Title: West of Here
Author: MK-ONE
Rating: M
Genre: Western/Romance
Status: In Progress
Library Category: The Alternatives
Pairings: Harry/Katie B.

Summary:Harry Potter accidentally disappeared to another place and time the night his godfather fell through the veil. Voldemort has taken over and Harry is needed now more than ever to fight the growing evil. The only trouble is that Harry Potter is no longer a teenage wizard, but a full grown territorial marshal who uses weapons of a simpler, harsher time period, somewhere- west of here.

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10015981/1/West-of-Here

I was browsing around fanfiction dot net searching for a good new story when on a whim I went to look if anyone had written a decent Harry Potter western. I then stumbled across this one. The writing is good and the premise is quite interesting. While the plot device of a changed Harry fighting Voldemort is a little worn, I found this spin to be quite refreshing, especially with the hardened marshal harry is. Jamie Black is definitely someone I wouldn't want to cross paths with one the lamb. Definitely a 4/5, at least, in my books!!!

 

-facepalm-

Why.

I'll write up a proper response when I have the time. 2/5, barely.

 

Harry without wand is like Indiana Jones without his whip. Bad idea and badly executed one at that. What I mean is that everyone fears Harry and everything, while all they had to do was to conjure some shield charm against bullets and be done with it. Or to use accio charm on his guns.

Spoiler

Yet, Harry even managed to hurt Voldemort, which is implausible.

Writing seemed scattered or something. I didn't understand much of it (that could still just be me though).

There is also manipulative Dumbledore, Dumbledore bashing, and Harry generally behaves like he owns everything. 1/5. I really can't give more. There is nothing positive about this story and nothing stands out.

 

Calm your tits lad. Story might be bad, and it sounds like it is, but calm your tits. Poster didn't make the recc with the intent of personally insulting you.

 

MK-ONE basically writes one story over and over with various tweaks: Harry leaves the magical world, receives some hard training and/or experience, returns to save the day wielding more than straight-up wand magic, and spends half his time spewing "hard luck" moralistic crap at a Dumbledore holding an idiot ball. At least the Western angle is slightly more interesting than his tedious, chivalrous, "magical knight" claptrap from stories prior.

That said, it's not a very good story. The author seems unfamiliar with Western tropes (he doesn't capitalize Colt, he freezes time unnecessarily so the bad guys can't shoot, given the time period, Harry is likely using corrosive ammo in his Colts yet never cleans his firearms, etc.) Ten years on, he would still retain much of his British accent if not word choice. The overt hostility toward Dumbledore seems misplaced and unexplained--Dumbledore's manipulations weren't revealed in canon until well after the confrontation in his office, yet Harry hates him on sight. Mechanically, the story is riddled with errors that even a semi-attentive proofread should have caught.

There's not a lot to like, honestly. Even after a million words, the author hasn't bumped up his storytelling skills meaningfully and I just don't see enough real novelty here (it's basically his magical knight story with Colts in place of a sword, folksy talk in place of the "My honor demands...:" bullshit) to bump it even to "Almost Recommended."

2/5

 

There were quite a lot of grammatical errors. Plus the story was a bit "bleh". Honestly, it's not terrible but I can't give it more than 3/5. It was okay but the story didn't excite me.

3/5

 

Perspicacity said most of what I was going to already. The wanker.

MK-ONE stories: ZOMG Harry is now a (insert near-legendary title here)!! ZOMG Dumbledore is inexplicably satan!! ZOMG why am I reading it anyway?!

2.5/5, because Katie Bell. Underused female interests get the extra .5 IMHO.