Title: The Fire Omens
Author: chase glasslace
Rating: K+
Genre: Supernatural
DLP Category: General
Pairing: None
Words: 3,250
Published: August 2, 2010
Status: Complete
Summary: TMR. Gen. 'Icendio is the first incantation that Tom ever learns.' Europe in the eye of the storm. oneshot
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6199615/1/The_Fire_Omens

This is from the author of Mud, Blood, and the Sound of Guns, which I personally detested owing to its wizards vs muggles ideas. But this is a great piece of writing and doesn't have an unfortunate conceptual flaw. It's so sad his other story got all the attention while this one has remained quite obscure.

This reminds me of razzle-dazzle-me's writing style in a way, but more refined and with more beautiful language. It's gliding, unbroken lyricism. As a reader, I just want to revel in these amazing sentences. And you have to appreciate that it takes a lot of talent, work, and loads of reading and maturing to be able to write with this kind of freedom.

It's a meditation and collage of Tom Riddle's early days as he's coming into his power. The moodiness of the scenes are great, and I kept thinking it'd be awesome if these scenes were actually part of Voldemort's history. These are glimpses into something epic, the creation of a Dark Lord.

The length is just short enough so that the author doesn't hit that bottleneck where it's no longer possible for the writing to be incredible nonstop. Not every single last sentence is great without exception, because that would be fantastically absurd - but most of them are.

I think chase glasslace is one of the best writers out there, associated with DLP or not. You can tell a lot of writers aspire to write like this, but fall short. I'd love to be able to internalize something of his writing and give that unique feel to a longer story.

Ignoring the tragic misspelling of Incendio, I would give this a wholehearted 5/5.


Checked by Minion, August 19, 2013

 

I agree full heartedly. The poetic, mystic style is truly perfect!
And I can't remember ever reading a realistic story about the effects the Horcruxes really have on someone, and this feels very believable and fitting.
Even though it's sometimes confusing with the time skips the general detached atmosphere this writting creates is fantastic.

Truly a piece of art! 5/5

 

That was beautifully written. Thanks for posting it here Andro.

 

Wow, you don't find fanfiction like this very often.

 

Really, really good. Definitely deserving a place in the library. I don't usually particularly care for this type of short oneshot, but this has more quality writing in 3k words than most fics do in 100 times that amount.

 

It's sad that usually authors can't keep writing like this through out an entier story and you only see this type of artwork in oneshots. I will check out Mud, Blood, and the Sound of Guns, though. 4.5/5, all though I'll round it up, I think.

 

This was certainly worth the time~

 

Heh, I honestly thought it was meaning an ice version of incendio. Will edit with comments soon.

 

This is definitely a rarity. It pulled me in and held me within its grasps all the way through, which I've only ever experienced with I believe two other one-shots. It's right up there with the best in my book.

 

That was incredible. Nice find, and definitely worth a spot in the Library.

 

Actually probably some of the best writing to touch fanfiction. It's a shame nobody found this two years ago when we might have had a chance at opening a dialogue with the author.

Literature, plain and simple.

5/5

 

At first, I didn't fully understand the appeal; the content just didn't seem that interesting. But when I slowed down and shifted my focus to the language...I was captivated. No other fanfiction has ever held my attention like that before.

It felt magical.

4/5

 

This is not a coincidence, I think. Writing like this has a dream like, cinematic, quality. It's introspective and falls unusually far into the "tell" territory. It's not suited for complex plotlines, long dialogue, or locations that need extensive description to be navigated. What this kind of writing is best for is creating atmosphere and emotions, not describing a series of events in detail.

I think if a long multi-chaptered story were written like this it would be quite confusing.

As for this, it's possibly the best Tom Riddle PoV I've ever read. I loved the "first day of the rest of his life" bit. For what it is, 5/5.

 

It's a good read, but it didn't blow me away as it did other reviewers. There are some problems:

1) I don't like present tense narration- even if it is used correctly and actually gives some sense of immediacy. It's still jarring to my Sprachgefuehl.

2) The third-person omniscient clashes with said immediacey, it would've been better if things Tom doesn't know about were just hinted at. The most problematic example is the insertion of Slytherin's history at the beginning, but there are others, like Ollivander informing Dumbledore about Tom's wand.

3) If an author wants to use foreign language elements, he should make sure they are used correctly, not only in grammar and spelling, but also in the context. "Chase glasslace" fails on two (grammar, context) of this three criteria in the scene with the "magician of Prag".

I call it a 3.5/5, rounded up to 4 for some great ideas.

 

Haha, nope.

Petty reasons and bullshit indicators like the mention of "Sprachgefuehl", "immediacy", translation errors (WTF?) only come up in reviews when someone decides a unanimously well-received story needs to be taken down a notch, so as to be no longer unanimously well-received.

 

It's easy to label me as some sort of contrarian- actually reacting to my points would be more demanding. Are you too busy to take a few minutes to reflect on the problems I mentioned?

Re: Translation errors- Imagine the author had used some other language than german, one you understand. Than come again and try to explain why you believe the point to be "WTF" worthy.

 

I know Mandarin, and also French to a degree. No way does translation mistakes actually influence how I rate a story. It may be part of your criteria, but that's is unusual. Out of the norm, and indeed very What-the-fuck. Does Tinn Tam deduct points from what is otherwise a masterpiece if there are a few mistranslations in French? Does Sesc?

I don't really know what to say, because you didn't criticize the story. You don't like first-person narration. That's not criticism.

Why is this problematic?

I'm not seeing any problem whatsoever with this section. It's one of the most beautiful parts of the story? What does immediacy have to do with anything? I'm pretty sure immediacy isn't critical to this story even if whatever you meant to say is true.

Also, you are a contrarian. That's what you are. I'm disbelieving that you routinely recommend Hermione/Snape/Draco stories in the Almost Recommended Thread with backhanded comments about DLP's tastes, and then come in with a 3.5/5 for this. You're apparently up to all sorts of shit in the Politics section too, so it's not even just limited to fanfiction reviewing.

 

It's not part of my criteria because I'm a language nazi, but rather because it brakes the flow of the story if a whole paragraph is riddled with slightly wrong foreign language elements you actually understand. I would guess that the author inserted them to underscore the sense of strangeness he could evoke in an anglo- saxon audience. But if your mother language is german, the effect is reversed and the (slight) errors become jarring.

Do you really want to start a debate about what constitutes "criticism"? I stated my genuine feeling, namely that I dislike present tense narration- that's as legitimate as any other criticism that isn't factually wrong.

Present tense can be used to produce a feeling of immediacy in the reader because the tense influences the way one percieves the flow of actions in the story. If you brake it with a change of tense and a flashback that is out of the percipience of the main protagonist you cause a dissonance. Take a look at this sentence:

In my eyes, the author should either portrait Tom's rise from a position very close to him (even in present tense, if he must) or from much greater distance using an omniscient narrator. Mixing both methods throws you for a loop.

ROFL!

1) It's the "Almost recommended" thread for a reason!
2) I never ever recommended a single "Draco/Anyone" story. PERIOD.
3) I'd like to know what was "backhanded" about any of my comments (which?) concerning "DLP's tastes" - if those actually exist in such a coherent form anyway.

 

The communist, conspiracy theorist, who hates the best piece of writing to be posted to the library in weeks?

'Some sort of contrarian'?

Never.

 

You know, this is getting lame. Flinging shit at me for my political opinions, flat out lying about my stance on this story ("hates") and ignoring my points... Go away and think about the function of the review board.

P.S. 500 posts