Title: Getting Too Old For This
Author: ManMadeOfLasers
Rating: M
Genre: Humor/Adventure
Status: WIP (active)
Library Category: The Alternates
Pairings: (none yet)
Summary: Harry Potter finds himself, and his normal bi-polar luck, pulled out of a quiet retirement and into the limelight of the 23rd century. He finds a grand new stage upon which his 'saving-people-thing' can act, and before he can say no, is pulled into the middle of a galaxy-spanning conflict. Rated 'M' for bad words and eventual sexy shenanigans, re-worked and re-posted. Enjoy.
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12595819/1/Getting-Too-Old-For-This

This is a rewrite to an older story that I read awhile ago, and found unremarkable at the time. I can't find that story anymore, so I assume it got taken down when the author started this one.

Anyways, the formula here is pretty straight forward. The story is a fusion, with Harry having lived every day until the Mass Effect stuff happens, and the Mass Effect stuff (the discovery of the Prothean stuff on Mars) is a natural fusion mechanic. So, the story has some of the usual tropes when Harry is a couple hundred years old, jaded, snarky, sassy, world-weary, etc.

There's nothing groundbreaking here, but I found it quite entertaining. There is just enough whimsicalness to get me laughing without being a fullblown crackfic. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and it does feature Harry solving a lot of the canon plot without too much effort, but I still found it to be an enjoyable read. There's not too much competition in the realm of long HP/ME fics, so it might be the best one (though the bar is pretty much at ground level)

4/5

 

Honestly, even half-way readable HP/Mass Effect stories are so fucking rare, (which is really disappointing) that even if this is only just that, I'll probably be inclined to rate it 3/5. I'll say this, from just the first chapter, it would have to try awfully fucking hard to not manage that. Will update once I've gotten around to reading all of it.

Edit: And yeah, it's pretty much what I expected. A retread of the games, or at least the first one, but so far he changes enough to keep it interesting by resolving conflicts in ways that are different from what you can do in the game. A curbstomp in vein of many other Mass Effect crossovers, but this one manages to far more readable by never taking itself very seriously. Good enough to waste a few hours with, but not much more. 3/5

 

At best it's 2/5 for me. I remember finding it and quickly realizing it's your regular indie Harry wrapped in Mass Effect package. He curb stomps everyone. Disregards any authorities, throws fiendfyre around as it's confetti.
So yeah not for me.

 

Oh, but I will say that the author's concept of what being the master of death means isn't something I've seen before. It so far hasn't had much relevance to plot, but it is somewhat interesting.

Edit: Also, I hadn't realized how similar my review was to the one Anarchy posted. Suppose I didn't actually read his first. Ah well, that's just about all there is to say about this fic, really.

 

I actually found this pretty god damn entertaining. The writing is alright from a technical standpoint, and as others mentioned it is pretty generic. That said, it is consistently hilarious throughout most of the story (I have the previous version saved).

Every crossover fandom needs a quality fic of Harry aggressively steamrolling through a largely rehashed canon, and this fic is the Mass Effect version of that. Probably the main alternative is Harry Geth, which is a poorly written pile of shite.

I actually love this fic, but for all the reasons others have mentioned, I can't give it a 5.

4/5

 

I try to not really respond to replies in a library review thread since everyone is entitled to their opinion, but honestly this one comes off like you didn't even read it. So how can you rate something without reading it? He uses fiendfyre once in 16 chapters. So, like I state it's an Indy!Harry right in the first post, you go open the story, confirm that it's an indy!Harry story, and then just default rate it 2/5? I don't just shoot stories into the review board on a whim you know.

 

Last chapter had another instance of Fiendfyre, which raise it to two in the all fic, yeah he didn't bother to read the story and still rated.
Something IMO happens on this boards quite a lot.
People comes with ideas about the story, barely read first paragraph and close the story.

This is Indi Harry with taking into extreme what Wizard magic can do, in space.

It is fun, 4/5

 

I read the original version of the fic, and while it wasn't bad, this is much better. It has a certain flavour of crack to it but it's good crack. The first arc is done now, so I'm comfortable rating it.

Harry Potter magic has the unfortunate problem of breaking any universe you insert it into, as long as you're dealing with a trained wizard. It's too powerful - too versatile - to do anything but break it, so it becomes a matter of how good a job the author does of merging the two worlds, and telling the particular story they want to tell. The author does a good job. I was entertained whilst reading it, it made me laugh at least once, and the writing was solid. I'm interested to see where the author takes the story in the next arc.

4/5

 

Like Anarchy said, the original was mediocre at best and disappointing at worst. The rewrite is so much better that it's clear the author worked really hard to improve. That gets my respect. There are plenty of writers who refuse to improve for over a decade.

The idea is almost overdone (HP-MOD-Old finds himself smack dab in the middle of galactic apocalypse events and turns it all around with contemptuous ease) but just original enough to be a good read because of the Mass Effect angle. I agree the new factors in being the Master of Death are quite interesting but look to be mostly a cool concept that has no significance for the story aside from appearing to add depth to Harry. It's mostly crack but interspersed with some serious discussion in that way.

An ignoble end to Saren starts a backwards race to rewrite canon with some elements missing and with rearranged missions. Shows some forethought and brings a little unpredictability to a canon we can all rehearse in our heads and dialogue we can all quote.

Some funny jokes, some land a little low. A(n appearance of) juggling Harry and talking to the Rachni Queen overuses absurdity. When the author isn't trying to be too absurd, the humor works!

What I don't like is that Shepard is of negligible importance and starts out as the cliche straight-laced officer who face-palms at shenanigans. Very common in mediocre crossovers. More could've been done with Shepard. I imagine that's coming in ME2. Surviving a point-blank nuclear detonation with almost no believable explanation seems unnecessary.

4/5 in a comedy section.

 

Had I taken this fic seriously I probably would not have enjoyed it. But I am happy to say that I enjoyed it a lot. Of course it is the cliché Harry against authority who has seen all the bullshit and knows how to solve it in a permanent manner and everyone except him are idiots wrapped in a Mass Effect package. But since I do not think even the author is taking it seriously (I must reference Rachni Queen here) it is a pretty enjoyable ride. When I first read it I actually laughed at some of the things so the only thing I do not like about the story is the cannon rethreading. But it is a very minor thing.

4/5 as a comedy fic; 2/5 as a serious fic

 

That update was a sequel notification, for those curious.