Title: The Westerosi
Author: Mr. Fnord
Rating: M
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Status: Complete
Length: 124,624 words
Library Category: ASOIAF / Game of Thrones
Summary: Being an account of the Green Witch, the Fallen Star, known also as Captain Jade Hasegawa, Federal Worlds Starfleet Ranger, who crash-landed in the North of Westeros in the year 298 AC and what she did there afterwards. Feudal lords, ancient aliens, terrible threats and snarky heroics: all in a day's work for the Starfleet Rangers.
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12200653/1/The-Westerosi

The review which made me pick this up: "Take liberal helpings of Stark Trek, infuse with the pastiche of The Martian, throw that all into a blender along with dozens of other references and well-done original worldbuilding, and add an excellent and incredibly likable OC for taste. This story doesn't seem like it should work at all, but it really does."

The last line of that review is gospel. I expected to hate this. I expected to absolutely loathe it. But I was bored and picked it up, and somehow it worked.

With a homebrew sci-fi setting analogous to Star Trek depositing an OC into Westeros, we get a look at how the magic of the Others and the weirwoods could have a scientific, albeit sci-fi-esque origin. There are some cool moments of worldbuilding, and while the OC is fairly Sue-ish in the way that you'd expect of a female science officer from a 90s/00s style scifi show, she's never obnoxious about it. She doesn't run around showing off too much, or basking in the glow of attention. She's mostly just around, kinda doing her own stuff and occasionally messing with the locals to get them to leave her alone.

The voice of the narrator is somewhat intrusively American at times, but it's first person so I can give that a pass. This will never be anything special, but it's beyond what the premise suggests to jaded readers, and of a decent length to fill a few bored hours. Plot structure is pretty non-existent and things move slowly - take a look mostly for the novelty of high-tech bits and pieces trespassing in Westeros.

3/5

 

Well, I'm sold already. Will replace this with a proper review upon finishing it this weekend.

E: Okay, I'm not busy at work and thus am 20 chapters in. And let me tell you -

This is indeed the truest thing ever, at least today. Every fiber of my being is wanting to say "man, this is such a stupid idea for a crossover" but I'll be damned if I haven't been wildly entertained so far. It's definitely not going to be for everyone - nitpickers are going to have an aneurysm at how they handwave various people's reactions, but frankly fuck those guys. Just read and enjoy.

 

This is great. I tore through it and the 100k WIP sequel and loved it.
It reads kind of like a 90s sci-fi novel, where the setting is a crossover between asoiaf, Star Trek, and Stellaris. The character is pretty much a Mary Sue and has very little character development, but I found that I didn't care at all.
The science fiction didn't really break my suspension of disbelief any more than dragons do, and I thought that the setting merge was done very well.

The sequel is coming to a pivotal moment which could make or break it, and I'm really excited to see what comes next.

In summary, this story has a lot of Dragonriders of Pern energy and very competent writing. 5/5, best GoT fic I've ever read. (I'll take corrections if you disagree)

 

While I don't agree even though I'm the one who recommended this, I'm glad that somebody enjoyed it this much.

 

It's surprisingly good.

I've found that I like the later parts of the story more than the beginning, especially as the changes to canon timeline become more apparent.

This story does seem to be in Start Trek alternate universe (in later chapters Winona Kirk is in limited correspondence with our lead through great distances) and there are casual references to vulcans and other star trecky things.

The mess of science and magic is alright, at the very least, allowing for suspension of disbelief. It's more well handled in some cases, and crashes down on some others, but it's working for the most part and that's important.

The main draw, for me, was the self-proclaimed neutrality of the main character, and the way she fails to uphold that neutrality, spiraling deeper and deeper into interference, culminating in the end of the first story. A drop more on that later.

There are changes the characters actions make - some are good, some are slightly stupid, and most of them improve the situation for the living. In retrospective, the bad changes start with her saving the direwolf mother (and we forget about that direwolf for 99% of the story), yet the wolf cubs still bond with respective stark children.
There are plenty of minor details or solutions that improve the situation for the Starks, reminiscent of a fix-fic, but it's almost always handled passably. The Captain preaches neutrality, but she's not really neutral (which results in a saving of a few Stark lives towards the end of the first story). This could have been done better.

The sequel was a lot more interesting for me, because the main character, despite her previous interference tries to step back, and achieve a semblance of peace, meeting with various factions and claimants and who to support for their bid for the iron throne, because she wants to have the realm behind her as the Others (with enhanced sci-fi origins, and maybe some still hidden weapons up their sleeves) want to destroy this world and use it for a base of operation on their conquest of the universe (maybe).

The way she has to handle the different wants of different claimants is interesting, and had there been just a drop more to the "bad guys" Lannisters, I'd love it to bits. As of now, Tywin Lannister reads like a stubborn idiot. Yes, there are some reasons for his behaviour, and he;s not showing blatant incompetence, but the major choices being what they are, you cannot praise him for minor smart choices.

This is heading to spoiler teritory, and I'm not in the mood for spoiler tags, but there's an immergent pattern of our main character displaying power/abilities that would have these potentially smart people of canon trying to make use of her, but instead, they all try to ignore her or dismiss her, pushing her away to some extent. There are exceptions to this, but it just doesn't make sense that everyone isn't trying to make use of her, trick her, or just use her knowledge for their own good.

When I started to write this short review out, I was gonna go for 4/5 and while my opinion wavered towards a lower mark, I'm still gonna end up rounding up.

This story makes a very difficult premise work, is engaging and while the main character is a bit too on the nose, and her clash with royalty is sometimes unbelievable, it presents and entertaining read - with a sprinkle of Star Treck first directive flavor. 4/5

Spoiler: the Kirk Question

I'm guessing Winona Kirk is not gonna arrive in time to fight the Others, and I'm not sure if I want her to.
On one hand, the comming ship can prove a powerful asset, or be downplayed to be just relevant enough to keep the stakes interesting. If handled well, an early arrival (pre-Others offensive) could bring interesting dimensions to the story, in particular if Winona's opinionson Prime Directive contradict the calls Captain made, there could be intereting character conflict. On the other hand, I see delaying the arrival of help to the last minute as a more fitting way for the story to progress.