Every time I see that title, my brain trolls me and tries to autocorrect to "I love Krillin".

 

I agree about the glut of Altpower!Taylor stories. They were a fun time waster when I first got into the fandom, but now I tend to lose interest in them fast unless like El-Ahrairah they have something to distinguish themselves. That said, I've got at least a couple recs.

H+ Mayhem (Worm) (190k words)

Main character is an OC, Bonesaw's older brother. The story starts in Brockton Bay, and he's going to Winslow now, but it avoids the stations of canon. He's a tinker whose power unlocks new tech trees as a reward for involving himself in conflict, and his goal is to prepare to suicide bomb Jack Slash when the psycho inevitably hunts him down.

The power is actually interesting and a lot more than just the kind of poorly thought out wanking you're sick of. Early on he develops a way to turn his conscious mind off temporarily to enable some kind of combat thinker ability. When he wakes up, he's fought off the danger, but usually his body is wrecked and he finds that he did a lot of things while unconscious that will have consequences for him later.

If you're willing to ignore some grammatical mistakes that don't detract too much, the writing quality is actually okay. It's a good read.

I, Greg: Or How a Self Insert Destroyed the Wormverse (82k words)

If you're looking to get entirely away from power wanking, cape fights, and Taylor-centric plots, this story is a fun little romp through the Wormverse from the point of view of a SI in Greg Veder's body. We get to meet a lot of the characters like Emma, Sophia, and Taylor outside the context of bullying and all the standard Worm stuff we've seen done to death. Taylor is the queen of bittersnark, Emma doesn't recognize him at first, and Sophia is just impressed that he has the balls to shows up to an Endbringer fight without any real powers to speak of. We also get a fun version of Dinah as she might have been before Coil got his hands on her, and Vista's growing dissatisfaction with her team for non-Shadow-Stalker reasons is something rare and interesting.

Caveat: I'm the editor.

It was almost recommended back when it had only 30k words, and it's at 86k now. It never made it into the DLP library because it started like crack, but those elements toned down a lot since then, and the new material is simply good character-focused drama and comedy.

The SI spends the first few chapters acting silly, but he calms down and becomes a more reliable narrator once he's gotten used to his new universe. There's careful attention to all the canon characters, and they're believable even if we're seeing a side of them that we don't usually witness in canon or fanfiction. The plot events happen for good reason, and once you get past those early chapters where the SI is silly, it's never like stupid things are just happening for stupid reasons.

 

H+ is great.

Internship by Hopeful Penguin has been mentioned before, I think, but Deputy by Reyemile is a pretty good continuation by a different author. Both feature an unpowered Taylor, and both have good plot and characterizations.

 

I enjoyed Altpower!Taylor stories at the beginning, and after I finished Worm, I started reading the most recommended, the best of the fandom stories first, like the Memorials Trilogy. After I finished those, I started on the less well-reviewed fics, and it became obvious that the quality was much lower. The more I read of the newer fics, the more often I stopped and thought to myself, "Hey, didn't ___ fic do the same thing? I liked ___'s version better."

I was always comparing newer fics to older ones, because there's only so much you can do with a Taylor protagonist. Locker scenes, school bullying, fighting Lung on the first night out...

Now I don't read new fics unless they're recommended by someone else first, or have some unique gimmick that is worth sticking around for.


Thanks for recs, I've bookmarked them for commute reading.

I've seen H+ Mayhem recc'd before, but lately I've been wary of starting OC Tinker stories after finishing Gadget, which I posted a review of. And apparently Gadget was good enough to be recc'd and posted in the DLP Library.

But... I'll try to read it with an open mind so I can write a thorough review of it later.

I've read some of Hopeful Penguin's other stories, and I haven't been impressed. I might be too picky, but while their stories aren't objectively bad by the standards of fan fiction writing, there's nothing that really stands out to me as something excellent enough to be worth recommending to other people.

The author has a habit of forgetting punctuation in dialogue, which bothers me a lot (but maybe I'm being unreasonable):

Internship, 1.5.

The writing, apart from small mistakes like missing words, punctuation, etc, is technically sound otherwise. Maybe better than average. But the pacing for Internship was inconsistent and jerky, which may read better when reading as the story updates, but as I usually prefer to read stories all at once when they're complete or close to finishing, it just didn't hold up well for single-sitting servings. I felt that because the author was churning out 1k word chapters every day, trying to fit a plot point into each chapter, the individual plot threads were sometimes forgotten, or resolved so quickly that there was no meaningful impact, and the ending fell flat. (This was also my impression for the author's other finished story, Nike. A "What... that's it?" reaction.)

The author's stories feel like the choux pastry of fan fiction. They come up with interesting premises, hooks that grab your attention for doing something different. They look great in the dessert counter. They're sweet, a story sprinkled with plenty of nice slice of life and character interaction moments in the narrative. But when you pick up the pastry, each chapter is light as air, and just as filling. When you eat a whole box of them in one sitting, you come out feeling unsatisfied.

It's a personal preference of mine to read stories (outside of CYOA, I guess) with chapters over 1k words in length. I just don't see how a writer can establish a setting, scene, characters, and decent dialogue in less than that, without spreading the pacing thin, or going without an important element, and losing something in the story.

I dislike most one-shot snippets for this reason, as they're usually all dialogue and no scenery. The short chaptered pacing was also my problem with Si Vis Pacem — it gives the mental impression of a scene change, and unnecessary scene changes are a pet peeve. Too much of a whiplash sensation.

I'd give Internship a 2.75/5.
But it's finished, at least.

 

I agree with you, short chapters usually makes a story feel disjointed. I tend to prefer chapters with at least 3k words, preferably closer to 5k.

Internship is alright, there are so few unpowered Taylor stories so it felt a bit novel, and the story was somewhat entertaining, the sequel was boring, not worth reading IMO.
On the other hand I found the 'spin-off' Deputy by Reyemile far more entertaining, and a better continuation than Hopeful Penguin's own attempt

 

Title: Terminus
Author: maroon_sweater
Rating: T
Genre: AU
Status: In-Progress
Pairings: None
Summary: Things go according to Alexandria's plan during Cell. A discredited Taylor is sent to the Birdcage for killing Tagg, but Cauldron intercepts her and puts her to work.
Word Count: 17k so far
Link: spacebattles, AO3

Same as last time. Story seems good but still in its beginnings so it's here for the moment. If it keeps updating in this quality, will recc it in its own thread.

So, yeah. Solid story. AU as the summary says not with alt powers or whatnot but rather, during the whole Tagg thing, Alexandria's plan works mostly out and while Tagg does die, she survives and Cauldron "recruits" Taylor.

Taylor herself is in character for now, at least it seems that way to me, and I enjoy this light on Cauldron and its various characters. It feels very Worm which is a rare thing for Worm fanfics.

But, as i said, only 17k words so far, very much in its beginning stages and I don't know if it will last. I can only imagine that the core Worm audience is not pleased with the lack of bully legal battles and Piggot Ward pitches but maybe the author will persist.

So, yeah, 4/5 so far, am really enjoying it and hope this story will go the long mile.

 

Read whats there so far, really enjoying the butterfly effects of Taylor not being at the Behemoth fight.

 

Terminus is really promising so far. Interested to see where it goes.

 

I like it but I really wish the author wrote bigger chapter sizes or just combined chapters together into a bigger one.

 

Seconded. Three updates in two days and it feels like I've been cheated, somehow.

 

So, two new stories which I feel have a lot of potential but are still very early.

A Bad Name is a well written OC gamer fic in which a homeless man triggers with the power of the gamer. He is absorbed by the merchants because capes get better gear and money and he's in trouble with the law anyway. Skidmark, the main character and the supporting characters are already shown with unusual depth for a gamer fanfic and I'm exicited to see where it goes. He is thick as a bag of bricks but this doesn't detract from his likeability and your empathy and understanding of why he's making the choices he makes.

Someone unfamiliar with large words, without formal education and little experience of video games he doesn't go the usual way of int and wisdom and it's the more likeable for it. Within a week he's in a far better position than he began, bleeding out and alone, but he only seems more vulnerable.

Second, Grace Under Pressure or: The Definition of Guts. An OC fest set in New Orleans with a biotinker. This is exceedingly well written, from the first sentence is has absolutely captivated my interest and every character is so strong. Maybe it's the medic in me but I was in from the moment it correctly identified a shit ton of medical details. Not that it's full of jargon, to be honest there's quite little for a biotinker fic. Regardless, the story looks interesting and as of four chapters a strong plot is already beginning with a powerful call to action breaking the status quo of the MC. Read it, I want to know your opinion.

 

Second the recommendation of "A Bad Name". Honestly one of the best written and most interesting gamer fics I have read so far. Still early but I think it has a lot of potential, really interesting protagonist. Character depth and development is phenomenal as has been mentioned.

Will take a look at Grace Under Pressure.

 

Grace Under Pressure is short, but very, very good. It's only five chapters in but I'm already invested in Graham as a character and his circumstances. Of course, any character that goes out of their way to help a puppy will garner my sympathy. That he's essentially a different take on Bonesaw power-wise just adds to the appeal.

If the author keeps up the quality and the quantity (they update every Friday, apparently) then I wouldn't hesitate to put this in for review.

 

Title: Magical Girl Lyrical Taylor
Author: P.H. Wise
Rating: T
Genre: AU
Status: In-Progress
Pairings: None
Summary: Worm! Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha! A crossover! Caught in the path of one of Uber and Leet's stunts, Taylor activates a certain intelligent device inherited from her mother and awakens as a mage. The consequences of this awakening are going to derail a great many plans, both on Earth Bet and in Dimensional Space...
Word Count: 280K
Link: ff.net,
SB, SV.

I got stuck in traffic (as a passenger) for over six hours yesterday, so read this - another anime crossover, OP Taylor fic. Crossover with Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

For the most part, the author doesn't make many typos. The plot is a pretty big divergence from Worm canon, which is nice, and from the quick skim of wikipedia, it's different enough from MGLN to not just be a rehash with Taylor.

I think canon MGLN has sort of already happened, due to some of the details raised about Raising Heart and Nanoha, but I don't think all the main plot has, due to Project:Fate still being a thing. This might be confusing for people familiar with it, but I had no knowledge, so no issues there.

Taylor's a fan of Aleph-imported anime, Gundam in particular. So expect infrequent mild references to real world anime, and everyone else being mildly confused. Also, the author's imported several bits of fanon, which don't work too badly. After all, everyone knows there's only one wizard in Chicago.

We've just had the endbringer fight, and it's actually pretty good. It seems like loads of people die, and Behemoth steps it up a bit to wreck the city completely... But the amount of dead capes at the end of the fight don't seem quite in line with what I'd come to expect through the actual story. Not a major issue, but it did make me go 'huh?'.

I did mention earlier that the author doesn't tend to make typos. When they do, it tends to be more noticeable (I think because it's common words - there/their, your/you're). Again, not a major issue, but not a positive point.

We also get "Vista and Glory Girl and Panacea and Lisa are all super cool and can be best buddies". YMMV there. Also, Taylor might not be entirely straight. It's pointed out several times that she's been staring at different body parts, but as it doesn't really have any impact on the story, it doesn't really matter.

Also, the canon cast (I think) of MGLN is just now coming in to play in a major role. Previously, we'd had Yuuno, Fate, Precia, and Raising Heart (I think that's it). But we've now got several spaceships full of aliens turning up, and I'm probably expected to know them.

I'd probably rate this 4/5 so far, but if this turns into "Taylor goes for a wander with a bunch of characters from some other franchise" I'd feel like I had to rate it lower, but only because I wasn't familiar with it, which isn't really fair, as that would be my only real issue. If that makes sense.

I might put it up for review at the end of another arc or two, or if people here think it's any good.

 

I have news for you! I started to read The Slippery Slope by Ack. I will defend myself for that mistake because I started to read it on FF.net, where it is much easier to not notice the author. Also because I can pretend this story is worthy for a real review.

Title: The Slipper Slope
Author: ack
Rating: T
Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Crime
Status: In-Progress
Pairings: Taylor/OC
Summary: When Taylor makes a new friend at Winslow, it's not as good a thing as it seems ...
Word Count: 82,944
Link: SB, FF.net

Basic story is Taylor ends up making friends with someone from the E88 and slowly joining them and becoming racist. I did end up skimming quite a bit because the writing is not great, but I do feel like he is starting to improve. The dialog is getting into a somewhat acceptable level and the humans are starting to feel more like humans.

Everything in the early chapters can be explained away with in canon Worm, because Sophia and friends are quite insane on the lengths they go too. It's almost fun in between chapters 3-6, and Danny has a good reaction to learning about Taylor's OC E88 Boyfriend.

The Ack starts to come in around at the end of chapter 6. The near open warfare between the ABB and Taylor/E88 slowly builds up to a comical amount. People are killed basically in the open, ABB attacks Taylor the very second Danny is making them leave the Bay, Amy of course learns Taylor's name because of reasons, and then the E88 decides to make the most stupid actions possible. While as much as it is fun to hate on Ack, he is more respectable than me as he is at least writing something. I do want to see him improve and this story almost looked like he was getting there.

 

The issue I have with Slippery Slope is that it makes me want Welcome to the Empire to be updated. Which that in turn makes me want to read more about Purity.

I remember reading Ack's story back when it was first starting and I remember really struggling to get through the guy's writing. It's a very consistent issue I have with him, his writing can just be a trudge to get through.

 

My problem with that story was simply that Taylor is too smart of a person for me to ever really fall for the Empire nazi rhetoric. And that E88 was just an unbelievable character. He was just too young for me to believe he was this sophisticated, charismatic smoothtalker who could convince someone like Taylor into buying into even the slightest racist leanings. Could also be that he wasn't convincing and that Taylor fell for it anyways. Can't quite remember. Think I dropped that one pretty fast.

A few recs now:


Title: All Alone
Author: Ack
Rating: T
Genre: SciFi/Drama
Status: In-Progress
Pairings: None so far
Summary: Events in the alley go badly wrong ...
Word Count: 20 514
Link: SB and FF.netThe most promising Ack story I've read so far, tbh. I really like this one. I know he can be hit or miss at times, but I liked some cheesy stuff of his. This one though, I feel, is his best.

Basically, it starts during the Emma and ABB encounter, where Shadow Stalker is watching to see whether Emma will fight or not. She does fight but she gets killed immediately for it, mostly by accident. This makes Shadow Stalker feel really guilty, for having failed someone she had deemed worth protecting by her own code. This makes her want to find out more about who Emma was and what kind of person she had been. This in turn makes he go into contact with Taylor, who is in a different mind-set now that Emma is dead while they were still the best of friends, which then leads to them teaming up.

The story really works for me. I'm not a huge fan of Danny's role in the story, but then again, I never am if he does anything but die, but it kinda works, I guess. The story can be emotional and sad when it needs to be, like the grieving scenes with Anne were really well done and the fights were appropriately intense. It also goes immediately wrong.

Now, the bad guys are stereotypical bad mooks so far but meh. Not sure how this story will develop but so far, it seems promising.

3.5-4/5 for now.

Title: Isn't It A Drag
Author: Scrypt_of_Zealot
Rating: M
Genre: Drama/action
Status: In-Progress
Pairings: None so far
Word Count: 31k
Link: SB

Another different power AU. I'll be honest, with the title and the first chapter starting with Taylor smoking, I was rather certain this was a Naruto crossover and she had gotten Shikamaru's powers but no. Instead she has memories and skills of countless normal soldiers throughout history. I think not medieval times though, not sure, honestly. Might just be from WW1 or WW2 on but still. Anyways, so far the story is really just her waging war on the Empire 88 with conventional weapons and the she kills and tortures her way through them. Not really much else. The personal highlight for me is her sort of bonding with Madison over smoking. If you want to read about Taylor fucking up Nazi's then yeah, you'll find that here.

2.5-3/5

Title: Of Blackguards and Mercenaries
Author: RavensDagger
Rating: M
Summmary: Taylor Hebert's shard awakens with the ability to summon heroes from another dimension. She and her merry band of heroes, mercenaries, and wanted criminals have fun adventures in the merry land of Earth Bet where nothing bad ever happens
Genre: Adventure/drama
Status: In-Progress
Pairings: None so far
Word Count: 37k
Link: SB

Yeah, another Alt power Taylor story only here, she can summon Overwatch characters. It has decent writing and while I was liking it a lot more initially, I have cooled down a bit after thinking about it. I guess I'm just not that happy with how the Overwatch characters are portrayed but then again, they haven't really have had a chance to interact all that much yet but the one time they did it felt a bit wasted. Granted, there was other stuff going on as well so meh, maybe I'm too harsh.

Still, love Overwatch so, gonna keep my eye out for this one.

Edit: it got an update today and it was the Lung fight. Yeah, rather horrible take on Armsmaster and I'm not sure why Ana didn't dart Lung from the start. Really didn't like that fight at all.

3/5 for now.


Title: Hebert: Wind of Death
Author: Tend
Rating: M
Genre:
Status: In-Progress
Pairings: None so far
Summary: Taylor never triggers, but instead finds a book that opens her eyes to a particular way of the world. It's not a pleasant one, and it will be a dark one.
Word Count: 36k
Link: SB

Crossover with Warhammer Fantasy. Basically, Taylor is on her way to become a necromancer and wages a war against the E88 and other criminals so far. Nothing groundbreaking or anything but it's a fun guilty pleasure.

2.5-3/5

Title: Taylor and the Unseelie Court
Author: Nicron_23
Rating: M
Genre: Supernatural/Drama
Status: In-Progress
Pairings: None so far
Word Count: 53k
Link: SB

It's pretty much what the title says. It's more of a fusion instead of a crossover, though. Instead of triggering, Taylor strikes a deal with one of the fae. From there on, it's her trying to navigate the Unseelie Court, her interaction with various fae and learning magic and exploring how her mother and family are connected to this. The writing is actually solid and I quite like the way the dialog and fae themselves are written so far. Does a good enough job of fleshing them out and showing their cool, likeable sides but also when they're monstrous.

My problem mostly is the PRT involvement, really and I kinda wish the Worm side was scaled back a lot more, but it's still an enjoyable read. The chapter lengths can be inconsistent though and there was a poll which of course voted for the shorter chapter updates.

Still, worth checking out if you like the idea of Taylor interacting with the Winter Court.

3.5-4/5

 

To be fair, wasn't Kaiser said to be all that when he was at that age? I recall Purity saying he convinced her to get on with the Nazi ideology while she was in high school, but I could easily be wrong. My knowledge of early Worm isn't very good.

But on topic, I haven't read any of Ack's other works apart from Security!, It Gets Worse, Trump Card, and Price of Blood. My problem with his works is that every character he writes sounds... off. I don't know how to put it in words, but it gets me out of reading and go asking, "What?" eg. the scene where Piggot, Panacea, and Armsmaster wake Taylor up in Price of Blood. I just had to stop reading at that point, same with Security! and It Gets Worse. Trump Card is average at best, but only if you turn your brain off.

(Also, this might be my bias talking, I've read some of Ack's more... unsafe works, and it has colored my perception of him since.)

Thanks for the catch. I was about to read it this week, but fanon Armsmaster makes me want to claw my eyes out. Taking this off my to-read list.

 

I think I remember Purity saying something like that. But I think Kaiser is a little older than Purity also.

As for Ack... meh. I kind of like Recoil, in the same way I like Brendan Fraser movies. That is to say, it's mostly bad, but some of it, or the ideas behind some of it, are good. I read a few chapters of Security, and some of his other stuff, but it's all shit, so I didn't make it far.

I've also read some of his "questionable" work. I can't help but think he's a really, really, really sick dude. Some of it was actually kind of funny, because it was so unbelievably bad.

 

I just came across a new Crawler!Taylor story, the author rushes too much, but seems somewhat decent so far. It's an AU with a fair amount of changes, the most important one is that everyone is far more murderous, even heroes seem to kill fairly often, many capes seem more powerful, vastly increasing their ability to harm, .
Punctuated Equilibrium

Spoiler

Here Taylor is in the Wards buddying up with Vista, who is just crazy deadly without a Manton Limit, I don't know if it's just me, but I found this hilarious:
'I set the squirt down on the roof, covered my mic with my hand, and nodded my head towards the warehouse in front of us. “Hey, they just gave us the green light, yeah? No survivors, okay? These assholes enslave girls, rape them, and turn them into some sort of obedient Asian concubines, yeah? If it’s got a dick, it dies, okay?”

Missy didn’t respond, but I could see it. That hunger in her eyes. Hell yeah.'

Just imagine how the vigilantes and villains act