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Rigel Black #3
The Ambiguous Artifice
Harriet Potter's third year masquerading as a pureblood boy promises to be even more complicated than the last two. All she wants is to get through her studies unimpeded, but with pureblood politics, ancient artifacts, and adolescent hormones getting in the way... well, at least she's up to the challenge. Alanna the Lioness take on HP, book three.
Reading Progress Percentage:
1) 2%
2) 6%
3) 10%
4) 17%
5) 25%
6) 34%
7) 39%
8) 47%
9) 53%
10) 61%
11) 68%
12) 78%
13) 83%
14) 91%
15) 99%
16) 100%
Reading Progress Percentage:
1) 2%
2) 6%
3) 10%
4) 17%
5) 25%
6) 34%
7) 39%
8) 47%
9) 53%
10) 61%
11) 68%
12) 78%
13) 83%
14) 91%
15) 99%
16) 100%
1553 pages, ebook
Published March 31, 2016
2 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 21, 2018
Reread 2018 Review:
I have picked up on so many little tidbits this time around that I am literally scared out of my mind for what is going to happen in book 4. We know the Triwizard Tournament is happening, and Riddle has mentioned and done some things that would definitely make things a million times more difficult for my child and I'm really just scared, so scared for Rigel being put into a position where she has to make a decision and there aren't any good options and she's stuck and doesn't know what to do. And if Riddle involves Archie/Harry into this, ITS JUST A BIG NOPE. Not to mention the other things he's mentioned and done in the last few chapters.
2017 First Read-through Review:
NOT EVEN POSSIBLE TO SAY ANYTHING. THIS ONE WAS SO MUCH DARKER AND SADDER AND MORE PAINFUL TO READ AND NOW IM SO WORRIED ABOUT THE FUTURE I JUST CANT 😭😭😭
WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO HAPPEN TO MY CHILD. WHY CANT SHE JUST BREW IN PEACE. WHY DOES SHE HAVE TO GO THROUGH ALL THIS HORRIBLE STUFF WHICH SHE CANT TELL ANYONE ABOUT. SHES SO ALONE AND LONELY AND I FEEL SO SAD AND HURT THAT I CANT PROTECT HER.
LITERALLY SCARED OUT OF MY MIND FOR BOOK FOUR CAUSE RIDDLE IS FREAKING ME OUT AND DONT GET ME STARTED ON HER MIND 🙈🙈🙈
I have picked up on so many little tidbits this time around that I am literally scared out of my mind for what is going to happen in book 4. We know the Triwizard Tournament is happening, and Riddle has mentioned and done some things that would definitely make things a million times more difficult for my child and I'm really just scared, so scared for Rigel being put into a position where she has to make a decision and there aren't any good options and she's stuck and doesn't know what to do. And if Riddle involves Archie/Harry into this, ITS JUST A BIG NOPE. Not to mention the other things he's mentioned and done in the last few chapters.
2017 First Read-through Review:
NOT EVEN POSSIBLE TO SAY ANYTHING. THIS ONE WAS SO MUCH DARKER AND SADDER AND MORE PAINFUL TO READ AND NOW IM SO WORRIED ABOUT THE FUTURE I JUST CANT 😭😭😭
WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO HAPPEN TO MY CHILD. WHY CANT SHE JUST BREW IN PEACE. WHY DOES SHE HAVE TO GO THROUGH ALL THIS HORRIBLE STUFF WHICH SHE CANT TELL ANYONE ABOUT. SHES SO ALONE AND LONELY AND I FEEL SO SAD AND HURT THAT I CANT PROTECT HER.
LITERALLY SCARED OUT OF MY MIND FOR BOOK FOUR CAUSE RIDDLE IS FREAKING ME OUT AND DONT GET ME STARTED ON HER MIND 🙈🙈🙈
August 26, 2020
2019 reread: third time reading it and just as wrecked as I was the first time HAHA will this book ever not COMPLETELY DESTROY ME???
2020 reread:
i am sad. upset. wrecked. in pain
2020 reread:
i am sad. upset. wrecked. in pain
January 24, 2019
As I have come to expect from this particular fanfiction author, this is another superbly well written piece that takes canon and then dances around it lightly, leaving you constantly unsure of where it will land next. That said though, it is at times unbelievably slow and because of this took me an unheard of amount of time to finally reach the end. This is never more obvious than whenever Rigel is not at Hogwarts; five very long chapters take you through a whole heap of holiday related stuff and I found myself struggling to care. Yes, Leo is quite an interesting character. No, he does not hold a candle to Severus Snape or the interesting portrayals of Rigel's fellow students. It's then a fair proportion of another huge chapter before you actually walk into Hogwarts and things get really interesting. That's 35% of a 1200 page book - so a book on its own for what is essentially scene setting.
Having waded through that, I have to admit that I just lost interest somewhat, despite the fact that we had finally reached Hogwarts which in honesty isn't helped by the fact that even then the book doesn't really start going until chapter 8 which in turn is 45% of the entire fic - so approximately 540 pages worth before the momentum really starts to kick in. Don't get me wrong; all that comes before is certainly well written, it just could have been done in a fraction of the amount of pages had events been covered in a prioritised manner rather than the 400 pages of summer holiday malarky. This of course doesn't include the two whopping chapters shortly after Hogwarts depicting one of the holiday breaks and a gala; there's got to be at least 50,000 words there as well.
So, to put it baldly; I got to chapter 12, just after the gala scenes, got bored and wandered off. I'm not sure I'm entirely to blame here. We are 70% through a gigantic tome and in reality, not a lot has actually happened. There have been some interesting moments, some excellent characterisations and conversations and the relationships are being built well, but it's all just a little bit stagnant. It's a pity I didn't continue through chapter 13 though because that's where the pace really picks up and this nearly received four stars despite all of the above. Having come back to this more recently - after a months long hiatus - I found myself flying through the final four chapters.
Suddenly everything starts moving with a bang and I was almost glued to the screen with the tension of how things were going to work out. Despite the authors aggravating tendency to have overwhelmingly long chapters that could - and really should - be split at least three ways, into manageable chapters, they are still well written and pull your attention along. As mentioned above, the characterisations and relationships between various individuals are exceptionally well done and the hints to the third book are clever, particularly as the entire original plot is obsolete in this re-arranged universe. Even the aspects that I have denounced above as excessive are certainly well written, they just didn't hold my attention to the same degree, which is a shame because I know how talented this author is.
I suspect that the real issue here is that the sheer amount of exposition at the expense of things happening, in particular the things that interested me at least. I couldn't tell you what actually happens in those first five chapters; it just isn't interesting enough to have sat properly in my brain. More tellingly still perhaps though, is that I didn't need to re-read them in order to come back to the fic; I only re-read chapter 12 and that was more than enough to centre me straight back into the events. To me that means that well over half of this fanfiction is utterly superfluous and unnecessary. I would have far preferred to read more pages of exploits at Hogwarts, or the advanced Potions classes or the really interesting politics that run behind the scene.
Having waded through that, I have to admit that I just lost interest somewhat, despite the fact that we had finally reached Hogwarts which in honesty isn't helped by the fact that even then the book doesn't really start going until chapter 8 which in turn is 45% of the entire fic - so approximately 540 pages worth before the momentum really starts to kick in. Don't get me wrong; all that comes before is certainly well written, it just could have been done in a fraction of the amount of pages had events been covered in a prioritised manner rather than the 400 pages of summer holiday malarky. This of course doesn't include the two whopping chapters shortly after Hogwarts depicting one of the holiday breaks and a gala; there's got to be at least 50,000 words there as well.
So, to put it baldly; I got to chapter 12, just after the gala scenes, got bored and wandered off. I'm not sure I'm entirely to blame here. We are 70% through a gigantic tome and in reality, not a lot has actually happened. There have been some interesting moments, some excellent characterisations and conversations and the relationships are being built well, but it's all just a little bit stagnant. It's a pity I didn't continue through chapter 13 though because that's where the pace really picks up and this nearly received four stars despite all of the above. Having come back to this more recently - after a months long hiatus - I found myself flying through the final four chapters.
Suddenly everything starts moving with a bang and I was almost glued to the screen with the tension of how things were going to work out. Despite the authors aggravating tendency to have overwhelmingly long chapters that could - and really should - be split at least three ways, into manageable chapters, they are still well written and pull your attention along. As mentioned above, the characterisations and relationships between various individuals are exceptionally well done and the hints to the third book are clever, particularly as the entire original plot is obsolete in this re-arranged universe. Even the aspects that I have denounced above as excessive are certainly well written, they just didn't hold my attention to the same degree, which is a shame because I know how talented this author is.
I suspect that the real issue here is that the sheer amount of exposition at the expense of things happening, in particular the things that interested me at least. I couldn't tell you what actually happens in those first five chapters; it just isn't interesting enough to have sat properly in my brain. More tellingly still perhaps though, is that I didn't need to re-read them in order to come back to the fic; I only re-read chapter 12 and that was more than enough to centre me straight back into the events. To me that means that well over half of this fanfiction is utterly superfluous and unnecessary. I would have far preferred to read more pages of exploits at Hogwarts, or the advanced Potions classes or the really interesting politics that run behind the scene.
February 24, 2021
I - *sigh*.
It got dark. Real dark. And I still don't know how happy I am with it.
I can see the Tamora Pierce elements coming through, and the slightly grittier elements definitely reflect that. The "dark" of the first couple of chapters with the dying man in blue was a bit of that, cos that was in no way from Harry Potter where the first on screen death wasn't till at least the fourth book, and named characters the fifth, and main character deaths not till the sixth even. The psychological trauma that the last couple of chapters entailed though... now that, that was not the Tamora Pierce style of dark. I don't know if it was because of the difference in personality of Harry compared to the staple protagonist of Pierce's books or what but it was different. Even the Beka Cooper series (focusing more on lower city lives and less on chivalry or people who are chivalrous in a knightly sense), didn't go there. And the thing is, it also can't really suddenly shift focus to look at the psychological effects at this point cos it'll stray too far from the main narrative. It'll only be able to reflect signs of trauma so long as it somehow ties into the progression of the plot, and also with the way Rigel's personality's so far been established, she ain't gonna deal with it by her choice. And she can't involve anyone other than Archie in the resolve/conquering of the trauma since the ruse isn't up. So it's gonna probably be wrapped up after some single scene of confronting the trauma in order to complete a bigger scale task. And I really don't want this to stoop to that level, I want this to maintain the quality of thought that's gone into the plot and writing, so right now I'm tending towards the thinking that it's bitten off more than it can chew with that plot, and I'll continue to think so until I see logical effects this trauma should have on plot. But we shall see, and this is by no means is gonna be a deterrent because I'm still definitely heavily invested in this story, and also in Rigel :).
It got dark. Real dark. And I still don't know how happy I am with it.
I can see the Tamora Pierce elements coming through, and the slightly grittier elements definitely reflect that. The "dark" of the first couple of chapters with the dying man in blue was a bit of that, cos that was in no way from Harry Potter where the first on screen death wasn't till at least the fourth book, and named characters the fifth, and main character deaths not till the sixth even. The psychological trauma that the last couple of chapters entailed though... now that, that was not the Tamora Pierce style of dark. I don't know if it was because of the difference in personality of Harry compared to the staple protagonist of Pierce's books or what but it was different. Even the Beka Cooper series (focusing more on lower city lives and less on chivalry or people who are chivalrous in a knightly sense), didn't go there. And the thing is, it also can't really suddenly shift focus to look at the psychological effects at this point cos it'll stray too far from the main narrative. It'll only be able to reflect signs of trauma so long as it somehow ties into the progression of the plot, and also with the way Rigel's personality's so far been established, she ain't gonna deal with it by her choice. And she can't involve anyone other than Archie in the resolve/conquering of the trauma since the ruse isn't up. So it's gonna probably be wrapped up after some single scene of confronting the trauma in order to complete a bigger scale task. And I really don't want this to stoop to that level, I want this to maintain the quality of thought that's gone into the plot and writing, so right now I'm tending towards the thinking that it's bitten off more than it can chew with that plot, and I'll continue to think so until I see logical effects this trauma should have on plot. But we shall see, and this is by no means is gonna be a deterrent because I'm still definitely heavily invested in this story, and also in Rigel :).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 24, 2019
A bit long, and found myself skimming part of the way through, but the plot for this one must have been taken from Alanna the Lioness, because I had no idea where it was going, which was very fun. Love love love the magical theory stuff, once again, as well as the increasing purebred politics stuff, which seemed very... oversimplified (?) in the original (though it's been a while since I've read it, so who can really say). Once again, as someone who has never read a fanfiction in my life (before this series), I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I've enjoyed this series.
April 20, 2020
This book during all my previous rereads was always my favorite, and whilst it probably still is, I believe TSS and TAA are a bit closer in that race than before, do to Draco's behavior in TFF. All in all though, very very good.
January 19, 2021
Rigel has just taken Time-Turners to the new level.
(Although this whole Dominion and Peter mess was a bit anticlimactic.)
Also Lestrange junior could be part of Harri's future harem... just saying.
And I m glad she s finally getting some recognition as herself.
(Although this whole Dominion and Peter mess was a bit anticlimactic.)
Also Lestrange junior could be part of Harri's future harem... just saying.
And I m glad she s finally getting some recognition as herself.
February 28, 2022
I thought the ending to this one was really strong; I loved the characterizations of Snape and Rigel throughout. Unfortunately, I got some major Alexandra Quick book 3 vibes from Rigel: thinking she knew best when everyone around her (all more knowledgeable) telling her that no, the 13 year old does not know more about this topic.
I also found the unending dueling scenes unnecessary, skimming one and straight-up skipping the rest, with the inkling that they really weren't important in the slightest to the story (they weren't). A lot (if not all tbh) of the lower alleys stuff could've also been cut out without changing anything.
Overall the story felt kind of bloated and I'm hoping the fourth book narrows its focus a little bit. If nothing else, the endings in this series are always incredible and the buildup is worth it!
I also found the unending dueling scenes unnecessary, skimming one and straight-up skipping the rest, with the inkling that they really weren't important in the slightest to the story (they weren't). A lot (if not all tbh) of the lower alleys stuff could've also been cut out without changing anything.
Overall the story felt kind of bloated and I'm hoping the fourth book narrows its focus a little bit. If nothing else, the endings in this series are always incredible and the buildup is worth it!
June 23, 2024
I don’t know how, but this one’s even better than the last one! Unbelievable how involved in the story I was. Even though it’s still based on the main Harry Potter books, this story has evolved into something entirely on its own, and I really like it. The entire book took me three quarters of a year to finish just because how massive it is, but except for a short break after a few months I never grew tired of continuing to read. On the contrary, I couldn’t put it down especially towards the end.
June 12, 2021
This series is too strong, like, I need to stop reading so much and do work but I can't
it's so good. Harry, all of the OC's, the way the author has fleshed out the world (especially the lower alleys?? oh my god?? it's amazing)
i'm very happy with this series. i can't wait to see how far it goes :)
it's so good. Harry, all of the OC's, the way the author has fleshed out the world (especially the lower alleys?? oh my god?? it's amazing)
i'm very happy with this series. i can't wait to see how far it goes :)
January 3, 2024
You know when a character is made to sound incredibly smart and so the reader subconsciously assumes that most of their decisions will be smart? Harry suffers from that in this installment. She made so many stupid choices that it got harder and harder to enjoy her story.
May 24, 2024
Im gonna cry when the series ends, its so good, it reminds me so much of my all time favourite series Ascendance of a Bookworm
August 28, 2025
[2025]
No surprise about it. This is still my favorite book of the series.
First, the whole time turner thing and how Rigel misuses it so much. This is so entertaining, especially the part in February (You know the one).
Second, the potions, as always. The summer part with the Guild internship is so great, I love it.
Third, the end. It's terrible to read but oh so entertaining. Poor Rigel, you suffer a lot in this one.
[2022]
I think I can safely say this is my favourite book in the series.
----
[2nd read 2021]
I just love this book so much. It hurts so much, but it's so good! Poor Harry. She is so amazing, I love her, I want to be like her. (But I certainly don't want the things that happened to her happening to me.)
Going straight for book 4, I think this is the first time I will reread this one in its entirety since the first chapter of The Malignant Masquerade. I can't believe how obsessed I still am after discovering this series for the first time in 2019.
----
[1st read of 2021]
Well, I didn't know you could find Fanfictions on Goodreads! Now I can finally truly show how much I read the Rigel Black Chronicles! And that makes more books for my 2021 reading challenge. I read it a lot, okay. That's my emotional support fanfiction. The best one ever. Go read it, you fool. You don't know what you miss. (And yes, I'm translating it in French on FFnet because it's so good.)
No surprise about it. This is still my favorite book of the series.
First, the whole time turner thing and how Rigel misuses it so much. This is so entertaining, especially the part in February (You know the one).
Second, the potions, as always. The summer part with the Guild internship is so great, I love it.
Third, the end. It's terrible to read but oh so entertaining. Poor Rigel, you suffer a lot in this one.
[2022]
I think I can safely say this is my favourite book in the series.
----
[2nd read 2021]
I just love this book so much. It hurts so much, but it's so good! Poor Harry. She is so amazing, I love her, I want to be like her. (But I certainly don't want the things that happened to her happening to me.)
Going straight for book 4, I think this is the first time I will reread this one in its entirety since the first chapter of The Malignant Masquerade. I can't believe how obsessed I still am after discovering this series for the first time in 2019.
----
[1st read of 2021]
Well, I didn't know you could find Fanfictions on Goodreads! Now I can finally truly show how much I read the Rigel Black Chronicles! And that makes more books for my 2021 reading challenge. I read it a lot, okay. That's my emotional support fanfiction. The best one ever. Go read it, you fool. You don't know what you miss. (And yes, I'm translating it in French on FFnet because it's so good.)
July 1, 2025
Reread czerwiec 2025. No i mamy szósty raz
Który to już raz to czytam? Czwarty? Piąty?
Szczerze tą książka nigdy mi siw nie znudzi i chyba co najmniej raz na pół roku, rok do niej wracam.
Jest to jeden z najlepszych fanfiction z HP, ale podczas czytania zapomina się, że jest to FF. Fabuła już tak bardzi odstaje od oryginału, nawet postaci mają już zwój charakter że dla mnie to po prostu kolejna książka.
Chciałabym kiedyś postawić ją sobie na półce, najlepiej po polsku i sięgać po ulubione fragmenty w wolnej chwili.
Który to już raz to czytam? Czwarty? Piąty?
Szczerze tą książka nigdy mi siw nie znudzi i chyba co najmniej raz na pół roku, rok do niej wracam.
Jest to jeden z najlepszych fanfiction z HP, ale podczas czytania zapomina się, że jest to FF. Fabuła już tak bardzi odstaje od oryginału, nawet postaci mają już zwój charakter że dla mnie to po prostu kolejna książka.
Chciałabym kiedyś postawić ją sobie na półce, najlepiej po polsku i sięgać po ulubione fragmenty w wolnej chwili.
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