Fanfic Great, but not perfect
This is by far my favorite fanfic. Ever. Periodt. The plotting is excellent, the characters are well-written, and the crossover is handled very, very well..
That's the Good Part. There's a lot of Good Parts here—it's a damn good story.
But I wanna talk about the bad, as well.
This fic is egregiously, insanely overwritten. Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness doesn't even begin to describe it. There are chapters longer than some novels in which very, very little happens. There are rambling monologues from every character, all the time, in situations where there really shouldn't be rambling monologues. These monologues often serve no purpose other than giving the characters information that we, the audience, already knew, and showing another character reacting to it. Which could easily be accomplished with a simple "X told Y what happened", and then the characters reaction.
However, it's the other two kinds of monologues that bother me more. One is a long, rambling Badass Boast that serves little narrative purpose. The other...long, rambling monologues about how the characters *feel*. Feelings are important to a story, perhaps the most important thing—but gahdamn, I've never read a story so good where the characters insist on constantly, eloquently talking about their feelings, over and over again, with frequent eyerolls and snark. Oh god, the snark. It's constant. It never stops. And Nimbus constantly lampshades it.
Don't get me wrong. I love this story. I love the world. I love the plot. I love the characters. I just wish Nimbus would trim the fat off it sometimes, and stop writing monologues.
Fanfic A refreshing approach to your common fanfic cliches
I was a little cautious going into the fic because, judging from its premise, I was dreading the worse. However the more I got into the story the more surprised I was at how fleshed out the story actually became.
Sure Harry has a new family and new powers that comes with his families bloodline but Marty Stu Harry is not. The author takes great steps to actually have him learn his abilities and still keep him flawed and grounded enough. In short the author made Harry more human.
Nimbus also has an interesting way in using crossovers. Instead of just placing a random character into the story just for the Lulz he instead uses the crossover to build a multi-layered world with rich and colorful backstories along with it.
At the hands of any writer it would have been a cluttered mess. Thankfully the writer of the story uses the knowledge he has relating to the respective universes involved in this crossover to blend it really well.
I also appreciate the lack of character bashing. Its actually refreshing to see no Ron The Death Eater, or Dumbledore bashing of the kind. The only characters who got the worst end of the bashing was the Dursley's. Which is pretty justifiable.
The author doesn't hide the fact that he doesn't Draco in Leather Pants Snape but he has repeatedly stressed that he acknowledged that Snape isn't a complete monster and he treats him as fair as he possibly could.
Speaking of Draco In Leather Pants. Neither Draco nor Loki were magically redeemed. Loki still has alot of atoning to do for his actions in New York and you still have alot of people that hated him for that. Yet despite his role as The Atoner he is far from Wimpified. He is just as dangerous as a good guy and is not the man to be crossed.
Draco has hints of being a magnificent bastard just like his father. He has stopped antagonizing Harry but its hinted that he's not exactly taking a complete face turn. Moral wise he's an enigma.
Nimbus's approach with Lucius is intriguing. As the story continues he's shaping up to be just as dangerous as Voldemort. Probably more so as Lucius's in this fic has not only taken levels in badass but levels in magnificent bastardness.
Child of The Storm is one of the examples on how to do a crossover right.
Fanfic Great premise. But sadly...
I'm not going to lie, I tried very hard to get into this fic. I tried giving it a chance. I really did...
Too bad there were just so many things grating on my nerves about it.
Starting, the story feels too much like it's a constant uphill battle for the team we're supposed to root for. We have literally gods on side... but instead of, you know, absolutely decimating your average wizard or even one as cunning as this fic's Lucius Malfoy seems to be (who, lbr, shouldn't be even an annoyance to Loki himself), we never see them truly win. Every victory feels... hollow, because the moment they finally manage to make some headway into finally beating the bad guys, turns out they had yet another ace in the hole.
Another thing is that basically every named character is treated as if they were the scariest mofo anyone's ever seen. The first few times it was interesting. By the sixth character it was annoying and frustrating.
And of course, how can I forget that Harry, who is supposed to be the story's main character, doesn't really do anything until the last arc. We were told and shown he was being trained in magic by Loki, hand to hand combat from Natasha, Clint and Steve, and he's Thor's son, and yet, other than some mannerisms and a somewhat happier personality, his power still feels stupidly low.
When I saw the fic's premise, I hoped I had finally found something filled of happy family moments and engaging battles that actually would leave me with a smile. Instead, I found a story filled with victories that felt pyrrhic, very badly executed foreshadowing and what felt like forced drama and angst.