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Best All-Around Harry Potter FanFiction

Winner: White Knight, Grey Queen by Jeconais
Runner Up: Ascension of the scorpion sorceror by Vorlon666

 

I also voted for the Scorpion.

White Knight had potential to begin with, but it simply turned out too girly for my taste. Lots of angst & fluffy crap, not to mention female POV during the love scenes (80% of the story)... Meh, I really don't know what you people see in it.

 

Likewise with myself and Scorp Sorc. Never been able to stand that fic.

White knight was great until the fluff got too much, and utterly stupid ass choices like bringing Ginny into the relationship, not to mention such a bullshit ending.

 

Ditto .. Scorp was my vote... WK was tolerable till the end...

 

I honestly don't rate either highly. The reasons for White Knight are pretty much in synch with those posted. Scorpion Sorceror...I don't mean to sound snotty here, but I completely and absolutely fail to understand why so many people cream their undercrackers over this story. I personally can't get past the substandard spelling and grammar that pretty much seems to infest the work. Add in rampant nonsensical character bashing and well defined cliches and you have... pretty much your average Independent!Harry story. The chemistry inclusion is cool and original, I have to admit. But aside from that...I don't get it. I suppose having Harry be willing to kill people is somewhat refreshing, but it's not like it hasn't been done before. Like I said, no offense intended, but that's just my take on things.

 

Barb and Lori seemed to already be classic and legendary type fanfics. And I have trouble getting into them. I'm almost certain I voted for Jeconais' as I love just about everything he puts out. I was a little disappointed in the ending, not so much the inclusion of the girl you all hate, but more the way it just sort of barely turned a great pairing into a slightly confusing threesome, and then stopped. That and Ginny in the fic, really annoyed me and I don't see why Harry and Pansy liked her and kept bending over backwards for her. But in terms of quality of writing and storytelling etc... I really think Jeconais is almost in a category of his own these days. I mean I can't stand any sort of romance, fluff and always look forward to everything he writes.

Ascension of the Scorpion Sorcerer seems to make more choices I agree with and prefer in my fics, (other than the marriage/bun in the oven) but just lacks the quality and professionalism Jeconais' fics have. And it's still a WIP. It could end even worse than WKGQ did, or it could end better. I can't give the MVP to the nice half-season over the complete one. Don't think I really considered many of the other nominees.

 

Scorpion Sorcerer simply has EVERYTHING that I like in a story - smart, independant, dark, ruthless and motivated Harry, new magical concepts, new spells, science & gadgets, great fights, great subplots, bashing of all the right characters (except Ginny), blood & gore, sex scenes with cool non-standard girl etc... If someone takes my dream-list and turns it into a 200,000+ words story, how can I NOT like it?

Even that marage thing was good decision by my oppinion - removed the whole issue of Harry playing the field and let the plot concentrate on all the good things instead of romance... I can just imagine how crappy standard "SHIP" would have been here: Some high-maintance girlfriend lecturing Harry about how bad violence is, while Harry is hiding his new concetration balls behind his back and making an innocent face...

 

I guess I'm just too vehemently opposed to character bashing all over the place, especially when it starts for no real reason. To each his own I suppose. It's a decent fic, just not in my opinion some monumental groundbreaking fanfiction that people tout it as.

 

Agreed on a lot of the original ideas in this one. The science, the blood magic gadgetry, even the muggles working on reverse frequencies to counter unforgivables is a cool idea. Usually the inclusion of computers and muggles annoys me, but robbing Voldie's war chest was brilliant. Yes Harry playing the field would be uber-crappy, but I never like the need for any sort of relationship/love at all when he has Voldie and others to deal with (even the prophecy says no living while the other survives). The torture scenes and point of them to me make this an evil!Harry rather than just a dark!Harry, which are rarely the sorts of stories I enjoy. Righteous comeuppance I always like better than typical vengeful bashing. Definitely great ideas in this, but the writing, including descriptions, word choices, punctuation, spelling, grammar, et cetera to me keep it from being a great story. Enjoyable to read, and I do look forward to updates but it won't win my vote for best All-Around when Jeconais has a long finished fic.

 

Same here, I literally just tried to read it, and it just left my eyes bleeding. Spelling is very important. I'm not a master speller myself, as I only half assed check my chapters once I "type/speak" them out, but even doing it so pathetically, mine looks better then the constant problems he has. Is the guy a non-native english speaker?

 

IMHO, native speaker or not, the earlyer chapters have never seen or smelled a beta reader. That's why the spelling's a bit on the wonky side and the punctuation is purely random. Later chapters get a little better - at least you don't have to keep track of where direct speech ends and storytext begins.

On the other hand, I am willing to (mostly) overlook all the shortcomings of the story in favor of reading one of the best technology/magic fusion stories I have encountered. Filesystem-style orering for Occlumency is just the kind of thing that makes a Linux-freak like me happy.

 

i disagree with the winner, thought it should have been ascension. i just felt that white knight was....... a little to fluffy.

 

Well, Vorlon you won Runner Up so I don't see what you have to complain about. You will never be able to win over everyone so... Be happy you have more fans than a lot of other fanfic writers and no one writes a perfect story.

 

WOW!!

I just re-read Vorlon's comments, and I'll say this. His story is GOOD, but he seems to get forget about characters (what happened to Harry's snake)?

He's also made Harry FAR too powerful. If Harry had Scorpion knowledge, and THAT was it, that would have been better. Now he would have to REALLY fight Voldemort and Dumbledore, two VERY knowledgeable and powerful wizards.

And, Vorlon, I do like your story, but, dude, get some fucking therapy. I mean it. ASAP.

 

well said.


I like Vorlon's story, but I didn't vote for it. At times it feels like its sole purpose is to fulfill some juvenile fantasy.

 

Egads.

That was one of the more memorable runner-up awards speeches I've seen. Of course I think I'm about the only one here who's been defending the choice of the winner, but it seemed the author doesn't take criticism too well. I mean the first several posts here were people surprised he didn't win. And yet, he cannot argue with any of the major complaints: His fic has good ideas but the packaging of the story has been lacking in professionalism. Spelling and grammar errors are usually what differentiate the great reads from the good reads (and for some people even the unable to read). There's tons of good stories out there, it's just how you tell yours.

And spell repertoire is a measure for a story? Seriously? I don't think I've ever given two flying fucks about made up spells. Vorlon's got those ancient sounding spells with the special characters nailed down. Of course the old "Blastus Maximus" floats my boat just as much. All those laughable 'add a -us' spells I can at least pronounce.

To quote the occasional genius Greg Graffin, "Quality and quantity, don't tell me they're the same." 25,000 words with several errors or typoes may make for a better read now than shorter but many-times betaed chapters, but 2 years from now when both stories are done, the differences in quality become more glaring. It's a measure of the the effort you're willing to put in. And you don't have to ever write anything to be able to comment on which story or authors you like.

A truly anal retentive asshole would point out the half dozen errors just on your author profile page. But that shit doesn't bother me. I know the difference between Led Zeppelin and Lead Zepplin. And while Stynx makes me laugh, Styx will always get mad props for 'Mr. Roboto' and inspiring Eric Cartman to sing 'Come Sail Away'. I like your story. I enjoy it. It ain't perfect and it's not my favorite, but I'm glad you're writing it and look forward to reading more. If the worst criticisms you're hearing are about grammar and typoes, then usually that's because there's little else to criticize about the story. And it's far more useful to bettering you as an author to hear shit that may piss you off, than it is to hear "LOL nice one. More, more."

 

About that whole spelling/profesionalism issue pushing Scorpion Sorcerer in the second league and White Knight to the top...

Comparing Scorpion Sorcerer with White Knight is like comparing an unpolished diamond with a shit statue. However good, proportional and lifelike you make the statue, nothing changes the fact that, in it's core, it remains just a piece of shit. Neat and professionally done, sure, but crap nontheless. Diamond, on the other hand, has unpolished and rough surface, but if you make the effort to look beneath it, that's where the true beauty and worth lies.

I'll always rather read an unpolished but interesting and original story than another perfectly beaten and sugarcoated crap-fest, the same way as I'll always rather listen some underground indie band than another perfectly produced pop/r&b album, and rather watch small but original and interesting movie than another comercial Hollywood summer blockbuster.

 

I wouldn't call either of them diamonds or shit. Both have a few decisions that just piss me off and make it harder to keep reading. Both have some good ideas and directions I'd not considered.

One of them is clearly polished though, and it's done. You can call it a shit statue, I suppose but at least it's a statue. The other one, not so polished and a WIP. Jury's always out until you finish a fic. Because anyone can fuck-up any ending. As I'm sure, many on these boards have said Jeco did with WKGQ. There'd probably be less discussion about this if that fic *wasn't* done. I doubt I would ever read any WIPs if there were enough finished fics out there that I liked. And I don't think I can even fairly compare a WIP to a finished fic. They're apples and oranges, fics and WIPs. There's nothing stopping the WIP from resurrecting James and turning into a graphic gory slashfest with Harry as the bottom because he took a massive blow to the head and forgot who he was. You can talk about chapters, directions it 'appears' to be headed, the theme or overall style, how good it is so far, but to speak of the whole fic overall compared to finished ones, is like voting when you don't even know anything other than the candidates' names. Maybe it's a matter of you trusting the man you don't know, over the one you do and disappointed you?

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if I like Scorpion better when it's finished (if it's ever finished - that's my biggest problem with every WIP), but WKGQ is a hell of a lot more re-readable for me right now. It's probably one of my least favorite Jeco fics, but that's like saying Order of the Phoenix is my least favorite Ruskbyte fic. Still a great fic. Scorpion I'd probably call a very good WIP.