Title: To the Stars
Author: Hieronym
Rating: T
Genre: Sci-Fi/Supernatural
Chapters: 21
Words: 272,892
Updated: March 9, 2013
Published: September 23, 2011
Status: WIP
Fandom: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Pairings: None of note
Summary: Kyubey promised that humanity will reach the stars one day. The Incubator tactfully refrained from saying too much about what they would find there.
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7406866/1/To-the-Stars

Oh boy, where to begin.

This fic takes place in the Madoka universe over 400 years after the end of the series. Some of the original characters are still around. The main character is an OC, but Mami and Kyouko are both viewpoint characters. The setting has changed quite a bit in the several centuries since the series ended. Technology has advanced quite a bit, and by "quite a bit", I mean clinical immortality among other achievements. Humanity has achieved space travel, but now finds itself fighting for survival against an unknown, far more advanced alien race. Fortunately, that's where magical girls come in.

This is not a light read, and may not be to everyone's taste. The fic is currently at a bit under 200k words, and has only just now finished Part 1. This is not a action-filled thriller, but rather more of a hard sci-fi, which is a genre I have rarely seen attempted. The pace may be a turn off to some people; I believe the first 24 hours of the fic went on for almost 100k words, and only about a week or so has actually passed in Part 1. This fic, however, features some of the best world-building I have seen in any fic of any fandom.

Updates have been relatively frequent considering the size of each chapter. For me, this is a solid 5/5. I highly recommend this if you're in the mood for something different.



Checked by Minion, March 10, 2013

 

I'm managing to really enjoy this despite not knowing anything about the Madoka universe at all going in. The pace may be slow, but it makes good use of that slow pace establishing what I gather is an almost completely new setting. I can't really even tell exactly when the actual series ended in this world's history and where the invented stuff began, which is always a good sign when reading in a fandom you aren't familiar with.

 

@Rhys - Rectify that immediately. Stop reading this fic and watch Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Don't get discouraged by sugar-cuteness of first two episodes. Stick to the end of third episode, after that the show is :awesome

 

I pretty much agree with this.

About this story, I have to say that it's really good thus far. I've only made it halfway, but the worldbuilding is insane. The method of infodumping about the past via Mami watching the movie was also pretty interesting.

 

Holy shit. I just did a marathon reading session and finished what is out. That was insane. The detail in the story is phenomenal. While it does get a bit boring at times, its not too bad.

Not enough action as of yet. Hoping for much more interesting stuff in the future.

The advances of science and tech that the author described had me spellbound and frankly envious.

The author has managed to tie up many of what I assumed would be loose ends from the earlier chapters very well.

Looking forward to more. The extremely slow pace of the story makes me fear for its completion. The lack of action makes it slightly boring at times.

Score: 4.5/5 probably going up to 5/5 once the action starts.

Going to go watch the anime now.

 

LOL You probably got a bit spoiled to the anime haha.

I also finished this today and I have to agree that the lack of action hurts the story a bit. However, it's been really good with establishing a feeling of interconnectedness. The people we learn about in the past have a real and significant effect on how the world works for Ryouko now. I really enjoy that about it.

I rated it 5/5 based on my enjoyment of it.

 

I was. I could hardly bear watching the first 3 episodes. I think I wont be watching more. The characters in the anime just don't match the image I had of them while reading the story.

 

Could be since you only watched the first 3 episodes.

 

You should continue on. The anime is really quite good

 

Just finished reading the fic.

The amount of effort put into constructing the world, the histories and all that is very impressive. The culture and setting also manages to be pretty unique compared to your standard sci fi universe - particularly, the way they use their in built AI and implants.

I can identify three sort of cocurrent plotlines, which will undoubtably merge at one point. It's actually interesting to see where these will go:
- The mystery regarding the grief seeds
- Homura's disappearance
- Ryouko's start as a mahou shoujo

The last few chapters focusing on Ryouko's story were particularly good, and unexpected.

One thing that is a bit annoying is there's a bit too much infodumps. I can appreciate how much effort has gone into this universe - it feels like a professional standalone piece of fiction sometimes - but towards the end I found myself skipping over the huge paragraphs of text that seemed to contribute nothing to the storyline. Unless this fic is more about world exploration rather than a plot driven one, I hope it does speed up a tad.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7406866/17/To-the-Stars

Updated with a rather long, explicitly pure filler chapter in between acts.

 

Took me a while to get into, but about halfway I actually started to enjoy it. It's like a short side story in itself.

 

I enjoyed the short story. It was refreshing to see a different perspective heh.

 

This was updated and I enjoyed the new chapters. The battle scenes were quite good.

Spoiler

I totally didn't see the fight as a simulation. It was a pretty big surprise.

 

It's a double update so remember to read from Chapter 18.

 

To be honest, didn't get into these two new chapters at all. Found myself slowly starting to skim read.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7406866/20/To-the-Stars

New chapter up.

 

Thanks for the heads up.

While I really enjoyed the first 15 chapters, I'm finding it difficult to keep up the interest. This chapter also, suffered the same problem. I just could not find the enthusiasm that I had when reading earlier. Hope that changes in the future.

 

New chapter out: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7406866/21/

I liked it better than the last couple. Stuff is starting to happen.

 

There have been multiple updates since last post. There are now 29 chapters.

Link to 22: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7406866/22/To-the-Stars

Link to 29: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7406866/29/To-the-Stars