Is Guilty Sparks any good?

 

This is from awhile back, but I'd like to recommend the following that I've already seen mentioned here.

http://fanfiction.net/s/8042302/1/Control-That-Which-You-Cannot-Destroy

A biiiit on the angsty side but it's very well written, very engaging, and takes relieving (minor) liberties with Canon so you're not reading the same shit constantly.

Also, blessedly, starts after everyone sans Jack has been recruited so you don't have to read the beyond tiresome Lazarus awakening.

A solid 4.5/5 rounded to a 5.

Psi Effect:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10550829/1/Psi-Effect


Weirdly enough this is actually very good, to a degree that surprised me. Remarkably interesting premise - humanity starting Eclipse to gain influence in the Terminus systems and create a new Batarian puppet regime. It's actually fantastic, and the fight scenes are simply amazing. I read this a week ago and

Spoiler

Shepard and Wrex

fighting was so superbly written I still remember it.

Seriously it's actually really good. Points if you've played Xcom: Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within, but even just being moderately familiar with the setting is enough.

For a crossover this is an easy 5/5. For a plain old mass effect fiction? It's still really quite impressive. The weakest of the stories here due to the inherent difficulties of crossovers, but not by much. 4.5/5 rounded to 4.5/5.

Interstitum:

http://fanfiction.net/s/5753454/1/

Only about halfway through but extraordinarily well written, with some of the best character writing I've ever seen. Grunt in particular is fantastic. Shepard himself is a biiiit boring, but everyone else more than makes up for it. Action is underwhelming, but then again action isn't the point of this story. The characters make it.

Shit, you even end up really liking Wilson!

5/5, with the caveat that action is a sidebar, not the main theme. It also makes some changes to canon, the majority of which are refreshing and the story is the better for it.

I don't know if Mass Effect: Interregnum is on here or not but again, the best take on Archangel's time in Omega I've seen in ages. The later squad members don't get quite as much love as, say, Sidonis, but it's an amazing read nonetheless. Agonizing too, since you know what's going to happen. It provokes real emotion, and that's something that you don't feel too often.

Besides,

Spoiler

there's a killer robot volus on the team

.

The first segment of the story is entirely original too, and is really pulled off superbly. Then it switches over to Omega, which is also great.

The strongest of the stories here, even above Interstitium. 5/5, no marks off.




Now that the review is done, is there anything new in the world of ME fiction I could take a look at that hasn't been posted here?

I generally like femshep but it's dudeshep in 2 and a half of the stories I've posted here so it isn't a big deal either which way.

E: Extra points if any new fic isn't shepard/Thane and/or Garrus.

I've yet to see a good fic with that pairing. Shepard/Jack is almost as bad, but not quite to the same extent.

 

Mythos Effect has been updated: Chapter 14

 

The Iron Rose:

Great finds. To anyone reading this. I seriously recommend you check out the Control That Which You Cannot Destroy andInterstitium. These two fics are simply amazing.

CTWYCD is one of the best portrayals of Jack I've seen to date, simply superb. The action, the pacing and the dialogs are all handled well. And it has Kasumi, the amazeballs Ninja girl who had me chuckling time and again. She, like Jack, lives in this fic. Her parts are so tangible I wish she had lines as great as these in the games.

Even Kelly flipping Chambers has her moments in this piece of fan fiction. It has some neat take on Liara and her life as an information broker on Illium. Like, you really get a feeling she could actually handle being the Shadow Broker.

The parts where Jack and Shepard are concerned are handled with a deft touch so the author doesn't beat you in the head with them, shoveling the romance down your throat.

I give this fic 4.5/5 - rounded up to 5/5, simply because I didn't have this much fun reading ME ff since The Mission Stays the Same.

---

Intersititum is a great character study. You get to explore the crew at their most intimate and private. Getting a look inside their lives and what shaped them. The whole fan fiction is extremely immersive and at times feels almost smothering as you delve into one character or another.

It gets major points for making me appreciate Jacob Taylor as character in this piece of writing. I mean, at the best of times I can't give one flying fuck for Jacob Taylor. To this day this guy has me scratching my head about his freaking role in the games. It didn't help that FemShep couldn't talk to this character without sounding flirty - something that pissed me off time and again. The less said about Foundation the better. At least I didn't romance him - thought I know that fans/players who did in most cases foamed at the mouth when ME3 rolled in.

But back on topic. In this fic, I like Jacob Taylor. I actually did. This alone elevated the whole fic and the author's writing skills to a whole new level for me.

I'll echo TIR's words and agree that Shepard is a bit boring and kinda meh.

My favorite parts were Miranda's and Zaeed's.

______________



I was on a serious Miranda/Shepard kick as of late and found this little one-shot I greatly enjoyed. It explored a certain avenue I once thought about while playing the games.

A Bullet and a Promise

Give it a chance. I rate it as a good 4/5.

 

Looking for any AU's where Shepard wasn't in the military, or any fics with some Shepard Aria interaction, doesn't need to be romantic. Anyone found any decent fics that offer either?

 

There was one where FShep got dishonorably discharged before the Eden Prime mission and was working on Omega and sleeping with Aria. I don't remember the title though...

I'm pretty sure it was on AO3 so why don't you try a FShep/Aria tag and see what you get.

 

Flock of Vandals by Progman?
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/9920855/1/Flock-of-Vandals

 

RabidAsparagus: Yep! That's the one.

 

As an aside... has Interstitium by AssaultSloth really not been put up for review yet?

 

Time for a necro.

Transcendent Humanity updated.

That said, are there any promising new stories in the Mass Effect fandom?

 

Update for Transcendent Humanity was pretty good, we're finally seeing some of the cracks in their seeming utopia, and the true nature of Cerberus and Tartarus are being hinted at.

 

I'm just hoping they didn't do all that with the Council and the Voice, only to have a go at it half-hearted.

 

Actually, since this has been updated I don't feel bad asking this.

Does The Mission Stays the Same ever get any better? I keep reading the first third or so before being utterly turned off by the thoroughly underwhelming writing. The plot's all fine and good, but there's no feeling and for the life of me I just can't get into it.

Shame too. I love me some Warhammer 40k, and I love me some Mass Effect.

On the subject actually, I remember reading awhile back this one by this cat named, I swear to God, "LordsFire".

Called The Warp is Calm. Actually not half bad, though of course it's not been updated in three years and there's only 40 thousand words, but damn what a good 40 thousand words they are.

Shame it never updated, the author was actually an excellent writer.

Though the whole die hard Christian thing rather destroyed my hopes for space lesbians, but I suppose you can't have everything.

 

Cat? Just how old are you? Also LordsFire hangs out on SB if you're ever inclined to speak with them.

 

A lady never tells.

And that's actually nice to hear, though I'd actually rather not if only because I asked for a debate a few years back and then never actually responded, so that's embarrassment I could do without. He always seemed like a nice sort though? I didn't mean to imply that the diehard christian thing was a problem by any means either.

Anyway, that's all off topic. Point is that buddy is a good writer, go check out his Mass Effect/40k crossover because I remember it being excellent.

 

Where are you at currently with TMSTS? I wasn't a big fan of it myself at first, but it sort of builds up nicely, chapter by chapter. That aside, I do have one issue with this crossover fanfic: Gallardi is nowhere nearly xenophobic enough as he should be. I'm not necessarily talking about him shooting on sight at various aliens, but a little less tolerance on his part would have been a welcome addition to his characterization.

 

I vaguely recall getting to Horizon, but honestly it's been about a year or two since I last read it so I don't really remember much else.

Definitely agree that Gallardi is tragically underused. He's like your racist old grandmother, there's some bitching and moaning and fuckall else. A tolerant imperial guardsman is boring as shit, it would've been way more interesting for him to have been picked up by Cerberus or something.

 

I don't mind him getting picked up by Shepard, while she's working for Cerberus.

I do mind how at ease he is with Garrus, Grunt, the Farseer Eldar, Mordin and so on. It just cheapens the 40k element in this crossover, because if a guy who was an Inquisitorial stormtrooper got so easily turned into tolerating and accepting xenos presence, there's something really wrong with the Inquisition the author envisioned.

 

I do agree that Gallardi is incredibly tolerant for an imperial guardsman, and tbh the story may have worked better if it was a Rogue Trader that was transported to the ME verse and picked up by Shepard, but... Well there are few 40k/ME crossovers with sufficiently xenophobic humans -from the Imperium-, and the writing is complete shit in 99% of cases. So I'll take what I can get.

In any case, here's another one, as I don't think it has been posted here yet:

Honor Bound

It's a Warhammer Fantasy/ME cross, femshep gets transported to the WFB verse after the Crucible firing, and of course gets into trouble wherever she goes.

The writing is decent, and the WFB cast is in character. It's worth a read.

Edit: +Skaven. Cannot go wrong-wrong with that.

 

Didn't see this recommended before, so here we go.

Vigil

It's a massive AU, that's basically a Mass Effect/XCOM/Eclipse Phase/FEAR/Destiny fusion, as it says in the description. Nothing is quite like it was in the standard fare of things. And yes, the number of crossover settings is a tad worrisome at first, because you can't help but feel like the author might have overreached.

I'm halfway through (on the 8th, out of sixteen, chapter) and so far, so good.

Edit:

I can't believe I forgot to link this:

Vigil: Codex and Supplemental Information

As it says in the summary, it's supplemental information for the Vigil Mass Effect/XCOM/Eclipse Phase/FEAR/Destiny crossover setting. You've got explanations for technology in the first chapter, humanity and factions in the second and locations and aliens in the third.