Guide to Completed SSHG Epics (HBP-era)
I mentioned in a previous post a friend had mentioned she hadn’t read a lengthy post-HBP SSHG story that matched the old classics, which left me to scurry to catch up on my reading to see if she was right. I searched through FanfictionNet, AdultFanfiction, Restricted Section, Ashwinder, Petulant Poetess and OWLBelow is listed every single completed
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The non-HBP-compliant list is quite different, isn't it? I haven't actually read more than a handful of the ones there.
I do think there are more strong post-HBP stories, but quite a lot of them are most likely under 100,000 words. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing - as much as I like well-written long fics, I have a feeling that tighter writing actually suited the post-HBP world better in general.
At least post-DH there seems to be a definite general switch towards lighter and less gloomy fics.
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Where is the HBP Falling Further In, it's Soul Searching? There are admittedly, stories on this list others love I despise that they'd champion, particularly among the non-compliant list.
The non-HBP-compliant list is quite different, isn't it? I haven't actually read more than a handful of the ones there.Nine out of the 16 are by Ms Figg, and not ( ... )
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I did like five of the six you've marked (I haven't read As the Pages Turn yet) and would consider at least a couple of them among my most favourite stories in the ship - Accountable in particular.
I've read one or two shorter pieces by Ms Figg and I doubt I'll be trying the longer ones. I can see the appeal but it's not quite my cup of tea - PWP in general isn't, and I tend to avoid stories with too much smut, although there are exceptions (I do enjoy ladyofthemasque's writing for example, although there were chunks of For Someone Special that I skipped, and bits of In Annulo as well).
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I actually wouldn't hesitate to recommend epics to newbies--I think this is a ship a bit hard to sell to those who've just heard of it, and something lengthy to brainwash to convince a good thing--and yes, I think Fire and the Rose would be just the right thing.
I liked In Annulo because it's on the whole well-written and very imaginative--but it has some things that struck me as hard to buy, I didn't like the N/C in it or think in necessary, and parts squick me--so I'd be hesitant to rec it to someone new to the ship, despite its virtues.
You're kinder to Ms Figg than I am frankly. Her characterizations make me want to claw my eyes out.
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Then again, I suspect I wouldn't hesitate to recommend either Fire and the Rose or Hayseed's Ordinary People, as those were the two that I started out with and which cemented the obsession.
As for Ms Figg - as I said, I've only read one or two (might have been one and a half) shorter pieces, which seemed straightforward enough PWP, although not in a style or of the kind I might want to search out on those rare times I would actually want to read something like that. Perhaps I was just lucky. ;-)
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Which is exactly my point. Ask SSHGers what fic did it for them--which are their favorites, and with few exceptions, it's epics like that which are listed.
Which is why that the HBP era gave us such a thin haul is rather worrying.
As for Ms Figg - as I said, I've only read one or two (might have been one and a half) shorter pieces, which seemed straightforward enough PWP, although not in a style or of the kind I might want to search out on those rare times I would actually want to read something like that. Perhaps I was just lucky. ;-)
*shudders* You were--I wouldn't push my luck further...
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Although with a little imagination, it wouldn't have been hard to go canon-compliant and still have a rather traditional SSHG, only one with that acknowledged canon. You could have gone with Dumbledore being killed being a ruse (before DH) have Voldemort defeated, Snape cleared, and have him back in the classroom for the trio's last year. You could still have peril from the DEs still out there. But people instead choose to do things like ignore canon completely because they wanted to hold on to Snape Manor and what goes with it.
And I would have hoped, that HBP could have put in some judicious blasting powder to smash to bits some fanfic cliches (MLC *cough*)
I agree though DH should open things up again. And actually there are already 10 SSHG stories on FFN that have already reached that length (I noted that when making this list). And as you just pointed out--there's ( ... )
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Oh yeah, I know there are more WIPs in general that are lengthy enough - I was just thinking of DH-compliant ones in particular though, not AU or those started before DH or even before HBP. I did forget A Proper Romance though, which is DH-compliant.
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And actually, given I was able to find a posting date pre-DH on LotM's Yahoo group, I added it to the HPB epics above--haven't had a chance to check it out though.
I'm on Chapter 4 of Chocolate Enchantment thus far, and that I got even that far puts it ahead of 60 percent of the fics I tried. So far I'd say you've called it--entertaining, even though not impressive--though that may ultimately be enough to gain it a star--Spinster given LotM's track record, will probably make it in as well.
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Which isn't to say the others don't count, I was just thinking specifically DH-compliant as I was considering how much of a push DH in particular has given to writing epics.
I was also thinking about AU in general, reading the comments below - it is a concept that can be applied to both taking a quite different turn from canon as well as using canon but for different outcomes. It does seem the latter is quite uncommon in SSHG at least. And apart from ayerf's necromancer!Hermione trilogy (Redivivus, Tabula Rasa & Resurgam), I can't at the moment think of anything properly AU, written post-HBP, that I really loved, although this might be because I've just woken up.
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Ah, I noted their presence, but didn't check them out, so I didn't register that the weren't DH-compliant. (I did note 3 out of the 10 are MLC *groans*). My impression from when I checked out what was going on in SSHG in the first weeks postDH as well as the Exchange was that this time, the ship was finally dealing with canon, but I guess we're not so lucky....
I've never tried Ayerf's--though maybe I will if I keep this project going. But yeah, real AUs in the ship, as opposed to "non-canon compliant" are rare.
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And yes, though I wouldn't complain about it--I love the freshness and quality of the fic the Exchange engenders, I'm sure that's bottled up the talents of our ship for a while, which is why we haven't seen a huge amount of SSHG postDH up till now.
I'll have to try Ayerf sometime.
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It's an interesting point, the one about the stories that aren't written - but one could ask if they would be written even without MLC? I'd guess not, in the majority of cases anyway, as a lot of the more recent MLC writers (I'm thinking particularly of those I've seen on ff.net, and not really including the epics - and I really wouldn't consider juno_magic's The Apprentice and the Necromancer a MLC story at all, regardless of what the summary says, as it has little to do with the original MLC idea) don't seem to have the experience or originality (yet) to tackle more original topics ( ... )
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