My god, it's not utterly terrible. I'm stunned.

 

Amazing fic this one. It has lot of technical problem. Lack of any flow. Nothing in the name of character development. As Sesc mentioned, lack of punctuation.

But still, somehow, it is one of the very few fics recently that has really caught my attention. It has an ooc Harry, but I like him very much. The witty/ sharp humor is quite nice. In simple terms, it's quite enjoyable. You can't help but disregard the other problems while reading this.

Also, I would have hoped for the punctuation problem to be non-existent, seeing that the beta-reader for this fic is a regular DLP member. <_<

 

From the first chapter it's clear that the author understands how to create conflict. He isn't handing everything to Harry on a plate, Harry got double crossed and now we're seriously backing Harry's desire for revenge.

In another author's hands this could end up leading to Dark Lord Potter, but I get the feeling that this Harry is a more political animal.

There are definitely some phrasing and punctuation issues, though.

Time to read on!

 

Yeah, I'm also rooting for Harry to fuck over Hermione and Hestia's careers.

 

This is a near exact copy of the plot from House of Cards. Even some of the dialogue is the same.

 

Considering House of Cards is fucking amazing, I'm pretty okay with that.

 

Original or remake House of Cards? I mean, I've seen neither, but every review I've seen says that the first was intelligent, had a very different take on the narrator and was way ahead of its time on gender politics. Whereas the remake supposedly has people doing the most stupid thing possible or acting at random and claiming it all went as planned, while ignoring most of what was good about the first.

 

Based on what the author has in his notes, it's a bit of both. And while the original definitely has a different tone than the remake, I'd say they're both pretty damn good.

 

Just got to the end of this, I thought it was enjoyable. Probably the closest thing to a sympathetic (or at the very least understandable) Voldemort I've ever read that is remotely canon compliant.

Spoiler

Dumbledore is just an annoying but extremely skilled obstacle rather than a nemesis, and Voldemort's actions are still a result of the prophecy, but his perspective is different. Traces of Voldemort's passion for life and magic are seen and his tactics are shown as a means to an end rather than one dimensional Disney villain kill-kill-kill-fuckyou. Voldemort is still power hungry and arrogant but not to the usual cartoonish extreme. The author's sane Voldemort is actually quite similar to Dumbledore which is an interesting interpretation, and I really want to see what the author does with it.

It delves deeply into magical theory and the author's interpretation thereof, which might be a turnoff for some people, but I've always been a sucker for different ways authors interpret and fill in the holes of JKR's magic system.

I was underwhelmed with most of the Durmstrang scenes, but to be fair I'll always be subconsciously comparing fanfic Durmstrang to Santi's HP and the Boy Who Lived.

I can't really rate this since it's such a niche type of story. Still though, the interesting spin on Voldemort's motives might make this worth a read.

 

London Nights
In the Department of Mysteries, blood completes the circuit and links to other worlds. Harry finds himself in a conflict of the legends of the world for the ultimate prize, the Holy Grail. Once more, the London nights will reek of blood

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6847243/1/London-Nights

Basically a Grail War in Harry Potter world. None of the characters from Fate Stay Night besides Saber actually appear but the Author has reused the supporting cast by slapping a different name on them causing the plot twists to be predictable to anyone who knows FSN. Still enjoyed it though.

 

For this sentence alone, The Star Chamber gets 5 stars from me.

 

Lord Voldemort and the Intricate Plots is rather ironically named, given the lack of any kind of plot. Of course, a plot in the traditional sense (action-adventure/mystery etc.) isn't entirely necessary if you have some other source of conflict like a character-based story. Unfortunately there isn't any of that either.

Voldemort's characterisation is interesting but somewhat dull. He lacks any kind of dynamism. Harry is rather static and without progression you lose interest fast. And as said, there's no conflict.

A lot of the story focuses on magical theory, which can be interesting, but in this case is deadly dull. That's the problem with a "willpower/all you have to do is imagine things and want them to happen/magical theory and incantations are an unnecessary crutch" type of magical approach. There's basically nowhere you can go with it, because everyone already knows everything they need to know (which is to say, there is no such thing as magical knowledge). In fact, the less you know, the more of an expert you are, given that magical knowledge is a hindrance to effective use of magic in a direct way.

 

That's definitely something that has started to piss me off more and more every time I see it-

When Harry or whoever the self-insert is comes along to the first Transfiguration lesson and says that it's all willpower and imagination, thus negating the next seven years of lessons, it makes the idea of studying pointless.

 

Oh you are just looking at it wrong, it simply requires willpower to go through seven years of unnaturally boring lessons and the imagination makes up for the gap where willpower can't get you through.

My logic is flawless.

 

I suppose this one might be of interest to some:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9469064/1/

It's pretty much a stock "Sirius escapes earlier than in canon and raises Harry" story and manages to stay in character for the principals for the most part (Harry's thought processes are a bit sophisticated for a nine-year-old). I've read up through the first fifteen or so of the forty chapters and have found it to be a decent read, if somewhat dry and flawed in spots. Several of the plot points are unbelievable, such as

Spoiler

Harry's facile escape from St. Mungos,

or

Spoiler

Harry's easy escape from Snape afterward, together with his not chasing after him,

which drops the story to Almost Recommendable quality.

A definite plus is that the author updates every two or three days; it would seem that he/she has the story pre-written, so it's likely to be completed. On balance, I'd rate it about a 3/5.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3205751/1/Falling-Stars - "Everyone's heard of Dedalus Diggle's display of shooting stars in Kent. What most people don't know is why he did it.".

Extremely short but interesting expansion of random unimportant event from canon.

 

I tried it for a few chapters but the blandness and the personality transplants turned me off completely. I can't see Harry in that person at all and how he interacts with people or how he thinks.

Furthermore this story doesn't even try to show how Harry developed into the person he is now. Maybe the reader will get a few pointless flashbacks sometime later but it really doesn't feel right to me how this story is set up. The change is far too drastic. A few witty sentences doesn't make me forget the lack of almost everything else I expect from a HP story.

Another thing which really turns me off from this story is the Greengrass pairing. I regard that fandom placeholder character completely burned these days because 99.99% of stories featuring her are just terrible.

 

Author: DrizzleWizzle
Links: Harry Potter and the Slytherin Selection, Harry Potter and the Heir of Slytherin, Harry Potter and the Dementors of Azkaban

It's a Harry in Slytherin AU that has consistent and interesting characterization. It's decently written (although a bit sparse with description sometimes), but it suffers from some of the flaws of the genre - primarily that there's not much difference from canon despite Harry being in Slytherin. The first book is the weakest, I think it improves in the second and third.

It updates weekly, and the third book only has one chapter left. If in future books the author breaks more from canon events I might consider this library worthy.

 

When an AU takes three books before it really fulfills its primary purpose (an Alternate Universe), even people like me might find it a little longwinded.