So, I just finished Fate/Zero. It was pretty fucking awesome. Now, I want to read lots of awesome fanfiction about it.

I haven't watched Fate/Stay Night, as people have recommended against that, but I did read a little bit about it on Wikipedia.

Basically, I'm looking for recommendations for fics, where knowledge of Fate/Zero is enough, though I'm sure I'd pick up stuff from Fate/Stay Night quickly enough, as a few of the characters are already covered in Zero.

I'm starting out with this because well... Sabre as the Dragonborn, how can that possibly be bad?

 

Play/Read/Eat/Whateveryouwanttocallit Fate/Stay Night, the VN. Can't really get better than that itself and no point in checking for Fanfiction till that is done.

 

Uh, how do I do that?

 

Hah, good point.

Mirror Moon is the one that translated the full game to English. One just needs to own a copy of Fate/Stay Night at this point. You can buy it for an obscene amount of money and hassle... or something else.

 

Done, I will uh... read or play this? Whatever you do with visual novels!

Anyway, would still love fanfic recommendations for after I finish. Also, how long does to take to read/play this?

 

I've heard that F/S Night in total has around 800k words across the three routes. It is not in the normal paragraph format so it might take you longer or faster to read than normal depending.

On the subject of good Fate fanfiction, I need a bit of time.

 

The best/only one I've read is Fictional by our very own DarkSyaoran. It's very well written.

 

FSN is a small fandom, you can find all of the major stories that aren't crossovers by sorting on FFnet by 60k+ words on the main page. Pretty small listing.

The FSN VN and Tsukihime VN are both worth your time reading if you've not read them already.

 

I always rec this just because of how well the author writes a magus and magus culture.

 

To be honest, I watched the game on Xerblade's channel. Which is probably a strange way to go about it.

Path of the King
"With swords that aren't yours, with skills that aren't yours, for dreams that aren't yours. Your entire existence is a lie!" - "Then I'll show you that even fake dreams can become reality." A different choice, a different path, a different FATE. Shirou/Multi

Chaos Theory
Sometimes, the tiniest of changes can have the greatest impact on the world. One chance encounter goes in a new direction, and the course of the Holy Grail War is irrevocably changed...

Tainted Ideals
In the fire that ravaged Fuyuki city, it was not Emiya Kiritsugu who saved the life of a young Shirou, but the tainted grail itself.

The World Without
Tiger Dojo 1 AU/continuation. One refusal does not end the story...nor one casualty, the battles. Even without Emiya Shirou, the Grail War goes on. -IN PROGRESS-

 

I love The World Without so bloody much. Going through the Authors blog to see what he is working on now,

Spoiler

I don't regret making Ayako a somewhat significant character in TWW, but...

She's so clueless about the world of magic that it's a struggle to keep every scene with her from turning into an info-dump that would make Gabriel Blessing jealous.

Such a good burn.

 

Yes, this one is a must read! Even if it's not that focused on the F/N side of things it is a fucking riot to read. Definitely one of the best fics I've read in a long time.

Knight504 hit the better ones of the fandom as well. I'd say give Path of the King a read, but give it a little bit of time to get really good. Once his Servant is introduced, it gets awesome. (Actually, it's probably the only ????/Multi I would recc, even though the plot hasn't gotten that far on it.

 

And simply because I like Iskandar:

Alexandriad: The Song of Fire
The Spring-Time Familiar Summoning Ritual summons the being most suitable for the mage. A soul of fire summons forth a soul of fire. The right spark can cause anything to burn. Fate/Zero Rider (Familiar of Zero xover)

 

But yeah, I agree with others on reading the Visual Novel. In the end, no matter how amazing some Fanfics are, they don't compare to the actual Visual Novel and how awesome that is.

 

+1 on The World Without, Chaos Theory, Postnupital Agreements. They're among my favorite FSN fics.

I never really thought Path of a King was on the same level as the other three, but it's still quite fun.

There's only three exclusively Fate Zero one that I'd recommend - not quite library material, but still fun:
Remember - Tokiomi summons Counter Guardian EMIYA.
Want and Need - Completely different servants, this time Kiritsugu getting Counter Guardian EMIYA.
Holding Back the Sea One of Ryuugi's many seemingly abandoned projects. Percy Jackson crossover, and said person gets summoned by Kariya.

There's a bunch of alternative takes on the Fifth Heaven's Feel like Chaos Theory, World Without and Path of the King:
Opportunity of Fate
From Fake Dreams - starts average, gets worse but does improve and actually has some interesting and unique stuff happening in the later chapters
Lancer Gets Serious - despite the silly name, quite fun
Fate: Heaven's Works - some decent stuff in here, but kinda spoiled by the fact the author decided to make Gilgamesh a girl. Seriously retarded decision there.

A pretty hilarious Gilgamesh centric one in the vein of Carnival Phantasm that you should check out is called Gilgamesh tries his Hand At and literally has me laughing out loud even on rereads.


What's probably stronger in the FSN/FZ fandom is actually crossovers. Most of them don't even require you to understand the other universe. You can pick most of the info up from just reading, or alternatively you could actually look up the other fandom.

Alexandriad is awesome and it's a real shame the author didn't get out anything more than 3 chapters. Another hilarious ZnT crossover in the same vein is Like a King where Gilgamesh gets summoned. Hilariously awesome, but once again, only 2 chapters with no more foreseeable.

Some of my other favorite crossovers are:
Promises of the Wandering Hero - (Love Hina) Surprisingly works really well.
God Slaying Blade Works - (Campione) Starts slow, but the last few battles have been brilliant. His fight with Mordred was one of my favorite fight scenes I've read. Was thinking about reccing this to Library at one point.
Postnupital Agreements (Sekirei) as mentioned above
Fate Eternia - Naruto summoned by Medea (Caster). This was awesome and it was a shame it wasn't continued. Never really got to any real fight scenes, but the character interaction was great.

And of course, Gabriel_blessings works, which will get you all excited, and after many many words you'll end up disappointed. But may still be worth reading so you can imagine how good it COULD have been.
In Flight (Sekirei) - If you can be bothered reading through a 600,000 word build up that starts well until you realize the climax was epic fail and the first half was the only good bit
Hill of Swords (Zero no Tsukaima) - Same author as In Flight. And not as good as In Flight either. But still, some great scenes here and there. Can get tedious at times.
Debt of a Sword - Actually turned out quite decent. Probably because it was a short omake that he didn't try to turn into a feature length fic.

 

More, you ask? Why, certainly.

Escaping Fate
Even if he is betrayed by his ideals, the life he saves may be worth it all. On the victims that Shirou may save and what he could mean to them. Post-Fate. Edited for Fate/Extra CCC info.

Fate Stay Away

Short vignette scenes presenting a Fate scenario where Shirou summons a Saber closer in persona to Saber Alter.

Behind Closed Doors
Returning home after a long battle, the girl known to the world at large only as 'King Arthur' seeks naught but a brief respite from her troubles. Alas, circumstances rarely cooperate...

Mind of Aluminum
The dark truth about Sakura Matou has been revealed, and the question has been asked: should she live, or die? Only a true hero could make such a painful choice, but... sadly, none were available.

Objective: Emiya
When seeking true love, most will advise you to be yourself. Ilya is not seeking true love, however. She is going to WAR for true love. And why be herself when being someone else is so much more efficient?

 

Just wanted to plug my own recent challenge. https://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?p=631423

If you read some FSN fandom and want to try a whack at a story, maybe my idea will spark a few of yours?

 

Just discovered this one:

Nails by Tacks

It isn't perfect and it does contain some grammar and spelling mistakes, especially early on but it is still a rather interesting story, where the identities of the servants are well kept, their names are interesting, and it is rather fast paced with a good plot. Worth checking out.

 

Some more recs:

Arashi Leonhart is pretty good. http://www.fanfiction.net/u/6272/Arashi-Leonhart
Moczo is pretty hilarious. He wrote Chaos Theory which was mentioned above. http://www.fanfiction.net/u/31351/Moczo

Into the Rain

Also, this despite being a lemon was pretty good: http://forums.nrvnqsr.com/showthread.php/3670-Not-the-Welcome-She-Was-Expecting-LEMON

 

Memories of a King written by Polly 93 is still in its beginning phase is shaping up quite nicely.

So yeah, basically the retelling of Arturia's life, starting before her birth with Merlin. Quite interesting.