I enjoyed this the first time I read it and made a point to keep up to date on it (even with the fucktard author playing rename games) and finished it thinking it was a decent read. Then I read The Book of Albus and thought it was even better, all the way up to the point where she doesn't end the story. She decides that we should all review and tell her how our personal version of the fic would end.

Fuck that shit! This was awesomsauce until she decided to pull that artsy fartsy non-ending. Now I don't even like Backwards With A Purpose let alone The Book of Albus!

This gets a low-balling from me because of the way she fucked over what could have been a really good time travel story.

1/5

--bornagainpenguin (epitome of the cliche you can oly get truly angry over the things you are passionate about)

 

She's already started a sequel to Book of Albus, so it's not like she pulled a "Sopranos" ending or anything.

 

Curious. So you found this story to be orders of magnitude beneath Jeco's Happily Ever After in terms of suitability for DLP? (I'm quite certain you rated HEA higher than 1/5). Must be the Harry/Ginny, since I don't see it from story idea or writing execution.

I've come to agree with NW's original comment in this thread that this kind of story should never have been suggested for DLP readership. (Sorry, Taure). Too many things don't fit the mold and, no matter how good the execution, we as a community can't be seen as promoting anything with even a hint of Harry/Ginny fluff. DLP is more about simply filtering for quality--it's about ensuring that only the "right kind of story" makes the cut. I'll change my rating from 4 to 1 to help it along. (Lincos should be happy).

I just went though the entire library not long ago (when compiling the list of Completed fics for Kate's list) and I can aver that by sheer numbers alone, "right kind of story" here is code for "abandoned three-chapter Dark!Indy!Harry start of middling writing quality." (Sure, there's probably a dozen or so H/G fics too, along with another twenty or so Severitus, a few Slash fics, a piece of insipid Bella/Lily rimjob smut, and even a Harry/Molly; they are clearly an anachronism). By quality alone, this story far surpasses much that's there. But as I said before and which bears repeating, quality is not the point of the DLP Library.

I enjoyed the story, but then I'm partial to authors who write well, characterize believably, don't close the bedroom door, and actually finish off her stories. This one was good, not great, a guilty pleasure by an author who updates regularly and cares about her craft. I would put it on the short list of good completed stories in the time-travel genre and would probably recommend it to someone interested in such a story (if I knew the reader was not a member of this community).

 

It is ideas like these two which make me unhappy.

I always thought DLP was about find and keeping fics of quality on the web site, not only fics of a certain point, as you seem to be implying. The only fics we REALLY discriminate against here, is slash.

As for the second point, don't change your own opinion based on what others think, if you enjoyed the story, and would like to see it in the library, keep your rating at 4/5.

 

Uh, strongly disagree. Quality is supposed to be the single determinant of whether a fic makes it into the library or not. The above attitude (e.g. discriminating against a fic based on pairing) is exactly the attitude the mods have been trying to move people away from for years.

 

A solid 4/5 from me.

It kept me reading, it had its ups and downs, but compared to 99% of everything in this genre these days, it was a fucking rose in a garden of weeds.

Thought went into this, and although the time-travel isn't perfect, it is complex enough to make sense.

It was worth reading.

 

Nobody cares enough about these fics to rate and necro them, which is probably the only reason they're still here. This leaves a false impression of what we actually want to read.

I personally didn't rate this fic, since I only read up to Lockhart's duelling club, and skimmed the CoS climax. That was enough to tell me that I probably wouldn't like what was to come at this specific point in time.

I agree, however, that giving a completed fic of this size and writing quality a 1/5 is a rather big stretch. At least 1 star extra would be prudent, IMHO.

 

I started this story when it was still somewhat near the beginnings (back when the author was still AlianneofTortall); I was gone for a bit and never ended up finishing it. From what I remember, this was a pretty decent story, barring a few complaints that Taure has already mentioned.

Spoiler

I did actually question the author about the Hermione!uberknowledge thing at age 11, and this is the response I got:

I think Hermione has deductive reasoning capabilities that exceeds that of
Harry, Ron, and Ginny. Yes, they've gone through six years of school. And they are far, far better at dueling than she is. But Hermione actually gets the theory of it, and she goes above and beyond what is needed to master each spell.

Also... I felt a bit bad about leaving her out of the Time Travel Trio, and I
did not want to make her part in the war even less what it is now.

I'm not sure I quite agree with this, but in the end I think the author decided to do this more because of her own emotional reasons rather than any plot-related stuff.

I think the story is decent enough, and the H/G isn't disgusting like it is in many other fics. I give it a 4/5, but on the pointing to 3 direction.

 

Okay, first off I recanted on Happily Ever After. Go back and read the thread... Or don't, I really don't care what you do. I just saw that she'd decided to continue the story and skipped back here to amend myself on the basis of new data accordingly.

As for the shit that was HEA, keep in mind that our votes are one time only here and so I am unable to amend myself on that. Also I don't care either which way whether Ginny is in a fic or not, I look for good spelling, formatting and grammar that doesn't induce a need to claw out my eyes and hopefully a new spin on an old tale.

No shit...its called the cancer and it has infected DLP.Net just as it infects everything else. If you were interesteding quality you'd be reading something other than Harry Potter any way. The reason we read Harry Potter fanfiction is to see someone write a better version of the books than JKR did. If the books were any good there would be no need for fanfiction!

The reason there is so much crap in the Library is due to a lack of clean up like Memory king said, but it is also due to people who held out hope for something new. Far too many fics these days are considered crap when at the time they were the great, but suffered from endless copycats to the point where they suffer by comparison even if they were there first...

I would have aagreed with everything you just said here, except for the part where you mentioned it was complete--the basis of my original complaint if you recall. I'm happy to see she has decided to write some more in the fic universe (in hopes of finally getting an ending) but I fear based on past experiences this will be another zombie fic that continues long after it should have been put down.

--bornagainpenguin

 

Fair enough--that clarifies matters nicely. Thanks, BAP.

 

A good read but not much more than that.
I'd rate it between 3 and 4, but you can't so I gave it a four.

 

Raven changed that. I just tested it and it works. You can change your vote, and only your most recent rating counts towards the thread average.

 

Huh, that must be a very new change, I've not been able to do that before today.

 

It's almost 3 months old now. Thread.

 

My prejudiced hate towards H/G aside, I really couldn't find this one that awesome.

Sure, the writing is good and all, but still, for me, it lacks the factor that keeps me hooked. Reading through was a chore for me, and I just couldn't get past Chapter 13.

I merely skimmed through upto chapter 20 and still couldn't find that element.

Maybe I'll take it up later, but for now, it will be 1/5 for me.

 

Not to tell you that your opinion is wrong or anything, but your opinion is wrong.

Even if you dislike this fic, to say it is as bad as My Immortal is just stupid.

There isn't an official ratings guide, but I'll send you towards my one, which no one seemed to have any problems with.

 

The system sounds fair, but I try rating on a different scale, with 1/5 being a story, which might be redeemed, but till now, isn't so good.

2/5 is a slightly better story, but still, doesn't quite catch up.

3/5 is average. Can be read, but just to waste some time.

4/5 above average, but still not perfect, with some degrading factors here and there.

5/5 is perfect. Perfect plot, characterization, interesting and enjoyable to go through.

Unlike you, I just cbf to give examples

As for things like 'My Immortal', I refrain from rating them and merely express my feelings through words.

 

Hmm...maybe I was trying to change votes older than 3 months. Thats the only explanation I can think of in that regard.

 

Strange...I tried to change my vote on something not too long ago and the board software told me I had already voted and could not do so again. I'll give it another shot in a bit...

UPDATE: I just tried it out on a recent thread and it works...maybe the thread was too old to be able to be changed, like Ellisande said?

--bornagainpenguin