Alas, it's almost the deadline and I'm unable to commit to reviewing everything... fully. Not to fret, I'll still review
Mender's Tale and
Separate Ways, but not to their full glory unfortunately.
I do sincerely apologize for this, especially to Rhombus and Sovereign. Believe it or not, I'd actually taken two weeks off from work in early November and was basically planning to binge through both longfics in that time, but by some insane stroke of luck I'd ended up catching a horrible bug/fever/stomach flu combination at the beginning of the period that knocked me out of commission for... two weeks. I only recovered in mid to late November, and even had to take medical leave when my annual leave concluded. Yeah, it sucked!
Oops.
So yeah, with that completely wasted leave, I was basically forced to try and catch up to my best efforts in late-Nov when I returned to work and balanced it out with limited time due to coming back to a pile of stuff waiting for me in my in-tray. Life sucks sometimes.
I managed to get about a third of my way into both stories, so both of these reviews will be based on my thoughts from the first 13-14 chapters of both stories, about ~100K words in. (ironically I'd made right back up to where I originally stopped my original readthrough of
Mender's Tale back in 2016-2017) It may not be the most accurate rating or review of their most updated plot points as a result, but I do hope that it will suffice. I'll continue to
spam review those stories on my catch-up spree in December.
But at least I kept my promise to review every story! Without further ado, two incoming wall of texts will finish off my reviews for this year.
Name of Fanfiction: Mender’s Tale
Rating: 9.5/10
Review: Ah,
Mender’s Tale. I’d first binge-read
The Seven Hunters in 2015, then caught up on its sequel
Song of The Hunters all throughout its
admittedly slow release, and thereafter began reading Mender’s Tale until my studies caused me to take a hiatus around end-2016/early-2017. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t sure what to think of it when I first read it, and now… well, I can say I understand it a lot better.
Firstly, the trio of Dodger, Tracker, and Violet. I’d have to admit — in their debut chapters I wasn’t sure what to really think of them, but the group really started to grow on me by the time they went on their first hunt together. The story does a really great job of fleshing out these OCs and placing them with tricky interactions with the pack we know and love.
The best thing about this story is how in-depth it goes into pack culture in the different assembled dinosaurs, even more so than its two prequels. Characters are something special in the TSH trilogy, since every character, even if relegated to a no-name single mention character, feels like a living breathing soul (even if most of those one-offs die in hunts
) No two species, individual, or groups in the form of herds and packs have the same mindset, and as a result it really feels as though they’re all real, living breathing creatures. Plus, the in-depth description of pack culture, how to behave with others, how a leader should think and behave to avoid losing power — it’s just fascinating to read, and very different from just about every other LBT fic there is out there.
There’s also a more mature air to the story than its immediate predecessor. Things get more serious even in the past flashbacks with Leap and Dodger’s animosity, for instance. And considering that I’m around the beginning of the hidden runners chapter, at one glance I remember my initial thought of the first appearance of Wrok way back when I’d read it years ago. It’s the same thought that I share when I re-read the story — he’s a manipulative, cunning person who utilizes others.
The very fact that I came to the exact same conclusion regarding Wrok is a show of character writing and how full of life everyone is in this... even if that life is spent making enemies, alliances, death threats, hunts, or jokes (in the case of Taunt). And speaking of Taunt, he is truly the example I have to point to when it comes to the characters written in Rhombus’ writing style. At his heart, he’s a walking trope, the
Lovable Prankster. But the way that he’s written just somehow works, and we all love him, his antics, and Cera screaming at him for it. It’s stuff like this and a vat full of believable, fun characters that lends this story the feel of an epic.
Perhaps the best way I can sum up
Mender’s Tale is that it is a character study of various interactions between a truly large number of factions and dinosaurs, leaf-eater, sharpteeth, and everything in between. And ironically, perhaps that’s because it is based a roleplay — a scenario where how a character would react to a given situation that a game master throws them can lead to really natural and organic dialogue and reactions, especially considering it is transferred to written prose from said roleplay. That might just be the secret ingredient to this fic's success.
Overall, I love it. Can’t rate it a 10 as I really haven’t got the meat of things, but to sum it up, Mender’s Tale brings the LBT world to life in a way that is completely unlike every other story I’ve read besides its prequel, and that’s the best praise I can say about it.
Name of Fanfiction: Separate Ways
Rating: 9.5/10
Review: The funny thing is that I’d seen this story written by Sovereign in the fanfic section of FFN last year, though I never had the chance to read this story until this review spree because last year was quite the gap year for me regarding LBT. Still, I always had the feeling that it was at least somewhat good (probably the fast word count/update rate was a hint). But now that I’ve caught up… to a certain extent, at least, I’ll share what I feel about it.
Petrie and Ruby are the focus of
Separate Ways, and in a way this is clear even from the first two chapters. It’s truly interesting to note how their mindsets change… because this actually happens very rapidly. Of note in this story is the changing opinions and mindsets faced by the duo, which is emphasized in just about every chapter in the fic (that I’ve read, at least
) via internal thoughts from either one of the two.
Separate Ways actually starts out fairly tame, but by Chapter 3 you start to realize that this is one of those stories that goes places and isn’t afraid to do so. Fast forward a bit more and Chapter 8 is pretty much the equivalent of opening Pandora’s Box itself, a sharp contrast from the lighthearted first two chapters.
And just when you think things are looking up, this fic can and
will sucker punch you out of nowhere. That’s just the feeling which I get from my initial impression, considering that the prose itself hints that this “adventure” will not be one of joy like before for either Petrie or Ruby… or the others. The thing about this fic is that it feels like a tragedy much akin to that of a traditional Shakespearean theater play, one that takes LBT’s more darker elements and then decides to run a goddamn marathon with it. But it does so in a psychologically manner, playing with and breaking character belief and expectations.
Some examples include Petrie and Ducky’s feud, and Ruby blaming herself for her error and leaving the gang to fend for herself in the aptly-named chapter that shares the same name as its parent story. In both cases, the respective dinosaurs assume a certain outcome and end up getting a sharp shock as a result when fate messes with them — like with two best friends’ final interactions together possibly being an argument, and Ruby’s own guilt in leaving Cera and the gang behind to save herself. And much like that theater play comparison I made earlier, what is there left to do but the respective characters to lament and regret…
Perhaps the best example so far is Chapter 8 itself, although I’ll spoil anyone who hasn’t read it by saying why. Let’s just sum it up by that fate is a cruel mistress, and that actions really have consequences in this fic, something which the prose really hits the nail home whenever it happens with the respective character's introspective narrative and reflection upon events that happened or are happening.
Long story short, it’s an emotional read. The best part about
Separate Ways is how much it tears your heart out with the ever-desperate characters' inner despair and hopelessness… although that last part is debatable since I personally tend to avoid really dark stories, I cannot argue that it works and you just really feel for them as a result. Personally, the half-point drop is because a story that runs on despair will never be my cup of tea on a personal note as a person who likes positivity, but I cannot deny that this story works overall and never fails to grip my heart whenever I open up a new chapter to read.
I apprehensively cannot wait to read more, even in spite of the fact that I know this story will tear my heart out whenever I read a new chapter. Still, I have no choice but to love the development it brings to the characters… even if it’s their life spiraling further and further out of control.
