Title: Harry Potter and the Illusions of Reality
Author: Sarcasm Dragon
Rating: T
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Status: Complete
Library Category:
Pairings: Harry P./N. Tonks
Summary: Harry has felt for a long time that there was something strange about the Muggle world. But when he begins receiving strange messages from the notorious mass murderer, Sirius Black, he begins to wonder if the Wizarding world is what he believed it to be. COMPLETE!
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7370121/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Illusions-of-Reality

I don't know if this is a well known story or not, I have been looking for some good fanfiction to read (I still don't know how to really search through DLP's library list and many stories there are frankly unreadable), and I've never seen this story suggested much so I thought to submit it here.

It's a Matrix/HP crossover, I read it quite some time ago so I don't really remember much, but I do know I finished it so the writing cannot be too bad. Main characters are Harry/OC/Tonks/Sirius as far as I can remember, and it's quite an interesting merge. If you haven't seen the Matrix movies I doubt it'll be very easy to follow. I think all in all it would deserve to be in the library even if it were a worse story than it is, merely due to the originality of it.

 

I thought this was pretty good -- I haven't seen this particular crossover handled competently and it had plenty of novel concepts (although was also often semi-predictable too). The writing was high quality, the stories entertaining, and the characters decent but it doesn't really have that extra oomph a lot of the great stories do IMO -- all in all a decent timewaster. I gave it a 3.5/5 rounded up to 4.

 

Alright, so I haven't read all of this, but I think that I've gotten a good enough impression to review it. The premises of the story is interesting, and up until the characters leave the Matrix, I was enjoying the author's execution of the concept. But in my opinion it dropped off sharply in quality after that. The dialogue felt quite clunky in times, the plot contrived, and although there weren't that many outright grammar errors or spelling mistakes, the story could certainly have used an edit or two.

I'm going to give this a 3/5, but it was a good recommendation OP. I think that fans of the Matrix might enjoy the story more than I did.

 

It's a very interesting idea, and crossovers between Harry Potter and The Matrix are pretty rare. Unfortunately, those are pretty much the only things going for it.

The writing style is extremely monotonous and grating. Take this passage for example.

Spoiler

Harry sucked in his breath and looked at the items he had retrieved. The parchment was blank. So was the book. It was apparently some kind of journal, or diary. The phone was a bit disturbing. Such items were prohibited at Hogwarts. He would need to turn this in to Dumbledore or one of the other professors.

The entire fic reads like this, like a list of events which explicitly tell the reader something. There was next to no showing at all.

The characters are also lackluster, if someone were to swap the names around and keep the dialogue the same I wouldn't notice. I understand that inside the matrix this was a deliberate choice (this doesn't make it any less boring to read, however), but outside the matrix they should have had more depth to them.

So it's a 2/5 from me, for an interesting idea but poor execution.

 

I only very vaguely remember the film the Matrix and I'm not a superfan, but I liked it a lot. Mostly because the author merged both universes and had an original plot (instead of merely dumping a character in another universe for a story rehash). The writing didn't struck me as neither good, nor bad (which I count as a positive, like if I don't notice it, I count it as good). Now that I know the plot and twists I don't think I would read it again, but I definitely enjoyed it and think it was well done. (4)

 

Read through this in a day or so. It’s a fun idea, but I have to agree with previous comments about the lackluster writing and characters. For example, I think the OC John Anderson comes off a little vanilla and plotwise he takes away from Harry’s role in this world. I did like some of the crossover elements, in particular Trelawney’s role.

I know this Hogwarts is an AU set in the Matrix, but I think some of the AU elements cheapened the Hogwarts setting and made the magic less magical. Many of the changes from canon seemed pretty arbitrary and didn’t add much to the world. For example, Pettigrew is an Auror and only a couple years older than Harry. I don’t think that adds anything after the scene with Pettigrew is over.

I wish the author had had a go at using a moment in canon as the jarring incident that sets off Harry second-guessing his world. This would have been a richer take imo on the crossover instead of using the fake-Hogwarts as a screen to project tropes such as manipulative/evil Dumbledore and spying paintings.

I didn’t find the final reveal very satisfying, and it was rushed in the conclusion.

Spoiler

e.g. Voldemort is very quickly persuaded by Harry that the idea of “Muggles” is a program from the Matrix; the reveal about the Sun returning occurs in a couple sentences; etc.

overall I’d give the piece a 3/5 for giving me something new to read while I had the flu. It’s proficient enough, complete, and has an interesting concept, even if it is not executed perfectly.