused cliche, it just fit.

QFT^ and yet, the story is probably one of the best 5th year story I've read in the last 2 years, with very few exceptions which are all projects that have been ongoing for longer period. It simply has all the elements and characters interactions I've wanted to read in a Harry Potter story for quite some time now.
Couple that with regular updates and good writing... pretty much what I already said - one of the best(read that entertaining to read) 5th year story I've read in the last 2 years.

 

A letter from his mother trying to reconcile with his Aunt (that turns from reconciliation to bitter condemnation, but that's beside the point), love letters that define Snape & Lily's relationship (to likely help redefine Harry's relationship with Snape), a letter from his dead father (that mentions no less than 4 times "if you're reading this, I must be dead") which contains proof that Pettigrew was the secret keeper and gives 'girl advice' just when Harry has 'girl problems', and his parent's personal journals - all hidden in a parseltongue locked room for added extra safety?

No, 'cliché' isn't the word I'd use either. Mostly I'd use 'bad'.


As a broader response - when an author includes in his A/N that when it comes to his stories, he "does it well or not at all" - especially characterization - when he's just admitted to a massive re-write due to flaws in characterization... well, not really sure I rank him quite as highly as some have. Just my personal opinion.

 

To be honest, letters ofthose types, ever after"summer of change" usually make me skip them because they trully are the same. But in that particular instance I really hadno problem with them.

After reading the above comments, I'm trully surprised I read the whole thing so differently than the rest of you. I guess I just enjoy the story enough to turn a blind eye to quite a few things that usually would have made me close the window in a hurry...

 

Someone linked this on IRC recently, forgot who.

I couldn't find it from searching the forums and figured I'd put it up on the site.

I found it really good. Library worthy even. Just FYI, it's not Harry centric. The entire story is told through everyone else's viewpoint. Normally this would turn me off since I dislike non-Harry centric stories but this one was very well done and I enjoyed it.

Connections
By: aszecsei
In canon, Harry sought the acceptance of the adults around him. Tom Riddle sought to exercise power over everyone else. This Harry never wants to feel helpless again. Sociopath!Harry, some minor Harry/Fleur.
Rated: Fiction M - English - Drama - Harry P. - Chapters: 19 - Words: 31,311 - Reviews: 568 - Favs: 1,433 - Follows: 1,756 - Updated: Jul 6, 2013 - Published: Aug 23, 2011 - id: 7316942

 

I think I linked it. But I second your recc. I give it 4/5.

 

This reminds me of that one indyHarry fic that was up for review a while ago, and not in a good way.
The author uses the same horrible eyes of absolute truth bullshit, but without the implication of mental suggestion to make it somewhat ok.
For fucks sake, In the second chapter we have twelve year old Draco Malfoy tell us,

Is Harry Potter also the fucking hulk?
The story seems to be a flimsy excuse for the author to wax poetic over how cool sociopaths are with his entirely one dimensional take on them.

 

Too-Young-to-Die

This has been posted before, but I just wanted to say that it's now complete. This fic has the rare distinction of being probably the 2nd ever Twin-Who-Lived fic that ever finished. It's not great in anyway; for example it's filled with a lot of twin fic cliche's such as neglectful parents that are only that way because Dumbledore did something to make the love the twin more. There's also the fact that his twin suspects him of evil shit way to easily imo.

However, the story really starts to pick up some steam after the initial chapters and I really started to like the authors depiction of Harry going through the motions to learn Necromancy. Though, I don't like the idea of Mage Knights it didn't kill the fic for me. The story kept me reading until the end, and despite the fact that

Spoiler

Harry succeeded, but got caught in the act

I feel that the end was fitting.

I'd put it at a decent 3/5 (also kudos for actually being finished).

Edit: And just to add to the thread, hope it hasn't been posted yet, To Call A Place Home. It's an okay 'travels to an AU' fic. The most annoying thing that has happened so far is that Harry shares his whole life story with the order using a pensieve. But, I'm a sucker for fics where Harry goes to an AU.

 

That ending completely ruined it for me. Disgusting.

Everyone must pay for their evil deeds! Evil people can't be happy!

 

For once, I'd really like to see an AU where Harry goes and just keeps that shit to himself. No going on and on about how horrible his life was, etc. Maybe, at most, a throwaway line. Is it so much to ask for?

 

Wow. The ending is a big disappointment. Why the hell does the good side always have to win? Fucking shits.

Anyway, this fic has been posted before in the forums in the search section. People tried to read it but wasn't able to get past the starting chapters of James/Lily neglecting Harry and his sister.

The author edited a bit of stuff which increases the first chapters quality to barely readable from shit. And combine it with

Spoiler

Dumbledore confessing that he messed a spell which was intended to protect the BWL and the result is the way JP/LE act like that

this is eligible for Almost recommended. Since everything is Harry's POV we dont understand why JP/LE are acting like that until the end.

The action scenes in the later half of the story are some of the best I've read. I would say this is the best non-bwl story after Santi's.

 

The writng in the fic is good, so when se said he edited out the clichés I got excited, and started re-reading. And I saw no changes, and maybe he even added new clichés. It's like he has a checklist and won't be happy until he checked them all. Moneys infinitum, eye magical surgery, custom made wand, basilisk blood, suddenly ability to charm the ladies, 180 speech pattern change, friendly goblin, Nice Slytherin Girls, House Rings, Magical Credit Card/Pouch, Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter, emancipation.... And that's just the first 3 chapters. I swear.

 

The merging is the kind of fic that would've been awesome to read circa 2005-2007, but would not have aged well.