He... has a discord server for his fic?

 

Yes, he does. He's even apart of it.

 

Feel free to join. He's quite accommodating. If you read his latest update to PoS, he even promotes it.

 

This used to be one of my favorite updating Harry Potter stories. However, the slow update schedule killed it. It's so complex with all the different subplots that it was impossible (for me at least) to get back into it after waiting a month for an update. As has been said by others in this thread, the second year is much better than the first, and the summer interludes pulled the story a bit off track. I'm not sure I like the way the author presents occlumency, and the way he uses the fidelius is confusing. I really liked what he did with Dumbledore's speech (nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak).
Overall, I'd say this fic is decent but seems like it will probably end up either abandoned or too complicated to follow. 3/5

 

This. I have been feeling it for a while, I think the author wrote or will eventually write himself into a corner, too many characters, too many backstories, too many subplots. Hope I'm wrong though, and I enjoy what he tries to do with Pettigrew -- although it might be a tad overdone. The problem is, the story is lacking a focus. We get politics, reporter shenanigans, Pettigrew musing to himself all his best laid plans. Why not just spring the trap on the students real time on the story and tell an action scene. These are scarce here, a few would be appreciated.

In the end I think it lacks the simplicity it had earlier. One clear goal which was to be better, now is much more complicated and side plots and unnecessary screen time to side characters only gets it that much more convoluted.

Sometimes less is better, I think.


Changing my review to 3/5

By the way, there was an update to the story today. A couple of chapters, although one of them is very short (interlude, of course).
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11191235/101/Harry-Potter-and-the-Prince-of-Slytherin

 

The second part of the Hogsmeade arc is up.

Apart from the first scene, not much to say, really – it‘s your run-of-the-mill Hogsmeade Attack chapter with some POS-ness thrown in.

Spoiler

The Fiendfyre was a nice touch, but I‘m not really sure how a practically catatonic Ted and the rest could manage to escape on their own without some serious suspension of disbelief. My bet: Ted will, in some fashion, sacrifice himself for the others.

Meanwhile, the scene with Luna and Remus was rather well done, apart from the wholly unnecessary comparison with the men‘s 100m record. How none of his apparently Discord-based beta crew talked TSM out of it, I will never know. It is grating to the extreme.

Now, for the first and, arguably, most important scene, and its further implications:

Spoiler

Anyone else get the impression that this could be the way in which the muggles‘ hatred for Harry originated? It is certainly the best guess we have had so far. I can‘t quite recall when this affliction first originated, but if it predates Harry‘s reintroduction to the Wizarding World, there would have had to be some player – known or unknown – aware of Harry‘s involvement in the muggle world and also had some knowledge of the Anathema Codex, nevermind the way they could pull off every muggle in Britain developing an instant dislike for Harry. The list of possible perpetrators is comparatively small, if not completely empty so far. The only likely candidate would be James, out of his paranoia over the Potter prophecy, but he is assumed to know nothing about the Codex. The Unspeakables or other high-ranking MoM officials with a grudge could be another faction interested in Harry, depending on whether anyone managed to ferret away some knowledge of the Potter prophecy and prevent what could be interpreted as the end of the world.

There is also the question of how Pettigrew gained knowledge of the rune. Or maybe the explanation for that just slipped my mind.

All in all, a conventional chapter with a hint of something more.

 

Chapter came out.

 

The update rate is pretty slow nowadays, makes me forget what happened in the previous chapters, when it's updated.
I think the author needs to resolve some sub plots before creating new ones.
The first year was average, second good, and the third one seems to weird, with a tinge of madness.
Overall rating: 3.75/5 rounded to 4.

 

I might come back to this story someday, just to see where he ends up taking things, but as of now, there's very little motivation. I don't imagine things have gotten any less info-dumpy and /r/iamverysmart-like.

Another 200k words, and year three's barely begun. I think he was at 500k words or so at the end of year two.

 

Responding to something in a spoiler so I guess I'll use spoiler tag.

Spoiler

I came to the conclusion a while ago that muggles' reaction to Harry is some interaction between the Horcrux his scar probably still is and his natural Legilimency. The effects are something that have been happening ever since he was sent to the Dursleys. Of the people who even knew Harry existed, the only ones who would intentionally curse him are Pettigrew and Voldemort, and neither of them would bother to leave him alive if the knew where to find him. Pettigrew obviously didn't know where he was sent, or else he would have gone there and gotten rid of him, the way he has been attempting all through the story. Voldemort, obviously, was blown up and thus couldn't be involved.

 

I really hope this gets finished and doesn't end up disappearing. It's a rather nice world and I've been caught in it, but just how massive it is the one thing does make it seem like it won't be finished. I wonder what year it'll end at.

 

So I have been known as a fanboy of this fic for quite a long time, and I was, at a point. However, we are at a point where I basically have one feeling towards this fic.
Three words: What the fuck?

What the fuck is this guy doing?! This has abandoned the concept of coherent, interesting storytelling entirely. Every idea that pops into his head has to be written out, in full length, no matter how it might take the punch away from another scene, no matter how it means the author has to explain things he already showed, no matter how it makes the story four times as long as it needs to be, no matter how little impact it has on the story.

"Oh, I have a cool idea for a death eater reactivation" - so that's going to be a whole chapter, one of these godawful interludes. Why? Because it's a clever idea, and the author likes to show people all of the clever ideas he has. Every. Single. One.
Normal stories have a main character they follow, or maybe several, but the reader knows who they are.

This has one, Harry. And then it has the whole cast, who can be the main character at the whim of the writer. The scenes with Snape in the newer chapters are a good example. Who the fuck cares for Snape in this story? He's not that interesting, he likes Harry and acts like Sirius would with less personality and more sarcastic quips. And yet, we get three chapters with him traveling through a mindscape, which seem like they are supposed to make us feel like we're witnessing the main adventure, the climax of the year. There are interesting ideas in there, yes, but this doesn't help us move forward, like, at all.

And we get Regulus witnessing him being hit, and Sirius trying to enter the room, in order to make the bloat a bit more bloated.

He's done the same thing in basically all of his interludes, too. If he was trying to get to the (or any, really) point, all of this could easily happen without the reader witnessing.

In general, this fic has long since collapsed under itself. The author doesn't know what a coherent story is, it seems like PoS has developed serious ADHD. He crams everything he thinks of into the fic, adding layers upon layers upon layers until you cannot even see the core anymore, even though the core is bloated beyond belief, too, because, for whatever reason, we have to get at least three different perspectives on everything that happened or is currently happening. You cannot build any suspense if you need your readers to know what happened 200k words before in order for a payoff to work.

This has been amazing at times, especially when it subverted things we know. It can still give you highly interesting scenes, but it has lost the feeling of being a cohesive whole and instead become The Sinister Man 2.0 edition of Rorschach's Blot's Odd Ideas.

Which is a pity, because I think there was - and still is - potential for a mindblowing story in here. I will continue reading, because there are things to enjoy.

Sadly, a well-paced story isn't one of them.

 

@Dicra, out of curiosity, how would you rate the fic as it is now?