Damn - guess I need to pay attention more.

 

I looked through the library, recycling bin, Vash's list and did a search. So here it is:

The Lupin Childe
Author: hitorisuko PM
Two years after that Halloween night, Remus Lupin discovers the whereabouts of Harry Potter and he is not pleased with what he finds. Out of obligation and love, he adopts Harry and reshapes his childhood beyond measure.
Rated: Fiction T - English - Family - Harry P. & Remus L. - Reviews: 461 - Chapters: 26 - Words: 93,955 - Updated: 07-09-12 - Published: 11-03-08 - id: 4634625
Link:http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4634625/1/The_Lupin_Childe

This story is VERY AU. That said, the writing is pretty good, and keeps getting better as the chapters advance. I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5, with the possibility of advancement.

 

Lots of OCs. Mary Sue OCs.

Lupin's brother is a political mastermind in the French ministry, and he's gunning for minister. His sister is in Russia or something, working on an "Empire." She actually calls the people that work for her minions at one point. His youngest sister is just bipolar or something.

To top it off, his mother is described numerous times as being loved by everyone. Just flat out says it multiple times.

Snape is, of course, watching over Harry during the full moons, and he grows to like the son of his worst enemy.

The story also doesn't go anywhere.

Nope/5.

 

The Toy Collector By lightblue-Nymphadora

Summary: Harry and Tonks race to find a witch who is using Dark Magic to turn children into toys.

The summary says it all, Harry and Tonks are working as Aurors trying to catch this Dark witch. It has some problems, mainly in pacing. I think it's fairly rushed, with too short chapters, and just generally it should have been longer. But it's still a decent read.

3/5 for me.

 

Title: Proof
Author: Loudest Voice
Rating: M
Genra: Drama/ Horror
DLP category: The alternates
Pairings: None
Status: WIP (Two chapters out. Around 13K words)
Summary: Almost ten years afterwards, Tom Riddle Sr. decides to find Merope. He was never insane. He means to prove it to himself.

Having never found a story that involved Tom riddle Sr. going out of his way to find what happen to his wife, I found this story intriguing. I think the grammar is quite solid and Tom Jr's character is written well.

On the negative side, the author has a bunch of stories going on and some incomplete ones. Given that this story starts before Tom joins Hogwarts, expect a lot of OC's and little magic. Tom Sr. is written to be in a very different position than one would expect. But, his character was interesting.

 

I haven't read it all yet ("only" the first 21 chapters, each averaging perhaps 10,000 words - this fic is long), but my impression of what I've read so far is generally favourable. The story was started in 2005, but published only fairly recently.

Pros:
- Snape's early life at home is portrayed amazingly. Very good characterization of Snape's parents. Many of his attitudes later in life make sense in the light of his early experiences as depicted in this fic.
- Very well researched, as far as I could tell. Especially tidbits on British life during the late '60s & '70s. Space programs, workers' strikes, popular culture and so on.
- Great writing. Natural-sounding dialogue.

Cons:
- Can get unnecessarily slow-paced; at times it will be downright boring.
- For a good few chapters Snape is called by an unfamiliar diminutive, and it can get distracting.
- Dumbledore in particular is very OOC. Perhaps the same can be said about others, but to smaller extents.
- A strange time mishap that has Bellatrix be the youngest Black sister, and Narcissa the oldest.
- For a fic that wants to stay as close to canon as possible, several relationships are mishandled. For example, Hagrid is on good terms with the young Snape even though in canon he tells Harry he doesn't personally have a good opinion of him.

There might be more things to add on both sides, but I haven't yet read enough of it.

 

Just started reading "A Difference in the Family" and damn, its looong. For some reason the Statue of Secrecy isn't in effect (Tobias Snape's dad knows witches?) but the writing is high quality and the characters are well developed.

That said, the tone of the story is weird. By relating everything to us in the past tense, enforces the idea that we are hearing some long, drawn out back story. I also feel that everything is being told to me, even when the Author is using descriptive sentences. I haven't read enough to judge (perhaps the tone changes when Richard Severus Snape is born?), but we'll see.

 

It's not the tense (most stories are in the past, after all. It's quite rare to find one in the present, like Pers'). Rather, it's that the passive is being used a hell of a lot. And the verb "to be" in general. Why say "There was a group of women who met..." instead of "A group of women met..."?

 

^Truth.
That all said, if he would fix the passive voice, this would be really good. The research done on Snape's behalf makes it all really believable. I'm not sure how I feel about the Snape/Potter interaction, though I like that the author isn't following the normal cliches.

 

I'm on Chapter 28 of the Snape Chronicles. I am enjoying it, though I do find the canon moments to have completely different characterization than the rest of the fic. Snape himself is consistent enough, but the other characters seem kind of schizophrenic (especially around the cut-and-paste canon segments). :facepalm

Edit: I just encountered a PMS-ing McGonagall that is distractingly OoC enough to bear mentioning.

Other than that, Snape's background is very rich and believable, especially considering the story was written out of order as the books came out. It's rare to find a sympathetic Snape POV that isn't ridiculously OoC, so maybe the novelty appeals to me. Even so, the scientific and cultural references (and subtle digs) are fun to read.

 

First impressions

A very-very short oneshot, that made me snort.

 

HP/Merlin cross.

 

It was a crossover with the BBC television series Merlin.

It was definitely short, but I got decent chuckle out of it.

Edit: Ninja'd

 

Harry Potter and the Ashes of Nurmengard

This falls on the almost recommendable end of the spectrum. The only thing stopping me from recommending it for the Library is that it's still very short - only 2 chapters.

It's a "brother of the Boy Who Lived" story which, like Santi's, is notable for its moderation. No crazy abusive parents, and so on. And it looks like there's no "wrong Boy Who Lived" mix up here either. Harry's also pretty talented - it's not clear exactly how talented yet, as the story doesn't focus on magic much. It seems to focus more on politics.

A few notable plot points:

Voldemort had/has a public alter ego, Tom Riddle, who is an accomplished politician.

The story plays with the same "your peers will always think of you in terms of your brother" idea as Santi's fic, but takes it in a different direction.

James is still alive, but Lily is dead.

One thing I didn't like is that each chapter begins with an excerpt from a fictional book, and these excerpts are fucking spoilerific. Basically, we're told the ending of the story in the first paragraph. Of course, maybe it's a bait and switch, but it's still annoying.

Also, while the Tom Riddle public persona is interesting, there are a few problems with it. 1. What about Dumbledore? Does he not know Tom Riddle = Voldemort in this story? 2. Why the name "Tom Riddle"? That seems to be against Voldemort's character. He hates that name. 3. It could easily drift into "Voldemort was really just misunderstood" territory.

 

The story is rather good and I agree with all of your points and the only answer I can come up with in regards to the Tom Riddle/Voldemort alter ego is that Tom Riddle had already been established in the wizarding world; he has a Hogwarts record, and people knew him at school. Maybe Riddle didn't change his public name b/c it would be seen as a radical step (to change his public identity) by someone who is supposed to be a Politician and Philanthropist. And maybe Dumbledore hasn't said anything b/c he lacks evidence.

Either way the story looks promising.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5925524/1/bTwist_b_of_bFate_b

Thoughts?

I personally like it not sure if it's Library material though.

 

The fact that the author has confirmed that the fic will have slash in it is worrying, though it is not clear whether or not it will involve Harry. Besides that the story is alright I guess in the context of this thread. The author is extremely long winded, the two are only getting to the Hogwarts Express at Chapter 13, which is probably somewhere around 100k words. Not to mention that the story is already confirmed to be a two part story. So this thing will be well over a million words if it is ever completed.