I'd say her power is overly gratuitous - she can have any power she wants to within her "moral comfort zone" on tap. Times three. She's basically Eidolon without the threat of growing weaker.

The story is good, as of now, but all it'll take for it to go nowhere fast is if the Protectorate stops being her enemy. If she should manage to get in their good graces (or Cauldron's), the conflict in the story will either evaporate, or it'll have to take on a ridiculous amount of escalation for there to be any real stakes.

I think the story will die an early death, as soon as the author exhausts logical canon capes for Taylor's power to exhume.

 

Really enjoying the Reaping, despite the fact it's a curbstomp altPower fic (which I mostly grew out of).

It's like Speak with the Dead, but with characters we actually care about. Her ability to kill people is probably a bit too easy - I think it'd have been better if she actually had to kill them with her stolen powers, rather than just ripping their souls from their bodies.

Loved her interaction with Sophia early on.

El-Ahrairah I find mildly entertaining at best. First time I attempted it, it was interesting for exploring Cauldron a bit more, but rereading it now after having read Agent of Cauldron, it really comes up short.

 

El Ahrairah is okay. It's readable. The only problem with it is Taylor's ego and her relationship with Cauldron. Numberman is like a daddy to her. Doctor Mother is like, "Hey kid, let's do vials together!11" Everything is too blase. They accept her powers to readily. Her powers are too good for what they do. And the little amount of effort she needed to expend to join Cauldron...to accept the world ending...to decide what needed to be done and to do it...It's too fantastical. The latest chapter added a bit of reality to it, because there was somebody actually trying to oppose Taylor directly -- not veiled threats and talking about the "youth league" or whatever, but an actual conflict.

Although the story is about the end of the world, so far there's been close to zero conflict. Taylor has an out for every problem that crops up and there just haven't been many problems at all. Thinker 9? That's only a start of the problem. What makes it worse is Taylor acts like she's perfect. Her confidence has gotten the better of her and it's annoying to read.

I think the story would have been more fun had Cauldron decided to "contract" Taylor, to bring her in for contracted plans. They keep her in the dark, use her as a puzzle piece like they do everyone else. She then has to navigate shadowy politics to save the world. She just shouldn't have been accepted into the fold 'just like that'. It made the inner circle secrecy shit kind of dumb and pointless - they let a fifteen year old girl into their cabal without repercussion. I wouldn't even see them doing that for Dinah.

 

Surprised I haven't see H+ Mayhem discussed at all.

It's a pretty good fic that I thought would be kind of shit when I read the first chapter or 2. It's basically a fic about an OC that has a bio-tinker specialty. Involves some transhumanism and such. It does a decent job of transmitting the idea of a tinker fugue state even if his power is somewhat different.

 

Spoiler

It's written well, but I didn't like how the OC stomps everyone. I've enjoyed many Taylor centric stories where she does the same, but somehow when an OC does it I find it irritating.

It does have interesting ideas and implementations as you said.

 

Spoiler

I'll be honest I quite enjoyed the OC and his whole backstory. And I think in regards to him being OP I was epxcting him to get ducked over by Skitter at a crucial point but now it seems she's in too deep. I'm going to wait and see what happens in regards to the Simurgh and the S9 first. And then there's the eventual betrayal by Coil ofc.

 

I like Tinker fics in general especially Bio tinkers.

Something completely different by Ganurath
A corpse Tinkerer, a bit Bonesaw-esque, though him and the story itself runs a bit too far with the 'cops and robbers game' for my taste.

It is an SI story that manages to not be terrible, mostly because the character feels more like an OC rather than a Self-Insert.
The story doesn't start at the insertion point, but quite a while later.
The character is established in the world with a family and a girlfriend and there are few allusions to his former life.

 

I can allow it because Contessa's PoV is bullshit. And Taylor isn't immune to it.

Basically the whole thing with her becoming ingrained so fast is because of the PoV telling Contessa that this would be the path they should take, instead of the one where you said they should basically omit things from her. Remember that the Path ensures the quickest way to victory, and this is what basically happened. The thing you've suggested leads to complications and complications are foregone because of PoV

basically TL;DR: Contessa's power is bullshit.

 

H+ was way better than I was expecting, good call.

A lot does depend on how the sudden but inevitable betrayals/showdowns go, but I'm hopeful.

 

https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/rick-taylor-worm-rick-morty.28592/

New fic, where rick and morty get trapped in the worm universe. Interesting so far, I have my doubts the author will do it justice though.

 

H+ Mayhem was definitely a pleasant surprise. The concept didn't sound very good and the first chapter reinforced my low expectations, but then somehow the author made the story work. The OC is incredibly overpowered, but so far that hasn't gotten in the way of interesting conflict, so it works out okay.

 

Latest chapter makes it look like shit is about to go down.

Spoiler

Murderrat was sent after him telling him the game is afoot

 

Just read H+ Mayhem, and I have to say it has my seal of approval

 

Oh, huh, didn't expect to see El-Ahrairah mentioned here. Kind of tempted to throw a thread up in WbA now... I'm writing it mostly for practice and writing development, but sadly constructive criticism's been a bit thin on the ground on Spacebattles. (Seems to be the site culture, but I figured with the number of eyes, surely someone... So it goes.)

In the meantime, whether or not I do, PMs ripping any and all aspects apart would be appreciated. The story's kind of at the three-episode-test moment, to use an anime analogy, so now's a good time.

 

Did anyone else read Gadget? It's a fun little story about an OC tinker in a random town and it just finished. The author has indicated that they plan a sequel but the first part is complete now.

 

Found H+ Mayhem was interesting due to exploring a lot of characters that aren't seen in the rest of the fandom. The E88, Sveta, Travellers, etc.

I have absolutely zero interest in the protagonist apart from who his sister is and the weird thing he has going with Cricket. It's the usual overpowered!Tinker story with an intentionally unemotional and dry protagonist which doesn't make for a particularly fun narrative.

 

I don't think I've read a story with a Tinker as the protagonist that I've enjoyed past the first few chapters. H+ Mayhem kept me entertained for longer than most but after a while I just stopped bothering with it.

 

I enjoyed H+ Mayhem, a lot at the start and still enough to follow it now. The premise is interesting as is the character interaction. The MC has a clear goal that is not "Fix Everything" and while he is powerful I don't think it is out of character for the universe (especially with the shenanigans Bonesaw did in canon). He is fairly dry but the story around him makes me keep reading. 5/5 for the first chapters and still 4/5 now.

 

Yeah, I've just read H+ and I've mostly enjoyed it. I actually found I preferred the earlier half to the latter half, although perhaps this concluding section will be enjoyable. It's a diverting change of scenery.

The protagonist is dry and with the interludes we see that he is unreasonable and he has faults he's not aware of. The cricket and mayhem aren't my favourite sections, and I admit, the first couple of sveta interludes did really make me care about the character, so that was really well done.

Mayhem interludes are somewhat irritating, but the mysteries did keep me interested, although their resolutions seems a bit too neat and didn't quite pay off well enough. I think this is what I found frustrating with he later sections. The fifth arc and enemy was a good surprise but the slaughterhouse nine - although the main plot, which I was fully on board with when it was established - I found it was too close a twist on canon. Something to be 'clever' rather than original. And I would've preferred original.

3.5/5 rounded up.