[Mikes]

Oh heck.... what is this? Harry Potter Fan Fiction?!.

Now before everyone runs for the hills, just read one of the commentaries/reviews about it: Full commentary/review here: http://andrewhickey.info/2010/10/31/harry-potter-and-the-methods-of-rationality/

From aboves link:

While I’ve committed fanfic in the past, and recognise that it can be a valid art-form in the right hands, I think that it rarely *is* in the right hands – Sturgeon’s Law probably needs to be adapted for fanfic so that it reads “99% of everything is crap – and 99% of the 1% that’s left isn’t up to much either”.

So why am I up to my third reading of a(n as yet incomplete) Harry Potter fanfic novel by Eliezer Yudkowsky, which already weighs in at longer than most completed novels?

Put simply, it’s one of the funniest, cleverest things I’ve read in a long, long time. While Yudkowsky originally intended this as primarily a didactic tool, it’s a rather brilliant satirical novel as well. The basic idea is that Harry Potter’s mother’s sister, instead of marrying an abusive slob, married a professor of biochemistry at Oxford University, so when he gets adopted after his biological parents, Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres is brought up in a very loving family, surrounded by books on science and SF novels, and becomes a child prodigy in science before ever learning about magic. As a result, he sets about actually *analysing* how magic works, applying the scientific method to figuring out what’s *really* going on.  [/b]

The actual (yet uncompleted) work is found here: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality

Some random thoughts of the main protagonist:

... I am going to tear apart your pathetic little magical remnant of the Dark Ages into pieces smaller than its constituent atoms.  ...

... I wonder how difficult it would be to just make a list of all the top blood purists and kill them. ...

... Note to self: Overthrow government of magical Britain at earliest convenience. ...

Anyways, enjoy.

[karajorma]

I'm about 4 chapters in and it is really hilarious.

[General Battuta]

As Mikes is probably aware, this is by one of the guys behind the Superhappies/Babyeaters story we discussed a little while back.

[Mefustae]

That looks really interesting! I'll give it a look right after I finish catching up on 'Shinji and Warhammer40k'.

Ah, fanfiction. How dull the cultural landscape would be without your utter insanity.

[Mikes]

As Mikes is probably aware, this is by one of the guys behind the Superhappies/Babyeaters story we discussed a little while back.

Only realized that later actually.

I came across it by looking up reviews/forum entries about the Prince of Nothing (after reading your other post)... found a link and someone described it as "Harry Potter as if written by Scott Bakker"

[BloodEagle]

I'll read it when it's finished.  But I have to say, the basic premise behind this sounds far better than the source material.

[Sushi]

I'll read it when it's finished.  But I have to say, the basic premise behind this sounds far better than the source material.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize it wasn't finished, and read what there is already anyway. It's somewhat uneven in terms of quality, but still very amusing... I was annoyed to find that it doesn't have a proper ending yet.

[Marcov]

...read the first 6 chapters.

One word: Lol.

[PsychoLandlord]

This sounds utterly hilarious. I'll give it a read later.

[Mikes]

I just finished Chapter 16 myself and it's really starting to hit it's stride...

... Defense of the Dark Arts Class was so disturbingly hilarious.

I CAN DO MAGIC! FEAR ME, LAWS OF PHYSICS, I'M COMING TO VIOLATE YOU!

[SpardaSon21]

"Rest assured, Mr. Potter," replied Professor McGonagall, "Hogwarts is quite capable of teaching the basics. And I suspect, Mr. Potter, that if I leave you alone for two months with your schoolbooks, even without a wand, I will return to this house only to find a crater billowing purple smoke, a depopulated city surrounding it and a plague of flaming zebras terrorizing what remains of England."

[Shivan Hunter]

Found this on TVTropes. It's not brilliant but it's not bad either (it's a lot better than most fanfiction, anyway), and yes, a lot of it is hilarious. I recognized one of the Babyeaters authors (and the LessWrong wiki) from this story.

There are several (two that I can remember now, IIRC a few others) references to some utter stupidity in the original books.

The first few chapters are insanely funny, and the rest is hilarious as well but it starts to get more serious.

[Bob-san]

I remember reading this during its pilot period. It was hilarious but has since updated faster than I'm willing to read it.

[Luis Dias]

bookmarked . nice catch

[General Battuta]

It's a good concept but kind of smug and didactic and annoying.

[X3N0-Life-Form]

Yeah, I stopped reading it within a week iirc.

[Mikes]

It's a good concept but kind of smug and didactic and annoying.

Especially in the early chapters I'd agree. I found it to be getting better further in though.

[Marcov]

This is actually quite hilarious. However at some points it simply turns into some form of perplexing crap (if that's the right word), in which I have to comprehensively analyze a paragraph about 3 times to fully understand it. Though some of his "thoughts" could be quite interesting and funny to read:

There was a slithering sound behind him, and Harry turned to confirm that his trunk had indeed followed him on its small clawed tentacles. Apparently, for magical purposes, his luggage had also managed to believe with sufficient strength to pass through the barrier. Actually that was quite disturbing when Harry started thinking about it.

...or can humorously point out criticisms of J.K. Rowling's flaws:

Harry: "So let me get this straight," Harry said as it seemed that Ron's explanation (with associated hand gestures) was winding down. "Catching the Snitch is worth one hundred and fifty points?"

Ron: "Yeah -"

Harry: "How many ten-point goals does one side usually score not counting the Snitch?"

Ron: "Um, maybe fifteen or twenty in professional games -"

Harry: "That's just wrong. That violates every possible rule of game design. Look, the rest of this game sounds like it might make sense, sort of, for a sport I mean, but you're basically saying that catching the Snitch overwhelms almost any ordinary point spread. The two Seekers are up there flying around looking for the Snitch and usually not interacting with anyone else, spotting the Snitch first is going to be mostly luck -"

Ron: "It's not luck!" protested Ron. "You've got to keep your eyes moving in the right pattern -"

Harry: "That's not interactive, there's no back-and-forth with the other player and how much fun is it to watch someone incredibly good at moving their eyes? And then whichever Seeker gets lucky swoops in and grabs the Snitch and makes everyone else's work moot. It's like someone took a real game and grafted on this pointless extra position just so that you could be the Most Important Player without needing to really get involved or learn the rest of it. Who was the first Seeker, the King's idiot son who wanted to play Quidditch but couldn't understand the rules?" Actually, now that Harry thought about it, that seemed like a surprisingly good hypothesis. Put him on a broomstick and tell him to catch the shiny thing...

Ron: Ron's face pulled into a scowl. "If you don't like Quidditch, you don't have to make fun of it!"

Harry: "If you can't criticize, you can't optimize. I'm suggesting how to improve the game. And it's very simple. Get rid of the Snitch."

 


Reading chapter 7 now.

[jr2]

Finished it. (Up to chapter 71 anyways)

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/58/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality

Spoiler:

Harry angled the broomstick and began accelerating, upward and toward the center of the triangular space. His left hand, gloved to prevent direct contact between his skin and something which Professor Quirrell had Transfigured, held the switch of the control on the Muggle device.

Far above them, distant shouts rang out.

All right, you primitive screwheads!

Spoiler:

Aurors on fast racing broomsticks angled out of the sky, diving straight down toward them, faint sparks of light already blazing downward as the first shots were fired.

Listen up!

Spoiler:

"Protego Maximus!" shouted Bellatrix in a mighty, cracked voice, followed by a cackling laugh as a shimmering blue field surrounded them.

You see this?

Spoiler:

From the decaying pit in the center of Azkaban, over a hundred Dementors rose into the air, appearing to some as a great mass of corpses, a flying graveyard; appearing to another as a conglomerate of absences that seemed to form one vast rip in the world as they slid upward.

This...

Spoiler:

The voice of an ancient and powerful wizard bellowed a terrible incantation, and a great blast of white-golden fire shot out of the hole in Azkaban's wall, shapeless for only a moment before it began to form wings.

Is...

Spoiler:

And the Aurors activated the Anti-Anti-Gravity Jinx that had been built into the wards of Azkaban, disabling all flying spells whose enchantment had not been cast with the recently changed passphrase.

The lift on Harry's broom switched off.

Gravity, on the other hand, stayed on.

Their broom's upward rise slowed, started to decelerate, began the process of turning into a fall.

My...

Spoiler:

But the enchantments that kept the broom pointed in a direction and allowed steering, the enchantments that kept the riders attached and somewhat protected them from acceleration, those enchantments were still functioning.

BROOMSTICK!

Spoiler:

Harry hit the ignition switch on the General Technics made, model Berserker PFRC, N-class, ammonium perchlorate composite propellant, solid-fuel rocket that had been mated to his Nimbus X200 two-person broomstick.

And there was noise.

[Marcov]

There's a chapter 71?!! I thought it was only until 20?