I know what you mean. The summary doesn't do the story justice, but I found it to be the best SAO story -- and the best FoZ story (though you don't need to know the fandom to read it) -- out there.

 

The best FoZ story? While the fandom does crank out a lot of half baked crossover stories that lose steam fast, it does have a few gems.

What is Halkeginia Online about? Summary seems to imply all the characters from SAO are dropped into the FoZ world?

 

Thanks for the mention. I don't know if "regular" is the right word, because RL likes to ambush me and make it difficult to put out more than a chapter every few months. But I try to balance that out by taking PTO in November and using nanowrimo as a half-assed excuse to motivate myself; last year I managed nearly 60k words in November.

Really what I ought to do is then dole those chapters out in monthly installments so that readers have predictable waits, but I just can't stand to have something sitting there written and ready to read, but not post it.

(P.S.: Still here now and then, I'm just a professional lurker and don't tend to post unless I have something to say.)

 

The whole of Alfheim gets summoned to Halkeginia. The players suddenly become their avatars with everything that implies. Apart from having to deal with that, their arrival has been noticed by Tristain and they have to make arrangements to live in this new world if they can't find their way home. Additionally, there's the problem of Asuna trapped up there on the world tree and the Albion civil war.

There's a lot of politics, plots, cool battles and world building.

 

Question: What is a compelling argument to read Fairy Dance of Death? I couldn't get over the first chapter when the first POV essentially named himself a pixie-type creature. I could be remembering wrong, but they literally seemed like Tinkerbell and co.

 

I'll let others answer the question as asked, but I will say: if you can't get past the fact that everyone has fae avatars, the story's probably not for you. That's one of the defining aspects of Alfheim Online.

 

Beyond good prose, interesting character development, and the fact that it's quite original?

Well, there's the fact that the rest of the fandom is pure shite, except for one or two gems.

I'll also note that I had to force myself to watch the Alfheim episodes in the anime, whereas I can actually read Fairy Dance without rolling my eyes every 5 minutes.

One of the few things I dislike about the story is how it can get incredibly technical. There is such a thing as too much detail, and it sometimes makes the writing seem dry.

 

If I remember correctly, Fairy Dance of Death's strong points were its world building, the atmosphere of what happens when countless players are stuck in the game environment, and the factions that emerged from that feeling of being permanently stuck there, how the factions were basically the races the PCs were and the inevitable them vs us mentality/racism that emerged from that.

Then you have a very solid take on the characters and the feeling of tense survival in a world where you either try to escape via fighting monsters literally designed to only be defeated after several tries, but you kinda have to do it on the first try, or loose to many players which would make clearing later levels impossible.

All that while trying to avoid infighting with the other groups over resources, territory and general pettiness/grudges/posturing that emerges in disaster situations such as this.

All among that you have several well realized characters trying to navigate this situation and the writing itself is solid. That's my memory from it and I hope the story lives up to that, since it has been quite a while. I really have to reread it.

Also, speaking of solid SAO fics, we kinda forgot By The Victors by Lamora. It was still in its early stages and it has been nearly two years since the last update but what is there is worth reading.

 

Entirely fair criticism.

Fun fact: I like explaining things; part of my day job involves technical writing of internal and external documents for our software's knowledge base. Another part involves documenting bugs and writing support emails.

Then I go home and write hi-tech fantasy. Brevity does not come naturally; it's a constant struggle for balance.