Not to beat a dead horse, but people were talking about chapter 3 12 posts above yours (25 hours difference between the two).

 

@Ellisande. Quit bitching. What's done is done. As far as I can tell, you're butthurt because someone rec'd it before you.


I'm a massive fan of The sun soul. The world is realistic, the characters are realistic, the length is awesome and it's just all around fun.

This... isn't. I want to like it but things like the characters being way too mature for their ages and the changes in magic system make it hard.

3/5 for now. Willing to read on.

 

I like the world thus far and it kept me reading. I think the fic will become better as more chapters get posted online. At this point, it's 4 - 4.5/5 for me.

 

Didn't like OOC!Hagrid at all. Yeah, Hagrid should never, ever mention stuff like atoms. And removing his accent is ok, but his speech patterns and explanations in this story are too intelligent for his character. I get that you wanted a way to get some world building details out of the way first, but surely there is a better way to go about it; one that doesn't involve completely butchering a character.

And are some of the minor changes really necessary? Like what's the point of making the magical currency decimal based? A lot of it just seems unnecessary imo, like you made a bunch of changes just for the sake of making changes.

3/5

 

Pretty good for the most part, the fusion of the magic systems is interesting, and in my opinion well done. There seems to be an abundance of OOC, between Hagrid and Draco. Still, I believe it will develop solidly. 4/5

 

HOLY FUCKING SHIT. Is it just me, or were five chapters (averaging >10k words for each chapter) just dropped out of nowhere at the same time?!

Fuck me. And this is the one day where I have to devote myself entirely to studying. Ugh.

 

Fuck! And I have to go across the city and help my grandpa clean out his basement. :facepalm

 

FUCK I AM SO HAPPY TO SEE THOSE EMAILS

 

The update was pretty good, I think. It's already gone beyond being a canon-rehash, but I suppose that was to be expected with the magic system.

 

I was waiting to rate it since it hadnt reached the actual rewriting of the main plot line which is where most authors fail. But my reservations were without base and 50calibur did a damn good job with it.

4.5/5 because the integration of the new magic system can get a bit confusing.

Also the troll fight rewrite was the king of all troll fight rewrites.

 

He said that the next update will be in March of 2011, or sometime around early 2012.

 

Well he said it was going to be between March and the end of 2012. That's probably a tongue-in-cheek way of saying it'll be out when it's done.

He also said he was going to be focusing on Sun Soul in the meantime. That's always good.

 

Interesting how the Mirror only showed Harry his sorcerous mother and not his pureblood father.

The action scenes easily met my (high) expectations going in for a magic system based on DnD in the hands of 50cal, the characterization of Neville in particular and the rest of the cast as well ended up being quite good (if unconventional at times), and the pacing of first year at 86k words was just right. This is great stuff and I hope the second year is ready much closer to March 2011 than December 2012. 5/5

 

This story is pretty fucking awesome.

I feel as if JKR wrote the HP series as a draft and 50caliberchaos is the editor fine-tuning the story. The world in The Sword and the Sorcerer simply comes off as more... magical than in JKR's story. I understand that 50cal basically ripped off the magic system of D&D, but it reads so much damn better than the JKR system, with people actually having to prepare cantrips and the cost of screwing up spells, such as Luna's mom going pop.

More importantly, some of the explanations just feel better. For example, I really like how Diagon Alley seems to be in a connected realm to London, not quite in sync with the rest of the city. I don't care the pros or the cons of the argument, but with JKR's explanation of Diagon Alley being hidden behind the Leaky Cauldron, I still feel as if anyone in a helicopter or looking through a satellite can spot the alley. It just reads sloppy to me.

The characterizations are pretty damn fun as well. They're all a tad different from canon, yet still share intrinsic elements of their canon characters. Hell, at this point I don't care if 50cal continues the story. It's kick ass the way it is.

5/5

 

Loved this a cubic fuckton. It took a little bit of thought to see where he was going with the magic system. The problem is that I am somewhat knowledgeable of D&D, having played a dozen video games, own a read a dozen forgotten realms books, and played (only?) 5 sessions of D&D- each session being a 3 or 4 day thing. The thing with D&D is while there are plenty or rules, skill sets, and spells, standard charts, much of it is open to interpretation. Every DM has a slightly different concept of how or when to do certain things and how certain spells react, etc, but that is what is so magical about it. No game is the same. And therin lies what took me more than a few minutes to get my head around, adapting what I know to what the Author is using, but the end product is a truly amazing story that I look forward to reading more.

Cliffnotes: MOAR

 

The Sword and the Sorcerer is good enough that I'm reading the first few chapters of the author's Pokemon fic. And I hate Pokemon. If that doesn't explain how strongly I feel about this work, and it's author, then nothing will.

5/5

 

I was a tad dissapointed at the beginning of the story, but the author pulled through with the new update. The magic seems more of a science now, what with runes and cantrips. Highly reminds me of D&D/Forgotten Realms though.

Ancient Runes will probably play quite a large role further on. Characterization is fairly OOC though the main element is retained. I'd give it a 4.5/5, not 5/5 because of the scattered beginning.

 

Quite liked the updates (stuck a bit too close to canon for my liking though).

I still have a problem with the magic system. Issues of taste aside, I'm not convinced that this system is any more "rigorous" or rational than the HP system. We're getting a lot more detail, sure, (equivalent to technobabble in sci-fi) but when it comes down to it, this fic's magic is the same as we've seen hundreds of times before in indy!Hary fiction. "It's all about intent" and "the words are just a tool to model your intent" etc. So in effect all the interesting magical theory we're presented with is a smokescreen, a handy tool for getting magic to do what you want, rather than the actual nature of magic.

Now, that's all fine and dandy. But it isn't new or original or "rational" - whatever rational might mean when applied to magic (more technobabble?). Its the same trope as always (magic theory in fanfiction always seems to boil down to one of two tropes: "Words have power" or "Intent has power").

 

I'm still not sure if I would call this 5/5 material. The action scenes are great, and the plot is very nice. But characterisations have been off (Neville was shy until he got off the train, and then he manned up instantly) and every single damn character is too smart/mature. I get that the author might not be used to writing eleven year olds, but when there are a number of similarities between this protagonist and Ash Ketchum in the author's gritty, bloody Pokemon world, there are problems.

That Dumbledore has to remind Harry to be a first-year Slytherin shows that even in-universe characters realize that Harry is too mature.As a smaller thing, I'm annoyed that the students have memorized the castle layout halfway through first year. There are small inconsistencies, like why Tracey is in Transmutation while Harry is in Potions (even though they're in the same house and year). However, through the inconsistencies and characterization problems, I rate this 4/5. Partially because this author has other quality work out, and is unlikely to drop this, and also because the plot and changes are done well.

I don't much like the arc thing. I like to read updates all at once, and a whole arc would take a while. But complaining about a story being too long is stupid, so I won't.