I'm about halfway through, and so far I think that it's pretty good. sandwich_tales has some interesting takes on how magic would be integrated into every day life, catching the charm of the Ministry of Magic and the magical world in general, and like Sorrows said, the author is also great at writing characters. The plot is a bit convoluted, (let's be honest, how else would an author get Hermione and Malfoy together) but it's at least internally consistent, and doesn't push my suspension of disbelief any further than the actual books did.

Aside from the above, it's a well written story, and I didn't notice any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. I think that it's definitely library worthy.

(As a person who has never really got Dramione, I have to say that I'm always surprised by how many decent fics there are under the pairing.)

5/5

(I was just looking at the average vote score for this, and it seems that two guys (KGB and Basileus77) gave the story a one out of five. Far be it from me to expect everyone to have the same opinions towards a fic as me, but given the disparity between our scores I can only imagine that they saw the Draco/Hermione tag and rated it poorly without reading the actual fic. As those scores can affect whether or not a story gets into the library, could they be suspended unless accompanied with an actual comment or review?) @Zombie

 

Just finished it. First fic to really catch my attention in a while - its really enjoyable. I honestly don't think I've ever read the concept before, and its being executed in a very consistent way.

Very solid characterisation as well, no one is 2 dimensional, not even the random witch who lives across the hall.

5/5

 

I read Banality of Love yesterday and today. It's a fun story with espionage and dystopian 1984 vibes. The Department of Information recalls for me all the counterintuitive slogans of Orwell, like War is Peace (cf. Ministry "Peace Keepers").

The deviation from canon is a bit unclear so far, and the author pointed to this in an A/N in an early chapter. It seems as though all of the Horcruxes (except Nagini, maybe?) were still destroyed (e.g., Hermione remembers Crabbe dying of Fiendfyre). Maybe Harry didn't give himself up in the Forest? Snape probably did not give him the memory he needed as in DH because he lived on as a double agent in this AU and worked underground with the Order.

I like the idea of the Order and any other resistance groups needing to organize themselves like a terrorist cell, spread out and without knowledge of every agent's activities, but it is hard to believe Harry, Ron, and Hermione would split up and that the boys + Order would protect Hermione and impede her from participating in any offensive actions. It gets her into the headspace that makes this long term mission possible I guess.

Progress of the plot is a bit slow but I like the idea of looking at the innards of the Ministry machinery. To that point, the title is a great nod to Arendt's Banality of Evil, on the trial of Eichmann in Israel. I'm curious to see what the bone and Celtic runes will reveal.

I agree with others that the Draco/Hermione pairing is usually not something I make a point to read, but their interactions so far are interesting. I like the other characters too, esp. Astoria, Orkney, and the amatory Divination expert/neighbor.

4/5 for now. Looking forward to more!

 

It was definitely an interesting choice by the author to do this, and it did have me thinking a bit to justify the Order's decision making on it.

My thinking is that the Order thought the 3 of them together were:

1. Too valuable a target to risk - the morale damage caused if they were all taken/killed at the same time would be devastating to their cause.
2. Too wild/impulsive/unbalanced as a group - they balance out better in different teams.
3. Too close to each other, more likely to make decisions on what is best for each other than for the cause.

And as for the keeping her out of the serious fights...I see that as threefold - simple sexism; a belief that the smart person can't mix it up when they need to, that they need to be kept out of the way and safe; and the impact that her death would have had on Harry.

 

I just finished with the chapters that are available as of now and I can say that this is a pretty well done fic so far, and I am eager to read about what happens next.

I really, really like the worldbuilding and the characterization of the story. The story paints a really realistic picture of what a world where Voldemort won would look like (in which he isn't just an insane "big bad evil guy" who wants to destroy everything because he is SO EVIL). And it does an excellent job exploring how people live and adapt under an oppressive government. Most of the characters with significant screentime aren't perfectly good or bad, they're just humans with their own goals and are doing the best they can to accomplish them. The very few characters that I could call "truly good or evil" are mostly top level Death Eaters (Yaxley, Lestrange) who in my opinion mostly serve as a way to drive the narrative along with their interdepartmental conflict.

For now this is somewhere around a 4.5/5 or a 5/5 for me. Hopefully the author continues this level of quality as we progress further into the plot.

 

I was initially skeptical about all the positive reviews, as Dramione fics can often be of dubious quality. However, if you’re going to ignore the fic because it has Dramione, I implore you to reconsider. Firstly, the world has departed so much from the canon world that the schoolyard rivalry between the two of them has long since become of negligible importance. Secondly, the fic does not make any attempt to whitewash Draco’s sins or make him seem better than he actually is, and neither does Hermione. Finally, at least at first, Hermione is only cordial to Draco in order to gain access to information, meaning her motives for engaging with him are reasonable and make sense.

The writing quality is incredible. You’re immediately drawn into this carefully crafted dystopia, and throughout the fic you get a fantastic insight into how this dystopia operates day-to-day. The characterisations are also incredible. There are no wholly good or wholly evil characters, each character is complex and interesting with their own goals, motivations and feelings.

I love how the fic frequently pays homage to Hannah Arendt and many parallels are drawn between Voldemort’s reign and Nazi Germany; most strikingly the way ordinary people become monsters who are capable of doing terrible things in the name of Voldemort’s regime. I also like how the fic also draws on George Orwell’s 1984: Hermione initially works at the Truth Department, and the most terror is inflicted by the Peace Department.

The world isn’t lacking in magic either, which is common for fics of this nature. Magic is used in lots of interesting and intriguing ways: as part of Hermione’s disguise; as part of government sanctioned torture; in combat; even in office administration. The author did not fall into the pitfall of making magic secondary when building this world, magic is what fuels the fic and what makes this dystopia unique.

Other than the noticeable absence of Voldemort so far (perhaps intentional, Voldemort might be the “Big Brother” of this fic), I don’t really have any complaints. And that is a minor nitpick. This is definitely the best currently updating fic that I’ve read and possibly one of the best fanfics full stop.

5/5

 

An excellent read, my only crtique is that stories like this tend to tick off stereo types one at a time. Lucious Malfoy is adulterous, Yaxley is a predator. It's a shame that the stories I want to read have so very little in writing quality, while the stories I'm somewhat indifferent on are gorgeously crafted.

4.5/5.