Summer of Change wasn't terrible, it's not top tier quality, but those are almost impossible to find in FF. It's not one I feel was a waste of my time after reading, my only regret is there was no sequel and that left the ending somewhat disappointing.

It's also one of the only high word count Honks stories that isn't garbage (I can't actually recall any others but there must have been one or two).

Of course there's always the untagged stories that my radar doesn't pick up.

 

For a story publish in 2005 Summer of Change is pretty good. It's really not fair to compare it to now-a-days stories.

Can anyone recommend any decent and recent Honks fics?

 

As a rule I don't read stories written/published before 2007.

This isn't out of spite or anything like that, I just don't want to be disappointed.

 

Silens Cursor's Renegade Cause. Joe6991's Wastelands of Time (listed as Harry/Fleur, but has Harry/Tonks elements and backstory). chelseyb's Halfblood Auror.

 

I read it long before I realised most stories from that time are shit and at the time I had no taste thinking every story with good grammar and wasn't slash was excellent.

My favourites list is unfortunately litter with crappy stories.

 

Maybe it is time to clean it up, then.

 

I remove crappy stories from my favourites list when they update but I can't be fucked sorting through the whole list to delete things.

 

Really? Odd, I've found that newer stories have been much worse than the old ones. Stories written before HBP keep things interesting because they didn't even have the idea of Horcruxes in them, resulting in more solutions to how Voldemort survived and why he's so powerful. It also cuts out a fair few Manpulative!Dumbldore stories because those rely heavily on Dumbledore sending Harry to his death in DH.

Sure there's a lot of garbage in those years, but there's lots now too.

I found Renegade Cause to be awful tbh. I tried to stick it out, but by chapter 10 I was just gaping too hard in disbelief. Notable things that were awful that I remember. Tonks changing form as a disguise but still using Nymphadora as her first name, err what? Who else even has that name, she'd be discovered the moment someone asked who that person was. Harry's 180 from his cluelessness in canon to becoming a master planner that is able to manipulate his trial to be in his favour by extortion in less than what? 2 weeks?

Also being accused of manslaughter because people chasing him got themselves killed, that's hilarious. That's like if I crossed the street and someone said "hey wait up", ran up to me and got hit by a bus that I'm at fault and should get jail time for it. Absolutely hilariously bad.

Also Hitwizards being like police...when they're called Hitwizards, as in Hitmen that are wizards. The type of people that kill by contract. That constantly drove me mad, why call them that?

Litany of Hate's reviews on chapters 2 and 10 cover those points (I think) and much more. They're extremely aggressive and I don't entirely agree with all of them, but I still find myself agreeing with a LOT of them. I just couldn't bring myself to read that fic. I usually persevere for ages through a fic hoping for good stuff, and I couldn't even make it past somewhere around chapter 12. That says a lot about it if you ask me.

I know a lot of people will disagree and most people here love that fic (the thread it has was huge and full of love) but I truly truly hate it.

I can fully support Wastelands of Time though. It's hard to say whether that or The Lie I've Lived is my favourite fic of all time. It's so fucking epic, truly a great read.

 

Not really. Those fics started breeding like flies a week after OoTP was released. The Manipulative!Dumbledore train had already already blown past Vne well before DH came out

 

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10636246/1/Following-the-Phoenix
By: hezzel
A single-/dual-point-of-departure spinoff from Less Wrong's brilliant story "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality", branching away in Chapter 81. Hermione is sent to Azkaban and Harry has to figure out where to go from there.
Rated: Fiction T - English - Drama/Fantasy - Harry P., Hermione G., Albus D., Q. Quirrell - Chapters: 11 - Words: 73,437 - Reviews: 27 - Favs: 65 - Follows: 97 - Updated: Sep 28 - Published: Aug 21 - id: 10636246

Stop whatever you are doing - or at least, next time you have two hours .. READ THIS!
Personally, I would not put this in "almost recommended" but "must-read".. but I acknowledge, that opinions on HPMOR are divided here, so.. for those who cannot stand the original, this spin-off will probably by not as awesome.
Although I would like to point out, that it focuses much more on plot development (instead of those maybe-arrogant scientific monologues) than the original.

5/5 from me, but you have to have read HPMOR first.

 

Eh, it's sorta whatever. There's some good moments and some pretty atrocious ones - the author really just isn't smart enough to extrapolate from his divergence properly, unfortunately.

Hermione Granger and the Tessarect of Merlin is pretty much the only worthwhile HPMOR divergence (though in all seriousness it has very little to do with HPMOR and is also sort of a Worm crossover).

 

I can't stand the original because it's a completely retarded story written by the leader of a literal cult. I highly doubt that this 'spinoff' will meaningfully improve things.

 

It is true that the best, or most... insightful moments are more or less copied from the original (the confrontation with the phoenix, for example), but the authos is willing to take the plot in new directions, he does not hesitate but advances the plot.. the writing is very good and even though he might not be as smart as "Less Wrong" alias ... he still is smart enough to make write intelligent dialogue/thought processes etc.

There is one thing I'm confused about, as I also am in the original:
HP vs Dumbledore.

Who is supposed to be the pragmatic one, and who is the naive idealist?
Is Harry the naive, but idealistic one who rejects Dumbledores actions for the greater good? Or does Dumbledore not act appropriately, is such a "good" person that he could never cast the killing curse etc?

I somehow do not get it..

 

An MOR reccomendation at DLP. This should be good. *Grabs Popcorn*

Anyway, I'm not sure whether this has been recommended here before or not, I personally feel this story is library worthy. But the fic is HG and I'm not sure whether DLP has completely gotten over its cute little prejudices, so have a go:

The fic delivers exactly what it promises- good quality HG smut with a touch of humor. The author (who also wrote Backwards With a Purpose, which is in the library) is technically very good and writes both male and female POV equally well. The first chapter involving polyjuice contains smut whose quality is comparable to HoosYourDaddy or Vlad.

A minor quibble is that it might get tiresome to read 11 continuous chapters of HG fluff/smut, especially for those who dislike HG. If so, then read it in installments and it should be fine.

 

No I don't think I'll be ready for H/G for at least another hundred years.

 

Like half the text is directly copy pasted from the original. If you love HPMOR, than you might like this, but does not stand on its own whatsoever.

 

Yeah, it is interesting story for HPMOR fans (I liked it, in this case text reuse was justified). But liking HPMOR is prerequisite for reading it.

 

"Death Before Dishonor"

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10724650/1/Death-Before-Dishonour

It only has one chapter and 8k words but the writing is solid, even if there are some mistakes (the author says it's un-beta'd). Basically Harry's a sixth year Slytherin and not the BWL. The premise isn't something I've seen before either. Harry, Blaise, Nott, and Malfoy all come from broken homes (Harry's an orphan, Blaise's mom never wanted him, and the Notts/Malfoys have signed away their family fortunes to Voldemort to prove their loyalty) and they've become bookies in order to make money.

 

Yes it's a very interesting new story, but the author's overuse of adjectives in his dialogue tags is annoying. It's not enough of a problem to make you quit the story, but it does draw my attention from the story.

 

Authors A/N at the beginning of the chapter said they're open to criticism so I told him to post in WBA. We'll see if anything comes of it but I think his story could benefit from some of the experience in these forums.