Title: Firebird's Son
Author: Darth Marrs
Rating: M
Genre: Drama
Chapters: 40
Words: 172,506
Updated: August 24, 2013
Published: October 21, 2012
Status: Complete
Library Category: AU
Pairings: Harry P. & Luna L.
Summary: Think you know what the magical world is like? You're wrong. A completely AU story of Harry Potter in a world with four times more women than men. But will a world run by women, in which wizards are commodities to be controlled and threats to be contained, actually be any better?

Link: Link

Okay I am officially calling it.

I have been watching this fic for a while and I imagine I am not the only one. It may be early days yet but I am confident that the high quality it has displayed will continue. The fic reminds me of Taure's Lords of Magic. That alone is recommendation enough.

I am voting it as 4/5 for now



The sequels:

Title: The Firebird's Song: Book II of the Firebird Saga
Rating: M
Genre: Fantasy/Drama
Chapters: 36
Words: 153,289
Updated: May 17, 2014
Published: Aug 31, 2013
Pairing: Harry P., Luna L.
Status: Complete
Summary: Hard times lead to hard choices. What's more important? Freedom, or fate? Love, or death? Harry Potter stands on the edge of a precipice, and he is not sure if the right move is to turn and fight, or fall.

Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9646669/1/The-Firebird-s-Song-Book-II-of-the-Firebird-Saga



Title: Firebird's Fury: Book III of the Firebird Trilogy
Rating: M
Genre: Fantasy/Drama
Chapters: 36
Words: 168,312
Updated: Jan 24, 2015
Published: May 24, 2014
Pairing: Harry P., Luna L.
Status: Complete
Summary: They had a plan, formulated from before they were even born. That plan died. From its ashes rises a Harry Potter no longer willing, or able, to let others fight his battles for him. Outgunned, outclassed, outmatched, nonetheless Harry will take up the sword to change not only Britain, but the world.

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10373959/1/Firebird-s-Fury-Book-III-of-the-Firebird-Trilogy





Checked by Minion, February 4, 2015

 

Darth Marrs is a generally decent writer, and I think this story lives up to that. He's created an interesting AU, and while I have some reservations about the coven stuff (I don't want to see this turning into a harem!fic), I think this could end up being really cool. I'm comfortable giving a 4/5 right now, but I could see myself rating it higher in the future.

 

Seems to be better so far than most of his other stories. Tentatively hopeful.

 

This is one of the better stories Darth Marrs has created, and I think everyone can agree his grammar and spelling is nearly flawless, but the dialogue feels stiff and unimaginative sometimes. It bugs the hell out of me that he could be one the best fanfiction writers if he only would stop writing these damn harem stories and make something different. I don't really see the point of the element aspect of the story, beside sorting, and don't get me started of the homophobia atmosphere the author is trying to create. If children are so damn important use some type of artificial insemination. The only part I'm remotely interested in is the Aether.

This stroy gets a 3/5 for me right now.

Anybody else get creeped out by the breast groping? Seriously, what the fuck is that?

 

An interesting premise that I've been keeping an eye on. A bit heavy handed on the exposition side, though. I can't help feel that there are better ways of delivering all this information to the reader than McGonagall lecturing us via Harry and the Muggle parents.

 

Sometimes it feels like Darth Marrs has hit his "cap" on writing ability. Either that or he doesn't give a fuck, which is also possible. His style is boring and unimaginative and it's hard to understand why, after writing so much, it hasn't improved.

Then again this isn't uncommon with some prolific fanfic authors, but it's still a bit baffling.

 

I think silverlasso has hit on my reservation. I don't want this to turn into some porno-esque harem fic. I actually don't mind the homophobic vibe because it is logical from the society he has created. This fic could either go up or down in my estimation depending on what is done from this point.
I get the feeling Darth will avoid the major pitfalls simply due to the level of thought he has put into the world he has created. Either way, it is worth some attention.

 

I was not able to get very far into the story. I felt as if the idea is little more than a weak excuse to justify a future harem pairing, mixed with as many irritating ideas that the author could manage to fit into the story. I wouldn't say this reflects poorly on the author, I just personally do not find the idea enjoyable.

It would not be quite as irritating to me if the majority of the AU was introduced in a method other than a long lecture of "what the fuck" from McGonagall, but unfortunately it is.

His writing seems at a glance to be technically sound, but rather bland. If I had liked the concept, the writing wouldn't be an issue, as it is rather decent. If the writing was exceptional, I might have found the idea tolerable. As it is, I don't think I'll follow the story.

Also, this. Goddamn weird. 3/5

 

Its ok, nothing more. 3/5, not library worthy.

 

It's an interesting and so far fairly coherent setting, but otherwise it's standard Darth Marrs material. His stories aren't terrible, but has a habit of taking potentially interesting ideas and executing them in amazingly uninteresting ways... and so far this story is basically just 6 chapters of exposition, so it's not showing any signs of breaking the trend.

I'll probably end up reading this in its entirety and mostly enjoying it, but I certainly don't expect to be amazed by it at any point. 3/5, maybe?

 

I'm greatly enjoying the AU/World-Building stuff, it's always nice to read a slightly different spin on a tired old story. The first chapter, in particular, was difficult to get through, but after that it was easy to read, and quite fun.

I must say, I find it extremely unlikely that this isn't going to become some kind of harem fic. He does write in the first author's note that there'll be no lemons, but there will apparently be sex - and I'm guessing it's not just the monogamous kind.

Even so, if Marrs manages to live up to the promise of the first few chapters, I rather think I'll be able to overlook any random harem-ing he may put in.

 

Way to early to rec this fic. This is Darth Marrs after all.

While his ideas for fics are great they get bogged down with harems and creepy mind altering magic. With all the talk of bonds and Harry's dreams of what clearly is Luna, there is no reason that this fic will not end up the same.

Thus far the fic has been interesting though, perhaps a little bit to much tell and not enough show, and managed to hold my interest throughout.

In the end I have to say that i wish someone else was writing this fic as it will no doubt end up disappointing me. 3/5

 

Hey, maybe he'll decide to write a Harry that wants to change the system instead of just following.

Fine, but does that logic really justify binding their magic and expelling them from society? Just defies reason for me is all.

 

In practice I assume it's more of that they're doped up with love potions, and expulsion/binding is just a threat to get them to comply.

If it does end up as Harry starting a coven rather than Luna refusing to share*, I really hope that Harry at least starts out in a highly antagonistic relationship rather than being ~so loving and wonderful~ that he can have a wonderful love-filled relationship with four witches without the help of love potions. The author notes keep emphasizing that the harems really do not work how they would in the standard male fantasy, and it'd be nice if that remained true for the bulk of the story.

*I suppose theoretically there's other options... but Harry ending up with two or three wives seems very unlikely.

 

Harry figures out what a sperm bank is. Uses it to great effect. Solves the population crisis. ta-da. /plot

 

@ Vir, I suspect that all this talk of wizards bonding with witches is set up for an elaborate explanation of why sperm banks won't work.

 

Way to early to tell with this one. The main problem with Darth Mars is that his female characters always end up looking like damn near identical clones that simply worship Harry. If by some miracle he can make them into three dimensional characters with their own personalities then I could rate this 5/5. But he needs to establish Harry's harem before I could even consider rating it.

That said the world building is fascinating. It is probably going to be the most legitimate harem story written on the site.

The names for the characters who have been gender swaped are just too damn creepy. Deanna Thomas, Justine Finch-Fletchley whenever I see one of those I picture an 11 year old transvestite.

 

Lots of interesting world-building. The interaction between Harry and Burbage in the last chapter was actually blindsindignly awesome. I would like to see more of such things in the future, great explorations of things often neglected.

 

Believe it or not, in my part of the world, a Harem is not uncommon even to these days. My great-grand father had 6 wives and my grandfather remains married to two women for the last forty years.

So believe me when I say, any realistic Harem is the closest thing to hell on earth. It's like a game of chess where every move is carefully planned and nothing is ever done without careful forethought. The level of cunning my grandmothers have displayed in outmaneuvering each other in their marriage is positively Kissinger-esque. The result is a marriage that just has a veneer of civility on the outside which hides a raging inferno onto which my poor grandpa roasts.

If Darth manages to pull this kind of harem, the story could well be the definitive HP AU.

As it stands, though, meh.

 

It's been pretty blatantly hinted at that this whole binding and expulsion doesn't really happen. Come on... the muggle world is a big place and, despite the fact that these Hogwarts students obviously receive many orders of magnitude more 'muggle studies' than canon, they still don't go gallivanting into the muggle world deeply enough to realize that those 'exiled' wizards aren't turning up among the muggles, they've been stuffed into a dark hole somewhere to be treated like a prize bull.

If they need wizards so badly that they'd bind them and act the way they do about the homosexuals, they aren't going to let them go so easily. I imagine the 'troublemakers' are seen to be dragged off for their supposed expulsion, but...

Hell, they already mentioned that the guy who ended up in a coma was still used by two women to father children.

The sperm bank thing is a non-issue; they don't just bind wizards to their wives because Wizarding England Needs Babies, they do it because A: Wizards are more powerful than the witches, but they give up some of that magic/power to their wives in the binding process, and B: Wizards are violent and warlike by nature, and this scares the witches shitless.

War means your population is going to take a hit, first from the deaths, then from 'lack of breeders'.

Through nature and violence, the witches have ended up vastly outnumbering the wizards, and by binding the men, they make the women stronger, the men weaker, and increase the control they have over them, while ensuring that they have a population of baby makers.

Muggle men, clearly, are not preferable, but some witches will apparently go that route if they have to, and since there's a surplus of witches, there seem to be no severe penalties in place to discourage them.

A wizard, on the other hand, had better not even think of wasting his seed in some muggle woman, lest he end up getting (re)educated on the error of his ways.

It's easy to see why, in this AU, the witches would have a hate-on for homosexuals... or at least wizards who've decided they'd rather lie down with a man, rather than face a life of thinly-veiled slavery: They're stronger because they haven't been yoked to a witch or two, they're free to go about using that power to create whatever havoc they wish, they aren't creating any magical babies (aww, sorry, clearly no shit-babies in this universe), and that old standby of using feminine wiles to bend a male to your wishes... doesn't exactly work with 'friends of Dorothy'.

The casual way canon treats Love Potions is bad enough (Try Weasley Wizard Wheezes Date Rape Elixir: Totally legal, available to all ages without a prescription, and always good for a laugh), but in this place, it's the bitter pill every man has to swallow, when he doesn't want to be with the women he's stuck with. Shut up and drink your medicine and, in the morning, you won't care that you couldn't stand this woman...

Er, anyway, TL/DR: A sperm bank wouldn't work, because at the end of the day, the man hands over the cup and walks home to do whatever or whoever he wants, with as much vitality and strength as he had when he walked in.. if, perhaps, a little winded.

...and, the woman who benefits from that donation only gets a baby and a bill for her troubles, she doesn't get half the man's strength.