FanficRecs slow but rewarding
It is worth a read if you are interested in what a peculiarly honest friendship between a slighly less volatile and sociopathic Tom Riddle and Harry Potter would be. The quality starts just average, with some formatting issues and typos, but it improves slowly with each chapter. By the latest chapters the typos are almost non-existent, and the pacing is more engaging.
It is remarkable that the author tries to make each event and decision a logical consequence of previous ones, making the story coherent and the characters believable.
The downsides are the slow updates, the slow pacing (there are currently 21 chapters and they just got to Hogwarts) and the irregular length of the chapters. The exposition is heavy in the early chapters, but it slowly diminishes as the situations and characters begin to talk for themselves.
FanficRecs An absolute rollercoaster of a fanfiction
(Note: this review is for the Sonic fanfic of this title)
Mirror Image starts as a fairly typical Sonadow shipping fic, with a standard storyline of Sonic and Shadow becoming trapped somewhere and having to bond (read: fall in love), albeit with an interesting hook of having them replaced by robot duplicates. About 10 chapters in, however, the action and plot shifts up about a hundred gears, and what results is one of the most intense, nail-biting suspense stories I've ever read.
The action in this story is nothing short of explosive. Every scene is described in visceral detail, pulling the reader into the thick of it and making sure they understand exactly what is happening. Fight scenes are intense and well-paced. The threat to the heroes is given so much weight that you are left on the edge of your seat. Some scenes are downright terrifying but are careful not to cross the line of what is expected from the Sonic universe and make it a straight-up Dark Fic.
The characterisation is pretty good, with the dialogue sounding natural and in keeping with the expectations the characters. Special effort is made not to completely derail Sonic and Shadow in order to ship them. Other characters such as Rouge, Knuckles and especially Tails are given time to shine, and not just in the context of the pairing. The story is as much about Tails as anyone else.
If I had to criticise anything, it would be the romance itself. While solidly written, there are times when it feels sappy and veers into purple prose that the action scenes generally avoid. I get the impression that the author intended to write a romance story and very quickly realised they were much, much better at writing action, but by that point it was too late to drop it. The story could easily be re-written as a friendship fic instead and not suffer too much.
In addition, there are some slightly surreal scenes and dream sequences that could probably be dropped, but they are not too bad as they are well written.
In summary, an extremely well written suspense fic with some of the best action scenes in any story I've read, but dragged down slightly by its roots as a shipping fic. Even if you don't like the pairing, I highly recommend this story for everything else it has to offer.
9/10