Title: The Harbinger's Song
Author: Leila Secert-Smith
Rating: 4/5
Genre: Family & Adventure
Status: WIP
Library Category: The Alternates
Pairings: No pairings yet
Summary: Harry prayed for a family that would love him exactly once in his childhood; he thought his prayer went unanswered. After the death of the Dark Lord and several weeks of cryptic dreams, he discovers the truth and is presented with a choice over fourteen years in the making. His soul will heal in time; his destiny is his own to write Elfling!Harry

So this is easily one of the best LoTR crosses I have ever read. Despite being listed as family, it hasn't really delved into that yet. I hate most of these family style stories and shit but it seems necessary and not over bearing and too fluffy. Basically Harry wakes up in Arda with Hedwig and some of his magical shit and fucks around for a while. Doing whatever he wants and having fun. The dream sequences in the start are actually quite fascinating and I didn't just skip over the exposition because the author actually made it interesting. Give it a read, 4/5.

 

I took one look at it, thought oh-my-god-not-this-shit-again, and stopped reading it.
As far as I could tell, it's going to be one of those things where the writer is more in love with writing than the actual story. It was already going round and round and round and round and round when I my head started spinning.
Unless someone else comes along here that actually likes it, I'm not going to touch it with a ten foot pole. I don't think this is DLP material.
1/5

 

I tried to give it a go..... ignored all the warning signs right from the start and forged ahead.

I have a strong aversion to the crossover stories where the crossing of the worlds is very systematically planned, whether by the protagonist or by some higher entity. In my experience every story using this plot device has taken a turn for the worse.

While this one has not deteriorated so much, it is not terribly interesting as such. The pace is somewhat uneven and exposition more so. At least there is no angst.

Yes..."not yet".

Overall, if you are up for an elfling Harry broom-trotting the middle earth accompanied by hedwig and in search of a family so that his soul can be healed, go for it. 2/5 from me.

 

I kept reading through since your recc made it sound way better then it was. Finished reading it and wondered why I bothered. It's way too fluffy, and Harry having fun in Arda was what? Just chiling in forests and then meeting Bombadil? There's no conflict, even for a family story.

Hat's right, doesn't seem DLP material.
1/5

 

This had a few red flags that ended up killing it for me. There's a moment where Harry's worried that Tom Bombadil and his wife might try to hold/cuddle/comfort him, which gave me flashbacks to a dozen similar elfling stories that ended with Legolas comforting shota Harry in the bum. Harry's name is different, and they actually reference the books in the story. When Hermione asked him if he'd ever read the Silmarillion or Lord of the Rings, I knew that there was no salvaging this.

2/5.

 

@Paladin wtf bro?

This is what it looks like when a tween girl joins Alternate History, something even rarer than a tween girl joining DLP.

Ahahahahahahahaha.

Hah.

Hah.

This feels like a hurt/comfort fic without any of the hurt/comfort. While that, in theory, should fix a hurt/comfort fic, in this case it just leaves it empty. When people write stories like this, I finally understand why some artist thought that it was a good idea to draw Harry like this:



The writing itself isn't too bad from a technical standpoint, save for adjective vomit and bastardised versions of character names like the awful 'mione. So far that reason alone I'm going to rate this a hefty

2/5