Yamaku Book Club (20210125 A Runner's Afternoon)

[Mahorfeus]

Hisao's kind of a difficult one. Though I guess it could be argued that any fic in which he stars, isn't focused around pairing him with another character, and that builds up his own character without completely borrowing on lessons learned from the girls. One example I could think of is, uh. Uh... Um.

I tried my best here in 'A Walk In The Park'. It's not impossible, but it tends to be scarce.

Aha, you've tricked me into reading another part of your opus.

I suppose Iwanako would be an easier start.

[dewelar]

Hisao's kind of a difficult one. Though I guess it could be argued that any fic in which he stars, isn't focused around pairing him with another character, and that builds up his own character without completely borrowing on lessons learned from the girls. One example I could think of is, uh. Uh... Um.

Well, if those are the criteria, then a lot of fics for other characters get tossed out, too . In Hisao's case, perhaps we could look at stories that are from his PoV and where the other main characters are mostly or entirely OC's. We could also look at fics that have more of an ensemble cast (thus not falling under any one character), with Hisao as one of the leads.

[brythain]

Hisao's kind of a difficult one. Though I guess it could be argued that any fic in which he stars, isn't focused around pairing him with another character, and that builds up his own character without completely borrowing on lessons learned from the girls. One example I could think of is, uh. Uh... Um.

Well, if those are the criteria, then a lot of fics for other characters get tossed out, too . In Hisao's case, perhaps we could look at stories that are from his PoV and where the other main characters are mostly or entirely OC's. We could also look at fics that have more of an ensemble cast (thus not falling under any one character), with Hisao as one of the leads.

Recently, 'Old Hisao'. Also see 'Sad Hisao', 'Demented Hisao', 'Dystopian Hisao' (variants: takes a taxi, has a bad job, can't make ends meet).

[Blank Mage]

Recently, 'Old Hisao'. Also see 'Sad Hisao', 'Demented Hisao', 'Dystopian Hisao'...

'Dead Hisao'...

[brythain]

Okay, as pro-tem YBC chairman, I'd like to say that I would like to offer a June of 'Hisao' fics, followed by July to August looking at the very first other character we meet: the mysterious Iwanako. Long-time members probably already know what's coming; newer ones are in for a treat!

Comments are always welcome.

[SirKaid]

Seconded. Hisao is like a canvas painted in faint colours; it's interesting to see what can be gleaned when he isn't obscured by the vibrant shades of The Girl.

[brythain]

Alrighty, the never-ending meeting that is the Yamaku Book Club will resume on 01/02 June 2015.

Reading for this will be:

Reunion: Hisao And Akira Avoid The Family — by FluffandCrunch.

This segues neatly from our previous 'Reunion' reading into the Hisao theme for June. Thanks to Mahorfeus for the reading suggestion.
Trust me, this piece is very much Hisao-centric. "Hisao first," said dewelar. Well, your point is taken.

See you soon and keep the suggestions coming!

[NekoDude]

I thought this would be the appropriate place to ask: other than me, has anyone actually written with the intent of making actual books, and published them in that form? I figured the book club would know these sorts of things.

[Rhodri]

Physical or digital? If my memory is correct, I think some of the devs and/or a few book club members have self-published digitally. My own brother bashed out a +180K word novel in six months three years back and published it on amazon after he failed to attract attention from publishers and is currently working on the 2nd edition to sort out plot holes, expanded a few details and general proofreading.

[brythain]

I thought this would be the appropriate place to ask: other than me, has anyone actually written with the intent of making actual books, and published them in that form? I figured the book club would know these sorts of things.

Not sure about fanfic, also not sure if you're including digital books. If not fanfic, I do write with the intent of actually being published in paper.

[brythain]

Hi everyone!

June meetings resume with our first Hisao-theme fanfic short:

Reunion: Hisao And Akira Avoid The Family

Mahorfeus recommended it, dewelar said 'Hisao first', and here we are!

Please contribute your thoughts, ideas, tangents, and whatever else you have.

[Alpacalypse]

This fic is probably what we needed after the last one - a twist ending done right. Critical hit to the feels.

I've always been a fan of FluffandCrunch's stuff and this is probably my favourite of them (possibly outshone by Whisky). He just seems to nail Akira IMO.

Also, that opening with Hisao waking up and her having replaced Lilly... just yes.

[Path]

The writings is good, Akira was written well, Lilly too, despite being vanilla as ever.

Any time where the character talks to another character that they can see, I think they're like main character from Fight Club. After finding the twist, looking over certain points, it's easy to draw the connection.

The thing with Misha and Shizune becoming a thing, I can buy, but I find it unlikely, unless Shizune is really bad at finding a person other than Hisao.

Good story, but I it's really hard to read a twist ending that blows it out of the water for me.

[Blank Mage]

I hadn't read this one until now, so I had the benefit of a fresh opinion. Hmm. Things I like and things I don't here. Although I liked how Akira was written, I thought she came across as a little too wild and eccentric, perhaps not for the Akira we know and love, but certainly for this time skip. Now, this could be a clever use of narrative, intentionally giving us the memorable, overly playful Akira Hisao no doubt wants to remember. If so, well done and subtle.

I recently had a massive discussion on Lilly, and why she's never really appealed to me, but I find myself easily liking her in this, probably because she doesn't seem nearly as guarded as she does in vanilla KS. The relationship between her and Hisao isn't the focus, but it comes across as very heartfelt and natural all the same.

My problem is that once the twist is revealed, I lose track of the setting. Was Hisao sitting down there, dreaming or hallucinating? When did he actually get to this funeral, and how didn't he realize he was on route to one, even as he was pulling through the gates? It all happens too quickly, too abruptly, for me to fit it into the time line. It's not as big a deal as that makes it sound, the writing is great, but it did detract from the impact a little for me.

Also, it's interesting that Shizune and Misha are a thing. Very rare to see someone actually go that direction, surprisingly.

[Atario]

Hmph. I don't think I see it. The mechanics of the writing were pretty poor (formatting, punctuation, confusion of "yea" for "yeah", etc.) — a bit distracting. Akira is just kinda randomly dead, no reason given.

Aside from any of that, I thought the characterizations were more or less fine. Though some things require an extreme bit of hallucination/self-delusion on Hisao's part (e.g., Akira handed him the beer, huh?) or else we require that ghosts are matter-of-factly real. The reasons for the two of them to be hanging out together and for Akira to be avoiding any interaction with anyone but Hisao are set up fairly properly.