Just finished binging a story that I strongly recommend:

The Ice Dragon

Summary: In the wake of the Rebellion, a young Prince is left alone in the capital with the ghosts of his ancestors and the burden of their mistakes. Will a Prince born into the Game of Thrones survive the deadly dance of King's Landing and save Westeros from the chaos that threatens it? Or, Rhaegar won but died on the Trident, Jae's a hostage in KL. Cunning/Jae playing the Game of Thrones.

The story is complete. The title's a bit cringe-worthy and the beginning is a little rough, with some spelling and grammatical errors and a plot that feels like it's been done a thousand times before. I actually almost gave up on it in order to begin reading a different story I've had saved for a while, but once this story began to hit its stride, I was hooked.

To wit: this is basically a "Slytherin" Jon Snow (Jae Targaryen) who grows up as a hostage in King's Landing and has to fight with skill and cunning in order to survive. The political machinations become more advanced as the story develops, and it was refreshing to see a story where there are legitimate challenges set up for the protagonist to face in his bid to win the throne.

I give it a 4.5/5, mostly because of the rough beginning and some resolutions that were a bit too convenient. Also a little bitter the author doesn't plan to write a sequel.

 

This certainly has some technical mistakes in the first few chapters, but not awful.

Stannis-wank has me worried early, hope it doesn’t get too out of control.

Jaime seems OOC with his little motivational speech in chapter two—not exactly sure where he picked up that amount of care for the small-folk.

The first antagonists Jae faces have the idiot ball as well, it seems like the author couldn’t find a great way to give an eight-year-old a challenge he could believably overcome.

I find myself like the story and the political machinations more as the story goes on, with chapters four and five.

I think with what I’ve read so far, I’d put it at 3.5/5, Almost Recommended. It’s a little bit clunky, but enjoyable and I like trying to puzzle out exactly what’s gone down in the AU. I think this should be put up in the Review Board, (Maybe @Gurukid can add it, because you're the one rec'd it here) it’s certainly one of the better ASOIAF fics out there, and apparently completed.

I haven’t finished it yet, so my ranking is subject to change if it tanks in later chapters.

Edit: Also, this story contains smut for those who don't wish to read such things

 

Yeah, I’ve actually read that one - mostly out of inertia. It’s a 3/5. There could be a good story written with the premise, but the writer wasn’t skilled enough to handle it. The smut is just random garbage that didn’t contribute to anything, “cunning” plans aren’t actually cunning, nor does the train of successes ever meaningfully stop. That said, I think the author did improve over the course of the story and I’d at least take a look at anything they put out in the future.

tl;dr - I wouldn’t call it good but it’s readable, and complete.

 

I think that that assessment is a little on the uncharitable side, personally.

Reflecting on the story, it lacks drama, which is practically sinful in ASOIAF. Jon overcomes his obstacles too quickly and easily. Honestly, it's almost comically straight out of a YouTube Pitch Meeting. I think that the author does have a strong grasp of the world and the house politics forms the connective tissue of the story, which is handled well.

Jon is competent and his plans are well considered, from memory. There is some level of enjoyment to be had from reading, but it's undercut from the lack of stakes. I never felt that Jon was ever in any genuine danger. Jon is a Gary Stu.

I think the story does a lot well, but has some key failings. It has potential, but lacks the desired tension to make it truly enthralling. I'd give it a 3.5/5 but if you make me round it, it goes straight down.

 

For the record, my rating is relative to all other ASOIF I've seen out there. As I said, it gets better as the story goes on (beginning around the time Aegon comes to KL), so hopefully people that read it give it a chance beyond the first several chapters. It is a bit Gary Stu, but I think it pulls it off well.

 

Just finished reading a story that I strongly recommend. It's Saerang, an ASOIAF and Silmarillion crossover.

The story is not complete, but it is still being updated (the last update was about 15 days ago). What I would call the first arc has been completed, and there is a decent amount of the story posted (97k words).

In the story, (f)Aegon and his companions (Jon Connington, Duck, Haldon, Lemore) along with the entirety of the Golden Company are transported into Middle-Earth during the events of Silmarillion (I've personally never read it, but I didn't feel like my lack of knowledge took too much away from my enjoyment of what is written, I simply looked up some names that I was curious about to see who they are).

I think the writing is done well, and the author is able to convey a sense of dread in the beginning of the story pretty well when the Golden Company find themselves in a strange place with some Tolkien monsters lurking about. I like how the mystery and confusion is slowly built up then revealed rather than when authors jump the gun and are too excited and thus show their hand too quickly. The author also plays around a bit with POVs, and their lack of knowledge or competence, although at times it can be a bit too obvious when a particular POV comes across as completely incompetent.

Overall, I enjoyed the writing style, and the author does a very good job of setting up a creepy atmosphere. I'd give it a 4.5/5, and I enjoyed it more than The Lannisters in the War of the Ring. (The reason I mention that is its the only other crossover I'm aware of into Middle Earth.)

 

Thanks for the rec. If Saerang can come even within spitting distance of capture the tone and writing style of LOTR like Steelbadger has done, it'll be miles above Hear Me Roar.

 

Anyone know of any half decent Torrhen Stark stories? Preferably where the North musters a better war effort than marching thirty thousand men south and surrendering. I think exploring the sacrifices the North would make to fend off the conquest could be interesting. Anyone read anything or have any ideas on how they'd go about fortifying the North and repelling the Targaryens?

 

GRRM might have decided to give Torrhen the greatest of all armours: plot armour. He gave it to Dorne.

 

I wasn't expecting it to go well or be successful. Just thought the initial conquest could be a good setting for a story. Of course in the face of three dragons resistance is futile. But I imagine that initially when he first received notice of dragons being tamed for war it seemed pretty far fetched. I think the sacrifices steadily increasing would be the interest. The North has the benefit of being last on the list of regions to take down. How do you utilise that time wisely? Do they try to find skinchangers to help in a guerrilla war, do they start making blood sacrifices to the weirwoods? The crannogmen, how many of their secrets are they willing to share with the North? Could they send small bands down South to disrupt the Targaryens and undermine their efforts in stitching together the other kingdoms?

Eh, I thought that it could be interesting. It seemed like a novel idea.

 

It's not.

 

Saerang that Lotr cross is pretty good, its def better than all the other shit asoiaf/lotr crossovers before it. I'm not that far enough in but you should make a thread for it @frenzynator first few chaps are brilliant with the ominous atmosphere.

 

What's not? Fighting dragons, the premise or the idea being novel? I'm not sure specifically what you mean and I'd be inclined to disagree regardless.

There's a grand total of three stories on ffn.net about with Torrhen Stark as a listed character, so it's hardly played out. The next books are going to include warfare against dragons, fingers crossed GRRM does better than the show, which happens to be a classic of fantasy. I'm genuinely confused, or are you just being snarky for the sake of it?

 

Don’t mind Republic. If you think the idea is interesting, you should write it and then post it into WbA or post about it in the plot bunny thread. This thread isnt really for ideas.

 

I suspect Republic was alluding to the fact that there's tons of stories about the North getting magic powers and dunking on everyone else while alternating between mentioning how Ned Stark was too Andalized and honorable while simultaneously bashing the south for being full of dishonorable snakes.

It's not especially fair to you, except that you're sort of following in the footsteps of a lot of edgy fourteen year olds who make their boring lives more exciting by picturing themselves as Jon Snow banging literally every woman described as pretty in the books. Yours will almost certainly be better, but there's a lot of accumulated doubt you'll be dealing with.

 

Just posted a review thread for it as you suggested: https://forums.darklordpotter.net/threads/saerang-by-azrubêl-asoiaf-silmarillion.39560/

 

A Game of Thrones and Magic

AU. Points of divergence - Benjen's role, Waymar Royce, who fulfills a similar role to Cannon-Jon, and Aurane Waters.
Essentially Bloodraven starts sending visions to Jon and to a smaller extent to Bran and several others.
Not a Stark wank. Characters make similar mistakes as in the canon.
Overall not badly written. Points of contention - too many flashbacks and memories, still afraid of letting go of the canon.
A good read in the desert that is ASoIaF fics.

 

Pretty good story I've been reading: Father, Brother, King and its sequel The True Foe.

It's not for everyone, but it's an interesting take on the gods and magic in the ASOIF world. The first story is an AU set in the Robert's Rebellion era, which I typically try to avoid, and the second is an AU following the canon timeline.

The premise is basically that the gods are all real (including the Seven) and blood sacrifices and rituals are required to gain insight into their will and perform magical feats. The gods decide to show Rhaegar and Lyanna what is to come and they both take actions that are more sensible than their actions in canon in order to bring the realm together and prepare for the Long Night.

I don't want to spoil the first story by explaining what happens in the sequel, but it's an interesting setup so far with the main conflict soon to come. I'm hopeful that the author will have a fresh spin on the war.