Title: Weaver Nine
Author: Thinker6
Rating: M
Genre: Adventure/Drama
Chapters: 29
Words: 143,719
Updated:February 9, 2015
Status: Work in Progress
Pairings: Not going to spoil this one.
Summary: Taylor and Jack Slash are born in each other's places. Weaver is the infamous usurper of the Slaughterhouse Nine, while young Jacob Hebert forges his path through the underworld of Brockton Bay.
Link: FFN.net AO3 (because fuck you, spacebattles.)

Weaver Nine is hands down one of the best fics in the fandom. In a fandom infested with bland, soon-to-be-abandoned Alt!Power Fix-it fics, this story is a rose in a garden of weeds. Don't let the title fool you -- the story is as much (if not more so) about young Jacob Hebert as it is about Taylor, and damn, he makes a fine protagonist. Utterly ruthless and shamelessly manipulative -- he endears himself to the reader in quick time.

As for the other good stuff -- where to start? The worldbuilding is really, really good. The author's portrayal of the society's working mechanics was one of my favorite things in the story. The author clearly put a lot of thought into the powers and characterizations of the OC society capes, and it shows. As for Taylor herself -- for someone who is a huge fan of a ruthless, villain Taylor, this fic is a Godsend. Also, this AU Bonesaw is awesome. I will hear no arguments to the contrary.

But for all its other features, there is one reason this fic is a can't-miss, and that is the Leviathan fight. The Leviathan Fight. No other fanfic comes even close to matching the level of carnage and destruction the Endbringers showed in canon. This story turns it up to 11. The sheer desolation and hopelessness of an Endringer battle is portrayed extremely well, yet there are heroic deeds, both individual and otherwise, and there is always a glimmer of hope -- not much to be sure, but its always there and the fic never completely crosses into GrimDark territory. Read the story for this part alone if you have to.

Overall, one of my favorite fics in any fandom. There are a few complaints, mostly regarding the wordiness of the dialogue in the early chapters, but I tend to ignore them in favor of the awesomeness of the rest of the story. Hands Down 5/5.

 

If I had to chose, I would say this is probably the best Worm fic. The Leviathan battle scene is just so raw, brutal and unrelenting. Very few fics come close to the sheer emotions that the canon leviathan brings out the first time you read it, but this one is a whole different monster.

5/5

 

I'm not a large fan of this author. While his oneshots are quite good, something about his longer stories makes me annoyed at the entire thing. Mostly since it is sooooo epic that it gets the point of a farce.

In fact, the only thing I can remember about this story is the Levathan fight and not liking Jack Slash as the protag.

I am not going to deny that it is technically fine and has thought put into it, but as a story I do not like it in any manner.

 

Enjoyed this one a lot. Definitely in the upper echelons of Worm fanfic. I basically agree with what Stan said, except I wasn't quite as enthusiastic about the positives and the negatives bothered me more.

Specifically, the author has a bit of a verbosity problem, especially with dialogue. People frequently explain and pontificate in a way that real people never, ever do.

Also, while I certainly appreciated the thought and worldbuilding that went into the Society, so much of it felt like just that - worldbuilding. Mostly tell, very little show. When you get into Tattletale's POV in the Society headquarters, there's literally pages and pages of descriptions about who people are, what their powers do, why they're doing what they're doing, and what kind of contingency plans they have. It felt more like, I dunno, a roleplaying game or a novelized stats sheet than an actual literary work.

Still, positives are numerous. Jack Slash is pretty compelling, and the narrative device of how his secondary Thinker power manifests is clever and cool. The Leviathan fight is a huge, powerful accomplishment. Props to the author for just absolutely going for it - although I'll agree with SmileOfTheKill that there were beats (small ones, for me) during the fight where it seemed like it got lost in its own epicness.

Also, definitely echoing the AU Bonesaw thing. Good Girl is just... the best. I laughed out loud at some of her lines, and the reactions. When she's describing the changes she'd make to Jack Slash, and the unicorn/pegasus/attack pony... oh, man. It's a rare treat when an author can AU-flip a character and still perfectly capture their voice.

I can't quite bring myself to give this a perfect score - the unnaturally dense dialogue is kind of a pet peeve of mine - but this is still a great fic.

A very easy 4/5

 

I get that the Society is a representation of what the Great Administrator Shard should be capable of with time. It still bugs the hell out of me. It feels entirely too unrealistic having that many sociopaths following Taylor around. At least not without having to murder a large portion of them on a regular basis.

I also had a problem with the Leviathan fight. It felt more 'epic' than 'terrifying.'

Despite my quibbles the praise this story gets is well deserved.
4/5

 

Thinker6 is my favorite writer in the fandom, mostly because he really writes Parahumans like Parahumans. You can see the madness and obsession the Shards create in every one of them, and that's always stood out to me. This is an easy 5/5

 

Good girl is the best Bonesaw.
Jack Slash is best Jack Slash. Just, so much so.
Leviathon fight was epic. Maybe too epic. Actually, yeah, way the hell too epic.
Still, 5/5

 

5/5

One of my favorite fics in the fandom. Great depiction of Jack, awesome interactions with other capes, and some lovely action.

Biggest problem is the Society. Like CleanRag said, it's ridiculous the success it has, and honestly I find everything about it just plain uninteresting. Jack is what makes this story, and I spent every sequence dwelling on the society waiting for him to come back on.

 

It was a slog to push myself to read it, far too much of the story was focused on the not S9 Jack Slash, a character I care nothing for.

3/5

 

This is without a doubt my favorite story in the fandom. That said, I can definitely see why people would not enjoy it. I love this story, but it entirely hinges on whether you like the idea of Jack Slash the Hero. If you can't stand it, this story will do nothing for you. There's an incredible amount of exposition and dull world-building, mostly about the Society. Some parts of the Leviathan fight fell flat to me, and it was hard to feel the suspense during later parts of it.

Even after all that, and even after nearly skipping some chapters, I love this story's Jack Slash too much to give it anything less than 5/5.

 

Easy 5/5 from me.

Initially, I was frustrated that it follows Jack most of the time (I went into this hoping it would be all about Weaver)- but I got over that.

 

Going to go with a 4.5/5 rounded to 5. His Jack chapters are diamonds; there's very little greater joy in seeing a fanfic update than when Thinker6 puts up a new Jack chapter, and for that I salute him.

I don't really dig the Weaver segments as much though. While it's an interesting concept, I feel that the story would have been better off catching what is actually going on in regards to the Society in bits and pieces. Trying to launch Levi into space was pretty good, but the rest felt like it was trying a bit too hard to show off how effective an older head of the Legion of Evil Supervillains would be.

 

Leviathan/5.

 

I hate Jack Slash, I've always hated how he had such a pivotal role in Worm. I like him a little more as a protagonist in this, but the premise of this story is just so awful for me. Taylor got shit on in Worm and got very little in the way of reward for all her efforts - and now you're making her play the role of a shitty psychopath?

But yeah, premise aside, this is good, 3.5 rounded up to 4.

I've actually read all the longish (>40k words) Worm stories on ff.net. They're all more or less pretty good - besides those with self-inserts anyway. Wish there was more like this.

 

I don't get this kind of critique, and I see it often enough across many fandoms. Not only does it miss the point of The Society, but Taylor is a fictional character. She does not actually exist. She is not being made to play a role with a gun against her head, she's an idea on paper being used to tell a tale.

 

It's just a feeling, not a critique. You're allowed to not like a story because of a feeling. I certainly doubt you go around reading graphic stories about murderers raping children, or something unsettling like that. This story kind of rubs me along the same wavelength, in a much smaller way of course.

Kind of difficult not to be attached to a character with so many millions of words stuck to her person, in such a way I feel like I need to defend her from being perverted into a type of character I loathed... I don't think it's that strange. I'm sure we'd see similar reviews about a HP story where Harry decides to go work in an office as a 9-5 accountant, instead of pursuing some magical adventure.

 

People would say its boring, not that it mistreats Harry or some BS.

 

I find Weaver Nine's Taylor perfectly in line with her canon characterization. Infact, had canon Taylor been forced into the S9 like she was in this fic, this is something I would have expected her to do after breaking free.

(But then again, I love Ruthless!Villain!Taylor. Most version of Hero Taylor are just plain boring compared to her canon self.)

Also, I don't get the criticism that the society is too powerful or whatever. Taylor's dream of improving the world doesn't seem all that successful at the start of the story -- Brockton Bay is the same shithole it is was in canon. Infact, the only thing the society achieved among its original goals was in the Brockton Bay Leviathan fight -- otherwise things are pretty much the same, if not worse than ever.

 

Taylor is best as a manipulator and warlord, for sure. She loses some of the interesting edge when she's allied with all the "good guys". But she also loses some of her edge when she's totally ruthless - it's more interesting for a character to straddle the moral fence in these types of stories, than to be too willing to commit to one side or another.

 

I'd probably give this a 3/5. There were some great bits (the Leviathan fight. Well, most of it), but by and large this isn't something I'd consider reading again.

Jack Slash is interesting as a protagonist. He just seems too infallible half the time. It's nice to see him thrown off course with things like Sophia, but it's not enough to make me happier with how smoothly things are playing out for him. The broadcasting shard interrupts are really interesting however. It's a concept that I was a bit wary of (Taylor didn't have sections dedicated to highlighting her administrative abilities, we just saw that in text), but we're forewarned about Jack's shard and its purpose.

Weaver is also a bit hit or miss for me. Her sections kind of read as wish-fulfillment. She gets to say whatever she wants to people, espouse views, etc all with minimal (or primarily off-screen) action. I did sincerely enjoy the fact that her Society wasn't untouchable. The damage leviathan wrecked to their command centre was satisfyingly in line with bypassing the Manton effect.

Tl;dr Not a bad story, with some cool fighting ideas - but Jack and Taylor deliver too many speeches or long-winded introspective segments.