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Luminosity #1
Luminosity
Fandom: Twilight
Relationship: Edward Cullen/Bella Swan
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Luminosity is an AU reworking of the Twilight story where Bella is a rational self-knowledge junkie. Inspired by "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality". Requires no knowledge of or affection for Twilight canon.
Relationship: Edward Cullen/Bella Swan
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Luminosity is an AU reworking of the Twilight story where Bella is a rational self-knowledge junkie. Inspired by "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality". Requires no knowledge of or affection for Twilight canon.
893 pages, ebook
First published November 8, 2010
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277 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
July 9, 2015
I had such strong and unexpected opinions about the first twenty thousand words of Luminosity, I decided to review that first 20K, even though I gave up at that point and have not read any further.
The basic premise of Luminosity is that it's a re-imagining of Twilight, except instead of being judgmental, overly emotional, and careless with her well-being, Bella is rational and well adjusted. This sounds like something I would love, both as a long-time feminist and as someone who can be a bit hyper-rational myself. But surprisingly, after sticking it out for 20K, so far I'm nothing but bored and unimpressed by this fic.
THE WRITING:
Yes, Alicorn's writing is better than Meyer's on a technical level. However, I actually find Meyer's writing superior, for the simple reason that it's more captivating. Yes, it's weak, but at least it puts you in the story. Meyer's writing has the clunky but well-balanced simplicity of a novel absolutely BEGGING to be made into a movie. Luminosity, on the other hand, simply drones along through the ins and outs of Bella's mental processes. Many inexperienced writers go in for scenery-chewing, but in Luminosity's case there's actually a dearth of descriptive detail (apart from things Bella observes so the author can show how observant and aware she is), which leads to a complete lack of narrative atmosphere - something Twilight actually establishes reasonably well. Meanwhile Luminosity goes in heavily for paragraph after paragraph of mental-exposition chewing. The sentences are more complex than Meyer's sentences, both conceptually and linguistically, but there's no spark in the writing. All the intrigue and angst and atmosphere of the original story has been squeezed out, and in it's place Alicorn has substituted Bella's endless level-headed navel gazing.
Which brings me to Luminosity's central point of interest: the characterization of it's protagonist.
BELLA'S CHARACTERIZATION:
The trouble, in my opinion, is that Luminosity takes Bella from being one form of Mary Sue and simply makes her into another, less appealing form of Mary Sue. "Id appeal" can be extremely potent, and Twilight's Bella has that appeal for many readers. She has angst and self-worth issues that perhaps make her a less-than-robust role model, but they also make her a relatable and cathartic figure for many girls and women. Twilight's narrative also imbues Bella with a sense of ambiguous "specialness" that again makes her appeal to the id of many female readers, who would like to feel "special without knowing it" the way Bella is special but doesn't realize it. And while I personally don't like the dismissive, judgmental attitude Twilight's Bella exhibits towards most of the people in her life, I do think there's something loosely relatable there too, in that she's essentially going through the motions outwardly, without feeling like she truly fits into her own life. Many girls and women know that feel.
Meanwhile, Luminosity's Bella has, in my opinion, none of that id appeal. She is, at least in theory, a better role model, but she's also so level-headed it's boring as hell. I don't want to call her smug per se, but I do feel there's a smugness to the author's tone in writing her. My impression is that this girl is going to go on to become an accountant or a GP or whatever (something practical, respectable, and routine), and she'll have only the minimum amount of angst or internal conflict when choosing her career path, and she'll have only the minimum amount of dissatisfaction once she makes it into her chosen career. There is nothing about this Bella that begs for adventure, romance, or intrigue. Her life is like a running track and the events in it, whether good or bad, are hurdles. She's a character without much inner conflict, which in addition to making her boring, makes her kind of unrelatable. Yet at the same time she strikes me as her own kind of Mary Sue, perhaps because she's just so average. She's very level-headed, yes, but I'd say she's level-headed in the way of a smart but bland twenty-five year old. There's nothing remarkable about her capacity for clear-headed thought, unless it's that she seems too mature by a decade (in a pat, uninteresting sort of way). And really, if I wanted to have the experience of a young-ish female person describing her well-reasoned but unremarkable thought processes for each new occurrence in her life, I wouldn't have to read fic because- OH HEY, that's happening in my head all the time.
BELLA'S CHARACTERIZATION Pt. 2 - HER REACTIONS:
I feel like in an attempt to have Bella react to Edward in a more feminist approved way, Luminosity tends to go overboard. When Edward looks at Bella like he's furious with her in Biology class, Bella immediately becomes "scared out of [her] wits." She begins "trembling" with fear, describes him as "terrifying," and rationalizing that because he appears furious he is therefore dangerous and very possibly a violent threat. Now if I were, say, riding the scarcely populated night bus home at 3 a.m. and a full grown, male fellow passenger looked at me like he hated me, I would probably react with...about half as much fear as Bella reacts with, there in her crowded 11th grade biology classroom.
I understand the desire to teach girls that "threatening" does not equal "sexy," but Bella's reaction in Luminosity comes across as completely over-the-top. In fact, Bella's reaction in the book makes a lot more sense: she's confused, hurt, and angry, because her gorgeous male classmate apparently hates her for no reason; sounds about how most people would react in her position.
Then Luminosity's Bella is creeped out when she thinks Edward is following her to one of her classes. As if he were following her to her parked car in the middle of the night or something. Like, Bella, this is high school; he's probably just hoping for a chance to talk to you without several of your male friends around.
And then there's her telepathy freak-out, in which she acts like it's her right and responsibility to forbid the only know telepath on earth from using his powers. I mean, okay, is telepathy invasive? Definitely. Is it unethical? That has yet to be established and is therefore a matter of individual opinion. Is Bella's chastising reaction an enormous buzzkill on what is otherwise an extremely mind-blowing revelation? YES. It's also a bit ridiculous and presumptuous and naive of her, because seriously? This is a person's superpower we're talking about. Unless that superpower is destructive to people's well-being in an immediate way, the person with the superpower is going to keep using it, because it's a fucking SUPERPOWER. Wouldn't you?!
Like, damn, I'm all for having Bella exhibit a bit more regard for her own well-being and a bit more concern for the kind of guy she's getting personally involved with, but in Luminosity she just seems paranoid and a bit unreasonable. She makes the most incredible revelations (Vampires! Superpowers!) feel like nothing more than aggravating conceptual hurdles for her to surmount. She makes everything seem mundane and just a tiny bit smug, and I'm not sure how such a dull story could ever be considered superior to the original, despite the original's many flaws.
The basic premise of Luminosity is that it's a re-imagining of Twilight, except instead of being judgmental, overly emotional, and careless with her well-being, Bella is rational and well adjusted. This sounds like something I would love, both as a long-time feminist and as someone who can be a bit hyper-rational myself. But surprisingly, after sticking it out for 20K, so far I'm nothing but bored and unimpressed by this fic.
THE WRITING:
Yes, Alicorn's writing is better than Meyer's on a technical level. However, I actually find Meyer's writing superior, for the simple reason that it's more captivating. Yes, it's weak, but at least it puts you in the story. Meyer's writing has the clunky but well-balanced simplicity of a novel absolutely BEGGING to be made into a movie. Luminosity, on the other hand, simply drones along through the ins and outs of Bella's mental processes. Many inexperienced writers go in for scenery-chewing, but in Luminosity's case there's actually a dearth of descriptive detail (apart from things Bella observes so the author can show how observant and aware she is), which leads to a complete lack of narrative atmosphere - something Twilight actually establishes reasonably well. Meanwhile Luminosity goes in heavily for paragraph after paragraph of mental-exposition chewing. The sentences are more complex than Meyer's sentences, both conceptually and linguistically, but there's no spark in the writing. All the intrigue and angst and atmosphere of the original story has been squeezed out, and in it's place Alicorn has substituted Bella's endless level-headed navel gazing.
Which brings me to Luminosity's central point of interest: the characterization of it's protagonist.
BELLA'S CHARACTERIZATION:
The trouble, in my opinion, is that Luminosity takes Bella from being one form of Mary Sue and simply makes her into another, less appealing form of Mary Sue. "Id appeal" can be extremely potent, and Twilight's Bella has that appeal for many readers. She has angst and self-worth issues that perhaps make her a less-than-robust role model, but they also make her a relatable and cathartic figure for many girls and women. Twilight's narrative also imbues Bella with a sense of ambiguous "specialness" that again makes her appeal to the id of many female readers, who would like to feel "special without knowing it" the way Bella is special but doesn't realize it. And while I personally don't like the dismissive, judgmental attitude Twilight's Bella exhibits towards most of the people in her life, I do think there's something loosely relatable there too, in that she's essentially going through the motions outwardly, without feeling like she truly fits into her own life. Many girls and women know that feel.
Meanwhile, Luminosity's Bella has, in my opinion, none of that id appeal. She is, at least in theory, a better role model, but she's also so level-headed it's boring as hell. I don't want to call her smug per se, but I do feel there's a smugness to the author's tone in writing her. My impression is that this girl is going to go on to become an accountant or a GP or whatever (something practical, respectable, and routine), and she'll have only the minimum amount of angst or internal conflict when choosing her career path, and she'll have only the minimum amount of dissatisfaction once she makes it into her chosen career. There is nothing about this Bella that begs for adventure, romance, or intrigue. Her life is like a running track and the events in it, whether good or bad, are hurdles. She's a character without much inner conflict, which in addition to making her boring, makes her kind of unrelatable. Yet at the same time she strikes me as her own kind of Mary Sue, perhaps because she's just so average. She's very level-headed, yes, but I'd say she's level-headed in the way of a smart but bland twenty-five year old. There's nothing remarkable about her capacity for clear-headed thought, unless it's that she seems too mature by a decade (in a pat, uninteresting sort of way). And really, if I wanted to have the experience of a young-ish female person describing her well-reasoned but unremarkable thought processes for each new occurrence in her life, I wouldn't have to read fic because- OH HEY, that's happening in my head all the time.
BELLA'S CHARACTERIZATION Pt. 2 - HER REACTIONS:
I feel like in an attempt to have Bella react to Edward in a more feminist approved way, Luminosity tends to go overboard. When Edward looks at Bella like he's furious with her in Biology class, Bella immediately becomes "scared out of [her] wits." She begins "trembling" with fear, describes him as "terrifying," and rationalizing that because he appears furious he is therefore dangerous and very possibly a violent threat. Now if I were, say, riding the scarcely populated night bus home at 3 a.m. and a full grown, male fellow passenger looked at me like he hated me, I would probably react with...about half as much fear as Bella reacts with, there in her crowded 11th grade biology classroom.
I understand the desire to teach girls that "threatening" does not equal "sexy," but Bella's reaction in Luminosity comes across as completely over-the-top. In fact, Bella's reaction in the book makes a lot more sense: she's confused, hurt, and angry, because her gorgeous male classmate apparently hates her for no reason; sounds about how most people would react in her position.
Then Luminosity's Bella is creeped out when she thinks Edward is following her to one of her classes. As if he were following her to her parked car in the middle of the night or something. Like, Bella, this is high school; he's probably just hoping for a chance to talk to you without several of your male friends around.
And then there's her telepathy freak-out, in which she acts like it's her right and responsibility to forbid the only know telepath on earth from using his powers. I mean, okay, is telepathy invasive? Definitely. Is it unethical? That has yet to be established and is therefore a matter of individual opinion. Is Bella's chastising reaction an enormous buzzkill on what is otherwise an extremely mind-blowing revelation? YES. It's also a bit ridiculous and presumptuous and naive of her, because seriously? This is a person's superpower we're talking about. Unless that superpower is destructive to people's well-being in an immediate way, the person with the superpower is going to keep using it, because it's a fucking SUPERPOWER. Wouldn't you?!
Like, damn, I'm all for having Bella exhibit a bit more regard for her own well-being and a bit more concern for the kind of guy she's getting personally involved with, but in Luminosity she just seems paranoid and a bit unreasonable. She makes the most incredible revelations (Vampires! Superpowers!) feel like nothing more than aggravating conceptual hurdles for her to surmount. She makes everything seem mundane and just a tiny bit smug, and I'm not sure how such a dull story could ever be considered superior to the original, despite the original's many flaws.
August 2, 2013
What the hell did I just read??!!
More to the point, what have all other reviewers been reading??!!
I'm as little a fan of the original works as most around here, and I did appreciate the first few chapters, where Bella finally grows a backbone and exhibits some critical thinking. But once the story diverges from the original path... damn, was this an awful trainwreck!!
SMeyer's Bella has no personality, no preference, no independence of thought, and nothing making her even remotely interesting. Her love for Edward had no substance and no foundations. Her drama was completely fabricated. Her man was an entitled abusive stalker.
Alicorn's Bella is an idiot. A judgemental, self-centered, entitled idiot. And her man is a useless sop.
The one redeeming quality about Twilight is that SMeyer created a very interesting vampire world (bar the sparkling, which wouldn't have been half as bad if Edward hadn't brooded so much about being a killer disco ball). Her concept of vampires retaining all their human qualities and making their most prominent feature their core power is fascinating. The Volturi hint at a complex and intriguing vampire society, and harbor some really cool characters (Aro and Caius especially).
The idea that vampires may be sustained by animal blood alone is also interesting. Anne Rice's Louis did try to live a few months on rats, and I don't really remeber how well that was working for him. But the Cullen's "vegetarian" diet may not be an automatic solution to the conundrum of sentient creatures having to kill people to survive. After all, a human cannot receive blood donation from animals, so if a vampire feeds on human blood to substitute that which he has lost, animal blood may not suffice. It does in SMeyerverse and that's interesting.
Unfortunately, Twilight only briefly touches all of this, therefore losing much of the advantages these snippets of good concepts offered.
In a way, Alicorn takes all this and expands it, continuing to keep it interesting.
Unfortunately, the story is still centered around Bella and Bella is still not working. She's completely different from her former self but just as bad, and then some.
She thinks of herself as this grand, astute thinker, schemer, and strategist, while all and every plan she concots backfires and leaves a lot of people ruined and unhappy. She spends her time thinking about "what do I want" and "how do I get it" and defending her privacy and agency tooth and nail, then leaves everybody else no privacy and no agency whatsoever. She rushes into things, with complete disregard for the opinions and wishes of others and she rams her reasoning onto everybody around her. What's worse, Word of God makes everyone end up bowing to her supposedly "superior logic", while all Bella's logic does is ruin their lives.
Finally, all Bella's assholery catches up with her, and I honestly couldn't muster a single ounce of pity for her. Everything she gets by the end of LUMINOSITY she very well deserved, having brought nothing but loss, destruction, and misery to everyone around her.
All in all, definitely not a "better" version of Twilight, not even with regards to the writing style. Simply a very different helping of awfulness.
More to the point, what have all other reviewers been reading??!!
I'm as little a fan of the original works as most around here, and I did appreciate the first few chapters, where Bella finally grows a backbone and exhibits some critical thinking. But once the story diverges from the original path... damn, was this an awful trainwreck!!
SMeyer's Bella has no personality, no preference, no independence of thought, and nothing making her even remotely interesting. Her love for Edward had no substance and no foundations. Her drama was completely fabricated. Her man was an entitled abusive stalker.
Alicorn's Bella is an idiot. A judgemental, self-centered, entitled idiot. And her man is a useless sop.
The one redeeming quality about Twilight is that SMeyer created a very interesting vampire world (bar the sparkling, which wouldn't have been half as bad if Edward hadn't brooded so much about being a killer disco ball). Her concept of vampires retaining all their human qualities and making their most prominent feature their core power is fascinating. The Volturi hint at a complex and intriguing vampire society, and harbor some really cool characters (Aro and Caius especially).
The idea that vampires may be sustained by animal blood alone is also interesting. Anne Rice's Louis did try to live a few months on rats, and I don't really remeber how well that was working for him. But the Cullen's "vegetarian" diet may not be an automatic solution to the conundrum of sentient creatures having to kill people to survive. After all, a human cannot receive blood donation from animals, so if a vampire feeds on human blood to substitute that which he has lost, animal blood may not suffice. It does in SMeyerverse and that's interesting.
Unfortunately, Twilight only briefly touches all of this, therefore losing much of the advantages these snippets of good concepts offered.
In a way, Alicorn takes all this and expands it, continuing to keep it interesting.
Unfortunately, the story is still centered around Bella and Bella is still not working. She's completely different from her former self but just as bad, and then some.
She thinks of herself as this grand, astute thinker, schemer, and strategist, while all and every plan she concots backfires and leaves a lot of people ruined and unhappy. She spends her time thinking about "what do I want" and "how do I get it" and defending her privacy and agency tooth and nail, then leaves everybody else no privacy and no agency whatsoever. She rushes into things, with complete disregard for the opinions and wishes of others and she rams her reasoning onto everybody around her. What's worse, Word of God makes everyone end up bowing to her supposedly "superior logic", while all Bella's logic does is ruin their lives.
Finally, all Bella's assholery catches up with her, and I honestly couldn't muster a single ounce of pity for her. Everything she gets by the end of LUMINOSITY she very well deserved, having brought nothing but loss, destruction, and misery to everyone around her.
All in all, definitely not a "better" version of Twilight, not even with regards to the writing style. Simply a very different helping of awfulness.
September 2, 2012
For all her flaws, particularly her habit of ruining other people's lives, I absolutely adore this incarnation of Bella. She's an interesting, engaging narrator and reading her words doesn't make me look down on her, it makes me appreciate the intelligence that never shone in the original series. I loved how she dealt with James - not so much with the Volturi, but we got there in the end - and after Luminosity and Radiance I don't think I'll be able to go back to Twilight.
I don't think this should be thought of as a Twilight fanfic. Independent of its source material, it retains all its qualities. There are no painful coincidences, overly dramatic surprises or random plot twists. Everything is logical and streamlined: it's all a direct consequence of an earlier action, and this quality makes it incredibly satisfying to read. You can truly say that the characters brought things on themselves and it even gives you a little bit of pleasure to watch them reap what they sow.
The best thing about Luminosity is how deeply the world is thought through. The logic holes, contradictions and plain mistakes that Meyer made are worked out and addressed. Perhaps in doing so Bella gets quite heavy on the exposition, but you can forgive it because it's in her nature. Perhaps I will be able to reread Twilight after all, if I assume what you've laid down is unmentioned truth and the mistakes are just the characters misinterpreting. You can't blame them, because they lack the crux of Luminosity: a capable, interesting Bella, who improves the whole story around her, and is supported by a wealth of original characters that explore and extend what Meyer laid out.
I don't think this should be thought of as a Twilight fanfic. Independent of its source material, it retains all its qualities. There are no painful coincidences, overly dramatic surprises or random plot twists. Everything is logical and streamlined: it's all a direct consequence of an earlier action, and this quality makes it incredibly satisfying to read. You can truly say that the characters brought things on themselves and it even gives you a little bit of pleasure to watch them reap what they sow.
The best thing about Luminosity is how deeply the world is thought through. The logic holes, contradictions and plain mistakes that Meyer made are worked out and addressed. Perhaps in doing so Bella gets quite heavy on the exposition, but you can forgive it because it's in her nature. Perhaps I will be able to reread Twilight after all, if I assume what you've laid down is unmentioned truth and the mistakes are just the characters misinterpreting. You can't blame them, because they lack the crux of Luminosity: a capable, interesting Bella, who improves the whole story around her, and is supported by a wealth of original characters that explore and extend what Meyer laid out.
August 18, 2014
HpMoR is Eliezer Yudkowsky's Rationalist Fiction, and Luminosity is Alicorn's. There is much less emphasis on the teaching of rationality here, although still some useful hints and tips of a more practical nature than HpMoR, but this adaptation is still way above the level of most fiction. It doesn't feel like a natural ending, but perhaps the story is just very realistic. Things do go wrong, and plots really easily don't work. I'll be reading the sequel soon.
July 1, 2016
Started out really well, but got tired of Bella's know-it-all attitude after a while. For being so 'rational', she sure has some mayor irrational thoughts too. The farther into the book the more egoistic she became -while still thinking of herself as being a world saviour-. Narcissist might not be a bad description of Alicorns Bella.
Turning people into vampires left and right and wanting to turn everyone who's willing... with the rate she alone is sucking dry killer whales and other animals, the world would be pretty empty of animals -and thus food- within a decade or two.
I actually really love the thought that Bella uses a bit of wit and intelligence. In too many romantic fantasy books the female character misses logic and/or backbone. But this Bella takes it a step to far and loses herself in overconfidence -barely listening and certainly not caring about what others think and thinking her logic and opinions are superior. It feels like the author is overcompensating.
Turning people into vampires left and right and wanting to turn everyone who's willing... with the rate she alone is sucking dry killer whales and other animals, the world would be pretty empty of animals -and thus food- within a decade or two.
I actually really love the thought that Bella uses a bit of wit and intelligence. In too many romantic fantasy books the female character misses logic and/or backbone. But this Bella takes it a step to far and loses herself in overconfidence -barely listening and certainly not caring about what others think and thinking her logic and opinions are superior. It feels like the author is overcompensating.
January 10, 2012
I really couldn't put this book down once it got going, which is basically where it departs from the cannon story. While there is a LOT of bad fanfiction, this is a rare exception. It's much better written than the cannon story, with characters that are richer, and more real, yet true to original , other than Bella who instead of merely being a passive one-dimensional plot device, is a well-rounded strong protagonist.
November 17, 2020
Bella Swan is a quick-witted rationalist with an obsession with critical thinking. When she moves to the small town of Forks, she begins noticing strange things about a certain family in town. Their eyes change colour, they don't seem to eat, and they never appear in daylight. The Cullens are hiding something big. It's not long before Bella finds herself engulfed in a world of vampires and danger, and she has only one goal. She's going to take it over.
Twilight as a series was readable, but a far cry from the literary genius that some of the more rabid fans would claim. It's interesting to see how things would play out if Bella weren't so lovestruck, and more capable of plotting and planning.
Luminous Bella easily avoids many of the traps and pitfalls her cannon counterpart fell victim to. She dodges love triangles easily, avoids needless self-sacrifice, and a hundred other minor issues. She's clever and devious, plotting the destruction of the Volturi and world domination from day one. Of course, this doesn't mean that's she's better off. Sometimes clever thinking can be overdone.
Luminosity covers the scope of the entire series with major deviations along the way. The world is fleshed-out and expanded upon seamlessly, adding a whole new dimension to the tale. The ending itself caught me completely by surprise.
A fascinating retelling of the Twilight story that should appeal to many readers even if they hated the main series. I enjoyed it so much that I dove immediately into the second one without a moment's hesitation.
Twilight as a series was readable, but a far cry from the literary genius that some of the more rabid fans would claim. It's interesting to see how things would play out if Bella weren't so lovestruck, and more capable of plotting and planning.
Luminous Bella easily avoids many of the traps and pitfalls her cannon counterpart fell victim to. She dodges love triangles easily, avoids needless self-sacrifice, and a hundred other minor issues. She's clever and devious, plotting the destruction of the Volturi and world domination from day one. Of course, this doesn't mean that's she's better off. Sometimes clever thinking can be overdone.
Luminosity covers the scope of the entire series with major deviations along the way. The world is fleshed-out and expanded upon seamlessly, adding a whole new dimension to the tale. The ending itself caught me completely by surprise.
A fascinating retelling of the Twilight story that should appeal to many readers even if they hated the main series. I enjoyed it so much that I dove immediately into the second one without a moment's hesitation.
June 14, 2019
The Bella in this version is more rational, but she comes across as almost robot-like. She also comes across as a kind of Super-Intelligent MarySue with entitlement issues. She gets so many people hurt or killed by the end of this book, and causes so much emotional destruction from her choices. It's just painful.
For all the many flaws of the original books, they were somewhat more upbeat in tone. So this book is an improvement in the technical writing ability and in erasing some the more obvious personality flaws in the characters of the original books, but the original books had the happier overall story.
When I finished this book and before I read Radiance, I would have given it 1 star. Radiance redeems the story a tiny bit.
For all the many flaws of the original books, they were somewhat more upbeat in tone. So this book is an improvement in the technical writing ability and in erasing some the more obvious personality flaws in the characters of the original books, but the original books had the happier overall story.
When I finished this book and before I read Radiance, I would have given it 1 star. Radiance redeems the story a tiny bit.
January 23, 2012
I've never read the canon series, but I can infer enough from the Wikipedia synopsis and the excerpts I've heard to guess that this fanfic is far better written and more interesting. Furthermore, I'd guess that it downplays to a large extent the subject of love and romance, focusing more heavily on the aspect of personal choice. This is not surprising, considering it is written by a member of the Bayesian Conspiracy with the intention of illustrating concepts of rational introspection and decision-making. Although the first few chapters resemble the plot of the first Twilight book rather closely, it takes off in a completely different direction when Bella persuades Edward to turn her into a vampire. In other words, the main plot starts with Bella planning to become, and then actually becoming an immortal. And then it swerves off into the ditch. I couldn't put it down, and it ended on such a cliff-hanger that now I'm going to have to immediately start on the sequel.
Now, I suspect that this story is going to draw more HPMOR fans than Twilight fans, so I should compare its writing to that popular fanfic. rational!Bella is every bit as believable and three-dimensional as rational!Potter, but her story is far more coherent. Luminosity is the movie to HPMOR's TV series. And the best part is: it's finished. There is no sitting around and waiting for a year for the author to add another chapter. (To any future person who didn't start HPMOR until after it was finished, I just want to let you know how jealous I am.) Finally, I want to say that Alicorn's writing embodies all the best qualities of Eli's writing: she assumes the reader is intelligent, and makes sure to show more than tell what her characters are thinking and feeling, and, while she does take the occasional shot at Meyer, she treats the Twilight universe with a surprising amount of respect.
I'm going to go as far as saying that anyone considering reading a rational fan-fic should pick this one up before HPMOR. I think it did a great job of driving home the lessons it is intended to illustrate (the author's lesswrong instructional sequence on luminosity among others) while remaining a thrilling and unpredictable link-clicker (which is what we have in the post-dead-tree-book society when there are no pages to turn).
Now, I suspect that this story is going to draw more HPMOR fans than Twilight fans, so I should compare its writing to that popular fanfic. rational!Bella is every bit as believable and three-dimensional as rational!Potter, but her story is far more coherent. Luminosity is the movie to HPMOR's TV series. And the best part is: it's finished. There is no sitting around and waiting for a year for the author to add another chapter. (To any future person who didn't start HPMOR until after it was finished, I just want to let you know how jealous I am.) Finally, I want to say that Alicorn's writing embodies all the best qualities of Eli's writing: she assumes the reader is intelligent, and makes sure to show more than tell what her characters are thinking and feeling, and, while she does take the occasional shot at Meyer, she treats the Twilight universe with a surprising amount of respect.
I'm going to go as far as saying that anyone considering reading a rational fan-fic should pick this one up before HPMOR. I think it did a great job of driving home the lessons it is intended to illustrate (the author's lesswrong instructional sequence on luminosity among others) while remaining a thrilling and unpredictable link-clicker (which is what we have in the post-dead-tree-book society when there are no pages to turn).
June 29, 2022
Damn, I guess I have to read Radiance now.
There's an element of this book, like Yudkowsky's HPMoR, that annoys me. The main characters in these kind of rationalfics tend to be painfully self-righteous and unrealistically over-the-top. Bella definitely falls into this category. However, it improves, either because you get used to her or maybe because she mellows out. Probably the former, because she talks like an algorithm spitting out decision trees.
It's a weird book. First you notice that the prose is almost non-existent. Then you notice that the main character isn't going along with the plot and is taking things into her own hands. Then you're caught up in it.
The middle of the book is weird, not a lot happens at times and it reads like an actuarial recounting of minor events. But when things happen, they happen. The dynamics are really interesting, and reflect a way deeper engagement with the idea of Twilight-style vampires than Meyer managed
And the ending. Jesus. No spoilers but I didn't expect it.
So yes. Very very weird. But pretty good, for the right audience.
7/10
There's an element of this book, like Yudkowsky's HPMoR, that annoys me. The main characters in these kind of rationalfics tend to be painfully self-righteous and unrealistically over-the-top. Bella definitely falls into this category. However, it improves, either because you get used to her or maybe because she mellows out. Probably the former, because she talks like an algorithm spitting out decision trees.
It's a weird book. First you notice that the prose is almost non-existent. Then you notice that the main character isn't going along with the plot and is taking things into her own hands. Then you're caught up in it.
The middle of the book is weird, not a lot happens at times and it reads like an actuarial recounting of minor events. But when things happen, they happen. The dynamics are really interesting, and reflect a way deeper engagement with the idea of Twilight-style vampires than Meyer managed
And the ending. Jesus. No spoilers but I didn't expect it.
So yes. Very very weird. But pretty good, for the right audience.
7/10
October 25, 2021
Geniuenly loved this so much. Way better than the original Twilight! I confuse the two as well, taking something from this fanfic and forgetting that it's not canon.
January 8, 2025
smeyer is quaking
November 7, 2015
I was not surprised by liking this fanfic/book. I've heard a lot about it before hand and it sounded awesome. I devoured it as I devour almost everything I read.
I, however, am not in love with it.
First, I strongly disliked Bella. I'm willing to admit some of it is that I'm simply not used to characters like her, she knows what she wants and she goes after it, and that is, potentially a good thing, but I didn't like it. So maybe part of it is ingrained social conditioning that won't let me act like her because I'm a woman -all the feels- and which makes me strongly dislike someone who won't do the same.
But that would be just part of it.
Mostly I disliked Bella because I believe her to be incredibly self-absorbed and not as incredibly different from the original Bella as I had heard she was (I also know that women, and by extension female characters, have a much lower threshold of tolerance for selfishness than male characters -not to imply that female/male is a dichotomy, but ignoring the spectrum, because the book worked in this dichotomy-) and that maybe part of it too).
Yes, she was very... aware of her own emotions and wants. And that was great.
But she was seldom aware that other people's emotions and wants where not the same as hers. She never considered that the things she considered good/acceptable/moral/desirable for her, maybe not be the same for others. And maybe that's acceptable for her, as a human. But how could she think that changing species would not involve a shift of paradigm? How did she not comprehend that she wasn't the end-all/start-all of all things? And it's not that I understand her point of view, as a vegetarian (vegan in the making) for four years I know what she's feeling? Honest, is not lack of empathy on my part. But I do feel there's a lack of empathy from her towards the rest of the...well, world.
And I can get behind the whole "no murder" thing. But her insistence that humanity as a whole should be immortal was just.... exasperating. and she thought she could impose on others with this point of view -- namely, the Cullens and the Quileute -- but God forbid anyone would impose on her their point of view, even when it wasn't "threatening" towards her personally (and, honest, I love the idea of attending to college for thousand of years and learning forever, but what, exactly is so bad about dying? Which is specially annoying to me because she doesn't even GO to college! He goes on directly to rule the whole world forever! what...?).
I also forget to add that consent is not great, is NECESSARY. Enthusiastic consent is elemental. BUT, again, change of species, change of paradigm. It's obvious that with a greater amount of power, comes more responsibility (a la Spiderman). But, also, with change of responsibilities, also come different rights. I wouldn't expect a fish to live by the laws of a human (or viceversa), so obviously the same applies to both vampires and werewolves (even if it's not a perfect allegory, I think it still stands). So I don't know how I feel about the hard time she gave Edward, Alice and Jasper. As if they were doing it on purpose or something (though I see her point). I feel it was completely unnecesary and overboard. But that's... just feelings. I don't feel confident with the alternative either.
And... well, yeah, I obviously still enjoyed it very much and I definitely love it more than Twilight (which I hate with the fire of a thousand burning sons, to quote that friend of Kat's in 10tihay.
I, however, am not in love with it.
First, I strongly disliked Bella. I'm willing to admit some of it is that I'm simply not used to characters like her, she knows what she wants and she goes after it, and that is, potentially a good thing, but I didn't like it. So maybe part of it is ingrained social conditioning that won't let me act like her because I'm a woman -all the feels- and which makes me strongly dislike someone who won't do the same.
But that would be just part of it.
Mostly I disliked Bella because I believe her to be incredibly self-absorbed and not as incredibly different from the original Bella as I had heard she was (I also know that women, and by extension female characters, have a much lower threshold of tolerance for selfishness than male characters -not to imply that female/male is a dichotomy, but ignoring the spectrum, because the book worked in this dichotomy-) and that maybe part of it too).
Yes, she was very... aware of her own emotions and wants. And that was great.
But she was seldom aware that other people's emotions and wants where not the same as hers. She never considered that the things she considered good/acceptable/moral/desirable for her, maybe not be the same for others. And maybe that's acceptable for her, as a human. But how could she think that changing species would not involve a shift of paradigm? How did she not comprehend that she wasn't the end-all/start-all of all things? And it's not that I understand her point of view, as a vegetarian (vegan in the making) for four years I know what she's feeling? Honest, is not lack of empathy on my part. But I do feel there's a lack of empathy from her towards the rest of the...well, world.
And I can get behind the whole "no murder" thing. But her insistence that humanity as a whole should be immortal was just.... exasperating. and she thought she could impose on others with this point of view -- namely, the Cullens and the Quileute -- but God forbid anyone would impose on her their point of view, even when it wasn't "threatening" towards her personally (and, honest, I love the idea of attending to college for thousand of years and learning forever, but what, exactly is so bad about dying? Which is specially annoying to me because she doesn't even GO to college! He goes on directly to rule the whole world forever! what...?).
I also forget to add that consent is not great, is NECESSARY. Enthusiastic consent is elemental. BUT, again, change of species, change of paradigm. It's obvious that with a greater amount of power, comes more responsibility (a la Spiderman). But, also, with change of responsibilities, also come different rights. I wouldn't expect a fish to live by the laws of a human (or viceversa), so obviously the same applies to both vampires and werewolves (even if it's not a perfect allegory, I think it still stands). So I don't know how I feel about the hard time she gave Edward, Alice and Jasper. As if they were doing it on purpose or something (though I see her point). I feel it was completely unnecesary and overboard. But that's... just feelings. I don't feel confident with the alternative either.
And... well, yeah, I obviously still enjoyed it very much and I definitely love it more than Twilight (which I hate with the fire of a thousand burning sons, to quote that friend of Kat's in 10tihay.
June 1, 2017
Now, it pains me to say I have a bit of a weakness for Twilight. I know it's not a good book, neither stylistically nor when it comes to its values - but I'm a sucker for teen stories and that's what it is, at the core. Just a fun American high school paranormal romance. Still, I always quit reading somewhere before the last third. The more intense the relationship gets, the more abusive it becomes and I'm really not interested in how Meyer deals with adventure plots. Still, I will never lose that weakness. I grew up with the book series and I will never quite forget it. And really, it's not the characters's fault that their creator didn't know what to do with them.
So this is where I really liked this book. It's fun to see how Alicorn actually sat down and dissected the world building, prodding and poking at the parts that never quite made sense. Also, there were some parts I'd never even clocked as problematic about Twilight because Bella took them in a stride - like, uh, of course most people would be creeped out by mind reading? Why did I never question this before?? Sometimes the fic does get a bit too analytical/philosophical for my own tastes, but I could deal with it. Also, I loved how this gave Bella a reason of her own to become a vampire and it hit really close to home, because it's one that appeals to me so much as well - learn and experience as much as you possibly can.
Now, I read somebody else's opinion that Bella just got turned into a more annoying Mary Sue here and I gotta say, I kind of agree. I didn't mind it, but book!Bella does have a charm of her own (mostly pandering to our hidden insecurities and weaknesses) and that really isn't a thing here.
I would have been totally content to just have this story end at this point, or read about the Cullens travelling the world forever and doing boring stuff like enrolling in high school after high school (I can never read too much about high schools), but yeah. Bella apparently has to mess with everything, and while I totally understand the desire to change the world and I also recognize that how the book dealt with the Volturi was not optimal/satisfactory.... Sigh. Some of the things Bella did were beyond stupid.
So yes. Now I need to review the sequel.
So this is where I really liked this book. It's fun to see how Alicorn actually sat down and dissected the world building, prodding and poking at the parts that never quite made sense. Also, there were some parts I'd never even clocked as problematic about Twilight because Bella took them in a stride - like, uh, of course most people would be creeped out by mind reading? Why did I never question this before?? Sometimes the fic does get a bit too analytical/philosophical for my own tastes, but I could deal with it. Also, I loved how this gave Bella a reason of her own to become a vampire and it hit really close to home, because it's one that appeals to me so much as well - learn and experience as much as you possibly can.
Now, I read somebody else's opinion that Bella just got turned into a more annoying Mary Sue here and I gotta say, I kind of agree. I didn't mind it, but book!Bella does have a charm of her own (mostly pandering to our hidden insecurities and weaknesses) and that really isn't a thing here.
I would have been totally content to just have this story end at this point, or read about the Cullens travelling the world forever and doing boring stuff like enrolling in high school after high school (I can never read too much about high schools), but yeah. Bella apparently has to mess with everything, and while I totally understand the desire to change the world and I also recognize that how the book dealt with the Volturi was not optimal/satisfactory.... Sigh. Some of the things Bella did were beyond stupid.
So yes. Now I need to review the sequel.
February 6, 2015
Finally took the plunge and tried this in spite of my disdain for the source material (unlike the case with HPMOR). Bella here could certainly be said to be an improvement over the original, but being rational for her too often involves belabouring the obvious and her sense of righteous entitlement ensures that she's never quite the final agent she imagines herself to be in the workings of power, such as they are. HPMOR's Harry exhibits a similar attitude, but the setting there allows him enough outs that combined with his resourcefulness let him get away with it. Bella doesn't quite appreciate her predicament enough to see that her ability to 'game the system' is very much dependent on whims and affections she takes for granted rather than her mastery of the system's structure.
Perhaps I'll have more to say later, after going at the next volume.
Perhaps I'll have more to say later, after going at the next volume.
July 10, 2012
Note: There were some parts that I really liked and some parts that I really didn't but it was too good of a book to put that I didn't like it overall. This is a rewrite of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and I think that the author was very creative in coming up with the different twists that the plot would take if Bella were actually a rational, thinking person.
February 7, 2014
Well that was certainly a ballsy way to go with the ending, but I'm not sure what the point of telling that story was.
April 14, 2015
Very enjoyable and clever take on Twilight.
February 28, 2024
This one is tricky. I definitely came into it with somewhat wrong assumptions - I was expecting a fic where Bella was cynically using Edward simply to get immortality, and not one where the relationship is maintained. And I think there are some other plot details I was expecting that must come from some other work that I can't find.
But regardless, I knew going in that this was the Twilight rationalist fic, in much the same way that Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality launched the whole thing. I've never read that one, and in general haven't read much ratfic, but I have seen a theme of wanting to avoid death at all costs and that's certainly present here. Ironically, though, it's when Bella is still mortal that I enjoyed the story most, and once she becomes a vampire her supposedly rational nature leads to a number of dumb decisions that took away a lot of my enjoyment.
The story starts just as the original Twilight did, with Bella moving to Forks to live with her dad. Here she's doing it very intentionally to allow her mom to be happy with her new husband, and Bella in general is much more intentional about her actions. She thinks everything through by writing it down in notebooks, and as a result when she realizes that Alice seems to be answering her questions before she can ask them, Bella is brought into the secret of vampirism much earlier. From there, she gets to do some clever things, like save a number of her eggs so she can have a kid through a surrogate rather than go through the vampire pregnancy original flavor Bella experiences.
The cleverest thing here, though, is Bella dealing with James. She avoids immediately running off to Arizona, pointing out that her mom isn't even there anymore, but this just leads to James kidnapping him. However, Bella is able to lie her way into being brought right to the Volturi, claiming a reward based on her psychic power and it's potential once she's been turned. This ends up working, and once the James plot is resolved, Bella is turned into a vampire less than halfway through the fic and well before it happens in the original series.
Here is where my issues begin to arise. On the one hand, there are some pretty clever bits of worldbuilding and expansion on the original material. Bella decides to intentionally awaken the werewolves, leading her to discover she can activate people regardless of gender as long as they're the right age. Rachel, Jacob's older sister, becomes pack leader, and there's some interesting stuff. Bella also works on developing her shield powers further, becoming able to block Jasper, though she never figures out the ability to shield others that she develops in Breaking Dawn. And there are trips to visit some of the friendly covens. Plus Bella develops a full procedure for hybrid babies, having a human implanted with one of her eggs and then birthing the baby after three weeks and turning the surrogate. So there's a lot of neat work done to explore implications of the setting and come up with new ideas. Plus Bella's kid isn't named Renesmee.
But on the other hand, much of the plot once Bella turns into a vampire ends up with her making stupid rash decisions that build and build until they bite her in the ass to an extreme extent. While in theory turning the wolves is good, instead it leads to a series of dramas from Harry becoming a vampire to his wife getting vampire pregnant, culminating in the Volturi discovering the wolves after all, the very thing Bella wanted to avoid. As a result of this,
And it's not like these events aren't a natural consequence of the story - it's clearly the fallout of Bella's hubris, something she herself realizes. But it feels like it takes things rather far off the course of Twilight, and it doesn't help that I found myself less invested in the story in the second half. There's a second fic that follows Elspeth, Bella's daughter, and I'm again torn. Because I know about the fakeout big battle in the film of Breaking Dawn, and I'm sorta curious about a story following that if it actually happened, but of course Radiant won't be that story. And perhaps it's silly, especially since I don't mind the name change, but Elspeth doesn't feel like she's the same character as Renesmee and I lack the same level of investment in her as a character.
So in the end, while I had expected this would be the big fun fic that fixes my issues with Twilight and causes me to enjoy it more than the canon, I actually found this somewhat less enjoyable. There are things I liked, but they're weighed down by a lot of things I didn't care for as much, and I just overall didn't have the best time with this story. I do wonder if perhaps I would've enjoyed it more with the serial numbers filed off, as some of my issues come down to attachment to the original characters and how they're handled here.
But regardless, I knew going in that this was the Twilight rationalist fic, in much the same way that Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality launched the whole thing. I've never read that one, and in general haven't read much ratfic, but I have seen a theme of wanting to avoid death at all costs and that's certainly present here. Ironically, though, it's when Bella is still mortal that I enjoyed the story most, and once she becomes a vampire her supposedly rational nature leads to a number of dumb decisions that took away a lot of my enjoyment.
The story starts just as the original Twilight did, with Bella moving to Forks to live with her dad. Here she's doing it very intentionally to allow her mom to be happy with her new husband, and Bella in general is much more intentional about her actions. She thinks everything through by writing it down in notebooks, and as a result when she realizes that Alice seems to be answering her questions before she can ask them, Bella is brought into the secret of vampirism much earlier. From there, she gets to do some clever things, like save a number of her eggs so she can have a kid through a surrogate rather than go through the vampire pregnancy original flavor Bella experiences.
The cleverest thing here, though, is Bella dealing with James. She avoids immediately running off to Arizona, pointing out that her mom isn't even there anymore, but this just leads to James kidnapping him. However, Bella is able to lie her way into being brought right to the Volturi, claiming a reward based on her psychic power and it's potential once she's been turned. This ends up working, and once the James plot is resolved, Bella is turned into a vampire less than halfway through the fic and well before it happens in the original series.
Here is where my issues begin to arise. On the one hand, there are some pretty clever bits of worldbuilding and expansion on the original material. Bella decides to intentionally awaken the werewolves, leading her to discover she can activate people regardless of gender as long as they're the right age. Rachel, Jacob's older sister, becomes pack leader, and there's some interesting stuff. Bella also works on developing her shield powers further, becoming able to block Jasper, though she never figures out the ability to shield others that she develops in Breaking Dawn. And there are trips to visit some of the friendly covens. Plus Bella develops a full procedure for hybrid babies, having a human implanted with one of her eggs and then birthing the baby after three weeks and turning the surrogate. So there's a lot of neat work done to explore implications of the setting and come up with new ideas. Plus Bella's kid isn't named Renesmee.
But on the other hand, much of the plot once Bella turns into a vampire ends up with her making stupid rash decisions that build and build until they bite her in the ass to an extreme extent. While in theory turning the wolves is good, instead it leads to a series of dramas from Harry becoming a vampire to his wife getting vampire pregnant, culminating in the Volturi discovering the wolves after all, the very thing Bella wanted to avoid. As a result of this,
And it's not like these events aren't a natural consequence of the story - it's clearly the fallout of Bella's hubris, something she herself realizes. But it feels like it takes things rather far off the course of Twilight, and it doesn't help that I found myself less invested in the story in the second half. There's a second fic that follows Elspeth, Bella's daughter, and I'm again torn. Because I know about the fakeout big battle in the film of Breaking Dawn, and I'm sorta curious about a story following that if it actually happened, but of course Radiant won't be that story. And perhaps it's silly, especially since I don't mind the name change, but Elspeth doesn't feel like she's the same character as Renesmee and I lack the same level of investment in her as a character.
So in the end, while I had expected this would be the big fun fic that fixes my issues with Twilight and causes me to enjoy it more than the canon, I actually found this somewhat less enjoyable. There are things I liked, but they're weighed down by a lot of things I didn't care for as much, and I just overall didn't have the best time with this story. I do wonder if perhaps I would've enjoyed it more with the serial numbers filed off, as some of my issues come down to attachment to the original characters and how they're handled here.
August 24, 2017
**SPOILER WARNING**
I'm not a whiz at the whole Goodreads formatting thing, but I did try, so I'm sorry if I accidentally spoil anything.
T-Bella = Twilight Bella (as in the one written by Steph)
L-Bella = Luminosity's Bella
(just so that we don't get confused)
I honestly thought that I would enjoy this more than I did.
The only reason that this is getting 3 stars is because the premise was good (in the beginning), the writing wasn't as terrible as it could have been, and the weird sh*t Bella got up to literally kept me hooked until the last chapter.
I learned after I finished this that it was based on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. I'm only a few (about 20) chapters into that, and I can say that it is much better in terms of taking a book character and making them 'rational' and 'logical'. Rational Harry irritates me a lot more than rational Bella did, but at least rational Harry was funny.
For someone who claims to be rational, observant and level-headed, Luminosity's Bella has absolutely no concept of strategy and how to plan for the future. Twilight Bella had the right idea to wait until she had finished high school and became legally an adult before getting hitched and knocked up. Even if Bella didn't have any ambitions to go to University/College/whatever, there is still rationality and logic behind finishing high school and pretending to go away to university in Alaska or another country.
And then there's the thing with the wolves.
Also: Gianna?? And that whole situation??
And then there's Edward. The reason many young girls (myself at 15 included) adore Edddy-boy despite his creepy stalkerish and possessive behaviors is that Edd is passionate about T-Bella. He really, really loves her and it shows. L-Edd also loves Bella, but he is so insipid as a character. I totally get not wanting to scare her away, but it's unrealistic that you can adore someone that much and not let them know. And he lets himself be strung along by L-Bella because she wants to be turned and it just so happened that she fell in love with him on the way.
I wasn't a fan by how much this deviated from canon. I've read some really amazing fanfictions where the authors go in a completely different direction than is canon - but that is evident before you even start reading. Luminosity pretends to be Twilight until it becomes inconvenient and the author realises that because L-Bella is vastly different, things need to change.
I also think that this could have been split into 2 short books. For me, there are 2 very distinct sections that can be summarised as Pre-Vampire and Post-Vampire. It felt very, very long while reading, and I was hooked into the story while it felt like the story dragged on a bit.
This is probably the longest Goodreads review that I've done but I have a lot of thoughts that I need to share, so apologies for the ramble.
I probably won't be reading the second book.
I'm not a whiz at the whole Goodreads formatting thing, but I did try, so I'm sorry if I accidentally spoil anything.
T-Bella = Twilight Bella (as in the one written by Steph)
L-Bella = Luminosity's Bella
(just so that we don't get confused)
I honestly thought that I would enjoy this more than I did.
The only reason that this is getting 3 stars is because the premise was good (in the beginning), the writing wasn't as terrible as it could have been, and the weird sh*t Bella got up to literally kept me hooked until the last chapter.
I learned after I finished this that it was based on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. I'm only a few (about 20) chapters into that, and I can say that it is much better in terms of taking a book character and making them 'rational' and 'logical'. Rational Harry irritates me a lot more than rational Bella did, but at least rational Harry was funny.
For someone who claims to be rational, observant and level-headed, Luminosity's Bella has absolutely no concept of strategy and how to plan for the future. Twilight Bella had the right idea to wait until she had finished high school and became legally an adult before getting hitched and knocked up. Even if Bella didn't have any ambitions to go to University/College/whatever, there is still rationality and logic behind finishing high school and pretending to go away to university in Alaska or another country.
And then there's the thing with the wolves.
Also: Gianna?? And that whole situation??
And then there's Edward. The reason many young girls (myself at 15 included) adore Edddy-boy despite his creepy stalkerish and possessive behaviors is that Edd is passionate about T-Bella. He really, really loves her and it shows. L-Edd also loves Bella, but he is so insipid as a character. I totally get not wanting to scare her away, but it's unrealistic that you can adore someone that much and not let them know. And he lets himself be strung along by L-Bella because she wants to be turned and it just so happened that she fell in love with him on the way.
I wasn't a fan by how much this deviated from canon. I've read some really amazing fanfictions where the authors go in a completely different direction than is canon - but that is evident before you even start reading. Luminosity pretends to be Twilight until it becomes inconvenient and the author realises that because L-Bella is vastly different, things need to change.
I also think that this could have been split into 2 short books. For me, there are 2 very distinct sections that can be summarised as Pre-Vampire and Post-Vampire. It felt very, very long while reading, and I was hooked into the story while it felt like the story dragged on a bit.
This is probably the longest Goodreads review that I've done but I have a lot of thoughts that I need to share, so apologies for the ramble.
I probably won't be reading the second book.
May 4, 2020
This story is a bit of a reconstruction of the Twilight storyline via the alternate-reality mechanism of altering some fundamental characteristic(s) of the protagonist.
I found this story pretty engaging. It's definitely better than both the snippets of the original Stephenie Meyer books that I've read and the impression of it I have from reading others' descriptions of having read the original.
While this gets categorized as "ratfic" (or "rational fiction") for obvious reasons, I find that beyond some early emphasis on how the protagonist thinks about things using a semi-standardized set of questions, that quickly fades into the background. Thereafter, the intrusion of "ratfic" into the Twilight world in this story mostly revolves around these deviations:
1. The protagonist is curious enough to follow loose threads in the weave of most people's expectations, where the canon characters are pretty much all just deeply incurious in much the same way many software developers never think to question whether floating point number implementations in their programming languages actually do what they expect. To put it another way, most people never bother to be curious enough about the ingredients on some food product from a supermarket to learn that when it says "dextrose" in the ingredient list that means it includes added sugar.
2. The protagonist follows the pattern (established by Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality) of formulating breathtakingly ambitious plans to eliminate all human death. This is a clearly rational thing to do if one has the capacity for it, and both the sudden realization magic is real and the sudden realization immortal vampires exist (and humans can become them) should serve as great sources of inspiration to look into eliminating death. On the other hand, it's also not the only Hard Problem to solve. While Harry in HPMOR sets about manufacturing rational allies to pursue ambitious plans, though, Bella in Luminosity goes it alone.
The results of Bella's lonely pursuit of the end of death are predictable. She overestimates her chances of success, underestimates the dangers involved, fails to consider consequences of her short-term approaches to long-term plans, and makes other mistakes that arise when one doesn't get an outsider viewpoint to check one's work.
I'm a little disappointed in the unreality of one particular aspect of this book and, to a lesser extent, also to HPMOR: the fact that actually coming to correct conclusions and articulating them well is evidently convincing to many people. In the real world, those two factors have very little to do with one's chances of success. Perhaps people in the LessWrong, Bayesian Conspiracy, pragmatic rationalism subculture(s) suffer from some amount of selection bias, in that they join a community that attracts people more susceptible than most to logic/reason, and forget that this is a community self-selecting for such characteristics, while just being presented with people in any subculture at all who are not necessarily prone to more rational thinking yields very different results in the susceptibility of such people to logic/reason, or even substantive evidence.
While HPMOR continued to be excellent throughout, I found that Luminosity felt less well-developed as it went on: more sparsely finished, less polished. It never got to the point of being bad, but it became less great, the writing itself less absorbing, over time -- as if the author started losing a little inspiration for the act of writing in and of itself. The events, on the other hand, drove me on anyway. I was invested by that point.
It doesn't have an ending, exactly. It stops on an intermission, basically. It's time to pick up the sequel, Radiance, next.
I'm conflicted about whether to give it three or four stars. I'll just pick one, and maybe change my mind later (perhaps several times). As I hinted above, though, it's definitely interesting enough for me to want to read the next book. I suspect how the sequel plays out will alter my sense of how many stars this book deserves, in some way. I hope it's a positive change.
I found this story pretty engaging. It's definitely better than both the snippets of the original Stephenie Meyer books that I've read and the impression of it I have from reading others' descriptions of having read the original.
While this gets categorized as "ratfic" (or "rational fiction") for obvious reasons, I find that beyond some early emphasis on how the protagonist thinks about things using a semi-standardized set of questions, that quickly fades into the background. Thereafter, the intrusion of "ratfic" into the Twilight world in this story mostly revolves around these deviations:
1. The protagonist is curious enough to follow loose threads in the weave of most people's expectations, where the canon characters are pretty much all just deeply incurious in much the same way many software developers never think to question whether floating point number implementations in their programming languages actually do what they expect. To put it another way, most people never bother to be curious enough about the ingredients on some food product from a supermarket to learn that when it says "dextrose" in the ingredient list that means it includes added sugar.
2. The protagonist follows the pattern (established by Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality) of formulating breathtakingly ambitious plans to eliminate all human death. This is a clearly rational thing to do if one has the capacity for it, and both the sudden realization magic is real and the sudden realization immortal vampires exist (and humans can become them) should serve as great sources of inspiration to look into eliminating death. On the other hand, it's also not the only Hard Problem to solve. While Harry in HPMOR sets about manufacturing rational allies to pursue ambitious plans, though, Bella in Luminosity goes it alone.
The results of Bella's lonely pursuit of the end of death are predictable. She overestimates her chances of success, underestimates the dangers involved, fails to consider consequences of her short-term approaches to long-term plans, and makes other mistakes that arise when one doesn't get an outsider viewpoint to check one's work.
I'm a little disappointed in the unreality of one particular aspect of this book and, to a lesser extent, also to HPMOR: the fact that actually coming to correct conclusions and articulating them well is evidently convincing to many people. In the real world, those two factors have very little to do with one's chances of success. Perhaps people in the LessWrong, Bayesian Conspiracy, pragmatic rationalism subculture(s) suffer from some amount of selection bias, in that they join a community that attracts people more susceptible than most to logic/reason, and forget that this is a community self-selecting for such characteristics, while just being presented with people in any subculture at all who are not necessarily prone to more rational thinking yields very different results in the susceptibility of such people to logic/reason, or even substantive evidence.
While HPMOR continued to be excellent throughout, I found that Luminosity felt less well-developed as it went on: more sparsely finished, less polished. It never got to the point of being bad, but it became less great, the writing itself less absorbing, over time -- as if the author started losing a little inspiration for the act of writing in and of itself. The events, on the other hand, drove me on anyway. I was invested by that point.
It doesn't have an ending, exactly. It stops on an intermission, basically. It's time to pick up the sequel, Radiance, next.
I'm conflicted about whether to give it three or four stars. I'll just pick one, and maybe change my mind later (perhaps several times). As I hinted above, though, it's definitely interesting enough for me to want to read the next book. I suspect how the sequel plays out will alter my sense of how many stars this book deserves, in some way. I hope it's a positive change.
July 2, 2017
_Luminosity_ is a re-imagining of the _Twilight_ series, which is a class of work which I never expected to read. Given that I've never read _Twilight_ itself, it's something of an odd thing to pick up, but I reached it via a chain of odd recommendations which led me first to the still-unfinished _Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality_ and then on into other rationalist takes on popular culture.
As with other items from this genre, _Luminosity_ replaces the main character with a more introspective and rational person, and largely lets events unfold with that in mind. Presumably, there are no major changes to the setting. I don't know. The main character, Bella, describes a fairly successful move to live with her father in a wet and cloudy bit of the United States, followed by her uncovering a coven of vampires with magical powers living in the town. One of them falls inescapably in love with her, so she is accepted into their family somewhat. Leaping at the chance to become immortal, Bella revolutionises various small aspects of their lives by being one of few vampires transformed knowingly and willingly.
The majority of the book is pretty easy-going for rationalist Bella. She's handed a pretty sweet setup, there's nothing which particularly hampers her from enjoying it. The one time an unexpected event interrupts -- a member of a travelling coven decides to hunt her -- she ends up abducted, and has to do some quick talking to save herself, but that largely works out okay. Then, towards the end, as Bella is sitting on all her spoils of wealth, immortality and a growing collection of friends and allies she's mostly been able to benefit, it all suddenly goes to pot because a power she couldn't really check yet acts against her in a somewhat disinterested manner. Her lover is killed, her best friend is killed, the rest of her family are estranged, a lot of her other friends are killed or enslaved, and she wanders the earth lonely and purposeless.
In a sense, this could be considered some form of moral lesson: a heavy realistic reprimand to the generally upbeat tone of the earlier chapters, which seem to glisten with a sort of sickly optimism about how being a rationalist will make your life great. But the point -- if that is it -- is left until far too late, leaving the reader with the impression that a lot of what they've been reading is filler.
Despite this, _Luminosity_ compares reasonably well with _Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality_, to which it owes its inspiration. The tone is less preachy and moralistic -- though this does mean that _Luminosity_ contains less in the way of actionable rationalist tidbits -- and the main character less abrasive, yet also confronted with far fewer challenges. It is maybe worth mentioning that the two both suffer from fairly blatant Mary Sueism, though this could also be considered a requirement of the genre.
Neither particularly gripping (though, like a lot of web fiction, very readable) nor all that terrible, _Luminosity_ moves me to an average rating. Curiosity about what the downward plunge at the end of this book means for the sequel, _Radiance_, drives me to give it a shot. Somebody who read _Twilight_ and scoffed at it might well like _Luminosity_, but for all other readers the scale probably reads from mild interest to boredom.
August 29, 2024
This is is a Twilight Fanfic where Bella is a rationalist, meaning she thinks things through or at least that is what she should mean. She is so absorbed in doing what she feels is right that she just doesn't consider other people's opinions.
I have never read twilight only seen clips, watched reviews and partially read wikipedia.
The Prose is fine. Plot is fine, Characters barely exist and I don't really like the MC.
The book:
1. I liked the starting point cause I was kind of aware how the book began and I could see the differences. The excessive description of Bella's thought processes was tiring and exhausting. They go beyond that pretty significantly though.
2. There's no love story at all. Bella is just straight up told by Alice that she's going to be a vampire and has Edward in her future. She just accepts it, no I want something different or not even let me date someone else first and check it out. They pretend to have a relationship just because they'll be together in the future and Bella wants to use it as an excuse get a gap year to become a vampire. They whole thing goes so smoothly that I didn't even realise when they loved each other there's no great realisation at all.
3. No Love triangle which is fine but my god there was no friendship nothing at all! Jacob is practically non existent , most of the time, he's mentioned he's doing nothing that changes the plot or has any significant impact whatsoever.
4. The points about their relationship with the baby, who is thankfully not named after a pokemon, is actually pretty sweet.
5. Bella alone doesn't have the right to decide to end death by making all of humanity into vampires. That level of change requires consent of everyone. Who decides when everyone should turn? What about the kids? When do they get a chance to decide? Ending humanity could also seriously mess up the ecosystem.
6. Now while I do disagree with Vampires subsisting on human blood. Bella is so judgmental about the other vampires doing it that I actually sympathised WITH THEM! Vampires need human blood to survive, yes animal blood exists but not many vampires will have tried it given human blood smells awesome (as per Alicorn's book). It is a well known phenomenon that people ignore the ethical considerations of an action if the action brings them benefits. The Vampires since they need human blood to drink and live automatically distance themselves from Humans by thinking of them as lesser. Even if Vampires didn't drink blood they would still think of people as lesser as they would be forced to see their loved ones age and die constantly.
Bella at minimum goes about convincing people in the right way, which is good.
7. The end was nice. Reason? All the decisions Bella took alone had consequences, Big ones but the next book doesn't deal with them well at all.
8. The plot was the only thing that interested me I wanted to know what happened next. I doubt that I will want to read this book again.
The book was kind of too long but this seems to be a web serialised book, released weekly? monthly? So I will not count that here.
I have never read twilight only seen clips, watched reviews and partially read wikipedia.
The Prose is fine. Plot is fine, Characters barely exist and I don't really like the MC.
The book:
1. I liked the starting point cause I was kind of aware how the book began and I could see the differences. The excessive description of Bella's thought processes was tiring and exhausting. They go beyond that pretty significantly though.
2. There's no love story at all. Bella is just straight up told by Alice that she's going to be a vampire and has Edward in her future. She just accepts it, no I want something different or not even let me date someone else first and check it out. They pretend to have a relationship just because they'll be together in the future and Bella wants to use it as an excuse get a gap year to become a vampire. They whole thing goes so smoothly that I didn't even realise when they loved each other there's no great realisation at all.
3. No Love triangle which is fine but my god there was no friendship nothing at all! Jacob is practically non existent , most of the time, he's mentioned he's doing nothing that changes the plot or has any significant impact whatsoever.
4. The points about their relationship with the baby, who is thankfully not named after a pokemon, is actually pretty sweet.
5. Bella alone doesn't have the right to decide to end death by making all of humanity into vampires. That level of change requires consent of everyone. Who decides when everyone should turn? What about the kids? When do they get a chance to decide? Ending humanity could also seriously mess up the ecosystem.
6. Now while I do disagree with Vampires subsisting on human blood. Bella is so judgmental about the other vampires doing it that I actually sympathised WITH THEM! Vampires need human blood to survive, yes animal blood exists but not many vampires will have tried it given human blood smells awesome (as per Alicorn's book). It is a well known phenomenon that people ignore the ethical considerations of an action if the action brings them benefits. The Vampires since they need human blood to drink and live automatically distance themselves from Humans by thinking of them as lesser. Even if Vampires didn't drink blood they would still think of people as lesser as they would be forced to see their loved ones age and die constantly.
Bella at minimum goes about convincing people in the right way, which is good.
7. The end was nice. Reason? All the decisions Bella took alone had consequences, Big ones but the next book doesn't deal with them well at all.
8. The plot was the only thing that interested me I wanted to know what happened next. I doubt that I will want to read this book again.
The book was kind of too long but this seems to be a web serialised book, released weekly? monthly? So I will not count that here.
February 2, 2022
When I heard this concept, I was instantly on board. I thought, oh neat! Rationalist Twilight! So Bella’s going to immediately become a vampire and then minmax her way into taking over the world, right?
But that isn’t what happens. Instead what happens is the plot of the Twilight series but faster, and with all the drama sucked out due to the protagonist being far too smart to fall for silly things like tension-building conflict. I hate to say it--but the original was a superior work.
It’s not all bad. I like that there’s lesbians and more female werewolves. It’s kind of funny watching Rationalist Bella interacting with completely in-character canon Edward. But the structure of the overall story really wasn’t doing it for me. Bella usually uses her cleverness to avoid interesting conflicts, not solve them, which just doesn’t make for good television. Also I thought it was super weird how the concept of vampiric soulmates was taken at complete face value and even reified further than it was in the canon.
I read the first and last chapters of the sequel, Radiance, and got the impression that Bella minmaxing her way into ruling the world is what happens in that story. But at that point I was too exhausted to continue. I recommend that anybody interested in this story read the last three chapters of it, and then read Radiance--I won't, my trust has been lost. But maybe you should.
But that isn’t what happens. Instead what happens is the plot of the Twilight series but faster, and with all the drama sucked out due to the protagonist being far too smart to fall for silly things like tension-building conflict. I hate to say it--but the original was a superior work.
It’s not all bad. I like that there’s lesbians and more female werewolves. It’s kind of funny watching Rationalist Bella interacting with completely in-character canon Edward. But the structure of the overall story really wasn’t doing it for me. Bella usually uses her cleverness to avoid interesting conflicts, not solve them, which just doesn’t make for good television. Also I thought it was super weird how the concept of vampiric soulmates was taken at complete face value and even reified further than it was in the canon.
I read the first and last chapters of the sequel, Radiance, and got the impression that Bella minmaxing her way into ruling the world is what happens in that story. But at that point I was too exhausted to continue. I recommend that anybody interested in this story read the last three chapters of it, and then read Radiance--I won't, my trust has been lost. But maybe you should.
March 27, 2017
Three stars feels too low. Four feels a bit too high. Let's call it 3.75 stars.
TWILIGHT BACKGROUND
I'm rather fascinated with Twilight (stay with me, I'm not a Twihard) and my reaction to it. When the series first came out, both my husband and I were able to become completely engrossed in the novels, despite the flaws in plot, character, prose etc -- in fact I wasn't really aware of them during my first read-through, though some things stood out for sure.
Being an analytical sort, this ability to read -- what I found later on subsequent read-throughs to be some pretty bad writing -- troubled me. Especially later as I started studying novel writing and editing in depth (not an expert, still a student).
Years later when I read Second Sight I finally had my answer, or at least an explanation of sorts. The author, Cheryl B. Klein was the continuity editor for some of the Harry Potter books, and her book is a collection of talks. In one of her essays she writes that a good manuscript should contain four key elements:
1. Good prose
2. Character richness
3. Plot construction
4. Thematic depth
5. Emotion
She then goes on to say that to be a literary success, a finished book has to be really strong in at least four of those categories, but notes that a book can work solely as an entertainment as long as it has #5.
She writes:
She continues:
- Second Sight pages 7 & 8.
Right, so TONS of people weren't able to 'be grabbed' and saw the flaws way earlier than I did, but it still reassured me that I wasn't an idiot for getting swept up in the emotion of it all. There was an actual smart-sounding editor type REASON, and that made me feel better about it and find a place for the series in my brain so I could learn from Twilight without emulating any bad habits of the author.
But I'm going to tie this into my review of Luminosity too, so let's put a pin in that navel gazing, and get on with it.
Let's talk about Luminosity.
I finished reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality which is Eliezer Yudkowsky's rationalist fan-fiction of Harry Potter. (I enjoyed it immensely.) Luminosity is Alicorn's rationalist fan-fic of Twilight. Bella is not as scientifically minded as Harry, but she is rational, and that makes it a very fun read... in the beginning.
We get the same story at first and it's enjoyable to read that part of it through a logical Bella's eyes. Her friends are more valued and important, and she sticks up for their privacy once she finds out about Edward's mind reading abilities. She handles the tracker James with far more aplomb and thinking, and I find that I like her quite a bit.
But then things start to speed up and I find that there is something lacking. It takes me a few chapters to really put my finger on it - but the romance the original series held is absolutely gone. Edward is largely the same type of character, but he's like this quiet sort of dead spot in the story. He has no spark whatsoever. You don't FEEL his obsession with Bella. You don't FEEL his dramatic, angsty, undying love for her. In some ways that's a good thing. There is no night-time stalking, no frustrating love-triangle, but we've gone too far to the other side, and there's no CHEMISTRY as a result.
And she's not swept up in it like Bella 1.0 was. I liked at first, how much more cautious and level-headed she was being about the whole thing, but her logic and rationale ended up stealing the very thing Meyer did best.
Alicorn's writing is better than Meyer's, yes. But, Meyer's writing is actually more emotionally captivating. I know -- I've read all of Reasoning with Vampires. Alicorn's writing is structurally more correct, but there is an element of that crucial #5 - emotion - missing.
So, using Klein's list again:
1. Good prose: Technically correct; not beautiful
2. Character richness: Lacking
3. Plot construction: Good, though a bit haphazard, maybe?
4. Thematic depth: Good, keeps you turning the pages
5. Emotion: Lacking
Without the original love triangle and that patented Meyer die-for-you angst, we just have a fairly smart girl making a huge life change and then... being a fairly static vampire growth-wise, (though I do like the facet her daughter provides) and making some pretty big mistakes.
All that said, if you skip over some of them more tedious and lengthy descriptions of Bella's thought processes (Yudkowsky was guilty of this too), it is an interesting story and I like the different spin on events and characters. I'm somewhat troubled by the wake of destruction all of Bella's deep thinking does by the book's end, but it also alleviates some of the Mary Sue-ness of her character, that yes, still exists in this reincarnation. She might be logical and rational but she can still make pretty big errors in judgement with huge consequences. I'll hold out further judgement on those consequences until I finish the sequel, Radiance.
TWILIGHT BACKGROUND
I'm rather fascinated with Twilight (stay with me, I'm not a Twihard) and my reaction to it. When the series first came out, both my husband and I were able to become completely engrossed in the novels, despite the flaws in plot, character, prose etc -- in fact I wasn't really aware of them during my first read-through, though some things stood out for sure.
Being an analytical sort, this ability to read -- what I found later on subsequent read-throughs to be some pretty bad writing -- troubled me. Especially later as I started studying novel writing and editing in depth (not an expert, still a student).
Years later when I read Second Sight I finally had my answer, or at least an explanation of sorts. The author, Cheryl B. Klein was the continuity editor for some of the Harry Potter books, and her book is a collection of talks. In one of her essays she writes that a good manuscript should contain four key elements:
1. Good prose
2. Character richness
3. Plot construction
4. Thematic depth
5. Emotion
She then goes on to say that to be a literary success, a finished book has to be really strong in at least four of those categories, but notes that a book can work solely as an entertainment as long as it has #5.
She writes:
[I]f that emotion is strong enough and exciting enough, the reader will keep reading even if they recognize and care about the lack of everything else. [...] This is especially true if that emotion is a temperature-raising one like [what is found in] Twilight.
She continues:
I think Twilight gets a D+ at best in #1 - 4, and yet it somehow gets an A for emotion in the way it's able to grab even readers like me, who are rolling our eyes at the flatness of the prose characters, and plot construction, and yet we just keep reading on.
- Second Sight pages 7 & 8.
Right, so TONS of people weren't able to 'be grabbed' and saw the flaws way earlier than I did, but it still reassured me that I wasn't an idiot for getting swept up in the emotion of it all. There was an actual smart-sounding editor type REASON, and that made me feel better about it and find a place for the series in my brain so I could learn from Twilight without emulating any bad habits of the author.
But I'm going to tie this into my review of Luminosity too, so let's put a pin in that navel gazing, and get on with it.
Let's talk about Luminosity.
I finished reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality which is Eliezer Yudkowsky's rationalist fan-fiction of Harry Potter. (I enjoyed it immensely.) Luminosity is Alicorn's rationalist fan-fic of Twilight. Bella is not as scientifically minded as Harry, but she is rational, and that makes it a very fun read... in the beginning.
We get the same story at first and it's enjoyable to read that part of it through a logical Bella's eyes. Her friends are more valued and important, and she sticks up for their privacy once she finds out about Edward's mind reading abilities. She handles the tracker James with far more aplomb and thinking, and I find that I like her quite a bit.
But then things start to speed up and I find that there is something lacking. It takes me a few chapters to really put my finger on it - but the romance the original series held is absolutely gone. Edward is largely the same type of character, but he's like this quiet sort of dead spot in the story. He has no spark whatsoever. You don't FEEL his obsession with Bella. You don't FEEL his dramatic, angsty, undying love for her. In some ways that's a good thing. There is no night-time stalking, no frustrating love-triangle, but we've gone too far to the other side, and there's no CHEMISTRY as a result.
And she's not swept up in it like Bella 1.0 was. I liked at first, how much more cautious and level-headed she was being about the whole thing, but her logic and rationale ended up stealing the very thing Meyer did best.
Alicorn's writing is better than Meyer's, yes. But, Meyer's writing is actually more emotionally captivating. I know -- I've read all of Reasoning with Vampires. Alicorn's writing is structurally more correct, but there is an element of that crucial #5 - emotion - missing.
So, using Klein's list again:
1. Good prose: Technically correct; not beautiful
2. Character richness: Lacking
3. Plot construction: Good, though a bit haphazard, maybe?
4. Thematic depth: Good, keeps you turning the pages
5. Emotion: Lacking
Without the original love triangle and that patented Meyer die-for-you angst, we just have a fairly smart girl making a huge life change and then... being a fairly static vampire growth-wise, (though I do like the facet her daughter provides) and making some pretty big mistakes.
All that said, if you skip over some of them more tedious and lengthy descriptions of Bella's thought processes (Yudkowsky was guilty of this too), it is an interesting story and I like the different spin on events and characters. I'm somewhat troubled by the wake of destruction all of Bella's deep thinking does by the book's end, but it also alleviates some of the Mary Sue-ness of her character, that yes, still exists in this reincarnation. She might be logical and rational but she can still make pretty big errors in judgement with huge consequences. I'll hold out further judgement on those consequences until I finish the sequel, Radiance.
April 23, 2023
No he leído los libros de Crepúsculo (y contrariamente a lo que se pudiera pensar, este fanfic no hace que quiera leerlos), pero sé de qué va la historia y creo que he leído/escuchado las suficientes opiniones para saber cómo son las cosas.
Tomando en cuenta eso, creo que aquí se vuelven notablemente distintas. Por ejemplo, Bella no es la "tonta enamorada que depende emocionalmente de un tipo cuyo comportamiento es, eh, no el mejor" y Edward no es, bueno, dicho tipo. No tanto, de todos modos, porque no se le presentan demasiadas oportunidades, hay muchas conversaciones claras entre ambos, se explica lo del vínculo de pareja y así. Eso no quiere decir que sean perfectos. Está, por ejemplo, el hecho de que Edward todavía siente que no podría vivir sin Bella (aunque se sabe por qué y de alguna manera se intenta aplacar) y Bella llega a ser muy, muy arrogante en ciertos momentos aunque no esté tratando de serlo activamente.
Tomando en cuenta eso, creo que aquí se vuelven notablemente distintas. Por ejemplo, Bella no es la "tonta enamorada que depende emocionalmente de un tipo cuyo comportamiento es, eh, no el mejor" y Edward no es, bueno, dicho tipo. No tanto, de todos modos, porque no se le presentan demasiadas oportunidades, hay muchas conversaciones claras entre ambos, se explica lo del vínculo de pareja y así. Eso no quiere decir que sean perfectos. Está, por ejemplo, el hecho de que Edward todavía siente que no podría vivir sin Bella (aunque se sabe por qué y de alguna manera se intenta aplacar) y Bella llega a ser muy, muy arrogante en ciertos momentos aunque no esté tratando de serlo activamente.
June 23, 2021
I have a soft spot for rationalist fiction. It's just so wonderful when the main character is thoughtful and deliberate in making her choices. Even better when the character can be so gosh darn reasonable, and yet still face challenges and make mistakes.
The story has a lot of emotional regulation in it, which I appreciate. An example that stuck with me was Bella noting how much she hated cloudy weather. But then she would note that she was living in a cloudy place, and if she was living in a cloudy place, then perhaps she could learn to like it? You get to follow her train of thought as she connects cloudiness with a reduction in likelihood of skin cancer, a thing she really doesn't want. And then the author has Bella notice that periodically as she goes about her life in Forks. Excellent.
The story itself is pretty good, but not likely something will go back to again and again.
The story has a lot of emotional regulation in it, which I appreciate. An example that stuck with me was Bella noting how much she hated cloudy weather. But then she would note that she was living in a cloudy place, and if she was living in a cloudy place, then perhaps she could learn to like it? You get to follow her train of thought as she connects cloudiness with a reduction in likelihood of skin cancer, a thing she really doesn't want. And then the author has Bella notice that periodically as she goes about her life in Forks. Excellent.
The story itself is pretty good, but not likely something will go back to again and again.
October 24, 2024
Reviewing both Luminosity & Radiance
3.5 This is a reread
This story got a nostalgia boost.
It was somewhat jarring to switch viewpoint characters 40% of the way through the story, but not quite as jarring as I found it the first time. It was
The powers are cool, the worldbuilding is cool with some nice little philosophical elements (e.g. nature of identity), the OCs are cool. The story would've been much more emotionally satisfying if Bella could've been a co-viewpoint character through Radiance though.
3.5 This is a reread
This story got a nostalgia boost.
It was somewhat jarring to switch viewpoint characters 40% of the way through the story, but not quite as jarring as I found it the first time. It was
The powers are cool, the worldbuilding is cool with some nice little philosophical elements (e.g. nature of identity), the OCs are cool. The story would've been much more emotionally satisfying if Bella could've been a co-viewpoint character through Radiance though.
January 24, 2023
Bella in this story is source of nerves, pain, deaths and trouble to people and vampires, especially ones she cares about. Somehow after becoming a vampire she stops thinking futher than one step ahead, doesn’t collect all possible information before making a decision and do believe that she is superior to all others and her judgement is always the most accurate one. For me she looks more like a narcissist than a rational person. I have read till the end in unrational hope that all this horror can’t be the ending the story was meant to reach, but no, it was it.
So no good deed goes unpunished… and “good” characters of this story paid their bills.
So no good deed goes unpunished… and “good” characters of this story paid their bills.
May 18, 2024
Lacking in an emotional core, fails at linking logic with emotion and empathy consistently, while also not being as self-critical, things HPMOR mastered.
Bella disapproves of invading privacy through mind-reading, yet Alice looking in the future and telling people what to do to get what/who they want is fine.
This is basically ''going back in time and doing things over if you don't get what/who you want''
How is that not immoral manipulation?
How would you feel if you discovered your partner was constantly saying/doing things that made you hate/break-up with them, but then going back in time to ''fix it''...
What about analysing the lack of free will in vampire mates, or imprinting?
This whole book seems rushed, eager to get to the next idea, while not nearly spending enough time on most individual parts.
Bella disapproves of invading privacy through mind-reading, yet Alice looking in the future and telling people what to do to get what/who they want is fine.
This is basically ''going back in time and doing things over if you don't get what/who you want''
How is that not immoral manipulation?
How would you feel if you discovered your partner was constantly saying/doing things that made you hate/break-up with them, but then going back in time to ''fix it''...
What about analysing the lack of free will in vampire mates, or imprinting?
This whole book seems rushed, eager to get to the next idea, while not nearly spending enough time on most individual parts.
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