I have been reading science fiction and fantasy for most of my life. I get rather pedantic, and find stories that set the rules and follow them through are the most enjoyable. If they don't follow their own rules, I think that they are a cheat. Stories that change the rules at the end chapter to solve intractable problems (Star Trek: Voyager was particularly bad for this, inventing new technology ad hoc) I feel cheat the reader who has invested the time to watch or read. They just seem like the author hasn't bothered to think things through from the start, so why invest the emotional energy.

One version of this 'changing the rules' are the stories with 'Super' Harry Potter, where he essentially becomes a demi-god (in some stories, leaving out the demi part). My read on the character is that Harry Potter is Pinocchio - all he wants is to be a real boy, with a real life.

I enjoy the stories where the author has obviously thought the problems through, and has scripted the story accordingly. This is one reason I am trying to complete stories before publishing them, as I have found that items that come up later require serious revisions to earlier chapters in order to make sense.

One game played by (good) science-fiction authors, and professional historians is"What If?", where they take some event and look at the implications of it happening differently. In some cases, they take what is known, and extrapolate into the future. In others, they take a historical event and look at what would happen if it had happened another way (e.g., Lee won at Gettysburg, Attila had fallen off his horse and Rome didn't fall, Tutankhamun lived into old age, etc). In the story "The Real Us" Seel'vor considers what would happen if the official record was as accurate as Rita Skeeter's typical work. This kind of speculation can be fun.

I have been studying judo for most of my life and some minimal passing understanding of other martial arts. Consequently, I find some depictions of fighting scenes abysmal, as they make no sense. Unless, as in judo, the rules have been set up to make it a sport and so have taken out the more nasty stuff, the object in a battle is that your opponents go down and stay down. The duels shown in Harry Potter movies (against the Death Eaters) strike me as appropriate - they are out to kill. One other aspect of the 'Gentle Way' and Ju-jutsu (translated as the 'Yielding Art') is the concept of letting your opponents force blow past while you take control; don't meet force with force - a common metaphor is that in a typhoon, the oak tree breaks while the bamboo survives. In Chapter 1 of 'HP and the Spiritus Crystalus', there is an excellent description of the difference between police (or aurors) and soldiers - police only are supposed to use deadly force as a last resort, whereas soldiers are expected to kill.

I am particularly fond of the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as the Harry Potter books (logical inconsistencies notwithstanding). However, I also have a rather sardonic sense of humour, and I do not feel (as some of my acquaintance have) that such works as 'Bored of the Rings' or the 'Barry Trotter' books constitute blasphemy. I also must mention the Rod Gallowglass series (The Warlock In Spite of Himself, etc) by Christopher Stasheff. It seems I have a thing for elves.

In the Harry Potter fanfics, I agree with chem prof and others, that Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger do not belong together. I do not agree with the 'opposites attract' theory; I see divorce or homicide in their future if they get together. Similarly, I do not accept that Harry and Ginny Weasley are meant for each other - I see Ginny as still in love with the image, not the person, and this Harry would reject. I do not like Draco Malfoy on general principle (I hate bullies), and really don't care for slash stories, but have enjoyed a number of stories (e.g., 'The Colour of Her Knickers' and 'Ginny Weasley and the Curse of the Firstborn') where he has gotten over his bigotry once he found where it was taking him. I feel sorry for Narcissa Malfoy (in some stories) where she realizes what her family history has led to, others she remains a bigotted bitch.

I also do not really care much for the Weasley twins - I always felt that most so-called practical jokes are merely a form of bullying. (see chapter 1 of 'The Scottish Connection' by Itsme66 for a version of this)

In many of the Harry Potter stories, it is an implicit assumption that Hogwarts is the only school of magic in the UK. This implies that absolutely all magical people are of the middle or upper classes (like high-born landholders, dentists, potion masters, etc). This requires that all of their food and supplies come from muggle sources, as there is no wizarding source for food or other necessities - this seems contrary to the bigotry which is endemic. I have postulated the existence of an agricultural/vocational school for the 'lower' classes to learn animal husbandry and other skills. Hagrid's magical creatures seem unlikely to supply meat for the tables at Hogwarts.

I personally disagree with the whole principle of polygamy (in the Bible, it says 'No man shall serve two masters', and I think this applies to mistresses too), but see a major point of overlap between the idea of Harry Potter as the head of two Houses, and the whole Mandatory Marriage trope (the idea that the young should repopulate the wizarding society after the war - strange how the mass murder of muggles raised no flags, but the elimination of a few rich pure-bloods does). This can lead to all sorts of conflict, and in conflict, there are stories to be told. I do not necessarily agree with the positions or actions of any of my characters, but (as above) you set the parameters and then see what happens.

I have found that the Fanfiction favourites list will not accept stories from other anthologies, so I will add some of them here (more to come as I find them):

Strategic Maneuvers, by Syn on Checkmated

Be Careful What You Wish For, by Wewarren68 (on SIYE) - just wish he or she would finish it. (Same gripe re finishing, but it is now of too)

The Honeymooners, by Aggiebell on

Healing Harry, by bobmin on Bobmin Fan

Some other sites which I enjoy are and Sink In Your Eyes (both Harry/Ginny sites, but if the story is well written, I will accept that Ginny has gone beyond her childhood infatuation and has grown up into a mature and powerful witch in her own right)

I note that some authors post the same stories on multiple fanfic sites, and so some of my statement (about not finding the stories on 'fanfiction') may change over time. At least one, Annie Penrose's 'Ginny Weasley and The Curse of the First Born' has already been moved to this website.

Pet Peeve time and Old Fogey Alert - Spelling!: Unfortunately (in my opinion) it has become very common for authors to use the abbreviation "it's" to mean "belonging to it". This is grammatically incorrect - "it's" is an abbreviation meaning "it is", whereas "its" means "belonging to it". Similarly, many people interchange "they're, their, and there". This is just sloppy writing. Unfortunately, with 140 character limits on many people's writing platforms, it seems that correct spelling and grammar are going by the wayside. Young people who say "Spelling doesn't count, everybody knows what I mean" have never been held to unpleasant terms of a contract - in the law, words have a very specific meaning, and spelling mistakes can get you in very deep trouble (or whatever scatological equivalent you prefer).

Concerning spelling - Being Canadian, we use what usually passes as British spelling (colour, humour, neighbourhood, etc.) rather than American spelling, so don't bother trying to correct it. Years ago I heard the demand "Don't you know the Queen's English?', to which I heard the response 'Yes, I heard she is.'

Another pet peeve: Decimate. During the Roman Empire, if a town got 'out of line' (whatever that meant to the local authority at the time), the local legion would line up the men of the town, put out every tenth man, and stick a sword through him. Decimate is exactly that, to kill one-tenth!. It cannot mean to wipe out, obliterate, massacre, or anything like it. Probably another battle I have lost trying to correct this.

Another issue: Canon (or an approximation of it) assumes a conversion rate of 5 pounds Sterling to the galleon (i.e. G1 = 5 pounds sterling - I can't find the pounds sterling symbol in here), but based on Harry giving his Tri-Wizard winnings to Fred and George to set up a shop in the heart of London (one of the most expensive places on earth), this seems ludicrous. On top of this, in re-reading HP&PoA, to think that the Weasleys could take a family of nine to Egypt on shy of 4000 pounds is rather unlikely. In his (?) author's notes for 'Harry Potter and the Marriage Contracts', Clell5619 argues for a different exchange rate (75 pounds = G1). I commonly assume a 50 pounds to the galleon rate. Given the assumed size of the gold coin, and the current value of gold (around $1700 per ounce = roughly 1000 pounds per ounce), even this may be low.

Another issue and pet peeve - when authors refer to some astronomical observation (usually regarding the moon), they indicate they do not know much about it. One story I read some time back indicated that Harry had a vision where he saw the moon, but from it they could only determine the time frame to within a week - from the phase of the moon, it should have been possible to nail it down within a day or two either way. In another, the group was going out a day or two after the full moon (to weaken werewolves) and were going in the dark after the moon set - for the two weeks after the full moon, the moon doesn't set until after dawn! Perhaps going behind heavy clouds? Hogwarts included astronomy as a core course, so this kind of simple error should not happen.

I would like to thank the guest reviewers for their reviews. I cannot respond if you do not have an 'identity' on this site. A disparaging review with no signature indicates to me that you are perhaps not ready to take responsibility for your own opinion. Such reviews are taken much less seriously, if not disregarded entirely.

In particular, merci a 'AK' pour vos revues, mais 'Bunny' est un surnom pour un petit lapin, et je pense que ca est un bon nom pour un ami de Sirius. Peut-etre il n'est pas propre Francais, mais un meilleur farce, n'est pas? Et maintenant, tout le monde sait pour quoi je n'ecrit pas en Francais beaucoup fois.

Start of Rant

Other authors have responded to reviews in their profiles, where the reviewer has not had a site for answers. Sometimes, they respond in later chapters, which is not possible with one-shots. Therefore, for the two reviewers of "HP and the Extraneous Details":

To Guest, who wrote 'Stop with those bloody brackets! I stopped reading after a few lines', please read the title of the story. I think you missed the point.

To keight, who wrote 'the math is a completly', I haven't got a clue what your point is! At least finish your comment.

For The Crystal Mage, who reviewed 'One Too Many', thanks for the heads-up but I am afraid I have not read any of MatPat's stuff on Games Theory, as I do my fanfiction reading on this site, and do not browse Youtube much. When there are over 700k stories, I don't have unlimited time to surf. I can say that I did come up with the basic premise independently - as a physicist and engineer, geometric series are a fact-of-life/occupational hazard. If you want a direct response, please sign in so I at least have somewhere to send it.

End of Rant