Negrek's Nominations

Time and Tide has it all: compelling characters, a deep and convincing world, and a story full of real struggle and emotion, all wrapped up in gorgeous prose. It's sad, strange, thoughtful, heartwarming, and sometimes downright hilarious. Absolutely worth checking out if you haven't already–you won't find another story like it anywhere on the internet.

The End stands out from other 'fics posted this year with a fresh take on the PMD world and the care with which it handles its various characters, "good" and "evil" alike. This is a story with a lot of shades of grey, and DeliriousAbsol navigates it with aplomb.

Fledglings' extensive world-building and charming characters makes it one of the most noteworthy stories begun this year. It stays true to the spirit of the PMD games while greatly expanding on their lore, and is worth checking out if you're interested in an upbeat adventure story.

"Baton" is a fantastic one-shot that just works on multiple levels. The characters are all vivid and distinct, even though some appear for only a few paragraphs, and the story uses a clever "relay race" structure that works perfectly for shuttling from one POV to the next. Overall, "Baton" is a snappy, entertaining read that takes a whirlwind tour through the many faces of Team Rocket.

Besides being written in an epistolary style that you rarely see in pokémon fanfic, Flying in the Dark is noteworthy for its obliqueness. Although one letter-writer spends most of her time relating stories from her pokémon journey and the other often shares anecdotes from his, Flying in the Dark isn't really about those journies per se. Instead, it's more an exercise in trying to read between the lines and figure out the real story behind what's written in each letter. Flying in the Dark is something like a puzzle, with each set of letters providing new clues to figuring out the narrative unfolding between the lines.

In "Baton" the POV moves like a baton, getting passed from one character to another as the narrative races through a Team Rocket base. More than just a gimmick, this tagging off is central to how the story works. Even aside from the structural conceit, this is a tightly-written one-shot that shows plenty of technical ability.

Time and Tide's drowned Hoenn is an eerie, atmospheric place whose inhabitants have been as deeply affected by Kyogre's reign as the land itself. Although the new world is often a harsh, melancholy place, filled with decaying reminders of a Hoenn long past, it has its wonders, too, from pearl-diving sableye to an underwater city build among the preserved trunks of Fortree City. Dark but not without hope, the setting shows a great deal of care and creativity in approaching what an underwater world might look like.

Mrs. Lovett's one-shot provides an in-depth backstory for Hoenn's Trick House. The games provide don't give a writer much to work with, but Mrs. Lovett not only manages to build up an entertaining, engaging view of the Trick Master and backstory for the Trick House's ever-changing puzzles, but makes the whole of it feel intimately connected with the rest of Hoenn, a plausible part of the world despite just how otherwordly the place turns out to be.

Mystery dungeons don't make a lot of sense as anything but game mechanics, but Spiteful Murkrow takes pains to examine how they could actually function in a pokémon society. The story touches on everything from how rescue badges work to how gummis are produced and even goes into how guilds interact with the broader pokémon community, including many characters whose livelihood isn't tied to dungeon crawling at all. Overall Fledglings takes the weird world of mystery dungeon and manages to make it feel like a real, living place.

Malva and Wikstrom in particular are very minor characters, without a lot of official material to draw from when trying to put together a convincing portrayal of them. Nonetheless, Psychic does an admirable job of capturing both their personalities in "Forgiveness," resulting in characters who both feel true to their canon representations while fleshing them out by taking a look at how Malva copes with Team Flare's demise. In particular, I think Psychic captured Wikstrom's dorky knight schtick just perfectly.

Archie and Maxie's relationship is complicated and painful. Both have been living as ghosts for hundreds of years, trying in their own ways to come to terms with their role in the drowning of Hoenn. Cutlerine does a great job of making these larger-than-life characters feel deeply human in their struggle to reconnect and make peace with each other over the course of the story.

This action-packed trainerfic starts off with a bang–or, more accurately, a huge forest fire, a legendary pokémon, and an invitation to oppose Team Rocket–and keeps on gunning from there. The Legendarian Chronicles takes the "dubiously young child takes on criminal organization" subplot seen in many journeyfics and brings it front and center, making espionage a focus right from the get-go. Unlike most journeyfics, however, the protagonist isn't working alone to bring the gang down, which is good, because this story's TR is far more threatening than a bunch of bumbling grunts. The Legendarian Chronicles is great if you want to dive straight into a classic trainerfic that's heavy on the action and just a little bit dark.

Unlike many trainer 'fics, love and other nightmares focuses a great deal on actual training, trying to teach an unruly gang of pokémon to overcome their weaknesses and work together as a team. While an epic quest looms in the background, the story is much more focused on the growth and development of its characters than on region-saving concerns. If you like character-driven trainerfics, especially ones with a heavy focus on the pokémon, you'll definitely want to take a look at love and other nightmares.

The Radicals' Road is a light-hearted trainerfic with humor that borders on gentle parody. There's never a dull moment in Jack's journey across Johto, which is filled with bumbling but enthusiastic trainers, improbably attractive villains, and difficult choices between delicious food and stopping Team Radical's nefarious plans.

While The End takes place in a world reminiscent of the PMD games, with guilds and human-like technology in the hands of pokémon, the dungeon crawling's replaced with exploring of a suspicious, unwelcoming world fraught with war. While the story's factions, including a primary "evil" group made up of dark-, dragon-, and ghost-types, look like staples of a simple black-and-white moralistic tale, nothing is as it appears, and the story itself presents a nuanced look at how people of all descriptions cope with harsh times.

Fledglings presents a sprawling and detailed PMD-style world with an upbeat, adventurous atmosphere. A classic coming-of-age story with a strong focus on friendship, it sets the conflicts of a group of friends trying to find their way against the backdrop of an unsettled world that soon intrudes on the lives of its main characters. I feel kind of silly nominating the same two stories for "Best New" and "Best PMD," but that's just how it worked out this year. Ultimately I think the choice between Fledglings and The End comes down to more what kind of stories you like than any great difference in quality between them–they're both solid choices.

Communication follows Solonn, a glalie with the remarkable ability to mimic any type of speech–including human speech, making him one of the rare pokémon able to hold a conversation with his trainer. This story has pretty much everything I want to see in a pokémon-centric 'fic: pokémon characters whose attitudes and lifestyle are shaped by their unique physiology and abilities, well-drawn pokémon societies with distinct cultures and philosophies, and explorations of how humans and pokémon manage to live together. Communication is far from just a Serious Fanfic tackling a pile of big issues, though; it's full of life, with a memorable cast of characters and plenty of humor running throughout.

Maressa is a great main character, determined and willing to do anything in service of her beliefs. What exactly those beliefs are is in flux over the course of the story, but while Maressa is often conflicted about what she should be doing, she never ends up paralyzed or wallowing in angst. She makes for a very active, engaging protagonist, and it will be interesting to see where her character arc takes her.

Mia is a scyther pokémorph, and Dragonfree does a great job of getting across the impression of a predator living in a nearly-human body in ways both large and small. You'd have to read Morphic to get the full background on Mia, but this one-shot is enough to get a feel for Mia's distinctly alien way of looking at the world.

Golduck is Maressa's strongest pokémon, and he provides a great complement to his trainer. Both of them are stubborn and headstrong, and they play off each other well. Golduck is his own hero, not just an accessory to Maressa, and takes an active role in rescuing Maressa when she's captured by Team Magma. All in all a Golduck's a strong character with an active role in the story.

Edie brightens every chapter she's in with abundant enthusiasm and adorable emoticons. While her unflinching loyalty and devotion to her friends is a delight to read about and a major aspect of her character, Edie is also an ancient soul, struggling in her own way to adjust to a post-apocalyptic world she hasn't properly been a part of for hundreds of years. She has her own depth and plenty of room to grow.

This nosepass is a loveable jerk, prone to causing damage with his giant schnoz and taking decades-long naps at inconvenient times. Karo also stars in the spinoff one-shot "Bad Idea," which is a cute story that gives plenty of insight into his character–and how much it gets him into trouble.

This cute moment from "Under Control" does a lot with a little. Meowstic's reminder conveys a great deal about her relationship with her trainer, and Caitlin's mental image is both adorable and provides a concrete metaphor for the trouble Caitlin has controlling her power.

Cutlerine's work is consistently as thoughtful as it is imaginative, encompassing a broad range of themes and tones. Cutlerine's as accomplished at writing humor as she is horror, and no matter what subject she's tackling, her style is distinctly her own. Cutlerine is definitely an example of a writer who tells stories no one else could tell, and if you're not familiar with her work, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

DeliriousAbsol's debut story is an ambitious chapterfic with epic scope and loads of threads to keep track of, and she pulls it off with flair that would put many more established writers to shame. Just as impressive as the story itself is how quickly she puts out new chapters–and her update schedule here at Serebii is much more relaxed than at other sites.

Comedy is one of the most difficult genres to write, but Dust_monster's debut 'fic is definitely humorous, exaggerated just the right amount to be funny while avoiding the "lol random" style of humor that a lot of new writers lean on. Definitely an author to watch.

Coming back to a story after only a few months' hiatus can be difficult enough, but Chibi Pika recently returned after around three years with new content for her fanfic, which she's been working on for over a decade at this point, with no intentions of stopping.

Fledglings is Spiteful Murkrow's first long chapterfic, and the nominations it's earned this season are a testament to how big an improvement it is over his earlier works. Spiteful Murkrow's always had great ideas, and the advances he's made with his prose mean that Fledglings really lets them shine.

Sike's got to be following at least fifty stories by this point. Last year she managed to review nearly every 'fic that had been nominated for the awards–and that was on top of judging for the Criminal Intent contest and following plenty of stories for her own pleasure. Her reviews have been brightening writers' days all year, and the section would definitely be a lot less fun and friendly without her cheerful feedback.

After returning from a long hiatus, American–Pi jumped right back into the reviewing game, providing thoughtful feedback almost every week.