Is that a snippet or a summary? Either way it's almost impressive, fitting that many cliches into such a small block of text.

 

I liked Stone of Dreams. It's an interesting fic, and Snape is not too much out of character so far and the way Harry and Snape meet and get to know each other is something I never encountered before. The latest chapter made me curious, definitely no canon rehash.
I also tried Blank Slate. While the idea is interesting I got bored when reading it. And the explanation that

Spoiler

James, Lily and Harry didn't die because Lily found an old ritual that protects all of them from the killing curse is just stupid. If it were that easy everybody would use that ritual to protect their families. And that a very young, just out of school Lily stumbles upon a piece of magic that has been forgotten for about a thousand years and has not been found by the likes of Dumbledore and other intelligent, well-educated wizards makes no sense to me.

I read With a Forked Tongue I Lie in Wait some time ago and I think it has its good moments. While the whole Malofy/Snape/Harry thing was more annoying than entertaining for me, the Harry in this story is intelligent and cunning, which I enjoy. The part Sesc quoted is really bad though. When the fic updated with this chapter after a rather long pause I really wondered what I ever liked about this story. I can't stand overly manipulative Dumbledores but well.. while it definitely has its weak points the rest was a nice read. I do have a soft spot for 'Harry was raised by criminals' stories though. Not that I encountered any really good ones so far, apart from Cosa Nostra in the WbA which has sadly been abandoned.

 

Has anyone kept up with updates to The Merging? It's quite long now and I'm tempted to give it another try, but every time I'm about to open it I remember how it dove head first into a lake of clichés midway through.

 

I have. It's full of a lot of clichés that would usually have me fleeing. But for some reason it draws me in really really well. I'm not sure what it is, but it has something that has kept interesting for me.

I will say that you shouldn't be put off by

Spoiler

that chapter where he visits another dimension. It only lasts that chapter and doesn't take over the story. Not sure yet what impact it will have on the rest of the story, but I'll wait to find out.

While the writer does use a lot of over used ideas. He does it really well I'll give him that.

 

Dropped it after he spent an entire chapter on the pointless journey to another alternate dimension and back. What a fucking joke that was. I'm not going to let an author waste my time like that.

 

What was your problem with it? I didn't think it was brilliant or anything, but it didn't bother me that much. Seemed like the author was trying for a kind of interlude, "Harry learns things about himself via seeing them from a different perspective"-type thing.

 

That is was 23k words long and utterly dull. There was practically no action. If you want to add character development fine, actually I approve, but you have to know when less is more and something like this should have been a section of maybe 5k words at most.
I knew Harry would get back and I knew there wouldn't really be any consequences for the alternate dimension(at least not that I can see/care about) so I was basically just reading to get past all the shitty drama and angst that I couldn't care less about, because the characters would be gone next chapter. I never got to see what the consequences of the trip were but then again, I wasn't the least bit interested, which is pretty telling of how involved I am with the Harry and how he develops.

 

Anyone still following Harry Potter: Geth wank?

 

Huh. Well, to each his own. Though I will say that if you're not invested in the character to start with, pretty much anything will seem pointless and dull.

I've kept up with this story. It does two things that appeal very much to me personally:

1. Keeps a lighthearted tone without being "fluffy." I like how this version of Harry approaches things, with a good mix of sarcasm and seriousness. Case in point: I thought his take on the "career counseling" scene with Umbridge and McGonagall was pitch-perfect. (Harry's deadpan "I want to be Minister of Magic" line).

2. Takes its time developing Harry's character. I understand where you're coming from as far as brevity goes, but I'd much rather an author err on the side of too much than too little. One of my pet peeves is stories that take maybe 1 chapter to "fix" everything they don't like about Harry and go from there. So I tend to appreciate any story that does the opposite.

Again, personal tastes. Different strokes, etc.

 

Surprisingly enough I'm following it as well. The amount of cliches are mind boggling but... Yea, no idea why I'm enjoying this.

 

I was a bit disappointed by the extremely cheap drama at the end of the last chapter. It left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Spoiler

Harry confesses to Narcissa he's just killed Lucius, she spins a sob story of her sad life and then leaves for her room to cry, THEN he comes to her and tells her how he enjoys her mothering him and THEN they have a sickening mother-son moment... JEEEZ

 

Yeah I wasn't a huge fan of the last scene of the chapter. I ignored my dislike for it because the rest was pretty good though.

 

Story is quite short and far from perfect. There are hints of some clichés (manipulative!Dumbledore is probably worst of them), but story is not long enough to expand on these clichés, so they seem less offensive. I also didn't like romance. Relationship of Harry and Hermione came sort of out of the blue, and seemed too perfect, or something.

I noticed some interesting ideas there as well, though. I enjoyed it, despite its problems.

 

I recently rediscovered the author, since she started posting again and I must say that the new stories suffer from the same flaws as the old ones. Some good ideas, terrible execution. It is a semi-decent time waster, as Radmar said there's too little content to really put you off. Worth it if you can quickly breeze through it.

 

It's not really about the length of the story in general, I love long reads. However, I do think that if an author has written over 150k and I'm still not "invested" in the characters, they've done something wrong.(or maybe I'm just a cold, cynical bastard, who knows?) Like you said, personal tastes, and maybe I'm the only one but I think one of the greatest things a writer can do is make his readers care. It's not something that the reader should have to make themselves and I'd like to not consider myself completely apathetic.

 

100% agreed. The recipe for this is magic, though. It's 50% good writing, 25% good plot, and 25% something intangible and personal and variable.

 

100% intangible, personal and variable would be a more appropriate call. That story is crap - both writing wise and plotwise. "Cliche ridden" is being kind - the fact that he feels he has to jam them all in there alone speaks to his lack of skill. Not to mention that his characterization is eyerollworthy.

You like it - I get it. I like Dominos... but I don't try to convince everyone it's in the running for a Best Pizza competition. It is what it is.

 

I'm going to give the author of "The Merging" a pass on the "23k word chapter taking place in another dimension" thing because he says that there is a good reason for it being there, and I find it hard to believe that anyone would spend that much time writing a random chapter just for shits and giggles. But more importantly I'll give him a pass for that chapter b/c of how he's handled the "embodiment of Hogwarts" thing, it's really turned into an interesting little mystery.

Pros of "The Merging":

- It's long, with really long chapters and regular updates.
- Great characterizations. I particularly like Daphne and Tracey.
- You can finally start to see where this story is ultimately going to go and the idea is pretty good and I haven't seen it done often (at least no story comes to mind).
- It's well written.

Cons:

- LOTS of cliches. If "cores" and "Ice Queen! Daphne" bug you than this story probably is going to annoy the hell out of you.

-Chapters are too long, often eclipsing 25k words. Personally I like chapters to be around 10-12k.

- At the start of the summer (3ish chapters ago) the author said that he's FINALLY at the point where he can write the Harry he wants. This was at like the 325k mark so pacing and length may become an issue.

- The author could really fuck up the plot and make the entire thing unreadable.

Overall I really like it. It's probably one of the better stories out there that updates regularly. The cliches don't bother me because the story is well-written and he puts some twists on them that make them interesting.

3.5/5 for me

 

Just like to point out that saying its well written doesn't actually make it well written.

You forgot to mention the author's tendency to whack off at the end of each chapter about how brilliant he was in this chapter. Personally, I particularly like it when he uses it as an opportunity to explain his character's motivations - as opposed to those shitty authors who actually use characterization and exposition within their stories.

*eyeroll*

 

I agree with most of this except for the chapters too long part - because I really don't care how long they get as long as they're long to begin with - and the regular updates bit, I think it's only had like 4 updates this year? I dunno, all I know is that the waits between chapters are quite long.

I'm sure a lot more could be added to both lists though, I honestly can't remember the story that well at this point because of the above mentioned time between updates. I need to reread it.

Just because you say it's not doesn't mean it isn't either.