I just found this fic about a week ago, and I have to say, you've done a damn fine job jbern. I just can't get enough of your Voldemort! You actually made me like Peter too. I was sad when you killed him (crazy, I know!)

The whole story strikes me as much more realistic than most fics. I especially enjoyed how you balanced Dumbledore's manipulations with his "good-guy" side. Too many Independent!Harry fics just turn him outright evil, making him just as much a caricature as Rowling did (just in the opposite direction). Thanfully, you managed to avoid all of that nonsense. I'm really looking forward to seeing how you finish this one off!

 

An update for "The Lie I've Lived" is to be expected after chapter 41 of TFTCD is posted right?

I am positively starving for updates. Will they be more frequent once you are done with this fic?

 

Story finished

Chapter 41 (the Finale) is posted. I hope it meets or exceeds your expectations.

Thanks to everyone who has posted in this thread and all the comments on the story.

Jim

 

That was great.

...

I can't really think of anything else to say.

 

You did a great job on the final chapter, tying everything up in a satisfying manner while still leaving a bit to the imagination.

The last part with Voldemort being semi-alive is a nice conclusion, as it leaves certain things to the imagination and once again shows Voldemort's brilliance.

My favorite character in this story apart from Voldemort and Harry was Narcissa Black. Even at the end she shows her Slytherin side by gaining back the Black family inheritance. You did a marvelous job writing her character.

A fitting end to an epic story Jbern.

Homer

 

Very well done, and very entertaining.

In regards to a possible epilogue, I'd be very interested in the Vaticans response to the things that have been going on and the things that the British Magical Government have planned for the future, especially in regards to Magical France.

 

I went and re-read this story and as much as I would like to give a long detailed review I can't bring myself to do it for a finished story, if that makes any sense. There were, great parts, good parts, average parts and bad parts. The quality of writing fluctuated more in this story then any other I've read. The beginning was quite strong, tailing off around 25 chapters into a pretty hard to read fic. Then it pick up again in the low-mid 30's.

It would be interesting to see how your original works are because I've always felt what stopped your stories from being favorites of mine was how dull and seemingly uninspired the filler was. I greatly enjoy the high tension action scenes but the other parts of the story always seemed lacking.

In any case, an enjoyable story with some truly memorable moment (payload of bombs) and memorable characters (Wormtail).

4/5

 

I loved it. As always your action parts are top-notch, but the parts with less action and more downtime tended to drag on a bit. Loved the ending though. Little disappointed about Tonk's fate, but she DID go out with style. Overall... 4/5.

 

Great ending. Its hard to believe that is over. After all this time.

 

Yeah. A great end for a great story. Even though I would have liked for Tom to go down in a bit more dramatic way I suppose his death fitted the superb and realistic Tom Riddle you created. I was actually a bit sad to see him die. Can you believe that?

Story gets a 4.5/5 from me cuz Bungle was 5/5 and this is just a little bit behind.

I'm off to re-read TftcD now.

 

I agree with Darius, this story had it's fair share of good, bad and average parts.

It could do without the pregnancy.

 

A great ending to a great story. The last 2 (or 1 depending on your view) chapters were excellent and fell back into the groove that you had at the begining of the story. Keep up the good work

 

I liked the ending, how you left it open for the imagination; something I wish JKR would do. I don't recommend a sequel, however I wouldn't say no to a one shot epilogue. Maybe something that gives some information about what happened to the world and ish.

 

Enh, I can't see the baby Voldemort ever really becoming a threat. He won't be a liability for a long time and the only way he could hope to survive would be to do absolutely nothing until he's magically powerful again and I doubt that this baby would have as much raw magic potential as Harry does anyways seeing as he seems to have had almost as much as Voldemort and he's in a league of his own.

So say in 20 years he starts moving again, as soon as people heard about him he would be destroyed, unless he uses the wizarding war to his advantage and works under the cover of another country etc. But I can't see Harry not hunting him down ASAP so he doesn't have to deal with another dark lord that may or may not be bound to him by a prophecy and it would be much easier to take care of it then. And you also have to remember that Harry has another 20 years to become stronger and learn.

I wouldn't mind a sequal though, I really enjoy post-voldemort stories that still have huge amounts of conflict. Wizarding warfare is quite enjoyable to read.

 

On that note, you ever notice that no fics ever have wizarding country vs wizarding country? It's always Dark Lords that wage war. How bout some good old imperial ambition for once? It would be a nice read to see Magical Britain vs Magical France, which this fic seemed to hint at toward the end.

 

Honestly, Jim, I'm glad it's over, but at the same time a little regretful.

I'm regretful because it's a good piece of work and an entertaining read. (Though a little longer than it needed to be from a work count standpoint)
I'd have preferred to see a more lively exchange between the forces of good and evil, rather than a seesaw back and forth with the forces of good largely being painted as incompetent bumblers on the side of the Ministry.

For example, I'd have loved to see the ministry take on a more creative role in waging war.

Too often it just felt like Voldemort's forces were able to operate at full effectiveness without fear of reprecussion.

An example of how this could have been carried out is this; In the Iraq conflict, combat teams were directed at times to set up supply caches to lure insurgents into killing field traps.

For example, a cache of weapons and ammo would have been found that belonged to insurgents and they would clean it out and put dummy ammo and alarms in the area. They would then set up lines of fire so that they could effectively blindside the enemy with fire from cover.

This was a tactic that was also used in post WWII Germany against the ex-SS troops (also known at the Wolfpacks or werewolves)so there's ample precedent for it's use

It seems likely to me then that ministry forces might do is have some rotating shifts of people in over positions near areas of high value that Death eaters would be likely to attack, and then butcher them, or do a faux retreat that draws those death eaters into a circumvallated setting where even more forces would be waiting (having been summoned during the faux retreat) to draw in the original death eater force along with any reinforcements they might have.

In short, I'd have loved seeing Tom have some big successes and getting ready to take on the ministry and take it over, then have his hubris catch him and his forces by the ankles, bend them over the tactics table, and have them get butt fucked by having half or more of the DE forces get slaughtered.

Have dessention appear in his ranks, have rank and file DE's start showing a massive drop in morale (just like in a real war, not every operation is a success and sometimes those failures are huge losses that cripple morale for a while)

Basically teach Tom that while his forces hit and run tactics are reasonably effective, that spreading fear does not equal winning a war. The merits of solid tactical planning and not just relying on hit and run tactics and his own personal power is a lesson Voldemort never really learned. The reason is... he never really had any real losses that he should have. The closest thing to that that you did was the bomb dropping raid.

Now, that said, you did tread the ground of how a magical war would play out between two powerful mages (thank god you made Harry a decent and worthy adversary for Tom... unlike a certain Author who actually owns the franchise) The story was engaging and ofttimes very refreshing. So overall I rate it a real success in the portrayal of a grittier and more realistic wizarding war.

Now, I'm glad it's over so that you can focus on TML and your other works... which have been heads and shoulders above the competition.

 

Hi jbern.
First of all, congratulations on the story, it was a great read and it probably ereased all my chances at the first of the five of my final exams tommorrow...

I've read the whole thing practically in one go, (two days precisly) so all the sub-plots and tidbits, like Charlie and Narcissa, etc. were not distracting, almost all were nice additions to the picture. Just like a few prior reviewer, I felt that things are falling apart in the third quarter, but you managed to tie up everything nicely in the end.

Probably the only complaints are for those articles near the end, which filled roughly half a chapter and after the first one, became pretty boring for my liking. I understand that you had to cover almost two months of time and didn't want to make up pointless fillers, but I still felt the lack... anyway.

Action scenes and descriptions were simply great, no need to point that out. What I loved the most, were the truly amazing and original characterizations. Voldemort was an instant hit, just like Peter and Penny.
I liked what you made of Neville as well, but in the end, it felt somehow incomplete. Perhaps his internal process during the oh-so-great Longbottom Massacre would have been worth a few more words.
Susan's character and the whole Susan-Harry relationship was predictable from the beginning to the end, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Same goes for Harry's inner struggles. His deformed hand was a good idea too.

More comments would require re-reading parts of the story and this thread as well, so in the lack of time, I'm just gonna conclude: a great read, lots of original ideas (magical, politcal, etc.), action, good flow. Contrary to the majority here, I prefer this one over Bungle, but I admit that that is better written.

4/5, mainly because of the unexploited potential in some great ideas.

 

Glad you enjoyed it. The story will always have a place with me as the first story I started (other than one which shall never see the light of day).

There were things I should have done differently, but I doubt I'll ever go back and "fix" it. I'm more interested in moving forward.

As a stepping stone, it was a good story and taught me alot about what I could do. Were I to rate it, I'd go with 3.5/5.

Jim