Tom's 5 fan fiction links..

I know that not all of these stories if any are everyone's cup of tea, but I felt the need so enlighten me..

The Road That You Go starts off with the protagonist stuck in the rain and cursing themselves for not having an umbrella.  They are waiting for a train to arrive and I'm guessing it is late.  Whilst waiting, they are approached by a man who them attempts to mug them (you never actually find out names or gender of the lead character) and they are inadvertently shot in the process.  The story or chapter as it is coined to be ends with their life flashing before them and lamenting all their aspirations that they will never achieve since being shot in the chest equals a fairly quick death.

This story didn't get off to a good start so I didn't hold high hopes for it.  The author is so focused on being descriptive that they seem to have forgotten about the reader with far too many filler words and almost no story line.  It's amplified by the fact that I'm a Tolkien fan and have read the LOTR story half a dozen times and seen all the movies, but there is no connection to any of the tales I have read, nor characters or setting so it leaves me wondering why it is on a LOTR fan fiction site besides by accident.

The Logic of Vulcan Emotion starts based around a potential major socio-political revolution in Vulcan society that started with a small movement dedicated to reintroducing the concept of visible emotion in Vulcan culture.  As such the Vulcan High Council outlawed and an appeal was made with the Federation to have the ruling overturned, which, in itself had the power potentially to see Vulcan withdraw permanently from the Federation in protest.  Representatives from both parties are to be escorted on the USS Enterprise to Earth to attend the appeal hearing and they are charged by Starfleet to initiate a negotiation process in order to try and prevent the event from occurring.  Delegates from both parties are partnered up with members of the crew in order to learn about them and try to get then to agree to meet and it looks like they are set to fail up until near the end when all parties agree to meet and the ban is lifted after one of the Vulcan High Council delegates moves to the other side of the table.  At this point you could say that an agreement was reached although not entirely voluntarily and everyone is returned to Vulcan to go about their business.  Well, that's the basics of it anyway.

This is an often funny political scenario cooked up by the author who is evidently a serious Star Trek fan as their dialogues give you the impression almost of watching an episode although there are major differences between this and anything I used to watch.  The author also uses Russia as a fictional member of the EU as an illustration within the story that could be seen as a bit of a faux pas but works well anyway considering this is a work of fiction based on another.  Another point of interest is that Capt. Kirk doesn't get any action so it's definitely fan based.  All told, this is reasonably well constructed and despite a couple of spelling and grammatical errors (nothing major) made for an enjoyable read for me or anyone with an open mind toward sci-fi.

The Meaning of Life is not really a story as such but is more of a monologue based around the song to Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life" as well as a Pokemon character.  So in a nutshell, you have the lyrics to the song broken down into verses and after each verse is the protagonists theories, interpretations and questions but mostly questions.  This appears to fuel some sort of existential crisis however, towards the end they appear to come to terms with themselves and the world around them.  For example this is the opening verse:

"Why are we here? What's life all about?

Is God really real, or is there some doubt?"

Then:

"As I float here in my golden abyss, looking upon the world in which I created so long ago, I wonder why I did. What compelled me to create all of this? I hatched into nothingness and from nothingness made this. I don't know why I did it.  Why I? Of all, I was the first. Sometimes I wonder, if there is truly a point to it all?"

Strangely, despite numerous grammatical errors the story is conveyed very well.  At least it was the second time I read it.  As mentioned before the protagonist is debating with themselves about the meaning of their existence interspersed with the verses and has it's own flow that is almost logical.  For that reason I believe that this story works although that is a matter of opinion.

One Moment Among Many is a brief scene using the characters out of Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children.  It outlines a sleepless night one of the lead characters (Cloud) where he winds up sitting in one of his companions bedrooms (Tifa) and falls asleep in the chair.  In the morning she wakes up and finds him there and after wondering why he's there, he wakes up and they go about their business before finishing with a tender kiss.

As mentioned before, "A Moment Among Many" is a brief excerpt possibly based around a scene in the Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children movie.  Besides being a little disturbing with the whole sitting in the chair watching someone sleep for no apparent reason, it really was a bit on the short side as nothing really develops within the story.  A large portion of the text describes the characters and there is little or no dialogue which really makes it difficult to analyse properly.  It would be much better if it was beefed up a little or ran into a new chapter or cross referenced into another scene or something to give it a bit of depth that at this stage seems lacking in my eyes at least.

Playing House starts off like any of the usual House episodes with a patient that is dying or in a critical condition with no apparent cause.  The first chapter introduces all the characters and outlines the story which in this case is a toxin or drug that's been slipped into "sealed" beers by a high school crack dealer.  House is investigating at the school and meets Chris who unknowingly witnessed the first "attack" as such and winds up taking matters into her own hands without his knowledge.  After confronting Tommy the boy behind it, she picks up a sample of the beer and the chapter ends with House collecting her from the house and taking her to the hospital.  The next two chapters mainly develop a kind of friendship between Chris and Rachel, the first girl to be drugged.  House solves the mystery somewhere in the background (it's not written into the script) and in the final chapter Chris tries hinting to House to ask her out and fails.  The story then ends on the two girls volunteering at the hospital.

It's debatable whether or not this story works as half the point of House is him heckling his minions into diagnosing patients usually by process of elimination.  In this case but the author has focussed more on the Chris girl and her story with House almost playing a cameo in his own feature.  I have heard of some episodes that are like that but they are few and far between as although House directs from where ever he happens to feel like being, he still keeps a close watch on his students or whatever.  One can only assume it to be deliberate as this is fan fiction, I just happen to be somewhat of a traditionalist when it comes to things like this.  If I have any real gripes about it, it would be that you never find out what the cause of the problem was apart from a vague reference to a drug or toxin in the beer but nothing in specific so the author could have researched their idea a little more thoroughly but, overall the story is logical and reasonably well written.