Title: The Hero Triology
Author: joe6991
Rating: M
Genre: Action/Adventure/Romance
Pairings: H/G, R/Hr, L/N, R/T (standard canon pairings)
Status: Complete
Link: http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/joe6991/
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/557425/


Part 1: Harry Potter and the Sword of the Hero
Chapters: 31
Words: 338,022
Updated: August 25, 2004 (FA)
Published: December 26, 2003 (FA)
Updated: January 15, 2008 (ff.net)
Published: January 5, 2008 (ff.net)
Status: Complete
Summary: A thousand-year-old oath stands to be fulfilled. The war between Good and Evil has been raging on for a millennium. It has a chance to end, but has the hero of the side of good lost the will to live…``Harry Potter returns to the Dursleys care for the summer, but he finds the loss of Sirius hard to bear. He blames himself for his death. Voldemort doesn’t let him rest though, and soon Harry is flung back into his world. The war escalates, and more people die or join Voldemort. The fear of the Dark Lord reaches beyond the wizarding world and into the Muggle one. Both worlds will collide, as Harry will have to make the ultimate choice between what is right and what is easy. For in this war, some things are more important than life or death…
Link: http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/joe6991/HPATSOTH.html
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3994212/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Sword-of-the-Hero


Part 2: Harry Potter and the Defiance of the Hero
Chapters: 30
Words: 350,089
Updated: June 3, 2005 (FA)
Published: September 12, 2004 (FA)
Updated: July 17, 2008 (ff.net)
Published: January 29, 2008 (ff.net)
Status: Complete
Summary: After the devastating events of Sword of the Hero, Harry is flung into a strange and unforgiving world as he struggles against fate and destiny to find a way back to the people he loves and to a war that is waiting for its leader. As the year progresses and the days grow progressively darker, will Harry rise and become the true hero the world desires, or will he fade and be defeated by the strongest evil to have ever lived....? A boy with the fate of two worlds on his shoulders must find the strength to stand by his morals, even if it means giving up the thing he wants the most.
Link: http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/joe6991/HPATDOTH.html
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4042356/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Defiance-of-the-Hero


Part 3: Harry Potter and the Soul of the Hero
Chapters: 35
Words: 317,040
Updated: January 5, 2008 (FA)
Published: July 20, 2005 (FA)
Updated: October 31, 2008 (ff.net)
Published: July 22, 2008 (ff.net)
Status: Complete
Summary: The Boy Who Lived has survived Sword and Defiance, but his fight has only just begun. Power enough to destroy Existence is growing in more than one source, and the War for Creation will burn all worlds. Beings of higher power, both Light and Dark, battle for dominance and caught in the middle is Harry Potter. But Harry has his own war to fight - against the Dark Lord - and humanity must unite if he is to win. We have reached the end, and change is coming, whether it be for good or ill. Harry must gamble again with everything on the line, even if it means damning his soul to an eternity of darkness... will he pay that price to save those he loves, or will he tear down Creation itself to destroy his enemies?
Link: http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/joe6991/HPATSOTH2_.html
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4413991/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Soul-of-the-Hero


More chapters on Joe's Yahoo Group.


I know this fic had been discussed on various threads before, but since I've finally managed to read it all, I figured giving it it's own thread is the least I could do after reading over million words of this epical story.

So, for those who don’t know, this is post-OOTP trilogy, featuring some romance (standard canon pairings), fair share of angst and heaps and heaps of action. This also features super!Harry, but not just some average godlike bloke, who can level a mountain or two on a good day. No sir, what we have here is probably the superest of all super!Harry characters ever created. This guy could probably hold his own against nonjon’s Dimension Jumping super!Harry character, while getting the beating of his life and contemplating the meaning of universe at the same time.

In short, everything in this story gigantic, epic, eternal and gargantuan, etc...

(SPOILERS AHEAD!)

It starts rather poorly, though - stupid and boring action scenes, barely average character interaction and bleak, unoriginal plot, with twists visible from a mile away. The whole thing seems like poorly written post-OOTP version of Barb’s Psychic Serpent - hell, even the Animagus training and Harry’s form are blatantly copied from this series.

But if you manage to force yourself through the first trimester, things get much more interesting. Harry’s super powers start awakening (wandless magic), training for war, cool duels (with a fair amount of original, dark spells, unlike the first part) and interesting finish (with once again predictable twist, but what can you do).

The first half of the sequel is probably the best this series has to offer. Harry is for once on top of things, turning the magical war against a weaker Voldemort on his own. His interaction with his parents and brothers is great too, with exactly the amount of angst and sappiness it’s supposed to have. Action sequences from this parts are on level with Shezza’s, with lots of cool spells and ideas.

Unfortunately, halfway through this part, it was like the author grew tired of (for him) small-scale battles and character interaction, and like an angry child, decided to blow it all up in span of two chapters (that’s at least how it looked back then). He not only destroyed almost everything on the face of the earth, but he managed to annihilate all the alternate worlds in the whole of existence. It’s like he was competing with himself how many cool words he could think of to put before “illion” - billions of universes wrecked, trillions of planets leveled, blahillions of people dead... The whole first part is rendered meaningless, as Harry is drawn into epical struggle against the devil himself, across time and space, leveling cities and killing millions in their struggle for the survival of the Existence itself... “Wow, that sooo kwool,” yell 7 people who dig stuff like this.

There are still good bits here, like the description of a medieval-like world and Harry traveling the alternate realities for hundred years, looking for the God’s abandoned HQ... All in all, these concepts like Gods, Existence, Fate and all the related crap are explained well, but I still preferred the parts when he was killing people in dozens instead of thousands...

Third part is pretty much a continuation of the previous book. I didn’t think it possible to make things even worse than in the end of the second book, but Joe did it by heaping every possible problem or foe he could think of and throwing them all at poor Harry - equally powerful Voldemort, inaccessible power of love, manipulative!Dumbledore, all magical governments hunting him down, thousands of death eaters, supercharged death eaters (more powerful than Dumbledore), millions of demons, the Devil again, basilisks, nundus, vampire nation, insomnia, memory loss, aches and constant pain... oh yeah, and the prophecy predicting Harry’s downfall. Heh, it seems like this guy really hates Harry, but I guess Harry struggling with inhuman willpower and strength of his soul to overcome impossible odds is pretty much the central theme of this trilogy.

There are some cool parts in the third part too (although the action scenes are never as good as in the beginning of second book), but there are some really irritating stuff as well (finally a H/G romance being one of them). Once again parts with real-world stuff, like the takeover of Australian government and mixing magic and technology are IMO better than godlike struggle with the Evil itself, but I guess there are people who liked the epical things better.

One of the best and most unique parts of this series is that it is probably as close to standard literature that a fanfiction can possibly get. This story is not all about blowing things up and struggling to survive (although it’s certainly not lacking in that department) - big parts of the plot are philosophical musings about human strength, war, god, existence and meaning of life itself. You don’t see that often in a mere fanfiction.

The main downside is erratic writing - sometimes it’s great, but at times it lacks consistency and better character interaction. Some plot twists are too predictable, while others are simply ridiculous and clearly a product of the author running out of steam and artificially pushing the plot forwards.

Also, the author seems to have some sick fascination with seeing Harry suffer - not sniveling abused bitch kinda suffer, but more like throwing impossible odds against him, or have him use just enough brains and magic to live through, but get severely beaten and hurt in the process.

Example: two nundus attack the school grounds. Does Harry scorches them with his awesome power from the school's rooftop? No, for some reason he transform into a griffin and charges at them head on. Sure, he wins in the end, but still ends up suffering and healing for two months in the hospital wing.

What I’m saying is that it’s good to see that Harry has to struggle despite his super powers, but a respite now and then wouldn’t hurt. What’s the purpose of having god-like power if you can’t take a piss without ending up in a hospital wing?

Oh, and Harry/Ginny... Forget about ever hearing of it. This whole romance is weak and under-developed. It appears only in the third book and, IMO, only so that Harry would have SOME sort of excuse to call on his mystical power of love thing, even though his relationship with Ginny is hardly a crush (They kissed once! Wow!). As for Ginny’s character, she's not smart, she's not powerful and she's not clinging on to Harry too much. Redneck cunt's main purpose seems to be getting into trouble all the time and making Harry have to rescue her or angst after her. Stupid idiot, all those blows must have rattled his brain... Yes, she’s irritating little trollop, with no real place in this story, but not as irritating as if she were some sort of warrior butter-dish elbowing goddess, like some authors would have her be...

So all in all, this is rather good epic, with some weak parts, but nothing too bad. Worth reading for lots of action, interesting concepts and philosophical musings. Skip the love, angst and epic parts to avoid blood pressure problems.


Checked by Minion, March 24, 2013

 

I don't know...
I tried reading it before since it was recommended more than once at the FA, but I got bored after the first few chapters.

 

First chapters are crap. If you make it to the christmass break, it'll get much more interesting from then on.

 

The first and first half of the second fic are truly great (and compared to the absolute crap that's been coming out recently, brilliant). However I wasn't one for all the 'billions of people died in a flood' or 'snowstorm killed 100million' or 'massive demon sprouted from nowhere.' It was like a strange mix between Day After Tommorrow and Lord of the Rings. I then dropped it but will definitely revisit the third fic when I have time as I hold a lot of respect for Joe's work. How many other authors can produce a nice, long trilogy with consistently good grammar and long chapters as well as update frequently? None that I've seen. Who care's if it's H/G? Not only is it minor (from what I've seen) but a story that great deserves to be read, bad pairing or no. Joe is one of the best writers in fanon who should seriously consider novel writing.

 

I read these a while back. I loved the first book, it was great and had lots of action and twists, but I quit reading them half way through the second one. I agree with Master Slytherin about the second book. The demon thing was just too stupid...regardless though I would highly recommend his books.

 

Yeah, about demon army and the whole multiverse going to hell thing... it makes sense later on, even if at first it seems like crap. The thing is, that's the central theme of the triology - struggle for the creation between pure good and pure evil, order and chaos, light and dark... you get the drift.

His only problem is that he poorly introduced this chage - it's all ok and peachey and then in the middle of 2nd book, the whole world blows to hell, everybody's dead, civilisation in ruins etc...

 

One thing I hate about Godlike Harry fics is that no matter how powerful he is, he's always a little bitch when he fights V. I mean, he can slaughter 100 DE's with the wave of his pinky, but fighting the big man himself, better pull out a sword!

I read the first one, and I'll say I liked it, but yet to move onto the second one. I'll give it a go, but for some reason I'm imagining he is a Goku like figure that ends up always finding someone a little more powerful that he will defeat for whatever reason.

 

I've read the first two books of this trilogy and I would highly recommend them even though Harry becomes much too Godlike for my own personal tastes. The writing is sound and the chapters long. They contain some of, if not the, best action scenes I've ever seen in an HP fanfiction. I'll eventually get round to reading the third sometime even though I'm not keep on the whole Super!Harry genre.

The H/G romance is almost non-existent in what I've read so far, so don't let the pairing stop you from reading. It's a good read and I recommend it.

I've also heard that Joe has some original fiction up over at fictionpress.com, it's was quite awhile since I heard this so I'm not to sure if it's still there.

So yeah, I recommend this as a decent read.

 

I think I'm with Master Slytherin on most of what he said.

I am a Joe6991 fanboy, and love the action. It is remarkable how much he has written and how consistently he's been writing it. But after the end of the second and start of the third it's gotten to a point where I'm waiting for there to be a big chunk of new fic to read. I'm probably over a dozen chapters behind on Soul of the Hero, but would probably forgive any faults that did come up just for what the trilogy has been so far.

And I would agree that the first ten chapters or so of the first fic are not indicative of Joe's skill as an author. Especially the prologue battle is laughably bad in comparison to most all future action sequences.

It's definitely super!Harry but by the second half of Defiance it does cross into godlike!Harry and take on so many more sort of philosophical symbolisms for good and evil, right and wrong, and Harry's godlike perserverance.

 

This is one of the best fanfics I have ever read. The battles are amazing. I liked Defiance the best. Loved the entire first half. Then comes the second half....epic is the only word I can use to describe it. I liked Allarius better than Voldemort. The fight between Allarius and Harry reminded me of DBZ.

Soul of the Hero while written good just makes me want to kill myself.

*Spoilers*





I honestly couldn't handle the bit about Harry being one finger on God's hand with HErmione, Ron, Ginny, and Ethan being the other fingers on his hand. It became painful to continue on reading. The HP/GW is just too much for me. I dropped it around Ch. 17 or so. Perhaps I"ll pick it up again. It is afterall the best superpower Harry fic I have ever read.

 

Did anybody notice that he had most characters click their teeth? If you read it also, didn't it suck he lost all his cool shit from other worlds/realities when he returned.

 

Poor Harry... He has all the world's problems heaped on his back and he never gets laid. Wait! It's Ginny! Let Harry die a virgin if Ginny is his only option...

Meh... I liked the whole trilogy bit, even if it did get a little godlike during the second installment. Action scenes are very well written and the philosophical parts are spaced during the right times. I especially liked the 2nd part where Harry was dimension-hopping, looking for god knows what for over a hundred years.

A trilogy of epic proportions. I'd suggest you settle in for a nice long read before beginning to read the trilogy. Ignore the first 10 chapters... They're a bit boring.

 

Yea i read until the second story and i stopped when harry was in some poor underdeveloped world. Read it way back when i would only read h/ginny. I went back and tried to read even one chapter now and i can't even stomach it, it seriously sucks in my mind, harry is way to powerful, and loves ginny way too much. Come on he will only have ginny pussy, that slutty bitch was probably cheating on him the whole time..

 

Hes easly has the best action scenes I have read in a long time. I recall last year reading his fics when I found them. I read them, just number 1 and part of 2 for a whole weekend. Was a blast of an epic, and it kept my attention. I read all of number 2 when he completed and up to like chapter 15 with the 3rd part.

Just cause its H/G does not mean it sucks. I never lost interest when i sat down and read it.

 

I just couldn't get into it. I tried but I just trailed off. I'll have to try again later, I have read much worse after all...

 

i read the first story and the second one and i liked them very much but the third one... well... kind of sucked... so i stopped reading
i mean if Harry is so God-like and powerful then why does he have to storm Australia by force cant he just walk up to the prime minister and cast imperius on him or something of that sort - and do that to all the ministers of all the nations when he was at the international convention(sp) of wizards ??

 

Good writing creates then resolves tension.

Bad writing either creates to much or to little.

Despite amazing action sequences, I must classify this as the second. And yes, I have read *almost* all of it... But by the point I quit there was just to much build up.

My main issue was that he pumped everybody and everything up to such a ridiculous degree that it was... Well, quite frankly a bit obscene.

 

I have been a loyal follower of the Sky Captain Joe since the beginning of his trilogy, so I think I can hold to some degree a mastery of his work.

The first story was wonderfully written. Nothing much to complain about at all.

The second story was just as good even if I did get ancy wondering when Harry was going to kill Allarius or if he would even survive the poison. Loved the apocalyptic alternate earth he created, the one with James and Lily still alive.

The third book started off very good, just like the previous two. But as the story progress, it became more like an epic poem then a story. Brief scenes here and there. Plot development poor yet adequate enough to create a thrilling story. Yet it does not have the same flare that came with the first two, and for that my opinion of the story has gone down. Not Joe however.

No, I still hold Joe as one of the best fanfic writers out there. He has another story, post-HPB WiP, and it is one of the better ones out there by far. I would post it here on the DLP, but it as of yet does not fall into such a category.

But if anyone is interested, the story is titled Harry Potter and the Soul of Chaos and can be found on FF.net.

 

Story was updatet after half a year, but in this chapter nothing happens yet. :-/
But Joe said that the remaining chapters will most likely posted within weeks and not months.

Btw: short review for the whole story: Starts as a good *Harry get's trained by various people to beat Voldemort*-Story and later develops to a Super!Harry-Story, then into an AU-Story and finally into an epic novel most likely influenced by Stephen Kings' Dark Tower series.
The story is interesting and unusual and the writing is pretty good, yet often too drawn out.

PS: The last chapters are only posted on the Yahoo Group page.