Freda's fanfiction reviews

I always like to watch the DVDs of "Garfield" with my younger daughter and every time Garfield brings us so much laugh and happiness. It is a series of comic cartoon, and in the age like me taking it as a favourite may seem a bit childish, but I still want to tell you: I like it not only for its cheerfulness and relaxing atmosphere, but also there are so many humourous dialogs and unexpected plots.

There is not a large number of fanictions about "Garfield" on http://www.fanfiction.net/, but I found that it still has many good stories online and some of the writers showed their creative imagination and humour to us. I chose 10 out of 122 of the stories to give my comments as below.

Garfield: First Blood

This story is about Garfield, a hero saved a charming and famous lady from the vampire gangsters.

I noticed although the plot of this story appeared a bit stereotype, its genre was special and its speeches were very wonderful. By its genre, we can see there are 60 sentences in this story, however, the sentences including dialogs account for 75%, and between the dialogs, there are only 1-2 necessary sentences for helping to describe the development of the story. Also, there are few comas or punctuations in the dialogs.

The whole story seems brief and tidy, easily read. By its words, a number of humorous and playful speeches are used in the story. They keep the humorous style of the Garfield's canon through out the whole story. I think this story is fluent, vivid and has comic effect.

The Garfield mystery

Actually, this is not a story, it is about an important discovery of a very careful and loyal fan. Because he (she)pick up so many clue to prove Garfield and some other animals in this cartoon never speak at all, they seem to have mysterious abilities, and they just use intent to communicate with each other, even with their master--Jon.

His(her) discovery reminded me, and then I reviewed one of episodes of Garfield: It is true. I should pay attention to this detail in my fan fiction later.

Twice Told Tale The Truth

In this story, Garfield brought a big trouble to his master-Jon once again. When finding the price of yogurt was too expensive, Jon decided to go back home to make yogurt by himself. But he did not know anything about making it at all. When he was putting every food to mix the yogurt, Garfield played a trick on Jon attempting to sneak some food from the kitchen. However, an unexpected thing happened, the swiftly expanding yogurt spilled out of the house. After them fled from the house, Jon and Garfield reproached each other.

The plot of this story is full of the comic effect and vividly describes the features of the main characters.

The Cake

The writer might be attempting to play tricks on Garfield in this three chapters’ story: Garfield was ignored by his owner, who made three delicious cakes but not one of them was served to him. Poor Garfield, the writer just wanted to evoke his jealous and watch his reaction.

No doubtful, there are many active descriptions about the reactions and actions of Garfield's jealous, but the ending of the story appears a bit dull, for the writer only enjoyed to lead the reader's heart gradually to go down following with one by one punishes on Garfield, rather than made a climax at the end to bring a surprise to the readers, such as giving a big prize to Garfield, and so on.

Garfield Goes Home

I think this is the one of the best fanfictions about Garfield as whatever its genre, its plot and its speeches are excellent.

The content of this story is very simple: Garfield died and lay in the coffin. After Jon spoke with great affection to him, he woke up and went home with Jon. I noticed the writer created an effect of dream; all the speeches that Garfield wanted to speak out were indicated in italicises and had no punctuations at all (Jon's ones have). And, Jon's words and actions were affecting and hearty and without any nonsense.

I like this story: filled with emotion but not lacking humorous and amusing details.

Lord of the Lasagna

This story is interesting. Its beginning imitated the way of telling old stories and narrated a legend about an evil lasagna sorcerer long time ago. However, the picture swiftly switched to the modern time: Jon bought a package of lasagna, and Garfield was too impatient to wait to open and eat it. All of a sudden the zombies emerged and caught Jon and Odie away, but the lasagna was so delicious that Garfield still kept eating it instead to rescue Jon and Odie.

The story has no ending as if the writer indented to leave someone else to continue it.

Garfield's Piano
It was a good idea that with the help of Odie, Garfield could play Jon's piano on the sneak in this story. However, I think there is a scenario unreasonable: Odie excitedly jumped onto the top of the piano and almost made it fall down. Fortunately, he could push the piano back together with Garfield.

I wonder how these two pets could knock down such heavy instrument. So I think even though the story is fictive, the writer should carefully consider if some important parts of story can consist with the reality.

Garfield and John in: MAIL MADNESS

Although this story appears very unbelievable, its plot is absolutely up to the standard of the comedy.

Starting from a boring night, the story lead the reader to experience Jon's horrible feeling gradually: first time, he received a normal bill--plain; second time , he received two bills-strange; third time, he received a huge pile of envelopes--very confused; forth time, "a huge dump truck, filled to the brim with letters and envelopes " arrived--mad. While during the whole incident, Garfield didn't speak anything, he just secretly mocked Jon for his stupidity all along. At the end of the story, Garfield used his "clever" idea to solve this issue--throwing a lit match into the heap of letters. Everyone can image the end, but the story just said Jon fainted.

It is a very dramatic story.

Another Bad Monday

Actually, I don't like to create Garfield as a superhero. Because I think in all the original works, such as comic cartoons and DVDs, Garfield is a greedy, lazy, humorous, intelligent and very fat orange-color cat. He always likes to use petty tricks and sometimes he is kind and warm-hearted but sometimes he is a bit mean. Garfield is just as lovely as normal people but has a lot of shortcoming.

However, in this story, Garfield was portrayed as James Bond (007) captured an escaped cult leader who grabbed Jon's new car. I think it is too far away with the original character.

Although I don't appreciate to such creation, I have to admit the depiction of action in this story is wonderful.

Looks can be deceiving

This short story has two special point: First, it is a poetry (a modern poetry)--completely different genre comparing with the above stories I have analysed. The other is it was about Odie--Jon's dog. Among many "Garfield" fanfictions, there are a few of story talked about Odie. So, this story can let the reader understand more about Odie.

In this poem, an argument was produced whether Odie was smart or dumb. The reader could not find the answer until the last two lines, pretty amusing!

Juana's Review of Fanfiction

The Life I never dreamed of
Such touched love story of Sarah and Drover, also their with Nullah who was not their blood child.
Three different people came from different family, they built a very happy family but the war nearly destroyed this family...finally, they reunited again after they bore too much pain from separation of live and dead.

I like the end of this story, they will marry and love each other forever.

Miracles Do Happen

Yes, Miracles do happen, this is the very happy end that I am yearning.

Sarah was sad for letting Nullah went with King George but she had to if she love Nullah. After Nullah left, Sarah and Drover enjoyed their peaceful and love life meanwhile they were missing their son : Nullah.

This is the happiest result for Sarah and Drover, they had their own kid and also their loved son Nullah came back from King George. King George was a great grandfather, he loves his grandson and can give his life for Nullah , at the same time, he was a reasonable grandfather that he knew Nullah should have a good prospect with Sarah and Drover.

Monments in Time

That was really exciting monment when Drover appeared in Ball, he was totally changed from a cow boy to a handsome gentlemen. I love that monment.

When I watched "Austalian" of that monment, I hoped that Drover could appear at that monment, finally he came and shocked all the people in the Ball. And just the right time before Sarah made decision to sell her Faraway Downs.

" There is nothing wrong with falling love again." This made Drover decied that he need help Sarah to develop her business in Faraway Downs and also they might build their new family.

Such a great monment!

Australia

It is the beautiful writing remind me all the scenes I watched from movie. This movie started from an aboriginal boy's narritive, from his point of view, readers can see the history, the culture and the thinking of aboriginal people.

This narritive lead readers going to the Faraway Downs of Darwin, and from the boy's view, Miss Boss first time came into the movie.

What a nice start of Australia!

More Than I deserve!
It is a good imagination of Sarah, Drover and Nullah. Finally they reunited and went back to Faraway downs, it is a nice picture of this happy family.

But author used too much words before they went back Darwin, it showed that Drover is a male-dominted man, he want Sarah just be a soft lady and he look after her, she doesn't need do anything as a man. I can understand this from Drover's background but also I am little worry if their happiness could last long with different thinking.

I wish they are the happiest family forever.

I can say your name!-Sarah

This is Sarah's narritive, after she lost Nullah and she felt that she will pick him up soon but the war destroyed everything, she lost Nullah again and lost her best friend, also lost so many innocent people.

This is really considerable describe of Sarah's thinking, she reminded all the good time when she was with Nullah and Drover, she begger that time would come back but she got no idea where is Nullah and Drover. She thought that she could not say their name again.

The miracle was happened, Nullah and Drover came back to Darwin , this happy family went back to Faraway Downs to start their new life. I like the end of this stroy!

Nullahs Return

Nullah returned after one year wild life with King Geoger. He was really happy when he saw Drover even ignored the existing of King Geoger, he loves Sarah and Drover, he loves the happy life within his small family.

But I think if Nullah came back after one year is better he never left Sarah and Drover, because they are the most happiest family in the world.

Sing to Us

This is too much for expressing how much they miss Nullah after he left with King Geoger, they even couldn't sleep well, especailly Sarah, she dreamed him every night and worried about his life if he can eat well and live well.

We can see how much they have love with this boy as their own son meanwhile they need give this boy a freedom to follow his own rule of aborignial life. WIsh Nullah can come back sing for them and sing for their happiness!

An Epic Tale

After all the pain for feeling lost, and after the extremely changed in their life, Sarah and Drover love each other more and more, the only thing is not perfect that Nullah left them.

I like this fanfiction descrbing how deeply their love is , but too much detail about their love is not necessary, as we all know they love each other and they anticipate the boy come back to reunite a new loving family.

Sydney

This is another exciting reunion for Sarah and Drover, sad story when happened in the Ivan's Bar, Drover still thought Sarah there with him but unfortunately, she was dead.
It was a nice scence that Dorver could see Sarah and Sarah could see Drover both in fact and in their hearts.

If Nullah could back to Sarah and Drover, it will be a perfect reunion.

Susann's FanFiction Reviews

Out of the ten Fan Fictions we were to review I chose two about a game called “The Legend of Zelda”, three about the book and the film “Memoirs of a Geisha” and also five about “The Lord of the Rings” and other works by Tolkien which are related (like the “Silmarillion” or “The Lost Tales”).

I think “Memoirs of a Geisha” is a difficult piece to write a Fan Fiction about. It is probably difficult to get much humor out of this topic so writers usually stick with the serious type of writing. To do this properly a lot of knowledge about the culture is required. Authors who just watched the film will find it more difficult than those who read the book but both will still lack familiarity with this world. Even in Japan today only few people really know about geisha and especially how their kind lived and worked more than half a century ago.

On www.fanfiction.net, in the book section, “The Lord of the Rings” is the third largest category (42,947 stories), headed by “Harry Potter” (446,333 stories) and “Twilight” (135,966 stories), as of 8^th March 2010. Among all those thousands of Fan Fictions in this group are quite few brilliant pieces but there are also some authors who seem to be less gifted. During reading some of them for my review I developed a personal dislike for short stories (the kind of story I am actually supposed to write now). There are some excellent one-shots but the decent ones are at least some thousand words long. Most of the shorter stories I read so far, showed that it is highly difficult to write a good Fan Fiction with just a few hundred words. They usually do not work well with this complex world of Tolkien’s books.

I also read some of the comments other users left for the writers. I must say that I found it rather disturbing how every story, even those I thought were quite poorly written, got reviews like “Awesome!”, “Are you a real author?” or “I love your story, please go on!” It often occurs, that in communities like such Fan Fiction sites, people are very nice to each other. They usually do not really leave bad critics; they would rather decide not to write anything at all. Friends are also not really helpful since they often just review in a very kindly manner.I will try to take this a bit more serious this time. Now to the reviews of the Fan Fics I chose:

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THE LORD OF THE RINGS

“O Misfortune”

Category:

Humor

What is it about?

The Elf Caundir is a loyal servant of Lord Celeborn of Lórien. As a captain he is respected by his men and popular with everyone around him. Then one black day his good reputation is seriously in danger and he might even be forced to leave the Golden Wood forever and this all just because a sequence of truly unfortunate events.

My Review!

In this one-shot the author creates her own character called “Caundir”, the location and other persons like Lord Celeborn, Lady Galadriel and their daughter Arwen originate from Tolkien’s books. The scene takes place long before the Ring War (which is told of in “The Lord of the Rings”).

In the beginning Caundir is brought before his lord. The reader knows he did something wrong and is in serious trouble but for long it is unsure what actually happened. This way the story has a very good start, which made me more and more curious about the circumstances that caused such a mess. When we finally learn about all those things that happened to the captain at this ill-fated day the Fan Fiction becomes very funny and entertaining. I personally thought that the author went a bit too far with her fantasy. Maybe a little bit less misfortune would have been enough. However, the writing style is very smooth and I enjoyed reading it.

My Rating:

3* out of 5

“Hopeless, yet not”

Category:

Friendship

What is it about?

Before the battle in Helm’s Deep Legolas tells Aragorn that the situation is hopeless and that they all are going to die. Aragorn is not willing to accept defeat yet and if he has to die he wants to fall fighting as one of the brave worriers.

Later he is alone, thinking to himself. Was Legolas right? Was he just a fool to believe there could be victory? Legolas also reconsiders his own words. Maybe his friend was right. This must not be the end.

My Review!

The scene is an extension of a prospect from the books; the battle in Helm’s Deep (“The Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers”) This Fan Fiction is a one-shot but divided in two parts. The first part portrays Aragorn’s point of view (though the author does not use first-person narrative). It is described how he changes his mind on the matter and starts to lose hope. In the second part the reader learns what Legolas thinks about what he said and that he is sorry for uttering words that hurt his friend so deeply. Some Elements of the conversation are repeated in this part of the story. That actually makes it a bit boring to read. The idea was good but I wonder if there would have been other ways to present it. I also think that the writer tried to explain the thoughts of both characters very detailed but in the end she just could not really find the right words to actually express different meanings. Instead she gave the same ideas over and over again. This Fan Fiction was slightly disappointing.

My Rating:

2* out of 5

“The Apple Tree”

Category:

Friendship

What is it about?

Aragorn remembers a time when he was still a child. Back then he and Legolas already were very close friends, even though the elf was by far older than him. One day after a long period of joy the prince had to return to his people. As a symbol of their friendship and to comfort the young Aragorn they decided to plant an apple tree.

My Review!

This one-shot takes place before the events described in “The Lord of the Rings”. Not much is known about Aragorns childhood in Rivendell, so this is a very nice theme to choose. I am not sure if Legolas and Aragorn already shared such a deep friendship when he was still a child but that is subject to the author’s fantasy. What bothers me a bit is the way she portrays the characters. For grown up men and warriors Legolas and Aragorn are described far too emotional, which makes then seem very feminine, a problem that is not too uncommon when female writers adopt stories about male characters.

Though this fact is very annoying to me, the ending was very beautiful. I can not exactly say why but the last three sentences made the whole story for me.

My Rating:

4* out of 5

“Bananas and Ale”

Category:

Humor

What is it about?

After they spent a night out drinking Legolas and Aragorn are still not really themselves. Both badly intoxicated they return to Rivendell where Legolas has to explain to Lord Elrond how a banana could cause so much trouble.

My Review!

I guess it is a matter of taste whether a reader likes it or not but I personally did not enjoy this Fan Fiction too much. Maybe the story would be really funny if it was not about characters from “The Lord of the Rings”. I do not mind humorous pieces about Tolkien’s works but in this one Aragorn and Legolas are portrayed very much out of character. The whole idea about them drinking wild and then starting a fight over a banana (Are there bananas in middle earth? Who knows) makes them look very silly. Also the writing style of the author is not very refined and a bit plain.

My Rating:

1* out of 5

“Silver Bells”

Category:

Family/ Friendship

What is it about?

After his wife Celebrían left Lord Elrond of Rivendell to seek healing in the Undying Lands, the elf’s heart suffers. He is almost drowning in despair and grief. When it is time for the annual Gift Night, a feast for the elves to celebrate the returning light, Elrond can’t find any joy without his beloved and mother of his three children. However, a present that Celebrían had left for him, her sons and the daughter Arwen finally helps him to overcome this sorrow.

My Review!

Tolkien tells in his books how Celebrían (daughter of Lord Celeborn and Lady Galadriel of Lórien) traveled from Rivendell to the woods of her parents. On her way she and her retinue were ambushed by orcs. The Lady was so badly injured that back in Rivendell not even Lord Elrond could heal her wounds entirely. So she traveled into the West for healing and sanctuary.

In this very well written one-shot the author describes Elrond’s feelings after his wife left. I enjoyed reading a very emotional story about a male character, which did not let him seem ridiculously feminine. Very well done.

After having so much heartache and pain in the Fan Fiction it was also quite refreshing to have an ending with a “happy touch”.

My Rating:

5* out of 5

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MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

“An Eye for Beauty”

What is it about?

Iwamura Ken’s wife knows about his interest and eye for beauty. She knows that he has a very intimate relationship with the geisha Sayuri, his mistress. Too often his side of the bed stays cold. She knows where he spends his nights but there is nothing she can do. She stays alone with her thoughts and her longing for love.

My Review!

This Fan Fiction tries to show the life and the feelings of those wives whose husbands rather seek the company of geisha or mistresses than the company of their spouses. However this matter is very complicated. I am not sure whether it is so easy to translate our western thoughts to those of the women of Japan in the 50’s. There is quite a bit ofcultural discrepancy and for someone who did not get to know this society oneself it is probably highly unlikely that one understands the nature of the people well enough.

This Fan Fiction might be a good idea but I cannot agree with the way the wife’s thoughts are only seen through our, western, eyes.

My Rating:

2* out of 5

“Bruised Peach”

What is it about?

This is the story of the young Hatsumomo; how she grew up, how she became a successful geisha and how one day she lost everything.

My Review!

So far (8^th March 2010) the author released 6 chapters of this story. It concentrates on the early life of the character Hatsumomo from Arthur Golden’s book “Memoirs of a Geisha”. Hatsumomo is indeed a very interesting character and a great base for agood story. The first chapter is not a perfect start but certainly good enough to make the audience read on. From the second chapter on, the plot advances in a very positive way. The Fan Fiction gets better and better but still shows some imperfections from time to time.

The only fact that was slightly disturbing was the description of kimonos. The Japanese society is very organized and exact. Traditional items like a kimono or other accessories worn by geisha are never arbitrary, nor random. Everything from color to pattern depends on occasion and rank (and other aspects). The authors tended to be a bit too imaginative with all this.

My Rating:

4* out of 5

“Memoirs of a broken Heart”

What is it about?

Nobu desires Sayuri and wanted to become her Danna but now she is out of reach. This was the second time he loved and a second time he tells himself that it was a mistake.

My Review!

In this one-shot the author explores Nobu’s thoughts. She writes about his past – the war, his first love – and she shows how this influences his life in the present. Nobu is portrayed as a character full of pain and mistrust. When he allows himself to love a second time he ends up disappointed again.

The writing style is flowing and easy to follow. It is an interesting point of view the author presented here.

My Rating:

3* out of 5

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THE LEGEND OF ZELDA

“Twilight Epilogue”

Category:

Tragedy

What is it about?

After Link saved the world once again he loses the most precious thing he possessed. During his long and hard quest he grew fond of this little creature called Midna, a princess from the Twilight Realm. When he is finally able to seal the door to the Twilight world which brought so much evil to his lands Midna has to return home and will probably see Link no more.

The hero is so desperate that he even wants to kill himself.

My Review!

This Fan Fiction is related to the game “The Legend of Zelda – Twilight Princess” for WII and Gamecube. I think this is a very dark way to think of an epilogue for this story. During the game nothing indicates love between Link and Midna, still this is a very popular topic with Zelda-Fan Fiction writers.

Anyway a Link who thinks of suicide is a very strange idea to me….

My Rating:

2* out of 5

“I hate Mondays”

Category:

Humor/ Parody

What is it about?

It is Monday. What a bad day to rescue a princess! Whatever Link does it goes horribly wrong.

My Review!

In this story Link is not a boy but a girl. I personally think that changing the gender of the main character does not really do anything to the plot in this case; things might have just stayed the way they were. One comment says “The best piece of writing ever”. I would not go so far but it was still pretty entertaining and funny.

My Rating:

3* out of 5

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