Alsadius comments on Open thread for December 9 - 16, 2013 - Less Wrong Discussion
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I quite enjoyed https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2857962/1/Browncoat-Green-Eyes
(Yes, it's a Harry Potter/Firefly crossover. It's much, much better than the premise makes it sound)
I took this recommendation, and hated it. Got as far as the thing with Jayne's mother before I accepted that it wasn't going to get any better.
If you're some random person, wondering whether you should listen to me or Alsadius, I recommend the following test: read the first chapter. If you like chapter one you'll probably like the rest of it, and if you don't, you won't.
I agree with this test. True of many stories, really. I'm a fan of the plot, which only really comes together 2/3 of the way through, but if you're not a fan of the banter, it's not worth it.
I started reading it. Harry isn't Harry. He's constantly spouting "Charming" and "Snarky" lines at every character, and is inexplicably expert at piloting and knows everything about the firefly-verse after a time-skip of 2 years. If you hadn't told me he was Harry Potter I would've guessed he was Pham Nuwen. There's also tons of call-backs to past firefly events and lines of dialogue, which shows pretty weak imagination on the part of the author. A reference is one thing but you don't make it by characters constantly going "Hey remember that one time when we did X?" "Hey remember your wife?".
The request was for a HPMOR substitute. I figured that a Harry-like Harry wasn't exactly a necessity. As I said in an above comment, this author uses canon as a loose suggestion.
I keep running into that. Does it make sense to read if you haven't watched Firefly?
(I have watched Firefly - an episode or two. Didn't like it.)
Not really. You can get by without Potter knowledge(as usual, this author mangles it a fair bit anyways), but the plot is heavily tied into that of Firefly/Serenity, and the Firefly characters are more prominent. That said, feel free to read his Potter-only stuff instead - I haven't gone through his whole oeuvre, but everything I've read has been hilarious and well-written.