Title: The God of Death: Black Beginning
Author: I Am Atrocity
Rating: M
Genre: Adventure/Drama
Status: Complete
Library Category: Dark Arts
Pairings: Harry/Hermione
Summary: Voldemort kidnapped Harry that fateful Halloween night and raised him up as his assassin. Years later, Harry is sent on a mission that will change the Wizarding World forever. Treachery and ambition go hand-in-hand, and no one is safe. Beset on all sides, Harry must fight to survive and carve his name on the face of history with a legacy of fire and death..
Link: FanFiction.Net

To be noted that the sequel is currently ongoing here, but I feel that it should be reviewed separately since, one: it is pretty early in the game right now, two: it isn't as good as the first part, and three: it can be pretty much a stand-alone story on it's own.

Disclaimer: I am pretty sure this hasn't been up for review already, but if I missed it despite scouring through the Library, I claim ignorance to navigating this brilliant website due to being new.


On with the recommendation!


Basically, it is a Dark!Harry fic with the premise that Harry was kidnapped and raised by Voldemort to be his favored death eater. However, as the plot goes on, he must interact with other people than his death eater pals, creating juicy scenarios and harsh choices for our hero. Whose side will he choose in the end?

I personally liked this story well enough. The writing is really engaging with exciting plot and cliff hangers and the lot at every turn. The characterization is well done for most of the darker characters. The light ones can be a bit one dimensional at times. There is little bashing-without-cause involved (mainly reserved for James). Portrayal of a confused teenage Harry is pretty well done, with the conflict between old and new relationships giving rise to some really good plotting. Dumbledore's actions are also pretty spot on. The romance though, is meh. But it isn't the core of the story, so it can be forgiven. All in all, the fic manages to keep the reader's attention and has him/her chewing fingernails the whole way through, despite it's few faults. I would give it a solid 4/5.

What do you guys think?

 

Self-fulfilling prophecy in terms of premise and his writing, I see.

 

I just don't know how to feel about this. The first few chapters are cringey as fuck, and should probably be skipped - just accept that LV takes him and raises him instead of trying to kill him, and be done with it. After that, it's like a few things I've seen where Harry is raised by the enemy - trained to hate everyone, actually meets them, doesn't actually hate all of them, gradual change of heart... you've seen it all before.

I'm about halfway through, and it's another of those stories that's tailor-made for the 'Almost Recommended' category - the writing itself isn't nearly as bad as some things I've seen, and it's different enough that I don't feel like it's a carbon-copy of anything... it's just average. 2.5-3.0 out of 5 so far, but I'll wait until I'm finished to properly rate it.

 

6 chapters in, and I'm in half minds about it. It's not good, certainly, but it's not so terrible that I'm giving up yet. It seems like the author might have some interesting plot ideas, but the writing itself leaves a lot to be desired. There is a lot of telling instead of showing, and just as much showing and then immediately telling anyway. The author seems pretty locked in on his idea of the character personalities, except for Harry. Considering that it's from his point of view, this is a major problem. Harry's attitude towards people he meets and killing in general fluctuates constantly, ranging from shame and distaste for murder, to things like this:

I'll keep going through it and probably update this when I either finish it or give up, and let you know if the writing improves with practice.

------

25 chapters in and I give up. It doesn't get better, if anything it gets worse when they try to write romance. The author constantly repeats themselves, and after every new character gets announced the AN tells us if they're going to hang around. It's not the worst thing I've read, but it's not worth your time. It certainly wasn't worth mine. 2/5.

 

I think this qualifies as a guilty pleasure fic. It has some suprisingly original ideas mixed in with a lot of cliches. As KingRoger said, the auther can do a lot of telling instead of showing sometimes. The fic isn't perfect, but very few are. If you're in the mood for a somewhat entertaining fic when you can't find something better (a problem I've been having recently) then this could be a solution.

It also continued to be updated, if inconsistently.

3/5