Title: In Memorium
Author: Shockz
Rating: T
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Pairing: None currently
Fandom: A Certain Magical Index/Scientific Railgun
Status: In Progress
Link: Chapter One Here
Summary: AU/Rewrite. In a city where science has made the impossible mundane, a young man meets a very strange girl, who speaks to him of things yet stranger. Meanwhile, four friends stumble into a conspiracy that threatens to overturn everything they thought they knew about their home.

Something I've been watching recently. Largely because its an Index fic and it doesn't suck.

Pros:
- Interesting character interaction and just characters that are more than charactures. I generally find myself utterly bored by most of the Railgun and Index cast but this made them all interesting, different characters with depth.
- Expanded world building that actually makes sense.
- A likeable Index
- Decent, realistic action.

Cons:
- When it says re-write it means re-write. This is almost nothing like the original Light Novels. (Though that could be taken as a good thing)
- Slow. Its six chapters and 30,000 words in and has barely covered the first two episodes of index and the first three of Railgun.

Personally its 4.5/5 for me.

 

It's too short and Shockz has a tendency to abandon his stories, so I'm not going to rate the story now.

That said, Shockz is a good writer and this story has pretty amazing potential - I'll be eager to see this continue.

 

Went in with very little expectation and was pretty pleasantly surprised.

I've always thought the Index universe had some potential and never even got close to realizing it (the result being a pretty bad series with a few decent bits).

While this does follow the original plot, it fixes all those little issues that made the original fail. This seems to both be better world building as well as better characterizations.

A great example would be Index herself. Part of the reason I hated any Magic related arc in the original was because you had to put up with Index (who was freaking grating and added nothing as a character), but In Memorium actually turns her into someone who has some depth, has an enjoyable narrative and great interaction with Touma - and this is done while somehow maintaining some of her mannerisms (airheadedness - though to a lesser extent - and her obsession with food).

As KaiDASH said though, it's too short to rate. We haven't even really delved into the plot yet.

 

Said fanfic has updated seven days ago.

Been a while since I read it, but it's a strong comeback, if just for the fact that the 2 main storylines are crossing paths as it was foreshadowed.

 

This fanfic is guilty of the crime of making me like Touma. It's well-written, switches between multiple perspectives competently, doesn't go overboard with the technobabble, and the idiot ball is nonexistent.

Still only a 4/5, but that's mainly because, while I like the Toaru universe, I hate everyone living in it.

 

That you don't like the characters in the original material is not a fault of this story.

Which is super great and is Index as it should have been.

Sadly the real thing is a mess of otaku pandering wasted potential.

 

I hate rewrites; it was difficult to read at first, but this has a nice ring to it if you can bear on.

The original material is typical of Japanese pop culture right now... This is a much more serious take on it. But Touma is a great character, since he's so straight and has a hilariously misunderstood power.

5/5

 

Probably the only one here who likes the original material, eh? Actually a lot better than the fantasy LNs popular nowadays, then again it was there during the Shana era.

My main reason for liking In Memoriam is the hope that there will truly be encounters between the 2 Sides, which ToAru promised but didn't deliver until WW3 and the subsequent New Testament volumes, and even then it's not that much.

Also, Index's redemption. Her potential in aiding Touma in many Magic Side arcs was denied for some reason, and she was reduced to a joke character until just recently. It also makes the title of the series hilarious in hindsight (there are rumours that the author wanted the series to just be A Certain Adjective Noun, with the name changing each book, but the first book's title stuck).

In the end, liking both the series and the rewrite, I'm just really interested in seeing what Shockz can make of the first part of the series (until the two-parter volumes 12-13), when the author didn't seem to know where he was going with it (as such the writing is weaker, and the arcs kinda pointless as they don't even seem connected to each others).