Quantum Leap by scoradh

Reason it's here instead of being recc'd for the Library is slash. It is a significant chunk of the story, so if that bugs you then don't bother. THAT SAID. This is one of the funniest, happiest, gut-punching-est stories I've read in a long time. Read at your risk, etc.

 

Wanna tell a bit more before we jump on the slash train?

 

I'm honestly not sure whether or not to recommend this to anything more than Almost Recommended. On the one hand, I enjoyed it plenty, on the other it might be me not recognising a guilty pleasure. It's probably the latter.

Crossover with Dragon Age (1)

Needless to say, the title is instantly forgettable. I think I liked it for how much the story seems to be staying away from the main plot of Dragon Age, gives it some room to grow. I have no strong feelings regarding Leliana but she's a good vehicle for giving Harry direction, I guess. the worst parts of the story, in my opinion, are the eventual assumptions of the relationship between Harry and her but I could read past that.

 

Already been recced.

 

Ah, I checked the list but didn't see it. Must have messed up.

 

You should have probably said it's H/D. There are plenty of problems with one of those that have nothing to do with the orientationbending. Like the fanon that appears to be unique to these type of fics. Several times it seemed to reference some kind of cliche that i just didn't get and I have to assume that it's something to do with the whole h/d side of the fandom.

Also the characters are very indistinct. They appear to share a single personality that is borrowed from glee, or mean girls, or some other american high school drama/comedy. The kind where they constantly spew juvenile witticisms that could come from any kids tv shows "cool" guy. Like sixteen-year-olds watching Seinfeld.

 

An unconventional post for this thread: are any of you following this fic?

A Marauder's Plan
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8045114/1/A-Marauder-s-Plan
Sirius decides to stay in England after escaping Hogwarts and makes protecting Harry his priority. AU GOF.

I remember reading it when it was first out and thinking the writing was okay but the plot a bit clichéd, especially the Dumbledore parts. I read it through to the latest chapter (back then maybe 6 or 7) but didn't pick it up again.

Now it's 61 chapters and 576k words long. A fic of that size in this fic environment is worth looking at, I think. However, I'm reluctant to commit. The chapter list is extremely worrying, and not just from the use of the word "Pronglet". The chapter "Pronglet Returns to Hogwarts" is chapter 39. Thirty Nine.

I mean, seriously. Do we have a 39 chapter summer before 5th year here?

Anyone up to date on this want to chip in on if it's worth reading?

 

It's a bit of a weird-ass super!Harry thing where he commands family totems of his own families (Black and Potter) as well as those families who have sworn allegiance to him and has been able to do so since he was a foetus. The Dumbledore bit is pretty tired.

It's a bland read, though it seems to finally be drawing to a close with the latest chapter's developments

Spoiler

Sirius is hospitalized, perhaps on his death bed, and in his grief Harry decides to go hunt down Voldemort on his own. He'll probably pull some plot armor out of his ass and go to town. Then go marry his Twu Wuv, Hermione.

 

Here's a kind of interesting story-- a Harry Potter/ Dark Materials crossover. It's not been updated since July of last year, and looks like the author has moved on to other fandoms, but it held my interest all the way through. And as a blending of universes, the whole deamon thing really kind of works well for Harry Potter.

I sort of wish she was still updating, but after a read-through of the author's profile, I'm pretty glad the characters never get a chance to develop slashy tendencies. The character of Harry is borderline-sociopath (nothing super crazy, just hard for other characters to read due to the unique nature of his daemon), and the author balances the opacity of Harry's thoughts with chapters from the point of view of other characters.

I dunno, it's just kind of a cool idea.

 

I'm seconding this. I haven't picked it up do to the chapter titles. Seriously, has anyone read this?

 

Did you miss Perspicacity's post?

 

I did. I didn't realize that was a response to Taure.

Damn. There goes my last hope that it might have been a decent read.

 

This one's put together well, though Harry has strayed a bit too far from his canon self and into "super soldier" mode for me to comfortably recommend it for the DLP Library:

HP/NCIS crossover, Harry/Ziva pairing. 88k words, WIP (updated yesterday).

What's to like? A lot. The author is a university student majoring in history (specializing in military history and international politics) and a member of the British Army Reserves; this background is tapped extensively, leading to a story with the sort of authenticity and attention to military detail that comes from actually knowing one's stuff and not faking it. The author writes a realistic relationship between two complex, conflicted people, something that's no mean feat to pull off. He manages to get most of the NCIS characterization down pretty well and while Harry is far different from from his canon self, the transition is explained plausibly in the text. Even though this is an AU spinoff of one of the author's other stories (an HP/Stargate Atlantis tale), it can be read as a standalone. The writing quality is generally high for fanfiction. The central characters make mistakes and those mistakes have consequences.

What's not to like? Harry lost his magic (for the most part--what little he retains he seldom uses), so this is more of an HP personality imprint onto an OC in an NCIS tale than a true Harry Potter crossover. He's the only person from the Harry Potter series we see getting stage time. Also, some of the "super soldier with insanely good connections among many countries' intelligence services" bits strain credulity. The pacing was a bit off in spots (though not enough to trip up an otherwise good story).

It's a worthy read. I'd give it a 4/5 (and could see it going to 5/5 depending on where the author takes it), but I don't think it's quite the best match for the DLP Library. Recommended for those who enjoy Clancy-style military fiction and spy thrillers.

 

I've been reading Khaveyrim for a while too and while I agree that it has it's problems, overall I generally like it. As you said Harry is basically himself in name only (although keeps that at least, there's no Rahkesh here) and the rule of cool antics get old after a while, but the author knows his stuff so he's able to write about a lot of military things very convincingly from what I can tell.

Harry is able to call in more favours and mobilise more elite troops than God himself at times which gets annoying, however it does lead to some pretty entertaining moments when he finally starts interacting with the NCIS team (which is pretty far into the story).

Spoilers here:

Spoiler

The last few chapters kind of turned me off though. I get that Harry and Ziva's relationship is complicated (her father is a dick, etc.) but one moment they were all in love with each other and then the next Ziva was banging some other Mossad dude, which from what I can tell was largely to keep things in line with the canon NCIS plot. Then in the latest chapter she spent weeks (months?) getting raped and tortured in Somalia, which I understand from a story telling perspective but personally I don't really enjoy reading about rape. I probably could have worded that better but anyway I guess we'll how things go from here.

4/5 is a pretty fair rating in my opinion.

 

I follow it and I can respect the writer's work but this story as a whole doesn't really work for me. It's a lot tell instead of show and Harry as an active character is far too overshadowed by others like Sirius. I can't really stand the House alliances nonsense trope. Everybody is just "friends" with everybody at school and in the tournament now which generates a lot OOC behavior. No real tension in that aspect of the story.

There are elements which are interesting like Wormtail and Snape's motivation. Barty Jr. is fascinating. Some interesting character spins and sub plots. But the whole story falls with Harry who isn't really the driving force. He literally bores me to hell in his sainthood and passiveness.

In the end I can't fully understand the motivation of the author to construct this story the way he did. Maybe Sirius in this story is a self insert of the writer whose main mission is to "protect" Harry. Some really weird fathering/smothering vibe is the major theme of this.

 

At half a million words and it's a lot of tell instead of show?

Now I really don't want to read it.

 

I made it through about 20 chapters of A Marauder's Plan assuming that something interesting had to happen eventually before giving up, and by that point I was sort of expecting it to end with a giant group hug and Voldemort apologizing for being so mean.

It's an interesting idea that I think could make a pretty good story, but this story isn't it. It's too disjointed, and Harry just isn't an interesting enough character to make the style work.

 

Storybook Hero
Author: dogbertcarroll
Harry is sure he's living in a fairy tale with himself as the hero. Really, what else makes sense?
Fiction T - English - Humor - Harry P. - Chapters: 4 - Words: 11,505 - Reviews: 541 - Favs: 1,301 - Follows: 1,435 - Updated: 09-30-13 - Published: 11-30-11 - id: 7597067

Enjoy! Just discovered it. Nothing serious. Funny!

 

This is surprisingly funny, if you go in knowing what to expect.

Edit: at least chapter 1 was okay

 

This one took me by surprise. I pretty much enjoy the story so far, as it is well written and deals with the more glamorous side of my line of work, but I don't think only military hobbists will enjoy this. The technical and military is not very hard to follow, and is pretty accurate from personal experiences.

Basically, for me it's a spy action/romance story with no connection to HP whatsoever. It's written well enough, even if it does butcher my native language a bit. The attention to detail makes this worth reading in my opinion, and introducing me to an Israeli character in an American TV show (didn't know there were any) gives it bonus points.