That is honestly my issue with the story. Having Taylor be a bit out of character by being super aggressive and having the story go places is fine, see Monster. When everyone is HYPERCHARAGED the story loses a lot of it's drama, even if the relative powerlevels are the same. The issue is I don't feel like the author has the skill to pull it off.

 

This fic is based on the premise that all of a sudden Worm gets posted on PHO forums shortly after Taylor triggered. Weird idea but it has captivated my interest, tentative 4/5.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/meta-a-worm-fic.506159/


Also if you haven't read I, Greg yet you should.

 

I stopped reading that story after the first couple of updates. The only thing interesting about Meta is the PHO interludes, which are much too short to give any meat to the story. The rest of the story is weirdly written prose that seems to be deliberately obscure for the sake of being obscure. Instead of using proper names, everyone gets a callsign. Instead of having a gender, people are addressed as "they", even though we all know what gender they are, and they use gendered forms of address.

Example: Taylor is referred to as "they" to hide who she is, but then another character refers to her as "Miss Hebert".

From "Phone 2"



What's the point?

That's what I asked myself a number of times after I forced myself to slog through the tarot card metaphors and phone transcript dialogues. This is just a "X reads Y" story wearing a different hat. This type of premise can be interesting, if it's done well. But the only thing that gives any substance, any spark of uniqueness to the story, are the PHO interludes. But it's not enough to make me keep going.

One last question I asked myself when reading was: Do I enjoy reading this story?

The answer was no.

1/5. Hard pass.

 

Read this a up to a point a week or so ago. Here is my review from the thread:

 

I am putting forward a petition to ban andy from making any story suggestions. His taste in literature is highly questionable, and quite frankly, I'm not sure he's even human.

 

:cry: You wound me cxjenious. We are all human here :<.

 

I know we are, but are you?

 

While it is yet another alternate power fic Ziz has been enjoyable for its better than average execution and competent if workmanlike prose. Currently, it is worth reading if you have got nothing better to do and are looking to read some Worm. It does have some potential to elevate itself beyond that, however. So give it a look.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/ziz-worm-altpower-simurgh-taylor.512524/

 

It's surprisingly enjoyable, a quick, fun read.

 

I'm about 75% sure that this is an old as hell snippit brought back to life. I wouldn't trust this to update at a decent rate.

 

I recognise the green hair dye/hot topic costume bit, although the last interlude doesn't seem quite as familiar.

I've not browsed the general worm thread on SB a year or so, probably longer, so I doubt it's going to keep going at a decent clip.

That said, it is amusing enough for a quick skim. It isn't revolutionary, but it's certainly not bad.

EDIT

The author states they posted the first nine chapters (out of 12) about nine months ago. They also state the update rate is going to be slow, if they bother at all.

No idea when I read it the first time, but I guess I picked it up through their profile or something.

 

There's a little bit of canon rehash in it, since it deals with the bullying, the Lung fight, meeting the Undersiders, the bank heist, and the Dinah kidnapping. But at least it handles the plot in a different way than usual. She basically ignores the bullying, without getting deeply involved in Ziz-powered revenge fantasies against the trio. Instead of slugging it out with Lung, she prevents the fight from happening at all. She helps the Undersiders with the bank heist, but she sets herself up as a mercenary who regrets taking on the job.

I guess that's what the story means by saying it's a Ziz alt-power played straight. We get something that's parallel to canon instead of hugely divergent from it. I wouldn't mind reading a few more chapters, since the writing quality is competent, but don't know if it will turn into something exceptionally interesting and unique. I also wonder if we're going to see any updates on it, or if the author basically ran out of steam after passing the stations of canon.

 

Had a long post written out but it was mostly fluff. I've been wanting to ask, has the standard of what your willing to read in the fandom gone up or down given that the abandonment rate of stories seems so high and the average quality of fics fluctuates wildly on any given day?

I've become far stricter, personally. In terms of both quality and lenght. The ideal for me at this point is a tightly plotted novella with decent prose. A set of criteria that seems unreasonably rare given the street level nature of the first part of Worm. Most of the time it's a matter of settling and enjoy some the unique idea people have. I couldn't imagine reading cloudy with a chance or intrepid or that one castlevani story. Or anything above 200k for that matter as almost every one I've read seems to meander before getting abandoned.



Just because the original story was a long running webserial does mean the fan fiction it spawns has to be as well.

 

Generally if I can't finish a story in a single sitting, it has to be really good or I won't go back to it. And since Worm has so many extremely long stories, that means I've tried and given up on lot of them.

I've always been a fan of the longer stories. I tried A Cloudy Path and Queen of Blood. I figured out pretty quickly that Queen of Blood just wasn't good enough to be worth the investment. Maybe just not good period. A Cloudy Path had a lot of combat and a lot of interesting tinkering, but I couldn't keep up with the constant updates.

But I do think I'm becoming more picky. Partly that's because I have a full time job now, and less time for fanfic. The other reason is that I've read enough Worm fanfic that the cliches are more obvious, and I have a better idea of when a story doesn't have anything new to offer.

 

Yes, pretty much.

I no longer read fics unless they have been reviewed or recommended by someone else. This is why I joined DLP, because all the thorough (and justly harsh) reviews and rating system gave me a good idea of what a story was about, and if it was considered good. It hasn't let me down. I rarely start new fics because of the high abandonment rate, and I prefer to let them build up a backlog before they start. I don't want to get into a story which dies or updates so slowly that I forget what has happened in the previous chapters.

I also have minimum standards for writing, and if the first chapter is poorly written, I will usually drop it. I no longer excuse bad writing/spelling/grammar if the premise is interesting. I also won't begin an Altpower Taylor story unless the writing and premise is good enough to make up for it. At this point I've read enough Worm fanfic that I can rattle off the cliches without having to think long.

My ideal story is a concise, novel-length 50-150k words, chapters with a higher than 1k wordcount, has an original premise that doesn't follow the stations of canon, and is well-written and preferably better than mere competent prose. Technically competent writing can still be bland; I want to see some more authors present a story with more stylistic flair and an engaging sense of voice. Oh, and I'd like that the story be completed.

I know, I know. I'm looking for a fucking unicorn here.



Thanks to DLP, I've found one or two fics I've absolutely loved, and a couple who aren't quite perfect, but were nonetheless extremely enjoyable and well worth my time.

 

This seems alright so far.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/in-any-clime-and-place-worm-au.512329/

EDIT

Sorry, forgot. Its about Scion attacking in 2010, the CUI attacks, and Taylor joins the army when she finds out shes a parahuman.

 

...You gonna give us as summary for this "seems alright" story

 

The seems alright story is Any clime and place. Worm AU where cauldron initiated the golden morning early, resulting in scion destroying earth bet's NYC. This eventually leads to WW3. Taylor is a thinker who discovers she's a parahuman while in a refuge camp.

Nothings really happened in the story thus far. Reader mode is recommended.

 

So another rec list. This one is a bit smaller but they are pretty high quality in my opinion

First off is Ziz an alt-power Taylor. Basically Taylor is the Simurgh but still human and a lot weaker. Its kind of AUish. It doesn't fly off the rails of canon but it still changes things up. The same events happen but with Taylor reacting to them differently.

Next is Path to Munchies . PTV!Taylor but based around food. Doesn't really stick to canon. The most intresting part is just watching the greater story but there is so much street level things like Taylor making new friends and such that really are just annoyances to me. Features friendships with Amy, Victoria, and Lisa. Plus a cast of OCs from Arcadia.

Lastly is Bird. Its basically an Alt-Power!Taylor but her power is not really all that important. The main deal is that she is in the same asylum as Burnscar and Labyrinth. Its pretty short so far but its very interesting. It features a lot of therapy and crazy capeness.

 

Seconding Bird, read it a while back and remember being pretty happy with it.