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Here's a recommendation courtesy of Sky Shadow to start us off:
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"Means of Persuasion" by Merytneith
http://www.lexicon.tf/subs.php?op=visit&lid=3528
Brief summary: the beginning of the Cybertronian civil war, as seen from the perspective of Prowl. Mingles details from 'G1' show and comics to great effect. Set aside a decent amount of time for reading... and without adding any spoilers, I can tell you that more 'name' characters come into it after the first section.
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When adding recommendations, please include the title, author, a link, and a couple of sentences on what it's about. Thanks! (I'd prefer it if you didn't plug your own fanfic here. If you want to do that, just create a new topic in the forum!)
[FICTION] Fanfic finds!
Okay, here's another... anyone read any of these I'm mentioning, by the way?
The Andraxus Saga by Belinda Kelly
http://www.lexicon.tf/user.php?op=useri ... inda_Kelly
It's basically a novel in seven parts. It deals with a future in which many of the TFs we're familiar with have faded into near legend, and other have dramatically changed... starting in part one with Slag, who's changed allegiances...
Fantastic stuff, and don't be put off by the style of part seven. It's from a character point-of-view and all will become clear.
The Andraxus Saga by Belinda Kelly
http://www.lexicon.tf/user.php?op=useri ... inda_Kelly
It's basically a novel in seven parts. It deals with a future in which many of the TFs we're familiar with have faded into near legend, and other have dramatically changed... starting in part one with Slag, who's changed allegiances...
Fantastic stuff, and don't be put off by the style of part seven. It's from a character point-of-view and all will become clear.
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Auntie Slag
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I’ve been reading this over the last few days. Though its not essential, reading ‘Time & the Hunter’ provides an interesting back story to Ravage’s actions (or rather what he says) in ‘The Andraxus Saga’.
I found the story quite heavy going at first, and I was doing that thing where I was reading too fast and not letting the mental images sink in properly (which is silly in a story like this).
However, it really picked up with the ‘Sting’ chapter. I loved the characterisation and storytelling of the two main characters, how he went from AH/7324x to Sting; from nothing to the whole of Andraxus in his hands. Seeing, in how many (relatively) simple steps he went from nothing to clutching the Matrix, and it mirrored brilliantly the fortunes of the High Lords. From this point until the end of the saga I was enthralled. Its amazing the ideas people have for stories. Maybe I’m slow, but I couldn’t work out the link with the Soundwave chapter until Starscream bloody told me at the end.
So many interesting elements in this I don’t know where to begin. Well okay, the Swindle/Sting chapter just rocked! I could visualise everything perfectly because it seemed to me like one of those buddy movies from the 80’s, a bit like Lethal Weapon, in the sense that its two guys running around getting up to all sorts of things. No wait, to me more accurate its more like Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. Anyway, it was great fun and so easy to read.
On a hell of a lot of occasions there were words mixed up here and there, which didn’t pose that much of a problem, but it would stop me in mid-flow occasionally.
Mindwipe's situation I found a bit nauseating, but that's because the whole Headmaster process makes me a bit squeamish (Belinda really embellishes what was suggested about the process in the comics). The way Starscream because Lord High Commander (involving Hunter) was just hilarious and spot on, and I marvelled at other things, like the simplicity of what the name ANDRAXUS stands for.
I think I would benefit from reading it through a second time, there was a lot that didn’t ‘click’ with me as I went through it.
I love the reference to the two versions of ‘man who sold the world’ though. It baffles me how something as two-dimensional as Batman can carry on selling by the bucketload when talented people like this author make such fantastic things out of Starscream. Again, this is the freedom that fanfic provides I suppose.
Class.
If I were to make any recommendations here, I say to read ‘The Zero Conundrum’ and ‘Time & the Hunter’ (such an incredible twist near the end) also by the same author, so that you’re treated to the whole shebang.
[Edit] Hey Denyer, when reading this... did you get the same feeling as when reading Hitchikers Guide? I mean, with HGTTG it felt like the ideas got impossibly larger each time, encompassing not just the universe, but time, matter, screwy theoreticals etc. With this story it felt like that; with the Well, the Coremind, and most particularly Starscream's incredibly flippant handling of the most immense of concepts, like his meeting with the Overmind, understanding of Thunderwing, realisation of Buzzsaw, the dampener, Rodimus, Callier... just so many wild things flitting about and its dealt with in that perfunctory way that Ford Prefect would deal with it, and it seemed so... Starscream.
Just thinking about it now is so utterly fantastic.
I found the story quite heavy going at first, and I was doing that thing where I was reading too fast and not letting the mental images sink in properly (which is silly in a story like this).
However, it really picked up with the ‘Sting’ chapter. I loved the characterisation and storytelling of the two main characters, how he went from AH/7324x to Sting; from nothing to the whole of Andraxus in his hands. Seeing, in how many (relatively) simple steps he went from nothing to clutching the Matrix, and it mirrored brilliantly the fortunes of the High Lords. From this point until the end of the saga I was enthralled. Its amazing the ideas people have for stories. Maybe I’m slow, but I couldn’t work out the link with the Soundwave chapter until Starscream bloody told me at the end.
So many interesting elements in this I don’t know where to begin. Well okay, the Swindle/Sting chapter just rocked! I could visualise everything perfectly because it seemed to me like one of those buddy movies from the 80’s, a bit like Lethal Weapon, in the sense that its two guys running around getting up to all sorts of things. No wait, to me more accurate its more like Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. Anyway, it was great fun and so easy to read.
On a hell of a lot of occasions there were words mixed up here and there, which didn’t pose that much of a problem, but it would stop me in mid-flow occasionally.
Mindwipe's situation I found a bit nauseating, but that's because the whole Headmaster process makes me a bit squeamish (Belinda really embellishes what was suggested about the process in the comics). The way Starscream because Lord High Commander (involving Hunter) was just hilarious and spot on, and I marvelled at other things, like the simplicity of what the name ANDRAXUS stands for.
I think I would benefit from reading it through a second time, there was a lot that didn’t ‘click’ with me as I went through it.
I love the reference to the two versions of ‘man who sold the world’ though. It baffles me how something as two-dimensional as Batman can carry on selling by the bucketload when talented people like this author make such fantastic things out of Starscream. Again, this is the freedom that fanfic provides I suppose.
Class.
If I were to make any recommendations here, I say to read ‘The Zero Conundrum’ and ‘Time & the Hunter’ (such an incredible twist near the end) also by the same author, so that you’re treated to the whole shebang.
[Edit] Hey Denyer, when reading this... did you get the same feeling as when reading Hitchikers Guide? I mean, with HGTTG it felt like the ideas got impossibly larger each time, encompassing not just the universe, but time, matter, screwy theoreticals etc. With this story it felt like that; with the Well, the Coremind, and most particularly Starscream's incredibly flippant handling of the most immense of concepts, like his meeting with the Overmind, understanding of Thunderwing, realisation of Buzzsaw, the dampener, Rodimus, Callier... just so many wild things flitting about and its dealt with in that perfunctory way that Ford Prefect would deal with it, and it seemed so... Starscream.
Just thinking about it now is so utterly fantastic.
"It's not until you're an adult you appreciate how awesome a dog is. Your dreams start dying, somebody cheats on you, bankers f*** up your pension. Then you come home and that dog's looking at you and he's like, 'Dude, you're awesome!'” - Bill Burr
“I re-invented my image so many times that I'm in denial that I was originally an overweight Korean woman.” - David Bowie
It's actually been a while since I've read it. There was a big gap between parts six and seven, though, so I have read it a couple of times.
I wasn't immensely keen on the last part to begin with. It's gargantuan and flits between scales... but that's really why it's so effective. I can definitely see where the HHG comparison comes from... Starscream readily accepts situations that would leave most people or mechs raging insensates. There's no way something like this could ever be accomplished in a licensed fic; comics can't convey mindlinks, periodic dumps of contextual information (the datadumps), or simply encompass the quantity of characterisation. Even though there are a great many interconnections between the chapters, each is a very different style, and I doubt that'd sell to a mass-market either.
I appreciate particularly the idea that Decepticons can exist as a society and find purposes without being driven by a monomaniacal desire to kill Autobots (and the fact that the obsession is present in Dinobot form is a nice touch.) Other things which really stood out to me were Onslaught's becoming a literal legend, and the connections between Shockwave and coremerge... there's a lot in TFs about shared consciousness (with gestalts and stuff) but it isn't really explored in comics or animation because it's functionally impossible to convey those concepts. Prose is the best-suited medium for those ideas to be expressed through.
Typos I can live with, and I understand a few slipping through. When you're reading the story, the impetus is upon moving along with that, and by the end a reader probably isn't inclined to plow right through back from the start immediately. The best way to proof it would probably be to do so whilst reading for the first time.
But yeah, it's one of those fics I've come away from with much awe that someone could keep a handle on so many levels and details.
I wasn't immensely keen on the last part to begin with. It's gargantuan and flits between scales... but that's really why it's so effective. I can definitely see where the HHG comparison comes from... Starscream readily accepts situations that would leave most people or mechs raging insensates. There's no way something like this could ever be accomplished in a licensed fic; comics can't convey mindlinks, periodic dumps of contextual information (the datadumps), or simply encompass the quantity of characterisation. Even though there are a great many interconnections between the chapters, each is a very different style, and I doubt that'd sell to a mass-market either.
I appreciate particularly the idea that Decepticons can exist as a society and find purposes without being driven by a monomaniacal desire to kill Autobots (and the fact that the obsession is present in Dinobot form is a nice touch.) Other things which really stood out to me were Onslaught's becoming a literal legend, and the connections between Shockwave and coremerge... there's a lot in TFs about shared consciousness (with gestalts and stuff) but it isn't really explored in comics or animation because it's functionally impossible to convey those concepts. Prose is the best-suited medium for those ideas to be expressed through.
Typos I can live with, and I understand a few slipping through. When you're reading the story, the impetus is upon moving along with that, and by the end a reader probably isn't inclined to plow right through back from the start immediately. The best way to proof it would probably be to do so whilst reading for the first time.
But yeah, it's one of those fics I've come away from with much awe that someone could keep a handle on so many levels and details.
Another fic recommendation...
"Life of a Soldier" by Lunatron
Life on Cybertron during the four million years of Megatron's absence, viewed through the eyes of a simple Decepticon soldier.
"Life of a Soldier" by Lunatron
Life on Cybertron during the four million years of Megatron's absence, viewed through the eyes of a simple Decepticon soldier.