Title: Lord of Winter
Author: Kasimir
Rating: T
Genre: Drama/Adventure
Status: WIP
Fandom: Bleach
Pairings: None yet, but summary implies future pairings.
Summary: "I have been called genius, Captain, boy, freak. Some of these were meant as insults and I have earned every one of them. I have commanded undeserved loyalty, betrayed friendships. I have fought titans, loved, and protected." Hitsugaya Toshiro's story.
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7564208/1/Lord_of_Winter

Ok, let's start with the good: the best thing about this fic is that it shines in comparison to the other fics in it's fandom. That's not to say that there are no good Bleach fics (Hammered Down I'm looking at you here) but let's be frank; in general it's of a pretty low quality - unless you like self!cest between Ichigo and his adoring Hollow. Also, it's well written, the characters are fleshed out and the author seems to be putting some effort into making this story more than just Hitsugaya's stroll to greatness by adding some political intrigue.

The not so good: first off the author tends to go slightly over the top with her prose, but it's not unbearable and some people like that anyway. Another negative is the Patrick Rothfuss references - not the greatest of ideas to make me think of a novel that is better in every way whilst I'm reading your story. And it makes the flavour of the fic exponentially less original. Finally, as a personal thing, I never really liked Hitsugaya's character that much, so I'm not exactly fangirling in my seat when he casts awesome kido.

Anyway, in conclusion it's well crafted fic in a weak fandom, but you'll have to tolerate some over the top writing whilst you're reading. Oh, and the author has a regular, fixed update rate of once a week and seems to be sticking to it, which is always nice.

4/5 from me. Enjoy.

 

Was following this for a while and I really enjoy it as well. The Rothfuss-esque writing style didn't really disturb me much and since the author cited his/her influence from chapter one, I have no problem with it.

I actually like Hitsugaya's character and the story makes his life interesting enough to make me happy when he/she updates.

Agree though, that Bleach has a very weak fanfiction fandom. I can probably only count four or five really good ones, the most prominent being Hammered Down and Uninvited Guests but those two are so good, they more than make up for the shitty quality of the rest.

4/5 from me as well.

 

I'm just not a big fan of elaborate prose in general - even with Rothfuss there were times where the writing style didn't appeal to me. In the hands of an author who is basically imitating - though she is a skilled writer, don't get me wrong - it appeals to me even less. And anyway, it's less the writing style and more her integrating plot points from Name of the Wind that bothers me.

And yeah, the biggest thing about this fic is just that it's one of the only places where you can go if you feel like reading a Bleach-based story without wanting to vomit in disgust halfway through. It is a good story in its own right too, but when you take that into account it makes you appreciate the fic more.

 

Fair enough. There were times where it was nearly directly taken from the books that broke immersion because you immediately knew where it came from but that's forgivable, imo.

It's funny though, there are only four stories with decent length that come to mind.

Frozen Sky and the three mentioned before. There are a few one shots here and there like Old Soldiers but other than that, the fandom really offers nothing in terms of fanfiction. One Piece has even less.

 

I read through half of it, and I have to admit I liked Hitsugaya in this story considering that I don't give a damn about him in canon. Despite the prose, which I also didn't really like, everything else is fine.
A 4/5 from me

Well there was this story that was shaping up to add some quality to the fandom, but the author kind of stopped writing it. I think it was called Unexpected roads..

 

Story appears to have disappeared. Anyone know why?

 

No real clue. I know the author said after the last update that she wasn't gonna post anything for a while due to various shit - school etc. Maybe she took down her account and stories to remove temptation? That's the only thing I can think of. Or she pissed off ff.net somehow. One of the two.

 

As far as I can tell, this is her account.

She apparently had 78 stories written. If anyone has a archived version of this story, please share it.

 

Ah. Account got hacked. That explains it.

 

Judging by the new account name, either the account was hacked or FFN really fucked her/him over and he/she is raving mad at them but why, I wouldn't know.

I just hope the author puts the story up again sometime. It would be a shame to lose it, seeing it is one of the very few good Bleach stories.

 

The reviews point at the library, but as it seems to be deleted and no new ratings will come in, I'll place it in the Recyclebin for now.