Jake Crusher
Author Review:
ShiningwingX
The Zelda franchise is known for being very vague in terms of its lore, it leaves lots of holes that most people either don`t notice or just ignore. You know a franchise is special when the fans devote so much time and effort into trying to fill in the blanks. ShiningwingX is much the same filling in the blanks to lore of Zelda in his stories. His stories incorporate bits and pieces from various Zelda games while adding his own characters and elements to the story. He goes into incredible lengths to make sure every detail of the world is explained in the utmost detail, much like those profiles in Mass Effect. Not just the world the characters and feelings of the stories are also explained in to a T. The result is a story full with emotion and depth.
The stories are not for light reading.
As previously pointed out the stories go through a lot of explaining, much like with Eiichiro Oda the huge amount of exposition and emotion in the stories makes it so that the story progress very slowly. Plus the chapters are so long does not help much either. So if you're for a quick story he is not for you.
In his author profile he brags that he likes his stories to be mature! I can defiantly see that, though they are not Game of Thrones level of grim and gritty, more like Bruce Timm level of maturity, potentially dark and serious but never over the top violent and always respectful to the reader never trying to sugar-coat things.
As with a lot of Fanfiction writers he takes the franchise and tries to make it his own. The stories have a bit less of a Zelda look and feel to them, and more of a Lord of the Rings look and feel to them. One could argue the flaws and/or merits of taking a franchise and trying to mold it into your own image, several fics do that and it at times leads to disaster, but on the other hand people who make movies out of comic books also do that and the results can be great, fanfics are the same.
As long as the author respects the source material and does not completely change it then there is no harm.
At the end of each chapter ShiningwingX does a bit of trivia telling you the nuts and bolts of the story. As a professional writer this is a no-no as a supposedly talented writer does that all in the stories, but Fanfics are not strictly professional so it's OK. This also gives a bit of a personal feel to the stories as if the author is actually interacting with you. Honestly speaking I could go either way on this exact subject.
Zelda fans love to fill in the holes of the Zelda franchise in their fanfictions. ShingingwingX takes it a step further and creates a living breathing world around it. It might not be 100 percent Zelda but it is still great!