The 2017 Quicksilver Quill Award Results!
It’s our great pleasure to bring you the results of the 2017 Quicksilver Quill Awards! The QSQs are about awarding the best writing MuggleNet Fan Fiction authors have had to offer for the year. This year, nominations were received across seven categories and we have nine winners in total.
One-Shot - Specter by foolondahill17
This fic reminds us of a 1950's perfect-family sitcom, all black-and-white, traditional roles and domestic aspiration, complete with snooping neighbors. Petunia is at her repugnant best. Her inability to muster up any compassion at any time for an orphan baby is still one of the most offensive things in the series, and this author finds that Petunia from the first words of this story and never loses her.
Chaptered - People of the Goddess by Meadowsweet
With its stellar world-building and compelling characters, we were blown away by this fic and the author’s clearly extensive research. It has the depth, broadness of scope and mystery we love to see in a QSQ winner and kept us hooked from the very first chapter.
The Road to Delphi by Kerichi
This story is a marvelous tour de force, managing to reconcile the Potterverse that we know from the seven books with the premise of the stage play. As for being Dark/Angsty, it is both, in spades. We could hardly grasp how much was packed into a 5776-word one-shot. It felt as if it were much longer because each scene, each detail, did yeoman duty, not a line wasted.
Best Post-Hogwarts/Next Generation Fic
One-shot - Ripple from a Stone by WeasleyMom
This is a powerful and realistic snapshot of grief which has stayed with us long after reading. The constant undercurrent of George's internal monologue is a heartbreaking depiction of his and the Weasley family's life after Fred, and yet through all the ups and downs of his conversation with Angelina, it leaves us with a sense of hope, a sense of a future. Beautifully paced, original and truly touching.
Chaptered - MIT: Strange Place by Northumbrian
We love the suspense in this fic and the way in which each new intriguing detail is skillfully revealed. It has a great cast of canon characters alongside some well-rounded and interesting new original ones - we particularly enjoyed the Muggle police and their fair suspicion of the Aurors! The drama and mystery in these first few chapters drew us in immediately, and we cannot wait for new chapters to arrive. A thrilling and very entertaining adventure!
The First Autumn by Oregonian
The First Autumn combines a winning combination of imagery that evokes not only the season beginning to unfurl, but Helga's fears and hopes. Its beauty is in the language, style, and soft undulating rhythm, but also in the way it stayed with us long after reading. Visual, apprehensive, touching.
Ripple from a Stone by WeasleyMom
This is a truly exceptional fic about George and Angelina, understated yet incredibly moving. It is true to character for George — glimpses his former self shine through his grief — and yet there is no unrealistic recovery for him. The writing is beautiful; the hints at the future romance are there but not overwhelming. It is about the bare beginnings of a relationship - two people who are slowly making their way towards something new.
Best Non-Canon Romance Fic
Ephemeral by WrenWinterSong
This story is well-written and polished, with a graceful prose style. The romance is subtle but steady, against a seamless background of the richly invoked time of the First Wizarding War. Wren chooses a few specific scenes to describe -- Remus's job-hunting efforts, his "shack' in Yorkshire, Peter's wretched hiding place in the abandoned church -- to capture the mood of the situation, and exercises excellent choice of details to set the scenes and reveal the characters' emotional states through descriptions of their actions. The changing point of view gives both Remus and Sirius thorough character development as two broken souls dealing with angst, stress, and self-doubt through very difficult times and personal circumstances. Overall, the story unfolds beautifully as a series of vignettes and deals well with the challenges the characters face.
The Road to Delphi by Kerichi
This fic is really in a class of its own - under a ghastly surface there is great subtlety, characterisation, and it offers an intriguing explanation for the origins of Delphi from The Cursed Child. Dark, atmospheric and very unsettling, we appreciated the way Kerichi takes new canon elements from The Cursed Child and weaves a plausible series of missing moments to give good reasoning to that new canon. A worthy winner of this new award category!
Congratulations to all of our winners!
