Thread Title: Classical Hero by strangebloke - T - Percy Jackson/Worm
Title: Classical Hero
Author: strangebloke
Rating: T
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Crime-Fighting
DLP Category: Dimension Hopping
Pairings: None (that I can tell)
Status: WIP
Summary: The rage and loathing that Percy felt at the gods for kidnapping him again wasn't going to get in the way of him saving as many people as he could while he was here on this crappy world. At least, that was his plan.
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12481482/1/Classical-Hero
SB: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/classical-hero-worm-pjo.396446/#post-22759474

I've never read Worm. I only know the bare bones of the story in fact. I've read Percy Jackson, sure, but it doesn't allow me an in-depth view of the story since I only know one of the fandoms.

It's by strangebloke, an author who made his debut on the site with his ASOIAF story Wounds, a tried-and-tested story and well-liked by @Odran .

The chapters are short, but well-written and flow well. The prose isn't a chore to read, and it isn't boring. strangebloke doesn't meander with his words, there aren't shopping trips around Diagon Alley the city. It's fairly action-packed and I feel that he gets Percy's voice well.

I'm going to tentatively rate the story 4/5 for now, mostly because it's currently just seven chapters and it'll be a time before the plot picks up.

It hasn't been updated for a few months, but if strangebloke continues updating and at his current quality, I think this could go in the library.

Edit: @WiseTomato pointed out that this fic's also on SpaceBattles, which has more content than the FFN version. So thanks Wize.

Edit 2: After reading the SpaceBattles version, I rate this at 5/5.

 

I hadn't realised that the same bloke wrote this and Wounds. Classical Hero is an entertaining story, and scratches the itch of seeing Percy in Worm pretty well. It's good to see a genuinely decent person running around the setting, and it's well written too. No glaring issues to lessen my enjoyment of it, narrative or technical. At most there might be a few behaviours/tropes that people might be tired of seeing, like Armsmaster being less than personable to a new hero. I'm somewhat surprised it hasn't already been put up For Review. Its weakest point is probably its length at this stage, clocking in at 20k on FFNet. Here is a link to it on SB, with 61k words.

It hasn't done anything spectacular, just doing what it does well. I'd give it a 3.5/5, but by dint of it being a crossover, a well done crossover, and a well done crossover to an unusual fandom, I'll bump it up to 4/5.

 

Thanks for adding the SpaceBattles link Wize.

 

Will read and rate later, but it should probably go here for now. https://forums.darklordpotter.net/forums/other-fandoms-review-board.90/

 

Ah shit.

Can the mods plunk this thread over to Other Fandom?

 

Percy is a bit overpowered for the universe he’s in. Combined with the fact that the overarching conflict has yet to be properly established, this leads his confrontations with villains to be rather uninteresting for the most part. I will grant that the method he used to deal with Lung was somewhat creative, though.



The characterization of Percy and Greg seems mostly in line with what I can recall from the source material, but Taylor and Purity are just bland presences, seemingly there to lend their power sets and not much else. Purity is especially bland and is reduced to the bare essentials of wanting to protect her daughter, which is a shame, seeing as she was among the most interesting characters in canon.


The author is on point with Percy’s narrative style, from what I can recall, with all the trying too hard humour this entails. That’s just the character being himself, though, so I won’t subtract for that. However, he also falls into the Spacebattles trapping of using his protagonist as a mouthpiece sometimes, and that’s not as easy to swallow.


Still, I’ve read far worse stories. 3/5

 

So I made it to only chapter five in this before I put it down.

It's certainly not terrible but I didn't find it engaging at all, and this is despite me being on a PJO bender at present, rereading SOTW and three and Otter's ting. I don't get the impression that this has been particularly thought through or considered beyond the immediate promise of Percy in Worm (and the inevitable Leviathan fight). The title wrote a big cheque with 'Classical Hero' but I've seen very little pay off from that promise so far. His character voice is scattered and difficult to parse (particularly in fights) and despite a few nice lines and images, here and there, the rest of the prose flounders under the weight of his character voice.

And, despite it being first-person, I'm not particularly clear why Percy is doing the things he is doing on a moment to moment basis. It has missed the opportunity to place any depth into his placement into this world, nor to bring in the most interesting parts of the PJO world - the myths not the powers.

The dialogue is weak and very 'First-pass'(y). The scenes aren't well structured and the paragraph to paragraph pacing is not there with any hint of purpose - again particularly noticeable during fights when it seems to stretch at the wrong moments and contract when it should be slowing.

A very strong 2.5/5, the definition of average. Rounded up.

 

3/5

The prose could be better but it's a decent Percy/Worm cross, so it's a solid 3 just from that alone. At first I didn't really like Taylor's p.o.v chapters since I didn't think it fit her and her voice, one thing it does capture is that canon!Taylor was always a bitch. She just feels a bit off since she's written more like Percy, in general the prose is a bit simplistic. Also, the fights were a bit boring in general. The villains were all written as caricatures as well with Lung and Purity though

Spoiler

I'm hoping that was an actual character death for her just because it'd be an interesting turn and believable.

I'd probably continue reading it but Blorcyn is right that it's average.

Good for a PJO fic, a little bit below for the worm fandom tbh.

 

Alright, so this story belongs in Almost Recommended then.