Recommended Harry Potter fan fiction
I ran across this fan fiction a few weeks ago, and it ate pretty much a week of my life…
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
I had expectations of blog-level writing with expositions of philosophy, epistemology, teleology, etc. tacked-on to a spotty Harry Potter story. What I got, instead, was a complete retelling of the story that is, in my opinion, significantly better than the original. The bad - occasional moments of peachiness, times when the re-imagined Harry in his new uber-Rationalist boy-genius guise threatens to strain my suspension of disbelief; and just a bit too much geek-cultural referencing for my personal tastes. The good - almost all of those eye rolling moments to be found in the original HP, all the plot holes, logical inconsistencies, and downright annoyingly stupid tween fantasy fulfillment bits are simply gone; much more character development for everyone _else_ at Hogwarts; and some damn-good story arcs that Rowling surely must be kicking herself for not imagining…
This is my first foray into fan fiction, being associated in my mind with slash and Mary Sue. I suspect this to be much better than average, but my n is low.
The author’s other writings are worth a look - specifically the area of “How to Build a Friendly AI”. Possibly the most important problem that no one has heard of…
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
I had expectations of blog-level writing with expositions of philosophy, epistemology, teleology, etc. tacked-on to a spotty Harry Potter story. What I got, instead, was a complete retelling of the story that is, in my opinion, significantly better than the original. The bad - occasional moments of peachiness, times when the re-imagined Harry in his new uber-Rationalist boy-genius guise threatens to strain my suspension of disbelief; and just a bit too much geek-cultural referencing for my personal tastes. The good - almost all of those eye rolling moments to be found in the original HP, all the plot holes, logical inconsistencies, and downright annoyingly stupid tween fantasy fulfillment bits are simply gone; much more character development for everyone _else_ at Hogwarts; and some damn-good story arcs that Rowling surely must be kicking herself for not imagining…
This is my first foray into fan fiction, being associated in my mind with slash and Mary Sue. I suspect this to be much better than average, but my n is low.
The author’s other writings are worth a look - specifically the area of “How to Build a Friendly AI”. Possibly the most important problem that no one has heard of…