Self Inserts come with a stigma attached to them, which I’ve personally never quite understood. Much like any other form of fiction, there isn’t anything inherently wrong, or even right about them. The execution is what matters.
Me? I adore them. So I’ll be sharing some of the ones I’ve found that I think are certainly worth a read. This is number one in this review series.
70k words, complete @FF.net by Iyriiea
Genre/What to expect: Adventure. The scary soft of “what am I doing here?” adventure, and a clever character that gets to decide whether or not she’s okay with drowning on the lawless Omega station.
Rating: T
Pairings: none as of yet
One minute I was home. Safe, secure, happy. The next, I was in another dimension where my life is perpetually at risk and everything could be riding on what I know. I am very, very lost.
Suitable for fandom blind readers? Somewhat, since the main character has to learn along with the reader. Background knowledge of Mass Effect and their alien races would certainly help though.
Reviewed by: Tafferling
There are a lot of things to be said about Shawna, the unlucky soul that finds herself plucked from her comfortable room back in our somewhat bland reality, and wakes on Omega to find her life turned all manners of around. Of all the places in Mass Effect’s Milky Way, the lawless Omega station may not be the worst, but it gets pretty damn close.
And Shawna doesn’t get the luxury to dwell on that for long. She’s lost. She’s alone. She’s hungry and thirsty- but she’s also clever. Really clever.
Choosing life, rather than starving in an alley, Shawna finds a new best friend in a recently re-purposed Omni tool, and sets her mind to one thing: survival. Sometimes that doesn’t come easy, and Omega doesn’t spare her the harsh reality of the costs involved, and that’s when Iyriiea reminds us of just how human the girl is.
Loss Effect comes with a cast made up entirely of Original Characters up to this point, and takes place three years prior to the events of Mass Effect. But does that take anything away from it? Hell, no. Iyriiea spends time building Shawna’s life on Omega instead, and gives us a wonderful look into how an alien human like her interacts with Batarians, Turians, Salarians, etc… without having any real social cues to go with at first.
In fact, the cast of original characters is what has me hooked on this one, since I can’t wait to see how they continue to interact, and how their relationships will pan out as the months roll by.
Ontop of that, the piece is well written, with an easy flow to the prose, excellent pacing, and a clear direction.
Review examples from FF.net:
I gotta say, its refreshing to see another take on merc groups. Usually all i see is them being Asshole’s, or that they’re just a gang of some sort, it’s nice to see that you didn’t make them out like that.
I also like how you show an average day when it comes to the teammates, how normal they are.
I’d like to start off by saying that you did a good job making this chapter believable. There are many fics on the site that fail to capture the stress of actually being abducted and brought into another universe, and then there are some that don’t even format their story in a coherent matter. You have achieved what many on this site fail to do: create a believable and readable story.
Writing. Reading. Dreaming. 