For me, this is the real Book Seven

For me, this is the real Book Seven

Unread postby demonclownbaby » August 10th, 2010, 3:24 pm

I found Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past from a link on tvtropes.org. This is a fantastic story. I read it all the way through so fast I got a headache from screen glare.

As far as I am concerned, this is the real 7th Harry Potter book.

I find myself wishing that it had been written before they started filming the movies; can you imagine if, while doing principle photography for the first films, if they filmed this story alongside?

I'm currently re-reading it, but it is utterly depressing to realize that the last update was 9 months ago and that a new chapter isn't even being worked on.

On the one hand, I've done creative fanfic type stuff before (see tfradio.net) and I know how easy it is to get burned out or otherwise occupied with real life. The muse that drives to create gets tired after a while, and 5 years is a long time to still be working on a story (of course, I haven't finished a radio play I started nine years ago, but that is a collaborative work and I'm waiting on other people...)

Anyway, if the authorlord, as I guess he is known around here, reads this, please know that I donated $38 via paypal, because even if you never update again, you deserve because I had hours of reading pleasure from your work. Kudos to you, sir, and kudos again. I beg of you to continue to work on this fic.

I read it on fanfiction.net, and there are some typos, would you like me to document them?

My preference is to not try to integrate JK Rowling's book 7 into your story, because it really isn't possible; the portrait of Dumbledore would have told 30-year-old Harry, after the war was won, if not before, that Snape killed him by request. There's really no good reason (that I can imagine) for him not to tell him that. (He wouldn't have to reveal the Snape-loves-Lily stuff, though, and I can see him continuing to hide that, because he promised Snape after all.)

But the Harry in this story is still convinced that Snape murdered the headmaster, and so this story is irreconcilable with Deathly Hallows. The stuff about "if Snape was good, Voldy found out and killed him" doesn't really wash, because Harry has access to Dumbledore's portrait but doesn't know Snape killed Dumbledore on Dumbledore's order; therefore in this story Snape really has to just be evil.

Which is fine by me, as while canon!Snape may have been working against Voldy, he still really was a scumbag.

Also Snape is quoted as using "the M word" while in private with Dumbledore, with whom according to Deathly Hallows he has nothing to hide. So this Snape is definitely not the Snape from Deathly Hallows, and I don't think it makes sense to try to reconcile them.

I'd rather rather see Nightmares of Futures Past as an alternative 7th book, than try to make it the 8th book.

Highlights of the story for me:

Harry/Ginny relationship. We got mostly cheated of this in canon, but I was rooting for Harry/Ginny all along so I'm thrilled to get some real relationship-building going on. And while it may be frustrating with them taking so long to actually start officially dating, story-wise it makes complete sense and I applaud the restraint.

Luna/Neville is just awesomely cute, and it's great to see Neville come into his own earlier this time.

I loved Harry obliterating the boggart. My recommendation if he sees his loved ones dead again, to instead imagine them dressed as zombies for Halloween and doing the dance from Thriller.

There is sooooo much blushing going on, it seems like that's all anyone ever does! Of course, we skip long periods of time when they aren't. It's lampshaded when Harry notes it's convenient to have such fair-skinned friends.

"Accio Dementors!" was a crowning moment of awesome.

Strange that Lupin isn't steered towards Occlumency right away, but on reflection, anyone who starts learning Occlumency is obviously part of Harry's conspiracy, even if no other useful info is gathered, and so even that information is dangerous. The Weasley's being known to be part of it is unavoidable anyway, so they might as well know it.

I loved Harry's interview with Rita Skeeter. One of my major issues with the canon is the horribly corrupt Ministry, and how no one except Harry and some of his friends even seem to realize it. I shouldn't read about a magical world and be glad to NOT be a part of it. But with this Harry taking charge for the first time I feel like I'd want to be a part of that world instead of just reading about it.

Glad to see Ron acting more mature; this Ron I can understand Hermione being interested in, always wondered a bit why canon!Hermione like canon!Ron... he seemed a bit thick too to me.

Luna is a great character, and her being (possibly) a functioning schizophrenic makes sense.

I know the timeline is totally off the rails, but the changes are all good ones; Slughorn in and Snape and Draco out, it really needed to happen.

Dumbledore is ridiculous sometimes, as he was in canon of course. "By fleeing custody he placed himself beyond the protections afforded him by law." You mean the protections already denied him? That makes NO SENSE AT ALL. But then in canon a lot of Dumbledore's decisions made no sense, even in foresight, and it's nice that this story is addressing that.

Basically everything I disliked about the canon is being addressed properly, and everything I loved about the canon is being improved upon.

And JK Rowling is a billionaire and this story isn't finished. It's not fair. We need a pledge drive or something to get enough money to bribe the author to finish this thing. I've got $39 waiting for when chapter 39 is written.
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Re: For me, this is the real Book Seven

Unread postby serbii » August 12th, 2010, 6:06 am

I found Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past from a link on tvtropes.org. This is a fantastic story. I read it all the way through so fast I got a headache from screen glare.
Oh God no! TVtropes! D: yeah, I read it in like 3 days, my poor eyes


Anyway, if the authorlord, as I guess he is known around here, reads this, please know that I donated $38 via paypal, because even if you never update again, you deserve because I had hours of reading pleasure from your work. Kudos to you, sir, and kudos again. I beg of you to continue to work on this fic.

Dawww :hope_my_fake_smile_works_again: Yes Authorlord is around, well some times anyway. He tends to lurk.


Harry/Ginny relationship. We got mostly cheated of this in canon, but I was rooting for Harry/Ginny all along so I'm thrilled to get some real relationship-building going on. And while it may be frustrating with them taking so long to actually start officially dating, story-wise it makes complete sense and I applaud the restraint.
Concur, there really was no canon development of this IMHO
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Re: For me, this is the real Book Seven

Unread postby Psaid » August 15th, 2010, 7:21 pm

While I see the Snape in NoFP as more hatefull in many of his interactions, I think that Harry's actions are in many ways responsible for the change, cause as pointed out, while Snape may not be evil he is in no way a nice person.

There could be a reason for the portrait not telling Harry, either through an unwillingness to endanger Snape (since he was never confirmed dead at any point in the story, and while they where working on the time travel thing it might have just slipped his mind) or because of a vow made to keep it secret or keep something closely related secret. Might also be that he told Harry and Harry either didn't believe it or thought that it was just gave Snape an excuse for doing something he would do anyway.

Personally I like cannon quite a lot, and I enjoy fanfiction that works with cannon instead of trying to make their own rules. I am also facinated by how close NoFP is to being 100% compatible with book 7 cannon given that a lot of it was written before book 7 came out. Most of the inconsistensies between cannon and NoFP can easily be explained, either by assuming one change that lead to these things changing (such as Voldemort creating 8 horcruxes, leading to more unstable behaviour (see tread "First timeline" for an example, though it isn't the official version of what happened)) or making barely noticeble changes to rules set in cannon (Like saying that the rules for conjuring food that Hermione talks about is really a simplification, meaning that it actually is possible but the requirements are so high that only few people can do it, and it is not sustanable in the long run, making it an almost useless skill for anything but the most dire situations).
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Re: For me, this is the real Book Seven

Unread postby jgkitarel » August 22nd, 2010, 7:11 am

Considering just how much material Matt had to work with before, he had a lot less to make up on the fly. Frankly, some of the things Rowling put in to establish limitations on magic, while seeming an asspull, make sense once you think about it.

That conjuration one for starters. I have a feeling someone pointed out to her some pesky laws of physics which could interfere, and she took it and ran with it. The limiting factor it placed in Book 7 added a nice bit of tension while the hunt was going on.

Matt's version doesn't even take away from it. After all, if it requires a stupid amount of power to pull off, then many would consider it impossible, and NoFP Harry is stupidly powerful. Then again, so is Voldemort.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
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Re: For me, this is the real Book Seven

Unread postby unknown21754 » August 24th, 2010, 12:19 am

Found the author link on fanfic.net from an author on another webboard, and since I love the HP universe I thought I'd give it a shot.

Wow. Was up till 6-7 am 3 nights in a row, when I had to be at work at 9:30. And it was worth it every night. Read till I couldn't focus my eyes. It's the kind of story that causes an almost physical sense of loss when it comes to an end, although that's tempered slightly from the unfinished nature. Any time the bug catches you and prompts you to post another chapter, you'll have at least one more person powerreading it as fast as his eyes can flick across the screen.




I also converted the text to ePub so I could re-read it easier on my iPad. I don't plan to distribute it, so I figured it was ok (unless you'd like me to upload for convenience).
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Re: For me, this is the real Book Seven

Unread postby viridian » September 13th, 2010, 9:04 pm


He tends to lurk.
Just a wee bit.

And thank you. It's definitely not dead. It's just hard to write decently after an 11 hour day at work. And I know approximately where I want things to go, but the Devil is in the details you see...
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Re: For me, this is the real Book Seven

Unread postby MrRigger2 » September 13th, 2010, 10:14 pm

Just never make the mistake of thinking he's not there. Someone made a comment along those lines a while back, and all four of the lurking mods were the posts immediately following him. It was kind of funny, seeing it from the outside.

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Re: For me, this is the real Book Seven

Unread postby Zankaru Zelladonii » September 13th, 2010, 11:11 pm

Wait, you can donate to this site? When I get done with basic in december, I am so bribing the authorlord.

When I got to the end of NoFP I was depressed the whole day. I cant even re-read it because I know it is not finished and don't want to get depressed again. =(
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Re: For me, this is the real Book Seven

Unread postby viridian » September 14th, 2010, 10:38 am

Well, you can look at them as different books, roughly corresponding to the years like the real novels. The only reason I posted them all as one story was to avoid confusion when I went from year to year and people missed the update notices. (This decision was made before ff.net gave you the option of flagging a story as complete.)
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Re: For me, this is the real Book Seven

Unread postby unknown24426 » September 14th, 2010, 5:00 pm

I can verify that reading through it all is very depressing once you have nowhere to go but the possibility of a year-long wait. :futile:
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Re: For me, this is the real Book Seven

Unread postby demonclownbaby » September 20th, 2010, 12:32 pm

Yay, the author is still alive and working on it! I told my wife (who is reading it now, up to the end of year 2 and really likes it) that as long as it actually does get finished before I die, I'm okay with however long it takes. I just hate it when an author starts a series and then dies before finishing (coughlensmancough) or writes part one of a trilogy and never even writes part 2 (coughorsonscottcardcough). So if the author still has ever intention of finishing it, but is just real busy, that's fine. A chapter a year for 30 years, I can handle that, as long as it really does get done.

My wife's favourite bits: the characterization of Fred and George, she likes the comedy a lot. She loves that Harry is pro-active and isn't just reacting to things (and badly) as he was in the original books. She finds it weird that Dumbledore is basically the villain of this story, but acknowledges that this actually flows completely logically from the canon... and Harry's reaction to Dumbledore's machinations is presented much *more* realistically than it ever was in the canon.

She likes the stuff with Luna. She doesn't go "squee!" over all the Harry/Ginny stuff like I do, but I'm probably a bit extreme in that regard anyway.

I haven't got much sleep the last few nights as she's been talking my ear off about her thoughts on this, funny thing was she was a huge HP fan until the 5th book came out which soured her on it, but she was always a bigger HP fan than me. Reading this she says, "It makes it all the more obvious how bad a writer JK Rowling really was with regard to human relationships."
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Re: For me, this is the real Book Seven

Unread postby SilverGryphon » October 5th, 2010, 7:50 pm

Gods, I love this story so much and have been working on getting my HP-loving friends to read it too. I don't think there's a single chapter that I don't love, and this fic remains the only one I've read more than five times.

I like the buildup to Harry/Ginny here- JK could have done a little more in that respect. It's much more solid here.

It's definitely a shock to go back and read the original version of Rita Skeeter- she comes off as more nosy and mean in the books, as opposed to driven to get a story.

My absolute favorite aspects of this story? Neville/Luna, Harry teaming up with the twins, and the twins meeting the remaining Marauders.

The way I view this story is this: there were some early fundamental changes in the 'original timeline' that simply never made waves or came to Harry's attention until year 7, such as the Sorting Hat being a Horcrux, or Snape messing with Harry's mind with Legilimancy. Until this point, the timelines of NFP and the books are functionally identical- yes, you have one or two different pieces in the framework, but you don't know it by looking at it. Year 7 marks the point where those differences come to light and the timelines 'obviously' diverge.

I find myself hoping the Hallows don't come into play in NFP. Yeah, they worked in the books, and yeah, JK did an okay job of planting the cloak and all and she did need to kill about six months of plot time, but does she honestly expect us to believe that Harry and HERMIONE could have spent the better part of six years up to their eyebrows in young wizards and have never heard about Beedle the Bard? She did so well at planting nearly everything else that the Hallows just come out of nowhere. Even a passing mention of Beedle the Bard in an earlier book would have covered this... :doh

Anyway, still here, still loyally devoted to this epic masterpiece of a fanfic, and still waiting for more! (as I reread it. Again)
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Re: For me, this is the real Book Seven

Unread postby thrawnca » November 22nd, 2018, 10:04 pm

Well, you can look at them as different books, roughly corresponding to the years like the real novels.
You've probably already realised this, but they're actually longer than canon :). I'm curious to see whether it takes until year 7 to reach the final showdown.
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