As a work of fiction, HPMOR is little more than an exercise in repackaging genre tropes and pop culture references. It doesn’t have a coherent theme; the execut

As a work of fiction, HPMOR is little more than an exercise in repackaging genre tropes and pop culture references. It doesn’t have a coherent theme; the execution varies from mediocre to poor. Plot holes abound, characters vanish inexplicably, etc. In many ways, it’s a less successful version of Ready Player One that’s clamped on to HP’s coattails. Of course, that formula can be entertaining, but it has limited impact. Lest you think I have an ax to grind with Yudkowsky, I did enjoy Three Worlds Collide. It shares many problems with HPMOR (the writing is inconsistent and the world-building is incoherent) but it at least tells a tight story with a beginning, middle and end. I’d say it’s about as effective as the median submission to Amazing Stories back in the 60s.