That is actually very smart of her to use hp as a base for her own stories. She knows that if she were to make a story completely original then there wouldn't be as much reviews as they are like what she has now. Hp is pretty much the most popular and she is using advantage of that popularity so people review her stories. Pretty smart of her. I think anyone would have done the same thing in her place to get her work recognized.

 

there isn't any action in the new chapter. just a filler chapter explaining how sharahak got into the demon realm.

 

The new chapter is about whats his face the demon/vampire that is stuck as a demon and his 1000 years since the characters saw him last. So its not that hard to understand but it is long and not just real interesting.

 

Look, the problem with this story is derived not from the fact that it's clearly not an HP fanfic--it's from the at best average writing, borderline-maysue and uninteresting original characters, and uninspired plot. The attempt at high brow political descriptions reflect a substandard understanding of political institutions and reflect a mediocre amount of personal research and complex plot design.

All in all, this story is unimpressive, and the only reason why people still read it is because few authors write for so long on the same story. We as a community are starved for long term writing and grasp onto anything that is even passable. I've dropped published literature that's taken a turn that I don't agree with, but I've kept reading things like this even well after they've turned sour--we all have.

 

Thats very very true. Most authors who are worth a damn would have dropped something like this. This author just has a huge following or is OCD about finishing stuff.

 

Wow i struggled valiantly to make it through the latest chapter. It was boring and uninspired, the longest chapter the autor has writtin and it contains 90% fillar?

Oh how right you are Darksov! i confess to reading when ever it gets updated, but it has travered into waters that have become nearly entirely outside the Potterverse, containing vague referances here and there. I read it because its probably one of the most regular updated fics around, as well as becasue its continued so long.

 

You do have to give her props for having this long I mean its like what 300,000-400,000 words now? And OotP is what 250,000-300,000?

 

700,000. And, Miranda might not be publishible-good, but she is in the top 15% of FF authors. Having a huge fanbase makes most of them crap. Of course, this close to book seven, most fanfics are going to be abandoned. With this much work put in Second Chance at Life and Changes in a Time of War, that is unlikely.

For most stories, I think, 30% of most chapters are filler, and plot-set up chapters are 90%.

As for us being a starved community... half the users of DLP preach that Darwinian crap most Independent!Harry and Dark!Harry have. I think we are overfed on bad fanfiction, so its good to have a halfway decent one.

 

This story turned slash yet? I remember reading in the first one that all Vamps were bi according to the writer, and how she was thinking of having Harry swing that way to.

So I really liked the first one up to the time travel. From there it went downhill. Thinking back it was probably pretty bad before that, but the time travel is the point where I really could tell. The story is bland as hell and goes from points that are supposed to be action packed(which aren't) to the writer trying to do complex political intrigue when she really has no clue what she is talking about. And I am not even touching the whole "Super badass school that no one seems to have ever heard off, but is really respective and scary".

 

Nah its not a slash... yet! (and hopefully will never be)
Harry's hooked up with some girls, but those relationships are only mentioned in passing.

As for the school I think most people out of Europe know about the school and Mr. Weasley has some knowledge of the school through the Ministry.
I think in the earlier chapters she mentions that the school isn't well known through out europe because they practice what's considered "dark magic".

 

Her reasoning is as sound as her plot designs--that being, not at all. Her attempts at high brow complex plot ideas have fallen noticeably short. The fact that this series has been around since when most of us didn't know any better is a big reason for some of the older fanbase; the rest simply have no idea what quality fanfiction entails. It's a story filled with marysues, and little in the way of effective characterization and meaningful plot development.

 

But we still read the updates because frankly we have been reading since it started or not long after and it has been update atleast once every couple of months.

 

I'm just arrogant enough to quote myself in response to your post.

 

That is arrogant. I feel dumber ever time I read it but I still do. Its retarded I know

 

Heh I still like it.

It has a very involved plot lots of nice action and really cool ideas on magic all big plus' in my book.

The OC's are a bit super but considering he is in the school of the best and most powerful people on earth I don't really find that suprising. He is being taught by the most powerful vampire alive about the most powerful form of magic alive. He has the most powerful mortal alive as a headmaster. He is bestfriends and under the protection of the most powerful family of Vampires around.

Is it suprising they are good? I just happy to see a fic were he is powerful and skillful because he has worked for it.

He said he likes being picked on because it makes him work harder to be even better. This a mentality you almost never see in fanon. They usually give him so stupid power boost. He has worked hard for everything he has so far.

Sure the story gets a little dull in places (The last chapter) but as a whole I still think it is a damn fine story (even if it really isnt HP anymore).

You say she fails at politics? Sure it is a little off in places but she has made a huge new world with so much new shit it's amazing. She has managed to tie it togther pretty damn well. She gives reasons for why things are the way they are. She has set up a social structure for every new species she has given. She has pointed out her reasons for why parts of the world are screwed.

Over all I still like this fic very much and look foward to updates of it. It's not HP anymore but I don't give a shit it's still a good interesting read.

 

She's gone out of her way to elaborate on things that aren't involved with the plot. Hierarchies? New races? Where do they fit in? In professional writing, if something isn't directly involved with the plot, then nothing more than a passing note will be given. At most, a brief explanation, but no where near the LECTURES that have been given on subjects that have no reason to be explained.

She TELLS us all these things, without working them into the plot. Telling what's going on in a story, as she does, is one of the most basic problems that writers can have. I learned the difference between TELLING and SHOWING in writing in the seventh grade. She obviously hasn't.

I'm telling you that how she has set up and explained the new species and their hierarchies is completely unnecessary and in bad form. Unless each of these hierarchies and new species will have intricate importance in the future, there's no reason to explain them. Everything that you explain in a story must be important to the plot, even if it's only to act as a destraction to the main character. But, the only distraction it serves is to the reader.

 

Agreed. And even then, it might be better just to put the important parts in and include the rest in an appendix, as in The Lord of the Rings and Dune.

 

If she were to do that, then she should have written it as a separate 'story' on ff.net. Also, as an afterthought, her writing seems to lack any sense of emotion--no urgency, happiness, just the bland telling of a story.

 

I have to agree that this story is damn boring and too difficult to follow at times. I for one has stopped reading it many times, but I always resumed after a few weeks break. Why? Because it is one of the few post-HBP stories I can tolerate.

As for the long boring lectures and political plots, I simply skip them. I don't give a shit about all the governments and their positions so just ignore it. The author has been good enough to write such craps in separate paragraphs so it is easier to skip over. I still haven't got to the newest chapter of the sequel, I am stuck somewhere near the second chapter of it. And the latest reviews are not at all encouraging.....

Ah well...... Just 3 more days and we'll see what DH brings us......

 

I see no problem.

This seems to be a complaint for the majority of the people who dislike this fic. But that's the most stupid reason to dislike a fic I've ever seen. Because it's not Harry Potter anymore? So what? Then judge the story on its own merits. I personally don't give a flying fuck on how canon a fic is to Harry Potter, as long as it's good. Think of crossovers. They're completely out of canon with whatever is being crossed over. And yet people don't complain, as long as the story is decent, the writing is good, and the situation is realistic and believable. Same situation with Miranda's story. Now, Darksov clearly has other reasons for disliking this fic, and many of them are valid. But this is one warrant that makes little to no sense, which is why I'm addressing it right now.

I disagree completely. In fact, her descriptions of her new worlds are exactly what keep me interested in her story and make her's more interesting than others. I'm reading fantasy with her story, and I always look towards more hidden hints about the world she's created.

Moreover, I also disagree completely with your remark about how in professional writing the only things elaborated upon deal with the plot. Often, the mystique in the genre of fantasy is not the plot. But I don't even have to use fantasy to show my point. Let's look at The Count of Monte Cristo. One of the greatest stories out there. A great plot. And yet Dumas spends pages and pages on things unrelated to the plot: Dantes speaks for hours on random things like his view of morality and there are tons of description on how rich Dante is. Go to All Quiet on the Western Front. Another classic. So famous a story that schools make students read it. But the author spends half the book on the cruelties of war. The plot is secondary to the description.

This is one thing that you can't say for Miranda. Her story has some of the most well-developed characters in the fandom: Daray and Namach. I can predict the general outline of what will happen if each of them encountered a specific situation. Her characters do have too few flaws, but they are nicely developed.