The Time of Destiny

Overall I liked these stories and thought they were well written. There were some points, however, that I didn't care for.

Luna. This is the first Harry Potter fanfic that I've read that I could characterise as 'Luna bashing'. She comes across as a morbid, clueless escapee from the spell damage ward.

Trevor. That bizarre episode was more suited for an out-of-continuity omake than as part of the story. Apart from getting a free-pass on the illegal transformation of her husband nobody seemed to care a less that she'd killed his muggle mistress. We don't even know whether that woman even knew that he was married or not.

Wow! I just finished the Time of Destiny... Read fire right before it. Thank you for a fantastic way to spend a dull week!!!

I'm so glad you enjoyed my stories!

Abraxan

You know, this is about the third time i've read through this series and i have truly enjoyed them every time. They are well thought out and written so that everything is nicely wrapped up at the end. I think the only thing that "irked" me was the many uses of the phrase "drinking in her/his scent ". But, other than that - BRAVO!!

Somebody totaled it up and in these two books I've written more than JKR did in all of hers put together!  When you write that many words, you're gonna fall into some habits with phrases and will miss seeing them in editing.  Sorry about that.  Glad you enjoyed my stories!  If you liked these, you might enjoy  my original novel, "Star Sons: Dawn of the Two" which you can order on Amazon.com or BN.com or several other sites.  Just do a search on my name, Lynda Sappington, and you'll find it.

Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Abraxan

One of the best Harry/Ginny fics I ever read!!..

Thanks very much!

One of the best Harry/Ginny fics I ever read!!..

Thanks!

Abraxan

This really is a lovely story. I felt sure poor Harry would have plaques at St. Mungo's and in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts before both stories were over :)

The land of the phoenixes was a lovely concept, and I liked how you handled the Snape-Harry interaction.

Harry constantly claiming he's fine is pretty funny too--it's such a typical Harry thing to do.

Also, and this is the sincerest compliment I can think of, I read this entire story in one sitting (excepting bathroom breaks), and I did the same with Refiner's Fire yesterday :)

In ONE SITTING EACH?????  I'll bet you had a numb bum after that, LOL!  That IS a lovely compliment, that you read them nonstop!

Yeah, Harry always saying he's fine amuses me no end - and it is SO in character for him!  Glad you liked that.

Glad you liked the Land of the Phoenixes, too.  I liked the concept so well, I'm considering using it in my original novels.

Thanks for writing!

Abraxan

*Sniff* Well done! You scared me there with the dragon thing, but thank God for the phoenixes!

Glad you liked it!

Abraxan

What a wonderful story. I loved every single word. Thank you so much.

Thanks a lot!

Abraxan

The end at last, and what a wonderful ending. Everyone and everything turned out well, and you did what I've always wanted an author to do. You brought the Dursleys back at the end and showed them who and what Harry really is. Thanks for that.

The best thing about fan fiction--and something I began to appreciate very much when I read Bob and Alyx's stories--is NO WORD-COUNT LIMITS. It gives you the chance to explore subplots and develop relationships in a way you'd never be able to do in mainstream publishing.

Thank you for sharing an excellent story with all of us.

I'm so glad you enjoyed it!  Yeah, the word count limits in real publishing is a daunting thing to deal with, but I finally got a good feel for it when I finished "Star Sons" (my original novel). 

Don't give up on my writing yet - there are several ficlets and another novel to go, all set in the RF universe!  Happy reading!  And thanks for the reviews!

Abraxan

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading these two novels.. I was so impressed with these stories, that my son is now reading them and is totally enthralled in them.

Keep writing ,especially if you enjoy writing, as this shows in your writing and is enjoyable to read.

Thanks so much!  You still have a lot of HP reading to go in my Refiners world (they're all on this site - just look for the list of stories under my name). 

I  have an original novel available now too - go to Amazon.com and do a search for "Lynda Sappington" (that's me) and you'll find "Star Sons - Dawn of the Two" a fantasy novel about two magical brothers and their adventures.  I'm working on the second book in the Star Sons saga now.

Thanks for writing, and for recommending my work to your son!

Abraxan

This is something amazing.

I'm going to apologise - I don't really write or speak english very well, and this is difficult for me. I'm from Finland, if you're interested... But even though this is hard for me, I want you to know what I have to say, alright?

These to novels were amazing. In these I had a combination of everything I love in fanfiction. Good writing and the type of characters I love - for an example, multi animagus and powerful Harry and so on.

The only thing that bothered me in the end was that not always you hurt yourself badly. He always was in the danger of dying, and I understand why you wrote it that way - but next time, I'd like to suggest that sometimes it's not that serious. He could just get something minor from time to time. If it's always life-or-death situations, you numb the reader's mind and it isn't so effective anymore.

Well, getting that out of my system, I loved this. You wrote it very well, and it wasn't even too easy to guess what will happen next, which is often a problem in fanfiction. I also appreciate the fact that you used many clichés, like removing the Dark Mark, without making them sound like old things. You had a fresh way to look at them, I suppose.

Thank you, and I hope you can understand what I'm trying to say.

~Daraganyan, a silly girl from Finland.

PS. I might be interested in translating this sometime in the future, if you'll allow me, but I'll return to that later...

I understood what you were saying perfectly!  Thanks!  And your point about numbing the reader's mind is well-taken.  I wrote Refiner's when I hadn't written any fiction in 16 years, so I was relearning how to write fiction in the first place, and learning how to write novels at the same time - I'd never written anything longer than a novella before.  And I wanted to "push the envelope" to see how far I could go in various directions and still hold things together to a sensible conclusion.  All the various ways of trying to kill Harry were deliberate - Voldemort and Bella will do anything to kill him (In my pre-Horcrux world, killing Harry is the goal, not keeping him alive so only Voldemort can kill him in order to reclaim that piece of his soul).  I wanted to show the "extremes" of Bella's and Voldie's madness, so I took it to extremes.

As for my "fresh look" - I'm glad you saw it that way!  It truly was fresh for me because I stopped READING fanfics when I started writing them.  Anything you see in my fics that's similar to something someone else wrote is coincidental, because I didn't read any fanfics unitl just recently, after I finished writing "Now and Forever" (it's on this site - be sure to read "A Fox's Tale" and "Beginnings" before it, so you'll read them in chronological order).  N&F ends the RF saga, so I'm free to read again - and to get back to my original fiction, the first book of which, "Star Sons - Dawn of the Two" is available on Amazon and Amazon.co.uk (do a search for Lynda Sappington - that's me - and you'll find it).  I'm polishing the second book in the series now.

Thanks for writing!

Abraxan

I have to pause to say how much I've enjoyed this story. I was a little confused at the length of the epilogues at first as so much seemed to have been tied up several chapters before the end, but I loved the fact you used real threats to Harry when he returned to Hogwarts. It's been a great ride so far and I can't wait to continue it. Thanks again for writing such an imaginative and amusing story.

Thanks!  I wanted the Epilogues to be worthwhile reading on their own, and to tell a ripping good story, so that's how they got to be so long.  I'm glad you enjoyed my work!

Abraxan

What's next? And I do hope you will answer, "filling in all those gaps I left through Now and Forever." *hint hint* J/K I loved it all! I can't wait to finish NaF and to see what comes next!

Filling in all those gaps I left via Now and Forever and the various ficlets on this site!  LOL!  Glad you're enjoying my writing!

Abraxan

I wanted to write and tell you what a wonderful story this was and how much I enjoyed reading it!! Your attention to detail is amazing and you have a true gift for storytelling. I look forward to reading your other Harry Potter fan fictions and I want to thank you for sharing your gift with the world. Also, I am curious where you got the idea for the character Alex McCullough's name. That is my mother's maiden name and I just wondered if you knew any McCulloughs or if it's just a coincidence.

Thanks a lot!  Yeah, the details were fun to write - I wanted the story as rich and layered as I could get it.  As for Alex's last name, hmm.  It's been a long time since I wrote Destiny and  a lot of words have come out of my head and into the computer (I have written two original novels since then, the first of which is now available on Amazon.com for pre-release ordering - just do a search for "Lynda Sappington" and then click on "Star Sons - Dawn of the Two" and you're there!).  Anyway, I THINK I was looking for a Scottish-sounding name and just dug through my character-naming book ("Character Naming Sourcebook") until I found one I liked.  I have several name "resources" but that book is the best one - it's divided by nationality/culture and includes both first and last names as well as meanings. so it's very useful.  So I guess it's just a coincidence that I used the name. 

Thanks for writing!  Be sure to look for Star Sons on Amazon.com!  And you can read a sample chapter of it on www.whimsyhill.com - and the sample chapter will soon be on Amazon as well.

Abraxan

Hey Brilliant story and excellent writing!! I would give you a full score except there is one thing that i must point out! Harry changed into a stag that night to save Remaus than it has not been mentioned at all after that why? I wanted to see Remaus reaction when Harry transformed into a stag like his DAD

It's been at least two years and a LOT of words since I finished Destiny.  Since then, I've written two original novels and a bunch of ficlets that fit into the time gap between Destiny and the epilogue, so I have no idea what I was thinking about when I used the stag.  If he didn't change again, then I saw no need for it, that's all.  Glad you enjoyed the stories.

Abraxan

I have to say I loved this story and the one before it! they made me laugh and cry. it was exciting and suspenseful. In other words it was brilliant! thanks for writing it i loved it!

Thanks a lot!  I'm glad you enjoyed them!

Abraxan

dam your the best.

Thanks!  :D

Abraxan

An excellent series that has given me a great deal of enjoyment.

I particularly wish to thank you for giving Severus Snape a second chance at life and recognition for his service to the Light. Many authors not focusing their fanfic on him do him the same disservice that JKR did, seeming to judge that all his years of penance for his youthful sins weren't worth rewarding.

I fully enjoyed your sense of humor as well and the wonderful way you used it to give the reader relief in the most dire situations. There are too many instances of it to enumerate but, IMO, Draco Malfoy's continued ineptitude with so many high level spells was one of the most enjoyable - as was his mode of demise.

Again, thank you for creating such quality fanfics.

Wow, what a fabulous review!  THANKS!

Re: Snape.  I honestly thought he was a loose end that needed to be dealt with, because of the complexity of his character.  I couldn't just "leave" him.  I'm nearly finished with the first draft of a new HP chaptered story, "Now and Forever" where you'll see how Snape is doing after Harry removes his Dark Mark.  "Now and Forever" tells how Harry copes with the aftermath of war, his first year in Auror School and playing for the Lions, as well as his and Ginny's wedding.  I hope to start uploading it in a month or so.  With each chapter upload, you'll get ordering information for "Star Sons:  Dawn of the Two," my original fantasy novel that will be published soon.  Those of my HP readers who've read "Star Sons" have enjoyed it a great deal, so hopefully  my other HP readers will like it as well!

Thank you again for such a wonderful review!  Be sure to read my ficlets, which all fit into the gap in time between the end of Destiny and the beginning of the epilogue (which is also true of "Now and Forever").  Thanks for writing!

Abraxan

wow! that was a week well spent reading your stories (really wants to call them novels) I plan to now read the various other Harry/Ginny stories that go beyond this, you are a fantastic writer, and I really want to read the origonal novels you mentioned in reply to my earlier review, are they published anywhere?

Sigma x

Well, I CALL them "stories" but they really are novels, so you're not wrong!  I'm so glad you enjoyed them!

My first original novel "Dawn of the Two" will be published soon (in August, I think!).  I'll post ordering info on all the sites hosting my stories when it's available.  It will be available on Amazon.com.  I'll make autographed book plates available to my HP fanfic readers on my publishing website, www.whspubs.com, which is still under construction at the moment.

Thanks for writing!

Abraxan

Two truly enjoyable novels. The two things that stood out the most to me were the Harry/Casey relationship which just felt quite nice and the situation with the Dursleys which was the best I have ever seen it done, to many have a long chewing out/ hexing scene and then the Dursleys are gone, it's nice to see it a bit differently.

Thank you very much!  I'm so glad you liked those aspects of my stories!  I had a lot of fun writing the stories, and those things in particular were a lot of fun to explore. 

Casey's had such a strong reaction among my readers that I've "resurrected" her in my original novel "Star Sons: Dawn of the Two" which will be published hopefully by the end of summer.  Keep me on your favorites list and watch my news page for the pubication announcement!  And thanks for writing!

Abraxan