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chuckroIn the critical finale battle against the dark lord Voldemort Duff Slan, prophesied hero Harry Ewan froze up and his destiny was instead fulfilled by brilliant and hardworking best friend Hermione Oliver. Five years later, Ewan is approached by love interest Draco Archibald, because his evil parent is manipulating them and Oliver into destroying the world.
This was another book from the Humble Kickstarter Bundle; that one has really managed to go the distance.
In the list of, “books that started their lives as fanfic”, I think we have to rank this one pretty high.* Gay, Asian burnout Harry Potter with the serial numbers filed off. (Though, to Claiborne’s credit, the worldbuilding is clearly different in a lot of places, and she attempts to show a hybrid magic/technology modern society. That latter part only works because it’s so very British. Heck, the entire book is excessively British—everyone wears “jumpers” and “trainers” and there are far too many jokes about the general nature of Londoners.)
I don’t think the book can decide exactly how much a parody it wants to be—the silliness doesn’t hold steady throughout the story; it’s just generally inconsistent. The tone of each chapter has similar issues, which makes me suspect they were written in sequence over time. Details like how stupid Ewan is, how powerful Oliver is, or how evil Louise and Archie are have a tendency to vary with the needs of each scene. Like much self-published work, the guiding hand of an editor could have been useful here.
There are also various plot bits that trail off and never really matter, chief among them being Oliver’s insistence that Zaubernegativium will destroy the universe, when it’s not clear where he gets that impression and at the end he kinda shrugs it off. It feels like there were some additional plot threads that never really panned out.
Also, “characters cheekily rib on and whine at each other until they kiss” seems to be the only variant of romance the author recognizes. (And no, despite this clearly having started as fanfic, nobody gets to boink. They’re British, remember.)
Overall: I think I’d call this a “three” if I was using a standard five-star scale. It’s not bad; it’s got a few cute bits and some wit, and I suspect that heavy editing could turn it into a four. But it’ll never be the perfect Harry/Draco story you’ve always dreamed about, regardless.
* I could say something like, “One of the bestselling books of the last few years was in that category!” but that wouldn’t actually put it in good company.
This was another book from the Humble Kickstarter Bundle; that one has really managed to go the distance.
In the list of, “books that started their lives as fanfic”, I think we have to rank this one pretty high.* Gay, Asian burnout Harry Potter with the serial numbers filed off. (Though, to Claiborne’s credit, the worldbuilding is clearly different in a lot of places, and she attempts to show a hybrid magic/technology modern society. That latter part only works because it’s so very British. Heck, the entire book is excessively British—everyone wears “jumpers” and “trainers” and there are far too many jokes about the general nature of Londoners.)
I don’t think the book can decide exactly how much a parody it wants to be—the silliness doesn’t hold steady throughout the story; it’s just generally inconsistent. The tone of each chapter has similar issues, which makes me suspect they were written in sequence over time. Details like how stupid Ewan is, how powerful Oliver is, or how evil Louise and Archie are have a tendency to vary with the needs of each scene. Like much self-published work, the guiding hand of an editor could have been useful here.
There are also various plot bits that trail off and never really matter, chief among them being Oliver’s insistence that Zaubernegativium will destroy the universe, when it’s not clear where he gets that impression and at the end he kinda shrugs it off. It feels like there were some additional plot threads that never really panned out.
Also, “characters cheekily rib on and whine at each other until they kiss” seems to be the only variant of romance the author recognizes. (And no, despite this clearly having started as fanfic, nobody gets to boink. They’re British, remember.)
Overall: I think I’d call this a “three” if I was using a standard five-star scale. It’s not bad; it’s got a few cute bits and some wit, and I suspect that heavy editing could turn it into a four. But it’ll never be the perfect Harry/Draco story you’ve always dreamed about, regardless.
* I could say something like, “One of the bestselling books of the last few years was in that category!” but that wouldn’t actually put it in good company.
