Title: Harry Potter and the Dark Lord
Author: Erised Burning
Genre: Action/Adventure/Drama
Rating: M
Chapters: 28
Words: 263,635
Updated: May 2, 2006
Published: December 11, 2005
Status: Completed (250,000 words)
Pairings: Harry/OC, Ron/Hermione, Neville/Luna, Ginny is off the radar
Suggested category: "Independent Harry"
Summary: Harry gets drawn into a whirlwind adventure that leads him on a dogged pursuit of the horcruxes. Meanwhile, Ron and Hermione find themselves entangled in a bitter war against Voldemort and his forces.
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2697864/1/

I was initially put off this story by Ron and Hermione getting a lot of spotlight, as well as Harry hooking up with several Marry Sue-ish characters, but once I finally got into it, this turned out to be one of better novel-length post-HBP stories out there.

Still, the quality largely oscillates throughout the book. It starts by Harry accidentally stumbling into some strange Planescape-like dimension and meeting a lot of muggle OC's with special powers. This part was rather interesting, especially near the end, when Harry's character was distanced enough from the HBP pansy we've started with.

The next part deals with the golden duo's lives back home, while Harry is away in a parallel universe. Ron grows stronger and creates a replacement for the OOTP, intent on bringing the fight back to DE's - basically, he's acting like Independent!Harry in most of the post-OOTP stories. Hermione, on the other hand, turns dark and forms a sort of a third faction. This part had some fairly interesting ideas, but honestly, I only browsed through it, seeing how I don't care one iota for neither of these two characters.

The third part is where the story really heats up. Harry, 20-something years old Tom Riddle turned light and two Marry Sue-ish OCs are stuck in an alternate universe, where Harry's parents are alive and he's dead. This part is probably the best one, reminding me a lot of the second part of Joe's Hero trilogy, only without epic shit blowing it all away.

The last part is basically extremely powerful Harry and his muggle girlfriend hooking together with Ron's resistance and going into the final battle against Hermione and Voldemort. Very good, even if it feels somewhat rushed.

The best elements of this story are non-whiny Harry's character and brilliant concept of Horcruxes coming alive and turning against their maker. I just loved the idea and characterization of rouge Tom Riddles, both the Ravenclaw evil genius and the redeemed Squib turned Harry's mentor/brother. Too bad they didn't get more of the spotlight, instead of annoying female stalkers with stupid names. Fight scenes were deliciously gory and overall exciting, even if guns were a bit overpowered in the final battle.

The biggest downside (excluding Ron & Hermione parts, which is more my personal preference, then the author's screwup) are weak female OC's. While good!Riddle's girlfriend isn't so bad in the hindsight, Harry's girl is some sort of a ditzy blonde slut, that's basically just tagging along for the ride, without any practical relevance to the plot whatsoever. Honestly, I'd have much prefered to have seen more interaction with Riddle's Horcruxes, then romance-like shit with OC's I really don't care about. Also, the whole concept of walking into an AR by accident and meeting a bunch of muggles who had done it too, was simply too surreal for my taste. There were a few more irritating parts, but in hindsight, these were what bothered me the most.

All in all, this is an extremely good dark and independent Harry story, especially in the second half. I took away half point for R/Hr shit, half for unfocused plot and another half for stupid OC girlfriend and then added half for the length and great writing style.

Total score: 4/5; Highly recommended.



Checked by Minion, March 9, 2013

 

As excellent as usual IP.
9\10

 

Im not finished it yet, but its good.

 

I just finished it. I enjoyed the whole thing, though I did think that the sidestep into Ron and Hermione's life took too long. In the review I left I gave a 9.7. Harry's assention to his power was done really well, in my opinion.

 

I'm not finished yet, but very well thought out plot and enjoyable, 4/5 so far

 

I read it. It becomes a little tiring after a while, but over all a good fic.

4/5

 

Damn, I want to read this but FF.net is being gay at the moment. It won't load up worth shit, and this a monster of a computer I have.