Title: Failsafe
Author: Hannanora-Potter
Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Rating: T
Genre: Adventure/Humor
DLP-Category: The Alternates
Pairing: Harry/Ginny
Chapters: 18
Words: 67,300
Updated: Sep 1, 2015
Published: May 30, 2015

Summary:
Tackling the last traces of magic Voldemort left scattered around Britain, a magical disaster causes Harry and Ginny to wake up in the dungeons of a ruined fortress. It doesn't take them long to realise that something is very, very wrong… Post DH

Link: Failsafe


This is a decent HP/LotR crossover

Basically, it is a post DH fic in which Harry and Ginny get transported to the LotR world, and find themselves in Dol Guldur. They spend a few chapters in the wilderness before getting picked up by the Fellowship in Fangorn Forest, as Saruman can't be allowed control over two young and powerful wizards.

The story manages to be entertaining despite keeping to the general canon plot. There are no blatant elements of fix-it-ness, and Harry doesn't just wave his wand and solve every problem in Middle Earth. Harry has to adjust to Middle Earth, not Middle Earth to Harry. You still get the feeling that they're accepted a bit too easily by the fellowship, though.

Fight scenes are generally decent, and the ongoing Battle of Helm's Deep is pretty fun. The magic is well described, and Harry and Ginny learning warding would be one of the high points of the fic.

The plot is contrived in a couple of places, especially to get Harry to meet the fellowship. The story is based on LotR movie canon, and I skimmed the one or two chapters that seemed too similar to the movies. The author also downplays the romance, which is weird, as sometimes Harry and Ginny seem more like platonic friends than a couple.

They get transported to the LotR world in chapter 2, so not much happens in chapter 1. Oh, and the author misspells 'canon' as 'cannon', which you have to look past. The writing is generally good for the rest of the fic.

Updates seem pretty regular. The author's posted 18 chapters (67,300 words) since May 31st, though there hasn't been an update since the first of the month. Flawed but still somewhat enjoyable, and with regular updates.



Edit by Minion, October 3, 2015
Moved out of the Almost Recced Thread.
To be moved out of For Review October 24.

 

I don't get it. I thought the point of an Hp/LotR crossover was to pair Harry with Legolas?

 

0/5 - no Harry/Legolas goodness.

 

I've been reading it as well.
I think the author leans a bit too heavily on the whole, 'Harry and Ginny don't want to kill orcs,' business, early on, but it's not too egregious.

So far, it's not too bad. And, considering how bad HP/LoTR can get, it's probably already in the upper echelon. Hopefully it can keep it up and, dare I even dream, improve upon what it's already done.

And to anyone who finds Ginny's presence distasteful, all I have to say is: When, 9 times out of 10, the alternative is Harry turning into an elf toddler who, despite having all of his adult faculties, is groomed -uh- raised by the Fellowship, like a helpless child, to appreciate the finer points of sucking dick and taking it in the keister from various Fellowship members' members... is Ginny even remotely the worst thing that could happen to (Harry in) a HP/LoTR crossover? :fire

(About half of that remaining 1 out of 10 is either god!Harry or Dark!Harry, both of which get old fast for various reasons.)

 

The Harry/Ginny thing isn't even that bad in this. They aren't falling over each other proclaiming how they are soulmates or anything. They just feel like a young couple. Hell the author even sort of makes fun of the idea with them using "love you; love you right back" as banter and one of the Lotr characters proclaiming that they must be greatly in love to use such language so openly.

As for the fic itself. It was fine. As Warlocke said upper tier of Hp/Lotr crosses, but that ain't saying much. It did slip into OP territory in the last chapters, but their plans weren't foolproof and I would like to see where the author takes it.

 

This thread was once part of the (now named) "New and Almost Recommended Harry Potter Fanfiction" thread.

I moved it here as it was long enough or got enough positive attention to deserve its own thread.

 

I was waiting for the next few chapters to see how the battle of Helm's Deep went and whether the author moved away from canon plot to gauge whether the story was library quality or not.

As it is, the story is a solid 3/5. If the author improves upon it in the next few chapters, it could easily be library material.

 

I'm enjoying this story. It's by no means a masterpiece but it is definitely worth a read if you are interested in crossovers. 3/5 for what's written so far but has lots of room for improvement.

 

I like it so far. I definitely will mirror the sentiment that the author focuses way to much are Harry and Ginny not wanting to kill. It made me cringe a few times, but didn't detract from the story too much.

The beginning stretches on a bit, but I think Harry and Ginny's reactions to the new world are believable. I would say that there are some holes that the author never fills, as well as some mistakes on both LOTR and HP canon, but nothing that one can't get over.

I rarely enjoy crossovers/time travel fics where multiple people get transported to the new world, but this one pulls it off well. Probably because the LOTR world seems largely devoid of any other possible romantic interest for Harry. That said, Ginny is written such that she adds value beyond just filling that role.

3.5/5 but it could easily go to 4 if the plot picks up a bit, and diverges from canon to a greater extent.

 

I like this story as well - Harry and Ginny's pacifism is annoying but interesting if nothing else, and while there are a few cringeworthy elements (that whole deal with warding was just one long wince) it's really not bad at all.

On the other hand it almost feels... uninspired? There's nothing engaging about the writing, nothing that makes the reader feel much of anything. There's no literary or technical genius, there's no single sentence that stands out.

I still remember the opening paragraphs from the Skitterleap:

I read the Skitterleap years ago and I still remember "It was cold in Leipzig", even when I had forgotten the name and everything else about the fic. It's not incredible writing, but it left such a lasting impression on me that I remembered those opening words for years.

This piece of work has nothing remotely similar. It's not bad... but that's all it is. Not bad. Perhaps my standards have gone up, perhaps excellence is an unfair expectation for a HP/LOTR crossover, but not bad just isn't good enough for me anymore.

3/5.

 

This fic is fun. The writing is fine, and the story itself is enjoyable. I also liked how the Harry/Ginny relationship was handled, which is quite rare.

That said, there's portions of the fic that are tiring to read, both in content and structure, especially those parts where most paragraphs are both long and of similar lengths.

3/5

 

I enjoyed the story a lot more then the 3 star rating lead me to believe I would. Only problem I had was the 'transportation' they took to get there. It has it's funny moments as well and the fights are easy to follow and enjoyable.

 

Story Review

The story is reasonably well written. Both Harry and Ginny progress well in terms of learning and using magic. The downside, in my opinion, is the realization that both main characters do not seem to want to fight. In LOTR, a story that is filled with many battles and deaths, this may be a problem for them in the future.

 

I'm not the biggest fan of Harry/Ginny. But this is ultimately not bad!