Title: Saving Connor (Book 1, Sacrifices Arc)
Author: Lightning on the Wave
Rating: M
Genre: Adventure/General
DLP Category: The Alternates
Pairing: SLASH (Eventual) HP/DM
Status: Complete
Summary: "Slytherin!Harry. Harry’s brother Connor is the Boy-Who-Lived, and Harry has devoted himself to protecting him—by being ordinary. But certain people aren’t content to let Harry hide in the shadows. Warnings: Much more for language and violence than for sex. But it will be slash, so don't read it if if you don't like that sort of thing."
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2580283/1/Saving_Connor

I couldn't find this anywhere on the site using the search function; forgive me if it's already been posted.

I debated long and hard before I posted this, given what I've seen of people's reactions to slash on the forums, but honestly, it doesn't show up in any real detail for some time to come, and I think people might enjoy the other aspects of the story.

I've read this series twice over now, and the author has completed all seven AU books. It's a well-written work, with rather original takes on such themes as living parents, Slytherin!Harry, powerful!Harry, manipulative!Dumbledore and so forth. Reading later in the series, it does tend to get rather repetitive at points (some of the same themes keep cropping up after you thought they were solved), but it didn't detract away from the story enough for me to want to stop reading it.

 

I'm pretty sure that I've seen this mentioned somewhere on this site though maybe not as a formal review thread. Anyways, this story starts off quite decently, but the repetition and the promise of future slash has kept me from progressing till the end, so unless someone can tell me that the slash is pretty much unnoticeable or that the conclusion is an amazing piece of work, I doubt I'll ever finish this series.

 

I remember following along as this was being written. Jesus, every day was a huge chapter and it was always something good to read.

There are problems, of course, like the slash and the characterization that seems to suddenly disappear sometimes. Still, it's an epic story that actually finished, which is a great accomplishment. I'd say 4/5, but people who can't stand any slash should stay away. Usually I just skipped over any of the scenes.

 

There are scenes in later books -- I don't recall any in this one, because unlike many fanfic authors, Lightning on the Wave seems to realize that Harry's only 11 -- but I recall them being easily skipped past, and only lightly sprinkled in, unless you're also counting intimate moments that don't involve genitals. Still, it's not really an overriding factor of the story per se, just a facet.

 

On the one hand, I'm surprised that this story doesn't already have its own thread; on the other, it's chock full of slash in the later stories, and Harry is paired with an overwhelmingly clingy Draco Malfoy, at that. Add in the twin-who-lived and a bungled identification of which is the Boy-Who-Lived, and it's easy to see why this wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea.

On the plus side, the writing is solid, and the author makes some creative changes to certain characters (Dumbledore, Snape, Sirius, Lily, James, Lucius, and others) and to the way magic works in the HP-verse, and you've got a fairly interesting story with a hell of a lot going on.

That said, it gets tedius to read in places, and some of the ideologies contained within are things which bore me and (should they be followed faithfully) would turn me off to any person I met in real life. I read the first four fics in the series, and got pretty far into the fifth before quitting. It's easy enough to skim over the Harry-Draco in earlier books as its more of an intense friendship at that point, but gets too heavy on the slash (for me) in later pieces.

If you're bored during periods of inactivity and your favorites haven't been updated, you could give this a try. If you can look past the slash (which as I noted, isn't terrible in the first few 'books') then be prepared to enjoy parts of it intensely, and to want to kill others with fire. I'd give it a 4.5/5 for solid writing and original components, but the pairing and its presentation bring it down to a total of 3/5

 

I read up till nearly the end of the fifth book of this a long while ago. I quite enjoyed the first three or so, then they got longer, worse, sappier, more emotional... I gave up about halfway through the fifth one.

Meh. Would have been much much better if not for the pairing and general slash style. Also the author has a tendency to make everything bigger and better and more asplosions each time...its waring. Its paced badly in the sense that early on Harry is already too uber powerful so the author has to introduce more and bigger problems for him to face which somehow match this power...it just really loses it imo.

I'd give the first couple of books 4/5, the third and fourth 3/5 and after that 2/5.

Averages out to a 3/5 then I guess.

 

Apparently you didn't look far enough:

http://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=1242&highlight=lightning+on+the+wave

As for the story, I stand by my old review and give it a 2/5 for the DLP audience.

 

LOCKED. DUPE.

Come on Rhapsody Belle. Learn faster. Or lurk more. Lurking is your friend.